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Speaker 1: Bookmarked by Reese's book Club is presented by Apple Books. Hi, I'm Danielle Robe and welcome to Bookmarked by Riese's book Club. This week, we are bringing you guys into the room and sharing a live podcast recording that we taped this weekend. It was hosted by Apple Books and Hello Sunshine. It was in New York City, the weather was wild, and the audience was into it. It all felt like a fitting venue to discuss Marissa Stapley's electric thriller Lucky, a Reese's book Club pick from two thousand and one and now an Apple TV series produced by Hello Sunshine. We all had just gotten back from a story walk where we listened to the first chapter of Lucky's audio book while we treked around the city Central Park.
00:00:43
Speaker 2: To be exact and.
00:00:44
Speaker 1: Like, I'm not telling you guys what to do, you know, but not a bad way to spend an afternoon. Something that I love about hosting a book club podcast is that we get to explore all the ways that a story can be told from page to audio to screen. You know, a scene and that simmers on the page can be electric as an audiobook. A simple conversation when heard through your headphones can take on a totally new context. And Lucky is a story that gets to live many lives all at once, book form when it flew off the shelves in twenty twenty one, audiobook form, where it's been enchanting listeners for years, and now as an Apple TV series produced by Hello Sunshine. But at the heart of all of these lives is the main character, a woman named Lucky and her spark and drive and determination to finally, after a lifetime of hiding, look the truth right in the eyes. Oh it's so good you guys. I think we're all in the right place today. Let's turn the page with Marissa Stapley. Marissa, I can officially welcome you to the club. Thank you, best club to be. It is club, Yeah, it is. I'm so happy to chat with you. The premise of this book is so action packed. We follow a young, very seasoned con woman named Lucky Armstrong who goes on the run after stealing millions of dollars with her boyfriend So fun she's living under an alias alone, and then she realizes that the lottery ticket she bought right before she went on the run is a huge winner. But to cash it in means owning up to who she really is, and it's a real thriller.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: What in the world inspired this story?
00:02:19
Speaker 3: So lucky is the first and only time so far that I came up with a concept and a plot and I didn't have a character. I was on vacation with my family in New York State actually, so I'm Canadian and we have lotteries, but our lottery payouts are very modest compared to the hundred like the mega millions here. So there was a radio report we were listening to as we approached we were skiing the ski hill, and they were talking about an unclaimed lottery ticket for hundreds of millions of dollars that was about to expire the next day and it had not been claimed. Authors moved through the world like magpies looking for shiny objects to steal and in their nest. So I immediately was like, oh, shiny objects. So I stopped and I was listening, and one of the radio DJs said, you know, I heard sometimes people don't come forward if there's a warrant out for their arrest because if they come forward, they'll get arrested and then they won't be able to claim their winnings, and I put that in my nest and kept that. But I didn't have a character, and I had to wait and wait, and finally one day Lucky came to me and I knew that I had something really special.
00:03:27
Speaker 2: Did she come to you in a dream? What do you mean she came here?
00:03:30
Speaker 1: She?
00:03:30
Speaker 3: I know. I'm sorry, I'm so used to it. I mean it is a little bit woo woop. I am very grounded. But I actually was on a bus going to visit my mom and Lucky spends a lot of time on the bus and had this story but couldn't think of a character. And I do feel like she sat down beside me on the bus. I started I have proof of this because I took up my phone out and I started texting my agent. I was two thirds of the way through a first draft of The Lightning Bottles, which came out later, and contractually obligated to write that book, Like you don't just extra agent and say hey, I have this new idea. And I started doing that. I'm like, okay, it's Lucky Armstrong. The book is called Lucky. I started explaining it to her and she texted back and said, I think you need to drop everything and chase this. It's the best idea you've ever had.
00:04:16
Speaker 1: I got so excited about it because I grew up watching shows and reading books about con men. I love a con story, and I'd never read about a con woman.
00:04:26
Speaker 2: This is the first one I've seen. Did you grow up reading about con women?
