Shelf Care Society by @Brian.Reads

Shelf Care Society by @Brian.Reads is the podcast for readers who treat their TBR ("to-be-read") pile as part of their self-care routine.Hosted by Brian Larson, each episode brings you into intimate, curiosity-driven interviews with authors, artists, activists, and culture-shapers who are asking better questions about ambition, creativity, identity, belonging, and what it really takes to build a life that feels like yours. Expect thoughtful storytelling, big ideas made personal, and the occasional moment that cracks something open.Subscribe on Spotify and join the Society.

Shelf Care Society by @Brian.Reads is a arts podcast hosted by Brian Larson, with 17 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Brian Larson hosts Shelf Care Society by @Brian.Reads, a arts show with 17 episodes published.

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  Episode #5

  Raphael Montes: Dinner, Death & the Deliciously Twisted

  Aug 18, 202639 minS2

  What happens when four broke roommates in Rio de Janeiro discover that wealthy strangers will pay an obscene amount of money for the ultimate forbidden dining experience? Brazilian bestselling author Raphael Montes joins Brian for a deliciously dark conversation about The Secret Dinner , his wildly entertaining new thriller about friendship, greed, desire, addiction, and a supper club with one very horrifying secret. They talk about the real Rio behind the novel, writing characters who keep crossing lines they swore they never would, Dante’s queerness and recovery, the uneasy relationship between appetite and morality, and why a book about cannibalism can also be very, very funny. Editor Ryan Doherty joins the conversation to tell the story of acquiring The Secret Dinner at auction, the moment in the manuscript that made him know he wanted to publish it, working with translator Zoe Perry, and bringing one of Brazil’s biggest thriller writers to a new audience. Come hungry. Maybe don’t ask what’s for dinner.

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  Episode #4

  André Aciman on Elio, Oliver, and Returning to "Call Me By Your Name"’.

  Aug 10, 202637 minS2

  Nearly two decades after “Call Me By Your Name” first introduced readers to Elio and Oliver, André Aciman is returning to their story in an entirely new form. In this episode of Shelf Care Society, Brian sits down with André Aciman to talk about “Call Me By Your Name: The Graphic Novel,” illustrated by Sarah Maxwell. They explore what it means to revisit such an iconic story years later, how illustration can make Elio’s interior world visible in ways prose cannot, and the moments from the original novel that take on new life on the page. André also reflects on desire, memory, love, and why Elio and Oliver continue to resonate with readers across generations. Plus, the conversation turns to one of the novel’s most enduring passages: the extraordinary conversation between Elio and his father about love, loss, and allowing yourself to feel deeply. “Call Me By Your Name: The Graphic Novel” is available August 11 wherever books are sold.

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  Episode #3

  Richard Russo on Under the Falls, Hometown Secrets, and Writing a Thriller

  Aug 3, 202633 minS2

  Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo joins Brian to discuss his propulsive new novel, Under the Falls. Set in the fictional upstate New York town of Stone Mountain, the novel follows a famous musician returning home to a community shaped by old secrets, economic decline, the opioid epidemic, and a devastating accident. Russo shares how the story began as a television pilot, why he ultimately transformed it into a novel, and how he brought the momentum of a thriller to the deeply human, character-driven storytelling readers have come to love. They also discuss the complicated pull of our hometowns, the moral ambiguity of survival, Jason Isbell’s influence on the book, and the pivotal moment that helped Russo understand what kind of writer he wanted to become. Under the Falls is available August 11 from Knopf and wherever books are sold.

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  Episode #2

  Ben Reeves on “Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt,” Writing Death with Tenderness, and the Small Moments That Make a Life

  Jul 27, 202634 minS2

  Brian sits down with Ben Reeves, author of the extraordinary debut novel “Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt,” a tender and deeply human story narrated by the personification of death. Ben shares how the idea for Travis, a lonely and benevolent version of death, first came to him while watching his children play at the zoo, and why he wanted the novel to focus not on the finality of dying, but on the beauty, pain, and specificity of being alive. They discuss the intimate stories woven throughout the book, Travis’s quietly nuanced sexuality, the compassionate portrayal of addiction and sobriety, and the symbolism of restored photographs and mayflies. Ben also reveals why Barnes & Noble prompted a last-minute cover change, how Kurt Vonnegut inspired the novel’s title, and why readers have begun sharing their own experiences of grief and loss with him. Finally, Ben reflects on his personal “Yes! Moment”: choosing to stop what he was doing and play with his children, a decision that reminded him that a life is not made only from weddings, publications, or other major milestones. It is made from the ordinary moments we choose to notice before they disappear.

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  Shelf Care Society by @Brian.Reads

  Matthew Quick on "Dad, Love, Me," Sobriety, and Forgiving the Unforgivable

  Jul 19, 202634 minS2

  New York Times bestselling author Matthew Quick joins Brian for an intimate conversation about Dad, Love, Me , his deeply personal debut memoir written as a letter to his ailing father. Matthew opens up about growing up with an angry and withholding parent, carrying his father’s critical voice into adulthood, and achieving extraordinary literary success while privately struggling with depression, addiction, and creative paralysis. He discusses getting sober, turning to Jungian analysis, and moving closer to his parents after his father was diagnosed with dementia, hoping to find some form of connection before time ran out. Together, Brian and Matthew explore father hunger, wounded masculinity, the inheritance of shame, and the complicated work of forgiving someone who never learned how to love you well. It is a candid and ultimately hopeful conversation about ending generational cycles, choosing compassion without denying the past, and discovering that healing does not always arrive in the form we expect.

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