Shelf Respect – Details, episodes & analysis

Summer is summering and we're tackling all the new books coming out in July, August, and September of 2026. Get your TBRs in sweaty order.

• Our List of Snake Draft Picks on Bookshop.org (this isn't just to get your money. It's so you're not spoiled in the show notes)
• Erin's Common Ground Pilgrimage trip for Hamnet happening in June 2027 is now open for registrations.
• 21 Favorite Books of the 21st Century from All Three of Us (2000-2024)
• The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley
• The Passage by Justin Cronin
• Can a Tesla see ghosts? 
• Crown Me Dead by Liv Zander
• Zero to the Bone by Christian Wiman
• The Kennedys & the Windsors by Caroline Halleman
• Our Patreon: Shelf Respect
• Our Instagram: @readwithshelfrespect
• readwithshelfrespect.com

We're snake drafting book characters who would most likely be MAGA. This is not fictional folks who would be Republicans. This is reserved for sloppy, ear-bandage-wearing, he-can-do-no-wrong MAGA supporters. And surprisingly, our books are full of them. 

• The PMG Americana Merch (order by June 15 to get it by the 4th)
• The Popcast Spring Gift Guide for FREE dollars which includes 3 months of Hardbacks for zero dollars
• Our Many Lists of Books on Bookshop.org
• Our Patreon: Shelf Respect
• Our Instagram: @readwithshelfrespect
• readwithshelfrespect.com

This is a an example of our premium content you can find on our Shelf Respect Patreon. *originaly published in October, 2025

We asked our Hardbacks to air their grievances about fiction and they answered. LOUDLY AND WITH FEELING. They shared the details, big and small, they despise in a novel. In this episode, we feature some of their complaints, as well as share a few of our own. And there's a kerfuffle about short stories.

Mentions:

• A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant

• Alchemised by Senlinyu

• Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

• The Four Engagement Rings of Sybil Rain by Hannah Brown

• Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore

• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty

• The Bookshelf in Thomasville, GA

• The Compound by Aisling Rawe

• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

• Annihilation movie streaming on Paramount+

• Inception movie streaming on HBO Max

• 50 Times Male Authors Proved They Know Next To Nothing About Women

• The Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder

• Colton Gentry's Third Act by Jeff Zentner

• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

• It by Stephen King

• Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

• The New York Times Bestseller list wiki

• Publishers Weekly Bestseller List

• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

• Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

• The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

• Our Patreon: Shelf Respect
• Our Instagram: @readwithshelfrespect
• readwithshelfrespect.com
• Knox McCoy on Substack
• Erin Moon on Substack
• Jamie B. Golden on Instagram

Join us as we unpack why we launched another podcast, who we are as readers, which books define us, and what to expect at Shelf Respect. *originally published in September, 2025

• Knox McCoy

• Jamie Golden

• Erin Moon (Elizabethe Montgomery)

• Shelf Respect on Instagram

• readwithshelfrespect.com

• The Popcast with Knox and Jamie

• Faith Adjacent

• Is Pierce Brown hot?

• Is our beloved Annie B. Jones a friend of this show?

• Raindrop app

• The Books That Defined Us On Bookshop.org

• Our Free Little Library on Patreon

It's time for a genre deep dive on Historical Fiction. We define it, discuss when it shines, when it gets it wrong, which time periods we need less of, and which timelines we want to visit more. Finally, we highlight the historical fiction novels we recommend everyone add to their TBR. 

• The Popcast Spring Gift Guide for FREE dollars which includes 3 months of Hardbacks for no dollars
• Our List of Historical Fiction Books Mentioned on Bookshop.org (this isn't just to get your money. It's so you're not spoiled in the show notes.)
• The Odyssey movie trailer
• Our Patreon: Shelf Respect
• Our Instagram: @readwithshelfrespect
• readwithshelfrespect.com

We camp out with all our pet peeves when reading non-fiction books. This includes self-help, memoirs, religion, cookbooks, true crime, business, and more. We share ours and we share AND judge many of yours. 

• Tik Tokker: LitLovinDiva sharing her Dramione Fic Icks
• Our Patreon: Shelf Respect (7-day free trial available)
• The Popcast Spring Gift Guide for FREE dollars (includes 3 months of Hardback for free on page 9)
• Faster
• Shelf Respect on Bookshop.org
• Our Instagram: @readwithshelfrespect
• readwithshelfrespect.com

We're taking it back to the characters we met in our youth who served as our literary spring awakening, those first tingles of romantic love. We share ours - YOU ARE NOT READY FOR KNOX'S - and we share many of yours. Which character got your motor running for the first time? Your heart race? Your blood boil (complimentary)?

• The Popcast Spring Gift Guide for FREE dollars
• Waldo's Beach Scene
• Our Patreon: Shelf Respect
• Our Instagram: @readwithshelfrespect
• readwithshelfrespect.com

In this episode series, Odd Reader Out, one or two of your Shelf Respect hosts will take a literary concept the other host or hosts are unfamiliar with and attempt to entice them into jumping on the bandwagon. In this installment, Knox is walking Erin and Jamie through one of his favorite reading experiences: short stories.

• Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates (text in full)
• The Wondering Years: How Pop Culture Helped Me Answer Life's Biggest Questions by Knox McCoy
• All Things Reconsidered: How Rethinking What We Know Helps Us Know What We Believe by Knox McCoy
• I've Got Questions: The Spiritual Practice of Having It Out with God by Erin Moon
• Knox's Substack: Binge Thinking
• Erin's Substack: The Swipe Up
• Cathedral by Raymond Carver
• Florida by Lauren Groff
• Preorder The Frenzy by Joyce Carol Oates
• A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
• The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
• Our Patreon: Shelf Respect
• Our Instagram: @readwithshelfrespect
• readwithshelfrespect.com

Spring has sprung and we're tackling all the new books coming out in April, May, and June of 2026. Get your TBRs ready.

• Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Five stars, please and thank you. (Even if that's not where you listen. No rules, just right.)
• Our List of Snake Draft Picks on Bookshop.org (this isn't just to get your money. It's so you're not spoiled in the show notes)
• Sign up to be notified about Erin's upcoming Common Ground Pilgrimage trip for Hamnet.
• Whistler by Ann Patchett
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• Son of Nobody by Yann Martel
• The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu
• American Fantasy by Emma Straub
• Our Patreon: Shelf Respect
• Our Instagram: @readwithshelfrespect
• readwithshelfrespect.com
• Knox McCoy on Substack
• Erin Moon on Substack
• Jamie B. Golden on Instagram

What's your spring reading vibe? What's the best first kiss you've read in a book? Which new books do you have your eye on?

We draw for spots and snake draft the worst (OR BEST) toxic fictional romances. These are love stories where suffering is marketed as soulmates.

• Our Bookshop Shop: https://bookshop.org/shop/shelfrespect
• Toxic Romance Snake Draft List of Books Mentioned
• Our Patreon: Shelf Respect
• Our Instagram: @readwithshelfrespect
• readwithshelfrespect.com
• Knox McCoy on Substack
• Erin Moon on Substack
• Jamie B. Golden on Instagram