00:04:30
Speaker 3: No? And even when.
00:04:33
Speaker 2: I really didn't realize that was funny. You guys are doing great with the laugh track.
00:04:37
Speaker 3: Thank you. No, I mean we didn't right like. I think that's part of the beauty of Lucky. It's part of the beauty of Hello Sunshine and the stories they choose where we center women in these situations that most of the time mal characters have done and done very well. You know, there's a lot of stuff to consume in that arena. But I hadn't and I had actually just w Ocean's eleven rewatched it with my son and was thinking, oh gosh, people love a high story. Getting condon in real life is not fun. But for some reason, watching con artists do their thing is like catnip. There are so many male centered stories and I really wanted to create a female centered one and what a woman would bring to the table.
00:05:24
Speaker 2: I think we're all so glad you did.
00:05:26
Speaker 1: We just got back from our story walk where we listened to the first chapter of Lucky together on Apple Books, and it is so intense. I feel like we all kept walking faster as we were listening. If you could pair this book with a specific type of walk, city,
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nature, solo, or social, what would you choose and why? I think it.
00:05:46
Speaker 3: Would have to be social, because I think it's the kind of book where you want to end a chapter and then have a conversation with the person who you're walking and listening with.
00:05:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, Yeah, it's evocative.
00:05:59
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker 1: Was there a scene in the beginning of the book that you were especially excited for people to hear?
00:06:06
Speaker 3: I really do think it's that prologue in the first chapter. I wrote Lucky a first draft in a very in a linear way. I only had the present tense. I knew I had a criminal on my hands, and it was so important to me. And I don't mind if my characters are not universally likable, but Lucky needed to be I needed her to be loved, she needs I needed people in the same way she wants to be a good person. I needed people to see the good in her, and I was struggling because all you see in the present is those choices that she's making. And then I think I may have listened to a podcast or something and they were talking about extending love to your inner child, and I saw it in my head and I thought, Oh, if people see her as a child, they will give her the kind of love and empathy that they don't give to adults. And so we need to back it up and understand exactly where she came from. I sat down in my living room I typed out that scene. My kids were little or at the time. They were sitting in the living room and I said to them, stop what you're doing. I'm going to read you this first chapter, which I've never done. And they sat there and then when I was done, I said would you keep reading? And they were like, do you have like more? We're really in So I was excited for other people to hear that too. What a smart narrative tool. I've never thought about that. Do you consider Lucky a villain? No?
00:07:30
Speaker 2: Is that weird? No?
00:07:31
Speaker 3: Not at all?
00:07:32
Speaker 1: No?
00:07:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, me neither.
00:07:34
Speaker 3: No, No, and I don't. I mean, we may talk about this later, but I think you can outrun your past. I think you know, we are all the product of the choices were given. I don't think that anyone is really a villain. Everyone can change.
00:07:49
Speaker 1: So what is your favorite audiobook listening mode? Are you walking? Driving, doing the dishes fully in it?
00:07:57
Speaker 3: Either doing the dishes but which I rarely do, good for you? And also I just got my license last summer, and I'm more of a passenger princess, so like driving, but someone else driving while I'm listening.
00:08:11
Speaker 2: So you are a.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: Real genre hopper in your writing, which is a term I may have just made up. But what I mean by that is that you've written romance, You've written holiday romance, You've done a classic thriller. What is something you borrowed from romance that you brought into writing Lucky?
00:08:26
Speaker 3: I love the scenes where Lucky and Carrie meet, I really do. I think even though we know how complicated it is, there is a genuine love between them. It is very very kismet based, as he says to her. And so I sort of borrowed like those you know, the sensory details, and you know what he looked like and what he felt like, and what kissing him felt like and all of that, like the headiness of falling in love. I borrowed that because as much as I need people to care about Lucky and not see her as a villain, I really wanted everyone to get behind their love story, if only to twist a knife about it. Yeah.
00:09:05
Speaker 2: I felt the romance in there.
