Five Star Weekend Author Elin Hilderbrand: Nantucket Drama, Casting Jen Garner & Season 2 Details

I think you are the Beatrix author, right? >> How did you have A the confidence to follow a creative career or just follow your dreams in general? Kind of a do-what-you-want to be like this is going to work. You're the reason that I came to Nantucket to begin with. >> not know that. >> Were there any like cancellations [music] that you were watching during the time of writing this book or was it just kind of the overall theme? >> question. The the whole idea of being canceled by the internet is so interesting to me. The most interesting thing, and this has been true throughout my career, is that >> Hi house guests. I hope you guys are having a fabulous day. Did y'all know that subscribing to this YouTube channel is completely free? It is a very easy, simple, free way to support the show and help us grow. If you do this, we are able to bring you better content and guests that you guys really want to see. All you have to do is hit that red subscribe button. And if you guys are new here, comment below where y'all are coming from and if you are a returning house guest, comment below the first episode that you watched. Thank you in advance for subscribing. I love y'all so much. >> Hi house guests. Welcome back to the show. I'm currently on island, as they say. I'm here on the beautiful island of Nantucket and this is our book club episode. We recently brought back book club to house guests where we are reading a new book every six weeks with the author. And what better way to start on book club 2.0, a little refresh, than to bring on Elin Hilderbrand for Five-Star Weekend. Nantucket has really been, you know, such a topic of conversation recently. I'm sure you guys have all seen the no influencers sign. I'm sure you guys have seen Five-Star Weekend everywhere. It is really just something and as you guys know on this podcast, we do have a drinking game. It's mainly on episodes of Harrison where we say take a shot every time we say Nantucket cuz we're actually so obnoxious and so annoying but it's my favorite place in the entire world. We're just having the best week. Should everyone say a little hello? >> Hi. >> Hi house guests. My friends are We're going to film a little week recap after this, so that'll be coming next week. Um and it's just a fabulous fabulous time in Nantucket. Vlogs. I will say I vlogged a little bit less than normal because, you know, I was a little bit scared of the no influencer sign. Anyway, um we have Elin on the show today. I'm so excited. She's the reason that I started coming to Nantucket like 5 6 years ago was from her books. So, it's such an honor to have her on. I've wanted to have her on the show forever and this just worked out so perfectly. So, we read Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand with Elin Hilderbrand. I will say like there's probably going to be some like spoilers and things in this if you guys haven't seen the show. If you have like sorry. We're going to be recapping some things, but I will give y'all a little book summary. I read this book when it came out and then I like relistened on audio and then thank god Caroline was also reading it. I relistened on audio like a week and a half ago, but Caroline read it this entire trip. She did read a full book start to finish on this trip. Claps for Caroline. Woo! So, she really helped me prep for this episode, which was just fabulous. But anyways, if you guys need a little summary cuz I always do at the beginning of Book Club, here you go. Okay. The book centers on Hollis Shaw, a hugely successful food blogger behind Hungry with Hollis. From the outside, Hollis has built a very like enviable life. She's got this beautiful Nantucket home. She grew up on Nantucket and she's got expanded as like actually insane a successful career. Um she's married to like this surgeon Matthew and then their daughter Caroline actually. Hi, Caroline. Um but when the book begins, it's really it's really beautiful and picturesque for like a second and then you find out um that Matthew dies. Okay, so that's not a spoiler. That's like literally the beginning of it. But Hollis and Matthew had already been struggling in their marriage. She becomes this really successful food blogger and in my opinion, I think he was just threatened by her success and also wanted more attention. Um on one snowy morning, they have a really bad argument before Matthew leaves for the airport and he dies in a car accident like on the way, leaving Hollis obviously devastated not only by grief but feeling like the guilt of that final interaction. Her relationship with her daughter Carolina is also very strained, so Hollis is like essentially trying to figure out who she is without the life and the marriage that had defined her for so long, and she's very like homemaker, like making cooking content, all that stuff. I also will say normally when you have an influencer, you know, no influencers, my own influencer said. Normally when you have an influencer in a book, I'm like not interested at all, but like it does not feel that way literally in the slightest. So, while grieving, Hollis hears about the concept of a five-star weekend where you invite one best friend from each major era of your life for a weekend together. Hollis decides to host one at her Nantucket house and chooses Tatum McKenzie, who is her childhood best friend that still lives on Nantucket. She and Hollis were very, very close, but of course like these are all drifted apart. It's really cool because every single woman in that's invited to this weekend like knows a different part of her in a different life, so it feels like she's so known with this group because it's like literally every single era of her life. Juran, who's my favorite, her college best friend, she is a very, very successful sports agent and like media personality. Um she's been getting canceled by like Gen Z basically. And yeah, she's amazing. Oh, and her and Tatum have beef, okay? Then we're moving on to Brooke. Brooke is her friend from her motherhood years, and she's like very um what's the word I'm looking for? She's very like insecure. Like she's very needy, very insecure. Then we have Gigi Leing, Hollis's friend from midlife. This is a very unusual choice because Hollis has never actually met Gigi in person. This is like an internet friend, she was a subscriber of Hollis's. And after Matthew dies, Gigi becomes an important source of comfort to her. And obviously Gigi is just like kind of the She's like the ticking time bomb almost of the book. Caroline is also her daughter, she's there from film school filming everything. And then Jack Finnegan is her high school boyfriend and first love. So, anyways, I'm going to get into the book with Elin and also just like her career and life advice that she has. I love her podcast and when she's giving advice to like people in their 20s and 30s, it's just like very comforting. Also, she lives year round on Nantucket, which you know I just now I'd die for. Name one topic I love more, okay? And the show's on Peacock and I actually hosted a five-star dinner party, which I've been wanting to do since I read the book like years ago. This has been on one of my top book recommendations list for so long because I just think it's like the most wholesome book. It's one of my top Elin books and I just I love it. It's so good. I read it when I was here probably like I don't know, when did it come out? Like three years ago, four years ago? Three years ago, I think. I literally have no idea, but it's a really, really good read. So, anyway, we're going to be doing the whole thing. I'm going to be giving a lot more spoilers I think than we normally would just because the show is out and of course there's all sorts of changes and stuff between the book and the show, but that's the point of these book club episodes. We're going to like really dive into it. So, anyway, without further ado, let's welcome Elin on to the show. All right, we are with the Nantucket icon herself, Elin Hilderbrand. >> Hi Kenzie. Thank you for having me. This is fun. >> This is so full circle cuz you know, you're the reason that I came to Nantucket to begin with. >> I did not know