Mostly Fictional

Pam has success with a book club read and Hallie continues Nonfiction November.

Books mentioned, in order:
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration by David Roberts
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey
The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay
These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

NPR Book Concierge https://apps.npr.org/best-books/


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]

Pam finishes her fifth vampire book, and we share a short bookish gift guide ahead of the holidays

Books mentioned, in order:
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe 
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna 
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Playground by Richard Powers
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Links mentioned:
https://tertulia.com/


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]

Hallie continues Nonfiction November and Pam faces an audiobook dilemma. 

Books mentioned, in order:
Flesh by David Szalay
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

The Booker Prize: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/2025 


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]

Our take on "10 Before the End."

Books mentioned, in order: 
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Briefly a Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
A Certain Hunger Chelsea G. Summers
Piglet by Lottie Hazell
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib 
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp
The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
Guards Guards by Terry Pratchett

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]

Pam goes for a hat trick with book hauls.

Books and links mentioned in this episode: 
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Search by Michelle Huneven 
Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette
The World According to Garp by John Irving
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

LINKS
https://thebookerprizes.com/the-childrens-booker-prize


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]

Surprise, Pam has another book haul! 

Books and links mentioned in this episode:
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
What Draws Us Near edited by Keith Cadieux & Adam Petrash
Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum
Whimsy by Shannon McLeod
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
The Alaskan Bull Worm: https://spongebob.fandom.com/wiki/Alaskan_Bull_Worm
A Christmas Story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Story




Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]

Pam hauls 25 books!! Just kidding -- only 6 from her haul make an appearance. 

Books mentioned, in order: 
Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moulton
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Hot Wax by M.L. Rio
The Pallbearer’s Club by Paul Tremblay
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Wordplay by John Langdon
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving


Links mentioned this episode:
Seven Samurai Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seven_samurai_1956
Season 1 of Carmilla web series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uPd3g5wi1A 
VSauce on Ambigrams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyD6b9ww-1I
Dracula Daily: https://draculadaily.substack.com/ 


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]

In this episode, Hallie loves a book that survived a TBR culling, and Pam reads a book with 80s music built right in.

Books mentioned, in order: 
Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones
The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
American War by Omar El Akkad 
One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders
Possession by AS Byatt
Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moulton
Hot Wax by M.L. Rio
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger


Booker Shortlist: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/2025


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]

Hallie asks Pam why the Canadian government is like that, and Pam is racing against a library deadline. 

Books mentioned, in order: 
The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution by Amy Coney Barrett
Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
VenCo by Cherie Dimaline 
Hot Wax by ML Rio
American War by Omar El Akkad

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]

Hallie has finished a dark academia series and Pam tries her luck at reading new releases.

Books mentioned, in order:
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, tr by Julia Meitov Hersey
Assassin of Reality by the Dyachenkos
School of Shards by the Dyachenkos
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones
The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Hot Wax by M.L. Rio
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Moonbound by Robin Sloan
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Sourdough by Robin Sloan
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at [email protected]