Our take on "10 Before the End."

Books mentioned, in order: 
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Briefly a Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
A Certain Hunger Chelsea G. Summers
Piglet by Lottie Hazell
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib 
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp
The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
Guards Guards by Terry Pratchett

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

Pam goes for a hat trick with book hauls.

Books and links mentioned in this episode: 
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Search by Michelle Huneven 
Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette
The World According to Garp by John Irving
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

LINKS
https://thebookerprizes.com/the-childrens-booker-prize


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

Surprise, Pam has another book haul! 

Books and links mentioned in this episode:
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
What Draws Us Near edited by Keith Cadieux & Adam Petrash
Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum
Whimsy by Shannon McLeod
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
The Alaskan Bull Worm: https://spongebob.fandom.com/wiki/Alaskan_Bull_Worm
A Christmas Story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Story




Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

Pam hauls 25 books!! Just kidding -- only 6 from her haul make an appearance. 

Books mentioned, in order: 
Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moulton
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Hot Wax by M.L. Rio
The Pallbearer’s Club by Paul Tremblay
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Wordplay by John Langdon
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving


Links mentioned this episode:
Seven Samurai Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seven_samurai_1956
Season 1 of Carmilla web series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uPd3g5wi1A 
VSauce on Ambigrams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyD6b9ww-1I
Dracula Daily: https://draculadaily.substack.com/ 


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

In this episode, Hallie loves a book that survived a TBR culling, and Pam reads a book with 80s music built right in.

Books mentioned, in order: 
Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones
The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
American War by Omar El Akkad 
One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders
Possession by AS Byatt
Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moulton
Hot Wax by M.L. Rio
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger


Booker Shortlist: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/2025


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

Hallie asks Pam why the Canadian government is like that, and Pam is racing against a library deadline. 

Books mentioned, in order: 
The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution by Amy Coney Barrett
Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
VenCo by Cherie Dimaline 
Hot Wax by ML Rio
American War by Omar El Akkad

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

Hallie has finished a dark academia series and Pam tries her luck at reading new releases.

Books mentioned, in order:
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, tr by Julia Meitov Hersey
Assassin of Reality by the Dyachenkos
School of Shards by the Dyachenkos
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones
The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Hot Wax by M.L. Rio
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Moonbound by Robin Sloan
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Sourdough by Robin Sloan
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

Hallie, a silly goose, is reading two physical books, and Pam finally conquered a classic.

Books mentioned, in order:
Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs
Whirlaway by Poe Ballantine
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Looking for a Alaska by John Green
The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Assassin of Reality by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko with Julia Meitov Hersey
School of Shards by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko with Julia Meitov Hersey
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence
Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

Hallie learns her series is new this year, and Pam attempts to conquer a classic. 

Books mentioned, in order:
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko with Julia Meitov Hersey
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
The Poppy War by RF Kuang
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs
Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs
I’d Kill For That by Kathy Reichs
No Rest for the Dead by Kathy Reichs
Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs
Assassin of Reality by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko with Julia Meitov Hersey
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Whirlaway by Poe Ballantine
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
The Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
School of Shards by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko with Julia Meitov Hersey

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

Pam gets to correct Hallie's French pronunciation and Hallie finished a physical book!

Books mentioned, in order:
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman
Arcana: The Lost Heirs by Sam Prentice-Jones
The Ravel Cycle Graphic Novel by Maggie Stiefvater
Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Whirlaway by Poe Ballantine
Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko with Julia Meitov Hersey
The Magicians by Lev Grossman


Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionalpod@gmail.com 

Pam is getting her license and Hallie has the Titanic recorder meme in her head.

Books mentioned in order:
Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Search by Michelle Huneven
Jamesland by Michelle Huneven
Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir by Jessica Hindman
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

Nonfiction Book Party Substack: nonfictionbookparty.substack.com 

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com 

Pam continues HRCYED and Hallie gets furniture to read on!

Books mentioned, in order:
The Raven Boys (Graphic Novel) by Maggie Stiefvater, adapted by Stephanie Williams, illustrated by Sas Milledge
The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab
The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by VE Schwab
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Good Morning Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall 
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

The Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do: https://hrcyed.my.canva.site/

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com 

Hallie's bookshelves are finally done!

Books mentioned, in order:

Here’s To Us by Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli
What If It’s Us by Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli
Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Piglet by Lottie Hazell
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Ballad for Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab
The Raven Boys Graphic Novel by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue Lily Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater 
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
Collected works of Shakespeare
Collected works of Walt Whitman
Collected works of Emily Dickinson
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater
The Tales of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
The Borrowers series by Mary Norton
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com 

Hallie found a book at a farmer's market, and Pam continues her year of series.

Books mentioned, in order:
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Good Morning Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
The Wanderers by Meg Howrey
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers 
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford
American Rapture by CJ Leede
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab
An Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by VE Schwab
A War of Stone and Scales by Samuel A Zamor
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com 

Pam is continuing to work on HRCYED and Hallie is working on her 800+ page read.

Books mentioned, in order:
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
La version qui n’intéresse personne by Emmanuelle Pierrot
The Invisible Life of Adie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Cain’s Jawbone by Edward Powys Mathers
The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com 

We're halfway through the year, so it's time for a check on all those reading goals we set in January!

Books mentioned, in order: Don’t Close Your Eyes by Lisa McMann
Wake by Lisa McMann
Fade by Lisa McMann
Gone by Lisa McMann
Fallen by Lauren Kate
Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree 
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com 

Pam has a book haul and is starting what is quite possibly the hardest reading challenge ever.

Books mentioned, in order:
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
Up to the Light by Julia Armfield
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
Half-Arse Human: How to Live Better Without Burning Out by Leena Norms
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
Babel by RF Kuang
Confessions of a Fox by Jordy Rosenberg
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space:  by Adam Higginbotham
The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
HRCYED 2.0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzS1f5gbt60

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com 

Pam got to go to a book release event!

Books mentioned, in order: 
Lilith by Eric Rickstad
Shades of Magic Series by VE Schwab
A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab
The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by VE Schwab
The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab
The Near Witch by VE Schwab
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Vicious by VE Schwab
Vengeful by VE Schwab
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
La version qui n’intéresse personne by Emmanuelle Pierrot
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
Midnight at Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com 

Hallie is back from maternity leave in this not pre-recorded episode! We had a lot of titles to discuss today so we only focused on what we finished in the last two months.

Books mentioned, in order:
Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
Wild Life by Amanda Leduc
North Woods by Daniel Mason
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
The Poppy War by RF Kuang
Babel by RF Kuang
Yellowface by RF Kuang
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
A Girl’s Story by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison Strayer
Via Negativa by Daniel Hornsby
Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette
Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
Open Throat by Henry Hoke
Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Motar
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Body Friend by Katherine Brabon 
All Fours by Miranda July
Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com 

In this pre-recorded episode, Pam and Hallie rank bookish things and aesthetics! Do you agree with our choices?

Books mentioned, in order:
The Collected Novels of Jane Austen
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
The Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett
Cloud Atlas by by David Mitchell
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Loveless by Alice Oseman
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Sadie by Courtney Summers
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Bunny by Mona Awad
The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

If you want to know the blog post Pam went down a rabbit hole on: https://rhollick.wordpress.com/2018/12/28/french-fold-french-flap/

Find Pam and Hallie online!
Follow Hallie’s Substack at wordsmithreads.substack.com
Pam can be found on Youtube and Bookstagram at @pams_inkheart
Or, send us both a message at mostlyfictionpod@gmail.com