that. Okay, wow. >> yes. Obviously. >> Thank you. >> would have been able to bring me here? I mean, it's just so perfect. >> Okay, yay. Well, you're not alone. A lot of people I think have come because of my books and it's like a real It's a real honor. It's always humbling. >> that like all the time on Main Street. >> I do, but it's it's humbling, you know, that people would travel 30 miles to an island 30 miles off the coast of America just cuz they read it about it in a book. >> Well, the thing that's so cool about your books though is that it is literally Nantucket. Like it is all of the spots. Like sometimes I This is my sixth time here and sometimes I have a hard time remembering if I've actually been to the location or if I've just read about it. >> Right, exactly. I know a lot of people feel that way. That's funny. >> I feel like you really have When the first time I came here, we were on like the little like smaller plane to the island and every single person, I'm not kidding, had an Alan Ruck grandpa. >> Oh, that's funny. Okay, good. Well, that's nice to hear. >> It's amazing. Um also, congrats. Like this is season two. >> Yeah. Yeah, we just got a season two for five star weekend. Thrilling. >> Thrilling. So thrilling. >> The whole thing this show in particular has just been like a a dream come true. It's like what I always wanted for my adaptations, like this particular show. >> It's so perfect. It's so [snorts] good. And I'm you're just like it feels like almost like the new I mean, I know this is like a controversial thing, but it does in a way almost feel like the new Yellowstone where like everyone was going to like Montana or wherever it was. Now everyone's dream is Nantucket. How do you feel about that? >> So, I feel okay about it. I think when like last September when they came to film, now mind you, coming to film here requires bringing 275 people, cast, crew, blah blah blah. And they want the so they had to go to the selectmen, which is our governing board, Nantucket's governing board is five select people. And it only passed two to one. I don't two people recused themselves. It only passed two to one, like it they almost didn't let them film here, which I'm so happy that they did let them film. People were worried that Nantucket would become overrun, that it would become too popular. The nice thing about Nantucket, Kenzie, is that it it cannot be overrun because it it's self-regulating. So, there's only so many planes. There's only so many spots on the boat. There's only so many spots for the cars. And what I hope will happen is that people who want to come will spread out their visits into the shoulder season. So, July and August are at saturation. This is probably the most populated week on Nantucket, this week and last week. Then people a lot of people left for cuz kids went back to school. Um and it'll trickle, like, it'll get less and less as we get towards Labor Day. Um, but I I see, like, the island tourism sort of spreading out, so it goes all My dream is for it to go all the way from Labor Day to Nantucket Stroll, which is the first weekend of December. That people will still come like in October, November. >> I was going to say, um, my dream is to come to the Christmas Stroll. I can't wait to see that one day. I can't do it this year, but next year I'm blocking it off. >> Yeah. It's at least the first weekend It's the weekend after Thanksgiving is when it is, always. Yeah. >> Okay, can you talk about like your journey with Nantucket when you got here? >> Yes. So, I arrived My journey, and a lot of your listeners are younger than me, and that this is perfect This is the perfect story for them. So, I was living in New York City. I had a boyfriend who went to Columbia Business School. We lived together. We broke up in April. We shared an apartment, and back in the day, you know, it was $800 a month, which was a fortune. It was a one-bedroom. It was a fifth-floor walk-up. And he had a job in the city, uh, he between years of business school. And so, I had to I had to find a place to live so for the summer. So, I was like, "Okay, I'm going to go to Nantucket." Now, I had grown up summers going to the Cape. So, Nantucket was not that much of a stretch. So, this is 1993. If you can imagine, I called information. I got the name of the newspaper in Nantucket, called the newspaper, had them send me the classifieds in the mail. Six days later they arrive. I'm like looking through week-old classifieds trying to find a place to live. Found a room in a house on Hooper Farm Road. You do not know where that is. It doesn't matter. It's mid-island. It's a little tiny shack, essentially. And when I drive my children past it, they are like, "You did not live there." Yes, I did. So, I had a a room that had a half bath, and a door to the outside and I had roommates and I didn't know anybody and then my roommates that summer just became my best friends. Um my friend Margie, she was my bridesmaid, she's Shelby's godmother, like she's one of my best friends to this day and this was 1993 so 33 years ago and I just fell in love with Nantucket and in love with sort of the lifestyle here. I went back to New York, I was teaching, I went back to New York, I taught the second year and then I moved here permanently in '94. >> It's just the most magical place ever. >> Yeah. I was like I'm never leaving. I loved it so much. >> Okay, so you were teaching but when did you start writing? >> [snorts] >> So I've always been writing. Uh I needed jobs that paid money so I started teaching. I you know, after I got out of college and that's why I had the had the summer off and I was able to come here. And then I went back, let's see, so I moved here, met a guy, we started dating, he worked at the Cliffside Beach Club, which is down next to the Cali. And he had the summers he had the winters off. So he came to New York for that first winter and then I moved to Nantucket and then our first winter as a couple or I guess our second winter as a couple, we traveled and we went all through Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand. And then we came back to Nantucket, we were engaged and then the following winter we went all through South America. We went to the Galapagos, we went to Ecuador, Costa Rica, we were just backpacking. And then after that, I decided it was time to go to graduate school. So I applied to the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, which is the best writing program in the country thinking, am I going to get in? I don't know. I got in and then in the fall of '96 off I go to Iowa. And this is where things start to get like very sad and strange and then extremely extremely good. So I go to Iowa. I am a fish out out water. I miss Nantucket. Iowa City is like it's wonderful now that I can sort of appreciate it. At the time I felt like I'd been dropped in like amongst the cornfields and the pig farms and I you know, and it was big >> like simple life, honestly. >> Yeah, it was yeah. And I was like, okay, what am I doing here? And I really my husband was back here in Nantucket, my friends were back here. And I really I missed the life so much. So they had therapy that free therapy at the university. Hooray. So I start going to free therapy and the therapist said I'm crying, I want to go home. And the therapist said, I think it's pretty clear what you have to do. And I thought she's going to tell me to go home. >> I'm booking a flight. >> And she said you need to start writing about Nantucket. And I was like, oh, yeah. And when I say to you that beach books at that time didn't really exist. This is '96. There was like chick lit, like Bridget Jones had just come out. And Jane Green had written a novel called Jemima J. And those were sort of they were called chick lit, right? For like very specifically marketed towards young women. But the beach book didn't really exist. And so me writing about Nantucket had like writing about a beach place hadn't really been done. Um so I thought, oh all right. So I started a novel called The Beach Club based on the Cliffside Beach Club where my then husband was working. And uh and my very last class at Iowa my professor had his agent come to the workshop. And the agent says, which one of you lives on Nantucket? And I said, oh, it's me. It was very obvious it was me. I don't want to get into it, but it was. And um I was not like the other workshop students. >> And I wouldn't I would never picture that. >> Right. So I said no, it's me. And then he said, please stay after class. And I literally had my U-Haul packed. I was ready to go. And I didn't even want to stay and talk to him, but I did. And And has been my agent for 20 eight years? That's unheard of. He's been my agent for 28 years. >> I feel like no one really talks about how important it is to support your fertility before you even start trying for kids. Even if you are not trying to get pregnant right now, there is so much that you can do to support your body early. WeNatal is so great for your daily routine. It is an easy habit to just stock into your routine, just three capsules a day or one scoop of their pre-natal protein plus powder if that is easier for you. I always say confidence comes from keeping promises to yourself and keeping them. And this just feels like one of those small daily things that really adds up. 