A books podcast made by readers
Welcome to The Book Club Review, the independent podcast about the books that get people talking, hosted by Kate and Laura. From literary prize shortlists to book club favourites we’re always on the hunt for those books that provoke conversations, the ones we can’t wait to share, the ones perfect for book club. With our cast of regular and special guests, we promise you honest opinions and lively debate.Ā As featured in Vogue, Stylist,Ā the iPaper, Waitrose Weekend and BBC Radio 5 Live. Listen via your favourite podcast playerĀ or browse our archive for back episodes full of book recommendations. If you want to find your way to some really good books, there’s no better place to start. Wondering if we’ve covered one of your favourites? Type the title into the search tab to find out.
Just out, listen to our most recent episode
The best summer reads? Kate is joined by Laura and Phil to rate books from summer reading lists chosen by The New York Times, The Times, Lit Hub and The Booker Prize as beach reads, suitcase books or airport leave-behinds. Plus the books we have packed for ourselves. Listen in the media player above or head to the episode page for full shownotes and book links.
Discover the hidden stories inside secondhand books as Kate talks to W. B. Gooderham, author of Dedicated To, and celebrates the joy of book hunting. Kate and Laura are also sharing their favourite places to shop secondhand, and some of their most treasured discoveries. Listen in the media player above or head to the episode page for full shownotes and book links.
George Saunders’ new novel Vigil puts mortality, morality and climate change under the microscope, but does it make a great book club book? Kate is joined by Jenny and Sarah from The Bookcast Club podcast to find out. Listen in the media player above or head to the episode page for full shownotes and book links.
It’s time for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction and Kate is joined by Amanda Moulson of Curious Readers to discuss the shortlist. Which one is their pick to win? Listen in the media player above or head to the episode page for full shownotes and book links.
When the Guardian newspaper drops a list of the 100 Best Novels of All Time itās time to drop everything to talk about it. Pod-regular guest, journalist Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance, host of the Curious Readers podcast, join Kate to discuss the hits and misses of the list. Listen in the media player above or head to the episode page for full shownotes and book links.
What makes a bestseller? Is it the quality of the writing, or just the right book at the right time? This week Kate is joined by co-host Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to find out. Listen here or head to the episode page for full shownotes.
We’re celebrating the end of the year with a look back over our favourite reads of 2025. With Phil Chaffee and Sarah Oliver. Listen via the media player below or head to the episode page for the booklist and full shownotes.
Keep up with the pod between episodes
Reviews, recommendations and more.
Funny how books bubble up sometimes. A week ago I had never heard of THE SHORT END OF THE SONNENALLEE and then a Patreon subscriber (source of all my best tips - please join and then you too can influence me) flagged it up. As weād been planning a pod travel special (Iām still not over the end of summer) I duly ordered a copy and then two other readers whose taste I trust also mentioned it approvingly.
Itās a short, endearing novel set in East Berlin among the community who live at one particular point on the Sonnenallee - most of which is in the West, but Churchill apparently decided to let Stalin have 60m of it, and so the residents live above the Wall, tantalised by the freedom they can see but never experience.
Iāve seen and read various things about how awful life was under a totalitarian state (from The Lives of Others to Lea Ypiās wonderful memoir about growing up in Albania) but Iāve never read a light comedy about it. Hints at darkness abound but in the main this is a novel that celebrates the ability humans have to look on the bright side and make the best of a bad deal. Micha, a lovelorn teenager, is at the novelās heart, but also his friends and relations who make up an idiosyncratic cast of characters. Will Mischa ever persuade Miriam, the most beautiful girl in the GDR to take him seriously? Youāll have to read it and see - I recommend that you do. Also if you thought Jonathan Franzen was only interested in birds these days youād be wrong - turns out, with Professor Jenny Watson, heās been translating, and itās him we should thank that this funny, winningly readable, original and relevant novel is now available for us English-speakers to enjoy.
#theshortendofthesonnenallee #bookrecommendations #bookclubreads #bookpodcast #booksintranslation
After a dream weekend in Provence in the sparkling company of @the_litedit @janegreenauthor, an eminent philosopher and his dear brother, and a small group of strangers who quickly felt like friends, I am now officially a Daphne du Maurier fan. Iād read Rebecca of course, back in the day, hasnāt everyone? But Iād never ventured into her other works.
The Scapegoat is a doppleganger story, our main character John being tricked into assuming anotherās identity. Through a reasonably believable plot contrivance he ends up at his doubleās chateau where he is obliged to pretend to be a husband, brother-in-law, father and general seigneur to a colourful cast of characters. Apart from the dog, who isnāt fooled and is nearly his undoing, they accept him as their own. He quickly discovers the various difficulties they are all labouring under - the daughter under the sway of religious fanaticism, the brother-in-law attempting to run a failing glass manufacturers, and while our hero doesnāt exactly roll up his sleeves and get to work, Flora Poste style, his steadfast nature and inner decency start to have their effect.
Du Maurier doesnāt give the reader - who by now is deeply invested in John and his travails - the ending they might want, but she does deliver a richly satisfying conclusion, one that lingers in the mind as do the characters and sense of place.
What surprised me was the writing, so detailed - quite unlike any contemporary novels I can think of - and yet never difficult. Oh the contrary it was all the little details that absorbed me. Itās a book to be savoured, and contains one of the most beautiful descriptons of Autumn I think Iāve ever read (swipe left). A treat. (With the fact that there is apparently a Netflix series starring Matthew Rhys the icing on the cake.)
