Episodes - The Book Club Review

The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi book podcast episode

The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi • #128

October 2, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Since publication in 2019 The Hummingbird, by Italian Sandro Veronesi (translated into English by Elena Pala), has wowed readers and fellow-authors alike. ‘A gripping masterpiece’, ‘a life-affirming triumph’ ‘unforgettable’… Just what is all the fuss about? Marco Carrera is ‘the hummingbird’, a man with the almost supernatural ability to stay still as the world […]

The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi: 'A gripping masterpiece', 'a life-affirming triumph' 'unforgettable'... Just what is all the fuss about? Join us as we find out, with Phil Chaffee and Jo Norman.

Bookshelf: Autumn book report • #127

Book Club/Episodes

September 20, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

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 […]

Back together again after the summer, we're catching up on all the books we've been reading. We're also celebrating our five-year anniversary with some new theme music and we're sharing our plans and projects for the pod

Young Bloomsbury, with Nino Strachey • #126

Episodes/Features

August 7, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Step back in time with us as Kate visits Charleston home of Vanessa Bell and important gathering place for the members of the Bloomsbury Group, that collection of writers and artists including Virginia Woolf that coalesced around Gordon Square in London. Undaunted by the ghosts of her relatives Nino Strachey, author of a new book, Young […]

The Women’s Prize 2022 • #125

Episodes/Features

July 29, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

“How any woman with a family ever put pen to paper I cannot fathom.’ Virginia Woolf wrote, ‘Always the bell rings and the baker calls.’ It did indeed prove almost impossible to get four women into the same room to discuss all six books on the 2022 Women’s Prize shortlist, but after much postponement and […]

Listen in for our full and frank take on the winner of the 2022 Women's Prize for fiction: The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki and the other five books on the shortlist. Does Ozeki's book hold up against the competition? Maybe you don’t have time to read them all and just want to read one? Let us help you decide.

The Inseparables, with Anna Baillie-Karas • #124

Book Club/Episodes

July 15, 2022/Posted by: Kate

Les Inseparables, or The Inseparables is a novel that was never published in Simone de Beauvoir’s lifetime. The story goes she showed it to Jean-Paul Sartre and he held his nose. It tells of the intense childhood friendship between Sylvie and Andrée, who were Beauvoir’s fictional models for herself and her real-life friend Zaza Lacoin. […]

Join Kate and books podcaster Anna Baillie-Karas, in town taking short break from her own podcast Books on the Go to discuss The Inseparables, a 'lost' novel from Simone de Beauvoir, recently translated into English by Lauren Elkin. But what did we make of it? Should you add it to your reading pile? And would it be a good one for book club? Listen in and find out, plus catch our follow-on book recommendations.

Mrs Dalloway • #123

Episodes/Interviews

July 4, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Dull account of one woman’s day or rich and resonant masterpiece? Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf has divided readers since it was published and continues to spark debate today. In London, one day in June, 1923, society hostess Clarissa Dalloway sets out to buy flowers for a party she is giving that evening. Returning home […]

Dull account of one woman’s day or rich and resonant masterpiece? Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf has divided readers since it was published and continues to spark debate today. Join Kate and special guest, prolific reader and Instagram book reviewer Charles Pignal as they dive into Dalloway and debate the results. Plus a host of other book recommendations on a London theme.

Summer Reading 2022 • #122

Episodes/Features

June 20, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Whether you’re soaking up Nutcrackers on Rockaway beach like Kate’s book-reviewing heroine Molly Young, throwing down a picnic rug in your garden or the local park, fighting your way through airport chaos with the promise of a trip abroad or cosying up with a warm blanket in the Southern Hemisphere, we’ve got the Summer Reading show for you. It’s packed full of recommendations including our own favourite beach reads and tips from booksellers, authors and other friends of the pod.

Michel the Giant: An African in Greenland • #121

Book Club/Episodes

June 11, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Join us as we venture into the far north in the company of Tété-Michel Kpomassie, or Michel the Giant, whose life was changed as a boy in the 1950s when he came across a book about Greenland in a bookshop in his hometown in Togo, West Africa. Realising that this was a country where it […]

Join us as we venture to the frozen north in the company of Tété-Michel Kpomassie, an adventurer from Togo, West Africa who became transfixed by the idea of living in a country so different to his own. We discuss his travel-memoir and find out what Laura's book club make of it, plus recommend more books on a polar theme.'

The Year I Stopped to Notice by Miranda Keeling

The Year I Stopped to Notice, with Miranda Keeling • #120

Episodes/Interviews

May 31, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

We fly through books pretty fast here at The Book Club Review. And so we were delighted to be joined by Miranda Keeling, whose book The Year I Stopped to Notice showed us the delights of slowing down and noticing the little things happening all around us. She joined us in the shed to talk […]

We fly through books pretty fast here at The Book Club Review. And so we were delighted to be joined by Miranda Keeling, whose book The Year I Stopped to Notice showed us the delights of slowing down and noticing the little things happening all around us. We've also got some fabulous related book recommendations so listen in and let us help you choose your next read.

