Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - The Best Ideas Come at 3 in the Morning with Allison Winn Scotch

00:00:00.000 hey y'all joe here and you are listening to under the influence there's a lot of things

00:00:11.880 that people didn't warn us about when we were younger but one of them and the one that's driving

00:00:16.200 me so insane right now is our sleep okay the fact that somewhere in our 40s our body just decides

00:00:22.660 that it doesn't want to sleep anymore even though sleep is one of my favorite things like one of my

00:00:26.780 most favorite things in the entire world. I spent my 20s pulling so many all-nighters and surviving

00:00:32.900 essentially on tequila and diner fries. And somehow I was also still totally functioning.

00:00:38.240 And then on weekends, I could fall asleep at the drop of a hat and sleep for so long,

00:00:43.140 so beautifully, beautifully long. And now suddenly I am 45 years old and lying awake at 3.07 in the

00:00:49.760 morning and just damp all over my body, damp and then cold and staring at the ceiling while my

00:00:56.140 happily snores beside me. Today, we are talking about insomnia, midlife, creativity, and the

00:01:02.640 strange sensation of being awake while the rest of the world is asleep. My guest is best-selling

00:01:07.920 author Alison Winscotch. I love Alison so, so much. And her newest novel, The Insomniacs,

00:01:13.100 was actually inspired by her own 307 in the morning, Wake Ups. It follows four strangers

00:01:18.480 who connect in the middle of the night when none of them can sleep. So we're talking about all of

00:01:22.260 it. We're talking about sleep. We're talking about a 17-step bedtime routine, about why some

00:01:26.700 of our best ideas show up at night when we can't sleep, and why we wish that didn't happen, because

00:01:31.680 I can't read my handwriting when I write in the middle of the night. We're also talking about

00:01:35.220 burnout and surviving a long career as a writer. And my favorite part, so many recommendations for

00:01:40.300 your summer reading list. So many. So put on your sleep mask, take a half a melatonin, and enjoy

00:01:45.020 this conversation with Allison Wynne Scotch.

00:01:52.260 Allison Winscotch, my first question for you is, how's your sleep?

00:02:01.060 Are you a person who doesn't sleep?

00:02:02.420 Because reading your latest novel, The Insomniacs, I was like, oh, my gosh.

00:02:06.520 Has Allison been getting enough sleep?

00:02:08.500 I was really worried about you.

00:02:11.240 Well, thank you.

00:02:12.140 I am not a good sleeper. 0.93

00:02:14.480 I feel like a lot of women at midlife, you know, it's been sort of a constant struggle to figure out what does and doesn't work for me.

00:02:24.340 I have those 3 a.m. wake ups that actually sparked the idea for the book, but, you know, that would extend to like 5 a.m. 0.97

00:02:34.020 And then you're just so screwed.

00:02:35.720 So, um, I've gotten a little better, like, you know, some HRT, um, just some better practices 0.97

00:02:43.100 with screen stuff, but yeah, I'm not a great sleeper. Are you? You're a little younger than

00:02:49.660 I am, but I don't know. How's your sleep? Yeah, no, well, I mean, I'm, I'm turning 46, uh,

00:02:56.080 in a few months and no, my sleep is complete shit. It's terrible. Like, yeah, thank you. 0.99

00:03:01.440 thank you yeah no it's awful uh I have I have the 3 a.m wake up the just I mean every night

00:03:08.300 like clockwork it's always going to be three o'clock and then I also I sweat at night I'm just

00:03:14.540 I wake up wet and then and then I get cold right so I'm wet and cold and uh my husband is a great

00:03:24.020 sleeper i also have problems they always are they are it's so unfair it is absurd mine will like

00:03:34.080 we'll just be watching a tv show and i look over and he's dead ass asleep and meanwhile i have like

00:03:39.000 a 10-step ritual to maybe get like six hours so um you know another of life's inequities um

00:03:47.300 but yeah i mean i think it is i certainly think that women struggle more and i it's obviously

00:03:53.300 also much more of a well i shouldn't say much more but women at midlife where you and i are 0.97

00:03:59.360 i mean i think it's scientifically documented that our sleep just goes to shit i actually

00:04:03.580 slept through the night last night which was i woke up at 6 30 this morning and i was like

00:04:08.540 oh my god i cannot believe that i did not wake up it's like a miracle when that thing it's a

