In this week's episode, an Aries, a Gemini, a Cancer, a Scorpio, and a Pisces share a book that they think embodies their star signs. What's your star sign, and what book would you recommend? Books mentioned on this episode: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet and Why We're Following by Gabrielle Bluestone The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind, translated by John E Woods ..read more

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation takes place on September 30 to honour the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families, and communities. Please join the Keep It Fictional Team in reading works by Indigenous authors. Books mentioned on this episode: Picking Up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket by Carey Newman and Kirstie Hudson, Tilly and the Crazy Eights by Monique Gray Smith, And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott, and The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava ..read more

We continue our 200th anniversary episode with more existential questions: What book would you make every book friend read? How much influence does your book friends' recommendations actually have on your reading? Do you plan what you read ahead of time or see what your mood takes you? We also played a game of "how well do we know our book friends", and of course, we had to debate questions like what qualifies as a fantasy book, what animals do we not care to read in books, what's the point of sprayed edges, and bring up once again our book friends' bookbuying habits ..read more

1085 books and 9607 minutes later, we have arrived at our 200th episode of the Keep It Fictional podcast from the Port Moody Public Library. Thank you, listeners, for joining us in the past four years, and we hope we'll get to spend many more with you. For this special 200th episode, you will not only get to hear from Corene, Emma, Sadie, and Virginia, but also from three former book friends, who have come back for a reunion! We are so thankful that they have made the time to join us for a trip down the KIF memory lane. In Part One of our anniversary episode, we will talk about we are reading ..read more

Long time listeners know that we are big, big fans of books in translation on Keep It Fictional. As September is National Translation Month, we dedicate this episode to all translators and publishers that specialize in translation. Thank you for all the work you do! Books mentioned on this episode: The History of My Sexuality by Tobi Lakmaker, translated from Dutch into English by Kristen Gehrman, His Name Was Death by Rafael Bernal, translated from Spanish into English by Kit Schluter, and The Enigma of Room 622 by Joël Dicker, translated from French into English by Robert Bononno ..read more

Emma and Virginia finally got a chance to do an entire episode on the series Bungo Stray Dogs! This series is especially dear to them because it has introduced and inspired them to seek out many classic Japanese authors, whom they will talk about today. They are a bit insufferable because they love this series so much, so thanks for listening! Books mentioned on this episode: The Poems of Nakahara Chuya by Nakahara Chuya, translated by Paul Mackintosh and Maki Sugiyama, Tangled Hair: Selected Tanka from Midaregami by Akiko Yosano, translated by Sanford Goldstein and Seishi Shinoda, The Moon Ov ..read more

Fiona, our resident CanCon and audiobook champion, is heading off to another amazing adventure! Thank you for all the book suggestions in the last few years, Fiona. You have inspired all of us on the podcast to read widely and think deeply about our reading. We wish you all the best! Here's our sendoff, with some books (of course): Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets by Kyo Maclear, Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas, Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver, Watership Down by Richard Adams, and Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body by Megan Milks ..read more

Should celebrities become authors and write novels or should they stay in their lane? That's the question we try to answer in today's Keep It Fictional. Which celebrity wrote the most bananapants book? Who put on a tween girl voice for the audiobook? Whose work was labeled as "aggressively bland"? Books mentioned on this episode: The Reservoir by David Duchovny, Elixir by Hilary Duff, Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks, Devil House by John Darnielle, and Holy Cow by David Duchovny ..read more

This week, we hear from Emma and Sadie about the books they are looking forward to reading this Fall. You can expect heists, assassins, queer relationship stories, and lots of cats. Books mentioned on this episode: Latin America Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C. M. Waggoner, Invisible Kitties: A Feline Study of Fluid Mechanics or The Spurious Incidents of the Cats in the Night-Time by Yu Yoyo, Translated by Jeremy Tiang, The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle, Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands, Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune, Heartbrea ..read more

For the next two episodes, we are going to talk about books we are excited to read coming out in the last quarter of the year. Of course, as you can imagine, Corene and Virginia are going to bring two very different sets of books to the table today. Books mentioned in this episode: Overstaying by Ariane Koch, translated by Damion Searls, Real Ones by Katherena Vermette, The Stone Door by Leonora Carrington, Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim, translated by Anton Hur, Model Home by Rivers Solomon, We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C. M. Wa ..read more