Come for the local color, stay for the HORROR! It’s our annual spooky season episode, and this time around we discuss everything from classics of American lit that have a horror/gothic angle, to contemporary horror in translation, to pulp horror from the 80s care of the Paperbacks from Hell! We have a basic fall cozy, Sarah’s take on one of the most anticipated books of the year (our one non-horror diversion), and plenty of to-be-reads (some horror and some not!). Break out a bag of candy and dig in! Happy Halloween!

Books discussed:
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Katie by Michale McDowell
The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorn
The Reaping by Bernard Taylor
Four by Four by Sara Mesa translated by Katie Whittemore
Help the Witch by Tom Cox
The Villager by Tom Cox
(non-spooky season brief discussion) Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Cozy: Pumpkin Spice Peril by Jenn McKinlay

TBR
The Cunning Folk by Tabitha Stanmore
Hadriana in All My Dreams by Rene Depestre translated by Kaiama L. Glover
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
The Auctioneer by Joan Samson

Come for memories via Istanbul, stay for satire via Norway! This time around on the show we get into the subject of re-reading, Sharon’s inability to picture anyone other than David Mitchell as Proust, Eric reading a proto-cozy-thriller (and a weird book about Shakespeare for good measure), and Sarah’s dawning realization that satire in 2024 reads more like… well, a regular novel. All this, the cozy corner, our ever-growing pile of To-Be-Reads, and more on Episode 20!

Books discussed:

Ghostwriter: Shakespeare, Literary Landmines, and an Eccentric Patron’s Royal Obsession by Lawrence Wells
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
Cozy: The Big Chili by Julia Buckley
TBR: The Book of the Dead by Muriel Rukeyser

Within a Budding Grove: In Seach of Lost Time Vol. II by Marcel Proust Translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff
Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk Translated by Maureen Freely
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund De Waal
Europe in Sepia by Dubravka Ugresic Translated by David Williams
TBR: James by Percival Everett

The Goodby People by Gavin Lambert
Natural Causes by Nina Lykke
TBR: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Come for the contemporary thrillers, stay for the Marcel Proust and the Teapot Dome Scandal!
This time around on the podcast Sharon digs deep into Proust’s Swann’s Way, while Eric gets into more Dad books on the Teapot Dome scandal, along with Douglas Coupland’s Generation X. So, while Sharon gets into 100-year-old 500-page books on art, life, and the mind, and Eric splits his time between weird books about Gen X and arguably weirder books on American history of the 1920s, Sarah keeps us on point with what normal people read during the summer…new thrillers!

Books discussed:

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Paintings in Proust by Eric Karpeles
How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton
The Winner by Teddy Wayne
God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Generation X by Douglas Coupland
The Teapot Dome Scandal by Laton McCartney
Harlem Shadows by Claude McKay

TBRs:

Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk
The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
Emily, Alone by Stuart O’Nan
The Big Rewind by Libby Cudmore
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian
How To Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo
The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey

Come for the discussion of the Jason Statham shark movie The Meg, stay for Dad Book Watch 2024! Join us this time on the podcast for Summer Reading goals (Sarah as a Book Tube judge [again!], Sharon takes on Proust, and Eric finally sets out to read Passage to India), how the youth do book groups, and much more.

Books discussed:

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing

Second Star by Phillepe Delerm

Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

Modern Nature by Derek Jarman

From Punk to Monk by Ray Raghunath Cappo

You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe

Cozy: A Many Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh

TBR:

North Woods by Daniel Mason

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Paintings in Proust by Eric Karpeles

Empty Spaces by Jordan Abel

The Teapot Dome Scandal by Laton McCartney

This time on the podcast we span the globe! From wading into the folk tales and literary essays of Appalachia, to swimming in the waters of the Booker International Prize, books on classic American cinema, poetry in translation, and of course a cozy mystery with a glorious title.

Stick around for our ever-growing list of to-be-read books and hear about the deterioration of Sarah’s email formality. It’s all on Episode 17 of Shelf Motivated!

Books discussed:

John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman
The House on Via Gomito by Domenico Starnone
Undiscovered by Gabiela Wiener
What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma
The Brush by Eliana Hernandez-Pachon
Daughter of the Dragon by Yunte Huang
What Are People For? Essays by Wendell Berry
Cozy: Cremains of the Day by Misty Simon
TBRs: The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing
I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
Passage West by Rishi Reddi
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban

Come for the Crested Grebes, stay for the conspiracy theories! This time around on the podcast we check in with our own book-prize judge Sarah as her current Book Tube judging comes to an end, we get into the difficulty of discussing short story collections in book clubs, and broach the topic of the “glacially beautiful” in literature. Sharon provides a raft of Irish Writers for March, and Eric reads books debunking conspiracy theories, and a novel about the end of the home video rental era. Oh, and also… cats!

Books discussed include:

Long Time, No See by Dermot Healy
Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
Minka and Curdy by Antonia White
Seven Steeples by Sara Bayme
Wild Embrace by Anja Murray
Trust the Process by Will Sommar
Republic of Lies by Anna Merlan
Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins
Cozy: Magical Bakery Mysteries by Bailey Cates

TBR:

Song for a New Day by Sara Pinsker
James by Percival Everett

You know what they say… “Genre, genre, genre!” Well, OK, maybe nobody is saying that, but on this episode, we discuss genre, A LOT! Come for the genre, but stick around for a check-in on Sarah’s Book Tube judging, multiple literary trips to Italy, the book-as-object and how disgruntled book people get about certain things publishers do (“that should be illegal!”), analog and digital, and who gets described as “a long-winded Elizabeth Strout.”

Books discussed include:

Grove: A Field Novel by Esther Kinsky
Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
Angel of Oblivion by Maja Haderlap
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
Winter Love by Suyin Han
Divine Days by Leon Forrest
At the Café by Errico Malatesta
The Revenge of Analog by David Sax
The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins
Hiss Me Deadly by Miranda James