#bookreviewersofinstagram #bookreccomendations #bookpodcast #bookclubpicks #daphnedumaurier
š§šNew Episode ā¢ Summer Reading: The Debrief, with Kate & Laura ā¢ Episode 196 ā¢ link in bio
Before anything else, donāt @ me, I know THE SILVER BOOK just out in paperback and so very much not backlist. But mistakes like these are the joy of non-AI-generated content, are they not? Thatās how you know Iām keeping it real! Lauraās books, meanwhile, which I didnāt have copies of to wave around, are THE ROMANTICS by Pankaj Mishra and THE NIGHT TIGER by Yangtze Choo. Listen in as we talk about all the books below plus the secondhand books being crunched to feed the AI machine, and ādialogic criticismā and why Iām excited about it. And a special appearance from @philip_chaffee with his summer reads WILD THING by Sue Prideaux, and THE SHARDS by Bret Easton Ellis. Listen in and keep that summer holiday feeling going just a little bit longer! Oh and hey, thereās an extended version with two more book reccos if you want to sign up for ad-free listening, special episodes and more over at Patreon.com/thebookclubreview
Books discussed
The Power Broker by Robert Caro
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
The Everlasting by Alex E. Harrow
The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle
Starling House by Alex E. Harrow
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Palm House by Gwendolyn Riley
Famesick by Lena Dunham
My Phantoms by Gwendolyn Riley
The Silver Book by Olivia Laing
The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing
Crudo by Olivia Laing
The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra
The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon
Fathers & Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Land by Maggie OāFarrell
The Chair (Netflix)
Monsters by Claire Dederer
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
The Eights by Joanna Miller
The Night Tiger and The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
Wild Thing by Sue Prideaux
The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis
The Digital Critic: Literary Culture Online (Houman Barekat, Robert Barry and David Winters, eds.)
When We Talk About Love by Carl Wilson
#bookspodcast #summerreading #bookdiscussion #literaryfiction #bookerprize
What books are you taking on holiday?
In episode 195, @lauraxpotter, @philip_chaffee and I put this summerās reading lists to the test, from The New York Times, The Times, Lit Hub and The Booker Prize.
Ten books. Three categories:
šļø Beach readāØš§³ Suitcase bookāØāļø Leave it at the airport
Plus, the books weāre actually packing for our own holidays.
Episode 195 of The Book Club Review is out now, wherever you get your podcasts. Link in bio. And let us know whatās in your summer reading pile?
#bookspodcast #summerreading2026 #beachreads #bookreccomendations thebookclubreview
Episode 194 ā¢ Secondhand Books | Do you check the fly leaf of secondhand books? As someone who counts among lifeās greatest pleasures rummaging around in secondhand bookshops I didnāt think I had much to learn, but that was before I met @wbgooderham and encountered his collection of inscribed editions. Now the first thing I do is open the cover to see if thereās a message someone has left behind. The latest episode captures a delightful afternoon I spent with Wayne enjoying a sort of books picnic with some of the gems from his collection set out on a blanket (including a set of books it took him nine years to compline - but which I think was totally worth the effort, listen in to find out what they were!) And Laura and I swapped stories about our favourite bookshop haunts (@skoobbookslondon being the place youāll most often find me, I almost never leave empty handed) and some of our favourite bookshop finds. Comment and let me know your favourite secondhand bookshops, Iād love to hear.
#bookspodcast #secondhandbooks #vintagebookstagram #bookdedications #thebookclubreview
A million dreams, over a million downloads! Such a special milestone to have reached with the pod and this is the moment I told Laura out in Vancouver. For anyone who has ever wondered how we record and make it sound like weāre in the same room this is how we do it - we both record our own audio locally and then I edit the two tracks together. I know, I know, there are many other probably far better ways of doing it, but this works for me and that sound the same as when we used to record them side by side in my shed in London. Weāre now coming up to our 200th episode and have had so many conversations and talked about many hundreds of books. And you know what, it never gets boring and we have never even come close to running out of things to say. So thanks to all the authors, publishers and booksellers out there who create the books that bring us such joy, and most of all to all you listeners. Occasionally people message me to tell me theyāve enjoyed a show and it always means the world to me when people do. I love to listen to these shows, but the icing on the cake is when other people love them too. And if youāre just discovering the pod for the first time come check it out at the link in the bio. Thereās a lot waiting for you. Kate x
NEW EPISODE ā¢ Secondhand Books: Hidden Stories and Literary Treasures ā¢ #194, link in the bio or wherever you get your pods | A chance encounter in the ever brilliant @skoobbookslondon led me to meeting @wbgooderham and his incredible collection of inscribed editions, books he has found over the years with dedications on the fly leaves that give such fascinating insights into the lives of previous readers. And Laura and I enjoyed chatting about our own love of shopping secondhand - it really is a magical way to make discoveries, acquire beautiful old editions for a fraction of the cost of new books, and keep these books circulating from reader to reader. A couple of gems I discuss in this episode are Charles Connellās book on how to grow aphrodisiac plants in your garden and Karen Elizabeth Gordonās gothic guide to grammar, The Transitive Vampire. Comment and let me know a book you love that youāve found secondhand, Iād love to hear. But for now enjoy the episode š ā¤ļø š§
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Discussion, debate, even a little dispute
Every month we bring you a new episode. That could be Book Club where we chat about the book read most recently by one of our book clubs.Ā An interview with a book club, bookshop or book lover.Ā Or Bookshelf, an episode dedicated to the books weāre reading outside of book club ā the ones we get to pick and choose.