What if Hillary hadn’t married Bill? That’s the attention-grabbing hook of Curtis Sittenfeld’s latest novel, Rodham, which duly sent it soaring into the bestseller charts. In real life, Bill Clinton asked Hillary Rodham to marry him three times before she finally said yes. The rest is history. But in Sittenfeld’s alternative world, Hillary says no, and their […]

Since the Covid Crisis went global, Laura’s book club has been working their way through That Glimpse of Truth: 100 of the Finest Short Stories Ever Written selected by the late literary agent David Miller. One short story, once a week, with a Zoom chat every Monday to discuss it. But what did Laura’s book club make […]

Sometimes the best thing about book club is that it prompts us to read things that we might otherwise turn away from. There are parts of the world that are in crisis, and it can be hard to know how to help. One thing we can do is to bear witness to the stories of […]

A word-of-mouth sleeper hit, Where The Crawdads Sing stunned the publishing world when sales took off and the book shot onto bestseller lists. It was all the more surprising as the author was a 70-year-old scientist new to writing fiction. Barkley Cove is a quiet town surrounded by marshland on the coast of North Carolina. When a […]

Part novel, part poem, Lanny evokes a typical English village whose residents are observed by an ancient spirit of nature – who in turn is taking a particular interest in one child. The Guardian called it ‘a fable, a collage, a dramatic chorus, a joyously stirred cauldron of words’, but what did Kate’s book club make of […]

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang clocked in at number 80 on The Guardian’s list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. And Barack Obama’s a fan too. But what about Laura’s book club? What did they make of this collection of eight sci-fi short stories, one of which formed the basis for […]

Fleishman is in Trouble tells the story of Toby, a successful NYC doctor whose almost ex-wife Rachel has vanished, leaving him alone with their two children. But is she the selfish, self-absorbed, neglectful mother he portrays? Finally free from his nightmare marriage, Toby Fleishman is ready for a life of online dating and weekend-only parental […]

Pat Barker’s retelling of Homer’s Iliad from a female perspective proves a surprisingly marmite read. The Silence of the Girls was shortlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize and received widespread critical praise but what did Kate’s book club think? Our narrator is Briseis, a Trojan queen who witnesses the destruction of her city at the hands of […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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? […]

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 […]

‘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 […]

‘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 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 […]

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’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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

We find out what Kate’s book club made of Dr Fischer of Geneva, or The Bomb Party, by Graham Greene. Alfred Jones, a widower who works as a translator for a chocolate company in Switzerland, meets Anna-Luise Fischer in a restaurant. Despite the difference in their ages the two fall deeply in love. They marry […]

Proustian mediatation on love and desire? Atmospheric beach read? What did Laura’s book club make of André Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name? First published in 2007 and recently made into an Oscar-nominated film, the story follows 17-year-old Elio’s obsession with charismatic Oliver,  a summer guest at his parents’ cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. […]

We debate Two Serious Ladies, the neglected 1940s ‘cult’ classic by Jane Bowles, and David Grossman’s A Horse Walks Into A Bar, which won the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. For our regular interview, we talk to Kat Brown about how she started the Jilly Cooper Book Club. Book recommendations To The End Of The Land […]

When we’re not reading books, what’s our dream publication? A magazine that takes the book club as its form and runs with it. And so it is with great delight, we bring you an episode inspired by The Happy Reader, Penguin’s very special publication that has a cult-following amongst those in-the-know. We discuss their winter […]

We take recommendations from Emily Rhodes of Emily’s Walking Book Club seriously. So, it was with much anticipation that Kate’s book club read All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West, one of Emily’s all-time favourite reads. After the death of her husband, everyone assumes his eighty-eight-year-old widow will slowly fade away in her grief. But Lady […]

We delve into The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy. Longlisted for the Booker Prize (2017), it didn’t make the shortlist, but did it make for a good book club read? Meanwhile for fans of horror and Halloween enthusiasts alike we meet up with Andy Russell of London’s Horror Book Club to find out […]

For Kate’s most recent book club, we set off to the high Himalayas in search of snow leopards and spiritual enlightenment with Peter Matthiessen’s cult classic The Snow Leopard. But what did we make of it? Is it a ‘man’s book’? And did it make for good debate? Also in this episode we take a […]

For a long time, according to our podcast stats, this was our most-popular episode, downloaded more than any other. Just what is it about This Is London by Ben Judah that makes people so curious? Judah’s book is a spare and unflinching investigation into what life in London can be like for the migrants who make up […]

Lincoln in the Bardo is a ghostly story that unfolds in a graveyard over the course of a single night. Narrated by a chorus of voices and historical sources this innovative novel invites discussion, and won the Booker Prize in 2017. In this episode we find out what Kate’s book club made of it. Were […]

What did Laura’s book club make of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, winner of the 2016 National Book Award, the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and ranked no. 30 on The Guardian‘s list of Best Books of the 21st Century. In this alternate history novel we meet Cora, a young slave on a cotton […]

Kate’s book club read Kim Leine’s historical novel The Prophets of Eternal Fjord, translated by Martin Aitken, and discover they have wildly differing opinions. ‘My front teeth are quite fallen out but for five that dangle like scoundrels of the night from a gallows’ complains the main character, Morten Falck, as we follow his experiences attempting to convert […]

In this episode Laura’s book club are reading The Trouble With Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon. The novel is set in 1970s England, during an unusually long heatwave. In an ordinary suburban neighbourhood a woman goes missing. For two ten-year-old girls, Grace and Tilly, searching for God is a way to find her and bring […]

Laura’s book club have been reading the travel memoir Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by Bulgarian emigrée Kapka Kassabova. She explores the borderzone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece in the company of border guards and treasure hunters, entrepreneurs and botanists, psychic healers and ritual fire-walkers, refugees and smugglers, and traces the physical and […]

Can a sci-fi novel make for a good book club book? We find out with The Left-Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. The novel is set on a planet called Winter where all the inhabitants are all of neutral gender. Much like Earth they are unaware of life in the universe beyond their own planet and so […]

Two book clubs. Two books. What did we read this month? Kate’s book club chose to read The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith, as it won the 2016 Booker International Prize. Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but […]

  Listen in to our book club episode on The Sellout, Paul Beatty’s satirical novel that won the Booker Prize in 2016, and Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance. The narrator of The Sellout spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe his father’s pioneering work will result in […]