Sarah Stewart Holland

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 We have come to the end of our journey with The Stand by Stephen King. In this episode, we dissect what it all meant and what we’ll remember about this experience. Make sure to subscribe on Substack for our next SLOW READ! Mentioned: Wolf Hall War and Peace Don Quixote Brothers Karamazov Blazing Eye Sees All Sister Helen Prejean / Dead Man Walking The Circle That Doesn’t Close Laura: We are here today at the end of The Stand by Stephen King to close the circle. Sarah: But I think it’s a lie. Why did he say the circle closes? That’s not what happens at the end of this book. Laura: That’s true. That’s totally true. But it starts with “the circle opens.” That’s the opening. So he has to close it. Sarah: Or is it just that the circle continues? That would have been a more accurate title for this epilogue. Just saying. Laura: I do have to say that I purposely, when I made our reading schedule for The Stand — we knew we wanted to do it for six months, like January to June, which we did — I planned it to close our circle here the same week the book opens, which is the second week of June. Just because I liked that symmetry. Sarah: I love it. I love a symmetry. Laura: We have a few little pages to get through, but before we do that — we will be continuing the slow read. We have picked our next book. Sarah: I picked it and I forced it on Laura. That’s the truth. Laura: We’re going to tell you all about that next week, where you’ll hear the reveal. If you cannot wait another second to find out the book, our paid members learned last week during our book club meeting. So you can go watch the replay of that if you just can’t stand it another second. But today we’re going to tackle “dusk of a summer evening” and the circle closing — which is a lie, because it doesn’t actually close. Sarah: It doesn’t actually close, but there are things to say about how King ended this whole thing. Because if you do any sort of Reddit search, any sort of Googling about The Stand , what people want to talk about is the end. Laura: Pretty much. Wheth

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 REMINDER: Our final book club meeting discussing The Stand will be THURSDAY, JUNE 11 at 6pm PT / 8pm CT / 9pm ET and we’ll be announcing our next SLOW READ! You don’t want to miss it. Mentioned in this episode: * The Shining by Stephen King * Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel * The Crocodile Hunter * “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (”…if the fates allow”) * Noah Kahan, “Maine” * Steel Magnolias The Stand, or The Walk? Laura: How are you feeling? Sarah: Well, it’s giving Sopranos . You know how in The Sopranos it was the penultimate episode that usually contained the most action? I feel like that show set up that structure — although apparently not, because The Stand has been around a lot longer. The main action, especially a majority of the violence, the falling out between Randall Flagg and members of the Free Zone, the nuclear bomb — all of that happened in our last section. So now we’re getting that real finale. We’re caring for the characters we really loved. We’re seeing where they ended up. We’re tying up some loose ends. Laura: I felt like these last chapters post-nuclear-bomb were so arduous. I felt like King is personally trying to remind us that this whole thing is about the journey and not the destination, which is such an annoying message. I was just like, we are still walking . It should have been called The Walk , not The Stand . Honestly, the whole book is just about journeying. Sarah: Well, I will say this. It’s not standing still, that’s for sure. But there’s a moment near the end where Stu says they’ll have to stand a watch for him. So it really felt like this conclusion of the book was more a philosophy: it’s not that you have to walk forever, but that you do have to stand watch. Maybe the stand wasn’t some sort of high-noon final battle between good and evil, which is what I expected when I started the book. It’s more like standing watch — standing watch for our worst instincts, standing watch for the ways in which humans can perpetuate great cruelty and harm on each other. We’re standing sentry, keeping an eye out. And even though I’m an Enneagram One and I love a black-and-white conclusion, I thought this was truer, wiser. I really liked it. Laura: It also seems to be saying that nothing is ever really over. It might be over for you individually, if you come to the end of your story, but life just keeps on keeping on. I have always quibbled a teeny tiny bit with how we spend these last chapters with just Stu and Tom — and even primarily Stu. We’re in Stu’s mind mostly. It’s no longer an ensemble cast. We started all the way back in Arnette, Texas, at the gas station — Stu is our first point man — and then we also end

