We’re inviting a brand new contributor on the show – though she is an old friend and known voice on the network, Danielle McLaughlin. Let’s give her a very warm welcome by putting her mental timer and linguistics to the test with a healthy dose of Rapid Fire Review.

Aamer Khan, Jacob Shymanski, and Ramya Amuthan review “The Maid” by Nita Prose.

A 2022 New York Times Best Seller, it sold over 2 million copies, but that doesn’t mean we’re sold on it. Jacob plans to approach this review with ruthless efficiency and discipline, but the rest of us are only in it for the chaos.

Highlights

• Introducing “The Maid” by Nita Prose (00:00)
• The Agenda (00:51)
• Synopsis (01:36)
• Addressing the Elephant in the Room / Is it Icky? (04:01)
• Beefing with The Maid (13:41)
• Redeeming Qualities (if Applicable) (21:41)
• Quality versus Popularity (23:58)
• [Spoiler] The Ending / Doing the Right Thing (28:16)
• Concluding Thoughts (31:53)

Find "The Maid: A Novel" by Nita Prose on: CELA or Audible

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER / GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

"A twist-and-turn whodunit, set in a five-star hotel, from the perspective of the maid who finds the body. Think Clue. Think page-turner."—Glamour

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE / ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Stylist, Glamour, W magazine, PopSugar, The Rumpus, Book Riot, CrimeReads, She Reads, Daily Hive, Canadian Living ...

"An endearing debut. . . . The reader comes to understand Molly’s worldview, and to sympathize with her longing to be accepted—a quest that gives The Maid real emotional heft." —The New York Times

"The Maid is a masterful, charming mystery that will touch your heart in ways you could never expect. . . . This is the smart, quirky, uplifting read we need." —Ashley Audrain, #1 bestselling author of The Push.

A dead body is one mess she can’t clean up on her own.

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others.

Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself.

No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid.

Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed.

Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanour has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle.

Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black.

But will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

Both a Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.

As the days get cold and dark, we settle in and hibernate with our books, maybe revisiting old favourites. But what draws us back to books we’ve already read? Is re-reading a waste of time? Karen McKay from the Centre for Equitable Library Access joins us to share her top cozy reads, and we explore the reasons we turn to our comfort books over and over again.

Literary characters make for good friends, great enemies, andrealistic mirrors of who we are. Sometimes, we use them to imagine our lives in different ways; other times we just can’t believe what they would get up to. We dive into the ‘why’ of connecting with fictional characters, and the depths of what makes them stick with us.

Living with narcolepsy and cataplexy, Michelle Weger (rhymes with eager) has turned her toughest experiences into fuel to power her success. Don't Snooze Your Dreams, her memoir and self-help guide, takes us on her journey-from managing a rare debilitating sleep disorder to launching a successful business and becoming an advocate for narcolepsy awareness. Michelle and Jacob get into what it means to be diagnosed, the real role writing a book played in Michelle’s rehabilitation, and more about Michelle’s ‘soul-dog’ Maximus.

Well… Can you? Some of us are not picking up a book if it’s labelled as anything other than human-narrated. With AI in the mix, others of us can’t even tell it’s not even recorded by a real human. Then there are a handful of us who are soothed by the familiar tones of our own screen-readers. We go through your hot takes on the topic.

Jacob Shymanski thought he was Stevie Wonder’s Number 1 fan, until he heard Barack and Michelle Obama’s relationship started with bonding over the guy. We get into it when we review The Wonder of Stevie, an Audible Original Production, written and Hosted by New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic, Wesley Morris.
Sara Hillis, Ramya Amuthan, and Jacob Shymanski have a whole lot to say on the Audible production, and their impressions of Stevie Wonder after checking out this project.