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Sends it to 12 publishers, and they all turn it down. And then the 13th publisher says, we will publish it, and they gave me an advance of $5,000. Even in 1996 Kenzie $5,000 was not enough money for me to quit my job. So, I said okay, but I we didn't have any other offers. So, I said all right. So, we published it in the summer of 2000 for five grand I got and uh two weeks after it had been out People magazine chose it as their beach book of the week. >> Wow. >> I was so excited. They immediately ran out of copies and what you have to realize is this is before the Nook, the iPhone. This is before that. So, there was like Borders and Barnes & Noble. This is before you were born. Okay. So, it was a hard lesson because for three weeks over the like best part of the summer you couldn't get the book. It was completely sold out. Um but they went back to press and it ended up selling well enough that then I was offered a two-book deal. I did not hit the big time until my sixth novel, Barefoot which came out in 2007. And that novel at that point I had switched publishers because my first publisher just wasn't really doing right by me. They weren't sending me on tour. They weren't putting any money behind the book. If I have If we have any aspiring writers out there, almost more important than how big your advance is is how much money they're putting to promote you. Right? >> Mhm. >> And now it's a little easier cuz you can get it into the hands of book influencers and that can do the work for you, but you know, taking out ads in the New York Times and buying the end caps. So, when you go to Target and you see the books on the end of the aisles, those that real estate is paid for by the publishers. It's not just the guy at Target decided that's where the book should go. It is paid for and my publisher wasn't doing any of that. So, in 2006 I switched publishers and my new publisher Little Brown, who I'm still with, totally changed my life and put a lot of money behind the books and groomed me summer by summer, like book by book, year by year, I got a little bit higher. I hit the New York Times bestseller list in paperback with my novel Barefoot, and then every book after that hit the list a little bit higher, a little bit higher. It was my 23rd novel, Summer of '69, in 2019 that finally reached number one. >> That is crazy to me. >> It was a very slow, deliberate, intentional climb to the top. >> It's crazy to me though because it doesn't feel that way as a reader because your books are so even when you're any title that you're talking about, Barefoot, I can picture the cover immediately and they're so recognizable as your book even when there's books that are like trying to emulate your covers. Like you know if it's an Elin book or not, right? So that is insane. >> Yes, it is insane. And but it's because so you're young enough that you would have grown up seeing a book every summer and they all looked the same. That was an a decision by my publisher. Like we're going to brand this, >> Mhm. >> right? We're going to give these covers a certain font and a certain look. I said to my daughter, my gravestone has to have the Elin Hilderbrand font. >> [laughter] >> My name has to look like this. She's like, "Okay." Um Yeah. So I, you know, that is like my my font and my look and and then other publishers and other writers started using it. And I'm not going to come on here and say I was the first person to ever write a beach book. I most certainly wasn't. But I was at the forefront of what has now become an extremely big part of publishing. >> Of course. I I think you from an outside perspective, I do feel like you really pioneered it. Like >> Yeah, I was one of the first ones who did it and did it every year. So I think between 2000 and 2024 there were only two summers I didn't publish, which would have been 2001 and 2004. Other than that, I published a book every single year. And then, for 7 years in there, I published two books cuz I was writing winter books as well. So, when I look back on it now, I do not know how I did it cuz I also raised three kids. >> No, it's unheard of. >> It was crazy. >> That's like >> How did I do it? I don't know. >> It is a crazy, crazy, crazy amount of books to put out. >> Yeah. >> I'm curious though, because you, like in my own words, I think you've really pioneered the like beach book space. Like I think you are the beach read author, right? >> Yeah. >> But doing that so young, how did you have A, the confidence to follow a creative career or just follow your dreams in general without sounding corny, and B, kind of the wherewithal to be like, this is going to work? >> I didn't know that it was going to work because I had really, what I would consider failed five times, because my first five books did not they didn't do well. I mean, they did well enough. They did well enough that I was and I obviously love like writing was in my blood, so I was going to do it whether or not I was getting paid or whatever. They I did not break out until my sixth try, but I was just going to keep writing until I broke out. And then when I broke out, then I started getting more readers and every year I'd get more readers. And I when I tell you I did everything under the sun. I have gone to every book festival. I've been you know, I would go and tour and you know, I did a an event at the Charleston library and three people showed up. This was in 2012. It wasn't even that long ago. Three people came, but one woman had driven like 4 hours to get there. And so that I was like, oh my god, that made me feel so special even though only three people came. And it was just a lot of trying. Like really trying and then as I got more and more popular then the social media came into existence and I I do all my own social media. I do my own Instagram. It's like my fifth child. I mean I just I you know. So, but it was it it wasn't that I set out in 2000 in 2000 or even 2006 to be like I'm going to be this. It was just like I'm going to keep writing and you can only do what's right in front of you, right? So, I'm going to write this book. And then when that book's finished I'm going to write the next book and the next book's going to be as good as if not better than the book I just wrote. Or different from, you know, and now at the age of 57 I'm looking back and I'm like I have something for everybody. Right? There's a There's like a love story, 28 Summers. There's a historical novel, Summer of '69. You know, there's the thriller which is like the the Paradise series that's set in St. John. There's the Christmas series. You know, my daughter and I have written two novels set at an at a boarding school. Those are not YA but they're YA adjacent because half the characters are are Gen Z teenagers. Um so we I really have something for everybody which is it's fun and I and I did the murder mystery which is the perfect couple and I thought I don't I'm just going to try and write a murder mystery and see what happens. So, yeah. >> It's amazing how many books you put out in a relative I mean a relatively short time. I know it was 30 years but for the amount of books like that's really crazy. What is your like day-to-day routine