00:04:13.400 miracle no it's a miracle when that happens it is a miracle yeah i know because you feel so much

00:04:19.100 better like it's sleep and that's the really cruel thing because I just love sleep so much

00:04:26.420 like I really truly do and I'm also a person like I because people are like oh my gosh you're so

00:04:33.040 busy like do you sleep and I'm like I sleep like I try to sleep I want to sleep so much yes I if I

00:04:39.180 can get a full full good night like I'll lay down for like nine hours like I want so much sleep

00:04:44.720 And my body feels, I mean, it fixes everything. It fixes all the menopausal, perimenopausal shit. And so, yeah, it's just like the universe is cruel joke. And then if I mean, taking away another one of life's delights, if I have anything to drink, that's going to make it worse. 1.00

00:05:02.960 yes oh a hundred percent i am not a big drinker and so i feel like it affects me even more but

00:05:11.040 if i'm out with my girlfriends and i have a glass of wine forget it like it's just forget it yeah

00:05:17.220 yeah no i mean i have such a multi-step bedroom routine as i think every woman does at this

00:05:24.840 point uh just to like try to eke out maybe seven hours i mean when we get when we get our sleep

00:05:31.520 we're unstoppable and actually we're unstoppable even when we don't get our sleep but i know

00:05:36.380 imagine what we could do if we were actually sleeping through the night wait i need to know

00:05:40.180 your sleep routine though because i'm obsessed with people's sleep routines okay i literally

00:05:45.400 try to like get in bed i mean barring like going out to dinner or whatever by like 9 9 30

00:05:51.100 yeah yeah yeah i mean that's that's late for me um i take my progesterone i take when i first

00:06:00.680 started having sleep issues my doctor said that paxil is shown to help women in perimenopause so

00:06:08.080 i take like a very small dose of paxil um and it it did significantly help me just fyi i'm not a

00:06:14.500 doctor talk to your doctors um then i watch a sitcom to turn off my brain no like when my

00:06:23.620 husband and i are watching a drama i i do not sleep at all that's i it like just i can feel

00:06:30.500 like the disproportionate effect on me then i have like a specific i go to tiktok that i you know

00:06:37.600 like i have a specific order of apps that i unwind with then at some point i take half of an indica

00:06:45.000 gummy um i've started making that later and it has really helped because i don't know it like

00:06:50.260 carries me through the cycle. Then I put away screens and I read for 30 minutes. Then I take

00:06:59.180 a little melatonin and then I put in my earplugs, my mouth guard and my sleep shade and I try to

00:07:05.500 sleep. That is mine. What is yours? So I, but I love it. Like I just, I want to talk about

00:07:13.040 other people's sleep routines all of the time. So I try and this is, I'm not successful all the

00:07:19.780 time but i try to not have screens in the bedroom i'm trying to get nick to be off screens in the

00:07:27.400 bedroom because i'm like just stop like i don't even want them in here um it's like i can feel

00:07:32.340 their presence their psychological weight um bearing down totally and so i i try not to have

00:07:40.800 screens in the bedroom and then i also i'm in bed by like nine o'clock uh i mean i get into bed

00:07:47.840 Yeah. Usually like right after I get my last one, my last kid to bed. So but like my kids' bedtime routines are still really intense. Like I'm still individually reading books to each of them and cuddling. And like that is it's three hours every night. Right.

00:08:05.140 correct and it's so much and i mean and with no disrespect to our children mine are older now but

00:08:11.620 it is a lot it's very draining like it's a lot of energy that we put out yeah so again like we love

00:08:18.680 our children more than anything but it is i mean any mother listening to this knows bedtime is 0.89

00:08:23.500 just like what was the book go to go the fuck to sleep or whatever yeah no yes it's no joke 0.89

00:08:30.300 my husband also does it but like they also want me more so it's a lot of me but thankfully he 0.94

00:08:37.600 carries yeah he carries the wake-ups um which is because again because i don't sleep that well

00:08:43.340 i'm a crap waker upper same same i will say the same thing in my household my husband

00:08:49.820 um sort of post-covid has been working from home and he always did the mornings because same thing 0.97

00:08:56.880 Like, if I'm up from three to five, I'm sending a text to my family saying nobody disturb me until you see my face emerge from the bedroom.

00:09:06.760 So deal with it.

00:09:08.380 So my kids were a little older, but same.

