Keep It Fictional

Happy Pride Season! Corene, Sadie, and Virginia have some on-brand suggestions for your any-time-in-the-year reading to celebrate Pride. Books mentioned on this episode: My Lesbian Novel by Renee Gladman, Flamer by Mike Curato, and These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling.

Eggs, shells, suits, lemon squeezer, bookmarks, pens, coffee machines... These are just some of the objects you will hear about today on our slightly unhinged podcast. Books mentioned on this episode: How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty by Bonny Reichert, The Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa, translated by Polly Barton, and The Man in the Rockefeller Suit:The Astonishing R...

You know Virginia loves a good short story, but the others are more neutral about this format. How about you? Maybe our book choices today can convince you to give one a try? Books mentioned on this episode: Panics by Barbara Molinard, translated by Emma Ramadan, Everything Good Dies Here by Djuna, translated by Adrian Thieret, and The Perfect Crime, edited by Vaseem Khan and Maxim Jakubowski.

Join us this May and celebrate Asian Heritage Month by exploring authors of Asian descent. There are so many wonderful voices to discover! Books mentioned on this episode: These Deadly Prophecies by Andrea Tang, Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, and Halfway There by Christine Mari.

Books that took us a long time to finish. Why? We are not really sure. They were not doorstoppers, but yet, we started these books a while back and only finally managed to finish them now for this episode. If you are looking for incentives to finish that book you have also started months or years ago, or if you are a fan of extended metaphors, then this episode is for you. Books mentioned on this...

Read local! Corene and Sadie chose a book set in British Columbia, by an author from British Columbia, for today's podcast. Books mentioned on the episode: Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and A Charismatic Killer by Eve Lazarus, and The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee.

The books we read for today's episode are celebrating a notable anniversary in 2025, including a book about standing in line, and two books that have been made into movies (one of which Corene argues is better than the book). Books mentioned on this episode: The Queue by Vladimir Sorokin, translated by Sally Laird, Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani, and Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman.

Identity theft, talking fox, not one but two Legendborn comparisons, eyes, heists, and more. Just some of our favourite things showing up in some upcoming releases we are looking forward to this summer. Books mentioned on this episode: A Twist of Fate by by Se-Ah Jang, translated by S. L. Park, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna, We are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabe...

Get your Keep It Fictional Bingo Card ready, folks! We're going to talk about upcoming releases we are looking forward to reading in the next few months. Let's see how many of our favourite categories we can hit. Books mentioned on this episode: The Midnight Shift" by Cheon Seon-Ran, translated by Gene Png, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab, The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong...

Why did it have to be snakes, Indiana Jones? Because 2025 is the Year of the Snake, so we have dedicated this episode of Keep It Fictional to these limbless reptiles. Books mentioned on this episode: The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk, translated by Christopher Moseley, Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee, Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe, and A Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel.

Our mission today is to find a book that Emma may like, even though the book is unlike anything Emma normally reads. How successful are we? Let's find out. Books mentioned on this episode: What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould, Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, translated by Douglas J. Weatherford, and The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell.

There are so many books that get published every year that there are bound to be ones that we didn't get to immediately, so today, we each picked a book published in 2024 that we meant to read but only got to it now. Books mentioned on this episode: The Briar Club by Kate Quinn, No Rules Tonight by Hyun Sook Kim and Ryan Estrada, It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne De Marchen, and...

Celebrate the amazing work of small and independent publishers this March with us. Pick up a book by a small press from your library. Our suggestions include: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (published by Graywolf Press), Great Fear on the Mountain by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, translated by Bill Johnston (published by Archipelago Books), Don't Answer When They Call Your Name...

Pack your bags and let's take a trip with the Keep It Fictional librarians to Rwanda, Jamaica, Prague, and Turkey. Books mentioned on this episode: Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti, Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, and Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü, translated by Maureen Freely.

Retellings seem to be having a moment these days. Do you prefer a retelling that more or less follows the original trajectory, or do you prefer one that reinvents and takes the original in a new direction? In today's episode, we each read a retelling of a literary classic. Books mentioned on this episode: Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler, Pym by Mat Johnson, Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, and The King of...

We encourage you to read books by black authors all year long. Books mentioned on this episode: The Monsters We Defy by L. Penelop, Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey, The Silence of the Choir by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, translated by Alison Anderson, and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

Corene, Emma, and Sadie revisit and re-read their childhood favourite. Did these books withstand the test of time? Find out in today's episode. Books mentioned on this episode: A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket, Everworld #1: The Search For Senna by K.A.Applegate, and The Hunter's Moon by O.R. Melling.

Will a great title make you want to read a book? Let's see if any of the ones we chose for today's episode pass the test. Books mentioned on this episode: Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca, Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell, and I was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley.

Here are some more books we are looking forward to reading in the first quarter of 2025, including long-awaited sequels, telepathic sloths, complicated sister relationships, pawnshops and more. Books mentioned on this episode: Malinalli by Veronica Chapa, The National Telepathy by Roque Larraquy, translated by Frank Wynne, In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space by Ir...

2025 looks to be another great year for books. What are you excited about reading? On our list, we have heists, Minnesota, Indigenous horror, true crime, strange drawings, Nobel Prize winners (and not-winners), and scandals. Books mentioned on this episode: To Steal From Thieves by M.K Lobb Passing Through a Prairie Country by Dennis E. Staples The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the...

For our very first Keep It Fictional Book Chat episode for 2025, we practise some self care and decide to do a free play episode, where we can read whatever we want. What is the first book you read this year? Books mentioned on this episode: The Art Detective: Adventures of an Antiques Roadshow Appraiser Paperback by Philip Mould, Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba, translated by Lisa Dillman, and A...

Corene, Emma, Sadie, and Virginia share their top five books of 2024, and their honourable mentions. Political intrigue, burnout, dragons, mermaids, murder, bookstores, skateboarding, memoirs, assassins, mollusks, poetry... we have got them all. Listeners, what are your favourite books of the year?

This is the episode where Corene and Virginia read books by translators who are also authors, but what is the real reason behind this episode's choice of topic, other than the fact that they both love and respect translators so, so much? Books mentioned on this episode: Toward Eternity by Anton Hur and Blue Light Hours by Bruna Dantas Lobato.

Romancing another human being is clearly not satifisying enough so we're going to take to the next level today. Books mentioned in this episode: The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston Immortal Cowboy by Alexis Morgan I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard

Talking cats. Disappearing cats. Prescription cats. Non-existent cats? Today's episode contains all kinds of cats, and all kinds of opinions about cats. Books mentioned on this episode: If Cats Disappear From the World by Genki Kawamura, translated by Eric Selland We'll Prescribe You a by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, tr...