00:09:07
Speaker 1: And I know you write holiday romance too, which is like such a it's such an interesting departure.
00:09:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I have so much fun with it. The thing about romance and if there are romance fans in the room, you know, your happy ending is a non negotiable. It's a contract, and I really like that because I do terrible things to my characters, and happy endings are not guaranteed. So sitting down and going I know where we're heading and it could get tricky and messy, but it's a happy ending, and that's a promise I've made to my reader and myself is a real relief. I don't know how well I would be if I didn't have that relief every once in a while. Yeah.
00:09:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, the contract's important. Yeah, I agree. Okay, So you talked about researching a grift. How do you do that? Do you go on Reddit? Threads are you stalking like con man reddit boards.
00:09:59
Speaker 3: I don't know. I found a con man reddit board. I actually just fell into Reddit.
00:10:04
Speaker 2: Recently, so I'm so sorry.
00:10:06
Speaker 3: But with Lucky, the first thing I do is I go to the Toronto Public Library. I take out every book about cons, you know, fiction, nonfiction. You can find anything on the internet, for better or for worse. So YouTube videos on short changing, counting cards like let me walk you through these seven different cons like you. That is all available on the internet, and you can become anyone you want to be. And it does get a little weird when you know how well you know how to do these things.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: Was there a real life con that you came across that is so memorable to you?
00:10:41
Speaker 3: Yes? So I had a Google alert for like cons and grifts at the time too, because I wanted all the news. So there was one's It was like a romance con and it was a woman who believed she was dating Bruno Mars online as you do, I guess, and he told her he didn't have enough money for his tour, so she gave him like one hundred thousand dollars. No, yeah, I know, and it's so ridiculous, but it also did I had that reaction, Like I find the love cons are the hardest ones because, like Lucky does, look at people and zero in on the thing that they want the most and then exploits that. And most people do just want love, right we do, and then you can if you exploit that, there's almost
nothing that a person won't give you, and that is heartbreaking.
00:11:32
Speaker 1: I usually ask one unhinged question per podcast, So I think this is gonna be okay. If you were to do a grift, what are we looking at? What would you choose?
00:11:44
Speaker 3: So I don't know if it's because of the TV show being so high octane, but I also have given this some thought, and like I was looking at window cleaners the other day walking through New York City, and my son and I started talking about how you could, like there's so much involved here, like repelling, Like you learn how to be a window cleaner, you like get onto the building of whatever it is that you want to This is maybe more of a heis like you, you know, and then you get on the balcony and you go in and you take the emerald or whatever it is, and then you pretend to be the window cleaner and you just casually go back down, even though I'm afraid of heights. That's my plan.
00:12:22
Speaker 1: I was thinking about mine, and I decided I would be one of those restaurant critics that goes in and like tries all the food, but I wouldn't really be a restaurant.
00:12:32
Speaker 3: I think that's a good one. I think my like less high stakes one is wedding crasher too, just being like yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the bride. Oh, I know the group, and just like moving through really fancy weddings and like, don't mind if I do little champagne.
00:12:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, I'll have a sushi appetizer. Yeah.
00:12:48
Speaker 1: Okay, Well let's talk about Lucky making the leap from page to screen. So Lucky's now been turned into an Apple TV series produced by Hello Sunshine, starring Anya Taylor, joy Anette Benning. I'm met the olaphant Angeenue, Ellis Taylor, and Drew Starkey.
00:13:04
Speaker 2: What a cast, I almost just curse. What a cast.
00:13:10
Speaker 1: With a hit book, an incredible Apple Books audiobook, and now a major TV show. You must be feeling pretty lucky these days.
00:13:16
Speaker 3: I truly am. I think I say it all the time. I'm like, sorry, I'm gonna say it. I'm feeling lucky.
00:13:23
Speaker 2: Do you have any superstitions or lucky charms?
