Lynda Cohen Loigman, THE LOVE ELIXIR OF AUGUSTA STERN
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[0:42]Linda Cohen-Lugman is the author of The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern, a novel.
[0:47]She has been on this podcast a couple times already and Linda is also a contributor to on being Jewish now.
[0:53]My anthology. Linda graduated from Harvard College and Columbia Law School. Her debut novel,
[0:59]The Two Family House, was a USA Today bestseller and a nominee for the Goodreads 2016 Choice Awards in historical fiction.
[1:06]Her second novel, The War Times Sisters, which is when I met her, was selected as a woman's world book club pick and a best book of 2019 by real simple magazine.
[1:15]Her most recent book, The Matchmaker's Gift, was named a best new book by People Magazine and a best book of fall by the New York Post Parade Magazine Buzzfeed and Good Morning America.com.
[1:25]Actually, I think I wrote that article. The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern is her fourth novel.
[1:30]Welcome back, Linda. So happy to have you here to talk about The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern. Congratulations.
[1:37]Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat with you.
[1:41]Yeah, you too. Always. I loved the world that you created in this book and getting to be inside the
[1:48]pharmacist's back room and just like living in this time and with this family and everything.
[1:54]So just tell listeners what your book is about. Sure. So when the story starts, Augusta Stern
[2:00]is 79 years old and she is a lifelong pharmacist and she is sort of forced to retire from her job
[2:06]because she's been unfortunately lying about her age. We can talk about that later where that little
[2:11]nugget came from. But her niece convinces her to move down to Florida and to a retirement community
[2:16]as one does. And on her first day there she runs into Irving Rifkin, the delivery boy from her
[2:21]father's pharmacy and the man who broke her heart 60 years earlier. So she is horrified to see him.
[2:28]She is not happy to see him at all. She absolutely loads everything about him. And so in order to find
[2:36]out why and to sort of see what happened between them, I take you back to 1920s Brooklyn back to the
[2:41]world of the pharmacy back to the Stern family and great aunt Esther who comes to stay with them
[2:46]and you sort of figure out what happened back and you know back and forth. It's a dual timeline story.
[2:51]So it's a lot of fun. And I read in your author's note, which I didn't even find until I mean,
[2:55]obviously it was the end. But I was like, oh, I should have read this at the beginning. But anyway,
[2:59]I really love an author's note. Like I really love one. So I'm like an author's note freak. I
[3:04]love to write them. Yes, I love to read them. And I'd always love the backstory. So you were with
[3:10]your dad and his nursing home, imagining what would happen if an old relationship with his
[3:15]word of walk in. Yeah, the inspiration was sort of like twofold. So part of it was I had always
[3:19]sort of wanted to write a pharmacy setting because my husband's great grandmother was a pharmacist.
[3:24]It was amazing. She graduated from pharmacy school like in 1921. And she lied about her age. So she
[3:30]used to doctor her certificate because you could do that then. Remember white out like when white out
[3:35]I remember white out. Yeah, why that was a thing. So, and actually like I'm going to show you
[3:40]I have a little show and tell this is her mortar and pestle that my mugger. Let me let me keep
[3:46]on my desk for a little while now while I was writing this story. So I wanted to write a story
[3:49]back here. But I had no idea exactly like what? And then in 2021, I was moving my dad to an assisted
[3:56]living facility after an illness. And like I just sat with him in the lobby and listened to everybody
[4:03]chat which is where he loves to be. He loves to be there. And my mom died like almost 17 years ago.
[4:08]So for 15 years my dad dated and he like never stopped looking for love like for a companionship
[4:15]and sitting in that you know sitting in the lobby with all of these people like there was drama
[4:20]and there was intrigue and there like you know they were flirting like it was crazy. It was like
[4:24]being in a middle school cafeteria only it was an an assisted living lobby. So the inspiration came
[4:30]from sort of all those places. Both my grandmothers were an assisted living sort of at the end
[4:35]of the last like you know portions of their lives. And it was such a thing. I mean my grandmother
[4:40]had she's like oh this man always comes to my door. He dates everybody. I don't want to be part
[4:45]of his you know like no no no like I'm not it was so funny. I mean yeah. The voices like really hit
[4:54]you know when you hear all of those people chattering it's like and you remember your grandparents
[5:00]voices or you know I'm older than you. So my dad is like that it was that age. And so you just
[5:07]you hear all the longing in their voice and sort of like the lack of filter and it just it
[5:13]there's a lot of humor there and there's a lot of drama there and there's just a lot of stuff
[5:19]to write about. Yeah I heard some crazy statistic that like STDs are on the rise in nursing homes.
