Shelf Motivated is a library book chat podcast. Join librarians Sharon, Sarah, and Eric as they discuss books and reading, what they're currently reading and what they want to read next, book recommendations, and all things library related.
We're back! After a break, Sharon, Sarah, and Eric are back behind the microphones to bring you episode 33 of Shelf Motivated. Come for the book chat, stay for continued discussion of a movie that Sarah says was better than the book! Here's a hint… we've been talking about this book on the pod since 2024! Sharon explores the darker end of the cozy spectrum, Eric reads one of the most popular books of the year, Sarah reads about kids books, and retired killers (not in the same book…don't worry). All this and more!
Books Discussed:
Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children by Mac Barnett
Life In the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
Blood on the Forge by William Attaway
Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell
Flesh by David Szalay
Too Old for This by Samantha Downing
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann trans. by Anthea Bell
The Meg by Steve Alten
Cozy: Secret Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams
TBRs: Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
Middlemarch by George Elliot
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
9 Dec 2025
Episode 32
'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's cold outside, and like the Ghost of Holiday Podcasts Past, revisits some titles we discussed on early holiday episodes. So, grab a holiday cookie or two, a warm beverage, and hunker down with us for a Winter Holiday book chat!
Books discussed:
A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd
The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery
The Dead of Winter by Sarah Clegg
Advent by Gunnar Gunnarsson
The Valencourt Book of Victorian Ghost Stories Volumes 1-6
Twelve Nights by Urs Faes (translated by Lee Searle)
Rock Crystal: A Christmas Story by Adalbert Stifter (translated by Marianne Moore)
Cozy: A Totally 80s Christmas: A Holiday Novella (Totally 80s Mysteries) by D.A. Wilkerson
28 Oct 2025
Episode 31
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! Break out the candy!
Books discussed:
Hide by Kiersten White
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Cuddy by Benjamin Myers
When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson ed. by Ellen Datlow
Flowers of Mold by Ha Seong-nan trans. by Janet Hong
Mother Naked by Glen James Brown
TBR:
A Dark Corner by Celia Dale
A Helping Hand by Celia Dale
House of Day and House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk
Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
Cozy Recommendation: Autumn Alibi (A Wiccan Wheel Mystery) by Jennifer David Hesse
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
9 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 26 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
23
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
71
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