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40. Bookshelf: Beyond Book Club

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April 14, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

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.

39. Book of the Year Club

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April 4, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

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.

38. Why We Sleep

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March 25, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

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?

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37. Bookshelf: What we’re reading beyond book club

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March 5, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

What do we read when not busy reading our book club books? Listen in to hear about the books we pick and choose when we’re left to our own devices. This episode it’s a wide-ranging list as we report in on Lily Allen’s My Thoughts Exactly, The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis, the provocative Poverty […]

What do we read when we're not reading our book club books? Listen in to hear about the books we choose for ourselves, as we declare our undying love for Michael Lewis, consider the hardships faced by people who have little to live on, venture out to the Orkney Islands, enjoy a French classic and dip into some parenting books and some literary fiction.

36. The Mostly Harmless Book Club

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February 24, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

From Game of Thrones to Watership Down, via Haruki Marukami, Margaret Atwood, Frank Herbert and everything in-between, Mostly Harmless are a thriving book club devoted to sci-fi, fantasy, horror and comics. We interviewed founders Derek and Barbara about the hits and misses over the years. They shared a great set of expert recommendations for die-hard […]

From Game of Thrones to Watership Down, we talk to Derek and Barbara who run Mostly Harmless, a flourishing book club devoted to sci-fi, fantasy, horror and comics. They give us recommendations for everyone from die-hard enthusiasts to genre first-timers.

35. Normal People by Sally Rooney

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February 11, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Normal People was named Waterstones book of the year, longlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize and most recently won the Costa Novel Award. Sally Rooney’s editor at Faber & Faber dubbed her a ‘Salinger for the Snapchat generation’, while praise has been heaped on the book by the critics. But did it make for a […]

‘Salinger for the Snapchat generation’, Sally Rooney has fans aplenty. Is this the love story of our time? Or just a case of two clever kids unable to use their words? Kate and Laura square off.

34. Simon Schama

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February 4, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

A special interview with Simon Schama, historian, academic, documentary maker, journalist, cultural polymath and keen fiction reader. Listen in to find out what sends him to sleep happy, how his reading informs his writing, his favourite bookstores, his views on the pleasure of imperfect books, and best of all a ton of book suggestions. Plus […]

Historian, academic, documentary maker, journalist, cultural polymath, Simon Schama is also a keen reader of fiction. Listen in to find out what sends him to sleep happy, his views on the pleasure of imperfect books, and best of all a ton of book recommendations.

33.5 The Horror Book Club

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January 19, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

What’s it like to be in a book club that only reads frightening books? And what is fear anyway? It turns out it means different things to different people. Join us for a fascinating interview with Andy Russell, who runs London’s Horror Book Club, and find out why there may be much more to the […]

What's it like to be in a book club that only reads frightening books? And what is fear anyway? It turns out it means different things to different people. Join us for a fascinating interview with Andy Russell, who runs London's Horror Book Club, and find out why there may be much more to the horror genre than you think.

33. The Haunting of Hill House

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January 19, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

‘Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more.’ Andy Russell of London’s Horror Book Club joins us to discuss Shirley Jackson’s classic. A total terror? Or just the right side of thrilling? Listen in to hear what […]

A total terror? Or just the right side of thrilling? Andy Russell of London's Horror Book Club joins us to discuss Shirley Jackson's classic.

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32. Bookshelf: What we’re reading beyond book club

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January 12, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Our Bookshelf shows are the ones where we talk about the books we’re each reading outside of book club, the ones we get to choose for ourselves. What do we turn to? This episode we’ve got memoirs, fiction, fantasy and Michael Lewis’s slightly uncategorizable Moneyball (it’s about the buying and selling of players in the […]

Our bookshelf shows are the ones where we talk about the books we're each reading outside of book club, the ones we get to choose for ourselves. Listen in as we've got a brilliant mixed bag from Dolly Alderton's memoir Everything I Know About Love to Michael Lewis's baseball page-turner Moneyball.

31. London Literary Salon

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January 10, 2019/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Whether for book club or your TBR shelf, 2019 may be the year for a challenge. But what is it about classics such as Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, or Homer’s Iliad, James Joyce’s Ulysses or Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain that makes them seem more daunting than pleasurable? Fear not, we have just the […]

Whether for book club or your TBR shelf, 2019 may be the year for a challenge. But what is it about classics such as Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, or Homer’s Iliad, James Joyce's Ulysses or Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain that makes them seem more daunting than pleasurable? Listen in to find out how Toby guides her group through books that many struggle to finish alone.