00:09:10.280 Having somebody there to do the mornings is very helpful.

00:09:14.100 Super helpful.

00:09:14.720 Super helpful.

00:09:15.440 So, yeah, I take a half a melatonin.

00:09:18.980 If I take a full melatonin, then I'm, like, jittery.

00:09:22.160 A lot of things make me jittery that put normal people to sleep.

00:09:27.540 Magnesium doesn't work on me.

00:09:28.860 It also makes me feel like I have to get up and clean the house.

00:09:33.040 Okay, what about Benadryl?

00:09:35.460 No, super jittery.

00:09:36.820 I can't have Benadryl at all.

00:09:38.200 Yeah, it can have that reverse effect on people, yeah.

00:09:41.640 Yeah, and then also the type of Unisom that has the Benadryl ingredient in it, I can't

00:09:48.980 either but i can have the other unisom the one that you could take when you're pregnant that

00:09:53.080 you're supposed to take with the b12 to stop the nausea with i think it's like the doxycycline

00:09:58.860 uh i can have that so i'll have on nights when i know that i'm not going to be able to fall asleep

00:10:04.680 i take a half a unisom and i put on i have to wear my mask i'm so light sensitive and i have

00:10:11.600 me too yeah yeah i have a um bluetooth headphone eye mask so i listen to the rest is history

00:10:21.400 podcast to fall asleep okay so juicing up the brain and i read i read i read a little bit but

00:10:30.640 uh you know it's not always easy for me to read before bed because in a lot of ways reading is

00:10:37.240 work for me. And so, you know, if I'm reading something, I'm like, I'm like thinking about my

00:10:45.180 own books. So it depends where I'm at in the book writing process.

00:10:48.900 Oh, that's super interesting.

00:10:50.740 Yeah. Of whether or not reading is actually relaxing for me. Right.

00:10:55.000 So that's an interesting observation because I actually am much more in an ideal world. I would

00:11:02.580 like go to bed at like 3 a.m. and wake up at 10 or 11, like if that were societally acceptable.

00:11:08.400 And I did that. I mean, you and I went to the same college. Those were like my college hours.

00:11:12.940 I literally changed my major. So I didn't have to take a 9 a.m. seminar.

00:11:16.600 Oh, my God. But I had to. I had to take that math that was at like 8 in the morning and DRL.

00:11:23.260 I don't even remember taking math in college. I mean, I must have because I graduated. But

00:11:27.380 but it's interesting what you say because my brain definitely work is more creative and works

00:11:32.600 more at night so i often do when i'm reading like it does trigger things for me that i just put in

00:11:37.800 notes at and hope that i understand the next morning but i do see exactly what you're saying

00:11:42.580 where if i'm reading something that sparks something it does sort of turn my brain on

00:11:47.360 instead of shutting it down so you know are you more nocturnal as i mean i guess you at the 8 a.m

00:11:53.880 seminar but i don't know right exactly yeah i mean i think that i would probably prefer to be

00:11:58.740 nocturnal like you said if the world would kind of like allow that and maybe it's what i want to do

00:12:05.840 in my like later retirement years uh right i think when the kids aren't there right exactly

00:12:14.960 and you can make your own hours but knowing because i also even though nick does wake up

00:12:20.120 we do have to split up the school, the school drop-offs because the baby's at a preschool

00:12:24.840 and it's just easier that way. So I have to be present at some point. And yeah. And I also get

00:12:31.500 my best writing done. Like my brain is fried by the end of the day. So I get my best writing done

00:12:37.940 in the morning, but I do have some of my best ideas like right before bed. So because I don't

00:12:45.100 want the phone, I write them down in a notebook and sometimes they're completely illegible and

00:12:49.120 ridiculous isn't it insane like you look at some of the things you've written down in the morning

00:12:56.180 you're like don't even like what on earth was i possibly thinking but whatever that's part of the

00:13:01.940 creative process um yeah i mean maybe that's right maybe i have bigger i better or i have ideas at

00:13:08.220 night but i don't usually like i mean i don't have my laptop in the bedroom so i don't reach for my

00:13:13.700 laptop to actually execute them but i do feel like in an ideal world if i could write from like

00:13:18.840 nine to midnight, I'd be it would be a dream. But, you know, like I can't wake up at 10 a.m.

