sarahwoloski

 

Today’s episode Sesame Street is brought to you by the number 4 and the letter T...wait, nope. This is Totally Tell Me Everything and we’re talking about tea. The kind you drink, silly.

We couldn’t record a show about tea without having some of it while we talked. right? What were we drinking? Sarah made herself a glass of iced green tea with honey, and Bryn had hot peach tisane.

 

Question 1: What is it about tea that you are into?

 

Bryn starts us off by talking about the appeal of the ritual of tea, informed by her daily tea-drinking husband’s deep thoughts about this caffeinated beverage: “Tea is MOMENT. Tea is a respite in your day. It’s a moment of quiet and mindfulness and contemplation or just resting and not doing. It’s a moment for just being.”

 

Herbal teas/tisanes are Bryn’s jam these days, as she tries to avoid caffeine. She likes iced tea with flavored simple syrups that she makes herself.

 

Sarah first became interested in tea thanks to everyone’s favorite bald Starfleet hottie, Captain Picard, thanks to his iconic order: Tea, Earl Grey, Hot, even though Sarah likes to drink Lady Grey better than the Captain’s fave. 

 

But her big tea love is British High Tea!

 

• She got into this in when she was just out of college. She and her girlfriends would go about once a month and try out different tea rooms around LA, from the Valley to Orange County. 
• While in London on their honeymoon, Richard and Sarah went to have High Tea at Harrods of London. It did not live up to her expectations. :(
• A better tea experience, however, was at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood in 2004, when Sarah and her mom enjoyed a special tea-movie special event. The movie was Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. The theater rented out a dining space in the upper levels of Hollywood and Highland, for an Afternoon Tea Seating. After the film (which she loved), they were escorted across the street, up stairs and into this ballroom space with round tables all set with the traditional tea service 3-tiered tray. On walls and columns were costumes, photos and paintings from the movie. And seven Disney princesses walked around and visited your table, and you could go visit Ariel in her grotto. It was the BEST. Check out pics from Mouseplanet! (Side note: Stan Lee did not limit his cameos to just Marvel films. He has a rather disturbing cameo in this film!)
• Education Corner: Low Tea vs. High Tea

 

Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive?

 

Sarah was determined to find out where tea comes from and why there are different types. Her research came from a book! 

 

Some highlights:

 

• All tea comes from ONE PLANT, no matter the type. A single species of plant Camellia sinensis.  An evergreen shrub that has small white aromatic flowers. The leaves of this plant create tea when processed correctly! 
• Processing is what creates the different types. If you pluck the leaves off the plant and throw them in boiling water, you get a bitter beverage. The process has 5 stages:
  • Step 1: Withering - the leaves and buds are softened on large racks in a heated room or air-dry in the sun. Starch in leaf begins to convert to sugar, moisture content drops. WHITE TEA uses mostly the white buds, and maybe a leaf.
  • Step 2: Rolling - leaves are now soft and pliant and can be rolled - this twists and crushes the leaves and releases sap and stimulates fermentation. (GREEN TEA is immediately heated and dried, and does not go under the next Oxidation step)
  • Step 3: Oxidation - VIP b/c here is where the flavor and value are determined. Rolled leaves are placed on trays at a 1-2” thickness, then left in a cool damp place for 1-3 hours to oxidize. This causes a chemical reaction which heats the leaves. If the temp gets too high, the leaves taste burned. Too low and you have a metallic aftertaste. Oxidation makes leaves turn from green to copper. (OOLONG tea is partially oxidized (about 60%, then goes to next 2 stages.) 
  • Step 4: Drying - Oxidizes leaves are dried with hot air on a conveyer belt, which stops the fermentation process and turns the leaves the characteristic dark brown or black. 
  • Step 5: Grading/Sorting - Sorted into leaf grades based on size. Whole leaf produces the finest quality tea, dust size are used for the quick-brewing tea bags. 
• Herbal Teas, Rooibos and Yerba Mate do NOT come from this Camellia Sinensis, and we should be calling them “tisanes” (rhymes with “inane” and “brynane”), a medicinal drink or infusion.

 

Sarah also wanted more info on the origin of British Afternoon Tea. It’s fascinating!

 

• Thanks, Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, for the tea, coffee and freedom.

 

Bryn’s deep dive this month was shallow, as she sought the answer to the question: Is sun tea actually dangerous?

 

• Bryn was an ‘80s kid, and her mom made a lot of sun tea
• Verdict: Snopes says don’t do it: Tea steeped in a jar on your porch doesn’t get hot enough to kill the beasties in the water or the tea.

 

Question 3: What are you excited about regarding tea?

 

Sarah and Bryn are both all about the vessels!

 

• Bryn brought out an array of some of her favorite cups for drinking tea
  • Miss Piggy, Tony Brown, Unurth ceramics, 

 

• Sarah shared a new-found story behind her mom’s tea set: a vintage 1960s Japanese Somayaki Green Double Wall Tea Pot with 4 cups, a creamer and sugar bowl from Matsunaga Ceramics Shop.
  • The heart shape cut outs represent plovers (Chidori) - a species of wading bird. Notice the wavy brush pattern below? That represents waves. This combination of plovers and waves is called Nami-Chidori in Japanese, and is a common motif in Japanese arts.  
• She’s just so tickled that this tea set she grew up with turns out to have such history! 

 

•  
•  
•  

 

Final Thought

 

Sarah says tea is a moment, but it also creates a memory, whether it calls you back to an amusingly disappointing Harrods experience or a precious time with family from long ago. 

 

For Bryn, tea is another way to perform self care in a time when life seems to move too quickly. 

 

And perhaps the best final thought came from Eleanor Roosevelt (Or did it?):

 

A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong it is until it is in hot water. 

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

We hope you’ll come sit by us next month when we tackle another topic on Totally Tell Me Everything. Ta-ta!

 

About Totally Tell Me Everything

 

Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything!

 

How To Listen on the Go:

 

Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS

 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!!

 

Social Media

 

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything
• Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink
• Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/
• Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/

 

Subscribe to the Skywalking Network Newsletter

 

Today’s episode Sesame Street is brought to you by the number 4 and the letter T...wait, nope. This is Totally Tell Me Everything and we’re talking about tea. The kind you drink, silly.

We couldn’t record a show about tea without having some of it while we talked. right? What were we drinking? Sarah made herself a glass of iced green tea with honey, and Bryn had hot peach tisane.

 

Question 1: What is it about tea that you are into?

 

Bryn starts us off by talking about the appeal of the ritual of tea, informed by her daily tea-drinking husband’s deep thoughts about this caffeinated beverage: “Tea is MOMENT. Tea is a respite in your day. It’s a moment of quiet and mindfulness and contemplation or just resting and not doing. It’s a moment for just being.”

 

Herbal teas/tisanes are Bryn’s jam these days, as she tries to avoid caffeine. She likes iced tea with flavored simple syrups that she makes herself.

 

Sarah first became interested in tea thanks to everyone’s favorite bald Starfleet hottie, Captain Picard, thanks to his iconic order: Tea, Earl Grey, Hot, even though Sarah likes to drink Lady Grey better than the Captain’s fave. 

 

But her big tea love is British High Tea!

 

• She got into this in when she was just out of college. She and her girlfriends would go about once a month and try out different tea rooms around LA, from the Valley to Orange County. 
• While in London on their honeymoon, Richard and Sarah went to have High Tea at Harrods of London. It did not live up to her expectations. :(
• A better tea experience, however, was at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood in 2004, when Sarah and her mom enjoyed a special tea-movie special event. The movie was Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. The theater rented out a dining space in the upper levels of Hollywood and Highland, for an Afternoon Tea Seating. After the film (which she loved), they were escorted across the street, up stairs and into this ballroom space with round tables all set with the traditional tea service 3-tiered tray. On walls and columns were costumes, photos and paintings from the movie. And seven Disney princesses walked around and visited your table, and you could go visit Ariel in her grotto. It was the BEST. Check out pics from Mouseplanet! (Side note: Stan Lee did not limit his cameos to just Marvel films. He has a rather disturbing cameo in this film!)
• Education Corner: Low Tea vs. High Tea

 

Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive?

 

Sarah was determined to find out where tea comes from and why there are different types. Her research came from a book! 

 

Some highlights:

 

• All tea comes from ONE PLANT, no matter the type. A single species of plant Camellia sinensis.  An evergreen shrub that has small white aromatic flowers. The leaves of this plant create tea when processed correctly! 
• Processing is what creates the different types. If you pluck the leaves off the plant and throw them in boiling water, you get a bitter beverage. The process has 5 stages:
  • Step 1: Withering - the leaves and buds are softened on large racks in a heated room or air-dry in the sun. Starch in leaf begins to convert to sugar, moisture content drops. WHITE TEA uses mostly the white buds, and maybe a leaf.
  • Step 2: Rolling - leaves are now soft and pliant and can be rolled - this twists and crushes the leaves and releases sap and stimulates fermentation. (GREEN TEA is immediately heated and dried, and does not go under the next Oxidation step)
  • Step 3: Oxidation - VIP b/c here is where the flavor and value are determined. Rolled leaves are placed on trays at a 1-2” thickness, then left in a cool damp place for 1-3 hours to oxidize. This causes a chemical reaction which heats the leaves. If the temp gets too high, the leaves taste burned. Too low and you have a metallic aftertaste. Oxidation makes leaves turn from green to copper. (OOLONG tea is partially oxidized (about 60%, then goes to next 2 stages.) 
  • Step 4: Drying - Oxidizes leaves are dried with hot air on a conveyer belt, which stops the fermentation process and turns the leaves the characteristic dark brown or black. 
  • Step 5: Grading/Sorting - Sorted into leaf grades based on size. Whole leaf produces the finest quality tea, dust size are used for the quick-brewing tea bags. 
• Herbal Teas, Rooibos and Yerba Mate do NOT come from this Camellia Sinensis, and we should be calling them “tisanes” (rhymes with “inane” and “brynane”), a medicinal drink or infusion.

 

Sarah also wanted more info on the origin of British Afternoon Tea. It’s fascinating!

 

• Thanks, Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, for the tea, coffee and freedom.

 

Bryn’s deep dive this month was shallow, as she sought the answer to the question: Is sun tea actually dangerous?

 

• Bryn was an ‘80s kid, and her mom made a lot of sun tea
• Verdict: Snopes says don’t do it: Tea steeped in a jar on your porch doesn’t get hot enough to kill the beasties in the water or the tea.

 

Question 3: What are you excited about regarding tea?

 

Sarah and Bryn are both all about the vessels!

 

• Bryn brought out an array of some of her favorite cups for drinking tea
  • Miss Piggy, Tony Brown, Unurth ceramics, 

 

• Sarah shared a new-found story behind her mom’s tea set: a vintage 1960s Japanese Somayaki Green Double Wall Tea Pot with 4 cups, a creamer and sugar bowl from Matsunaga Ceramics Shop.
  • The heart shape cut outs represent plovers (Chidori) - a species of wading bird. Notice the wavy brush pattern below? That represents waves. This combination of plovers and waves is called Nami-Chidori in Japanese, and is a common motif in Japanese arts.  
• She’s just so tickled that this tea set she grew up with turns out to have such history! 

 

•  
•  
•  

 

Final Thought

 

Sarah says tea is a moment, but it also creates a memory, whether it calls you back to an amusingly disappointing Harrods experience or a precious time with family from long ago. 

 

For Bryn, tea is another way to perform self care in a time when life seems to move too quickly. 

 

And perhaps the best final thought came from Eleanor Roosevelt (Or did it?):

 

A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong it is until it is in hot water. 

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

We hope you’ll come sit by us next month when we tackle another topic on Totally Tell Me Everything. Ta-ta!

 

About Totally Tell Me Everything

 

Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything!

 

How To Listen on the Go:

 

Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS

 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!!

 

Social Media

 

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything
• Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink
• Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/
• Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/

 

Subscribe to the Skywalking Network Newsletter

 

Today’s episode Sesame Street is brought to you by the number 4 and the letter T...wait, nope. This is Totally Tell Me Everything and we’re talking about tea. The kind you drink, silly.

We couldn’t record a show about tea without having some of it while we talked. right? What were we drinking? Sarah made herself a glass of iced green tea with honey, and Bryn had hot peach tisane.

 

Question 1: What is it about tea that you are into?

 

Bryn starts us off by talking about the appeal of the ritual of tea, informed by her daily tea-drinking husband’s deep thoughts about this caffeinated beverage: “Tea is MOMENT. Tea is a respite in your day. It’s a moment of quiet and mindfulness and contemplation or just resting and not doing. It’s a moment for just being.”

 

Herbal teas/tisanes are Bryn’s jam these days, as she tries to avoid caffeine. She likes iced tea with flavored simple syrups that she makes herself.

 

Sarah first became interested in tea thanks to everyone’s favorite bald Starfleet hottie, Captain Picard, thanks to his iconic order: Tea, Earl Grey, Hot, even though Sarah likes to drink Lady Grey better than the Captain’s fave. 

 

But her big tea love is British High Tea!