00:13:26
Speaker 3: Every time I get on a plane, I have to touch the outside of it or else it will crash. I managed to everyone when we get off the plane, I'm like, You're welcome, You're welcome. I started wearing this lucky friendship bracelet that I made at my future sister in law's shower a month ago, and I did take it off for the Red Carpet premiere, but I've been wearing it ever since, and I feel like I'm going to wear it until it falls off and make a wish. I'm very much into those like I just make them up as I go along, though.
00:13:58
Speaker 1: Sometimes when I interview as fleets, they've told me that they won't change their underwear if they're on a winning street, and.
00:14:04
Speaker 2: That's not my favorite one. I much prefer your bracelet.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: So one thing we have to ask before I go to break Marissa is the
question that I ask every week, What is something you are so obsessed with that you could write a book about it, but probably will not.
00:14:21
Speaker 3: I would love to write a Gossip Girls style novel fictionalized version of the publishing industry. There are so many things I know, and it's so unhinged. I think that that would be really, really fun, and I might do it someday.
00:14:36
Speaker 1: I think we have a lot of future writers in this room, and I'm thinking they want this book. Whether you're diving into a book solo or looking to meet other readers near you, Reese's Book Club on WhatsApp is an easy way to bring the joy of reading in to your daily life. Join your local city chapter chat for exclusive updates, access to local meetups, and a direct way to stay in the know about bookish happenings near you. Each chapter is designed to help readers connect in their own city to discover local bookstores and gathering spots, and engage in the RBC community beyond the monthly pick. Local chapters are located in Los Angeles, Saint Louis, New York, Nashville, Charleston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Austin, Portland, and Columbus. Didn't hear your city listed, You can always join our Reese's Book Club WhatsApp channel, where we share exclusive updates, host drop ins from our authors, and bring readers behind the scenes of our monthly picks and all of the stories we love so when you're ready, head over to our show notes and click the link to join the conversation on WhatsApp.
00:15:51
Speaker 2: Verse. I love the dedication of your book.
00:15:54
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is corny of me, but I really love book dedications.
00:15:58
Speaker 2: I read them over and over again.
00:15:59
Speaker 1: I have some of my favorites written down, and you wrote this book is for my mother, Valerie. She taught me how to be brave and resilient, but not to grift that. I had to research what did bravery and resilience look like for you in your house growing up?
00:16:15
Speaker 3: So my mom was a single mom. She was the like you keep calm and carry on, but she also was so loving and such a soft place to land for my brother and I. But you know, she always if something happened like she was just like, that's too bad. You know, life's not fair. I never told you life would be fair. So suck it up, Buttercup, keep going, keep going, like I love you, I'm here. And that was just such an important lesson for me, because you know, I have gotten lucky, beautiful, wonderful things have happened in my career, but it certainly did not happen overnight. And if I didn't have that resilience that like, Okay, we keep going, we keep going, we wouldn't be here. I owe that to her for sure.
00:16:59
Speaker 1: So Lucky's dad is also a con man, and the story explores the ideas of legacy and inheritance, which I think is so interesting. Did your relationship with your mom as a parental figure color how you wrote parental relationships in the book at all?
00:17:17
Speaker 3: You know,
I think, well, Lucky's looking for her mom, right, So I think there's that Like I was so close to my mom that presence was so important. She had a very strong faith. She had a faith in humanity, and she was very forgiving, but not in a like I'm going to be a doormat, like walk all over me, like don't ever do that again. I'm going to give you another chance. And she just taught me to look at where a person was coming from to understand. You know, I'm not actually the main character in anyone's story, but my own and everybody has a story, and I need to seek you know what that is and find the empathy to try to understand it, which I also think makes me the author I am today because I care deeply for all of my characters, even the ones that are somewhat you'redeemable.
00:18:08
Speaker 2: This is actually interesting.
00:18:09
Speaker 1: What do you think it means for you, Marisa, to be the character of your own story right now?