00:13:25.180 and like I would be embarrassed to be returning like work emails in the middle of the day when

00:13:30.200 I've been asleep. So I get up at a usual hour. But yeah, maybe one day. I mean, my kids are in

00:13:36.580 college, so ostensibly I could do that. But I don't know. I think I think I think the early

00:13:42.780 days like started with farmers or something and now we're just all beholden to it. So socially

00:13:47.480 conditioned to it exactly yeah exactly yeah yeah it's so weird that like there's shame that like

00:13:53.360 you want to sleep in but whatever if i'm go to bed at three like it's still just seven hours

00:13:58.300 exactly it's not actually sleeping in correct i know exactly i know i know i want this is a thing

00:14:05.920 i want to change it is a thing okay we're going to start this movement we are we are we are going

00:14:11.740 to change the night owl movement the night owl movement exactly which is so directly so directly

00:14:17.200 tied to your book, The Insomniacs. I want to take a quick break and then dig into that a little bit.

00:14:28.480 Okay, we are back. Tell me a little bit about this wonderful book of yours, The Insomniacs,

00:14:35.060 which, you know, was partially inspired by your own 3 a.m. wake-ups.

00:14:39.400 Correct. So The Insomniacs is really, I mean, it's about four insomniacs who

00:14:44.180 find each other in the middle of the night.

00:14:47.360 Initially, it was really just

00:14:48.860 I wanted to explore

00:14:51.300 strangers helping

00:14:53.120 strangers solve their own

00:14:55.680 problems. Just, you know, somebody

00:14:57.660 who you could reach out to in the middle of the night. And I'd

00:14:59.520 woken up, as we have discussed so many

00:15:01.500 times, being like, wouldn't it be amazing if

00:15:03.500 there was like a support group you could reach out to

00:15:05.580 and talk about why you were awake in the middle

00:15:07.560 of the night and what's really eating

00:15:09.400 away at you. And then it became

00:15:11.080 through some work with my editor

00:15:13.540 more of a mystery which I know you now write as well and it was it was a challenging thing for me

00:15:22.880 to tackle I mean I'm very glad that I did but so it's a story of four insomniacs and one of them

00:15:26.740 goes missing and the other three work together to help figure out what happened but it's also

00:15:34.680 really a book about found family and as I said like strangers becoming you know brothers and

00:15:43.240 sisters uh who you can rely on for life and um i i've said this before but like felicity is one

00:15:50.880 of my favorite shows and there's a line and it's always stuck with me from that which is

00:15:54.320 she says like felicity so much right i just saw that like scottsman's open to reunion and i was

00:16:01.220 like how quickly can you make that because that is what i want to watch but she said something like

00:16:06.620 all of your best friends or all the people you've ever loved in your life start out as strangers

00:16:12.260 And I find that so profound, even though it sounds, you know, it's relatively simple.

00:16:19.040 But everybody other than like your biological family and some people don't even love them.

00:16:23.820 Who you have met in your life was at one point a stranger to you.

00:16:27.880 All the people you've fallen in love with, all of your closest friends.

00:16:31.240 And I just something about that notion just really draws me in.

00:16:36.500 And I think in this moment in the world, when a lot of people are looking around feeling a little bit unmoored by disrupted personal connections or just, you know, whatever isolation in their homes, behind their screens, I just think that concept of found family is really, I don't know, it's beautiful.

00:16:57.380 So I don't mean within the book, I just mean in the larger world, it's really just so important.

00:17:03.500 yeah i couldn't agree more and i love found family books i mean i was also just doing another bookish

00:17:12.320 episode i was talking about how much i loved this book welcome to glorious tuga uh which is

00:17:18.080 oh i haven't read that i'll add it oh my god add it add it and you will and then i want to talk

00:17:23.280 about it you will love it so much it is just it was recommended to me by a bookseller okay and

00:17:27.100 okay great of course she was completely right because booksellers are you know god's gift to

00:17:32.960 the world uh yeah welcome to glorious glorious tuga yeah um and yeah i just i i love this i love

00:17:42.000 this idea so much because i i think there's also something so fascinating about what happens between

00:17:48.760 the hours of midnight and 7 a.m uh yes i remember very well when i was a gossip columnist i did

00:17:56.560 actually live my life on that schedule like i i got away with getting into work often because i

00:18:02.160 was out till three in the morning in new york the bars close at four and then there's always

00:18:06.420 an after after party like i was walking home in the daylight sometimes that's like i mean that's