[5:24]Did you hear that? Oh yeah there were articles right? There was some article about that like
[5:29]in Florida or something like yes I don't yes yes I've heard that I've heard that too. Yeah we don't
[5:34]need to talk about it. Okay no we're not good at that. But yeah I've heard about that. Well let's go back
[5:39]to the old setting in the first place because that was such an interesting world. And even with
[5:46]the magic chicken soup that like comes into the book which of course every time I get sick my mother
[5:53]is like it's medicinal just yeah yeah. And the the pounding on the door and you know the middle
[6:00]of the night demands and setting boundaries and how you know the pharmacist was the source of all
[6:07]the secrets in the community like it was a really important role to have to talk a little bit about
[6:13]that. I mean I so when I thought about this book I started reading memoirs of pharmacists and I
[6:20]spoke to a lot of pharmacists. I'm really lucky in my town there's a local pharmacy that's not a
[6:24]chain and like it's called Drug Mart. Drug Shoutout to Drug Mart in Millwood New York and they like
[6:31]the pharmacist there is a super nice guy and I said like do you know any older pharmacists who I
[6:37]might be like who's the oldest pharmacist I could speak with then he said you can talk to my father
[6:41]who still works and he was like a stock boy and delivery boy and a pharmacist in Brooklyn. It
[6:46]was a little it was a little later than a gust of stern because a gust of stern it's 1920s Brooklyn
[6:51]so he was not around for 1920s Brooklyn. And I read these memoirs and that was where I really
[6:55]understood that you know where the pharmacist was really like your your priest your rabbi your
[7:03]professor your therapist your keeper of secrets it was a very special role in the community
[7:08]because people didn't go to doctors all the time then you know you had a problem you didn't
[7:12]go to the doctor you went to the pharmacist and you asked the pharmacist so they and they knew
[7:16]a lot and they kept a lot of secrets and that's something that becomes sort of an issue with a
[7:21]gust of and her father because when she's young she shows such an interest in his field and he
[7:24]says to her like if I let you sort of shadow me and I let you be here in this back room the
[7:29]prescription room where the where everything is being made and people talk to me you can't ever tell
[7:35]anyone what you hear yeah it's a great sort of trust yeah yeah he said in this store people speak
[7:42]to me in confidence he said they trust that whatever they disclosed to me will not be revealed to
[7:46]anyone else whatever you hear whatever you learn about a customer is never ever to be repeated
[7:51]if you break this rule there will be no second chance as he spoke the words and then he goes on
[7:56]and says being a pharmacist is more than powders and pills sometimes it means keeping other people
[8:01]secrets yeah yeah so it becomes an issue for Augusta you know at certain points in the book
[8:08]and it's a difficult sort of balance because she's caught between her father and her father's way
[8:14]of doing things which is very regimented and very scientific and then the way that this great
[8:19]aunt who comes to say with them does things so Esther is that is that person and she comes to say
[8:24]with them because a gust is mother dies and in sort of like an ironic terrible twist of fate her
[8:31]mother dies of diabetes which was very common you know people died used to die of diabetes because
[8:37]before insulin was invented people died you know they starved to death basically and so she dies
[8:44]just before insulin becomes widely manufactured and popular and that was kind of a cruel thing to
[8:51]do on my part like as an author but you know we it was just to show here is this man poor Solomon
[8:58]Stern who has every possible medicine at his disposal and nothing there is nothing that can save
[9:04]his wife and so that is just a heartbreaking scene it's a heartbreaking idea but I wanted to include it
[9:10]and then of course without his wife there the house starts to fall apart and great aunt Esther
[9:15]comes to say and she sort of swoops in and she is this old world sort of character has been in
[9:23]the United States for a long time sort of going from relative to relative but she's an immigrant
[9:27]and she has her own way of doing things and she dresses like in sackcloths you know she sorry I
[9:33]forgot to turn on the turn off to syrup she dresses you know in these terrible like terrible dresses
[9:39]and she's just always sort of making her concoctions and when people in the store are not healed
[9:46]by whatever it is that Solomon Stern can offer she sort of gives them a wink and a nod and she says
[9:51]come upstairs with me because of course the family lives over the store and she has the stuff
[9:55]that she's making in her kitchen and when you said that about chicken soup and how your mother
[9:59]said it was medicinal
[10:00]There's like a phrase that people would call chicken soup Jewish penicillin and so when I when I was thinking about that
