Danny Feekes & Suzanne Skyvara, GOODREADS TEAM
[0:08]Hi, I'm Zivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast,
[0:11]Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Thanks so much for listening to my podcast.
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[0:53]Today's episode is a bit of a departure, but I'm really, really excited about it,
[0:56]and I think it'll be really entertaining and fun for you to listen to, at least I hope so.
[1:00]You can let me know afterwards if you want. But I'm interviewing two of the most important people
[1:06]at Goodreads, and they'll tell you more about it if you don't know already about Goodreads,
[1:09]but I'm assuming that many of you, as book lovers, know about this giant site for book recommendations
[1:17]where you can follow your friends' picks and all the rest. Danny Fakes is the editorial director
[1:22]at Goodreads, and in addition to that, has written many of his own articles. He does a lot of
[1:27]the book picks for the site and even wrote an article about doing naked yoga, which I kind of
[1:34]poked fun at him about during the episode, so you'll hear about that. That was not for Goodreads,
[1:38]by the way. That was at a former site that he worked at. And then Suzanne Skivara is the VP of
[1:43]Marketing and Editorial for Goodreads, and she has also written many roundups of
[1:47]articles and books in the past specifically related to career books for women, so there are tons
[1:53]of lists of hers floating about. So not only are they Goodreads execs, but they are hardcore book lovers
[2:00]and just want to help promote books and authors in the same way that I do. So we all got together
[2:05]for a chat and they gave some inside scoop into what is popular in Goodreads for this summer
[2:11]and what their own picks are and all the rest. So I hope you enjoy our conversation. And if you
[2:16]haven't already checked out Goodreads, go to Goodreads.com and you can check it out. Welcome,
[2:20]Suzanne and Danny to momstone, how time to read books. Thank you. Thank you. We're excited to be here.
[2:26]We've been listening and looking at your show for a while now, so it's great to do this.
[2:30]Thank you for having us. So Suzanne Skivara is the VP of Marketing and Editorial for Goodreads,
[2:36]and Danny Fakes is the Managing Editor there, and it's such a pleasure to be able to talk books
[2:42]with people from Goodreads, which I know there are people out there who might not know what it is,
[2:46]for those like two people, I want you to explain it, but for everyone else, this is such a thrill
[2:51]because Goodreads is just like the be-all-end-all for book lovers. So maybe one of you could
[2:56]talk a little about what Goodreads is, and then we'll talk about you both individually and
[3:00]some of our shared book-book love. I love that you have that reaction about Goodreads,
[3:05]because every day on that I'll meet people when I'm commuting or something. One time I was
[3:09]wearing a Goodreads jacket, and he was like, how do I get one of those? I was like, you have to
[3:13]work there. I love working at Goodreads. It's a dream come true. So for those of you who haven't
[3:19]heard what Goodreads is, it's the world's largest community of readers. We have 105 million
[3:24]members around the world, and our mission is to help people discover books they love and get more
[3:30]out of reading. And so if you're looking to discover more books to read, because it's so hard,
[3:36]because there's millions of books out there, so we can help you go through all of that to find a
[3:40]a book that's actually going to really fit you, your taste, your mood, and help you keep track
[3:44]of what your reading, because it's really, really satisfying to, you know, it's kind of a virtual
[3:48]way of that looking back at the bookcase and going, oh yes, I remember where I was when I read
[3:52]that book, and oh wow, look how many books I've read this year. So fantastic place, and even better,
[3:58]it's free to use. Oh, he's a perk. But how long have both of you been with Goodreads?
[4:04]I've been with Goodreads for seven years, which I love. So when I first was getting to know it,
[4:09]I was a consultant for a year before that. So when I was first getting to know Goodreads,
[4:12]there were five million members. So it's been really fun seeing it grow and change, and Danny,
[4:17]how long have you been with this? I've been at Goodreads for four years this month, so I'm celebrating
[4:22]my anniversary, and I'm very excited. I'm definitely going to pop some champagne.
[4:25]Happy anniversary, awesome! You know, champagne emojis all around.
