Ep 49: Cabin in the Woods (City Baker's Guide to Country Living + In the House in the Dark of the Woods)

Summary: Pour yourself a mug of warm cider and snuggle under a blanket for this week’s episode - we’re hanging out in cabins in the woods! Is the wind outside a soothing background to a great makeout session or the cover for clomping feet coming to get us? One thing we’re sure of - our hearts sure are racing whenever protagonists end up in rural cabins. Devin and Holly agree that while the outcomes of the stories in their respective wheelhouses differ, the allure is the same - isolated, cozy, and full of the unknown. 

Topics Discussed:

• The Heart (2:31): Devin discussed The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller, a novel following Boston-based pastry chef Olivia Rawlings and she escapes a professional disaster by moving to a tiny Vermont town called Guthrie. Once there, she is hired to work at the Sugar Maple Inn by the owner, Margaret, who has her own apple-pie agenda, thrusting Livvy into a tiny community that makes a big impact on her life. Devin’s key takeaways were:

• Livvy and the other characters in this novel all have their own ambitions, goals, and hang-ups. Some may seem silly on the surface (winning a pie baking contest) but are much more profound once you dig in. This story counteracts the assumptions we make about small towns and reminds us that community, whatever the size, makes us who we are.

• The descriptions of food in this novel are some of the best I’ve seen and rival Louise Penny. The sugar, the bread, the kitchen Livvy bakes in every morning and the way she approaches new recipes with us experiencing each ingredient makes this cozy novel delicious as well. 

• Vermont as the setting also amplifies the cozy happy energy of the story; there’s line dancing, small bars, a tiny sugar cabin Livvy moves into that has a woodstove, so many blankets and smells of pine and nature. Every season described is idyllic and enjoyable, even aside from the plot! 

• The Dagger (16:37): Holly discussed In the House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt, a historical fiction suspense book set in colonial New England that follows a woman, Goody, who leaves her husband and son for the day to pick berries. She finds herself venturing deeper and deeper into the woods and stumbles upon a house - and much, much more. Holly’s key takeaways were:

• This novel is lyrical but concise and reminded Holly of T.S. Elliott poems; the woods act as a symbol for freedom and dreams, for example. There’s tension between the woods, where women can be wild and free, and fear of that from the uptight rules of religion and Goody’s society. 

• The reader encounters many eerie and unknown things through this story; a deep well, a living ship made of human bones, butchering pigs, and “swallowing screams” are a short list. The setting in the woods and in rural cabins gives us a sense of creeping unknown and begs the question - are things what they seem? 

• A central theme of the story is womanhood and exploring the archetypes of being a woman; Hunt explores how women in history have been limited, abused, and subjugated to the rule of them through the guise of religion. Goody must break out of her traditional roles and learn to rely on the women she encounters who try to help; no one else will. 

• Hot On the Shelf (37:31):

• Holly: Linghun by Ai Jiang

• Devin: The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

• What’s Making Our Hearts Race (40:37):

• Holly: Lupin Part 3 on Netflix

• Devin: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse 

 

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Website: www.heartsanddaggerspod.com

 

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