It's a new year and we're kicking it off, as always, with a book club episode. Gen's pick for the end of 2024 was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It follows the narrator through his journal entries as he records his life amongst the statues and tides that occupy a series of labyrinthine halls that he calls home.
Show Notes
This one prompted a discussion about what counts as fantasy.
Piranesi is only Susanna Clarke's second novel, published sixteen years after her debut, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was adapted for TV as a miniseries by BBC1. It came out in 2014.
Our next book club book is Jette's pick and we're revisiting Chuck Klosterman with his essay collection, The Nineties.
As is now January tradition, our next episode is a graphic novel episode. We'll be talking about Light Carries On by Ray Nadine.
Other Books & Media Mentioned
Peter Pan by JM Barrie
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
Stephen King
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke
The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

It's the end of the year, which means it's time for Gen and Jette to see how they did on the reading and writing goals they set back in January. (Spoiler: We crushed the audiobook minutes.)
Show Notes
We recorded part of the episode and then had technical difficulties, so the first part of this is re-recorded. Since it's the first time we've lost any significant audio in 162 episodes, we think we've done pretty well so far.
We're already pencilling in an episode for Her Majesty's Royal Coven, Book 3.
Our first episode back in January will be on Wednesday the 8th, since doing it on the 1st seemed kinda weird. We'll be talking about Gen's book club pick, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
Jette's book club pick for January/February is The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman. Going back to our roots to kick off the year!
Books and Media Mentioned
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling
The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling
Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore
The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven
The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore
Southern Cross by Becky Cloonan
Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio
Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
Just Kids by Patti Smith
The House Where Death Lives edited by Alex Brown
We Mostly Come Out at Night edited by Rob Costello
From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keogh
My Murder by Katie Williams
The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore
If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom
The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports by Michael Waters
The Cinnamon Bun Bookstore by Laurie Gilmore
Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday
Come Out Come Out by Alexia Onyx
Private Rites by Julia Armfield

It's Non-Fiction November and NaNoWriMo, so for Episode 160 we decided to read Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami. In this essay collection, Murakami talks about everything from his journey as a novelist to his writing routine to his thoughts on school and literary prizes.
Show Notes
As you can probably guess, we absolutely loved this one and we're thinking it's time to read a Murakami novel on the pod. Anyone have any favourites?
Shout out to all translators and especially Rhonda Mullins, who translated several of the books in translation that we've read for the podacst, including pod favourite, Paper Houses.
Our next episode is our annual F*ck You JK episode. We're reading Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore, which is super queer and will also let us have a bit of a spooky season revival.
Other Books and Authors Mentioned
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
On Writing by Stephen King
Books by Haruki Murakami
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Norwegian Wood
Wind Up Bird Chronicles
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
1Q84
Kafka on the Shore
(and more!)

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Episode 159 is a book club episode. Gen and Jette talk about Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids. The book chronicles her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe and their early days in New York City before they were the artists we know them as today.
Show Notes
This book. THIS BOOK! We just want to be artists doing all the things with our soulmate muses.
We saw Patti Smith at Budweiser Stage last summer. She was incredible and exactly as cool as you'd think. Listen to her cover of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" if you want to cry.
Patti Smith wrote this book for Robert Mapplethorpe and we'll by crying about it forever.
Check out the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to see some of his work.
We're going to be reading everything else Patti Smith has written.
This podcast is taking a stand against deckled edges. They are the WORST.
Next episode we'll be honouring non-fiction November and NaNoWriMo (though we are not participating) with Haruki Murakami's book, Novelist as a Vocation.
Our next book club selection is Gen' pick, and we'll be reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, about a labyrinthine house.
Other Books by Patti Smith
M Train
Devotion

In Episode 158, we're talking about our official spooky season book pick: We Mostly Come Out at Night. This short story collection, edited by Rob Costello, features queer retellings and re-imaginings of classic monster stories and tropes. It was super fun and we had a great time reading it.
Show Notes
Rob Costello's book, The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times, came out earlier this year.
Did anyone else play creepy games at sleepovers like Bloody Mary or that Concentrate one? Here's the full Concentrate text. It's, uh, way creepier than I remembered.
In our next episode we'll be talking about Just Kids by Patti Smith, our current book club and Jette's pick. We're excited to read it, but not excited about the deckled edges.
For non-fiction November and in honour of NaNoWriMo (which neither of us is even going to pretend to attempt this year), we'll be reading Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murikami.

