What makes a bestseller? Is it the quality of the writing, or just the right book at the right time? This week Kate is joined by co-host Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to find out.
Between us we’ve tackled six of the biggest bestsellers out there – Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets, Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid, Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, Matt Dinnerman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl, SenLinYu’s Alchemised, and Sarah Adams’ In Your Dreams – and we have some opinions.
We’re sharing our honest experiences of each one: what worked, what didn’t, and whether these books truly earned their place on the bestseller lists. But this isn’t just a round of verdicts. We’re also pooling our recommendations for the bestsellers we genuinely think are worth your time, like The Correspondant by Virginia Evans – because there are some real gems out there among the hype.
And as always, we round off with our current and upcoming reads.
Press play to find out which bestsellers passed the test – and which ones didn’t.
Booklist
You can also find all the books mentioned in The Book Club Review bookshop on Bookshop.org, the online bookstore that supports independent bookshops.
The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams
Alchemized by SenLinYu
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The Martian by Andy Weir
Nobody’s Fool by Harlen Cobden
The Correspondant by Virginia Evans
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Robin Buss)
Rivals by Jilly Cooper
The novels of Stephen King
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Smiley books by John Le Carre
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin
Ice by Jacek Dukaj (Author) , Ursula Phillips (Translator)
The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt
I’ll Take The Fire by Leïla Slimani
(also The Country of Others and Watch US Dance)
Lullaby / The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani
Nearly Departed by Lucas Oakeley
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
