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Chrissy Ryan of Bookbar bookshop

Bookbar, with Chrissy Ryan • #96

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May 24, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

We got together with Chrissy Ryan, founder of new North London bookshop and bar Bookbar to talk about her vision for a social space where people feel welcome whether they read a book a day, a week, a month or a year. You know when you walk into an independent bookshop and the selection is […]

Combining bookshop and bar seems almost too good to be true. Join us as we live the dream chatting to Chrissy Ryan of Bookbar, a bookshop and events space that embraces the social side of reading. Listen in for a dose of Chrissy's joyous enthusiasm for books, her essential selection of books she loves right now and her hot picks of the ones that are coming soon.

montage of book covers

Bookshelf: From Paris to Iceland via an imaginary library • #95

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May 15, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your favourite podcast app here. In this episode we get Laura’s take on Matt Haig’s bestselling novel The Midnight Library, which Kate hasn’t yet read. Should she? Meanwhile Kate gets swept into literary Paris with Deidre Bair’s memoir of her time writing biographies of Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir, Parisian Lives. Laura […]

We're both in a travelling mood as our recent reads take us from an imaginary library to real life Paris, with stopovers in Iceland, India and Greece, not to mention Kate's exciting visit to a real-life bookshop for the first time in ages. It's all here in our latest episode of Bookshelf.

Book cover Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden

94. Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden

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May 1, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your favourite podcast player here: Join us as we tackle this unusual book that mixes prose with poetry and a play script, in which Death is embodied in the form of an old black woman. Mrs Death befriends a young writer, Wolf, who agrees to ghost-write her memoirs. Mrs Death has had […]

Join us as we tackle this highly original book that mixes prose with poetry and a play script, in which Death is embodied in the form of an old black woman. Mrs Death befriends a young writer, Wolf, who agrees to ghost-write her memoirs. Why read a book about a subject most of us would prefer not to think about? Listen in to find out.

montage of book covers

93. Bookshelf: A little bit of Maas hysteria

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April 29, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Listen above or via your favourite podcast player here. In this episode Kate gets tied up in existential knots over House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas and we consider the parallels between this 800-page fantasy bonkbuster and War and Peace. We explore the idea of ‘reading offsetting’ whereby we balance our guilty […]

Join us as we review the books we've each been reading outside of book club – the ones we get to pick and choose for ourselves. From otherworldly bonkbuster House of Earth and Blood to a memoir of an Arctic winter our books have certainly been taking us places this month.

portrait of Ella Berthoud

92. Ella Berthoud and The Art of Mindful Reading

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April 17, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your podcast feed: https://pod.fo/e/c5bc5 Bibliotherapist and author (with Susan Elderkin) of classic books about books The Novel Cure and The Story Cure, Ella Berthoud’s most recent work is The Art of Mindful Reading, a practical guide that promises to help people to read more mindfully, bringing their lives to books and books […]

We're joined by Bibliotherapist Ella Berthoud whose book The Art of Mindful Reading promises to help us engage more deeply with the books that we read. Expect lots of book recommendations in this show, plus advice on everything from how to keep a successful book journal to what to do when you’re not enjoying your book club book. Listen in and learn how to make the very most of your precious reading time, and even find out how to carve out more of it.

book cover The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

91. The Mermaid of Black Conch

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April 4, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen on your podcast app. Join us as we discuss the winner of the 2020 Costa Book of the Year, an award that seemed to surprise booksellers and publishers Peepal Tree Press alike, who had to scramble to print new copies to meet demand. Even Margaret Atwood got excited about this ‘fishy tale of […]

Join us as we discuss The Mermaid of Black Conch, winner of the 2020 Costa Book of the Year, an award that seemed to surprise booksellers and publishers Peepal Tree Press alike, who had to scramble to print new copies to meet demand. Did it make for a good book club book? Was Kate able to cope with reading all the sex? If you buy a book about a mermaid is it then ok to complain it’s unrealistic? Listen in to find out.

