Another Book on the Shelf

In Episode 77, Gen and Jette finally cover a topic they've had planned since Another Book on the Shelf was born—cookbooks! Do cookbooks count as books? Do they count as reading? What makes a great cookbook? We discuss these questions and talk about some of favourite cookbooks, as well as cover what is about cookbooks that we love so much. Show Notes: This conversation was a so much fun, so please...

In episode 76, Gen and Jette discuss their latest book club book, Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. This dystopian story follows Cedar Hawk Songmaker, a young pregnant woman who finds herself having to hide in a world where pregnancy has become a matter of state security. Evolution is moving backwards and society as we know it is no longer. You know we love a good dystopia, and Erdr...

In Episode 75, Gen and Jette talk about Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley. This is the third instalment of our #BookstagramMadeMeDoIt series. As with all the books we love, we kind of rambled on a bit, but we also talked about how well Boulley balanced the crime genre with real world issues and Indigenous culture. It's impossible not to fall in love with her characters and she keeps you gu...

In Episode 74, we're teaming up once again with Coach House Books to discuss one of their recent releases, And Miles To Go Before I Sleep by Jocelyne Saucier, translated by Rhonda Mullins. Coach House Books is one of our favourite publishers. We always love the books they send us, and this one is no exception. The story follows an unnamed narrator tracking down the story of Gladys, a woman who up...

"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear." –Joan Didion In Episode 73, Gen and Jette discuss the broad category of essay collections. From Joan Didion to Chuck Klosterman to Samantha Irby, essay collections cover a wide range of topics in a wide variety of forms. We love a good collection of essays, so we share...

In Episode 72, Gen and Jette discuss their most recent book club book—that's actually a play! Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris tackles race, sexuality, and interracial relationships and has been nominated for a record 12 Tony Awards. Show Notes: Check out Nine Stories Productions (#whispersJakeGyllenhaal) Jeremy O. Harris consulted on the first season of Euphoria, and is back for season 2 as co-prod...

It's officially summer and that means it's time for another hangout episode! Gen and Jette chat about summer plans, what they've been up to lately, and the reading slump that just won't end. As always, we go off on a few tangents as we have a casual chat about books, writing, and everything in between. Show Notes Jette's (virtually) attending the Jackson Hole Writer's Conference . Thanks to Tiffan...

In Episode 70, Gen and Jette team up again with one of their favourite Toronto publishers, House of Anansi Press. This time we're reading A Boring Wife Settles the Score by Marie-Renée Lavoie, the sequel to Autopsy of a Boring Wife , which we talked about all the way back in Episode 20! It was so much fun to revisit Lavoie's candid and hilarious writing style and spend more time with Diane—the tit...

In Episode 69, Gen and Jette continue their series #BookstagramMadeMeDoIt with These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. In this retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai, Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov are heirs to their respective gangs who have to work together to find the source of a monstrous plague. We loved talking about Chloe Gong's debut novel. She has a vivid writing style and play...

It's time for another book club episode! Gen and Jette talk about their March/April book club selection—We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby. We talk about Irby's pull-no-punches writing style, her ability to put herself out there in her writing, and how we could turn some of our life experiences into essays of our own. Show Notes We don't know if we could ever be as honest and raw a...

Gen and Jette talk about all kinds of writing with a wonderful guest. Kattie Thorndyke is a podcaster, engineer (with TWO Masters degrees), tea lover, technical writer, blogger, mom, and so many more things! Jette has been on Kattie's podcast ( The Otherwise Intelligent Woman ) and now Kattie is returning the favour. Kattie has helped us make our blog awesome and is also just an amazing friend so...

It's time for another cup of tea and our first hangout episode of 2021! We'll be real guys, it's been a rough start. Still, there have been a few good things and even though we haven't been reading as much as wanted to, we've read some great books as well. So settle in with a cup of tea and join us for a casual discussion of what we've been up to so far this year and what we're looking forward to...

In episode 65 Gen and Jette discuss the latest from Jedidiah Jenkins. His new book, Like Streams to the Ocean, covers all the things that make us who we are—ego, family, friends, home, work, and more. We loved Jedidiah's first book, To Shake the Sleeping Self, and we loved his new one just as much! Jedidiah Jenkins is officially on our automatic buy list. Show Notes: For more Jedidiah Jenkins, lis...