00:18:15.180 so i mean that's the best that is that's so quintessential new york when you're young

00:18:20.660 and you know it's just it's the best it is the best it is the best but i do think

00:18:26.960 yeah there's something interesting about those hours between midnight and the morning shift

00:18:33.060 of like there's almost something magical to it and there feels like something magical in your book

00:18:37.820 thank you well you know i feel like those hours first of all they they do remind me and i'm

00:18:45.620 guessing you a little bit of that time in your youth where you know like the whole world was

00:18:52.080 in front of you but also in that that span of hours it also feels like anything is possible

00:18:59.900 like almost like the rules are off like you can just I don't know like who knows what the night's

00:19:07.420 gonna bring and that sense of exploration and possibility I think is very universal and you

00:19:14.340 know whether you're an insomniac or not people can relate to that like being out in the early hours 0.98

00:19:19.020 And just crazy shit could happen. I mean, I guess in a bad way, but also in the best of ways. So that's, it was my editor's idea to set the entire book at night. And I, once she suggested that, I was like, oh my God, that's brilliant. Because it really adds to the ambiance, you know, of that time that we've all been out sort of with wide magic eyes. 0.94

00:19:46.120 yeah it it really it really does uh well i mean i think the insomniacs is so much fun it truly is

00:19:55.640 and you have had oh thank you really yeah of course of course you've had a really long career

00:20:01.360 in publishing as i mean you have as a working as a working as have i but as i think this is

00:20:09.680 such an interesting question for me to ask you know as a working author how have you kept

00:20:15.820 yourself sane and also you know kept kept everything fresh and kept yourself in the game

00:20:23.700 because you know you can write one book but to just continuously pump them out it is I mean truly

00:20:31.500 a feat of nature oh thank you well you and I've talked a little bit about this offline I mean

00:20:37.300 there's definitely burnout um and every book I write I say that's it for me I don't you know

00:20:44.500 Like, for a myriad of reasons, I'm like, I have one foot out the door. But I always find myself drawn back in by some, like, some narrative that literally has me up in the middle of the night thinking, wait, I think I might want to explore this.

00:20:59.940 But I think, you know, you also obviously have had a very long career.

00:21:07.080 I think there are a few reasons, a few factors.

00:21:09.920 One is I am pretty and I think you are the same.

00:21:15.500 Forgive me if I'm wrong.

00:21:16.780 I am not like super sensitive, meaning a lot of the noise that goes along with sort of having your work be publicly out there.

00:21:26.960 It doesn't super affect me.

00:21:28.500 and i think maybe it would be harder if um i were i i don't know if like some of the things that

00:21:35.620 people say about you bruised me in the way that i think that is totally understandable if they

00:21:40.500 bruise other people but i just i don't know i'm sort of inoculated from that and and i feel like

00:21:45.180 you are a little bit too which i think helps um and i don't want to speak out of turn for you

00:21:51.200 i also think i shield myself from them i don't read a lot of i never read goodreads reviews

00:21:57.800 um yeah and i 100 same review reviews are so tricky like the new york times is reading parisian

00:22:08.420 heist right now i almost dread getting a new york times review sometimes 100 almost actually all

00:22:14.080 the time all the time because they're always they're always mixed um like it's it's getting

00:22:20.000 a rave review in the times and the reviews are done by other authors which i think makes it tricky

00:22:25.580 and because it's such an ego-driven industry correct i i had very good reviews for the

00:22:34.980 insomniacs but i had one that was mixed and i really don't and i don't read any early reviews

00:22:43.660 but you know your team sends them to you so i mean in terms of the trades and it did bother me

00:22:50.220 it surprised me that it bothered me but i knew it was because it was just some other author i don't

00:22:55.220 know who it was who fairly totally well within her right uh does not have to like the book i read

00:23:02.380 plenty of books that i do not like and i just don't talk about them but i was sort of like you

00:23:07.000 know it's such a bummer that that's like one opinion from another author who felt comfortable

00:23:13.340 sort of publicly excoriating i mean it wasn't excoriating but you know i don't know taking

00:23:20.100 down another person's work like i that's just not how i operate and i don't think it's how you

00:23:26.440 operate either but yeah that is that is tricky i fully agree although i'm sure the times will

00:23:33.300 say nothing but amazing things about your book but um i mean i was just gonna say well

00:23:39.800 but what you know what even bad reviews sell books i mean that's well i shouldn't say that

00:23:47.380 i mean really bad reviews sell books but really bad reviews i still think sell books yeah

00:23:53.400 yeah yeah no i do i'm space writing a bad review and you're very precious limited like review space

00:24:02.460 but whatever that's a story for a different day but i was also going to say and i know you do this

00:24:07.380 as well and maybe this is where you and i get along so well i try not to write the same thing

00:24:12.320 over and over again. I think that's what makes me interested. I wrote two rom-coms. I could not

00:24:20.060 bring myself to write another rom-com, not because rom-coms aren't wonderful. I love reading them.