Bookshelf: From a page-turning literary thriller to a guilty pleasure fantasy read • #119

Book Club/Episodes

May 14, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

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 […]

Join us as we catch up on our recent reads outside of book club, the books we're picking and choosing for ourselves, from historical thriller The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting to the fantasy writer Kate currently can't put down, V.E. Schwab.

the country of others by Leïla Slimani podcast episode

The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani • #118

Book Club

May 1, 2022/Posted by: Kate

Join us as we deep-dive into Ferrante-esque family saga The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani. Critics and fellow authors have been impressed: Salman Rushdie called it ‘an exceptional novel’ while Claire Messud ‘didn’t want it to end’ but what did Laura’s book club make of The Country of Others (translated into English by Sam Taylor), […]

Join us as we discuss bestselling author and Prix Goncourt winner Leïla Slimani's latest novel, The Country of Others (translated by Sam Taylor), the first in a planned trilogy. Captivating family drama or 'tedious misery lit'? Listen in to find out what Laura's book club thought of it, plus we're joined by a special guest for a Moroccan reader's perspective.

Bookshelf: The books we’re reading outside of book club • #117

Bookshelf/Episodes

April 27, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

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 […]

Join us as we discuss the books we've been reading recently outside of book club, from Sunday Times bestsellers to a philosophical French page-turner.

Motherhood • With Claire Lynch • #116

Episodes/Features

March 27, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

It’s Mother’s Day here in the UK and as there’s nothing Kate loves more than a special episode we’ve put together a show on the theme of motherhood. We’re joined by Claire Lynch, author of Small: On Motherhoods, her literary memoir of her own unusual journey into motherhood. Elizabeth Morris of Crib Notes book club […]

Join us as we explore the theme of motherhood with Claire Lynch, author of Small: On Motherhoods, and Elizabeth Morris of Crib Notes book club – who better to help us pull together our essential reads on the topic. Listen in to discover our favourites.

What to read and when, with Francesca Beauman • #115

Interviews

March 23, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Book recommendations galore from author Francesca Beauman, who is also publisher and bookshop proprietor of Persephone Books. In her latest book, The Literaray Almanac, Francesca aims to guide readers in choosing books that chime with moments in the year – from hopeful books to read in March to school-curriculum classics not-nearly-as-boring-as-you-remember them in September. We […]

Join us as we learn how to pick the right book at the right time, with Francesca Beauman, author of The Literary Almanac and publisher and bookseller at Persephone Books.

Bookshelf: from prizewinning literature to beachy bestsellers • #114

Bookshelf/Episodes

March 7, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Join us as we discuss Benjamín Labatut’s Booker International Prize shortlisted novel When We Cease to Understand the World, 2021 Baillie Gifford prizewinner One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown and 2021 Costa Biography prizewinner Fall: A Life of Robert Maxwell by John Preston, The Outlander by Gil Adams, The Invisible Life of […]

Let us help you find your next great read as we catch up on the stand-out books from our reading piles. We might not always agree, but we guarantee you'll hear our honest responses. So listen in for everything from literary prizewinners to bestselling thrillers.

Long reads • #113

Features

February 27, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

We’ve all felt the lure of the short, sweet read, one of those slim books you can finish in a few hours, maybe over a hot cup of tea. But what about the books that may take weeks, even months, to read? The door stoppers, the heavy weights, the long reads. Think Dickens, Tolstoy, […]

Join us as we discuss The Magic Mountain, and recommend our favourite doorstop books from Proust to Olga Tocarczuk's Books of Jacob. We're joined by Phil Chaffee and Toby Brothers of the London Literary Salon.

Upcoming reads: books to get excited about in 2022 • #112

Features

February 26, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Wondering what books 2022 has in store for you? What will be your next great read? We’re joined by friends of the pod and bookworld insiders Chrissy Ryan of bookshop and bar Bookbar, and Elizabeth Morris of Crib Notes to talk what’s hot and what to look forward to. We’re looking months ahead to new […]

Wondering what books 2022 has in store for you? What will be your next great read? We're joined by friends of the pod and bookworld insiders Chrissy Ryan of bookshop and bar Bookbar, and Elizabeth Morris of Crib Notes to talk what's hot and what to look forward to.

The Promise by Damon Galgut: a quietly powerful family epic • Episode #111

Book Club/Episodes

February 3, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Join us for our latest book club episode on The Promise by Damon Galgut. Dazzling, original, heartfelt and exhilarating, or bleak, depressing, incoherent and unrealistic? What did Kate’s book club make of The Promise, Damon Galgut’s Booker-prize-winning novel, which tells the story of one white South-African family, and the promise made to their black servant, […]

Dazzling, original, heartfelt and exhilarating, or bleak, depressing, incoherent and unrealistic? What did Kate's book club make of The Promise, Damon Galgut's Booker-prize-winning novel. As ever we also have some great follow-on book recommendations.

Lolly Willowes and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter book covers

Lolly Willowes and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter • #110

Book Club/Episodes

January 24, 2022/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Charmingly eccentric tale with a sharply feminist point of view or a ‘hot mess’ – what did Laura’s book club make of Lolly Willowes by Silvia Townsend Warner? Meanwhile in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers explores loneliness, the human need for understanding and the search for love. What did Kate’s book club […]

Charmingly eccentric tale with a sharply feminist point of view or a 'hot mess' – what did Laura's book club make of Lolly Willowes by Silvia Townsend Warner? Meanwhile The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers explores loneliness, the human need for understanding and the search for love. What did Kate's book club think?

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