April's challenge prompt is to read a book recommended to you by a bookseller or librarian. Ideally, you'd ask a bookseller or librarian for one, but also we know there's a lot of reasons you may not want to do that and that's ok! There are other options, like reading something a favorite bookstagrammer or booktok account has recommended, or picking a book off of a recommendation display at the store or library. Or you can take one of our highly specific (to our own tastes) recommendations that we offer to you in this episode.

Books Recommended:

Fight Night by Miriam Toewes Quartet and After Leaving Mr. McKenzie by Jean Rhys Evil Flowers by Gunnhild Øyehaug Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale The Membranes by Chi Ta-Wei (this is also on Hoopla) The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard The Mount by Carol Emshwiller (this is also on Hoopla) Collision Course: The Classic Story of the Collision of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm by Alvin Moscow

Our next book discussions will be A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab and All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews. You can find them at your local bookstore or library and read along with us.

If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2023, you can find Instagram graphics for your story or grid in this Google Drive folder. You can also join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2023.

Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD.

Website | Patreon

So Lucky by Nicola Griffith is an amalgamation of genres, part autofiction, part disability activist story, part metaphysical, and part crime thriller. Mara Tagareilli is a martial arts master and heads up a successful and important AIDS non-profit in Atlanta. She and her wife of many years have just split and after she collapses while getting a jug of milk from the refrigerator, she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Judith Heumann's website

Content warnings (for the book and the episode): violence against women, murder

Next time we'll be reading A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us!

If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2023, you can find Instagram graphics for your story or grid in this Google Drive folder. You can also join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2023.

Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD.

Website | Patreon

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a 2017 science fiction novel about the class and race structure on a generation ship making its way through the universe toward the promised land. It features a well drawn main character and a lot of confusing world mechanics, so hang on, because we have some questions.

Content Warnings (for the novel and the episode): physical violence, sexual assault, self-harm, suicide

Next time we'll be reading So Lucky by Nicole Griffith, find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us!

If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2023, you can find Instagram graphics for your story or grid in this Google Drive folder. You can also join us on The StoryGraph: The Bookstore Challenge 2023.

Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

This week we read the classic noir novel, In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. We love it for subverting typical noir tropes and tackling American machismo at the same time.

March's promopt for the 2023 Bookstore Challenge is to read a book by an author with a disability or about disability. Becca's pick, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, is up first. And then we will be reading So Lucky by Nicola Griffith. You can find both at your local bookstore or library (at least one of them is available on Hoopla) and read along with us.

If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2023, you can find Instagram graphics for your story or grid in this Google Drive folder. You can also join us on The StoryGraph, The Bookstore Challenge 2023.

Website | Patreon

For February's prompt to Read a Western or Pulp Fiction/Noir, Becca's pick is True Grit by Charles Portis. The novel was a bestseller immediately upon publishing in 1968, and has been adapted twice into movies. We loved this entertaining, funny, action-packed story that is essentially just about a girl bent on revenge.

Next time we'll be reading Corinne's pick, a noir/pulp fiction novel titled In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. You can find it at your local library or bookstore and read along with us!

If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2023, you can find Instagram graphics for your story or grid in this Google Drive folder. You can also join us on The StoryGraph, The Bookstore Challenge 2023.

Website | Patreon

For January's prompt, to read a book published in a year ending in 3, Becca had us read The Charioteer by Mary Renault. It was published in 1953 and known for being one of the first popularly published novels about positive homosexual romance. Despite some language differences between two Americans in 2023 and a British woman in 1953, we really loved this story.

For February's prompt of reading a western or pulp novel, we will first be reading True Grit by Charles Portis (western) and then either Odd Girl Out by Ann Bannon (pulp) or In A Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes (noir). The first two are available on Hoopla, but you can find any at your local bookstore or library and read along with us!

In this episode we also mentioned: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Hello, this is our first episode of the year! January's prompt for The Bookstore Challenge 2023 is to read a book from a year ending in 3. Corinne's pick is Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks, published in 1953. It's out of print in the US but you can still buy in the UK, and you should! Bernardine Evaristo says it's wonderful and do you need a better endorsement than that?

If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2023, you can find Instagram graphics for your story or grid in this Google Drive folder. You can also join us on The StoryGraph, The Bookstore Challenge 2023.

Next time we will be discussing The Charioteer by Mary Renault. You can find it at your local bookstore or library (it's on Hoopla) and read along with us.

Website | Patreon

Hello, this is our last episode of the year. We made it! This Year in Review is much like the ones from past years, we go over what we did, what we accomplished, any surprising trends we noticed, and have some fun with picking superlatives.

If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2023, you can find Instagram graphics for your story or grid in this Google Drive folder. You can also join us on The StoryGraph, The Bookstore Challenge 2023.

Next time we will be discussing Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks. This book is out of print (CORRECTION: out of print in the US), but hopefully you can find it at your local library, used bookstore, or order from a UK bookstore!

Website | Patreon

It's the Bookstore's third annual reading challenge! For the last two years it has proven to be a fun way to read in a way that is vaguely thematic for the podcast, as well as a very helpful tool for two painfully indecisive people who need to choose what to read.

Keep in mind, also, that we not only accept your accommodations and creative interpretations of these prompts, but we encourage them. Make these babies work for you. This may be called a challenge, but it's not a competition and there are no rules. Read April's prompt in December. Read a book by an author with the same first name as you, not last initial. Read a book that is an animal, I don't mind! Go wild!

If you want to read along with the prompt, you can find Instagram graphics for your story or grid in this Google Drive folder. You can also join us on The StoryGraph, The Bookstore Challenge 2023.

Next time we will be discussing Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks. This book is out of print, but hopefully you can find it at your local library or used bookstore!

Website | Patreon

Our last pick for December's prompt to Read a Book Published in 2022 is Becca's choice, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. It's also our last book for 2022! While we are not romance fans, as you will be able to tell in this episode, we still enjoyed discussing the wild journey this book took us on. Explicit content and spoiler warnings all-around!

We'll be releasing an episode going over all of The Bookstore Challenge 2023 prompts soon!

Next time we will be discussing Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us.

Website | Patreon