Another Book on the Shelf

In Episode 188, we're saying goodbye to 2025 with a look back at all we've read this past year, and a look forward to what's in store for 2026.

Show Notes

Since we recorded this before we actually had final reading numbers for the year, we'll give you a brief update in our first episode back in 2026 to see where we ultimately landed.

If you're looking for romance books in Toronto, go check out Hopeless Romantic!

We're going to be doing all of the art things in 2026.

Our first episode of 2026 will be Gen's book club pick, Interior China Town by Charles Yu.

After that, we're going to follow Gen down the Heated Rivalry rabbit hole with a Page to Screen episode. (This might be the most unhinged you'll ever see Gen.)

Books and Media Mentioned

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer

Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Fall Shook Up by Piper Sheldon

Happy Medium by Sarah Adler

Wild Love by Elsie Silver

Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez

Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks

My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine

Lost in the Garden by Adam S Leslie

You, Again by Kate Goldbeck

The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish

Casket Case by Laura Evans

Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck

Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch

Picture This by Lynda Barry

Crazy Spooky Love by Josie Silver

The Honey Crisp Orchard Inn by Valeria Bowman

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Root Rot by Saskia Nislow

Wild Eyes by Elsie Silver

The Holiday Fakers by Evie Alexander

The Holiday Whoopie by Sara L Hudson

Wild Side by Elsie Silver

Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez

A Five Letter Word for Love by Amy James

Blessed Water by Margot Douaihy

It's time for one of our favourite episodes of the year! Yes, episode 187 is our annual FU to JKR, and as always we're reading something hella queer. This year the book of honour is The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish. We spent basically the whole episode gushing about how cute this was. It's the perfect holiday romance read!

Show Notes

We need to visit New Orleans immediately. It's calling to us!

Couples reading books aloud to each other is goals. It is peak romance.

A few moments in this reminded us of our spooky season read, Somebody is Walking on Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez. Partly because of Lafayette No. 1 and partly for...other reasons.

And some of the quotes and insights from all our loveable characters had us thinking back to our last episode about David Lynch's book, Catching the Big Fish.

Next episode is our Holiday Wrap! We're pretty excited to say goodbye to 2025. And to find out exactly how wild Jette's reading stats are this year.

Other Books by Roan Parrish

The (Most Unusual) Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy

The Remaking of Corbin Wale

(and honestly so many more but those were the ones we mentioned)

Other FUJK Episodes

57: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

83: A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

109: Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

135: Pluralities by Avi Silver

161: Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

For non-fiction November, and with a nod to NaNoWriMo (RIP), we're reading Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch. Somehow this ended up falling exactly at the intersection of all our interests—creativity, art, yoga, film, science. It's all coming together. 

Show Notes

Of course this made us want to do all the creative things. We just have to do them! We know. We know! We're getting there.

This is such a great book to read in little snippets if you need a bit of creative inspiration.

Are we going to have to try Transcendental Meditation? Apparently the Toronto TM centre is in the Royal York Hotel. 

Our next episode is our annual FUJK episode, in which we read something hella queer instead of the boy wizard series by she who must not be named. This year we're reading The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish.

And our last episode of the year will be our Holiday Wrap Up episode! How is almost 2026 already?

Books and Movies by David Lynch

Room to Dream by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna

Eraserhead (1977)

The Elephant Man (1980)

Dune (1984)

Blue Velvet (1986)

Wild At Heart (1990)

Twin Peaks (1990-1991; 2017)

Lost Highway (1997)

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Inland Empire (2006)

In episode 185, Gen and Jette talk about their latest book club episode, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This was Jette's pick and our third Jenkins Reid episode!

Show Notes

We've done two previous episodes on books by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Way back in the Patreon archive we did a bonus episode on Daisy Jones and the Six which eventually became episode 47 of the podcast. And in episode 99 we talked about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Taylor Jenkins Reid did extensive research for this book and the story takes place during the very real Space Shuttle Program at NASA in the 80s.

Shoutout to Sally Ride, the first woman in space, and to the Canadarm, the robotic arm that Canada developed for NASA and the Space Shuttle Program.