[4:30]So Danny and Suzanne also write, they don't just read as most writers that write and most
[4:37]readers write, and everybody's writing and reading. And I got a chance to read some of your essays
[4:42]before we delve into other books you love, and I'm, I, Danny, your essay on New at Yoga. Oh my gosh.
[4:51]Like, I couldn't figure out if I should blush or laugh or both. It was amazing.
[4:57]So you had this one quote in it too, and you said, I found myself getting bored, which is not a
[5:03]thing that happens often for a gay man in a room full of naked men. That was my favorite line.
[5:09]Okay, so just tell us briefly. What is, what is it like to do new to yoga? How did you even get
[5:18]the courage to even try or the insanity to even try that? So I was working for this health and
[5:25]fitness site that no longer exists, but it was called Sprite, and we knew that our audience would
[5:31]love this. Like, you know, getting out of your comfort zone, trying something new, and I had been on
[5:38]meetup.com and found this class, and I was like, I should do this and do it for the site and the
[5:43]greater good and for traffic and page views. So I took one for the team. I found a class on meetup.com,
[5:49]and I went, and yes, I disrobed immediately and got down to business, and it was both shocking and
[5:58]not shocking. Like, you really get into the like class pretty quickly, and it becomes very normal,
[6:05]but yeah, as you read in the article, you know, you don't want mirrors in that class.
[6:15]I have a newfound respect for your journalistic integrity for having done that.
[6:22]That's pretty impressive. I mean, once I went and got a facial for an assignment and I felt like
[6:26]that was a big deal, so anyway. Well, it's great just to even have a background of you too.
[6:32]It's sort of more its individuals because, you know, every doesn't matter what job you have,
[6:36]everybody comes to it with their own backgrounds, and I love to get to know the people behind
[6:40]every job and every book and all the rest. But I'm excited to talk to you both about books, because,
[6:46]you know, you're in such an interesting position having an inside glimpse into the world of what
[6:51]everyone's recommending and what everyone's reading. So share with us some of that inside information.
[6:56]Like, what are people reading right now? What is, what are some of the trends? What do you think
[6:59]is going to go on? What are you seeing? Well, just wanting to say again, we love talking
[7:04]books. So this is such a thrill for us. Goodreads. We're seeing a ton of really interesting trends
[7:09]right now. Obviously, we're in an unprecedented time. So we're seeing our audience really
[7:14]gravitate to a few things. One thing that we're seeing is a lot of rereading. So people are
[7:18]gravitating towards the classics, Jane Austen, things like that that are maybe more comfort food
[7:25]for them, you know, slipping into something familiar. We're also seeing people really gravitate
[7:30]towards books that provide some sort of escape. So whether that's kind of like a beach read,
[7:35]if they can actually make it to the beach, or something more in the horror genre that provides
[7:40]a fright that's not their own right now, we're seeing a lot of that. Another interesting trend
[7:45]that we've been seeing for past, you know, few years is diversity in the romance and young adult
[7:50]categories. We're seeing a lot of diverse authors here, a lot of diverse characters here. This summer,
[7:56]the romance genre is really interesting with pair of wins, a lot of different shapes and colors,
[8:02]and we just always love the champion those books. How about you, Suzanne? What are some of the
[8:06]things that you're excited about or what that the users have been showing you that they're
[8:10]really excited about coming up? I think though, I always love to kind of champion the debut
[8:15]books and I think this season more than ever, debut authors have such a tough time. They've worked
[8:21]on these books for years. The plan is all out and then coronavirus hits and everything tanks and
[8:28]it's all just been such a hard, hard environment for them. So one debut that I'm really loving
[8:35]right now, I'm in the middle of it is Saving Ruby King by Katherine Adele West, which is coming
[8:41]out on June 16th and it's a story of a young woman who's determined to protect her best friend
[8:47]while a long buried secret threatens to unravel both families. It's set in the south side of Chicago
[8:53]and it's within the African-American community there and the one teenager, her mother dies and
[8:59]she's left a home at loan with her father who's very violent and was beating her mother and is also
[9:04]beating her. And then her best friend Layla is the daughter of a black pastor and she's trying
[9:11]to help Ruby but then her father who's a pastor of the church is saying stay away from that family
[9:17]leave that alone and the question is why. And what's really interesting is that the author is
[9:22]black and the daughter of a pastor and was raised on the south side of Chicago and she said that
[9:26]she's brought a lot of that experience to writing this book. So it's a really great debut that
[9:32]encouraged a lot of people to try out. Are there any debuts on your list, Danny? Yeah, actually
[9:37]kind of a common thread from what we were saying earlier people finding comfort in Jane Austen
[9:41]in the classics. One of our authors was having the same inclination when she was going through a hard
[9:46]time. So this is one of those stories where the author's story is just as fascinating as the actual
[9:51]novel. So Natalie Jenner is a debut author and she had actually written five books prior to this
[9:58]book. But what?