or writing routine? Like how do you approach that? >> most interesting thing and this has been true throughout my career is that the first thing I do every day is I exercise. So, I exercise every single morning. I'm to a point now where I I'm exercising and this has been true for years, probably 10 years. It's 3 hours a day. So, I ride the Peloton, I do a bar class, and then I go for what I call my yogging, which is my very slow jogging. You could walk You could walk faster than I yog. A lot of A lot of people do. But, I like it because the Peloton is like really intense cardio, and then the bar claw My bar class is outstanding here. And then, the walking and jogging yogging gets me outside. So, it's like I call it my green exercise cuz I'm outside inhaling actual fresh air. And that's a really important part of my discipline because it's Exercising is hard. Nobody likes it. If they say they like it, they're lying. It's hard. And once that's done, I think to myself, "Okay, I've now done the hardest thing I'm going to do today." And so, therefore, writing would be de facto easier. And then, so after I do my exercising, if I'm writing a novel, I will sit down and write between 11 and a perfect world like 11 and 6, and I'll take breaks, and I'll take a nap, and I'll eat my lunch, and if it's summer and I'm at the I write at the beach or I write at my pool, and I'll go for a swim, and I read also during my work day, and I consider reading part of my work day because I love to read, and it really inspires me and gets my juices flowing. It does. Like, "Oh my gosh, like now I'm going to work on my own book." And and then, you know, in the evenings like I had kids, so I was, you know, a lot of a lot of that was interrupted. Even though that would be a perfect day like I raised children, and they all played three sports, and so I was always picking them up from sports, and you know, taking them to the boat if they had away games, and I mean, so many things, and then making their dinner and doing their homework, and reading their It was It was a lot. It was a lot. But, um in a perfect world, I I I worked for 6 or 7 hours a day, and probably composed 3 hours. And if you compose 3 hours a day, you can write two books a year. It's so impressive. >> Thank you. I also think the discipline is just everything and I can't really think unless I'm working out. This past two weeks that I've been here haven't been working out. My brain has not worked. Yeah. Not a single second. >> It is I think scientifically proven that when you're moving your brain is moving and a lot of people have their best ideas when they're exercising. >> Oh, 100%. If I go on like my yoga, you know, cuz I'm also the same. I suddenly am like, oh, I'm literally Albert Einstein. I could think of anything. I could solve any issue, you know. >> Okay, should we get into I guess the book? >> Sure. >> Okay, to me I think the book is I want to hear like your synopsis cuz I obviously can't just give like a summary for you. But to me I think the book is largely about friendship, forgiveness, and grief. And I also think it's really cool because it's I think a lot like when I'm applying this in my own life I actually hosted a five-star dinner dinner party and I invited I had the idea when I first did or when I first read the book when it came out and I always loved the idea of having like, you know, four different women from different areas of my life to come over for dinner and then I did like an on the rocks thing and I was like, oh, perfect. Now I really can. >> Perfect. >> And it was amazing. But I love like kind of like what is revealed about you when you're in the right kind of relationships, you know? With the book like Hollis is surrounded by people who have known her almost at like every single stage of her life. >> So she they're like kind of like a mirror to her in a way >> Yeah. >> which I think is so cool. Like where did you originally get the idea for this book? >> So I got the idea for this book in 2020. Another writer, a writer who's very successful, she came to Nantucket. She texted me. She said, "I'm here for girls weekend. Can you meet for a drink?" Now, if you remember, we weren't really doing that in September of 2020. So I thought that was a little strange. I went and I met her and we went to the Nantucket Hotel and sat in the bar. We were the only people there. I said, "What are you even doing here?" And also like if If on a girls weekend, why did you call me? So, she said, "Uh my friend is has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She's not going to make it, but she feels okay right now, so she gathered um her closest friends from throughout her life to do this very special weekend on Nantucket." And then the writer said, "And not all of us are getting along, and I needed to get out of the house, and that's why I called you for a cocktail." And I was like, "Oh my god, that is a novel." And she said, "Well, it's an Elin Hilderbrand novel." And so, then she's There were certain things she didn't want me to use. So, when I sat down to write it, I wrote it with the intention that this woman was dying, and she was going to have these friends. And page three, I'm like, "This is too sad. I cannot do this." I just done 28 summers. I'm like, "I'm not doing it to these people again." So, I said, "I'll have the husband die." [laughter] >> Yeah, who needs them? >> better. Much better. So, I did. I switched it, so that the husband died, and that It was so much happier. >> [laughter] >> Not in like a I'm not being flip. It just was like one step removed was so much better. It was so much better. Oh my god, that is so funny. If you were hosting your own five-star weekend, who are you bringing? So, I mean, I would bring my best friend from growing up, and I grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and then I would bring my I had two best friends in college. One of my best friends from Johns Hopkins, and I would bring my friend Rebecca, who we raised. She's my best friend now. I'm meeting her for dinner. She was my best friend through raising my kids. And then I did later in life make a different friend group, like in the last like since like 2018, so like the last 8 years, I've made a group of friends that are like newer friends, but I would bring one of them. I do have like the four the four stages. And I think it would be fine. Um I've lived on the Antek it for so long that it almost feels like my entire life lives it exists here. >> Totally. >> And my friend from high school that I'm thinking of has never visited me here. So, although she has >> miss. >> I know. I know. It's just I you know, I have so many children I don't really have house guests, which is really its own benefit. But um >> [laughter] >> Yeah. So, I think it would be it would be interesting anyway. >> We we don't necessarily know if they would get along, but like we could give it a shot. >> I feel good about everybody except maybe my friend from high school cuz I I ended some place different from where I started if that makes sense to you. >> Totally. >> And so, my friend from high school is a little different from the friends that I made later in life. >> Yeah. What have you learned like about friendship in just like over the decades? Cuz I think it's really cool to hear like when I think about like my mom making new friends in her like 30s, 40s, 50s like and on, it's really encouraging cuz it's just like you forget that that can continue to happen. >> It feels so instant. >> Right. Yeah. It Yes. I don't know. I I've had a lot of friendships go upside down. Like I've had friends um like I had a girlfriend in college who I no longer speak to. I mean, I've had friendships go badly. And I think it's because we get so close. And tell me if you agree with this. There are instances in which women get so close to another woman and then for whatever reason it just ends badly. >> Like explodes a little bit. >> It can. It can end badly. Um whether it be jealousy or I don't know. >> too close maybe. Like maybe it's like >> close. Like there was one friend I had and I was closer to her than I was to my husband at the time and and then it just ended it just ended badly. And um So, now and when I say now, I mean for like the last almost 20 years, I've