Welcome back to This Week on the Shelf. In this edition, we are talking a little ICYMI, a little bookish group chat, and whatever Link has decided she has opinions about this week.

Basically, everything we’d be talking about if we were sitting around together with coffee and an irresponsibly large stack of books.

📚 ICYMI: Around the Shelf

September is officially over, which means I wrapped up everything I read last month, and despite being in a bit of a reading slump, I still somehow finished 20 books. There were some major standouts, including Blacktail, All the Colors of the Dark, and Love Felt Like This.

I also shared the October new releases I’m most excited about because apparently, my TBR has not suffered enough.

And because October is officially here, we’re getting spooky.

My latest genre guide is all about Gothic horror and I discuss what actually makes something Gothic and where the genre overlaps with horror. I also give some book recs if you want crumbling houses, buried secrets, psychological dread, and an atmosphere that feels like something terrible happened here 100 years ago and nobody wants to talk about it.

Finally, in honor of National Audiophile Day, I shared some of the audiobooks I absolutely love, including the audiobook that turned me into an audiobook reader in the first place.

🎥 On YouTube

Two author conversations went up recently, and they're very different books, which is exactly why I love doing these interviews.

First, I sat down with Noah Brisk, author of The Tethered God, to talk about writing cinematic fantasy, creating a magic system intertwined with religion and politics, and building a world that doesn't stop to hold the reader's hand.

If your fantasy taste lives somewhere in the vicinity of Malazan, The First Law, and The Wheel of Time, you're going to want this one on your radar.

I also talked with Tom Ryan about Return to Breakneck Island, his follow-up to The Treasure Hunters Club.

We talked mysteries, found family, writing multiple timelines, and returning to a world readers already love without simply recreating the first book. I absolutely adored Return to Breakneck Island, so getting to dig into how Tom built this story was especially fun.

Both full conversations are up on my YouTube channel now.

💬 The Bookish Group Chat

Cozy mysteries are just SO GOOD in the fall. Give me a small town, an eccentric cast of suspects, an amateur detective who absolutely should not be involved in this investigation, and a murder that somehow still feels cozy? I'm seated.

So naturally, this article immediately got my attention: “I was asked to write a new Miss Marple, so I sent her to the Alps.”

Lucy Foley recently wrote about taking on one of Agatha Christie's most iconic characters, and I loved reading about how she approached writing Miss Marple while still making the story her own.

The part that stuck with me most was Foley explaining that she saw the novel as being in conversation with Christie's original books rather than simply trying to recreate them, and THAT is what I want from something like this.

I don't necessarily want another writer to imitate Agatha Christie. I want to recognize the character and the DNA of those stories while also understanding why this particular author was chosen to tell a new one.

And honestly? Sending Miss Marple to the Alps is already a pretty convincing argument.

Group chat question: How do you feel about modern authors writing new stories featuring classic characters? Are you immediately intrigued or would you rather the originals be left alone?

🐾 Link's Corner

This week, Link had to endure something truly exhausting...watching her mother rank 31 Stephen King books.

After spending October reading and rereading King, I finally ranked every Stephen King book I've read from #31 all the way to #1. You can listen now on Spotify or on YouTube at 9 pm ET.

Link would like everyone to know that my ranking is irrelevant because she has already identified the objectively best Stephen King novel: Fairy Tale. Obviously.

There is a very good dog named Radar. No further analysis required. Honestly, I can't even argue with her logic.

Until next week,
Brittany + Link 🐾