# What Are You Reading Right Now?

An episode of [Best Life Pending with Steph De Sousa & Chrissy Hearn](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6806116018), 6 Oct 2026, 7:38.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/8a91b3ea-7269-45c7-af4a-b4b4000720d1/5a71d925-c3f8-46c8-8bc8-b4db0066ed38/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=e767cf02-fafa-4c28-b85a-b4b400072512

Chrissy and Steph swap their latest reads, from spicy romantasy and Harry Potter confessions to true crime thrillers, trad wives and the books they can’t put down. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: A Poche production. And action. I'm Chrissy Hearn.
[0:14] Speaker 2: And I am Steph D'Souza. And our podcast is Best
[0:18] Speaker 2: Life Fending. Do you want to be my wing woman?
[0:23] Speaker 1: Being nice to yourself.
[0:24] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[0:25] Speaker 1: Don't be so hard on yourself.
[0:26] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[0:27] Speaker 1: What are you reading? Are you a reader? Do you
[0:29] Speaker 1: like reading?
[0:30] Speaker 2: I don't like physically reading. But I'm an audible listener.
[0:37] Speaker 1: Okay. You like it in your ear.
[0:39] Speaker 2: I love it in my ear. I'm a mad podcast listener.
[0:41] Speaker 2: I listen to podcasts all the time. But when I'm
[0:45] Speaker 2: on a road trip, so if I'm driving, if I
[0:47] Speaker 2: don't have a podcast to listen to, I will have
[0:49] Speaker 2: an audio book on. So I listen. And I think
[0:52] Speaker 2: that's because when I was working as a chef, I
[0:55] Speaker 2: would just have an audio book or a podcast playing
[0:57] Speaker 2: in my ears all the time while I was chippity-chopping
[1:00] Speaker 2: and cooking and bustling away in the kitchen. And, yeah,
[1:03] Speaker 2: I just love that.
[1:04] Speaker 1: What's on your audio playlist at the moment? Have you
[1:06] Speaker 1: got anything happening?
[1:07] Speaker 2: Well, you gave me something this morning. I haven't started
[1:10] Speaker 2: it yet.
[1:10] Speaker 1: But I'm into it. I'm into this whole new genre.
[1:13] Speaker 1: It's probably been around for ages and I've just come
[1:15] Speaker 1: across it.
[1:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, which is?
[1:17] Speaker 1: What did you call it? Because I can never say it.
[1:18] Speaker 2: I can't remember.
[1:19] Speaker 1: Romantasy?
[1:20] Speaker 2: Romantasy. Romantasy. So it's a cross between romance and fantasy.
[1:25] Speaker 1: It's great. Yeah.
[1:27] Speaker 2: Well, I haven't listened to it yet, so I don't know.
[1:29] Speaker 2: So tell us a bit about it.
[1:31] Speaker 1: The one I'm reading right now, and I can't remember
[1:33] Speaker 1: it now, it's Sparrows or something.
[1:35] Speaker 2: Is that the one that you gave me? Do you
[1:36] Speaker 2: want me to look it up?
[1:37] Speaker 1: Yes, please, if you could look it up.
[1:38] Speaker 2: Yeah. This is one that you have already read, right?
[1:41] Speaker 1: Yes, I've read this.
[1:43] Speaker 2: Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry.
[1:46] Speaker 1: And it is fantastic. So this was my really first
[1:50] Speaker 1: kind of glimpse.
[1:50] Speaker 2: Introduction.
[1:51] Speaker 1: Introduction into this whole romantic kind of world. So think of.
[1:56] Speaker 1: Like the Game of Thrones with Spice.
[1:59] Speaker 2: I've not done the Game of Thrones.
[2:01] Speaker 1: Oh, you've not? Oh, God. Okay.
[2:03] Speaker 2: I've not done any fantasy.
[2:04] Speaker 1: Okay.
[2:05] Speaker 2: I'm not a fantasy girly.
[2:06] Speaker 1: Right. So no dragons, no wolves, no vampires, no nothing.
[2:11] Speaker 2: I haven't even watched Harry Potter.
[2:13] Speaker 1: Excuse me?
[2:14] Speaker 2: What? Yeah, I know.
[2:16] Speaker 1: Have you never watched Harry Potter? No, or read? It's
[2:19] Speaker 1: been 25 years, mate. I know.
[2:21] Speaker 2: It's the 25th anniversary. I've got no interest.