had a core group of friends here on Nantucket who uh they we we are all like super independent, super busy, super fulfilled, super secure, and there is no friendship drama. So, I would say in the last, you know, 18 I can definitely say 18 years, there I've had zero friendship drama. Would you say that >> the most important quality, cuz I would assume maybe like people when you especially when you were gaining such success and it just continues to go up, would you say that like the most important quality in a friend would be like them feeling confident, secure, and fulfilled? >> Yes. >> Cuz I I think that's maybe that's where it happens. >> Because and I think anybody that's listening this will will appreciate this comment. If you have a friend who is insecure, they are a problem. >> I agree. >> Low self-esteem, that is a problem. Cuz they're looking to you for something and you can only deal with yourself. You know? >> Totally. >> my daughter's 20, she's in college, and you know, we have had a lot of talks over the summer about friends of hers who aren't as she's extremely confident, extremely self-possessed, extremely self-aware. All qualities that I just admire her so much because when I was 20, I was none of those things. Um but we had conversations about other people in her life who maybe aren't as confident and and self-possessed as she is and how to deal with them, right? Cuz it's hard. >> No, it's really hard. And I do think it's I think it's almost next to impossible if that friend whether it's you or them continues to be like if I think it's different to like of course everyone feels insecurity at different times. I think when you're consistently acting out of insecurity is like when it goes south. >> Yeah. >> It's hard. It's tough. >> Especially if you're someone who's very driven and you live a full life, and you have all these things going. It's like you're not going to slow yourself down for that, you know? >> If we're Let's If we take it back to the book, this is so interesting. And you saw the show. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, Brooke, right, comes into the event, the weekend, and she feels insecure, right? And it's super obvious. And the best thing about the way D'Arcy Carden played her is that D'Arcy or D'Arcy's Brooke knows that she's a bot. Like she's like, "I am not like the rest of you. I do not have my together like the rest of you. I am not beautiful like the rest of you. I'm not, you know, I I'm just She feels less than." And she really grows, I think, to accept herself over the course of the weekend. Which that doesn't normally happen in real life. Like it wouldn't be a weekend. >> Yeah. >> But that arc that she has, I think it's really satisfying because she comes in as sort of the one without her together, and she leaves in a much better place. >> Was there a character that was particularly difficult for you to write, or someone that just maybe irked you? >> It was very hard, obviously, and and and we all found it hard on set to make GG You have to walk such a fine line with GG because you want her to be likable. >> Mhm. >> And at the same time, she's like the source of this enormous explosion, right? Like she's the other woman. And nobody knows it. And in the book, I'm like, "Okay, I have to make her likable." And And Becca, who is the showrunner and the screenwriter, she felt the same way. Like she had Like she gives uh GG this fabulous best friend, John Mark, who's played by Torrey DeVitto Smith. I mean, oh my god, he's so good. He's He's so good. But he makes Gigi likable because he's likable and he's her friend and he's like counseling her and so that makes it if she's it makes her vulnerable and if she's vulnerable then we like her more than we would have normally. >> He also does a good job because it almost feels as a viewer watching the show like you're able to project yourself and be him and understand that your friend like you keep thinking of your best friend that's made a mistake. >> Of course. >> I think Gigi is actually really likable like that I think that was done so well. I'm actually curious because I know that you got I remember you posting an Instagram story or something about how much backlash you got for having characters who were cheating and how having characters in a book cheating is essentially the way that people act is like worse than murder. With like approaching this book was that kind of like did you just want to do it again almost not like out of spite but like a challenge? >> Well, the way I always talk about it is as follows. I heard someone like Sting talking to someone like Oprah. I'm not exactly sure it was the two of them. It was it let's but let's say for the sake of argument it was them. And Sting says to Oprah, "There are two kinds of songs. The first song is I love you and that's a good song. The second song is I love you but you love someone else and that's a better song." >> Totally. >> also a better book. It is a way better book um if there is drama. Right? And it is I I find it when I'm reading like as soon as something is going on like I want to like turn the pages and so that's why I write about infidelity a lot because I don't have that many tools at my at my you know, disposal to write a beach book. You know what I mean? It's it's absolutely um it's pivotal that I have the tool of adultery because people are instantly like, "Oh my god, something Someone's doing something bad. I'm now super invested cuz you want to find out what happens." >> Calling all serial hobbyist, host, homebodies, readers, if any of these things apply to you, this is for you. If y'all don't know, I'm the founder of Friend of Mine, a home and hobby brand. I'm on a mission to bring people together through the home and hobbies. We have recipe journals to keep your favorite recipes all in one place to have and pass down one day, conversation cards for your next dinner party or bachelor night, nightcap cards for your next date night. We even have family cards for your next family dinner. Then, of course, we have our needlepoint products that you guys can add to your stash, gardening accessories when you need some extra peace and the cutest Kindle cases that you've ever seen. 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I got that home impression kit. I was so impressed by the app. I was also just so impressed by like checking with the doctor. It's so user-friendly. I wish that this had always been a thing. Okay. Listeners of our show will get an additional 35% discount when they go to smileset.com/houseguests. With this discount, you can get the smile of your dreams for just under 1,200 bucks. That's insane. Go to smileset.com/houseguests to get started. smileset.com/houseguests. >> Something I really like about this book as well, amongst all of the women, is I love reading about a woman over really like over the age of like 40, because I feel like so often, especially just like in Hollywood and shows and stuff, it's like so boring. Like I love that who's flawed and not always likable. >> Yeah. >> Like uh a good example of this, she's in her 70s, but it would be the correspondent, like that main character. Very unlikable, but I found her to be there's some sort of it's like a little bit like endearing. There's something about her that you feel connected to. >> And I think with all of these characters, like this weekend really kind of like breaks apart, you know, like their identities, and they kind of there's all like some sort of solution at the end, and it's like a really beautiful wholesome like kind of like full circle moment, but I really liked how like my favorite character is June. Like I really like how she just kind of like doesn't give a Like she's just going to do whatever she wants to do, and is flawed, and maybe isn't the most like, you know, PC person, isn't exactly who everyone else wants her to be, but that's just who she is and I like that. >> Yeah, I mean she's been a woman in a man's business. So that's like she has to be tough and I think she's shook that she is getting cancelled for expressing what a lot of people my age >> Yeah. >> would express, which is that, you know, we didn't have the luxury of safe spaces or saying that we're triggered and need to take a minute. Like we didn't