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In Episode 157, we're celebrating our 6th anniversary of the podcast! It's been an amazing six and we can't wait for another six more.
Show Notes
A huge thank you to all of our regular listeners! We're just a little podcast and we appreciate each and every one of you. We're so glad you join us every episode to talk about books and writing.
We're at more than 13,000 total listens, which may not sound like a lot compared to bigger podcasts, but it's kind of mind blowing for us.
The Bonne Maman advent calendars aren't sold out yet, so you can still get one.
Or get a cookie one from Gen (shamelessly self-promoting the cookie business).
In our next episode, we'll be talking about We Mostly Come Out at Night, a collection of queer horror YA stories edited by Rob Costello.
Read along with our current book club pick, Just Kids by Patti Smith. We'll be discussing it first thing in November.
Books Mentioned
Payback's A Witch by Lana Harper
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore
Who Will Bury You by Chido Muchemwa
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
Reality Squall by Jason Krawcyk
I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
Amazing Spiderman Edge of the Spiderverse by Gerard Way
Queen B by Juno Dawson
Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry
The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen
Ghost 19 by Simone St. James
Freaks, Gleeks and Dawson's Creek by Thea Glassman
The Return by Rachel Harrison
Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body by Megan Milks
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

In Episode 156, we've teamed up with one of our favourite indie publishers, House of Anansi Press, to read the short story collection Who Will Bury You? Written by Zimbabwean author Chido Muchemwa, the stories take place across generations, in Toronto and Zimbabwe, and grapple with loss, family, and the meaning of home.
Show Notes
We love working with House of Anansi! This is our seventh episode featuring their books, and we hope to read even more in future episodes. Check out the list of previous HOA books below.
One of the best parts of reading is learning new things and we both realized how little we know about Zimbabwean history and culture. Now we want to know all about the construction of the Kariba Dam, the story of the Zambezi river god Nyami Nyami, and more about the mermaids.
When we talked about flash fiction, Gen talked about The Forever Workshop, available through Substack and run by the cool people at Chill Subs/Write or Die. If you sign up for their paid newsletter, you get the entire back catalog of their self-paced workshops!
Our next episode is our anniversary episode! This one marks six years of being in the podcast business. Can you believe it? We can't. It was 2018. It was a different world.
Other House of Anansi Episodes
20: Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin & Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie
39: Coming Up for Air by Sarah Leipciger & Pallbearing Stories by Michael Melgaard
43: You Are Not What We Expected by Sidura Ludwig
70: A Boring Wife Settles the Score by Marie-Renee Lavoie
97: A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm
128: The All + Flesh by Brandi Bird

Episode 155 is a book club episode, and we're talking about Gen's summer pick, Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. It offers up some spooky southern gothic vibes with a side of car races and a family curse.
Show Notes
After picking this book, Gen realized it was blurbed by the author of her last book club pick, Starling House by Alix E. Harrow.
As Jette aptly pointed out, this is the most Gen book ever, complete with fast cars and ill-advised road races.
This is Lee Mandelo's debut novel. He has since written two novellas, Feed Them Silence, and The Woods All Black, the latter of which made it onto Gen's Top 10 Books for 2024.
Our next book club pick has been on Jette's list for ages: Just Kids by Patti Smith. She's finally diving in, and Gen is reading it for a second time. She's ready to be wrecked by it all over again.
In our next episode we'll be talking about Who Will Bury You? by Chido Muchemwa, a short story collection generously sent to us by House of Anansi Press. We love working them and are super excited to see what this one is all about.
Other Books Mentioned
Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

In Episode 154, it's time for another instalment of #BookstagramMadeMeDoIt with I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones. We just can't stay away from the spooky books this summer, but this one has a distinctly summer vibe with it's unique twist on the slasher genre. You'll want to read it with a bowl of popcorn handy!
Show Notes
If you like your horror with a dose of meta, Scream-style, then this book is for you. We had a such a great time reading and talking about this. It's so much fun!
You might recognize Stephen Graham Jones from his New York Times bestselling book, The Only Good Indians, or My Heart is a Chainsaw. He's written so many books, and we're definitely eager to check them out!
Our next episode is a book club episode, and we're sticking with our spooky summer vibes. We'll be discussing Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo, so get ready for some ghosty southern gothic goodness.

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