This week we read Weetzie Bat and Witch Baby by Francesca Lia Block (both can also be found in the anthologized book Dangerous Angels). These books were massively popular with off-beat teens in the 90s and have a huge following. Will they still manage to charm jaded 30-somethings in the 2020s? Content warnings for the books: some dark themes including sexual assault and addiction. Also some really egregious cultural appropriation and outright stereotyping/tokenizing. If you want to read...

Becca's DNF book pick for June's prompt is The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. The novel is Lahiri's follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning story collection, The Interpreter of Maladies.  Our next book is actually two books, Weetzie Bat and Witch Baby by Francesca Lia Block. Find it at your local bookstore or library (it's on Hoopla!) and read along with us. Content warnings: near-death experience, (possible) sexual assault If you want to read along with The Bookstore Challenge 2023, you can...

As chosen by our Patrons (plus Corinne), our extra book for May is Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov. Gospodinov is Bulgarian, thus fulfilling the prompt to read a book by an author from a country you've never been to, as neither of us have been to Bulgaria. And as a bonus, Time Shelter was announced as the winner of the International Booker Prize recently! Content warnings: mentions of suicide, euthanasia, Alzheimer's, war, none of which we go into great detail about Our next book...

Corinne's pick for The Bookstore Challenge 2023 prompt to "read a book by an author from a country you've never been to" is An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie. Kpomassie writes about his childhood in Togo and his fulfilled ambition to move to Greenland and experience life there.  Content warnings: animal death, addiction Mentioned in the episode is a Tiktoker who lives in Svalbard, @sejsejlija Our next book discussion, as chosen by our Patreon Patrons, will be Time Shelter by...

Becca’s pick for May’s prompt to read a book by an author from a country you’ve never been to is The Fawn by Magda Szabó (the country is Hungary). We are already fans of hers from reading her later novel Abigail, and we're thrilled to read another classic Szabó exploration of a complicated and flawed woman. Content warnings: Deaths, both animal and human 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...

We’ve got mixed feelings for this debut about a young immigrant woman trying to find love and community in the Midwest. This week we read All This Could be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews. Content Warnings: sexual violence In May we will be reading books from or about a part of the world we’ve never been to. Becca’s pick, The Fawn by Magda Szabó, is up first. Followed by An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie. You can find them at your local bookstore or library and read along...

Content Warnings: violence, self-harm, so much blood, sexual violence, we also swear If you really enjoyed this book, we’re sorry, you may want to skip this one. A Darker Shade of Magic is a contemporary fantasy novel that’s short on background info, long on every trope, and not a series we will be continuing. Our next book discussion will be All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us.    If you want to...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Here is our first 2022 published book for The Bookstore Challenge! You might remember, we interviewed the author of The Old Place, Bobby Finger, back in September, so check out that episode if you haven't! Next time we will be discussing You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi, as the last book for December's prompt to Read a Book Published in 2022. You can find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us. Website | Patreon

Apologies for the late release! I would blame it on the holiday but that would be a lie.  We discussed Corinne's pick for Nonfiction November, Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power by Anna Merlan. Most of the episode we spend talking about the depressing reality of how dangerous conspiracies have been allowed to flourish in the US, but we do get a little lighter near the end. The conspiracy chart by Abbie Richards we mentioned:...

First up for Nonfiction November is Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith. It's part memoir, part musical history of the often invisible, always culturally significant Black women who made pop music what it is. Corinne has COVID and also a bit of trouble with her audio up top, so yeah, It's her, hi, she's the problem, it's her. Next time we will be discussing Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power by Anna...

October's prompt for The Bookstore Challenge 2022 is to read a book that's a retelling of a folktale or fairytale. Our second book is Becca's pick, Love in Color by Bolu Babalola.  Next book discussion episode will be on Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith. Find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us! Get two months for the price of one at Libro.fm with code 'bookstorepod' at checkout.  Website | Patreon

October's prompt for The Bookstore Challenge 2022 is to read a book that's a retelling of a folktale or fairytale. Our first book is Corinne's pick, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić.  Next book discussion episode will be on Love in Color by Bolu Babalola. Find it at your local bookstore or library and read along with us! Get two months for the price of one at Libro.fm with code 'bookstorepod' at checkout.  Website | Patreon  

For our second and final book of September we read the paranormal YA novel, Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger. Would you notice if your best friend of 16 years had elf ears? Let's talk about it. October's book prompt is to read a retelling of a Folk or Fairy Tale. Corinne's pick is up first and it is Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic. And Becca's will be Love in Color by Bolu Babalola. You can find them at your local bookstore or library and read along with us.

Episode 130.5 Today we have a very special Between the Books episode! We are thrilled to be interviewing Bobby Finger, the author of The Old Place, which is Corinne’s pick for December’s prompt to read a book published in 2022. Yes, we will also be discussing the novel in depth in December, but for now, to encourage you to buy it, we have a little chat with Bobby about this heartbreaking and heartwarming debut. Next book is Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, find it at your local library or...

Episode 130 September's prompt for The Bookstore Challenge 2022 is "Read a YA or Banned Book." Our first book for the prompt is Corinne's, The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline. Next book is Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, find it at your local library or bookstore and read along with us! Get two months for the price of one at Libro.fm with code 'bookstorepod' at checkout.  Website | Patreon