have any of that. We had to do you know, our parents left us to just raise ourselves and we didn't have the internet so we didn't know what anyone else was doing except for in the movies. So we would go we would go to the movies. We'd watch Molly Ringwald in 16 Candles. Like that was how we viewed American high school. Like we'd watch Ferris Bueller. Like that those were but we didn't have the internet so we knew what everybody else was doing. We had to sort of figure it out by ourselves and so Drew Ann is tough on Posey as I feel like a lot of people my age would be and she gets called on it cuz it's just not the way the world works anymore. >> Yeah, totally. I think I love this whole storyline with her specifically. I think it's so funny because I am Gen Z. I'm like thank you very much. I'm like literally one year on the cusp. I'm like no guys, I'm so Gen Z. But I really like it cuz I think of course most of the conversation around mental health is a positive thing, but there's of course things that are going to be, you know, using it to their advantage. Also I being like a public person who's like putting my life online, of course there's you see cancellations, you know people who've been cancelled. >> And so often it is not actually what you think it is and you know those people and they're amazing. The people who like it's just when you were have more context from behind the scenes, like that's actually not even what happened. This is really messed up. So I think it was cool to see it in a like in a like story. >> Yeah. >> It felt exactly >> It was just It felt timely, right? Cuz you're like okay. >> and satisfying. >> Yeah, cuz you're like okay, this could so easily happen. Somebody's just saying what they think and they get caught on film. >> Like her kids. >> And the internet just takes it and decides what it is. And you there's no room for conversation around that. >> Right. >> Something I think you did so, so, so well in this book was it like I was saying but before I went to this book, I mean I knew I would love it because it was your book, but like normally I don't want to hear about like I am you know, God forbid I'm an influencer on this island, but like I don't want to hear or like read about influencers in general. >> Right. >> Or like you know when you're watching a movie and there's like like probably like 10 years ago all of a sudden there's like a tweet on the screen. >> Yeah. >> Like that was never what I liked. And you did such an amazing job to where and of course like this is not shocking. This was never going to be an issue with you. But you did such an amazing job having like a food blogger and like an influencer >> Yeah. >> be the center cuz nothing about it in the book and also I mean in the show, nothing about it feels corny. Like how did you achieve that? >> I don't really know. I originally what was I Hollis was something else. She was sort of like a lifestyle guru or like a self-help person and then I'm like this is not working. It wasn't working. And I love to cook. And all of my other books as you know have like very good food in them. And so I thought I'm just going to it. I'm just going to make her a food. I'm going to make her a food blogger cuz that's that was a space where I felt comfortable. And as soon as I did that the book really came together cuz then I'm like, okay and now of course then she's going to throw this fantastic weekend for her friends and that you know, food is going to be at the center of it and I love to like food is my love language. My children will tell you like I cook for them all the time. As a way of saying I love you and I'm feeding you and I'm taking care of you and that's the same for Hollis. And so once I figured out that she was going to be a food blogger, it was super easy. And then I made her the food blogger that I would be if I were a food blogger. Which I am not. But >> I love that so much. >> Yeah. >> Were there any like cancellations that you were watching during the time of writing this book or was it just kind of the overall feeling? >> question. And the thing is is that there probably were and I don't remember because it goes so quickly and then that person I know cuz then it's >> Wallen had gotten into some serious trouble. Like the serious serious trouble. >> That was right around the time I was writing this. And I can remember saying there were I know a guy that's in country that's in the business of country music and he said, "Oh, he'll be back. He'll be back." And I thought, "There is no way he's coming back from this." And sure enough >> Sure enough. >> Sure enough. And so nothing is insurmountable. I guess that's what the the whole idea of being canceled by the internet is so interesting to me. >> It is cuz it's in that space it's your your boss is almost like just the public. >> Right. >> Your boss is the public. And also you don't know them and it feels like a mob but they don't know each other. >> Yeah. >> So >> And they're the loudest. >> Yeah. >> like overall I think it's interesting too with Hollis because she feels like in this book she's kind of like lost her identity cuz she's lost her husband. >> Yeah. >> And then she in the book has a much worse relationship with her daughter at that time. >> So it's just interesting because then watching that she's going down Dorian feels I don't know. It's just like it's a cool like juxtaposition to watch where I feel like everyone's like figuring it out but in the background Like I'm thinking about if I'm during this I'm like freaking the I'm not like the chicken box crying. Like I you know what I mean? Like I'm not doing well. >> Regina Hall really played it she played it a lot tougher than Dorian is in the book. And I think in the book Dorian is very upset because her identity is her career. Totally. Right? So if your identity is your career and your career is in danger it's very similar to being Hollis where you're a mom and a housewife and your husband dies. and then who are you right then and then your daughter is not speaking to you so then who are you right so they both sort of feel I mean you're right I have not thought of it this way before but they're both like at at a loss cuz they're like okay my this is thing that's central to my identity is under attack and has been you know damaged they're like fish out of water like they don't know what to do and then naturally like you're going to kind of flip out on each other and then there's so much with I'm curious with when you write a book and then it goes on to be produced into you know TV shows movies whatever it is and there's changes that are made are there specific changes that were made in this that were hard for you like is it difficult at the beginning does it get easier or you just not care so my philosophy with adaptation is I love the word adaptation because I believe in it and I watch a lot of prestige TV and I've seen things that have been adapted again the internet has their opinions I saw a friend of mine novelist who had a show come out this year and the internet was was not very nice about it and I felt bad cuz I was like you know I don't know [snorts] there are a lot of ways to adapt a show my philosophy has always been TV is a different form of art a lot of people made noise with the perfect couple cuz they did change the perfect couple a lot from the book because Netflix wanted a six episode murder mystery my novel has a lot of love story in it right there's two relationships going on and that are two love triangles going on and neither of them got any airtime in the show and I think people were upset about that but it was a six episode murder mystery so that's what they got and that didn't bother me at all I'm like people can read the perfect couple book and they can get things that I wrote and that's it did not change the book five star weekend is closer a lot closer to the source material there was nothing that they changed that made me upset. I thought all the changes were appropriate and beneficial for a TV show. >> Yeah, cuz also you can I mean Well, I'm sure you love that everyone always likes the book better. >> Yeah, but you can't you can't directly >> You can't cuz the book is what you want it to be when you're reading it. >> Right. Yeah, the show would suck if