Ep. 445 What's a Shadow Daddy? with Jess Lee

Jess Lee (0:00)

I just think that there is an assumption that romance is like cliche and flighty and smut and blah, blah, blah, blah. And sure, there are some pieces that are that, right? And I don't think that that's a bad thing. But whenever I push back, there's so many comments that I get that are like, Brock reads real books. And I'm like, well, what do you mean by that?

And I think that's bullshit.

Traci Thomas (0:30)

Welcome to The Stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them. I'm your host, Traci Thomas, and today we are joined by book influencer and friend of the podcast, Jess Lee. You might know her as the reader behind the Instagram account of literary intersections, which she uses to celebrate and elevate books by underrepresented authors. On this episode, we talk about Jess's love of romance, what the romantic genre even is, and what romance novel she would like Barack Obama to read. Our book club pick for October is Last Chance Live by Helena Haywoode Henry. Jess will be back with us on Wednesday, October 28th to discuss this novel. If you like this podcast and want more bookish content and community, please consider joining us over on Patreon and Substack. On Patreon, you can join the Stacks Pack for access to community conversations, virtual book clubs, and bonus episodes. On Substack, you can subscribe to my newsletter. You get that exclusive bonus episode, plus my hot takes on literary gossip, pop culture, news, and sports. Your support allows me to bring The Stacks to you and everyone else free every single week. If you love listening, join The Stacks Pack at patreon.com/thestacks, and subscribe to my newsletter Unstacked at tracithomas.substack.com.

Now, it's time for my conversation with Jess Lee.

All right, everybody, I'm so excited. I get to talk to one of my favorite readers, one of my friends, she and I read similarly and also very differently. And so I'm excited to bring you a genre girly, part time genre girly, full time reader girly. I am here today with my friend, Jess Lee. Jess, welcome to The Stacks.

Jess Lee (2:14)

I am actually so excited.

Traci Thomas (2:16)

I am actually so excited.

Jess Lee (2:19)

Why are you saying actually? I'm not fake excited. I'm really excited.

Traci Thomas (2:24)

Literally. Okay, Jess, people might not know you. Will you just give the people at home, I mean, ask everybody this even if it's like fucking Kamala Harris so you're not special. Everybody has to answer this question.

What's your story with books? What's your background with books? How did you become a professional reader? Talk to me.

Jess Lee (2:44)

Yeah, yeah.

So I always say that I started reading, stealing my mom's romances when I was like 11 or 12, which is probably pretty accurate. So yeah, so I read as a middle grader and really just was obsessed with it and my mom is a huge reader. And when I graduated to romances, arguably a little too early, but I'm completely normal. I really was just stealing my mom's romances and all of her like mass market paperback, historicals and that in her like romantic suspense. And that's really what I grew up on. Some pros and cons to that, which I'm assuming we'll get into, but that fostered my love of the romance genre. And I've been reading it for at this point, 26 years.

Traci Thomas (3:33)

Did your mom know that you were reading her romance novels? When did she find out and what was her reaction?

Jess Lee (3:38)

Yeah. So she knew probably a fish when I started reading Outlander. And I think I was like 15 or 16 at that point.

And then she would like give them to me, right? So like I have in, you know, in my tote of books, which are all in my other room as we redo my office, a lot of my mom's old romance books that I stole and brought to college. And every time she comes to visit, she's like, can I have that back? And I'm like, it's mine now.

No, you can't have it back. And then, yeah, I mean, I think like so many people I would just read and talk about and shove my books at so many of my friends and family. And then when I was on Bookstagram prior to the pandemic, I was like, this is pretty cool, but I don't think I could ever do it. And then during the pandemic, I was reading an absurd amount and I was like, you know, why don't I start a Bookstagram? And so I started in April, I think it was April 2020 and May 2020 and have been doing it ever since. It's definitely changed.