30. Lullaby by Leïla Slimani

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December 27, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

‘The baby is dead. It took only a few seconds.’ So begins this bestselling thriller by French author Leïla Slimani, and the winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt. Unmissable? Unreadable? Listen in to hear Laura report back on what her book club made of Lullaby – and whether she made it out intact. With much, much […]

'The baby is dead. It took only a few seconds.' So begins this bestselling thriller by French author Leïla Slimani. Unmissable? Unreadable? It’s our most divisive episode yet.

29. Book Club Book of the Year

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December 23, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

We look back over our book club reads this past year and crown our favourite. But which one will it be? Book recommendations Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles Educated by Tara Westover Swing Time by Zadie Smith Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien […]

It’s been a cracker of a year for both our book clubs, but only one book can come out on top. We look back through the year considering the hits and misses to work out our Book Club Book of the Year.

28. The Paperbacks Book Club

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December 16, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

From hockey team to all-male book club with 50+ members, Jim West tells us how founding The Paperbacks revealed ‘the great undiscovered demographic’: men who read. Book recommendations Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver by Stephen R. Bown The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie by […]

From hockey team to all-male book club with over fifty members, Jim West tells us how founding The Paperbacks revealed 'the great undiscovered demographic': men who read.

27. The Unfinished Palazzo

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December 8, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

The story of three extraordinary women – Luisa Casati, Doris Castleross, Peggy Guggenheim – and the Venetian Palazzo that captivated them. Il Palazzo non finito was once an abandoned feature on Venice’s Grand Canal, a grand project that had fallen into decay with changing family fortunes. In the 20th-century, however, three extraordinary women would reinvent the […]

The Unfinished Palazzo is the story of three extraordinary women – Luisa Casati, Doris Castleross, Peggy Guggenheim – and the Venetian Palazzo that captivated them. Judith Mackrell's biography is unquestionably a fascinating read but did it make for a good book club book?

26.5 The Best New Book Club Books

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December 5, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

Wondering what to buy the book clubber in your life for Christmas? Here’s Claire Griffiths of North London bookshop Ink@84 with a brilliant rundown of new titles to catch your interest and inspire some great book club debates. Book recommendations Ghost Wall and The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi Fox 8 […]

We always love talking to booksellers because they have such a wide-ranging knowledge of books, it's the perfect way to dig out those gems you might have missed. Claire Griffiths of North London bookshop Ink@84 gives us her run-down of the best new titles and her picks for great book club reads.

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26. Bookshelf: What we’re reading beyond book club

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December 1, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

What do we read when not reading book club books? The ones we get to pick and choose? This episode, we’ve got the usual eclectic mix. We discover the joys of sheep-farming with ‘Twitter’s favourite shepherd’ James Rebanks, wonder if it’s a good idea to go into hibernation with Otessa Moshfegh, brush up on our […]

What books do we reach for when we're not reading for book club? Listen in for an eclectic mix ranging from sheep-farming to literary prizewinners. What did we make of them? And have we discovered any gems for book club?

25. Lesbian Book Club

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November 20, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

What do you do when your small start-up book club is so popular that you quickly become overwhelmed with new members? For Eléonore Pratoussy of the Lesbian Book Club in East London, it signalled a need for more lesbian book groups. Happily she has a plan to expand. Eléonore and fellow bookclubbers Caroline and Carina […]

What do you do when your small start-up book club is so popular that you quickly become overwhelmed with new members? For Eléonore Pratoussy of the Lesbian Book Club in East London, it signalled a need for more lesbian book groups. Listen in to hear the secrets of her success and a ton of great book recommendations.</strong.

24. Less + The House of Impossible Beauties

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October 6, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

We discuss Pulitzer-prize winning comic novel Less by Andrew Sean Greer, and Joseph Cassara’s The House of Impossible Beauties, a novel of drag queens and drag balls in 1980s New York. Both received rave reviews from the critics, but did they make for good book club books? Listen in to find out. Book recommendations Fair […]

We discuss Pulitzer-prize winning comic novel Less by Andrew Sean Greer, and Joseph Cassara's The House of Impossible Beauties, a novel of drag queens and drag balls in 1980s New York. Both received rave reviews from the critics, but did they make for good book club books? Listen in to find out.

23. The Faraway Nearby

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October 6, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

  We’re joined by US Vogue magazine’s culture editor Chloe Schama to consider The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit, the latest book read by Kate’s book club. We consider the genre of ‘anti-memoir’ (and if you’re unfamiliar with the term you will find yourself among friends) and come up with some light alternative reading in case it […]

US Vogue culture editor Chloe Schama join us to weigh in on Rebecca Solnit’s ‘anti-memoir’ and its meandering musings. A beguiling read, but did it make for a good book club book?

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