[2:23] Speaker 1: It's Harry Potter. I know. It's magic. I know.
[2:27] Speaker 2: I haven't either. Have you?
[2:29] Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
[2:30] Speaker 2: What am I doing here? It doesn't interest you. Yeah, no,
[2:33] Speaker 2: it doesn't interest me either. But I'm very open to
[2:36] Speaker 2: this romance to see.
[2:37] Speaker 1: Excuse me, I can't get off the Harry Potter thing. Oh, really?
[2:40] Speaker 1: It's been 25 years. You've had time.
[2:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, but I don't.
[2:43] Speaker 1: It's a cult following.
[2:45] Speaker 2: I don't care for it.
[2:46] Speaker 1: Ricardo and I watch it every year, start to finish.
[2:49] Speaker 1: Do you really? From one movie right through. It's our
[2:52] Speaker 1: Christmas little tradition.
[2:54] Speaker 2: Oh, really? Yeah. Absolutely. See, my Christmas movies love actually.
[3:00] Speaker 2: What's yours, Katie?
[3:03] Speaker 1: Elf. Mine is Harry Potter. I can't believe that.
[3:05] Speaker 2: I've got a friend that's Die Hard. They watch Die
[3:06] Speaker 2: Hard every Christmas. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
[3:09] Speaker 1: Okay, so now that I've been completely blown out of
[3:11] Speaker 1: the water, shocked and horrified and mortified. So tell me
[3:14] Speaker 1: a bit of Romanticy. The Romanticy is great. For me,
[3:16] Speaker 1: I do like a little bit of the dragons and
[3:19] Speaker 1: the stuff, but I do like a little bit of
[3:21] Speaker 1: the spice. Now, I'm telling you now, right, the whole
[3:25] Speaker 1: genre with Romanticy.
[3:27] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[3:28] Speaker 1: There is like four, five-star spice. It is almost bordering
[3:33] Speaker 1: on pornographic. Not this book, though. So I don't know
[3:36] Speaker 1: if you'll be disappointed. No, no. It's got a little
[3:38] Speaker 1: bit of spice.
[3:39] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[3:40] Speaker 1: But there are books out there that are completely and
[3:44] Speaker 1: utterly porn-based.
[3:45] Speaker 2: Well, I've heard on other podcasts, actually, people talk about
[3:48] Speaker 2: fairy porn. Yes.
[3:50] Speaker 1: Well, this is this whole genre.
[3:51] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[3:51] Speaker 1: So what's the fairy porn? Well, I don't know.
[3:54] Speaker 2: I've never listened to it. But it's about, like, fairies.
[3:57] Speaker 2: And I guess it's romantic, I guess, but it's quite pornographic.
[4:02] Speaker 1: Yes.
[4:03] Speaker 2: Well, I don't know if it's pornographic. See, I can't
[4:05] Speaker 2: call it that because I've never listened to it or
[4:07] Speaker 2: read it.
[4:07] Speaker 1: It's a graphic thing.
[4:08] Speaker 2: Is it?
[4:09] Speaker 1: And I'm a prude.
[4:10] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[4:10] Speaker 1: Take me out. I can't potentially talk about anything.
[4:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, which is why I'm surprised you're into this.
[4:16] Speaker 1: But I don't mind the book. Okay. I do not mind.
[4:20] Speaker 2: Power to you, sister.
[4:21] Speaker 1: Power to you. Thank you very much. So let me
[4:24] Speaker 1: know if you've enjoyed that one.
[4:26] Speaker 2: I'll get back to you.
[4:27] Speaker 1: Are you a reader, Katie? Yeah. What do you like
[4:29] Speaker 1: to read? Oh, here we go. Yes, go on.
[4:33] Speaker 2: Mine's like trashy beach reads, easy reads that I don't
[4:36] Speaker 2: have to think about or autobiographies. And at the moment
[4:40] Speaker 2: I'm reading Dorit Kemsley. Who's that?
[4:43] Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
[4:44] Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. So it's kind of a little bit of
[4:47] Speaker 2: trash but a little bit of reality kind of thing.
[4:50] Speaker 2: There'll be no guessing for me what I like to read.
[4:53] Speaker 1: Cookbooks. No.
[4:55] Speaker 2: No, I do like cookbooks but that's not what I read.
[4:58] Speaker 1: I love crime. Oh, funny that.