00:18:16
Speaker 3: You know, because I'm a mother. I have two kids who are getting into adulthood, and I feel like, for me, that family unit is so important. It's that legacy that I'm creating for them. It doesn't feel like it's just about me. And then I really think, like when I was on this set of Lucky, the most transformative thing for me is ego gratification to see your character and your world come to life. But one of the stuntmen was like, Marissa Stapley, I paid my rent, my landlord, thanks you, and that too. That like like what we owe each other, what we owe the world. And when you have a family you care about, you want to make the world a better place and it can feel overwhelming, but you know, you start where you are and do what you can with what you have to work with. And I think, I just that's what this experience has meant and that's I think who I am. But like, creating jobs is very rewarding to me.
00:19:13
Speaker 1: I got chills when you said that because I pictured you on the bus. You kind of got this download from wherever and thought of this character. It was just an idea in your mind, and it created an entire ecosystem.
00:19:25
Speaker 3: Right, hundreds and hundreds of people working, and I think people loved working Unlucky.
00:19:31
Speaker 1: So yeah, she lives in this really interesting morally gray area. Sometimes I was watching. Sometimes I love her, sometimes I hate her. She does some really objectively bad things, but you can't help but root for her somehow. She's a very interesting anti hero. What is it about a fundamentally good person making bad choices that fascinates you?
00:19:54
Speaker 3: I mean, I think if we're all very honest with ourselves, all we all have side of ourselves that are a little bit gray. No one is perfect, and I think we get in real trouble when we start to see everything in black and white. There is a great line in the show about sort of the degrees of being a bad person, and I don't want to spoil it, but you know what I mean. It's something John says to Lucky kind of
mid season, and I think that's an important thing to consider. You know, we all have the capability as humans to be bad, But what that also means is we all have even the worst among us. I believe the capability to be good, and I think that's something we need to think about because it's important in turning a lot of things around. Right now, It's like, I don't have to be this person all the time. I can make different choices.
00:20:44
Speaker 1: I see you writing like Marvel movies, like right, like all these antira Yeah, yeah, I know that you're a big Anne of Green Gables fan, and I found some crossover between Lucky and that book, and certainly is a good soul who behaves in some really frustrating ways. Was there a specific character or book or even a writer that inspired you while you were writing Lucky?
00:21:10
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting, by the way, I just realized about the redheaded orphan, Like how inspired it was, like subconscious.
00:21:17
Speaker 2: I think while I.
00:21:18
Speaker 3: Was writing Lucky, I was looking for morally complex characters and seeking authors who just have that deep love of their character. So I was looking to some of my favorite authors like and Patchett and Elizabeth Strout in particular. Even there's a novel called Olive Kittridge also turned into a mini series starring Francis McDormand and you think to yourself, like, she's not nice. She's you know, she's not nice to her family. It's so different. She's not a conartist, but this is like a masterclass, and like everybody has a story and everybody has goodness and light and love in them. So that kind of really basic like deep understanding characters is always so inspiring to me when I'm writing, what.
00:22:03
Speaker 1: Do you love about an Patchet's writing? We just had her on the pod. Oh my goodness, she just she gets you.
00:22:11
Speaker 3: You know, I feel like I really love page turners. Most of the time. I almost have to do something to myself to get into an an Patchet novel, like talk to myself and say, like, just it's going to be slower, like it's you know, she's building it to something. But the next thing you know, you're you have tears streaming down your face. And I think too for her, she like me, has a bit of a complicated sort of family backstory, like you know, with blended families and that sort of thing. So I think, especially in Whistler, the way she approached that and how people in your life that maybe aren't your life anymore still affect you. I don't know, she's just so good at that. But she's probably the chief empathy officer of the writing world.
00:22:54
Speaker 1: You know, I love ye title. That's a really good letter now. Yeah, yeah, I think you need to DM her that she needs to put it in her Instagram bis.
00:23:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:23:03
Speaker 1: So we talk a lot about the art of adaptation on Bookmarked, because bringing something from page to screen, or even going from a physical book to an audiobook takes
so much skill and nuance. When you're writing a book, are you ever thinking about the other places it's going to live? You know?