 

• She got into this in when she was just out of college. She and her girlfriends would go about once a month and try out different tea rooms around LA, from the Valley to Orange County. 
• While in London on their honeymoon, Richard and Sarah went to have High Tea at Harrods of London. It did not live up to her expectations. :(
• A better tea experience, however, was at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood in 2004, when Sarah and her mom enjoyed a special tea-movie special event. The movie was Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. The theater rented out a dining space in the upper levels of Hollywood and Highland, for an Afternoon Tea Seating. After the film (which she loved), they were escorted across the street, up stairs and into this ballroom space with round tables all set with the traditional tea service 3-tiered tray. On walls and columns were costumes, photos and paintings from the movie. And seven Disney princesses walked around and visited your table, and you could go visit Ariel in her grotto. It was the BEST. Check out pics from Mouseplanet! (Side note: Stan Lee did not limit his cameos to just Marvel films. He has a rather disturbing cameo in this film!)
• Education Corner: Low Tea vs. High Tea

 

Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive?

 

Sarah was determined to find out where tea comes from and why there are different types. Her research came from a book! 

 

Some highlights:

 

• All tea comes from ONE PLANT, no matter the type. A single species of plant Camellia sinensis.  An evergreen shrub that has small white aromatic flowers. The leaves of this plant create tea when processed correctly! 
• Processing is what creates the different types. If you pluck the leaves off the plant and throw them in boiling water, you get a bitter beverage. The process has 5 stages:
  • Step 1: Withering - the leaves and buds are softened on large racks in a heated room or air-dry in the sun. Starch in leaf begins to convert to sugar, moisture content drops. WHITE TEA uses mostly the white buds, and maybe a leaf.
  • Step 2: Rolling - leaves are now soft and pliant and can be rolled - this twists and crushes the leaves and releases sap and stimulates fermentation. (GREEN TEA is immediately heated and dried, and does not go under the next Oxidation step)
  • Step 3: Oxidation - VIP b/c here is where the flavor and value are determined. Rolled leaves are placed on trays at a 1-2” thickness, then left in a cool damp place for 1-3 hours to oxidize. This causes a chemical reaction which heats the leaves. If the temp gets too high, the leaves taste burned. Too low and you have a metallic aftertaste. Oxidation makes leaves turn from green to copper. (OOLONG tea is partially oxidized (about 60%, then goes to next 2 stages.) 
  • Step 4: Drying - Oxidizes leaves are dried with hot air on a conveyer belt, which stops the fermentation process and turns the leaves the characteristic dark brown or black. 
  • Step 5: Grading/Sorting - Sorted into leaf grades based on size. Whole leaf produces the finest quality tea, dust size are used for the quick-brewing tea bags. 
• Herbal Teas, Rooibos and Yerba Mate do NOT come from this Camellia Sinensis, and we should be calling them “tisanes” (rhymes with “inane” and “brynane”), a medicinal drink or infusion.

 

Sarah also wanted more info on the origin of British Afternoon Tea. It’s fascinating!

 

• Thanks, Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, for the tea, coffee and freedom.

 

Bryn’s deep dive this month was shallow, as she sought the answer to the question: Is sun tea actually dangerous?

 

• Bryn was an ‘80s kid, and her mom made a lot of sun tea
• Verdict: Snopes says don’t do it: Tea steeped in a jar on your porch doesn’t get hot enough to kill the beasties in the water or the tea.

 

Question 3: What are you excited about regarding tea?

 

Sarah and Bryn are both all about the vessels!

 

• Bryn brought out an array of some of her favorite cups for drinking tea
  • Miss Piggy, Tony Brown, Unurth ceramics, 

 

• Sarah shared a new-found story behind her mom’s tea set: a vintage 1960s Japanese Somayaki Green Double Wall Tea Pot with 4 cups, a creamer and sugar bowl from Matsunaga Ceramics Shop.
  • The heart shape cut outs represent plovers (Chidori) - a species of wading bird. Notice the wavy brush pattern below? That represents waves. This combination of plovers and waves is called Nami-Chidori in Japanese, and is a common motif in Japanese arts.  
• She’s just so tickled that this tea set she grew up with turns out to have such history! 

 

•  
•  
•  

 

Final Thought

 

Sarah says tea is a moment, but it also creates a memory, whether it calls you back to an amusingly disappointing Harrods experience or a precious time with family from long ago. 

 

For Bryn, tea is another way to perform self care in a time when life seems to move too quickly. 

 

And perhaps the best final thought came from Eleanor Roosevelt (Or did it?):

 

A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong it is until it is in hot water. 

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

We hope you’ll come sit by us next month when we tackle another topic on Totally Tell Me Everything. Ta-ta!

 

About Totally Tell Me Everything

 

Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything!

 

How To Listen on the Go:

 

Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS

 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!!

 

Social Media

 

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything
• Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink
• Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/
• Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/

 

Subscribe to the Skywalking Network Newsletter

 

Today’s episode Sesame Street is brought to you by the number 4 and the letter T...wait, nope. This is Totally Tell Me Everything and we’re talking about tea. The kind you drink, silly.

We couldn’t record a show about tea without having some of it while we talked. right? What were we drinking? Sarah made herself a glass of iced green tea with honey, and Bryn had hot peach tisane.

 

Question 1: What is it about tea that you are into?

 

Bryn starts us off by talking about the appeal of the ritual of tea, informed by her daily tea-drinking husband’s deep thoughts about this caffeinated beverage: “Tea is MOMENT. Tea is a respite in your day. It’s a moment of quiet and mindfulness and contemplation or just resting and not doing. It’s a moment for just being.”

 

Herbal teas/tisanes are Bryn’s jam these days, as she tries to avoid caffeine. She likes iced tea with flavored simple syrups that she makes herself.

 

Sarah first became interested in tea thanks to everyone’s favorite bald Starfleet hottie, Captain Picard, thanks to his iconic order: Tea, Earl Grey, Hot, even though Sarah likes to drink Lady Grey better than the Captain’s fave. 

 

But her big tea love is British High Tea!

 

• She got into this in when she was just out of college. She and her girlfriends would go about once a month and try out different tea rooms around LA, from the Valley to Orange County. 
• While in London on their honeymoon, Richard and Sarah went to have High Tea at Harrods of London. It did not live up to her expectations. :(
• A better tea experience, however, was at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood in 2004, when Sarah and her mom enjoyed a special tea-movie special event. The movie was Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. The theater rented out a dining space in the upper levels of Hollywood and Highland, for an Afternoon Tea Seating. After the film (which she loved), they were escorted across the street, up stairs and into this ballroom space with round tables all set with the traditional tea service 3-tiered tray. On walls and columns were costumes, photos and paintings from the movie. And seven Disney princesses walked around and visited your table, and you could go visit Ariel in her grotto. It was the BEST. Check out pics from Mouseplanet! (Side note: Stan Lee did not limit his cameos to just Marvel films. He has a rather disturbing cameo in this film!)
• Education Corner: Low Tea vs. High Tea

 

Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive?

 

Sarah was determined to find out where tea comes from and why there are different types. Her research came from a book! 