portrait of Little Library Cookbook author Kate Young for Book Club Review podcast episode

90. The Little Library Cookbooks

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March 20, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen in your podcast app here. A cook book with the magic ingredient of reading recommendations • A Little Library Year by Kate Young Now you may be someone who prefers to spend your time reading rather than cooking, but what if there was a cookbook that enabled you to do both? It was […]

Listen in as we talk all things cooking and reading thanks to The Little Library cookbooks, which brilliantly combine the two. Author Kate Young tells us what to cook in an Apocalypse, her childhood reading favourites, and her current reading recommendations plus a perfect pick for book club.

book cover of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

89. Shuggie Bain

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February 28, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen in your podcast app here. On the one hand ‘bleak, meandering and depressing’ on the other a beautifully written book that has touched the hearts of its readers – but what did Kate’s book club make of Douglas Stuart’s 2020 Booker winner Shuggie Bain? We’re joined by friend and journalist Phil Chaffee to […]

Picking up on the national mood the Booker shortlist in 2020 was notable for the seriousness of its subject matter, none more so than winner Shuggie Bain. A heartrending depiction of a mother in the grip of alcoholism and her young son who refuses to turn his back on her, set in a devastated ex-mining town, it's a book that people might not rush to read. Join us as we figure out what makes Shuggie such a worthy winner, and why you shouldn't shy away from reading it.

montage of book covers to illustrate new book review podcast episode

88. Bookshelf: Spring reads

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February 14, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen in your podcast app here. We love our book clubs, but our bookshelf shows are all about the books we choose for ourselves. What books are we picking up to get us through January and February, tough months in any normal year but in 2021 we’re also struggling with lockdown. Want some recommendations […]

Looking for books to get you through January and February? Already tough months in a normal year, this year they feel particularly dire as we struggle through yet another lockdown. Here to help: a handful of book recommendations we think you'll love.

Covers of Writers and Lovers by Lily King and Early Work by Andrew Martin

87. Writers & Lovers by Lily King and Early Work by Andrew Martin

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February 1, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your podcast app here. Two aspiring writers, two messy love lives, two very different books that each take the craft of writing as their main theme, one from the female perspective and one from the male. Writers & Lovers made the New York Times list of 100 notable books of 2020 while […]

Two aspiring writers, two messy love lives, two very different books, but what did Laura's book club make of them? And which one was a rare DNF for one of us? Listen in to find out.

man posting a letter into ER postbox to illustrate The Postal Book Club

86. The Postal Book Club

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January 17, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your podcast app here. Before the internet you may remember people used to send letters to friends in the post. Well, book blogger and podcaster Simon Thomas came up with the wonderfully romantic idea of posting a book (with attached notepad for comments) from friend to friend around the world, eventually receiving […]

A book sent from friend to friend with attached notebook for comments, eventually returning to the original sender. A slow form of book club that makes for a charming antidote to our digital era. Listen in to hear more.

Picture of podcast hosts Kate and Laura to illustrate best books of 2020 text

85. Best books of 2020

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January 1, 2021/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your podcast app. What were the best, most unmissable reads of 2020? We bring you our biggest recommendations show yet, with over 50 books loved by us, our book clubs, and our three special guests.  But what were our most loved reads of 2020? Listen in for our six top books and […]

Join us for our biggest recommendations show yet featuring over 50 books as we run through our favourites from 2020, the best-loved reads from three special guests and top-picks from our book clubs. Listen in and make 2021 your best reading year yet.

cover of The Book Lover's Quiz Book by Gary Wigglesworth

84. The Book Lover’s Quiz

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December 30, 2020/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your podcast app here. Feeling quizzical? Missing your favourite pub quiz? Compete along with us as Gary Wigglesworth, author of The Book Lover’s Quiz Book, puts us through our literary paces in a special episode. Will you beat us?  We especially loved the way these books questions prompted lots of side conversations […]

Feeling quizzical? Missing your favourite pub quiz? Compete along with us as Gary Wigglesworth, author of The Book Lover’s Quiz Book, puts us through our literary paces in a special episode. Will you beat us? 