[10:00]I wasn't able to get any of them published.
[10:02]So she did what I think a lot of us want to do,
[10:04]which is open a bookstore, but as soon as she did,
[10:07]her husband was diagnosed with cancer.
[10:09]So they actually had a shutter of the bookstore
[10:11]as she took time to take care of him.
[10:13]And during that time, she really found comfort
[10:15]in the books of Jane Austen.
[10:17]And as he began to heal, she decided
[10:20]that she might want to write a book about this.
[10:22]So she discovered this Jane Austen,
[10:25]and the book is called The Jane Austen Society.
[10:27]She discovered Jane Austen Society
[10:29]that exists in England.
[10:31]And she revolved around the story
[10:33]about this group trying to save the Jane Austen
[10:36]estate, which is in their small town.
[10:39]And it really showcases this group
[10:41]as they try to heal from the wounds of World War II.
[10:44]And just, I think this is a really good book club pick.
[10:47]And especially for those people that love Jane Austen.
[10:50]So that one came out in May,
[10:52]and it's called The Jane Austen Society.
[10:54]I did a podcast with Natalie.
[10:56]So maybe I can do it in this episode notes
[10:58]and people can hear it after.
[11:00]Oh, fantastic.
[11:01]Other debut, that's popular on Goodreads,
[11:03]is also one that I know that you really liked,
[11:05]which is, if you're happy and you know it,
[11:07]by Laura Hankin,
[11:08]because you recommended that for Book of the Month Club
[11:11]pick in May, right?
[11:12]I did, I did.
[11:14]Good slipping there.
[11:16]Well, I actually chose it,
[11:17]and I got your take on it, so it was really nice.
[11:21]Yeah, I thought that was fun,
[11:22]especially, you know, I'm an uppery-side mom,
[11:24]and she made fun of basically everybody in my community.
[11:27]And that's okay, you know, it's always fun to laugh at.
[11:31]I mean, that's not what my life is like,
[11:32]or the people I'm friends with,
[11:34]but it was, anyway, it was a great story.
[11:35]And I interviewed Laura so long ago,
[11:38]I think it was in December,
[11:39]and we were like, how crazy that we're interviewing,
[11:42]that we're doing this so early, you know?
[11:43]Hope nothing bad happens.
[11:44]And now it's like, are you kidding me?
[11:47]I think of all the stuff that's gone on there,
[11:49]but yes, that is another great debut pick.
[11:51]What other books are you telling everybody about?
[11:53]Danny, I feel like you said you mentioned you were excited
[11:55]about Rotom earlier, tell me about that.
[11:57]Okay, yeah, so this is the book that I,
[12:00]it's for a very specific person,
[12:02]especially if you like her to set and build
[12:04]so she wrote prep and she wrote American wife,
[12:07]and American wife tells the tale of Laura Bush,
[12:10]but it's very veiled.
[12:11]And this one, we are definitely talking about Hillary Rodham,
[12:14]but not Hillary Rodham Clinton.
[12:16]The twist here is that she doesn't end up marrying Bill.
[12:20]She dates him, she means to Arkansas with him,
[12:22]but she doesn't end up marrying him.
[12:24]So we see her move to Chicago
[12:27]and start her own political career.