 

Some highlights:

 

• All tea comes from ONE PLANT, no matter the type. A single species of plant Camellia sinensis.  An evergreen shrub that has small white aromatic flowers. The leaves of this plant create tea when processed correctly! 
• Processing is what creates the different types. If you pluck the leaves off the plant and throw them in boiling water, you get a bitter beverage. The process has 5 stages:
  • Step 1: Withering - the leaves and buds are softened on large racks in a heated room or air-dry in the sun. Starch in leaf begins to convert to sugar, moisture content drops. WHITE TEA uses mostly the white buds, and maybe a leaf.
  • Step 2: Rolling - leaves are now soft and pliant and can be rolled - this twists and crushes the leaves and releases sap and stimulates fermentation. (GREEN TEA is immediately heated and dried, and does not go under the next Oxidation step)
  • Step 3: Oxidation - VIP b/c here is where the flavor and value are determined. Rolled leaves are placed on trays at a 1-2” thickness, then left in a cool damp place for 1-3 hours to oxidize. This causes a chemical reaction which heats the leaves. If the temp gets too high, the leaves taste burned. Too low and you have a metallic aftertaste. Oxidation makes leaves turn from green to copper. (OOLONG tea is partially oxidized (about 60%, then goes to next 2 stages.) 
  • Step 4: Drying - Oxidizes leaves are dried with hot air on a conveyer belt, which stops the fermentation process and turns the leaves the characteristic dark brown or black. 
  • Step 5: Grading/Sorting - Sorted into leaf grades based on size. Whole leaf produces the finest quality tea, dust size are used for the quick-brewing tea bags. 
• Herbal Teas, Rooibos and Yerba Mate do NOT come from this Camellia Sinensis, and we should be calling them “tisanes” (rhymes with “inane” and “brynane”), a medicinal drink or infusion.

 

Sarah also wanted more info on the origin of British Afternoon Tea. It’s fascinating!

 

• Thanks, Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, for the tea, coffee and freedom.

 

Bryn’s deep dive this month was shallow, as she sought the answer to the question: Is sun tea actually dangerous?

 

• Bryn was an ‘80s kid, and her mom made a lot of sun tea
• Verdict: Snopes says don’t do it: Tea steeped in a jar on your porch doesn’t get hot enough to kill the beasties in the water or the tea.

 

Question 3: What are you excited about regarding tea?

 

Sarah and Bryn are both all about the vessels!

 

• Bryn brought out an array of some of her favorite cups for drinking tea
  • Miss Piggy, Tony Brown, Unurth ceramics, 

 

• Sarah shared a new-found story behind her mom’s tea set: a vintage 1960s Japanese Somayaki Green Double Wall Tea Pot with 4 cups, a creamer and sugar bowl from Matsunaga Ceramics Shop.
  • The heart shape cut outs represent plovers (Chidori) - a species of wading bird. Notice the wavy brush pattern below? That represents waves. This combination of plovers and waves is called Nami-Chidori in Japanese, and is a common motif in Japanese arts.  
• She’s just so tickled that this tea set she grew up with turns out to have such history! 

 

•  
•  
•  

 

Final Thought

 

Sarah says tea is a moment, but it also creates a memory, whether it calls you back to an amusingly disappointing Harrods experience or a precious time with family from long ago. 

 

For Bryn, tea is another way to perform self care in a time when life seems to move too quickly. 

 

And perhaps the best final thought came from Eleanor Roosevelt (Or did it?):

 

A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong it is until it is in hot water. 

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

We hope you’ll come sit by us next month when we tackle another topic on Totally Tell Me Everything. Ta-ta!

 

About Totally Tell Me Everything

 

Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything!

 

How To Listen on the Go:

 

Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS

 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!!

 

Social Media

 

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything
• Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink
• Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/
• Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/

 

Subscribe to the Skywalking Network Newsletter

Welcome back, friends. It’s Sarah’s birth month, so she got to choose our topic: BOOKS! It’s a good one!

Question 1: Name 3 books throughout your life that have shaped who you are today? 

 

Birthday Sarah starts us off.

 

SARAH’S FIRST BOOK: Grimm’s Fairy Tales, the really old, darker, less happily-ever-after versions of so many stories we know and love. Did we say darker? How about WAY darker? Like, Snow White has a lot of hearts being cut out of animals. Some stories have people gouging out eyes. 

 

• Sarah regales us with a retelling of a family favorite: “Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes,” a classic Cinderella-type story, where “Cinderella” is named for how many eyes she has (spoiler: It’s two). Her stepmother and stepsisters have either fewer or more eyes than that, and they treat Little Two Eyes really badly. A wise woman tries to help out and somehow makes it worse. (You’re gonna need this palate cleanser.) But then along comes a knight to make it all better. And then Sarah hits us with the coolest part of this story: Sarah might be a Grimm on her mom’s side!

 

BRYN’S FIRST BOOK: Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first book in a 9-book series of the author’s experiences growing up as a little girl in the “big woods” of Wisconsin in 1871. Bryn read it as a child, and has come back to it throughout her life. She has a favorite memory of her mother reading it to her and her brother by firelight one night during a power outage. 

 

• Favorite chapters: Christmas, the Sugar Snow, Dance at Grandpa’s.
• Favorite thing about the book: the writing, thanks in large part to Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who made the books into what they became: New Yorker article from August 2009.
• Resource: Racism and Cultural insensitivity in the Little House books
  • Excellent article by Liz Fields in the American Masters section of PBS.org: Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page, What should be done about racist depictions in the “Little House” books? 

 

SARAH’S SECOND BOOK: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. An 1813  novel that follows Elizabeth Bennett and her sister Jane, who are of marriageable age, and must navigate suitors, social engagements, family and societal pressures. The novel delves into manners and etiquette of English society, the importance of marrying for love rather than money or social prestige, and overall has such delightful depictions of characters that captured Sarah’s teenage imagination. 

 

• P&P Watch List: Take your pick
• Or go straight to Sarah’s fave, the BBC’s excellent 1995 6-part miniseries starring Colin Firth in his breakout role, and Jennifer Ehle.
• Bonus reading: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
• Bonus Watching: Bridget Jones’ Diary

 

BRYN’S SECOND BOOK: The Passion, by Jeannette Winterson, a fairy tale set in an historical place and time. It’s the fantastical, magical, often dark story of Henri (a French soldier and Napoleon’s chef during the Napoleonic Wars) and Villanelle, the heart-broken red-haired daughter of a Venetian boatman, who has webbed feet and is a free thinker who lives in the moment.

 

• What’s a villanelle? The book started to mirror the poetic form in some ways, like unlocking a secret
• This was Bryn’s first introduction to gender fluidity 

 

SARAH’S THIRD BOOK: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. After seeing the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time in 1991, Sarah this newly published first book of the Thrawn trilogy at her local library and FREAKED out. It’s set 5 years after Return of the Jedi and features Leia and Han as a married couple, starting a family (twins are coming!), working for the Republic and Luke is planning a Jedi Training Academy, while what’s left of the Imperials are slowly amassing under Grand Admiral Thrawn. He uses his knowledge of Leia, Luke and the leaders of the New Republic against them in an epic struggle for power.

