Another Book on the Shelf

In Episode 148, Gen and Jette are kicking off Pride Month with Maia Kobabe's graphic novel memoir, Gender Queer.
Show Notes
This graphic novel memoir was such a great entry point for talking about gender and sexuality.
Maia Kobabe uses Spivak pronouns, e/em/eir.
You can check out Kobabe's other work in a number of anthologies, including Gothic Tales of Haunted Love and Be Gay, Do Comics.
Super into all the required classes that Kobabe took in High School at the Waldorf School.
Watch our Instagram for some Pride book recs this month, and check out some of our queer reading lists on the blog:
A Queer Reading List to Keep Pride Going All Year Long
Top 7 Pride Month Books to Celebrate Queer Joy
Our love for The Storygraph is never ending, especially the reading stats.
In our next episode we'll be talking about Angels in America by Tony Kushner. We went to see the play last December, so now we're going to read it, and probably watch the HBO mini series and/or the National Theatre production.
Other Books and Media Mentioned
Pet by Akweke Emezi
Tranny by Laura Jane Grace
The Laramie Project

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It's spring, which means it's time for another hangout episode. We love having these chats about all the non-podcast books we've been reading and the writing projects we're working on.
Show Notes
We actually hung out IRL recently. It was so much fun to walk around TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival) and then chat for hours at Cafe Landwer afterwards.
While at TCAF, we got to chat with Cecil Castellucci, who wrote Shade, The Changing Girl—one of our first (maybe the first?) graphic novel episodes!
We're so on top of our reading goals this year. Wild.
October's reading theme might end up being books about cursed films.
Gen's Top 10 Books of 2024 is up on the blog! We broke it into two posts: Part 1 and Part 2
Our 150th episode is coming up, and very fittingly it's going to be a book club episode. We're reading The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia and will be talking about it July 3.
In our next episode we're kicking off Pride month with Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, which is a graphic novel memoir.
Other Books & Media Mentioned
By Lynda Barry: What It Is; Syllabus
The Witching Hours published by Cloudscape Comics
By Cecil Castellucci: Shade, The Changing Girl; Girl on Film
Everyone Is Tulip by Dave Baker
Mourning Doves Are People Too by Demi Naito
The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson (Episode 145)
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (Episode 146)
The Night Eaters, Vol. 1 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Episode 144)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
The Broken Girls by Simone St James
The Fran Lebowitz Reader
Giant Days, Vol. 1 by John Alison
Cats Cafe by Matt Tarpley
A Guest in the House by EM Carroll
Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 6 by James Tynion IV
Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials by Marion Gibson
Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife by Pamela Bannos
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno Garcia
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 edited by R.F. Kuang
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

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In Episode 146, Gen and Jette talk about their most recent book club pick—Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. We are so here for the spooky houses and gothic vibes!
Show Notes
Eleanor Starling was giving Mark Ryden and Margaret Keane vibes.
Starling House is a portal fantasy of sorts, as is Harrow's debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January. She also wrote a short story called "A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies."
Our next book club pick is The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia MorenoGarcia. It's based on H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau. So we're sticking with the gothic, spooky vibes. We loved Mexican Gothic and we're sure this one is going to be great! We'll be discussing it first thing in July.
We may also have to watch the 1996 film, The Island of Doctor Moreau, starring Val Kilmer, Marlon Brando, and Fairuza Balk, among others. It looks like a wild time.
Other Books Mentioned
Lost in the Neverwoods by Aiden Thomas
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno Garcia
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno Garcia
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno Garcia

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In Episode 145, we're back with the sequel to Her Majesty's Royal Coven! This is probably the fastest we've ever read the second book in a series, but we simply couldn't wait. So much happened in this book. Can we have the next one already please?
Show Notes
Juno Dawson is absolutely killing us with these cliffhangers. Yes, another one. Always with that last sentence!
The next book in the series, Queen B, seems to be a prequel of sorts. It's a shorter novel that traces the origins of HMRC that began with Anne Boleyn.
The final instalment of the trilogy doesn't appear to have a release date yet, but looks like it might be called Human Rites. Unfortunately, we couldn't find very much information about it at all, so it looks like we'll be waiting awhile for it!
HMRC is currently in development to be turned into a TV series, from the producers of The Crown. You know we'll be watching whenever it drops.
Join us next time for a book club episode. We'll be discussing Starling House by Alix E. Harrow.
Other Books & Media Mentioned
The Sixth Sense
Twilight by Stephenie Meyers
Mother, Nature by Jedidiah Jenkins
The series that must not be named (you know the one)

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In Episode 144, Gen and Jette read the first volume of Night Eaters, a horror graphic novel by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda.
You know we're all about the creepy graphic novels, but this one had the added bonus of being very funny. Safe to say we loved it!
Show Notes
Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda have worked in all corners of the comic/graphic novel world, including Marvel and their co-created series, Monstress, published by Image Comics. They've both won Hugo and Eisner awards, and Liu is the first ever woman (and woman of colour) to win an Eisner in the Best Writer category.
Shout out to Hoopla, as always. We love being able to read even more graphic novels through their library platform.
Somehow we stumbled across this graphic novel separately...maybe? Hard to say. We might just share a brain now.
Another shout out belongs to the Concord Bookshop, where Jette snagged her copy of Night Eaters from their amazing graphic novel section.
In our next episode, we'll be talking about the sequel to Her Majesty's Royal Coven, The Shadow Cabinet, because that cliff hanger means we need to discuss it ASAP!!
Other Books Mentioned
Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera
Paper Houses & Pale Shadows by Dominique Fortier, translated by Rhonda Mullins
The Martian by Andy Weir
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

