The Bookstore

We're back! We're a bit all over the place in this episode, but mostly it's me (Becca) recommending a few horror/scary books I've read. Most likely, we will be popping in once a month to update everyone until life settles down a little more. Thanks for listening! (Quick correction: I mention the movie The Devils by Ken Russell, and what I guessed what the outline of the plot. Since recording, I have watched the movie and I was wrong. Great movie though!) Books mentioned: Night Watcher by Daphne Woolsoncroft, Come Closer by Sara Gran, The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, and Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlmann. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2025, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

We are now officially on hiatus! Corinne is on maternity leave, although that's not why this episode is late, I just forgot about uploading it. Our second book for June is Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

Today we discuss Nicole Dennis-Benn's novel Patsy, which won the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction. Content warning: brief mentions of miscarriage, sexual and physical assaults, abusive relationships Our next book discussion will be Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

For the month of May, our prompt is to read a dystopia or post-apocalyptic work of fiction. Corinne's pick is I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. We have both read this book already and jumped at the chance to reread and discuss this book, that we describe as being "about what it is to be human." Content warning: captivity, death, disease, euthanasia, brief mentions of sexual awakening, torture, and suicide Our next book discussion will be Patsy by Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

Our first book for May's prompt to read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel is Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson. Set in a Toronto that has been abandoned by the government and anyone with means, Ti-Jeanne has to learn how to survive and how to protect the ones she loves. Content warning: mentions of violence, suicide, drug addiction Our next book discussion will be I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

Today's book discussion is on Underground Barbie by Maša Kolanović, translated from Croatian by Ena Selimović. We get slightly off-topic talking about the top news stories from the 90s and reminiscing about playing with Barbies. Content warning: war (mentions of bombing and snipers), swearing Our next book discussion will be Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson. Find it at your local library or bookstore and read along with us! If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

Becca's pick for April's prompt to read a book based on its cover or title is Nonfiction: A Novel by Julie Myerson, because the contradiction between the title and genre was too compelling to pass up.  Content warning: drug addiction Our next book discussion will be Underground Barbie by Maša Kolanović. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon  

The March prompt is to read a book published by an indie press, and Corinne's pick is Witches by Brenda Lozano, translated by Heather Cleary, and published by Catapult. Content warning: brief mentions of violence, including sexual violence Our next book discussion will be Nonfiction by Julie Myerson. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

Becca's pick for March's prompt to read a book published by an indie press is Earthlings by Sayaka Murati, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori, and published by Grove Atlantic.   Content warnings: sexual assault, death, murder, violence, cannibalism   Our next book discussion will be Witches by Brenda Lozano. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us.   If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

February's prompt is to read a book with a non-human narrator or from a non-human perspective. Corinne's pick, that we'll be discussing today, is Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, which is about a house/plot of land. Content warning: swearing, Nazism, repressive regimes, book has sexual and physical violence March prompt is to read a book published by an indie press, our first book is Becca’s pick, Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, and published by Grove Atlantic. Corinne’s pick is Witches by Brenda Lozano, translated by Heather Cleary and published by Catapult. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2025, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

Romantic Goat sex on today's episode. We read The Story of a Goat by Perumal Murugan. Next time we will read Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck Content Warnings: Violence, sexual violence If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

Last episode for January is Pastoralia by George Saunders, this is a book of short stories that all have the trademark Saunders satirical edge. Content warning: swearing, brief mentions of death and a sick child Our next book discussion will be The Story of a Goat by Perumal Murugan. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

New year, same us. We discuss (more like complain about, to be honest) Maggie O'Farrell's novel After You'd Gone. January's prompt is to read a book published in the year 2000. Our next book discussion will be Pastoralia by George Saunders. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2024. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon  

We are back and we have a recap of our reading in 2024, along with the challenge prompts for 2025, since I don't know how we chose books before we starting following these prompts. The challenge prompts start around 37:04.  Prompts from past years. Our books for January are After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell and Pastoralia by George Saunders. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2025, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2025. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon 

Unfortunately, we are not releasing an episode today because we’re going on hiatus. We are fine in terms of physical health and have not experienced personal family tragedy, we just need to take a break right now. I am sorry to be springing this on everyone without advance notice, it’s just something we have to do right now. Thank you to all of you who subscribe, who have ever listened to any of our episodes, gave us a good review, and absolutely all of our lovely patrons. We will absolutely be back, the world needs our book opinions! This feed will be the best way to keep up with our timeline to return, I will give another update in December as to what our plans are. Talk to you all soon, thanks for sticking around! 

We were in Chicago during the week we should have been recording and editing this episode, so apologies for the lateness! Today we talk about The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk.  Next time we'll be talking about our first choice for November's prompt to read a book about a lost city or civilization, and that is Hav by Jan Morris. The second November book is Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz. Find them at your local bookstore or library and read along with us! Content Warning for episode: misogyny, abuse, assault, general swearing and vulgar language Books mentioned: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney, and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. The quote Becca couldn't think of is by Marilyn Frye The TikToker Corinne mentioned If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2024. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon 

Google Doc for Helene Recovery Resources LESBIAN. VAMPIRES.  We read The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez for October's prompt to read a book in one of the following genres: monster/vampire/gothic.  Content warning: We briefly talk about violence and murder. The book also contains scenes of the main character experiencing racism. Our next book is The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk and translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2024. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

This book has everything, except for an idea of how novels are formulated. Our next read will be The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez.  

For September's prompt to read a book by a celebrity, Corinne has chosen The Morning Show Murders by Al Roker and Dick Lochte. Al Roker is a tv personality and the resident weatherman of NBC's Today show.  Content warnings: swearing, discussion of different types of murder, offensive accents (in the book, we do not quote the book), sexism Our next book discussion will be Swan by Naomi Campbell. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2024. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon

Our last book for August's prompt to read a book that won a translation award is Every Fire You Tend by Sema Kaygusuz. Very poetic and beautifully written, it might have been too spiritual for us to fully engage with. Content warning: mentions of ethnic cleansing and genocide, rape, sexual assault Our next book discussion will be The Morning Show Murders by Al Roker. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2024, you can join us on The StoryGraph to see what others are reading for each month and get ideas for your TBR: The Bookstore Challenge 2024. Get two audiobook credits for the price of one at Libro.fm when you sign up using the code BOOKSTOREPOD. Website | Patreon