Join me (Kate) and Laura as we go through our bookstacks and discuss our recent reads. Find out what why Laura can’t put down The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Meanwhile I’ve discovered Mrs Miniver, a comfort read from the 1930s that still has a message for us today, Laura’s made a discovery of her own – that there’s more to Anita Brookner than Hotel du Lac, with her 1988 novel The Latecomers. We go from one good book club read to another with The Fraud by Zadie Smith, and Laura reports in from the recent backlist past with How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang. I take a detour through a ring of enchanted toadstools with Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, and Laura confesses to having spent a weekend lost in the pages of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. She's only interested in the dragons, mind.

Books mentioned

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther

The Latecomers by Anita Brookner

The Fraud by Zadie Smith (UK paperback out in June)

How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

UK listeners can find all the books listed above at our Bookshop.org.uk bookshop, if you purchase them there you'll be supporting independent bookshops and your favourite indie podcasters.

Find out all the details of what we're offering on our Patreon here, including a weekly book recmomendations newsletter from Kate, occasional extra bits and bobs plus access to our pod book spreadsheets, and at the higher tier you can join our bookclub and talk books with Kate in person once a month.

And come and find Kate on Instagram or Threads, or drop us a line at thebookclubreview@gmail.com and let us know your thoughts on the books discussed here anytime.

Early Spring Bookshelf • Episode #156