[5:00] Speaker 2: I love crime. I love true crime. Like if I'm
[5:02] Speaker 2: listening to anything, I'm listening to true crime usually. But
[5:05] Speaker 2: I love, Freda McFadden is my current obsession. I love
[5:09] Speaker 2: all of her books and there's always a fabulous twist
[5:12] Speaker 2: at the end.
[5:13] Speaker 1: I haven't read any of hers. Oh, really?
[5:15] Speaker 2: It's always some kind of, it's almost a bit of
[5:17] Speaker 2: a psychological thriller, I want to say. Yeah. It's not
[5:21] Speaker 2: too deep. There's nothing too deep. It's no stabby stabby.
[5:24] Speaker 2: Or anything, like there's nothing graphic in there.
[5:26] Speaker 1: No, I don't mind a little thriller.
[5:27] Speaker 2: Nothing good or anything, but it's definitely a thriller.
[5:30] Speaker 1: One to pick up is Christian White. He's an Australian author.
[5:34] Speaker 1: He's done some really good books. Love his writing. He's
[5:38] Speaker 1: very good. If you can get your hands on some
[5:39] Speaker 1: of his, it's good.
[5:41] Speaker 2: I read one recently, which was called Sally Hepworth is
[5:45] Speaker 2: the author.
[5:46] Speaker 1: Yes.
[5:46] Speaker 2: And I love Sally Hepworth. Mad Mabel.
[5:49] Speaker 1: That was a top book.
[5:50] Speaker 2: Did you read it?
[5:50] Speaker 1: I love that book. That actually needs to be put
[5:53] Speaker 1: into a movie. I think that would be a top movie. Oh,
[5:56] Speaker 1: I think that would be a fabulous movie.
[5:57] Speaker 2: And actually, that was a really interesting read, I think,
[6:00] Speaker 2: for women in our stage of life because... There was
[6:03] Speaker 2: lots of references back, wasn't there? And lots of food
[6:06] Speaker 2: for thought in that book. Yeah. Yeah, no, I loved it.
[6:09] Speaker 1: One book I've really enjoyed this year, and it's been
[6:11] Speaker 1: like TikTok viral, it's called Yesteryear.
[6:15] Speaker 2: Oh, I haven't read it, but I want to. Yeah.
[6:18] Speaker 1: Do you know anything about what it's about?
[6:19] Speaker 2: Yeah, but tell us.
[6:20] Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's about the trad wife, which I didn't
[6:23] Speaker 1: even know was a thing. I thought... What's Tradwife?
[6:25] Speaker 2: I think being in the cooking content creation space, I
[6:29] Speaker 2: know a bit about Tradwife-y stuff.
[6:31] Speaker 1: So Tradwife is a traditional wife who's at home cooking, cleaning,
[6:35] Speaker 1: raising the kids.
[6:36] Speaker 2: Looking after the homestead.
[6:37] Speaker 1: Looking after the homestead.
[6:39] Speaker 2: By choice.
[6:40] Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely.
[6:41] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[6:42] Speaker 1: And I kind of think it's loosely based on a
[6:44] Speaker 1: couple of creators that are already on the socials. Yeah.
[6:48] Speaker 1: Very good.
[6:49] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[6:49] Speaker 1: Really? Huge twist.
[6:51] Speaker 2: So the theory is this person goes back in time,
[6:54] Speaker 2: is that right? They're a trad wife on the socials,
[6:58] Speaker 2: but they actually go back in time and are a
[7:02] Speaker 2: real trad wife. I don't know how they're transported or whatever,
[7:05] Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff. Logistically, I've got no clue,
[7:07] Speaker 2: but that's the premise, right?
[7:08] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
[7:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, I must read that.
[7:10] Speaker 1: Some are in two minds about it. Some have said,
[7:13] Speaker 1: great book, something that we've not quite had before. Others
[7:16] Speaker 1: have thought, yeah, nah, kind of misses the premise a
[7:19] Speaker 1: little bit, kind of doesn't hit the spot. I loved it.
[7:23] Speaker 1: It has a couple of questions unanswered. Okay. So I
[7:26] Speaker 1: was hoping they could potentially, but you never know. But
[7:29] Speaker 1: it was good. Try picking that one up. Pop that
[7:31] Speaker 1: in your ear. I reckon you'll love it.
[7:33] Speaker 2: All right. Well, I've got to try my... Romanticy first.
[7:36] Speaker 1: Oh my God, you've got 19 hours of that one.
[7:38] Speaker 1: Oh my Lord, it's a long book.

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