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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 Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor by Mark Seal.

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 episode: The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo, translated by Chi-Young Kim, BloNote by Tablo, and The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Margaret Jull Costa.

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 Cabezón Cámara, translated by Robin Myers, The Peepshow: The Murders at Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale, A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury, I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà, translated by Mara Faye Lethem, The Art of Exile by Andrea Max, The Great Chinese Art Heist: Imperialism, Organized Crime, and the Hidden Story of China's Stolen Artistic Treasures by Ralph Pezzullo, and Tamangur by Leta Semadeni, translated by Tess Lewis.

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, Den of Liars by Jessica S. Olson, The Labyrinth House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji and translated by Ho-Ling Wong, and Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue by Yoko Tawada, translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda.

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 Youth Group by Jordan Morris, illustrated by Bowen McCurdy.

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 by Ukamaka Olisakwe (published by Groits Lounge), and Counsel Culture by Kim Hye-jin, translated by Jamie Chang (published by Restless Books).

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 Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye.