We're ringing in 2020 with a throwback to the Roaring 20s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald! | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "The Great Gatsby is a novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in 1925. It follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream."

Christmas time calls for classics, so this month we're reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens! | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. A Christmas Carol recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come."

What's better than getting cozy on the couch with a blanket and a good mystery? That's how we spent our month reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (AKA our queen JK Rowling). | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, creditors are calling, and after a breakup with his longtime girlfriend, he's living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with a shocking story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry -- known to her friends as the Cuckoo -- famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man. You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this."

This month Shawn and Lindsey are joined by Lindsey's high school literature teacher Cari Andreani to discuss the horror classic Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature’s hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein."

This month Shawn and Lindsey discuss a genre-bending debut novel, The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas. | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world’s first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project—and future of time travel—in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team—erasing her contributions from history. Fifty years later, time travel is a big business. Twenty-something Ruby Rebello knows her beloved grandmother, Granny Bee, was one of the pioneers, though no one will tell her more. But when Bee receives a mysterious newspaper clipping from the future reporting the murder of an unidentified woman, Ruby becomes obsessed: could it be Bee? Who would want her dead? And most importantly of all: can her murder be stopped?"

This month we are inspired by the incomparable Michelle Obama in her beautiful new memoir Becoming. We are joined this month by Lindsey's college friend Kristen Portillo, and had so much fun discussing the book with her! | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As first lady of the United States of America - the first African American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the US and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations - and whose story inspires us to do the same."

Join Shawn and Lindsey as they discuss one of their new favorite books, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. This month we were joined by Lindsey's sister-in-law Kara Belt, who recommended this book to us! | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. But only spoilers for this book, not the rest of the series! | "When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin--one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world. As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow over the faerie lands is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin--and his world--forever."

This month we're reading a book that was very enlightening to both of us, The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Susanne Stabile. Learn all about the Enneagram, and how to incorporate it into your day to day life! | SPOILER ALERT! As always, we will discuss spoilers in this chat. If that's not your thing, no worries. Come back after you read the book! | "The Enneagram is an ancient personality typing system with an uncanny accuracy in describing how human beings are wired, both positively and negatively. In The Road Back to You Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile forge a unique approach―a practical, comprehensive way of accessing Enneagram wisdom. Witty and filled with stories, this book allows you to peek inside each of the nine Enneagram types, keeping you turning the pages long after you have read the chapter about your own number. Not only will you learn more about yourself, but you will also start to see the world through other people's eyes, understanding how and why people think, feel, and act the way they do. Beginning with changes you can start making today, the wisdom of the Enneagram can help take you further along into who you really are―leading you into places of spiritual discovery you would never have found on your own, and paving the way to the wiser, more compassionate person you want to become."