Keep It Fictional

1085 books and 9607 minutes later, we have arrived at our 200th episode of the Keep It Fictional podcast from the Port Moody Public Library. Thank you, listeners, for joining us in the past four years, and we hope we'll get to spend many more with you.

For this special 200th episode, you will not only get to hear from Corene, Emma, Sadie, and Virginia, but also from three former book friends, who have come back for a reunion! We are so thankful that they have made the time to join us for a trip down the KIF memory lane.

In Part One of our anniversary episode, we will talk about we are reading right now, in exactly 200 words in honour of our 200th episode, and take a trip down the memory lane, and of course, dive into some existential questions. Stay tuned next week for Part Two next week.

Long time listeners know that we are big, big fans of books in translation on Keep It Fictional. As September is National Translation Month, we dedicate this episode to all translators and publishers that specialize in translation. Thank you for all the work you do! Books mentioned on this episode: The History of My Sexuality by Tobi Lakmaker, translated from Dutch into English by Kristen Gehrman, His Name Was Death by Rafael Bernal, translated from Spanish into English by Kit Schluter, and The Enigma of Room 622 by Joël Dicker, translated from French into English by Robert Bononno.

Emma and Virginia finally got a chance to do an entire episode on the series Bungo Stray Dogs! This series is especially dear to them because it has introduced and inspired them to seek out many classic Japanese authors, whom they will talk about today. They are a bit insufferable because they love this series so much, so thanks for listening! Books mentioned on this episode: The Poems of Nakahara Chuya by Nakahara Chuya, translated by Paul Mackintosh and Maki Sugiyama, Tangled Hair: Selected Tanka from Midaregami by Akiko Yosano, translated by Sanford Goldstein and Seishi Shinoda, The Moon Over the Mountain: Stories by Atsushi Nakajima, translated by Paul McCarthy and Nobuko Ochner, and Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa by Kenji Miyazawa, translated by John Bester.

This week, we hear from Emma and Sadie about the books they are looking forward to reading this Fall. You can expect heists, assassins, queer relationship stories, and lots of cats. Books mentioned on this episode: Latin America Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C. M. Waggoner, Invisible Kitties: A Feline Study of Fluid Mechanics or The Spurious Incidents of the Cats in the Night-Time by Yu Yoyo, Translated by Jeremy Tiang, The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle, Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands, Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune, Heartbreak Is the National Anthem by Rob Sheffield, The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop, Private Rites by Julia Armfield, Heist Royale by Kayvion Lewis.

For the next two episodes, we are going to talk about books we are excited to read coming out in the last quarter of the year. Of course, as you can imagine, Corene and Virginia are going to bring two very different sets of books to the table today. Books mentioned in this episode: Overstaying by Ariane Koch, translated by Damion Searls, Real Ones by Katherena Vermette, The Stone Door by Leonora Carrington, Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim, translated by Anton Hur, Model Home by Rivers Solomon, We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C. M. Waggoner, Question 7 by Richard Flanagan, Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-mo, translated by Chi-Young Kim, The Thinking-About-Gladys Machine by Mario Levrero, translated by Annie McDermott and Kit Schluter, and The Little Sparrow Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Bryan Karetnyk.

Is romance dead? Not on Keep It Fictional today! Corene, Emma, and Sadie dive deep today into all things romance, from what they like about the genre, to how they feel about the many tropes in romance fiction. Books mentioned on this show: The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley, Finding Mr. Write by Kelley Armstrong, and A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole.

We will be mixing it up today and taking on the persona of a book friend and reading one of their favourite genres, subjects, or formats. What are the lessons learned from this exercise? We shall find out! Books mentioned on this episode: Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen, Dragon Palace by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Ted Goossen, A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid, and Flying Witch by Chihiro Ishizuka.

Perhaps the strangest Keep It Fictional experience yet... Corene, Sadie, and Virginia have to read a book that have characters with the same names as them. Books mentioned on this episode: I Hope This Doesn't Find You by Ann Liang, Corinne by Rebecca Morrow, and The Chandelier by Clarice Lispector, translated by Benjamin Moser and Magdalena Edwards.

For our 193th episode, we are finally going to tackle Westerns. We also discussed how to get out of a reading slump. Books mentioned on this episode: Frontier by Grace Curtis, A Cowboy to Remember by Rebekah Weatherspoon, True Grit by Charles Portis, and Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson.

We read historical fantasy, Sadie's favourite genre mashup, and share some feelings about trains, clothes in Medieval times, romantic leads named Ralph, and people on the internet. Books mentioned on this episode: The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks, The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker, The Last Heir to the Blackwood Library by Hester Fox, and A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur.