Another Book on the Shelf

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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In Episode 153, Gen and Jette talk about Reality Squall by J. Krawczyk. Space-time gets funky in this one, so you know we loved it!
Show Notes
One of Jason's other books, It Look Like Dad, was published by Little Ghosts Books, one of our favourite Toronto bookstores that is also a publisher!
Jason Krawczyk is not just a writer of books, but a filmmaker too. His production company is called Alternate Ending Studios.
We've talked about time travel before on the pod—the first time being way back in Episode 9 with Eating the Dinosaur—but we've never read about different dimension and universes colliding. Whoa.
Shout out, as always, not just to our local bookstores, but also our local libraries. Even if you don't use your library card, just getting one helps support them. Plus, why wouldn't you want access to everything that Hoopla and Libby and Kanopy has to offer?
Summerween continues in our next episode with I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones.
Other Books by Jason Krawczyk
“Crusade” – Hellbound Books – Madame Gray’s Vault of Gore 2021
“An Earth That Knows Magic” – Black Hare Press – Novella 2022
“It Looks Like Dad” – Little Ghosts Books – Novella 2023
Films by Jason Krawczyk

Writer/Director, The Briefcase (2013) Ft. Vincent Pastor and Kip Pardue. Crystal Palace Festival
Writer/Director, He Never Died (2015) Ft. Henry Rollins and Steven Ogg. SXSW, Fantasia
Writer/Producer – She Never Died – (2019) Companion sequel to He Never Died
Writer/Director – Sunset Superman (2023) Ft. Michael Jai White and Billy Zane

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The sun is out, the weather is sweaty, which means it's time for our summer hangout episode. We're talking about what we've been reading over the last couple months and checking in on our reading goals now that we're halfway through the year.
Show Notes
The Aberfoyle Antique Market runs until late October if you want to check it out.
Write or Die has some amazing writing workshops. If you're interested in Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya's Queer Imagination workshop, she's running it again in September. Or sign up for her Gays and Ghouls queer horror workshop in October.
Keep an eye out for Gen's next blog instalment of most anticipated 2024 book releases coming soon.
Read along with our current book club pick, Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo, which we'll be talking about in September.
Books Mentioned
The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials by Marion Gibson
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen
Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James
US by Sara Soler
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Rainbow Black by Maggie Thrash
Under the Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey
Beautyland by Marie Helene-Bertino
Future Feeling by Joss Lake
The Artists Way series by Julia Cameron
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
Ghost 19 by Simone St. James
Murder Road by Simone St. James
Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body by Megan Milks
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
Body Work by Melissa Febos
Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses
Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema by Caden Mark Gardner & Willow Catelyn Maclay

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In Episode 151, we're doing another instalment of Page to Screen with Under the Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey and the mini series of the same name. It's a true crime story based on the 1997 murder of Reena Virk in Victoria, BC.
Show Notes
This is our second true crime story, the first being way back in Episode 8 with Killers of the Flower Moon. In a strange coincidence, that film adaptation stars Lily Gladstone, as does Under the Bridge.
We're fully committed to Summerween at this point. Next up we have a hangout episode, which will surely feature some thrillers, then a book from Little Ghosts Books, followed by Stephen Graham Jones' upcomjng release, I Was a Teenage Slasher.
Don't forget to read along with our book club book, Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo.
Other Books Mentioned
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
The Torn Skirt by Rebecca Godfrey
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

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It's our 150th episode! Very fittingly, it's a book club episode, which is the entire reason this podcast exists. In this episode, we're talking about Jette's pick, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and we loved reading more of Moreno-Garcia's work.
Show Notes
We can't believe we've recorded 150 episodes of book content! Of those episodes, 38 have been book club discussions. That's...a lot of books. And somehow our TBRs are still threatening to topple over.
It was way back in Episode 59 that we talked about Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
This book is loosely based on The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, which was published in 1896. The film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer came out in 1996.
Our next episode is another instalment of Page to Screen and we'll be discussing Under the Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey and the series adaptation of the same title.
Our next book club pick is Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo.
Other Books Mentioned
By Silvia Moreno-Garcia — Silver Nitrate, Certain Dark Things, Velvet Was the Night, The Seventh Veil of Salome
By H.G. Wells — The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

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In Episode 149, Gen and Jette continue to celebrate Pride Month with Tony Kushner's award-winning play, Angels in America. We had to cut ourselves off eventually because we could talk about this play forever.
Show Notes
We went to see this play last December at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto. It was produced by That Theatre Company and directed by Craig Pike. (Yes, Torontonians, Craig Pike of Craig's Cookies.) It was phenomenal and we knew we had to read the play and dedicate an episode to it.
The play runs about 7 hours long in total and is technically two separate plays: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika.
HBO made a mini series, adapted for the screen by Tony Kushner, in 2003.
In 2017, The National Theatre produced a revival starring Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane and it eventually went to Broadway.
This play has won a lot of awards and it's very clear why. We'll definitely make it a point to see any production of this that we can get to.
This spring, Gen went to see another 7-hour long play called The Inheritance, put on by Canadian Stage Company. It's a reimagining of E.M. Forester's novel Howard's End and also deals with AIDS and being gay in America, but in a contemporary setting that takes place before and after the election of Donald Trump.
Our next episode is our 150th! Appropriately, it is a book club episode. We'll be talking about Jette's pick, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia.
Other Media Mentioned
The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez
Caroline, or Change
Munich (2005)
Lincoln (2012)
West Side Story (2021)
The Fabelmans (2022)

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