[10:06]I was thinking you know what would it be that
[10:09]Esther would give to people that would heal them and I figured it would be chicken soup that she would doctor in like sort of mysterious ways
[10:16]so that became that became the the main
[10:20]Potion kind of that she uses. I actually I know it was a bit cruel
[10:24]But I really did love that you put that about penicillin. I mean not penicillin with but insulin because I hadn't
[10:30]realized that about diabetes and you know my husband Kyle his mom died of COVID and I know that when the vaccine came out like just after
[10:40]It was so frustrating. It's good because it's like oh my gosh like life comes so much down to timing and it's so unfair at times
[10:47]Yeah, so I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that various ways. I think so it's yeah
[10:53]Yeah, I mean with all with I mean you had the perfect that's the perfect example, you know and
[10:59]It was just I remember seeing that you know
[11:01]I mean you and I have known each other for a long time and it was so such a painful thing and I mean
[11:07]To watch and to see and it happened that way for so many families. Yeah, and it's just heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking
[11:15]On the other hand there were times in the book where
[11:18]Medicine does work even we have to like it doesn't and you know
[11:22]Can I talk about who I mean? Yeah, sure
[11:24]Irving when he was younger okay Irving when he was younger
[11:28]Went through this horrific bout of illness and it looked like perhaps he wasn't going to make it and I guess it was so upset about it
[11:35]And and you know just the frustration that and helplessness you feel when medicine can't fix things like we're all sort of
[11:43]Under this belief that like medicine can fix everything. We're really
[11:46]Cannot obviously and that made it the fast forward story in real life like so interesting as you kind of
[11:53]Take us through that at the same time as you develop that new relationship
[11:58]Fastboarding and then sort of catch us up to what happens which was amazing tell me about how
[12:04]How to do that with like from a craft standpoint with the pacing and all of that because you take us through the present day
[12:10]You take us through the past and you make it so that there's like a reveal that I mean
[12:16]It's it's really great the way it happened. Do you have to plot that out? Like how do you do that?
[12:20]I'm really not a great
[12:22]Outliner or I sort of so this is a dual timeline story and people have different ways of doing dual timelines
[12:28]This is my second dual timeline after the first one. I vowed I would never do
[12:32]Because they're really difficult because precisely what you're saying the plotting just figuring out the structure of it when I write
[12:41]Any book I write it from the beginning to the end in the order that you read it
[12:45]I can't do it any other way. I really like my books to follow
[12:49]It's part of writing the character for me like I like to see how the character develops
[12:53]I can't tell you necessarily in the beginning and all of the things that contribute to the characters
[12:59]Identity just who they are. It's sort of it's like a like a snowball
[13:02]You know it picks up along the way, you know like it gets bigger and bigger and bigger as I go along
[13:08]So when I write a dual timeline
[13:09]I write it also in the order that you read it and that is very challenging because a lot of people will write
[13:14]One timeline then the other and chop it up and put it together and for me
[13:18]I really need to write it all out and see when are those dramatic moments
[13:22]that I want to sort of leave a tiny cliffhanger and then
[13:26]Move you to the next move you to the other timeline
[13:28]So it's back and forth and it takes a long time. That's why I'm a slow writer. I'm a really slow writer
[13:33]I'm not. I mean, I kept slow writer. You've been on this podcast
[13:37]I mean, you've had like three books come out in the last couple of years four books
[13:40]No, it feels slow right now. I'm right now. I'm kind of I'm struggling with with my next one
[13:45]But it feels slow, but it I mean, I I kind of start outlining midway through like I know where I want it to end up
[13:53]But things come as I go along and I just sort of start making lists and the
[13:58]Further I get into the book
[13:59]And I'm sure you feel this too like when you are three quarters of the way through a book writing it you're like
[14:05]I got to wrap all this up
[14:06]What's gonna happen and then you like you have you start paying more attention to the pacing and to that as you go along because
[14:14]You need to finish you need to get
[14:17]Out everything you want to get out and that can be a challenge
[14:19]So I don't outline in the beginning, but by the end of the book
[14:22]I have a very detailed like list of all the things that have to happen
[14:26]And that's how I kind of go around. That's how I don't know. That's how it works out impressed totally impressed