[12:30]And as she begins to kind of go through the ranks
[12:34]and potentially try to be president,
[12:38]you see Bill come back in a really interesting way,
[12:40]and you actually see Donald Trump come back
[12:42]in a really surprising twist that I won't ruin,
[12:45]but I inhaled this book in a way that I haven't
[12:48]inhaled a book in a really long time.
[12:51]I was on PTO, so caveat there.
[12:53]I did have time to inhale it,
[12:55]but I really recommend if you're a Hillary fan
[12:58]or just like kind of fan fiction,
[13:01]juicy gossipy goodness, I think you'll like this one.
[13:06]And Suzanne, when time stopped,
[13:08]tell me more about this book, I've heard so much about it,
[13:10]but have not really had.
[13:11]I'm so glad that you're hearing about it.
[13:13]So quick slide notes, and my husband is check,
[13:16]and my name in check would be Suzanne Oshki,
[13:19]which is one of my friends with her said,
[13:21]he said, that's Bond Girl, babe.
[13:23]And I'm like, that's why I'm going to change my name,
[13:25]I will take it.
[13:26]But then I know I'm not going to that anymore.
[13:27]But this book, I was initially attracted to it
[13:30]because it is set in Czechoslovakia in the Second World War,
[13:33]and I really hadn't read about that experience.
[13:37]It's a memoir, and it's called When Time Stopped,
[13:39]a memoir of my father's war and what remains
[13:41]by Ariana Neumann.
[13:43]And imagine that you are a young Jewish man
[13:48]in Prague, in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia,
[13:52]the Nazi rules have been gradually encroaching
[13:55]and restricting your life more and more.
[13:58]Your parents have been taken and sent away
[14:01]to Tödreissenstadt, which is an artsy concentration camp.
[14:04]And you know that it's closing in on you.
[14:07]You're going to be next.
[14:08]You're not going to be able to escape it any longer.
[14:10]What do you do?
[14:11]And Hans Neumann, this young Jewish man,
[14:14]decided that he would adopt a false identity,
[14:17]which is grounds for being shot in the spot, by the way.
[14:19]He would adopt a false identity, and he would go to Berlin,
[14:22]and he would live and work in Berlin
[14:24]in the belly of the beast of the Nazi,
[14:26]socialist and pirate public country.
[14:29]And he somehow miraculously survived.
[14:33]And he then goes to Venezuela after the war,
[14:36]and he ends up building an incredibly successful life.
[14:39]But he never talked about what happened to him
[14:42]before it back in Czechoslovakia.
[14:45]And so Ariana Neumann grew up,
[14:47]her father was 50 when she was born.
[14:49]And she grew up knowing that her father had nightmares at night,
[14:53]but never really knowing what his history was.
[14:56]And the one day she found a card with his face on it
[14:59]and that it was a different name
[15:02]and the Nazi stamp and everything on it.
[15:04]And she asked about it, but then it disappeared the next day.
[15:06]And he didn't want to talk about it or anything.
[15:08]And he never, ever wanted to talk about it.
[15:10]It was just so painful to him.
[15:13]But when he died, he left a box.
[15:15]He almost wanted that taken away,
[15:17]but thank God someone saved it,
[15:18]a box of the letters and the documents, et cetera.
[15:20]And so began this amazing detective story by Ariana
[15:23]to find out more about her father
[15:25]and what actually happened to her family.
[15:27]And it is an incredible story.
[15:30]I actually did it with my friends from my Australia days.
[15:33]We've created a non-line book club as a result of COVID-19.
[15:36]And I recommended this one and they loved it.
[15:40]They, I mean, loved it is the wrong word,
[15:42]but they were gripped by it.
[15:43]One of my friends said she read it the whole time
[15:45]with her heart in her throat.
[15:46]And it would definitely make a great book club selection.
[15:49]And it allows you to talk about
[15:51]how quickly freedom can be lost in a society,
[15:54]the extraordinary courage of women
[15:56]trying to protect their families,
[15:58]the risks they took trying to get food and supplies
[16:00]to each other in the different camps.
[16:02]And the relationships between fathers and daughters
[16:04]is a beautiful love letter.
[16:06]And Ariana is fantastic.
[16:07]We were lucky enough that I had gotten to know her
[16:10]and so I threw good reads.