woman selecting book from self to illustrate book club book of the year article

83. Book Club Book of the Year 2020

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December 26, 2020/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your podcast app here. We look back over the ten books we read for bookclub in 2020. From Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s snappy take on contemporary relationships with Fleishman is in Trouble, to The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa’s carefully considered look at memory and the objects that bring meaning to our lives. We read […]

Which book will we crown our 2020 book club book of the year? Listen in to find out.

photo of Kate Macdonald

82. Handheld Press publishers

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December 13, 2020/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your podcast app here. What’s it like to set up your own publishing business? What does it take to succeed? And how do you find the right books? We talk to Kate Macdonald of Handheld Press, who gives us some behind-the-scenes insights into running a small, independent publishers, and her mission to […]

Many readers may have dreamed of it, but what's it really like running your own publishing house? Kate Macdonald tells us about Handheld Press, and her mission to seek out forgotten fiction and authors who need to be rediscovered.

The Memory Police book cover on red background

81. The Memory Police

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November 28, 2020/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Or listen via your podcast app here. We discuss The Memory Police, a haunting dystopian novel that explores questions of power, trauma and state surveillance written by Yoko Ogawa, one of Japan’s leading contemporary novelists.  Set on an unnamed island, the narrator of The Memory Police describes how every so often something in the inhabitants’ […]

We discuss Yoko Ogawa's haunting dystopian novel The Memory Police, an uneasy read, but one that may well be our book club book of the year! Also some great recommendations for your next book club read.

2020 booker prize covers montage with headline

80. The Booker Prize 2020

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November 14, 2020/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Wondering which Booker shortlisted book should win? The ones to read? The ones to avoid? Look no further as we give a fulsome and frank  rundown of all six shortlisted titles. We’re joined by podcast guests Sarah Oliver and Phil Chaffee for a proper, no-holds-barred book club discussion. Listen in to find out the things […]

In true book club fashion, we deliver a no-holds-barred debate of the six shortlisted titles for the 2020 Booker Prize. Whether we loved them or loathed them, we can guarantee you're going to hear what we really think.

Bonjour Tristesse cover

79. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

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October 31, 2020/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Bonjour Tristesse is a classic of French novella literature, a tour de force that took France by storm with its publication in 1954 – when its author Françoise Sagan was only 18 years old. But has it stood the test of time? Did it still have resonance for Kate’s book club? Teenager Cécile’s summer holiday with […]

Achieving bestselling literary success before she reached twenty, Françoise Sagan could at one point reasonably be said to have been the most fashionable author in the world. But how does her 1954 classic Bonjour Tristesse fare in book club discussion? Kate's book club finds out. Listen in for the debate plus our book recommendations for follow-on reads.

78. Bookshelf: Autumn Reads

October 17, 2020/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Our Bookshelf episodes are the ones where we get to let our hair down and talk about the things we’re reading outside of our book clubs, the books that we get to pick and choose. So listen in as Kate is bewitched by the new Susanna Clarke novel Piranesi, charmed by Shirley Jackson’s memoir of […]

Our Bookshelf episodes are where you find out the books we choose when our book clubs aren't directing us to worthy choices. So listen in for everything from hot new releases like Piranesi by Susanna Clarke to riveting backlist titles, like Peter Robb's Midnight in Sicily, and some guilty pleasure reads we don't regret for a second.

77. The Vanishing Half

October 8, 2020/Posted by: The Book Club Review

The Vanishing Half is the latest book read by both Laura and Kate’s book clubs, and tells the story of two black identical twins, Stella and Desiree, whose lives diverge dramatically when Stella leaves everything behind to pass as a white woman in 1950s America. 2019 Booker winner Bernadine Evaristo is a fan. ‘The Vanishing […]

The Vanishing Half by Brit Benett has been one of the most-talked-about recent releases, but how did it fare in book club debate? Both Kate and Laura's book clubs try it out. Will they agree?

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