[14:32]Well, I loved I mean this reminded me so much of my grandparents when they were younger and like the communal pool
[14:38]And I mean, it just really took me back
[14:41]I actually ran away once in their little
[14:43]Retirement community to the pool which is around the corner
[14:46]Yeah, it was my biggest rebellion of you know under that's so funny because when I was young
[14:51]I once ran away and I ran to my high school football field
[14:56]Which was like I could walk to from my house
[14:58]Yeah, and it was so and that was my biggest rebellion and of course there were no phones right so they had to drive around and look for
[15:04]Exactly. Yeah, maybe driving around like shouting your name
[15:07]Yeah, they just came around with their golf cart. I mean, I was literally around
[15:13]My mother was driving around and he read screaming my name out of the car
[15:17]Really embarrassing it was the embarrassment that made me go home
[15:20]Like I didn't want her driving around anymore
[15:23]I think I ran away because I really wanted like a shirt from desperately seeking soon
[15:28]Or there was like something Madonna related, but anyway. Oh, I ran away because of a boy
[15:33]So no, I was young. I was like blind or something
[15:37]Okay, so in addition to the level extra coming out
[15:41]I have roped you into this on being Jewish now anthology with constant emails and
[15:47]Mans and which I know it's really it's so special. It's so special
[15:52]Can you talk a little about your essay and what like what you wrote for it and why you figure?
[15:57]Yeah, so I
[15:58]Zibi and I are both part of I feel funny speaking for you
[16:01]I know you're like right there
[16:02]Zibi and I are both part of a group called artists against antisemitism and it was zibby's actually
[16:06]I think it was your idea
[16:07]I'm pretty sure was your idea to have people write essays not political in any way about
[16:13]What it's like for Jewish artists right now or anybody really
[16:17]But I think it's mostly artists who contributed and it was really easy for me to write that essay actually because
[16:23]I am Jewish
[16:25]Proud to be Jewish and I write Jewish books whatever that means my books are not about the Holocaust
[16:31]They're not about the war. They're not about anything like that. They're just
[16:36]People say right what you know and I'm Jewish so I wrote about I read about Jewish families mostly and my first book was a post war book
[16:42]Whatever, but when I wrote that first book honestly. I didn't know I wrote historical fiction
[16:47]I didn't know I wrote Jewish fiction until Amazon until all the Amazon categories told me so and then I started to wonder
[16:54]With my second book, you know, and then my third the matchmaker's gift which was probably my most Jewish book
[17:00]Because it had a lot of Yiddish and like old world kind of phrases and I started to wonder like am I
[17:06]When the matchmaker's gift it did really well, but it didn't I thought it was gonna be like my big break-up
[17:10]You know like I thought it was gonna do something different from the other ones really different and when it didn't I had like my doubts
[17:16]Like am I doing something wrong? Am I should I not be writing Jewish books? Should I should I be trying to appeal to a broader audience?
[17:22]Am I being pigeonholed like what what what what am I doing wrong? I just went down that sort of rabbit hole in doubt
[17:28]Which a lot of artists do for a lot of different reasons
[17:31]Whatever you are wherever you come from you have that and then October 7th happened and then I just didn't have any doubts anymore
[17:38]because I was you know it just changed how I felt about
[17:44]success in the time of war successes being alive right so it changed how I felt about so many things and I was
[17:52]You know my books are about joyful things and just they're about
[17:57]Jewish people, but they're just about life and I hope you know if if the purpose of reading to me
[18:02]it is to
[18:04]Spread empathy to cultivate empathy
[18:07]I hope that my books can do that because you read a book about a Jewish person. It's just like you then maybe it's not such a mysterious or
[18:15]Controversial thing, you know, so that that's kind of what my essay is about. Well, that's exactly what my essay
[18:21]That's exactly what my essay is about. Full spoiler. You don't even need to read it anymore
[18:25]But still buy the book. You still need to read it everyone else's essays will be new to you and to me and I think
[18:32]It's just I don't know. I just think it's a great thing. So I'm really excited about it
[18:36]It's it's a little hard for me because I would love to be going doing the events with you
[18:41]But my book is coming out so I like my October is completely I'm not even I'm just gone
[18:47]So that's a little bit frustrating for me because I'd love to be with everybody talking about that book
[18:51]But there's only so many books. I can no time
[18:54]One day although you seem to be able to be everywhere at once. I need your time machine. Why don't you lend it to me?