 

• A book that continued the story of a movie blew Sarah’s mind. It unlocked her imagination in a new way. And her knowledge of all those stories and love of those books has connected her with many Star Wars friends with the rise of social media. 
  • Check out Sarah’s recap of her chat with the author himself, Timothy Zahn, at a party at Star Wars Celebration Orlando on Skywalking Through Neverland episode 165!  

 

BRYN’S THIRD BOOK: Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins, in which an exiled princess and a libertarian anarchist, who are both redheads, meet and sort of fall in love. Bryn didn’t want to choose this book as her third pick, but she did anyway because of her husband’s wisdom.

 

• Bryn read it while temping at offices in Orange County (she also read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams during that time, but didn’t love it.)
• Felt sort of dangerous and bold and funny and true at the time to naive 21-year-old Bryn
• WISDOM FROM BRYN’S HUSBAND, ELON: 
  • Books or art or music sometimes show you something you’ve never seen or known or understood before, and they allow you to imagine something that’s possible that you hadn't ever imagined before
  • You don’t know how a book is impacting you while you’re reading it
  • Bryn’s learning from this: This book is one of those for me. It’s OK to move on from a book that affected you deeply.
• Extra homework: Ralph Nader
• Bryn cheated and included an HONORABLE MENTION book: The Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katsen

 

Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive?

 

Sarah asked, “How did the printing press change history?”

 

• Real talk: Johannes Gutenberg was NOT the inventor of the printing press!
  • 1st-9th century in China with woodblock printing
  • Metal type printing in Korea began in the 1300s and the first book printed this way is “Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests’ Zen Teachings” in 1377. One of these printings is preserved today in the National Library of France. 
• But he did make some improvements
  • Moveable Type changed everything. Check out this story and this one.

 

• Global news network created thanks to quicker, cheaper printing that was accessible to middle class
• New information technology adopted by previously silenced voices, those willing to take risks 
• Revolution! Martin Luther becomes the first religious leader to use printing to his advantage.He’s the world’s first best-selling author! 1518-1525 his writings accounted for ⅓ of all books sold in Germany. 
• Scientific Revolution: With printed formulas and mathematical tables in hand, scientists could trust the fidelity of existing data and devote more energy to breaking new ground.

 

Bryn looked a little into the future (and the present) of books, especially print books

 

• After watching the documentary,  The Booksellers, a film about the rare book business, but also about the future of books, Bryn did a small amount of research to look into the state of print books. When e-book readers first became viable, she remembered hearing the media wonder if paper books were dead.
• Spoiler: They’re not!
  • Book statistics: U.S. book industry statistics and facts
  • Print book sales figures have improved over the last five years and unit sales now amount to over 650 million per year. Print also remains the most popular book format among U.S. consumers, with more than 65 percent of adults having read a print book in the last twelve months.
  • Publishers Weekly: Print Book Sales Rose 8.2% in 2020
  • E-books statistics
  • Audiobooks: 2019 more than $1 Billion in audiobook sales

 

Question 3: What are you excited about regarding books?

 

Sarah is all about audiobooks! 

 

• Whispersync
• She also put a call out for Star Trek or Marvel books suggestions. 
• And hipped us to the fantastic International Printing Museum 

 

Wayward English major Bryn is excited to become a reader of books again. She might start with Loki, Where Mischief Lies, by Mackenzi Lee, thanks to Sarah’s recommendation.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Sarah brings us home: When creating our show notes, both Bryn and I were writing so much more about the books that shaped us, rather than the history of books. When we were discussing our focus for this episode, Bryn texted something profound: “Books are so personal.”

 

So I think that is the perfect way to think of it. Any other two people in the world could have a completely different discussion than we did. So we want to know: what are your top 1-3 books that have shaped you? Please write us and we will share in our NEW segment, Totally Talk To Us.

 

Thanks to those of you who have written to us, either on Instagram or the Skywalking Through Neverland Facebook Group, with your feedback on our first two episodes: @iamstarwarstime, Peter Heitman and Cadien Clark. We love hearing your thoughts!

 

About Totally Tell Me Everything

 

Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything!

 

How To Listen on the Go:

 

Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS

 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!!

 

Social Media

 

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything
• Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink
• Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/
• Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/

 

Welcome back, friends. It’s Sarah’s birth month, so she got to choose our topic: BOOKS! It’s a good one!

Question 1: Name 3 books throughout your life that have shaped who you are today? 

 

Birthday Sarah starts us off.

 

SARAH’S FIRST BOOK: Grimm’s Fairy Tales, the really old, darker, less happily-ever-after versions of so many stories we know and love. Did we say darker? How about WAY darker? Like, Snow White has a lot of hearts being cut out of animals. Some stories have people gouging out eyes. 

 

• Sarah regales us with a retelling of a family favorite: “Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes,” a classic Cinderella-type story, where “Cinderella” is named for how many eyes she has (spoiler: It’s two). Her stepmother and stepsisters have either fewer or more eyes than that, and they treat Little Two Eyes really badly. A wise woman tries to help out and somehow makes it worse. (You’re gonna need this palate cleanser.) But then along comes a knight to make it all better. And then Sarah hits us with the coolest part of this story: Sarah might be a Grimm on her mom’s side!

 

BRYN’S FIRST BOOK: Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first book in a 9-book series of the author’s experiences growing up as a little girl in the “big woods” of Wisconsin in 1871. Bryn read it as a child, and has come back to it throughout her life. She has a favorite memory of her mother reading it to her and her brother by firelight one night during a power outage. 

 

• Favorite chapters: Christmas, the Sugar Snow, Dance at Grandpa’s.
• Favorite thing about the book: the writing, thanks in large part to Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who made the books into what they became: New Yorker article from August 2009.
• Resource: Racism and Cultural insensitivity in the Little House books
  • Excellent article by Liz Fields in the American Masters section of PBS.org: Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page, What should be done about racist depictions in the “Little House” books? 

 

SARAH’S SECOND BOOK: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. An 1813  novel that follows Elizabeth Bennett and her sister Jane, who are of marriageable age, and must navigate suitors, social engagements, family and societal pressures. The novel delves into manners and etiquette of English society, the importance of marrying for love rather than money or social prestige, and overall has such delightful depictions of characters that captured Sarah’s teenage imagination. 

 

• P&P Watch List: Take your pick
• Or go straight to Sarah’s fave, the BBC’s excellent 1995 6-part miniseries starring Colin Firth in his breakout role, and Jennifer Ehle.
• Bonus reading: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
• Bonus Watching: Bridget Jones’ Diary

 

BRYN’S SECOND BOOK: The Passion, by Jeannette Winterson, a fairy tale set in an historical place and time. It’s the fantastical, magical, often dark story of Henri (a French soldier and Napoleon’s chef during the Napoleonic Wars) and Villanelle, the heart-broken red-haired daughter of a Venetian boatman, who has webbed feet and is a free thinker who lives in the moment.

