In this episode of Booklist’s Shelf Care: The Podcast, we get a little otherworldly, to coincide with our August Spotlight on SF/Fantasy & Horror, and also because it’s never not a good time to talk about helping genre-reading patrons. First, Susan talks to RA maven and horror expert Becky Spratford about nostalgia, body horror, and queer Cthulu retellings, and how horror-reading patrons want to be helped. Then, Audio Editor Heather Booth refutes the idea that writers shouldn’t narrate their own audiobooks with some fantastic self-narrated famous-person memoirs on audio. Finally, Susan corrals Maggie Reagan, Teen Feelings Expert, about being a grown-up who reads teen books, the undying appeal of vampires, and a few forthcoming books she can’t wait to share.

Here’s what we talked about:

RA for All

The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror

Ladies of Horror Fiction

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste

Caitlín R. Kiernan, queer, non-binary Lovecraftian updater

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

“The Horror at Red Hook” by H. P. Lovecraft

A People’s Future of the United States, edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams

Ellen Datlow, horror anthologist extraordinaire

Growing Things and Other Stories by Paul Tremblay

Full Throttle by Joe Hill

Movies & TV: Netflix’s Bird Box, based on the book by Josh Malerman; Us, directed by Jordan Peele; Neftlix’s Stranger Things; The Walking Dead, based on the graphic novel series by Robert Kirkman

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

Thrillers by Sarah Pinborough, such as Behind Her Eyes

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

RA for All: Horror

Celebrity Memoirs on Audio, Read by the Author:

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler

Becoming by Michelle Obama

A Dream about Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds

No Walls and the Recurring Dream by Ani DiFranco

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder by John Waters

Teen Feelings Books:

The Lady Rogue by Jenn Bennett

The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice