Conversations about the books that get people talking
Conversations about the books that get people talking
We discover a book club for people who don’t like the idea of all having to read the same book. At Bee’s Bookshare everyone brings a book they’ve loved, loathed, can’t put down or can’t get into and shares them – best of all everyone gets to take away a new read at the end. We […]
In Margate, by the sea, Bee runs a book club with a difference, everyone reads a different book, brings it along to discuss, and then takes a new book home at the end.
We delve into the whirlwind story of Elizabeth Holmes and her biotech company Theranos. At its height it was valued at 9 billion dollars. At its heart was a product that didn’t work. In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup […]
An astonishing web of fraud, charisma and intimidation, with the startlingly duplicitous Elizabeth Holmes at its heart. Investigative journalist John Carreyrou digs deep to unravel this story of Theranos, a bio-tech company built on lies.
We love our Bookshelf shows as we get to discuss the books we’re reading outside of book club, the ones we get to choose for ourselves. This episode Laura is swept away by Esi Edugyan’s pacey novel Washington Black, beguiled by Venetian fantasy The Lies of Locke Lamora and laughs and cries with Candice Carty-Williams’ […]
Laura can’t wait to rave about her non-book club books this week, from Candice Carty-Williams’ groundbreaking Queenie to the fantasy realms of Locke Lamora, with Washington Black by Esi Eduygan thrown in. While Kate reports in on bittersweet comedy The Friend, revels in a year spent in a clifftop house by the sea thanks to Juliet Blaxland's Easternmost House, and is blown away by Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys.
If you’d like to start a book club but are wondering who to invite, how about staying close to home? Annie and Dave tell us about their successful family book club, which has kept their family engaging with books and debating their merits for seven years now. They share their tips for making it work […]
Looking to take your next family get-together to another level? Just add books. Annie and Dave tell us how to do it – and how to stay civil when the debate heats up.
A sweeping and evocative portrait of an Egyptian family at a time of great social change, from Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz. The novel follows one family over the course of the years 1917–19, a time of great change in Egypt that culminated in the overthrow of the British Protectorate. We meet al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd […]
Egypt’s answer to Tolstoy, Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for his intricate portrait of an Egyptian family at a time of great social change. But could Laura’s book club cope with all the misogyny?
Our latest interview is with Tyona Campbell, owner of Barnabees, a very special secondhand bookshop tucked away in the small Suffolk village of Westleton. Tyona tells us how her shop is in a small way a protest against the data-gathering online giants, why in her shop the books they find you, and why books benefit […]
In the best bookshops, you don’t find the books, they find you. Or so insists Tyona, proud owner of what she wryly calls 'the second best secondhand bookshop in Westleton, Suffolk'.
My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite’s superbly titled debut novel, has been one of the literary sensations of 2019 – nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and long listed for the Booker. But what did both our book clubs make of it? Does it merit all the acclaim? Listen in to find out. Heads up: this […]
A dynamite title, but does this award-winning bestseller live up to the hype? Laura's book club aren't convinced.
Tucked away in London’s Soho is a hidden gem of a bookshop. The Second Shelf sells rare and antiquarian books, modern first editions, ephemera, manuscripts, and rediscovered works – all by women. Proprietor A. N. Devers told us how she went from rare-book dealing to shopkeeping. We also hear about the bookshelves that regularly make […]
Tucked away in a quiet Soho courtyard, this jewel box of a bookshop is doing something radical: selling rare books by women and women only. Founder A.N. Devers tells us how the small act of collecting is transformative for the canon.
It’s a slight volume but Ahmet Altan’s memoir I Will Never See the World Again packs a powerful punch. Each of its short essays was smuggled out of the prison where Altan serves – and continues to serve – a life sentence. Ahmet Altan was imprisoned by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime in Turkey, during a period in which […]
‘Read this – it will explain why you ever read anything.’ So writes A.L. Kennedy and we couldn't agree more. But this collection of essays by Ahmet Altan, each one smuggled out of a Turkish prison where he remains on trumped-up charges, isn't an obvious book club choice. Can we convince you to go for it?
Ever dreamed of owning a bookstore? How about one a stone’s throw from the beach? When Francesca Wilkins realised the British seaside town of Margate didn’t have a bookshop selling new titles, she realised it was the perfect place to realise her lifelong ambition and launch her own. Listen in for the behind-the-scenes story and the […]
Ever dreamed of owning a bookstore? How about one a stone’s throw from the beach? Francesca Wilkins tells us how she made the ultimate dream a reality.