In our next episode we'll be talking about David Lynch's book on creativity and meditiation, Catching the Big Fish.

And our final book club pick of the year is Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. This is Gen's pick and it works our perfectly because both of us have it on our shelf for ages. We'll be talking about it in our first episode of the new year in January.

Other Books by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Daisy Jones and the Six

Malibu Rising

Carrie Soto is Back

Episode 184 is our last episode of spooky season (although it's always spooky season in our hearts), and we're reading Somebody Is Walking On Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez.

Show Notes

You may remember that we did another episode featuring Mariana Enriquez. In Episode 137, we talked about her short story collection, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed.

This is Mariana Enriquez's first non-fiction collection.

If you know how we can also become cemetery travel writers or something like that, please let us know!

In our next episode we'll be talking about Jette's latest book club pick, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. We're pretty sure it's going to emotionally destroy us.

Other Books Mentioned

To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins

Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies by Robert Kirk

It's episode 183, but even more importantly, it's our 7th Anniversary Hangout Episode! We can't believe it's already been seven years. It's been a blast and we can't wait for another seven more!

Show Notes

We've read so many incredible books over the past seven years and recorded so many fun episodes. Stay tuned for a blog post of our personal favourites coming soon!

Speaking of favourites, or at least popularity, our most-listened to episode is still The Rural Diaries by Hilarie Burton Morgan, followed by Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem in second place, and Colleen Hoover's Verity sliding in at third.

Shout out to our fourth most-listened to episode, Another Country by James Baldwin because it was our very first Baldwin and kicked off our annual tradition and life long love of his work.

There's a new Jedidiah Jenkins books coming out in 2026, so you know we'll be reading that.

If you're in Toronto and you love science fiction, fantasy, and/or children's books make sure to check out the Lillian H. Smith library branch. They have small exhibits set up showcasing books from their extensive collection.

Did you know there's a Ouija museum in Salem?

If your in Europe and want to check out some cute books store cafes, these are the ones Gen went to: Paludan Bog Cafe in Copenhagen, Minoa in Berlin, and Bookstor in The Hague.

In our next episode we'll be talking about Mariana Enriquez's new book, Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave.

And then it's time for our next book club discussion! We're reading Jette's pick, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Books Mentioned

Elsie Silver's Chestnut Spring Series

Laurie Gilmore's Dream Harbor Series

Exquisite Corpses by James Tynion IV

You Weren't Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White

The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Happy Medium by Sarah Adler

Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks

Lost in the Garden by Adam S. Leslie

Part of Your World by Abby Jiminez

Harriet Tubman Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen

Worldtree by James Tynion IV

Minor Arcana by Jeff Lemire

Make Me a Mixtape by Jennifer Whitehead

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Boys Weekend by Matty Lubchansky

The Late Night Witches by Auralee Wallace

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel

It by Stephen King

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Blessed Water by Margot Douaihy

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

In Episode 182, we're kicking off spooky season with the cozy witchy vampire slaying vibes in Auralee Wallace's The Late-Night Witches!

Show Notes

This is like a cozy version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer set in PEI with sea witches. Obviously we loved it.

Auralee Wallace is also the author of the Otter Lake mystery series and the Evenfall Witches B&B mysteries. 

Is there going to be second book after this one? There definitely could be!

Our next episode is our 7th anniversary episode! Whoa! We've read so many amazing books over the years.

And this year we've been blessed with three episodes in October, which means we'll have another spooky read for you (as if we ever wait for October for that LOL). We'll be reading Mariana Enriquez's new book, Somebody is Walking on Your Grave!

Other Books and Authors Mentioned

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin

Rachel Harrison

Episode 181 is another installation of our Page to Screen series, this time with Scott Pilgrim! We read the comic series by Bryan Lee O'Malley and watched the film adaptation. It might be the most Toronto thing we've ever read or watched!

Show Notes

The Scott Pilgrim comic series was released in six digest-size volumes between 2004-2010, and was originally published in black and white. Hardcover colour versions were released between 2012-2015.