you just completely just like directly translated it to. It's just not going to work. >> I also think it would have been tough for people to like empathize with Caroline. I think on a screen. Like in a book and as someone who's like dealt with grief and knows grief deeply, like I completely understand and that makes sense and I feel like in a book that translates so well and it's like yeah, obviously she's going through a lot. She's lost her father. She's a teenager got like that is already a tough time, but I'm sure like you know, in a in a show you're less connected typically than you are with a book cuz it's just you in that book. So I feel like people have like a little bit less empathy when it comes to shows. So I feel like that was probably a good call to not make you just like hate the character. >> Yeah, exactly. >> You know what I mean? >> Yeah, it is their their relationship Hollis and Caroline's relationship is a lot more complex. They did change and I thought this was so genius because in the book Dylan is Tatum's son and he has a child with Aubrey who is like the baby mama and she's a real in the book. But they changed it so that Aubrey was Tatum's daughter so that Hollis and Tatum have daughters and then and then Tatum and Aubrey and Dylan are still involved in a love triangle, but it echoes what's happening in the in the mom's world. So I just thought that was so brilliant. >> I think that's really cool. I really like that aspect. Um what was it like with Jennifer Garner? Like could you even like imagine like if you were to do your perfect cast? I actually truly think this is the best casting ever. I would I don't even know how I could ever if I'm you like dream up of a better Oh my god. >> a great cast. And the wonderful thing about it, I went out for the table read in early June of last year. So, June of '25, I fly out to LA for the table read. And I meet Jennifer Garner, I meet Chloe Sevigny, I meet Regina Hall, I meet Gemma Chan. D'Arcy Carden is not even cast yet. And those four were in the van, we're driving around to look at the sets. They do They are not speaking because they do not know each other. Somewhere in my head, and I don't know if you feel this way, I think all famous people know each other. In fact, they don't. They do not know each other. They had never met. They were like chit-chatting a little bit, asking each other like very like small talk questions. And I It occurred to me as I was saying them, I'm like, they don't know They don't know each other. Fast forward to September when they've they're coming to Nantucket and um they all came to my house I had a party at my house they all came to my house and they were the best of friends. >> I love that. >> Because over the summer they had bonded so much. They now have a group chat. They're so excited about season 2. They absolutely became actual close friends. Because they spent all that time together. So, it was like a weird mirroring of the show because they all sort of bond over the course of the weekend and over the course of filming the show, they all became friends. >> So cool. How like involved are you in the show? >> Um so, I did not write any of the show. Becca Brunstetter wrote it. She's a genius. She would ask questions. I don't know, she'd text me let's say two or three times a week with questions very specific to Nantucket, which is my expert area of expertise and I wanted it done correctly. So, she would ask me like, "Okay, where the scene where Caroline goes down and she bumps into Dylan and he's cleaning the boat like she needed help. Like where would this take place? I'm like, "Oh, the boat basin." Is it close to town? Yes, it's right there at the edge of town. Like yes, it's in town essentially. So, like those kind of questions. Um and then I went to the table read. I went they filmed here for 30 days. I was on tour for 2 weeks of it. So, I was here for 2 weeks. I went to set a bunch. Had everyone over to my house. Was there when they wrapped uh wrapped it up. Went for drinks with Jen Garner after they wrapped. She is everything you want her to be. I have what you want her to be is what she is. She is the coolest, nicest, most wholesome, but she is not um like a Pollyanna. Like she's a real person and she will tell you real things if you're in her confidence. >> I feel like she is probably the most likable person on this planet. >> Yes. Like her and Keke Palmer. >> Yes. >> Like the two most likable people that have ever existed. >> Yes. >> Like she just seems absolutely incredible. When you were going into this with casting, like who were you picturing as Hollis? >> I I didn't really know. I don't like to do that because I'll end up disappointed. So, I think >> this one. >> think we thought like maybe Laura Linney would do it and then when they called, they said we're going to ask Jen Garner. I'm like, "Of course you are cuz she already has a fake cooking show." This is like so her. I almost thought she wouldn't do it because she would be afraid of being typecast cuz it's so she does have her like pretend cooking show and you know, her children at home and her it so I thought, "Oh, she might not want to do it cuz it's like too close to her actual person." But what she said to me was, "If anybody else had taken this, I would have been so upset and jealous." I was like, "Okay." >> That's just so amazing. >> She wanted it. Yeah. >> She did so I mean, seriously, did so >> Yeah. >> amazing. >> Yes. And very likable on the screen. Unbelievable. Like she's just the best. What can you say if anything about season 2? Like Or maybe like where were you when you found out season 2 was happening? >> I was on the beach and I got a text from the producers and they said, "Ellen, we're getting a season 2." This was a couple weeks ago and I was so excited. I can tell you this, it will not be filmed on Nantucket. They are not coming to Nantucket. They are going a la White Lotus somewhere else. Um there has been discussion about Greece. There's been discussion about France. It will be on a cruise ship, part of it, most of it, I think. And then I said to the screenwriter, "You have to do Love Boat jokes." And she's she's she's younger than me. She's like, "Oh, I was going to do Titanic jokes." So then I'm like, "Okay, yes. Let's do Titanic Let's have Brooke on the masthead at the end of the yacht with her arms out." And I go, "And we'll we'll license My Heart Will Go On." And we'll have Brooke like doing her moment. [snorts] >> That's perfect. >> the king of the world moment. AND WE WERE DYING LAUGHING. WE'RE LIKE, "We have to do it." Yeah, so they're going to take a trip together. There will be a fifth star coming I think Gigi may or may not appear. I think Becca would like her to sort of have been I don't know how you can reasonably do this have her bump into them. But they will bring in a fifth another fifth star who will be another actress. And I'm sure it'll be somebody fan- fantastic. >> Well, especially after this I mean this series is everywhere. It is truly everywhere. I also love Brooke and she like she is just so good. Like all you do such an amazing job of not just I think what's cool not just like world building. I love an author who just writes. Of course you have books outside of Nantucket. But like who you are unique to me in the sense of like all of them most of them are on Nantucket. And then I like that you have like Constance. And people don't necessarily pick up on it unless they read like a multiple of them. So I think that that is so cool. It's almost it's a weird comparison, but in a way like in a lot of her fiction that I read, I don't feel like it's like super world-building cuz I don't read fantasy, but in a weird way it kind of like resembles the world-building in fantasy because Nantucket is a character. Like Nantucket is yeah. >> Yeah. You're correct. Um William Faulkner has like a county that he writes about in Mississippi and it's a lot like that. So his county in Mississippi it's has an unpronounceable name and all of his novels and characters take place but you wouldn't even know it unless you read them all. >> Totally. >> You know what I mean? And that's the same like you said like there's the police chief and there's Fast Eddie and Blancharin and the you know, characters