00:23:19
Speaker 3: With Lucky, I really did. I actually felt when I came up with that idea. I thought, I kind of tried to pitch my agents after a few weeks on why don't I just write this into a pilot, like this should be a TV show. I don't usually do that. I try to kind of keep it, you know, with the door closed in my office and just be thinking about what's happening between me and the characters. But with Lucky, it was everything. It was very very felt visual, it felt audio, It felt out there already.
00:23:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you were writing, were you thinking about hearing the dialogue come to life in the audiobook as well?
00:23:57
Speaker 3: I well, most authors do. When you're writing dialogue, the best thing to do, and if there are aspiring writers here, read it aloud to yourself. I don't think that I've ever written a successful scene of dialogue without sitting there going like like, maybe it's a change bits now that I'm you, just you realize it sounds natural or it doesn't. Like One thing that sometimes I might do is the person says the other person's name so many times, like Danielle. Oh, that's an interesting question, Danielle, Danielle, And that's not natural, right, So you take out all those unnatural little quirks and you need to hear it yourself.
00:24:33
Speaker 2: Do you make your son play the other character?
00:24:35
Speaker 3: I've never done that, but maybe maybe I will.
00:24:38
Speaker 1: Now you wear so many hats in your life, Denis, you should add that one.
00:24:41
Speaker 3: We'll shout out to you.
00:24:42
Speaker 2: Jose was there a moment in the audiobook that surprised you at all?
00:24:46
Speaker 1: So?
00:24:46
Speaker 3: I think that those moments when Lucky is alone, she's on the bus later and she's got her copy of La miz which is Lem's Orrabulae, which she finds in a used bookstore, and just listening to those quiet, emotional moments. It surprised me how I was right back there in my seat feeling those emotions with.
00:25:07
Speaker 1: Her without spoilers, Are you able to share why you chose Lamez is the book?
00:25:13
Speaker 3: It's just, you know, I think because in lay Miz, the punishment far outweighs the crime. And you know, I think in lay Miz you see someone who is perceived as a criminal and what that does to them, and it changes their life and they become darker and darker, and choice is taken away, and that's why I chose it, like just you know, you don't know where people are coming from, and you may see the worst criminal and the circumstances would probably surprise you. And Jean Valjean is a classic case of that. You know, he's still a bagette.
00:25:50
Speaker 2: What are some of your favorite audiobooks?
00:25:53
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, okay, so I do have so many. I really really love fellow Reese's Pick author or Taylor Jenkins reads Daisy Jones and the
Six and done by the Ensemble cast. That is a really wonderful way to listen to an audiobook. Fellow Canadian Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, also done by the cast.
00:26:13
Speaker 1: It really comes to life when you hear all the different voices to share. Lucky in a new medium means that it has to bring something new to the story.
00:26:23
Speaker 2: What does the audio book bring.
00:26:24
Speaker 3: I think when you're reading, your brain is busy in a different way. I find it's almost fuzzy when I'm reading and I'm picturing things, like it's sort of tinted and you don't see the characters as clearly. But when you can be doing something and walking in the world in a different way, I think reading audio books somehow also brings a visual element. I can see things more clearly in my mind.
00:26:57
Speaker 1: Lucky is now an Apple TV series. I'm so curious how you felt watching the first episode.
00:27:03
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, I felt like I was getting on a plane knowing it was going to be turbulent, and I was actually really frightened, because you don't I knew, I'd seen the scripts. I knew that it was probably going to be good and I would probably be thrilled. But I was like, oh, what if I don't like this. This is my baby, Like here she is all grown up and you know, running through setting things on fire and all that. Literally literally, so I was surprised by the fact that actually, and I told this to Anya at the premiere, it feels like a comfort watch to me. I just was like, oh, there you are, Like, there, you are lucky. No matter how much hot water she's put in, it's her. It is this character I created who I feel like. I know who I feel like sat down with me on a bus one day, and she's there and is such a peaceful feeling, even though there is you know, a certain amount of things getting set on fire.