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In Episode 143, Gen and Jette talk about everything they've been up to so far this year, including what books they've been reading and what they've been writing.
Show Notes
We may end up squeezing in an episode on The Shadow Cabinet as a follow up to Her Majesty's Royal Coven.
Word to the wise if you decide to work through The Artist's Way — buy a smaller notebook.
In our next episode we'll be talking about the graphic novel The Night Eaters by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda.
Our current book club pick is Starling House by Alix E. Harrow, so make sure to read along with us before the episode drops on May 8.
Books Mentioned
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez
Flung Out of Space by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer
A Twist of the Knife by Anthony Horowitz
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
Paper Houses by Dominique Fortier, translated by Rhonda Mullins
Pale Shadows by Dominique Fortier, translated by Rhonda Mullins
Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
Couplets by Maggie Milner
The Silent Woman by Minka Kent
Leslie F*cking Jones
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
Fall On Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan Maguire
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg
Amateur by Thomas Page McBee
Freaks, Gleeks and Dawson's Creek by Thea Glassman
The Fran Lebowitz Reader

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In Episode 142, Gen and Jette discuss their latest book club selection, Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson. Obviously we loved the witchy vibes and the stellar queer rep, but also the end of this book had us screaming. Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger!
Show Notes
We haven't done a book quite like this one before! Obviously we've done witchy books in the past, but not one that was so action-packed and full of such cool world building.
Spoilers abound! Especially by the end. We need to read the next book immediately and may have borrowed it on Libby while we were recording lol
If you loved the series about a certain boy wizard about which we no longer speak, but find that author loathsome, this book is exactly the grown-up, queer positive version you're looking for.
Our next book club selection is Gen's pick and we'll be reading Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. It has some gothic haunted house vibes that sound amazing.
Next episode is a hangout episode to catch you up on everything we've been reading, writing, etc. and there's a high chance we'll end up talking about the sequel to HRMC.
Other Books by Juno Dawson
HRMC #2: The Shadow Cabinet
This Book Is Gay
Mind Your Head
Margot & Me
The Gender Games
Clean
Meat Market

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In Episode 141, it's time for another James Baldwin book!
If you've been around for a while, you'll know that James Baldwin is one of our favourite authors, so we've turned it into an annual tradition to read one of his works every February. This time we're reading Baldwin's non-fiction with his first essay collection, Notes of a Native Son.
As usual, we had an incredible time talking about this, and we just need more Baldwin in our lives.
Show Notes
Baldwin wrote the introduction to the 1984 edition while he was in Amherst, Massachusetts. The universe is telling us we need to go visit.
Another Country was our first Baldwin book, and it's still one of our favourites. You could start anywhere with his work, but this one remains high on the list and we're so glad it was the first one we read.
We loved getting to learn more about Baldwin's life in America and abroad in Europe.
Be sure to read Jette's blog post 5 Must-Read James Baldwin Books That Will Change Your Life.
Yes, we already dropped a Pale Shadows reference in this episode.
In our next episode we'll be talking about Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson.
Other Books by James Baldwin
Go Tell It on the Mountain
The Devil Finds Work
The Fire Next Time
Another Country (Episode 55)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Episode 61)
Giovanni's Room (Episode 113)

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In Episode 140, Gen and Jette get to revisit one of their favourite books, Paper Houses, with the sequel, Pale Shadows. Dominique Fortier's follow-up to her reimagining of Emily Dickinson's life, traces the publication of Dickinson's poems after her death and the women who helped it happen.

Obviously we loved this. It's time to add every Emily Dickinson collection to our reading lists.

Show Notes

We learned a lot about the process of readying Emily's poems for publication, which included removing dashes and deciding on which word Emily intended for the poem. There are several different collections with slightly different versions of the poems. The one being published in Pale Shadows was edited and transcribed by Mabel. A later edition was done by her daughter, Millicent.

Shout out to Coach House Books for never steering us wrong. Paper Houses was the first book of theirs we ever read on the podcast.

If you haven't listened yet, check out Episode 26 on Paper Houses.

Emily Dickinson's Herbarium was also published and it has been digitized by Harvard Library for anyone to look through.

In our next episode we'll be reading James Baldwin's essay collection, Notes of a Native Son.

Other Books and Media Mentioned

Dickinson (HBO TV series)

The Letters of Emily Dickinson

Other Coach House Books Episodes

36: Disfigure by Amanda LeDuc

51: 2020 Fall Releases

62: Because the Sun by Sarah Burgoyne

74: And Miles to Go Before I Sleep by Jocelyne Saucier

88: Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu

117: Sing, Nightingale by Marie Hélène Poitras

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In Episode 139, Gen and Jette continue their #BookstagramMadeMeDoIt series with The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz. It's our first whodunnit style mystery, and we had a great time.
Show Notes
While we've definitely seen this book floating around Instagram (hence why we picked it), we've also seen a lot of others by Anthony Horowitz. Probably because he's written...to say a lot would be an understatement.
Fun fact: it's possible that Horowitz has committed more fictional murders than any other living author!
He's written instalments for both Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, having been selected by the Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming estates to continue the respective stories.
Did you catch our brief mention of our other podcast? To follow our rewatch of One Tree Hill (and The OC before that), check out Teenage Daydream Podcast.
Our next episode we've been anticipating since the books was announced — it's the follow-up to podcast favourite, Paper Houses by Dominique Fortier, which we talked about way back in Episode 26. This one is called Pale Shadows and we can't wait to be incoherent messes about it.
After Pale Shadows, join us for our annual James Baldwin read on February 28.

Other Books and Media Mentioned
Knives Out
Glass Onion
Columbo
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
Riley Sager
Sue Grafton

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