Search Results For: bookshelf
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Early Spring Bookshelf • Episode 156
Join me (Kate) and Laura as we go through our bookstacks and discuss our recent reads. Find out what why Laura can’t put down The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Meanwhile I’ve discovered Mrs Miniver, a comfort read from the 1930s that still has a message for us today, Laura’s made a discovery of her own – that there’s more to Anita Brookner than Hotel du Lac, with her 1988 novel The Latecomers. We go from one good book club read to another with The Fraud by Zadie Smith, and Laura reports in from the recent backlist past with...
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Comfort read bookshelf: 10 favourite books to comfort and reassure
What makes the perfect comfort read? Jane Sullivan, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald describes a comfort read as the ‘literary equivalent of a nice bowl of chicken soup, or bread and butter pudding’ (naming Barbara Pym as her favourite comfort author). Familiarity is often a plus. When we go back to books for a reread we’re not trying to figure out the plot. Knowing the outcome is comforting, and leaves us free to enjoy all the details along the way. Love, Nina is a recent entry into my own personal comfort read canon. The book takes the form of a series of...
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Bookshelf: Summer vibes • Episode #144
Summer reading is in the air. Listen in as Kate and Laura swap feel-good early summer reads. Much to their relief after Rodham, the sex in Curtis Sittenfeld's latest novel ROMANTIC COMEDY turns out to be as good as the rest of it. Meanwhile Kate is surprised and entertained by Monica Heisey's REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY. Via the discerning edit of the books aisle in her upmarket grocery store, Laura discovers PINEAPPLE STREET, and enjoys it hugely. Kate is fascinated and entertained by British actress Miriam Margolyes and her autobiography THIS MUCH IS TRUE, enjoying the social commentary as much...
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Bookshelf: Easter reads • Episode #141
Our bookshelf episodes are the ones where we compare notes on the books we've been reading outside of book club. In this episode Laura has been reading the latest from Animal Life, the latest novel from podcast favourite, Icelandic author Audur Ava Olafsdottir. A short, quiet novel, but one that struck a chord. She's also been happily working through The Mirror Visitor Quartet by French author Christelle Dabos. What is it about this epic fantasy series that has her so happily hooked? Kate has been catching up with Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, the smash hit that tells of...
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Bookshelf: Spring Reads • Episode #138
Our bookshelf episodes are the ones where we kick back and talk about the books we’ve been choosing for ourselves outside of our book club reading. And so join us as we get swept away by the French Revolution and Hilary Mantel’s spellbinding book A PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY, consider myth and storytelling with a surprisingly feminist slant thanks to Salman Rushdie’s latest novel, VICTORY CITY, see another side to New York with our guest Phil Chaffee and Chang Rae Lee’s book NATIVE SPEAKER, plan an architectural tour of Norwegian Stave churches thanks to THE BELL AND THE LAKE by...
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Bookshelf: Winter reads • #136
It’s Bookshelf time here at The Book Club Review podcast, when we talk about the books we’re reading outside of book club, the ones we get to pick and choose for ourselves. And so listen in to find out what Laura thought of The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd, a lesser-known backlist gem, A Place of Greater Safety, Booker-winner Hilary Mantel’s immersive doorstop about the French revolution, and The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison’s blend of court intrigue, goblins and steampunk. Meanwhile I’m reporting back on Babel by R.F. Kuang, the bestselling fantasy epic set in 19th-century England, Our Wives...
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Bookshelf: Autumn Reads • #130
As the clocks change and darkness falls in the UK, what books are we turning to? Listen in for our latest selection, including the mushroom book that has Kate spellbound, Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. Laura meanwhile has been reading the 'questionable' Run by Ann Patchett and has more than a few things to say about it, and dipping into City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert and My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. Kate rounds things off with Rogues, Patrick Radden Keefe's new essay collection. What are you diving into at this time of year. Comment and let us know,...
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Bookshelf: Autumn book report • #127
Back together again after the summer, we're catching up on all the books we've been reading. So listen in for our reactions to summer buzz book Tomorrrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. We also cover three from the 2022 Booker Prize longlist, Trust by Hernan Diaz, The Trees by Percival Everett and After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz. And should you looking for a book that can also double as a doorstop we have a couple of candidates: Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer-winning cowboy novel, and Red Seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. Kate is also joined by author Colleen...
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Bookshelf: From a page-turning literary thriller to a guilty pleasure fantasy read • #119
Join us as we catch up on our recent reads outside of book club, the books we're picking and choosing for ourselves. Laura enjoys The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting, declaring it 'unputdownable', and a good antidote to the brilliant but rather more serious novel The Sympathiser by Viet Thanh Nguyen (her Vancouver book club's pick). We're joined by journalist Phil Chaffee who shares his recent holiday reading, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco and My Fourth Time We Drowned by Sally Hayden. Meanwhile Kate has fallen in love with O'Caledonia by Elspeth Barker and sneaks in...
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Bookshelf: The books we’re reading outside of book club • #117
Our bookshelf shows are the ones where we get to cut loose and follow our own preferences, so listen in as Kate tries to figure out the best way to show up for her life after reading Oliver Burkeman’s 4,000 Hours. Meanwhile Laura is drawn into ’A dark world of desire and fantasy’ with French prizewinner No Touching by Ketty Rouf, we figure out via an emergency call to an Irish friend how to pronounce Colm Tóibín, but unfortunately this doesn't help Kate in her struggle with his book about Thomas Mann, The Magician. Laura gets on better with Brit...