Show Notes
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
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Happy Spooky Season! That means this is our Annual Spooky Season Reading Episode, so break out some Halloween candy and dig in. We talk about folk horror, classic horror, horror comedy and more. Come for the horror, stay for the shocking realization that our reading tastes and habits shift and evolve over the years! Books discussed include: Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley The Rednexorcist by Frank Sloane (Grady Hendrix) Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix Midnight Pleasures by Robert Bloch Dwellings by Jay Stephens Salem's Lot by Stephen King Ocultos by Laura Perez Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones TBRs: The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne Restoration by Ave Barrera trans. by Ellen Jones and Robin Myers
We're back! After a break, Sharon, Sarah, and Eric are back behind the microphones to bring you episode 33 of Shelf Motivated. Come for the book chat, stay for continued discussion of a movie that Sarah says was better than the book! Here's a hint… we've been talking about this book on the pod since 2024! Sharon explores the darker end of the cozy spectrum, Eric reads one of the most popular books of the year, Sarah reads about kids books, and retired killers (not in the same book…don't worry). All this and more! Books Discussed:
'Tis the season! It's time for another Shelf Motivated end of year holiday extravaganza! Come for the time-tested classics… stick around for the Victorian Ghost Stories and Folk Horror adjacent seasonal reads. Sarah discusses a stone-cold Christmas Classic… and also a book by LM Montgomery that technically takes place during the winter for part of it. Sharon gets into the ritual of reading when it's cold outside, and like the Ghost of Holiday Podcasts Past, revisits some titles we discussed on early holiday episodes. So, grab a holiday cookie or two, a warm beverage, and hunker down with us for a Winter Holiday book chat!
Happy Spooky Season! This year on the Shelf Motivated Spooky Season Spectacular Special we get into a few classics of American horror from the 1970s, some folk horror, some horror anthologies, and a few British books that are horror adjacent. Come for the horror, stick around to hear Sharon talk about literary fiction that has ghosts, and Sarah take one of her all-time favorite writers to task! Break out the candy!
Even if you aren't a comics reader, come for the graphic novel chat, stay for the dive into a hyper-local figure who changed the face of comics and publishing forever! This time on the pod we sit down with MLPL Clerk Chris Lutes and talk all things graphic novels and comics. Chris is a graphic artist and has had experience in comic shops and bookstores before coming over to Library Land… and he gave us homework!