We discuss the books we’re reading outside of book club, the ones we get to pick and choose. Join us as we successfully identify the perfect beach read for this summer, get to the bottom of Kate’s problem with audio books (and the cure, The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton), muse on what it’s like […]
We’re hunting for the perfect beach read in this episode, with The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton and Transcription by Kate Atkinson both in the running. We also cover parenting and life lessons from Philippa Perry and consider Sally Rooney’s short story Mr Salary.
If you’ve ever dreamed of switching everything off and being able to read for hours, then this is the episode for you. Reading Retreats run holidays in Derbyshire, England, where all you do is read. Nothing less, nothing more. But what’s the experience really like? To find out, Kate made a great self-sacrifice and spent […]
Do you dream of a long weekend of reading, and only reading? Curious to find out if the dream lives up to expectations Kate heads off on a weekend reading retreat.
You might think that inviting authors along to your book club discussions is a surefire way to stifle debate. Fine if everyone loves the book, but what if it gets a critical savaging? Sanober Kilodar of the Wilde Imagination Book Club of south London shares how to make it work. Yes, it often ends up a […]
Looking to get more out of your book club? Invite the author to join you. That's the approach this south London book club takes.
We discuss Francis Spufford’s Golden Hill, a rollicking historical novel set in 18th-century New York. Its plot is full of more twists and turns than a slide at Centerparcs so we’ve split the episode into two. The first half is the safety zone where we won’t spoil the plot for you, but if you have read […]
We defy anyone not to enjoy this rollicking historical caper through 18th-century New York. But does it work for book club?
Masterpiece from the contemporary heir to Samuel Beckett? Or demanding endurance read with not nearly enough paragraph breaks? We debate Anna Burns’ Booker-Prize winning novel Milkman – a tale of one young woman’s struggle to retain her sense of self during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Suffocating gossip, ever-present violence and a surprising amount of humour. […]
A masterpiece from the heir to Samuel Beckett? Or a demanding endurance read with not nearly enough paragraph breaks? We debate Anna Burns' Booker-Prize winning novel.
For a ton of great recommendations – most of which were new to us – we turned to Anna Baillie-Karas from Australian podcast Books on the Go. Listen in to hear about some books that might be new to you, or ones that you might have overlooked when they came out. And finally a book […]
We caught up with Anna Baillie-Karas, host of one of our favourite podcasts, Books on the Go, on a flying visit to London. Listen in for a ton of great book recommendations.
What happens when all the black people in a Southern town decide to pack their things and leave? First published in 1962, A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley had been largely forgotten until rediscovered by journalist Kathryn Schulz. Her New Yorker article put it back on the map. Laura’s book club were intrigued by […]
What happens when one day every single black person in a Southern state leaves? That’s the startling premise of William Melvin Kelley’s forgotten 1962 classic. Much better known, James Baldwin’s 1974 novel is no less a classic, though the tragic injustice at its heart is all too familiar.
From powerful fiction from Sarah Moss and Samantha Harvey, to the most engaging book about running you’re likely to come across, and reads to make you smile from Norah Ephron and Maria Semple, it’s an enjoyably mixed bag this week. Listen in to hear what we thought of them, the hits and misses and whether […]
Listen in to hear the books we sneak off to read when we’re not reading for book club. We have powerful fiction from Sarah Moss and Samantha Harvey; if you think you might like reading books about running Kate has the perfect title for you; and Norah Ephron and Maria Semple make us smile. It’s an enjoyably mixed bag this week.
Too often in the reading world we chase the latest new release. So, it was a great pleasure to interview Simon Thomas who specialises in seeking out books from the past. We discuss his unusual take on a book club where he and like-minded book bloggers read and review books from a particular year in […]
Up for a spot of time travel? Then join Simon Thomas and his band of book bloggers as they transport themselves back in time by each reading a book – any book – published from a specific year.
We discuss Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology, whose book offers us the chance to be more attractive, slimmer, happier and healthier – all thanks to a good night’s sleep. Critics have called this international bestseller ‘accessible’, ‘compelling’ and ‘enlightening’. But what did Kate’s book club make of it? […]
Sleep. It will make you healthier, happier, slimmer and even more attractive. Or so says Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology. Are we convinced?