00:27:58
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, I don't know that I got peace.
00:28:02
Speaker 3: It's an unusual answer, but it is really how I felt. Yeah.
00:28:05
Speaker 1: What I think is so interesting is social media has made so few things mysterious anymore. We have insight into so much, and I think the publishing industry and TV and film and even audio books are some of the few things left that there's so much mystery and we all think.
00:28:22
Speaker 2: Like, how did that get made? How did that happen?
00:28:25
Speaker 1: So you've had that, you know, the publishing industry, but I think to experience it and TV must have been a whole new world.
00:28:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:28:31
Speaker 3: I actually envision the Hello Sunshine and Apple group, everyone jumping through flaming hoops. That's how things get made. You have to jump through flaming hoops, and somehow they did it, and I felt like they were riding a unicorn because so many lucky breaks happened for this to happen, and I'm just delighted by all of it.
00:28:52
Speaker 1: So set the scene for us. Are you at your home in Canada? Who are you watching with? Are you too nervous to eat? Are you eating mic and ikes? Like what's going on?
00:29:01
Speaker 3: I was in my basement, like in our rec room with my husband and daughter and our cats, And when my name came up on the screen as producer, like, we all screamed so loud, and my husband was the cat. The cat just screamed out of the room like everyone was terrified. And and then I watched it just over and over until the link froze, Like it was like just I think I watched it like four times.
00:29:24
Speaker 1: So what are you excited for audiences to discover about Lucky?
00:29:29
Speaker 3: It's what we talked about, that that female character in the rules that were so used to seeing men, and we were talking about that earlier in the podcast. I'm excited for that discovery. I'm excited as well for Priscilla's character to be discovered, and Natt Benning does such an incredible job. She is absolutely unhinged, and I think we're very used to seeing male mob bosses and it's sort of the same thing every time. And when we have this mother come in, this like the unhinged maternal energy that she brings to the table, I don't think that I've ever seen a character like that, and I'm excited for people to see that and the power that builds in her.
00:30:14
Speaker 1: I think hearing you today, it's so clear that in your writing you kind of serve up the dessert with the broccoli underneath.
00:30:23
Speaker 2: Like you, it's so.
00:30:24
Speaker 1: Entertaining, but you're also really sort of giving us some moral lessons, almost like an astop fable underneath. What do you want people to take away from Lucky's story?
00:30:33
Speaker 3: It's funny because that broccoli thing is like the I don't know that is exactly how I see it, and I say that to people. I always do want people to take something away, and I really think I want people to look at themselves and the story they've told themselves about maybe their circumstances or their family, or what they can and cannot do, and just question that and say, like I, take the resilience, you know, take the courage, the idea that actually you don't have to repeat patterns that have been taught to you and your family if those don't feel healthy for you, and just take some power back. That's what I really, really truly want when people finish it beautiful.
00:31:21
Speaker 1: I was reading a Stephen King quote about books and movies and I thought it was so well said. But I'm also going to use more food analogies. Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They are both fruit but taste completely different. Would you say that's true or false?
00:31:38
Speaker 3: Absolutely true? And I think as a novelist you need to understand that. And you can protect your characters as much as you want, but I think you need to understand that fruit is different and you must allow the visual medium to thrive and shine, and that might require changes and your source material. If it's done well as I believe it is done in Lucky, you will still shine through,
but you need to let it be more visual.
00:32:07
Speaker 1: Okay, I want to play a little game with you called speed read.
00:32:10
Speaker 2: Okay, are you up for it?
00:32:11
Speaker 3: I'm ready?
00:32:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, So what we do is we put sixty seconds on the clock. Our amazing producers putting sixty seconds on the clock, and we're going to see just how many rapid fire literary questions you can get through. So today's conversation is in partnership with Apple Books. We just completed our story walk and this speed read is the official Apple Books audiobook edition.
00:32:33
Speaker 2: Are you locked in?
00:32:34
Speaker 3: Locked in?