Edgar Wright directed the film, with Bryan Lee O'Malley as executive producer, and he nails the stylized look so that the film feels like a comic book come to life.

Both the book and the film feature some iconic Toronto locations, including Casa Loma, Sneaky Dee's, the Toronto Reference Library, and Honest Ed's (RIP).

This cast is stacked! In 2020, for the 10-year anniversary of the film, most of the cast reunited for a table read of the script. You can watch it on YouTube

Shout out to Canadian bands Broken Social Scene and Metric for writing songs for the fictional bands in the film (Crash and the Boys and The Clash at Demonhead respectively), and to Chris Murphy of Sloan for being the musical performance supervisor on the film. Beck wrote the songs for Scott's band, Sex Bob-omb.

We truly had a blast reading and watching this. It was just so much fun! We're definitely going to watch the anime series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.  

We're officially kicking off spooky season with our next episode on October 1. We'll be talking about Auralee Wallace's recent relsease, The Late-Night Witches. Apparently, we're also keeping the CanCon going because it takes place in PEI!

There's going to be three episodes in October, so stick around for our 7th anniversary episode in the middle of the month on the 15th, and then we're wrapping up Halloween season with Mariana Enriquez's new release, Somebody is Walking on Your Grave.

Other Books and Media Mentioned

By Bryan Lee O'Malley: Lost at Sea, Seconds, Snotgirl

Directed by Edgar Wright: Hot Fuzz, Last Night in Soho, Baby Driver

Episode 180 is a book club episode and we're reading The Raven Boys graphic novel adaptation, based on the novel by Maggie Stiefvater, adapted by Stephanie Williams, and illustrated by Sas Milledge. This is Gen's pick and it was great to bring Jette onto the Raven Cycle bandwagon!

Show Notes

Jette remembers Gen reading this book at their old job while on break (and being emotionally devastated by it).

Luckily this one doesn't end on too much of a cliff hanger. Unlike other books we've read...looking at you Her Majesty's Royal Coven. (Don't worry, you can read all three of those now, too!)

The audiobooks of Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle novels is read by Will Patton, who you might know as the white coach in Remember the Titans.

There are plans to adapt all four books in the Raven Cycle series into graphic novels. The second book, The Dream Thieves, is set to come out sometime next year.

If you don't want to wait for the graphic novels, the other two in the series are Blue Lily, Lily Blue and The Raven King.

In our next episode we'll be talking about another graphic novel, Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley, and its film adaptation. There are six books in the series and the movie is based on all of them, but we're going to at least try to read the first two before we do the episode.

In Episode 179, Gen and Jette team up with one of their favourite indie publishers, House of Anansi Press. We're reading the newly released English translation of The Hand of Iman by Ryad Assani-Razaki. This one broke our hearts.

Show Notes

Ryad Assani-Razaki is a Beninese-Canadian writer and The Hand of Iman, or La main d'Iman in French, is his first novel. It won the Prix Robert Cliche in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Governer General's Award in 2012.

Check out our full list of House of Anansi episodes below. 

We did in fact have an episode dedicated to our 100th! What should we do for 200? We're getting close!

In our next episode we'll be talking about Gen's book club pick, the graphic novel edition of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

We'll be following up our book club episode with a Page to Screen episode and some CanCon for you with Scott Pilgrim!

Other House of Anansi Episodes

20: 2019 House of Anansi Spring Releases (Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin and Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renée Lavoie)

39: House of Anansi New Releases 2020 (Pallbearing by Michael Melgaard and Coming Up for Air by Sarah Leipciger)

43: You Are Not What We Expected by Sidura Ludwig

70: A Boring Wife Settles the Score by Marie-Renée Lavoie

97: A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm

128: The All + Flesh by Brandi Bird

156: Who Will Bury You? by Chido Muchemwa

Other Books Mentioned

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa (Episode 124)

Paper House by Dominique Fortier (Episode 26)

Born by Heather Birrell (Episode 174)

Parable of the Sower by Octavie Butler (Episode 172)

The Late-Night Witches by Auralee Wallace

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid