Episode Details

Welcome to SLOW READ, where we tackle the books you’ve always wanted to read at a pace you can handle.

Hosted by Sarah Stewart Holland and Laura Tremaine

We are currently reading The Stand by Stephen King (unabridged version)

You can find our full Reading Schedule here

Join the SLOW READ community on Substack for bonus episodes, book club meetings, and Side Quests with Sarah & Laura

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Mentioned in this episode:

The Wire

The Sopranos

American Revolution by Ken Burns

The City We Became by MK Jamison

Stephen King books mentioned:

Mr Mercedes

Billy Summers

If you prefer to read instead of listen, below is a cleaned up transcript of the episodes as well as links to all the books and Substacks we mentioned in this episode…and several fun bonus links and videos!

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Laura: Today we’re talking about Chapters 16 through 25, where the Captain Tripp’s super flu pandemic rages on. Two gangsters have a shootout in a gas station in Arizona, and our deaf-mute character, Nick Andros, basically becomes the sheriff in Arkansas.

Sarah: The sheriff of nobody.

Laura: And Larry Underwood takes care of his sick mom in New York City. And then we finally get a little more backstory to the origins and architects of this virus and of Project Blue.

Sarah: Shit’s getting dark. I don’t know how to say it any other way.

Laura: Do you think so? Because I felt like this section, with the exception of one chapter which is one of my favorites, felt a little slow to me.

Sarah: What are you talking about? We got so many villains! We got some real murderous, scary people showing up. It feels like things are starting to fall apart. This is going to be fertile ground for dark people, dark energy, dark acts. I was kind of ready for people to start dying in bigger numbers... and now that it’s started, I’m like: Oh, no.

Chapter 16: Poke, Lloyd, and the Crime Spree

Laura: Chapter 16.

Sarah: This section comes in hot.

Laura: We meet Poke and Lloyd. These are two criminals.

Sarah: I need to say this first off: In my head, I pronounced it “Poke” like a poke bowl the whole time.

Laura: I know. It’s because I’m from Oklahoma, so I was like, yeah. To poke around, to be a poke... that’s definitely a rural nickname.

Sarah: No, a poke is like a cowboy. Like “Go Pokes.” See, look at these regional differences. Meanwhile, I’m pronouncing it like I live in California and eat poke bowls all the time. Anyway, they kill a bunch of people really fast. They killed six people in the last six days.