00:32:35
Speaker 2: Okay? Three?
00:32:36
Speaker 1: Two one? What speed do you listen to your audiobooks on? Are you a purist or a double time speed reader?
00:32:42
Speaker 2: Purest favorite book to recommend?
00:32:45
Speaker 3: Viola Davis's memoir is a wonderful listen on audiobook?
00:32:50
Speaker 1: You have ten minutes on the Apple Bookstore app. What genre are you clicking on first? I'm going literary.
00:32:55
Speaker 2: What's your favorite audiobook adaptation?
00:32:58
Speaker 3: I already said this, but I loved Daisy Jones Send the six.
00:33:01
Speaker 1: What book that isn't your own? Do you think you could narrate for audio?
00:33:04
Speaker 3: Anything like by Ella Montgomery, but probably Anne of Green Gables.
00:33:08
Speaker 2: What book do you wish you could read again for the first time?
00:33:11
Speaker 3: So Heart the Lover and the prequel Writers and Lovers, But I wish I could just erase my memory and keep reading those over and over fiction or nonfiction?
00:33:22
Speaker 2: Which genre would you rather listen to in audiobook form?
00:33:25
Speaker 1: Oh?
00:33:26
Speaker 3: Maybe nonfiction because you know you're learning, you're learning more.
00:33:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you. Who would narrate your memoir audiobook?
00:33:35
Speaker 3: Okay, Meryl Streep, but also maybe Annia Taylor Joy because.
00:33:43
Speaker 2: It's a good humble Brad. What book shaped the way you see the world?
00:33:47
Speaker 3: Educated by Taro Westover? I think about like the gap. You know, education is so important, and we're on the clock, so I won't pontificate, but it really changed the way I view the gaps in the world in terms of education and how important education is. And also again like we've got resilience and all the stuff that I really love.
00:34:07
Speaker 2: Education is the great equalizer, right, yeah, Okay, everybody. Marissa Stapley round of a pause. Thank you Marissa so much, Janiel I, thank.
00:34:19
Speaker 1: You, you guys, thank you so much for such a fun first season of Bookmarked. And as much as I love talking books with all of you, even podcasts deserve a little vacation. Bookmarked by Reese's book Club is taking a short break, but don't worry, we're going to be back before you know it. Until then, consider this the perfect opportunity to catch up on the episodes that you've missed this season. We're also booked and busy at Reese's book Club this summer with our storyfest series at Hudson Yards, our local city chapter, conversations on WhatsApp, and more. So to stay up to date on all things Reese's book Club, make sure to follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our substack. Until next time, my book besties. That's it for this episode of Bookmarked by Reese's book Club. Our phone line is now open, so if you want to go nineties on us, give us a call at one five zero one two nine to one three three seven nine. That's one five zero one two nine one three three seven nine, Share your literary hot takes, your book recommendations, questions about the monthly pick, or let us know what you think about the episode you just heard, and who knows, you might just hear yourself in our next episode, so don't overthink it. Give us a ring, and if you want more, come hang with us. Terese's book Club is on Instagram, serving up books, good vibes, and all the behind the scenes stuff you love. And I'm at Danielle Robe rob a y, So come say hi and please seriously DM me because I actually read them and I love hearing what you think about the episodes, and don't forget to follow Bookmarked by Reese's book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
00:36:08
Speaker 2: We'll see you in the next chapter.
00:36:10
Speaker 1: Bookmarked is a production of Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts, Executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and me Danielle Robe. Production by Acast Creative Studios. Our producers are Matty Foley, Brittany Martinez and Sarah Schleid. Our editor is Carmen Borca Carrillo. Our production assistant is Avery Loftis. Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder are executive producers for Acast Creative Studios. Marine Polo and Reese Witherspoon are executive producers for Hello Sunshine. Olga Cominwa, Kristin Perla, Ashley Rappaport and Sarah Kernerman are associate producers for Reese's book Club, and Ali Perry is executive producer for iHeart Podcasts.