[19:01]Do you have one of those things that like from Harry Potter the thing that she turns
[19:05]Where she can be like 12 places at once. I need your whatever that magical thing is called
[19:11]In one place at once, but yeah, it's definitely a lot
[19:15]But I don't have another book coming out now and you do so
[19:18]Well, so eventually eventually
[19:21]This will be my book of the year. This is this worked out perfectly. You know, okay. Yeah
[19:25]It ends up and obviously I know we're joking about it
[19:28]But just so so important to be doing something and donating the proceeds and
[19:33]The biggest gift of it all has been getting to know all the contributors
[19:36]Well over email and through their words and everything so that's been it's been such a nice community
[19:42]So sorry for the emails, but now I so you both don't bother me
[19:47]Because I'm sending more today
[19:49]Well, there you go. So I mean you have so much going on
[19:52]I was gonna say like what else you're like about to go on the roads. Where are you going for your tour and my daughter's getting married in January
[20:00]Yeah, so that's super exciting. I'm going, I'm doing a bunch and I'm doing two things in
[20:05]New York City, which I've never like really done before, like a launch in New York City. So that's
[20:09]October 8th with Amy Popol, which I'm so excited about. She said I'm wearing downtown. Yeah,
[20:13]and then things up. I live in Westchester. So things up in Chappaca. I'm going to Parnassus books,
[20:18]which I am so excited about with Lauren Congessen. I'm going to speak with her there and she's a
[20:23]great romance writer. And it's in a mini mall just so you know, that's okay.
[20:28]Just so you know, I thought I went to the wrong place. You have to like turn it.
[20:32]Yeah, I think the parking lot of the mini mall and then there's Parnassus.
[20:35]Yeah, yeah. I think I was there, but I think there was an old location that was
[20:41]closer to Vanderbilt, closer to the university that I went to, like when I went to see that
[20:44]school with my daughter, I think. Yeah, and I'm going to Georgia to Foxdale, which will be really
[20:49]fun. Florida, of course, I have to get to, you know, the Florida libraries. I'll be, but I'll be at the
[20:55]Mount Pleasant Library in Pleasantville, New York, and at which books are being sold by Village
[20:59]Bookstore in Pleasantville, which is amazing. And I'm going to be at scattered books in Chappaca.
[21:03]Another amazing independent store. So many great places Elm Street books and you can't in.
[21:08]Just, you know, it's just a lot of fun. But the traveling, you know, DC politics and prose,
[21:15]I'm so excited to go to politics and prose with Susan Cole. So that's going to be really fun.
[21:20]Yeah. And it's been fun. I've been getting like with the early reading thing with people reading
[21:24]early. I've been getting emails from people who are pharmacists, which has been the most
[21:28]interesting. Yeah. Yeah. You should go to like, you should go to a pharmacist convention or something.
[21:34]I know. So serious. You should look it up. Go look it up and get a boost and something.
[21:39]Get a boost. I don't know. You should. Yeah. That would, well, it would be fun. It would be fun.
[21:44]My biggest regret is that I didn't get, I really wanted to get, there's a pharmacy museum
[21:48]in New Orleans and I really wanted to get there and I didn't get there. I just couldn't
[21:54]ask them to sell it and a gift shop. Maybe. Yeah. See, you should be my marketing person.
[22:01]I also think there's a huge marketing potential with this book with a retirement community and the
[22:06]people who are sort of reluctantly retiring and what to do with yourself. And, you know, it doesn't
[22:11]have to be elderly. I mean, there are people who's jobs for some to retire early, like athletes and
[22:16]things like that. So the sort of notion that like you're primed and ready to go and the industry
[22:21]tells you that you have to stop. I mean, that's a very sort of relatable and pervasive thing that
[22:26]you write about really beautifully. Well, thank you. I do think that's, I think that's a huge,
[22:31]it's a huge issue. I think it's just a huge issue. Just aging, you know, aging with dignity,
[22:37]aging with grace, aging, and still living, you know, and that's something that I really wanted to
[22:42]show in this story. And for women, especially, you know, Augustus was a really strong woman.