00:24:24.120 There are people who do it so well. I just get bored with myself. The process is so arduous

00:24:32.380 to write a book. You're devoting a full year of your life. If I'm not intellectually

00:24:39.220 like and creatively stimulated it's just it is such agony to me so i think that has helped with

00:24:47.680 the longevity like i'm just not gonna i just don't repeat myself very often and i don't even mean

00:24:54.060 like that has helped with readers i just think that has helped me um it has helped my writing

00:24:59.280 stay i don't know more engaging because i don't know i i you i feel like you have done something

00:25:06.220 very similar whether intentional or yeah i have is it intentional or you just yes i just i just

00:25:13.420 write about what i'm interested in right and so me too yeah i am kind of all over the place

00:25:20.380 genre wise which publishers do not always love uh agents do not always love it yeah uh but yeah

00:25:26.200 i mean i'd like yeah i get a book i get an idea and then i'm like a dog with a sock i like can't

00:25:31.820 let go of it and i just feel like i have to write it yes i 100 agree so that's i think that's helped

00:25:40.440 and then i will just say the final thing and again you and i are so similar in this i think that one

00:25:46.740 thing that helps sort of longevity or and i'm sure this is not just true for writing but you know for

00:25:53.040 listeners, I feel nothing but, with very rare exceptions, I do nothing but cheer on other

00:26:01.360 authors. And I don't mean this in like a self-aggrandizing way. I'm happy for other

00:26:04.940 people's success. I don't feel competitive. And I think that that is helpful just in terms of

00:26:11.120 goodwill. And I know that I think you are the same. I've never felt anything but, you know,

00:26:16.660 just support from you for other authors. And I just think that having that attitude of like,

00:26:22.020 there's there's such a wide bench for all of us and like some books are going to do well some

00:26:27.960 books aren't some of my books will do well some of my books won't i don't know i just think that

00:26:32.360 that helps in sort of the wider perspective um and also maybe gives you more grace within the

00:26:39.140 industry for people who are like industry insiders does that make sense i don't i feel like you were

00:26:45.420 the same yeah no I mean I think that we all it's imperative to support other authors to uplift

00:26:53.840 books yes great books because I think it's really hard uh to find really great books and you know a

00:27:02.200 lot even I love bookstagrammers I love I love influencers so much but I also think the same

00:27:08.740 books kind of, you know, get like rinsed, washed and repeat over again. Yes. And I think there's

00:27:16.340 so many books that fall through the cracks. And so I think we definitely have to champion those

00:27:20.340 books, which is why after this last break, we are going to talk about books you love right now that

00:27:25.680 people should should you know start stocking up on for the summer okay okay we are back what books

00:27:38.640 do you love right now that you think people should go grab immediately so i have a really

00:27:45.240 random suggestion i mean it's very popular i don't know that it's pop it's like on the times

00:27:51.200 list but i doubt it's popular with your listeners but i'm really deep into the audio of the dungeon

00:27:56.420 carl dungeon crawler dungeon crawler yeah yeah yeah no i just started it we sell out of it at

00:28:03.440 the books the bookcase all the time oh that's great so i am i really like like speculative

00:28:09.180 dystopian fiction um and in fact there's a book that came out a couple years ago that i'm looking

00:28:15.080 in on my bookshelf that i will recommend to readers if they like this um it's called zero

00:28:19.820 stars do not recommend um by mj wassler uh it's on my bookshelf right here and i loved it so

00:28:28.940 so i'm listening to that book on audio and the narrator is incredible um another book that i

00:28:36.960 recently read i don't know if okay so i don't know if you have read anything by kirsten miller

00:28:42.560 she wrote the change no i haven't but oh my god the change was so good and then her new book was

