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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?

22. Educated by Tara Westover

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

From no formal education before the age of seventeen to a PhD from Cambridge ten years later, Tara Westover’s transformation is the stuff of Hollywood. And that’s before you learn about the violence and brainwashing that tainted her upbringing within her Mormon survivalist family. Westover’s remarkable memoir, Educated, made Barack Obama’s summer reading list. But what did […]

From a perilous childhood with no formal education to a Cambridge PhD at 27, Tara Westover’s memoir is the stuff of Hollywood. Moving, memorable and shocking. Is it also the perfect book club book?

21. A Far Cry from Kensington

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August 21, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

A Far Cry From Kensington has many fans amongst the critics but what did Kate’s book club make of it? Did they fall in love with Muriel Spark’s genteel farce set in the postwar London publishing industry? Or did they need more convincing of Spark’s genius? For an informed opinion we interview Hannah Griffin of […]

Muriel Spark’s short, sharp farce set in the publishing world of 1950s London is much admired. But as former book editors ourselves, what did we make of her indomitable narrator and editor with a capital E, Mrs Hawkins?

20. Do Not Say We Have Nothing

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July 2, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

The New York Times called it a ‘powerfully expansive novel’ and it was shortlisted for the Booker, but what did Laura’s book club make of Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien? For our regular book club interview, we get radical with London’s Radical Reading Group. And we finish as always with some […]

A lyrical and ambitious novel that deftly weaves together a story of family, friendship and music across the tapestry of 20th-century Chinese history. Laura loved it. Her book club? Listen in to find out.

19. Swing Time by Zadie Smith

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May 18, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

It has been called her finest novel yet, but what did Laura’s book club make of Zadie Smith’s Swing Time? In our regular interview, we talk to The Divas, a close-knit group of women based in north-west London, about books, friendship and travel. And we finish as always with some fresh recommendations for your next […]

It has been called her finest novel yet, but what did Laura's book club make of Zadie Smith's Swing Time? We also speak to a close-knit book group, chat with fellow podcasters Carrie and Becca from The Bookstore Podcast, and gather a load of book recommendations along the way.

18. East West Street

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March 15, 2018/Posted by: The Book Club Review

East West Street is the gripping memoir by prominent British barrister Philippe Sands. It’s a history of atrocity combined with a relentless search for the truth, with Sands digging deep into both his own family history and the legal framework that eventually brought Nazi war criminals to justice. Sands tells the story of two lawyers, Hersch […]

A powerful and important book, but did East West Street make for good book club discussion? Join us to find out. We also talk to an all-male book club and do our best to figure out what makes a book 'manly', and we have lots of great book recommendations.

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