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 Mentioned in this episode: * Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger * 1984 by George Orwell * Paradise Lost by John Milton * Carrie by Stephen King We Stood Sarah: We have been reading Stephen King’s epic The Stand , and I think we’ve come to the part where we stood. Did we stand? Laura: I think we’re still standing. Sarah: Are we standing? Laura: I think we stood. I think we did it. We are wobbling in our woo! Sarah: We would love for you to join us for our final book club meetings for The Stand . There’s obviously going to be a lot to say as we wrap up this epic novel. All of those are coming up in June. You need to check our Substack for details of our book club meetings, our final episodes, and maybe some announcements for what we’re doing next. All of that is going to be on Substack. You can join us there at slowreadbookclub.com and we’re going to have side quest conversations for you. Tomorrow our side quest will be on summer reading and summer plans. We can’t wait to talk about that with you. Laura: Yep. If you join us at the Slow Read Substack, you will get all of our side quests that we’ve been covering through this time. And they have been wide ranging, friends. Sarah: They really have. Sometimes they go along with the book. Sometimes they don’t. Laura: They don’t. But they are excellent conversations with Sarah and I, only for our Substack members. Over on Slow Read, go to slowreadbookclub.com for all of that and more. Sarah: And more. “Is That It?” — First Reactions to the Ending Sarah: We’re going to talk about chapter 72 and 73, and I deserve an award for not texting you the second I finished the section. It was hard. If I had finished this section before we saw each other in person for the first time in 12 years, I wouldn’t have been able to resist. I didn’t really plan to not read it until after, but I’m glad it worked out that way or I would not have been able to keep my mouth shut. Laura: Because

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 Mentioned in this episode: * Michael Pollan on the Ezra Klein Show * Rosemary’s Baby (1968 film) * The Sopranos The Announcement Before We Begin Laura: Hello, I’m Laura Tremaine. Sarah: And I’m Sarah Stewart Holland. Laura: This is Slow Read, where we tackle the books you’ve always wanted to read at a pace you can handle. And we are in the final chapters of The Stand by Stephen King. Sarah: If you have been reading along with us since January, lordy, things are finally happening. And if you are binging and catching up with us, well, welcome. Laura: There is a lot to discuss, including whether or not Randall Flagg is a bride’s dream come true. Sarah: He is not. Laura: Spoiler for the whole episode. He is not. Sarah: Now, we would love for you to join us for our last couple of book club meetings for The Stand . Our May meeting is next week. And then we’ll have a big final meeting in June to process the end of The Stand and our whole slow reading experience together. You will want to be there for these meetings because they’re going to be very satisfying to discuss this novel after being with these characters for six months — and each other for that matter. And we’ll be revealing what our next Slow Read is going to be. It’s a big one. It’s a big announcement. Laura: These book club meetings are for our Substack paying members only. And when you join us over there at the Slow Read Substack, you will get not only our book club Zooms with me and Sarah, but you’ll also get a host of other goodies, like all of our Side Quests where we share our personal stories about our dreams, death, parenthood, love triangles. Don’t you want to hear us talk about those things that are tangentially related to The Stand that we have been discussing for the last five, six months? Join us over on slowreadbookclub.com. That’s on Substack. The Balance of Good and Evil (Before We Even Get to Chapter 65) Laura: Okay, Sarah. Chapters 65 through 71. Wow. Sarah: It’s weird because Stephen King has spent the whole book setting up how powerful Randall Flagg is. And then the closer they get, he’s starting to poke holes in that power — which felt like a lot of what this section was. But it hasn’t really lessened my trepidation for our boys as they get closer to Vegas. You know what I mean? Laura: A lot of things I think are happening. He

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 If you prefer to read instead of listen, below is a cleaned up transcript of the episode as well as links to all the books and Substacks we mentioned in this episode…and several fun bonus links and videos! Mentioned in this episode: * The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien * The Tune of Things: Is Consciousness God? (Christian Wilman in Harper’s, 2025) * Moby Dick by Herman Melville * The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne * Paradise Lost by John Milton * “Top of the World” by The Chicks (Official Video) * Stand By Me (1986 film) — IMDb The Writing in This Section Sarah: Laura, after a very long time in the free zone, we are back with Randall Flagg and his crew, which have been varying levels of infiltrated by the committee spies. How did you feel about this section? Laura: I thought these particular chapters were some of the best written of the whole entire book. I have two standout sections that I consider the best in terms of incredible sentences and just the craft of it — this is one of them. Not a ton of wild imagination necessarily, but the sentences in this section, I was like, oh, that’s so well written. How he looped back several different things, and then the section many hundreds of pages ago with Glenn Bateman — that one felt really well written too, really poetic. But this section feels different. Like he was in a flow state, Mr. King, when he did this part. Sarah: I totally agree. I thought it was really engaging. And I also want to say — in this section as a whole, King makes a ton of literary references. He references Edgar Allan Poe, he references Lord of the Rings . I looked up the law book that Judge Ferris is reading, the one King mentions multiple times, and that’s a real book — it’s literally about racial social justice. I looked at it and was like, okay, he is doing some things. King is doing some things. This is pre-B

