In this episode of Booklist’s Shelf Care: The Podcast, we get a little otherworldly, to coincide with our August Spotlight on SF/Fantasy & Horror, and also because it’s never not a good time to talk about helping genre-reading patrons. First, Susan talks to RA maven and horror expert Becky Spratford about nostalgia, body horror, and queer Cthulu retellings, and how horror-reading patrons want to be helped. Then, Audio Editor Heather Booth refutes the idea that writers shouldn’t narrate their own audiobooks with some fantastic self-narrated famous-person memoirs on audio. Finally, Susan corrals Maggie Reagan, Teen Feelings Expert, about being a grown-up who reads teen books, the undying appeal of vampires, and a few forthcoming books she can’t wait to share.
Here’s what we talked about:
RA for All
The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror
Ladies of Horror Fiction
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste
Caitlín R. Kiernan, queer, non-binary Lovecraftian updater
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
“The Horror at Red Hook” by H. P. Lovecraft
A People’s Future of the United States, edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams
Ellen Datlow, horror anthologist extraordinaire
Growing Things and Other Stories by Paul Tremblay
Full Throttle by Joe Hill
Movies & TV: Netflix’s Bird Box, based on the book by Josh Malerman; Us, directed by Jordan Peele; Neftlix’s Stranger Things; The Walking Dead, based on the graphic novel series by Robert Kirkman
The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
Thrillers by Sarah Pinborough, such as Behind Her Eyes
The Hunger by Alma Katsu
RA for All: Horror
Celebrity Memoirs on Audio, Read by the Author:
Yes, Please by Amy Poehler
Becoming by Michelle Obama
A Dream about Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds
No Walls and the Recurring Dream by Ani DiFranco
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder by John Waters
Teen Feelings Books:
The Lady Rogue by Jenn Bennett
The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