 

• What’s a villanelle? The book started to mirror the poetic form in some ways, like unlocking a secret
• This was Bryn’s first introduction to gender fluidity 

 

SARAH’S THIRD BOOK: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. After seeing the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time in 1991, Sarah this newly published first book of the Thrawn trilogy at her local library and FREAKED out. It’s set 5 years after Return of the Jedi and features Leia and Han as a married couple, starting a family (twins are coming!), working for the Republic and Luke is planning a Jedi Training Academy, while what’s left of the Imperials are slowly amassing under Grand Admiral Thrawn. He uses his knowledge of Leia, Luke and the leaders of the New Republic against them in an epic struggle for power.

 

• A book that continued the story of a movie blew Sarah’s mind. It unlocked her imagination in a new way. And her knowledge of all those stories and love of those books has connected her with many Star Wars friends with the rise of social media. 
  • Check out Sarah’s recap of her chat with the author himself, Timothy Zahn, at a party at Star Wars Celebration Orlando on Skywalking Through Neverland episode 165!  

 

BRYN’S THIRD BOOK: Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins, in which an exiled princess and a libertarian anarchist, who are both redheads, meet and sort of fall in love. Bryn didn’t want to choose this book as her third pick, but she did anyway because of her husband’s wisdom.

 

• Bryn read it while temping at offices in Orange County (she also read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams during that time, but didn’t love it.)
• Felt sort of dangerous and bold and funny and true at the time to naive 21-year-old Bryn
• WISDOM FROM BRYN’S HUSBAND, ELON: 
  • Books or art or music sometimes show you something you’ve never seen or known or understood before, and they allow you to imagine something that’s possible that you hadn't ever imagined before
  • You don’t know how a book is impacting you while you’re reading it
  • Bryn’s learning from this: This book is one of those for me. It’s OK to move on from a book that affected you deeply.
• Extra homework: Ralph Nader
• Bryn cheated and included an HONORABLE MENTION book: The Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katsen

 

Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive?

 

Sarah asked, “How did the printing press change history?”

 

• Real talk: Johannes Gutenberg was NOT the inventor of the printing press!
  • 1st-9th century in China with woodblock printing
  • Metal type printing in Korea began in the 1300s and the first book printed this way is “Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests’ Zen Teachings” in 1377. One of these printings is preserved today in the National Library of France. 
• But he did make some improvements
  • Moveable Type changed everything. Check out this story and this one.

 

• Global news network created thanks to quicker, cheaper printing that was accessible to middle class
• New information technology adopted by previously silenced voices, those willing to take risks 
• Revolution! Martin Luther becomes the first religious leader to use printing to his advantage.He’s the world’s first best-selling author! 1518-1525 his writings accounted for ⅓ of all books sold in Germany. 
• Scientific Revolution: With printed formulas and mathematical tables in hand, scientists could trust the fidelity of existing data and devote more energy to breaking new ground.

 

Bryn looked a little into the future (and the present) of books, especially print books

 

• After watching the documentary,  The Booksellers, a film about the rare book business, but also about the future of books, Bryn did a small amount of research to look into the state of print books. When e-book readers first became viable, she remembered hearing the media wonder if paper books were dead.
• Spoiler: They’re not!
  • Book statistics: U.S. book industry statistics and facts
  • Print book sales figures have improved over the last five years and unit sales now amount to over 650 million per year. Print also remains the most popular book format among U.S. consumers, with more than 65 percent of adults having read a print book in the last twelve months.
  • Publishers Weekly: Print Book Sales Rose 8.2% in 2020
  • E-books statistics
  • Audiobooks: 2019 more than $1 Billion in audiobook sales

 

Question 3: What are you excited about regarding books?

 

Sarah is all about audiobooks! 

 

• Whispersync
• She also put a call out for Star Trek or Marvel books suggestions. 
• And hipped us to the fantastic International Printing Museum 

 

Wayward English major Bryn is excited to become a reader of books again. She might start with Loki, Where Mischief Lies, by Mackenzi Lee, thanks to Sarah’s recommendation.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Sarah brings us home: When creating our show notes, both Bryn and I were writing so much more about the books that shaped us, rather than the history of books. When we were discussing our focus for this episode, Bryn texted something profound: “Books are so personal.”

 

So I think that is the perfect way to think of it. Any other two people in the world could have a completely different discussion than we did. So we want to know: what are your top 1-3 books that have shaped you? Please write us and we will share in our NEW segment, Totally Talk To Us.

 

Thanks to those of you who have written to us, either on Instagram or the Skywalking Through Neverland Facebook Group, with your feedback on our first two episodes: @iamstarwarstime, Peter Heitman and Cadien Clark. We love hearing your thoughts!

 

About Totally Tell Me Everything

 

Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything!

 

How To Listen on the Go:

 

Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS

 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!!

 

Social Media

 

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything
• Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink
• Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/
• Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/

 

Welcome back, friends. It’s Sarah’s birth month, so she got to choose our topic: BOOKS! It’s a good one!

Question 1: Name 3 books throughout your life that have shaped who you are today? 

 

Birthday Sarah starts us off.

 

SARAH’S FIRST BOOK: Grimm’s Fairy Tales, the really old, darker, less happily-ever-after versions of so many stories we know and love. Did we say darker? How about WAY darker? Like, Snow White has a lot of hearts being cut out of animals. Some stories have people gouging out eyes. 

 

• Sarah regales us with a retelling of a family favorite: “Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes,” a classic Cinderella-type story, where “Cinderella” is named for how many eyes she has (spoiler: It’s two). Her stepmother and stepsisters have either fewer or more eyes than that, and they treat Little Two Eyes really badly. A wise woman tries to help out and somehow makes it worse. (You’re gonna need this palate cleanser.) But then along comes a knight to make it all better. And then Sarah hits us with the coolest part of this story: Sarah might be a Grimm on her mom’s side!

 

BRYN’S FIRST BOOK: Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first book in a 9-book series of the author’s experiences growing up as a little girl in the “big woods” of Wisconsin in 1871. Bryn read it as a child, and has come back to it throughout her life. She has a favorite memory of her mother reading it to her and her brother by firelight one night during a power outage. 

 

• Favorite chapters: Christmas, the Sugar Snow, Dance at Grandpa’s.
• Favorite thing about the book: the writing, thanks in large part to Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who made the books into what they became: New Yorker article from August 2009.
• Resource: Racism and Cultural insensitivity in the Little House books
  • Excellent article by Liz Fields in the American Masters section of PBS.org: Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page, What should be done about racist depictions in the “Little House” books? 