We had a wonderful chat with Tiffanie DeBartolo in this episode. She is an author and record label owner and we were so glad to be able to talk to her about her latest novel, Sorrow. We loved chatting with her about about art, music, writing, and living a creative life. Show Notes: Tiffanie's film is called Dream for an Insomniac. She teaches at the Jackson Hole Writing Conference every year. List...

Another Book on the Shelf - The podcast where we talk about whatever book we want because it’s our podcast, not yours.  (If you know, you know LOL) OH HONEY! In Episode 63 Gen and Jette have a blast talking about Trixie and Katya's Guide to Modern Womanhood. In our first book club episode of 2021, we talk about everything from make-up to air travel to BFFs. Trixie Mattel and Katya of Drag Rac...

In Episode 62 Gen and Jette once again team up with one of our favourite publishers—Coach House Books! This time we're talking about one of their spring releases—and our first book of poetry—Because the Sun by Sarah Burgoyne. We loved the way Burgoyne plays with words and form while exploring the work of Camus, and the film Thelma and Louise. We also talk a bit about some other recent books from C...

In Episode 61 Gen and Jette talk about If Beale Street Could Talk. Our love for James Baldwin knows no bounds, so we read his 1974 novel and watch the 2018 film adaptation written and directed by Barry Jenkins. Show Notes: We ramble a lot about how much we love this book because we can't get over James Baldwin's incredible writing. Barry Jenkins directed Moonlight in 2016, and we can't believe tha...

Gen and Jette introduce a new episode category—Bookstagram Made Me Do It! We see so many incredible books on Instagram and we want to talk about some of the ones we had to get our hands on immediately. So we’re starting with The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan. In the same vein as Daisy Jones and the Six, Sloan’s debut novel follows the rise and fall of the fictional pop girl group...

Gen and Jette dive into a book club book to kick off 2021. They discuss Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic Show Notes: How did we not know that Silvia Moreno-Garcia was Canadian? Check out this CBC article on how Moreno-Garcia subverts the genre Do you know the Oprah Effect? The Guillermo del Toro exhibit at the AGO in 2017 was a brilliant spectacle of his creativity. Give us this as a tv serie...

Gen and Jette talk about some of their favourite books of 2020. We chat about writing through the pandemic, reading slumps, and what we're looking forwards to in 2021. We know things won't magically be better on New Year's Day, but making it through the year still feels like a reason to celebrate! Thank you to all of our listeners! We hope you all have a wonderful holiday and Happy New Year! We'll...

Gen and Jette give all their love to Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas! We're shifting our Christmas tradition away from a certain wizarding series to talk about fantasy with incredible trans rep instead. We spend most of the episode gushing about how much we loved this YA paranormal debut, the magical world building, and loveable characters. Not to mention some quality pet content (we're looking at y...

Gen and Jette talk all things writing for NaNoWriMo! We talk about books that inspire us, discovering what we like to write, and how making this podcast has helped us grow as writers. Congrats to the all the NaNo writers who hit their 50k word goals and to all those who didn't, but got some more words than that what they started with. Show Notes: Apologies if you can hear a dog barking in the back...

Gen and Jette read their first James Baldwin novel - Another Country - and they are in love. While Baldwin tackles tough themes that are still relevant today, he does it in the most beautiful of ways. This novel paints a picture of New York City in the 1950s through its characters, weaving their ways through life and trying to find themselves through relationships. The story touches on extramarita...

It's our two year anniversary! It's hard to believe it's been two years since we sat at Page One cafe and decided we'd make a podcast. Since then, we recorded 53 episodes (almost 7 days worth of minutes) and had over 3500 listens in 52 different countries. We have a shiny new website with multiple blog posts every month. We've worked with wonderful publishers, like House of Anansi Press, Coach Hou...

Gen and Jette dive into the extended canon of some of their favourite series/universes. We crave more from the characters we love but do we really want more of their stories? Show Notes: Why is is that extended canon books never quite live up to the original books you fell in love with? Do you automatically read extended canon even if you know it might disappoint you? Yes… Yes we do. The series th...