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 ______ Mentioned in this episode: * Giants in the Earth by Ole Edvart Rølvaag * The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood * How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan * Contagion (film, 2011) Living Inside the Book Laura: And after a few hundred pages of peaceful community building, some stuff really happens in this section finally. Sarah: I’d say so. I found myself traveling recently to Vegas of all places. And I was driving and I looked up at the moon and it was like fully half. And I’m like, oh, we’re not to the full moon for Tom Cullen. As if I have to wait for the full moon in my life for him to come back. I’m like real in it. I noticed every mention of Boulder. I noticed every mention when I was walking around Vegas. It feels like almost at the pace it’s happening. I’m a little stressed and I’m just in it. The anticipation of what’s going to happen next, especially after this section, is very, very high. Laura: I am having a similar experience by doing this so slowly. I’m reading it so differently than I would read any other novel, which changes your relationship to the character. Of course it’s a reread for me. Where if you’re mildly irritated by a character, you’re just reading so fast that you don’t really sit with those emotions. You’re like, well, that’s sort of annoying, and you just keep it moving because you’re propelled by the plot or by finishing or whatever. By doing it slowly, it really changes the way I think about the characters because, like you said, we’re kind of in it real time, like they’re friends. In the past, when I didn’t have much sympathy for Larry Underwood because he just seemed very narcissistic, on this read, doing it slowly, I’m sort of seeing the fullness of his character differently—and having a lot of sympathy for him until we get to this section and he wore me slick. Sarah: This is always my experience with slow reads. I read War and Peace last year and I just felt like I lived about 20 percent of my life in Russia all year long. When you do a slow read, you also live a little bit in the book. You’re not hopping in and out. You’re not speeding through. You’re just existing there and soaking up all the slow changes and the atmosphere and the annoying people and the people you like and everybody’s choices. That’s why I like it so much. Laura: Because when you read quickly, you get the high level of what an author is doing with a character. You understand if they’re meant to be manipulative or the hero. But when you go slowly, you just feel like you know them. You can sort of think about this book when you’re driving around town doing your errands, like you would think about people you know in real life. It’s just really a different experience, but I’m loving that part. <strong

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 If you prefer to read instead of listen, below is a cleaned up transcript of the episode as well as links to all the books and Substacks we mentioned in this episode…and several fun bonus links and videos! Mentioned in this episode: * The Stand by Stephen King * Cujo by Stephen King * Kojak (CBS, 1973–1978, starring Telly Savalas) * The Message (Bible in contemporary language) * Erin Hicks Moon’s Substack * Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (the 90s movie with the two dogs and the cat) Welcome to Slow Read: The Stand. We are your hosts Sarah Stewart Holland and Laura Tremaine. This is episode [N] of Slow Read: The Stand. If you prefer to read instead of listen, below is a cleaned up transcript of the episode as well as links to all the books and Substacks we mentioned in this episode…and several fun bonus links and videos! Mentioned in this episode: * The Stand by Stephen King * Cujo by Stephen King * Kojak (CBS, 1973–1978, starring Telly Savalas) * The Message (Bible in contemporary language) * Erin Hicks Moon’s Substack * Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (the 90s movie with the two dogs and the cat) Chapter 52 - Mother Abagail’s Crisis Sarah: We are now deep into Stephen King’s The Stand . Laura: Deep. Sarah: Deep. And this week we’re talking about chapters 52 through 55 and all the ridiculous things it contains. Do you like what I did there with “ridiculous things”? L

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 _____ Mentioned in this episode: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams Set This House on Fire by William Styron In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit slowread.substack.com/subscribe

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 our SLOW READ community on Substack for bonus episodes, book club meetings, and Side Quests with Sarah & Laura _____ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit slowread.substack.com/subscribe