 

SARAH’S SECOND BOOK: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. An 1813  novel that follows Elizabeth Bennett and her sister Jane, who are of marriageable age, and must navigate suitors, social engagements, family and societal pressures. The novel delves into manners and etiquette of English society, the importance of marrying for love rather than money or social prestige, and overall has such delightful depictions of characters that captured Sarah’s teenage imagination. 

 

• P&P Watch List: Take your pick
• Or go straight to Sarah’s fave, the BBC’s excellent 1995 6-part miniseries starring Colin Firth in his breakout role, and Jennifer Ehle.
• Bonus reading: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
• Bonus Watching: Bridget Jones’ Diary

 

BRYN’S SECOND BOOK: The Passion, by Jeannette Winterson, a fairy tale set in an historical place and time. It’s the fantastical, magical, often dark story of Henri (a French soldier and Napoleon’s chef during the Napoleonic Wars) and Villanelle, the heart-broken red-haired daughter of a Venetian boatman, who has webbed feet and is a free thinker who lives in the moment.

 

• What’s a villanelle? The book started to mirror the poetic form in some ways, like unlocking a secret
• This was Bryn’s first introduction to gender fluidity 

 

SARAH’S THIRD BOOK: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. After seeing the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time in 1991, Sarah this newly published first book of the Thrawn trilogy at her local library and FREAKED out. It’s set 5 years after Return of the Jedi and features Leia and Han as a married couple, starting a family (twins are coming!), working for the Republic and Luke is planning a Jedi Training Academy, while what’s left of the Imperials are slowly amassing under Grand Admiral Thrawn. He uses his knowledge of Leia, Luke and the leaders of the New Republic against them in an epic struggle for power.

 

• A book that continued the story of a movie blew Sarah’s mind. It unlocked her imagination in a new way. And her knowledge of all those stories and love of those books has connected her with many Star Wars friends with the rise of social media. 
  • Check out Sarah’s recap of her chat with the author himself, Timothy Zahn, at a party at Star Wars Celebration Orlando on Skywalking Through Neverland episode 165!  

 

BRYN’S THIRD BOOK: Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins, in which an exiled princess and a libertarian anarchist, who are both redheads, meet and sort of fall in love. Bryn didn’t want to choose this book as her third pick, but she did anyway because of her husband’s wisdom.

 

• Bryn read it while temping at offices in Orange County (she also read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams during that time, but didn’t love it.)
• Felt sort of dangerous and bold and funny and true at the time to naive 21-year-old Bryn
• WISDOM FROM BRYN’S HUSBAND, ELON: 
  • Books or art or music sometimes show you something you’ve never seen or known or understood before, and they allow you to imagine something that’s possible that you hadn't ever imagined before
  • You don’t know how a book is impacting you while you’re reading it
  • Bryn’s learning from this: This book is one of those for me. It’s OK to move on from a book that affected you deeply.
• Extra homework: Ralph Nader
• Bryn cheated and included an HONORABLE MENTION book: The Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katsen

 

Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive?

 

Sarah asked, “How did the printing press change history?”

 

• Real talk: Johannes Gutenberg was NOT the inventor of the printing press!
  • 1st-9th century in China with woodblock printing
  • Metal type printing in Korea began in the 1300s and the first book printed this way is “Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests’ Zen Teachings” in 1377. One of these printings is preserved today in the National Library of France. 
• But he did make some improvements
  • Moveable Type changed everything. Check out this story and this one.

 

• Global news network created thanks to quicker, cheaper printing that was accessible to middle class
• New information technology adopted by previously silenced voices, those willing to take risks 
• Revolution! Martin Luther becomes the first religious leader to use printing to his advantage.He’s the world’s first best-selling author! 1518-1525 his writings accounted for ⅓ of all books sold in Germany. 
• Scientific Revolution: With printed formulas and mathematical tables in hand, scientists could trust the fidelity of existing data and devote more energy to breaking new ground.

 

Bryn looked a little into the future (and the present) of books, especially print books

 

• After watching the documentary,  The Booksellers, a film about the rare book business, but also about the future of books, Bryn did a small amount of research to look into the state of print books. When e-book readers first became viable, she remembered hearing the media wonder if paper books were dead.
• Spoiler: They’re not!
  • Book statistics: U.S. book industry statistics and facts
  • Print book sales figures have improved over the last five years and unit sales now amount to over 650 million per year. Print also remains the most popular book format among U.S. consumers, with more than 65 percent of adults having read a print book in the last twelve months.
  • Publishers Weekly: Print Book Sales Rose 8.2% in 2020
  • E-books statistics
  • Audiobooks: 2019 more than $1 Billion in audiobook sales

 

Question 3: What are you excited about regarding books?

 

Sarah is all about audiobooks! 

 

• Whispersync
• She also put a call out for Star Trek or Marvel books suggestions. 
• And hipped us to the fantastic International Printing Museum 

 

Wayward English major Bryn is excited to become a reader of books again. She might start with Loki, Where Mischief Lies, by Mackenzi Lee, thanks to Sarah’s recommendation.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Sarah brings us home: When creating our show notes, both Bryn and I were writing so much more about the books that shaped us, rather than the history of books. When we were discussing our focus for this episode, Bryn texted something profound: “Books are so personal.”

 

So I think that is the perfect way to think of it. Any other two people in the world could have a completely different discussion than we did. So we want to know: what are your top 1-3 books that have shaped you? Please write us and we will share in our NEW segment, Totally Talk To Us.

 

Thanks to those of you who have written to us, either on Instagram or the Skywalking Through Neverland Facebook Group, with your feedback on our first two episodes: @iamstarwarstime, Peter Heitman and Cadien Clark. We love hearing your thoughts!

 

About Totally Tell Me Everything

 

Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything!

 

How To Listen on the Go:

 

Listen now and leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | RSS

 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a podcast rating and review!!

 

Social Media

 

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/totallytellmeeverything
• Sarah: http://instagram.com/jeditink
• Bryn: https://www.instagram.com/brynane/
• Join the Skywalking Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/488002904732240/

 

Welcome back, friends. It’s Sarah’s birth month, so she got to choose our topic: BOOKS! It’s a good one!

Question 1: Name 3 books throughout your life that have shaped who you are today? 

 

Birthday Sarah starts us off.

 

SARAH’S FIRST BOOK: Grimm’s Fairy Tales, the really old, darker, less happily-ever-after versions of so many stories we know and love. Did we say darker? How about WAY darker? Like, Snow White has a lot of hearts being cut out of animals. Some stories have people gouging out eyes. 

 

• Sarah regales us with a retelling of a family favorite: “Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes,” a classic Cinderella-type story, where “Cinderella” is named for how many eyes she has (spoiler: It’s two). Her stepmother and stepsisters have either fewer or more eyes than that, and they treat Little Two Eyes really badly. A wise woman tries to help out and somehow makes it worse. (You’re gonna need this palate cleanser.) But then along comes a knight to make it all better. And then Sarah hits us with the coolest part of this story: Sarah might be a Grimm on her mom’s side!