[16:11]And so I invited her to join our book club on Zoom.
[16:13]And I said, 20 to 30 minutes and she was like,
[16:16]sure, and an hour and a quarter later,
[16:18]we're like, but one last question.
[16:19]She was amazing, absolutely amazing.
[16:22]So I'm glad you got it on your,
[16:23]that you know about it.
[16:24]I'd love to tip that over
[16:26]and to open that book up and start reading.
[16:29]Yes, I'm now putting, I have to reach out to her.
[16:32]I have my own virtual book club
[16:34]that I started during this pandemic,
[16:36]but I have been remiss and scheduling really anything
[16:39]that has to week out, which is really not good
[16:40]for my book club number.
[16:42]So these are great suggestions to add
[16:44]for the rest of the summers.
[16:45]So thank you for that.
[16:46]What about like great betreeds,
[16:48]sort of mindless, not mindless, that sounds negative,
[16:51]but great betreeds.
[16:52]Let's just leave it at that.
[16:53]Well, why don't we start with one that has the perfect name,
[16:56]which is actually betre.
[16:58]And it is probably on the more mindless end,
[17:01]but still with substance.
[17:03]This one is by Emily Henry.
[17:05]She's most known for Hawaii, but called a million genes.
[17:09]This was our second most anticipated book of May,
[17:12]right below the Hunger Games prequel.
[17:14]So people are really clamoring for this book
[17:16]in a way that we don't see romance type books pop ups
[17:19]in such a major way.
[17:21]So we're really excited about this one.
[17:23]This one revolves around a down on her luck romance writer,
[17:27]who's father passes away and at his funeral,
[17:30]she learns that he not only had a secret lover,
[17:33]but also a secret beach house.
[17:36]So she does what any down on her luck romance writer would do,
[17:38]and goes and lives there to get her next book written
[17:42]under deadline.
[17:43]But of course, when she gets there,
[17:45]she discovers that next door lives
[17:47]a literary fiction writer, male, cute, et cetera,
[17:52]but they're both suffering from writer's vlog.
[17:54]So they do the unthinkable, which is Switch genres,
[17:57]and she decides to write the great American book
[18:00]and he decides to write a romance book.
[18:03]And as they're doing it, hilarity, romance ensues,
[18:06]I'm reading this button right now.
[18:08]It's really fun, and I'm crossing my fingers
[18:11]for a happily ever after,
[18:12]because I think that's what we all need in the world right now.
[18:15]She was also on my podcast, Emily Henry.
[18:17]Nice.
[18:18]That one.
[18:20]Okay, so yeah, this one I chose for mums.
[18:23]It's, I was told it would get easier by Abby Waxman,
[18:26]who wrote the bookish life of Nina Hill,
[18:28]which was very popular on Goodreads last year.
[18:31]And the premise of it is let's face it,
[18:33]parenting teenagers is hard,
[18:36]and the college process is insane.
[18:37]I've just gone through it.
[18:38]My son's graduating from high school next week.
[18:41]And so the story is based on Jessica
[18:44]and her 16-year-old daughter, Emily,
[18:46]taking a week long tour of East Coast colleges.
[18:49]And each of them brings their own problems
[18:51]to that.
[18:52]Jessica is a successful lawyer,
[18:54]but she's actually just given notice to her job,
[18:56]because she just cannot stand dealing with the sexism
[18:59]of her boss any longer.
[19:01]And Emily, meanwhile, is trying to keep very secret
[19:04]and incident at school.
[19:05]There's a situation at school
[19:06]that she really doesn't want her mum to know about.
[19:08]Plus on top of that, there's the usual mum-door teenager daughter.
[19:11]How do we still talk to each other kind of complications?
[19:15]And it's told them that the perspective of the mothers
[19:17]and the daughters, you really get into side
[19:19]that inside their heads.
[19:20]And the author, Abby, is actually the mum
[19:22]of three teenage daughters.
[19:24]So the dialogue and the scenes are spot on.
[19:27]Several reviewers alike,
[19:29]were you spying on me?
[19:30]They absolutely relate to them.