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 ___ 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! Mentioned in this episode: The Shack by William P. Young Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis The Correspondent by Virginia Evans ___ Sarah: I might cry recording this chapter. Laura: Why? Sarah: Because I loved it so much. I cried reading it. I just loved it. Laura: Well, this is why we dedicated a whole episode to just this chapter. Sarah: That was very wise of us. And by us, I mean you. Seminal Moments and 500 Pages of Lead-up Sarah: We separated this chapter out because it is such a seminal moment in The Stand . Oh, my gosh. I love her. Do you? Laura: Yes. She is like a literary icon. Sarah: I am obsessed. I loved every word of this chapter—okay, that’s not true, there were a couple words I didn’t love—but she feels so real. I struggle to say “character” because I just want to say “woman.” Laura: This is the first time in the book where we finally get to know more about her. She’s kind of only showed up in dreams so far. Finally, we’re seeing that the pandemic isn’t the villain, really. Campion isn’t the villain. We’re starting to get what people mean when they say The Stand is a story about the battle of good and evil. Sarah: Let’s start where the chapter starts: Mother Abagail at her house in Nebraska, playing her guitar on the porch. We’re starting to find out her theology. On the first page, she says, “God brought down a harsh judgment on the human race.” What’s so striking is that she has such acceptance and calm about what has happened. Laura: And you found it peaceful as opposed to detached? Sarah: English doesn’t even have the right words for this, because “detachment” has a negative connotation. But it is an acceptance of what you can control and what you cannot. I thought that was just emanating from her. 108 Years of Perspective Laura: In this round of reading, I did notice a complete lack of grief. She realizes everybody is dead—her grandkids were checking on her, but she hadn’t seen them since February. Sarah: Listen, in my mid-40s, sometimes I don’t have energy for big emotions. When I’m 108? My grandmother is about to turn 90, and I grew up with a bevy of great-grandparents. I have spent time with 100-year-olds, and this rang completely accurate to me. When you get to the point where death would be a relief, it change

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 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! ___ Sarah: We are currently reading Stephen King’s The Stand . Today, we’re diving into Chapters 43 and 44 . Society has fully collapsed, new groups are forming, and it’s time to answer the age-old question: What is more dangerous—a tornado or a woman scorned? Laura: I really relished the tornado scene because it happened in Oklahoma—my home state! My tiny little hometown, Ardmore , actually gets a mention when King is rattling off empty towns. Though, to be fair, he says it burned to the ground. Sarah: Before we get to the weather, a quick reminder: our third book club meeting is next week, March 18th . We are at the halfway point! If you want the full experience—the Zooms, my Spotify playlist of every song mentioned in the book, and our rewatch of the 1994 film Outbreak . Chapter 43: Nick, Tom, and the Oklahoma Sky Sarah: We start with Nick Andros meeting Tom Cullen on the Oklahoma-Kansas border. We think we’re encountering a dead body, but it’s just a very, very drunk Tom passed out in the road. Laura: I wonder how King decides whose backstory you get. With Lucy Swan, he says her pandemic story is like everybody else’s—awful. But we meet Tom right when Nick does. King has said in On Writing that he’s often meeting the characters as we are. Sarah: There’s an urgency now. I underlined this: “Dreams were only dreams, but he did feel an inner urge to hurry... a subconscious command.” Everyone is feeling it. They’re dreaming of Mother Abagail in Nebraska or the Dark Man in the corn. Sarah: I’m struck by how quickly society regresses to a total fear of infection. You cannot have an accident. There’s no one to save you. It’s a vulnerability we don’t usually deal with. Laura: How did you feel about Tom Cullen? In 2026, the repeated use of the “R-w

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 ___ 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! Mentioned in this episode: Lord of the Rings by Tolkein Carrie by Stephen King Knives Out Wake Up Dead Man (movie) Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age by Leah Sottile The Green Mile by Stephen King Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King ___ Laura: This is Slow Read , where we tackle the books you’ve always wanted to read at a pace you can handle. We are already about a third into The Stand by Stephen King. And today we’re going to be talking about chapters 35 through 42, which will bring us to the end of book one. And things are starting to come together or fall apart. I’m not sure which one. Initial Impressions: The Lincoln Tunnel and Mother Abagail Laura: Okay, Sarah, chapters 35 through 42, the end of book one. In this section, we get the infamous Lincoln Tunnel scene. We meet Mother Abagail for the first time, sort of. And to me, it feels like the threads of this story that we’ve been reading for 400 pages are finally starting to come together. What do you think? Sarah: Well, I understand why that scene is infamous, because it was bananas. Bananas. Bananas. Oh, my Lord. I just was like, dude, there are other ways to exit the city. What are you doing? So that was very intense, even as a person who doesn’t get scared usually with text on a page. Very intense. Sarah: And I was ready for Mother Abagail to show up. I know enough to know about her a little bit. I knew she was like the Randall Flagg—the hero to his villain, sort of. So I was like, okay, I’ve spent some time with Randall. When is the light going to show up in the face of all this darkness? So I was really excited for her to show up. Sarah: And there is a little more grotesqueness than I expected. I don’t know why. Because I think when you hear about Stephen King and you hear “scary,” you think maybe just violence primarily. And so the gore and strong aversion I feel reading some of it... it hasn’t caught me in total surprise, but I guess it was a little unexpected. But it’s not taking me out. I’m fine. I’m not having nightmares. Laura: That’s interesting though, that when you think of Stephen King, you