Shelf Motivated

'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...

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! Br...

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 ga...

Come for the Summer Reads, stay for a chat about college kids and if they've ever actually read books, and more talk of The Meg! This time on the podcast the crew tackles "The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books," an article from the Atlantic by Rose Horowitch, as well as our usual book chat. Eric takes credit for a worldwide resurgence of popularity in short stories citing the Shelf Motiv...

It's Summer Reading season! You know what that means…beach reads, sunshine, and good times! So of course, on this episode of Shelf Motivated you'll hear about: Late capitalism and the Potemkin City Limits of the Ikea apartment, books about the Supreme Court, supermarkets, Multi-Level Marketing, a collection of poetry by a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant and Pulitzer Prize winner, and tales of Sa...

Summer 2025: KEEP READING FUN! This episode, join us as we talk reading with MLPL Children's Librarian Elizabeth! We talk about what we read as kids and discuss our childhood public libraries. We also chat about current, classic, and local children's books, audio books, Summer Reading, and more. And in a bit of personal librarian anthropology, we track Eric's love of the Cozy Mystery, and Sarah's...

Come for the second-ever GUEST on Shelf Motivated and stay for the poetry! In celebration of National Poetry Month, the Shelf Motivated crew invited local poet and force behind Mt Lebanon Public Library's own poetry writing group, The Nebby Poetry Society, Angela Petsis to sit down and chat about poetry with us. We share some of our favorites, read a few poems, and share some notable to-be-reads....

Celebrate Small Press Month with us on Shelf Motivated! Come for the strange coming of age stories, stay for the 500-page Icelandic translation that features a gravestone with a Kierkegard quote, and a playlist! Sarah talks about Teethmarks on my Tongue by Eileen Battersby from Dalkey Archive Press, Eric talks about some of his favorite small presses in general, and Sharon talks about Your Absence...

Come for the discussion of romance as a genre, stick around for our first ever guest of the podcast, Flannery! We discuss romance, whatever it was that Sharon read that is arguably romance adjacent, hockey romance, jobs dealing with the genre, and much more! Books discussed: The Mystery Guest: A True Story by Grégoire Bouillier Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman Affinity by Sarah Waters TBR: Cozy:...

Come for the 2024 reading review, stay for what we're looking forward to in 2025! We navigate the vicissitudes of Good Reads vs a paper journal vs some kind of voice recorder that Sharon wants to utilize. Hear what Sarah calls "a Sharon book, through and through," what the elder millennials are reading, and what historical fiction that Eric loved. All this, and more as we kick off 2025! Books disc...

Come for the comfort reads, stay for uncomfortable to-be-reads! This time on the podcast Sarah dives into a kids' book from the 1930s, and a book about bookshops, Eric slows down with a local writer, and a master of 20th century literary fiction, and Sharon continues her love of Laurie Lee, and books about trips, among other things. Books about libraries, a 15th century mystery, and more!   Books...

Come for the local color, stay for the HORROR! It's our annual spooky season episode, and this time around we discuss everything from classics of American lit that have a horror/gothic angle, to contemporary horror in translation, to pulp horror from the 80s care of the Paperbacks from Hell! We have a basic fall cozy, Sarah's take on one of the most anticipated books of the year (our one non-horro...

Come for memories via Istanbul, stay for satire via Norway! This time around on the show we get into the subject of re-reading, Sharon's inability to picture anyone other than David Mitchell as Proust, Eric reading a proto-cozy-thriller (and a weird book about Shakespeare for good measure), and Sarah's dawning realization that satire in 2024 reads more like… well, a regular novel. All this, the co...

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 b...

Come for the discussion of the Jason Statham shark movie The Meg, stay for Dad Book Watch 2024! Join us this time on the podcast for Summer Reading goals (Sarah as a Book Tube judge [again!], Sharon takes on Proust, and Eric finally sets out to read Passage to India), how the youth do book groups, and much more. Books discussed: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton The Garden Against Time by Olivia L...

This time on the podcast we span the globe! From wading into the folk tales and literary essays of Appalachia, to swimming in the waters of the Booker International Prize, books on classic American cinema, poetry in translation, and of course a cozy mystery with a glorious title.  Stick around for our ever-growing list of to-be-read books and hear about the deterioration of Sarah's email formality...

Come for the Crested Grebes, stay for the conspiracy theories! This time around on the podcast we check in with our own book-prize judge Sarah as her current Book Tube judging comes to an end, we get into the difficulty of discussing short story collections in book clubs, and broach the topic of the "glacially beautiful" in literature. Sharon provides a raft of Irish Writers for March, and Eric re...

You know what they say… "Genre, genre, genre!" Well, OK, maybe nobody is saying that, but on this episode, we discuss genre, A LOT! Come for the genre, but stick around for a check-in on Sarah's Book Tube judging, multiple literary trips to Italy, the book-as-object and how disgruntled book people get about certain things publishers do ("that should be illegal!"), analog and digital, and who gets...

This time around on the podcast we venture from 1800s Lowell Mass., to 2093 Hawaii, discuss books that feature reading the diaries of the Regency Era, books about people who want to save the old things, books that are nature writing, and more! Join us as we discuss the age-old question of why do we read what we read, along with navigating BookTube and the awards therein, and a particularly cheesy...

Our End of the Year Reading Extravaganza! We talk about our 2023 reading goals (ones we met, and some that weren't meant to be), and what we're looking forward to in terms of reading (and shelf design and organization!) in 2024. We talk about everything from Herman Melville, Flannery O'Connor, and Duff McKagen, to Zou Jingzhi, Gary Indiana, what we mean when we say we've "read a book," the difficu...

Jolabokaflod and navigating the tricky waters of giving books as gifts, Nobel Laureate Jon Fosse, Britney Spears, 20th Century Romanian poetry, Eric sings Paula Cole, and new and different cozy adventures! Books discussed: Dandelions by Thea Lenarduzzi Wheel with a Single Spoke and Other Poems by Nichita Stanecsu trans. by Sean Cotter Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal trans. by Jessica Moore Tremor...

Our Spooky Season Special! We talk about how we started reading horror, reading age appropriate (and possibly age inappropriate) books, and everything from Jewelle Gomez to Stephen King to William Butler Yates. Come for the dramatic interpretation of the Paperbacks from Hell cover of Stage Fright, stay for the Louise Gluck poem at the end. As always, a cozy mystery recommendation, and our ever-gro...

Join us as we discuss Fall and Winter reading, our takes on what gets published when, and some of Sarah's least favorite things about how books look. Sarah discusses: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray  The Fraud by Zadie Smith Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward Rouge by Mona Awad TBR: Dracula by Bram Stoker Paperbacks From Hell series, particularly The Nest of Nightmares by Lisa Tuttle Eric discusses: The L...

Summer Reading is drawing to a close. On this episode we talk whaling, nature writing, southern gothic novels, and housecats. We discuss some exciting to-be-reads, and as always, a cozy mystery.    Books discussed in this episode: Sharon On Lighthouses by Jazmine Barrera trans. by Christina McSweeney The Outermost House by Henry Beston The Whale by Philip Hoare TBR- Soundings by Doreen Cunningham...

Deep into the summer reading season we discuss how bookstores and libraries find their way into our vacation plans. Sarah pays tribute to the recently deceased, editor extraordinaire, Robert Gottlieb through her recent reading of his autobiography Avid Reader: A Life . Eric talks about a summer reading recommendation from Sharon and shares another great reading experience from UK independent press...