[19:33]So it's hard being a teenager,
[19:35]but it's even harder being the mum of one.
[19:36]So this fun, witty, feel-good story
[19:40]is a great way to put things in perspective again.
[19:42]Abby was on my Instagram live show.
[19:44]And I have twins who are turning 13 in next week.
[19:48]So I feel like I need to give this to myself
[19:50]as a birthday present for their birthday.
[19:52]And I mean, I have it,
[19:54]but I have to consume it rapidly and to prepare.
[19:58]So I know we're also in the middle.
[20:00]of this sort of, you know, Black Lives Matter movement and amplifying Black voices. How is Good
[20:05]Reads approaching that? How are you helping with that? How are you supporting that effort?
[20:08]Yeah, so this week we actually put together an anti-racism blog post just giving our members
[20:14]and audience a list of books that they can turn to if they're wanting to learn more about this
[20:19]movement. Nonfiction is always a really great way to dive into things like this, but I think
[20:26]you know, create empathy and do a lot of good as well. So I'm so happy to see that our number one
[20:33]most anticipated book for June is actually the banishing half by Brit Bennett. So your audience
[20:40]might know Brit Bennett from her book from a few years ago called The Mothers. That is a brilliant
[20:45]book and was actually a recently optioned by Kerry Washington to make into a TV show or movie. So
[20:50]more to come on that but super exciting. This one is about two identical twin sisters who grew up
[20:56]in a small southern town and one presents more as white and the other twin sister actually is a little
[21:02]bit darker skin and as they escape they end up living kind of different lives. So one finds herself
[21:10]in California living as a white woman with a white husband and the other one actually ends up
[21:15]back in a small southern town living as a black woman and this story revolves around their
[21:21]you know growing up throughout the decades it starts in the 50s and in the 90s they both have
[21:26]daughters. So it's it concentrates on race relations, mother-daughter relations and I think it would
[21:32]be a really good topical fiction book if people are looking for that looking for that right now.
[21:37]And I'm so glad you asked about it Zibi as well because it's so important obviously and our first step
[21:44]we saw people asking us saying please please share a reading list so we're really happy to put
[21:49]together the anti-racist reading list and we focused only on black authors for that and then
[21:54]we'll be looking for more things that we can do with editorial. There's a great list from Black
[22:00]History Month where we have a fantastic list of fiction writers that we'll be resharing out
[22:05]and we'll be looking for more but as a company we were also asking ourselves what can we be doing
[22:10]and we're lucky enough at Goodreads that every two months we all get a free book perk and this
[22:15]month happens to be book perk month and so the leadership team we we decided that we would say
[22:20]still go ahead and pick whatever you want but we're going to give you an additional pick
[22:24]pick from one of our diversity books. We want to encourage discussion amongst all of our
[22:28]selves and all of us being engaging and learning on this topic and we want to be continuing to look
[22:33]for more ways to do more concrete ways of supporting black authors and also all authors of color as
[22:39]well. It's something that's really really important to us and we look for doing that in a multiple
[22:43]in multitude of ways. I mean the interesting thing about your platform is then you can actually go
[22:48]see if people are then reading those books. I feel like a lot of people are paying lip service
[22:52]to certain books right now but you'll be able to see if they're reading them because they'll post
[22:56]about them and they'll give them reviews and all the rest of the great stuff that they can do on
[23:00]Goodreads and put them in their year of books and I'm interested to see also some of the new
[23:05]titles that people are going to be finding as a result of your lists and other lists and
[23:09]all of us out of our Instagram of books maybe people weren't aware of so I think there's enormous
[23:14]potential. Absolutely and you're absolutely right there's the discovery and the intent first
[23:19]good intentions but then encouraging people to read but by seeing more people talking about books
[23:24]people like to be part of the zeitgeist is a wrong word to use with this particular thing that
[23:28]people like to be part of the conversation and so seeing more people talk about books and adding
[23:33]them and reading them just encourages you to go hang on a minute I want to be part of this too
[23:37]and read these books as well so yeah absolutely totally. So people who just want to part of the
[23:42]action see it's like an unintended benefit of people who want to just you know climb on for the
[23:47]right answer helping you society so that's great. I am just wondering one more thing you have this