[22:48]She, she's unconventional. She leads a very unconventional life. And she has a lot to offer
[22:55]because she listens to people, you know, that in that confessor role. And I think one of the themes
[22:59]actually that we didn't touch on yet. And I don't know how much more time we have. But one of the
[23:02]things that that's also I just wanted to mention in this book is, you know, women in medicine,
[23:07]so often are not listened to, right? Like we, we've all had like those doctors who go and you have
[23:12]a pain and they tell you it's anxiety. I had vertigo for like six months and they kept telling me
[23:16]that it was stress and it was not stress. There was a real reason I heard it go. And so,
[23:21]like, why did you have it? It was this vestibular vestibular vertigo that happens a lot like before
[23:28]menopause, like Perry menopausal kind of thing. And like I had to take, yeah, but finally when I
[23:33]found someone who listens to me who did all these tests and like, you know, and so Esther is that
[23:39]person for a lot of women in the story. She's the one who listens to them when their doctors
[23:45]don't, when the conventional sort of methods don't listen to her. So that is a really important
[23:51]thing. And I think that's, I think like it's sort of, we have to listen to like older people too,
[23:57]you know, like I think a lot of times with older people, we, we sort of dismiss what they're saying
[24:01]and we just like say like, oh, they're all, you know, they don't know what they're losing it or
[24:06]whatever, but it's, it's important, you know, to listen. I don't know if you've watched yet. It
[24:10]just came out three women is now a series on stars, the book by Lisa today. Anyway, in the first
[24:17]episode, which is all I've seen so far, but it was very good. There's a whole scene of someone who
[24:21]has, she's been wearing gloves because her fingers are numb and one random doctor said, maybe
[24:27]you need to do that. And she's just basically like, no one listens to me. And there's this very
[24:30]intense scene where she goes to this new healer who finally sees her and like looks her in the eyes
[24:35]and is like, you have, you know, whatever it was by room, I'll share whatever it was. She's like,
[24:41]you have this. And this is what you need to do. And she's like crying with relief. And it's that,
[24:46]that, you know, the moment of like eye contact and pausing and being like, yes, you have something
[24:53]that's worth talking about. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's true. Like when I had that vertigo, I got, I mean,
[24:59]people were telling me, you're dehydrated. You're what I was like, it just would not go away. It was
[25:03]the worst feeling. And I got really depressed because you just don't feel like yourself and no one
[25:11]is listening to you and no one is, you know, I mean, I went to this ENT like three different
[25:16]times. Like, yeah, it's, it's, I could see I didn't, I don't think I cried when I saw the doctor
[25:22]who helped me, but I definitely, I felt that, I felt that kind of like thank God that she is
[25:28]is listening to me. And she is doing these tests and she found something that explains it.
[25:34]It's an important thing. Vertigo is the worst. I had it just for like a day or two during COVID.
[25:41]And I had to walk like holding the walls, like my whole world was like an earthquake or like I
[25:46]was on a boat. And it was so terrible. And they're like, you probably have an ear infection. I was like,
[25:51]I don't have an ear infection. I have COVID. Like what are you talking about? Yeah. Yeah.
[25:56]It's the worst. I'm so sorry you had that for so long. Oh, no, it's okay. It's, it was years and years
[26:00]ago. It was like, it was what was right before my daughter's bought me and she's getting married.
[26:05]So it's like, yeah, it was a long time ago. But yeah, you know, things in life come like that,
[26:11]right? Like crazy things and then happy things. And I don't know, like there's, there's a lot of,
[26:19]I don't know, I'm going to wax poetic, but like the older I get, the more I really feel that.
[26:24]it's like all of the sorrow and all the joy just makes together. And I guess that's what I
[26:30]try to do in my books too. You know, like I really want to make you cry when I when you read my
[26:36]book. And I also really want to make you laugh. Like I really want to do both. Yeah. Cause like that's,
[26:42]you know, that's life. I love it. Well, I loved the end. I love it. It was such a satisfying conclusion.
[26:50]Like the whole thing. Yeah, it's like a grippier heart. Like, oh, I mean, it was very satisfied.
[26:57]That makes me happy. It was good. It's a good feeling when people feel that way.
[27:02]So congratulations, Linda. So great. Thank you. I wish you all the best on your tour and launch
[27:08]and everything. And I'll see you soon. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Thanks so much for chatting with me.
[27:14]Of course. Thanks for the book. All right. All right. Bye.
[27:19]Thanks for listening to momstone have time to read books. If you love it, please leave a review
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