 

BRYN’S FIRST BOOK: Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first book in a 9-book series of the author’s experiences growing up as a little girl in the “big woods” of Wisconsin in 1871. Bryn read it as a child, and has come back to it throughout her life. She has a favorite memory of her mother reading it to her and her brother by firelight one night during a power outage. 

 

• Favorite chapters: Christmas, the Sugar Snow, Dance at Grandpa’s.
• Favorite thing about the book: the writing, thanks in large part to Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who made the books into what they became: New Yorker article from August 2009.
• Resource: Racism and Cultural insensitivity in the Little House books
  • Excellent article by Liz Fields in the American Masters section of PBS.org: Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page, What should be done about racist depictions in the “Little House” books? 

 

SARAH’S SECOND BOOK: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. An 1813  novel that follows Elizabeth Bennett and her sister Jane, who are of marriageable age, and must navigate suitors, social engagements, family and societal pressures. The novel delves into manners and etiquette of English society, the importance of marrying for love rather than money or social prestige, and overall has such delightful depictions of characters that captured Sarah’s teenage imagination. 

 

• P&P Watch List: Take your pick
• Or go straight to Sarah’s fave, the BBC’s excellent 1995 6-part miniseries starring Colin Firth in his breakout role, and Jennifer Ehle.
• Bonus reading: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
• Bonus Watching: Bridget Jones’ Diary

 

BRYN’S SECOND BOOK: The Passion, by Jeannette Winterson, a fairy tale set in an historical place and time. It’s the fantastical, magical, often dark story of Henri (a French soldier and Napoleon’s chef during the Napoleonic Wars) and Villanelle, the heart-broken red-haired daughter of a Venetian boatman, who has webbed feet and is a free thinker who lives in the moment.

 

• What’s a villanelle? The book started to mirror the poetic form in some ways, like unlocking a secret
• This was Bryn’s first introduction to gender fluidity 

 

SARAH’S THIRD BOOK: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. After seeing the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time in 1991, Sarah this newly published first book of the Thrawn trilogy at her local library and FREAKED out. It’s set 5 years after Return of the Jedi and features Leia and Han as a married couple, starting a family (twins are coming!), working for the Republic and Luke is planning a Jedi Training Academy, while what’s left of the Imperials are slowly amassing under Grand Admiral Thrawn. He uses his knowledge of Leia, Luke and the leaders of the New Republic against them in an epic struggle for power.

 

• A book that continued the story of a movie blew Sarah’s mind. It unlocked her imagination in a new way. And her knowledge of all those stories and love of those books has connected her with many Star Wars friends with the rise of social media. 
  • Check out Sarah’s recap of her chat with the author himself, Timothy Zahn, at a party at Star Wars Celebration Orlando on Skywalking Through Neverland episode 165!  

 

BRYN’S THIRD BOOK: Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins, in which an exiled princess and a libertarian anarchist, who are both redheads, meet and sort of fall in love. Bryn didn’t want to choose this book as her third pick, but she did anyway because of her husband’s wisdom.

 

• Bryn read it while temping at offices in Orange County (she also read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams during that time, but didn’t love it.)
• Felt sort of dangerous and bold and funny and true at the time to naive 21-year-old Bryn
• WISDOM FROM BRYN’S HUSBAND, ELON: 
  • Books or art or music sometimes show you something you’ve never seen or known or understood before, and they allow you to imagine something that’s possible that you hadn't ever imagined before
  • You don’t know how a book is impacting you while you’re reading it
  • Bryn’s learning from this: This book is one of those for me. It’s OK to move on from a book that affected you deeply.
• Extra homework: Ralph Nader
• Bryn cheated and included an HONORABLE MENTION book: The Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katsen

 

Question 2: What we want to learn about/deep dive?

 

Sarah asked, “How did the printing press change history?”

 

• Real talk: Johannes Gutenberg was NOT the inventor of the printing press!
  • 1st-9th century in China with woodblock printing
  • Metal type printing in Korea began in the 1300s and the first book printed this way is “Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests’ Zen Teachings” in 1377. One of these printings is preserved today in the National Library of France. 
• But he did make some improvements
  • Moveable Type changed everything. Check out this story and this one.

 

• Global news network created thanks to quicker, cheaper printing that was accessible to middle class
• New information technology adopted by previously silenced voices, those willing to take risks 
• Revolution! Martin Luther becomes the first religious leader to use printing to his advantage.He’s the world’s first best-selling author! 1518-1525 his writings accounted for ⅓ of all books sold in Germany. 
• Scientific Revolution: With printed formulas and mathematical tables in hand, scientists could trust the fidelity of existing data and devote more energy to breaking new ground.

 

Bryn looked a little into the future (and the present) of books, especially print books

 

• After watching the documentary,  The Booksellers, a film about the rare book business, but also about the future of books, Bryn did a small amount of research to look into the state of print books. When e-book readers first became viable, she remembered hearing the media wonder if paper books were dead.
• Spoiler: They’re not!
  • Book statistics: U.S. book industry statistics and facts
  • Print book sales figures have improved over the last five years and unit sales now amount to over 650 million per year. Print also remains the most popular book format among U.S. consumers, with more than 65 percent of adults having read a print book in the last twelve months.
  • Publishers Weekly: Print Book Sales Rose 8.2% in 2020
  • E-books statistics
  • Audiobooks: 2019 more than $1 Billion in audiobook sales

 

Question 3: What are you excited about regarding books?

 

Sarah is all about audiobooks! 

 

• Whispersync
• She also put a call out for Star Trek or Marvel books suggestions. 
• And hipped us to the fantastic International Printing Museum 

 

Wayward English major Bryn is excited to become a reader of books again. She might start with Loki, Where Mischief Lies, by Mackenzi Lee, thanks to Sarah’s recommendation.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Sarah brings us home: When creating our show notes, both Bryn and I were writing so much more about the books that shaped us, rather than the history of books. When we were discussing our focus for this episode, Bryn texted something profound: “Books are so personal.”

 

So I think that is the perfect way to think of it. Any other two people in the world could have a completely different discussion than we did. So we want to know: what are your top 1-3 books that have shaped you? Please write us and we will share in our NEW segment, Totally Talk To Us.

 

Thanks to those of you who have written to us, either on Instagram or the Skywalking Through Neverland Facebook Group, with your feedback on our first two episodes: @iamstarwarstime, Peter Heitman and Cadien Clark. We love hearing your thoughts!

 

About Totally Tell Me Everything

 

Two friends, one fun topic, three burning questions = lots of fun conversation! Each month we pick a topic and ask each other three questions about it - we learn about the subject, our past and each other. So come sit by us and we'll totally tell you everything!

 

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