[23:54]inside look into what makes people like certain books and you can see all of their past books
[23:59]trends and things like that so in addition to just the macro trends of what people are reading like
[24:04]have you figured out anything related to what makes people pick certain books like can you
[24:10]can you look across a certain user and see like you know why are these books so common and like
[24:16]what are people grasping for like any other like reading trends on more of a micro level and maybe
[24:22]maybe not maybe I'm just you know rambling here but I'm just curious what I mean you must have
[24:26]a million insights into reading behavior without the data you've collected so just share us like one
[24:31]or two crumbs of what you've learned. I was just going to say on the personal level because what
[24:36]you're talking about there is much more on the individual level where you're not going to get the
[24:40]trend trends that Danny started with but what we you're right what we do try and do there is actually
[24:45]I'll go back when we've done research with people I'll tell you the number one thing that we
[24:50]hear nearly everyone say which is I have this very unique taste in reading nobody else likes quite
[24:55]the same array of books that I like and then they say but I wish I could find someone else who's
[25:00]like me because if I see what they're reading and I trust their reading taste it's something that
[25:05]oh if you like it I'm going to like it then I'll follow it and so some people there's quite a few
[25:11]really great reviewers on Goodreads who've become very popular because people go yeah you're my
[25:16]taste I'm going to go for that you're going to broaden and widen my and help you also go out of
[25:22]all the books that I'm looking at oh if that one I'm going to read that one next but then we also
[25:26]have a recommendations engine we have an algorithm and so we actually look at with all the data
[25:31]and signals that you're telling us about what you like in books then we're able to start saying
[25:36]oh okay then you're probably going to like these books next it's something that we keep on
[25:40]working and improving on I think we've got a long way to go there I was actually just thinking
[25:44]about it this morning and wondering about the delights of AI and machine learning etc how we can
[25:48]start applying that but yeah we start we do we do definitely work to give you personalized
[25:55]content and recommendations and we do have so many of our members who get advanced reading
[26:00]copies and we have so many people that add books to their one to read shelf before books are
[26:05]published so I think we have a little bit of special sauce where we really can see anticipation
[26:11]that a lot of other sites that don't have access to so it's really exciting to be able to
[26:18]kind of re-bubble up and re-showcase these books that are coming out that we know that our
[26:22]audience at a large would would really respond to so hopefully we gave you a good taste of those
[26:27]today actually that is really fun for us because we do the most anticipated lists we use data
[26:33]for the editorial team doesn't do it by personal picks it's all about the data but last year
[26:38]towards the beginning of the year the editorial team was saying to me this book called The Silent
[26:43]Patient and it is off the charts in what's going on with the pre-publication reviews and want
[26:49]to read etc and so we could see that that one was going to hit the bestseller list before it
[26:53]actually did so sometimes we'll see such strong signals which is really fun to kind of see that data
[26:58]it's too bad there's no stock market for this to be our next business together
[27:02]keep hitting your businesses is there like the Hollywood exchange for books you know there definitely
[27:07]authors he's stuck I would buy right now then we would be it'd be insider trading though we have
[27:12]too much knowledge that's true that's true you would like corner that market okay fine well thank
[27:19]you Suzanne and Danny this has been so fun I feel like we could talk forever about different books
[27:22]so thank you for sharing some little nuggets about Goodreads behind the curtain of Goodreads and
[27:28]and all the rest and your own naked yoga experiences who knew we would be talking about that
[27:32]on a Goodreads call sorry to embarrass you so anyway thank you most for coming on momstone
[27:36]have time to read books thank you for having us thank you that was fun my pleasure thanks again for
[27:42]listening to my podcast moms don't have time to read books if you liked this episode please follow
[27:47]me on instagram at zibi Owens and at moms don't have time to read books and sign up for my mailing
[27:53]list at zibi Owens.com so you can always hear about believe things I'm up to thanks a lot
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[28:09]thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at texture sound for the sound editing and thank you to
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[28:18]thanks for listening you could always email me at zibi at zibi Owens.com