00:28:51.280 called the women of wild hill oh joe you will love it it's like very feminist um women taking down

00:28:58.380 bad men um you have to read the change i like okay loved it it's about sort of the change like

00:29:06.920 menopause but it's like witches um oh yeah i'm here for that i mean and what's the new one but

00:29:12.340 it's witchy i should say uh the women of wild hill okay um i am reading right now into the blue

00:29:21.000 by emma brody which i think is one of those that everybody has on their list um what are you well

00:29:27.200 you just gave me a book recommendation it's about oh yeah take me with you oh my god i was right

00:29:30.820 uh it's about aliens like coming down which i love stop it i love that i know i mean i think

00:29:40.040 i'm probably summarizing it incorrectly but um i am really excited about london falling

00:29:47.860 it's a non-fiction book no i haven't heard about that either about that oh my god and i'm really

00:29:54.200 excited about robin lee's follow-up to the idea of you called crash into me so oh i feel like i

00:30:01.460 have a stocked kindle right oh and i haven't read have you read mad mabel by sally hepworth i'm

00:30:07.720 excited. I haven't. I haven't. But that's on my list. We just ordered some for the bookcase and

00:30:12.540 I was going to download it on my Kindle tonight, actually, because I'm hearing such great things

00:30:17.100 about it. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard such good things about Dolly all the time. And I'm actually doing

00:30:23.240 an event with her in June. I assume you're enjoying it. I mean, her books are delayed.

00:30:29.740 Oh, yeah. No, it's great. It's great. And I mean, Annabelle is also just such a lovely,

00:30:34.860 lovely lady and i mean she's just also so supportive and and wonderful uh yeah it's it's

00:30:42.080 really fun katherine newman actually gave it the best blurb that i want to steal this blurb at some

00:30:46.500 point she said this book is like a spicy margarita sweet and a little salty tart and hot like i love

00:30:53.620 that's so katherine newman i'm gonna love that yeah i love that and you know i love in addition

00:30:59.740 Annabelle being so supportive and positive, et cetera, et cetera. She really pivoted at midlife

00:31:06.460 as well. And so much of her success has come, you know, sort of in the, I don't, I mean, she's our

00:31:13.600 age, but post 40, I think she really started writing like adult fiction. I want to say like

00:31:21.260 during COVID or maybe just before COVID or something. So yeah, I love her. I'm excited to

00:31:29.020 read that. Yeah, she's great. I think it's also on my account. Yeah, you'll like it. You'll really like it. You'll really like it. I also really enjoyed Lady Tremaine, the retelling of the Cinderella story from the stepmother's point of view. Yes, I have not read that, but I was just invited to a book club that is reading it. So I will, I'm going to add that to my list. I've heard very good things. Oh, no, you'll like, you'll like that one. We're selling a lot of that one at the bookcase as well.

00:31:59.020 I also really like A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping.

00:32:04.660 It's another found family.

00:32:06.320 I love the witch story.

00:32:11.540 I love a witch story and I love a found family story.

00:32:15.340 It's paperback.

00:32:16.260 Again, like I the point of the bookcase is for me to try to get books in front of people that might have slipped through the cracks.

00:32:23.060 Right. And so, like, I love being and sell these these to folks.

00:32:27.100 Yeah. So A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping.

00:32:29.020 is another one that i absolutely adore and then also bringing down the duke which is a victorian

00:32:35.980 romance about suffragists trying to get the vote in england say no more right i mean i know it's

00:32:44.600 like a slightly feminist theme and that is well written sign me up like i will i will devour it

00:32:51.940 it yeah sign me up so i mean again you and i write very similarly about things like that so

00:32:58.660 it's no surprise that we like similar books um yeah so exactly yeah exactly yeah i mean i'll

00:33:06.060 just like happily do like a summer reading bundle for people um maybe i actually maybe i should

00:33:11.020 maybe see i'm just constantly giving myself new hustles is what i'm doing well i'm happy to give

00:33:16.040 away some copies of the insomnia because i have boxes yes so yes yes yes let's do that let's do

00:33:21.700 that we'll we'll give away give away some insomniacs on the newsletter over the influence

00:33:26.140 uh along with some other beachy reads with some other beachy reads i love that

00:33:51.700 Thank you.

Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - July 23, 2026

The Best Ideas Come at 3 in the Morning with Allison Winn Scotch

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