that reappear in other books, but you don't they're sideways novels so you don't have to read them in any particular order. Um but Blancharin appears in The Five-Star Weekend. >> Blancharin's my favorite. >> Yeah, she's so funny. >> She is something else. She really really is. >> sister. >> It's so funny. >> It's so good. Okay, so I have some rapid-fire reading questions for you. >> it. >> All right. What is a book outside of your own that you believe every person on this earth should read? >> What is the answer to that? So I would say What is the answer to that? I'm going to go with one of my favorite novels of all time by Ann Patchett is Bel Canto. And I would say everybody it's a it's about it it's about a hostage situation in Peru. It is so that does not make it sound good. It is so good. That that would be my choice. >> That's on my TBR and I really want to read it. >> Oh my god. Everybody's reading Whistler. Everybody's reading, you know, The Dutch House, whatever. Her best novel is Bel Canto. It is amazing. >> I can't wait to read them. Which book of yours was the hardest for you to write and why? >> The book for me that was the hardest was Silver Girl. This book came out in 2011. It went through six revisions. So when I turn it in to my editor, I normally turn it into my editor at Halloween. This is the summer books. I turn it in at Halloween. She would a week later, at the beginning of November, get me my revisions, and then I would spend 6 weeks revising. And for that revising, historically, I had gone to Boston cuz I had to get out of my house, away from my kids, cuz it was such intense work. That particular book went into six revisions. Now, that book is a fictionalized account of like a Ruth Madoff character. So, a woman who whose husband has created is the biggest uh financial criminal in history, and she's been outcast, and she's got one friend left, which is her friend from preschool, who lives here on Nantucket, and she comes to Nantucket to sort of hide. And making her likable, sympathetic, was very hard, and took six revisions that went over Christmas. So, I missed Christmas with my kids. I was supposed to go to my mom's, and my my then husband took my kids down to my mother's, and I stayed home and worked. >> You got to do what you got to do. It was hard. >> Yeah. >> I was watching a bunch of videos this week cuz of all the cases that are happening, and they were talking about how like lawyers were giving accounts of times that they've had to make judges who make obviously far less like defending their clients who are billionaires to these judges, and giving all of these accounts to them, and how the judges are like, "Okay, sorry, you lost $100,000. I have nothing." And I feel like that's almost an author trying to make like a character who's done something so wrong or so quote out of touch likable. >> Yeah. It's >> It's very hard. >> Hard thing to do. Um what has been your favorite 2026 read? >> My favorite 2026 read is a book called This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman. It Allegra Goodman is was I heard of her, and I think I probably read a book of hers 10 or 20 years ago, 10 or 20, 10 or 15 years ago. Um but I hadn't read anything recently. So, she wrote the book Sam. Then she wrote Isola, and then she wrote this and which are so vastly different from each other and then from the book that I'm going to tell you which I love so much, which is called This is Not About Us. It is connected stories about a family with three sisters they're in their 70s and two of them do not talk to the third and then one of them dies and it's it's just connected fam- family stories. Each one is so beautifully written and you feel like a detective cuz you're like, okay, wait, whose point of view is the story from and how do they connect to the rest of the stories? It's amazing. It's amazing. It is amazing. >> All right, last question. What is a book trope that you cannot get behind? >> What is a book trope that I cannot get behind? Like what would I never write about? >> Or read. It could be either or. >> Or read. I mean, I'm pretty open-minded, so I'm going to say I don't have any that I would that I would not not get behind and I feel I feel that if you are talented, like my number one thing that I'm looking for when I'm reading is excellent writing. I just picked up a brand new book. I finished a book I was reading this afternoon and right before I came here, I picked up the book that I'm going to read next and I read the first paragraph and there were two lines that were so brilliant. Like I thought, this I am in good hands with this writer. I doesn't matter what happens in the rest of the book. Like I know the writing is going to be excellent. So, I think you can take it's called The New People. >> Okay. >> And it just came out this summer and um it's about a uh a woman and her wife and they move into a house and it turns out there are people living upstairs. I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm only on the first page, but I could tell from the first paragraph, I'm like, this book is going to I'm going to like it because I can trust the writer cuz you can tell right away. Like, I think writing the first pages of a novel is almost impossible cuz you have to draw people in and and give them something to hang on to to keep them turning the pages. >> Totally. >> Right? It's hard. It's hard, but this book managed to do it. >> That's amazing. I love how open you are and that is why you're the queen of the beach read. >> Well, thank you. >> That's amazing. Okay, well, thank you so much. It's truly an honor and so full circle for me cuz truly, Nantucket is my favorite place ever and I really have you to thank for that. >> I'm I'm very humbled by that and thrilled. >> I made it my entire personality after my first trip. It's my style. No more crop tops, ballet flats, [laughter] polos. Like seriously, I was a new person when I got BACK TO TEXAS. >> THAT IS SO FUNNY. >> I was brand new. Okay, well, thank you so much. Um, where can they find you and keep up with everything going on? >> I'm sure. Yeah, I'm on Instagram @elinhilderbrand. That's probably the best place. Um, I'm on it every single day and I do read my DMs and I have a Facebook page that I ignore. But, sometimes has good information on it and is that it? Yeah, I think that's it. >> you post great book reviews, too. >> I do. I really read all the time and I love to post about the books that I If you see it on my Instagram, you know I actually organically loved it. >> How many books do you think you read a year? >> I think I read I think I read 75 books a year. >> Yeah. You're quick. >> I'm constantly reading. >> I love that. That's amazing. Okay, well, thank you. >> Thank you, Kenzie. Thank you, everyone. >> This is Elin. This is Elin. This is Elin. There's so many Elins all around. Um, I do want to announce our next book club pick, which is Into the Blue by Emma Brodie. Have you read it, Macy? >> No. >> [laughter] >> Macy did read a book this this week. >> Is this on? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, she's ch- hopping out a little. >> Our next book club book is Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. >> [laughter] >> I started it in February, finished in August, was stuck at 93% for months. Apparently it's a page-turner. Apparently not to me. >> It ended up being You got chills. I love that book. >> Yeah. It was pretty good. >> It's really good. >> reading Broken Country. >> You know what is the best Taylor Jenkins Reid book of all time? Atmosphere. Nothing compares. Holy >> Caroline, you should read that. >> Country >> to read that, yeah. >> Taylor Jenkins Reid? >> No. >> Oh. >> Seven Husbands is, yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> But I'm excited. I'm I'm going to read Broken Country >> because of you. >> Yes. >> I love this book talk with you. >> Let me know if you guys want to join. >> Yeah, and Macy wants to read The Hunger Games book for my club. Sunrise on the Reaping? >> I would love to. That one's really good. Listen to the audio. The audio book is incredible. >> Okay. >> There we go. >> Caroline said to listen to the audio book, so. >> Perfect. >> Going to go get ready for my segment. >> Yeah, okay. Love you guys. Bye.