This week we're talking about food, friendship and the cult favourite of Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin. Brian Eno once said that everyone who bought The Velvet Underground's first record went on to form a band, and the same can be said of Home Cooking and people who went on to write cookbooks. We talk about recipe writing, the godlike power of food writers, our dowdy twenties, tiny flats, and the uselessness of describing someone as "the new Nora Ephron". Caroline O'Donoghue has two books out, the most recent of which is Scenes of a Graphic Nature and is available in all book shops. Ella Risbridger is the author of Midnight Chicken and Set Me On Fire, as well as a forthcoming children's fiction series The Secret Detectives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The hosts discuss their return after a break and introduce 'The Virgin Suicides', a book about people trapped in their homes. They reflect on their surprising love for the book and explore the allure of its title. They discuss their past reading preferences and idolization of Sylvia Plath. The accurate portrayal of teenage girls in the book is praised and female characters in literature are analyzed. The challenges of reaching consensus on action and the complexities of grief and obsession are explored. The author's sympathy towards women and anticipation for future podcasts are discussed.

My second book is out on audio and ebook today, here's me talking about it and doing a reading! Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O'Donoghue https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WN4QNYN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1Audio narration by Esther O'Moore Donohoe https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Scenes-of-a-Graphic-Nature-Audiobook/1004001509?qid=1592504228&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=2B3Z57HX8WY3E9XPZPXW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No new episode this week, but here are some fiction recommendations that you might be interested in given the current political climate:Heads Of The Coloured People - Nafissa Thompson-SpiresKindred - Octavia E ButlerSong of Solomon - Toni MorrisonNudibranch - Irenosen OkojieSuch a Fun Age - Kiley ReidProperty - Valerie MartinThe Wedding Date - Jasmine GuilloryGirl, Woman, Other - Bernardine EvaristoDonate to UK Black Lives Matter: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ukblm-fundExist Loudly Fund to Support Queer Black YP: https://www.gofundme.com/f/exist-loudly-fund-to-support-queer-black-ypSARI Stand Against Racism and Inequality https://www.sariweb.org.uk/who-we-are/donate/Girl Guiding: https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're talking about 1989's smash-hit debut The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. We talk debut novels, immigration literature, why so many women find Amy Tan in their teens, mothers and their daughters, food and how it travels, and why we're still obsessed with Waverly Jong. Lillian Li's "The Love Hate Joy Luck Club” - https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2015/05/the-love-hate-joy-luck-club/Sentimental Garbage is produced and edited by Caroline O'Donoghue, mixed by Hannah Varrall and hosted by Acast.You can find Caroline's books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caroline-ODonoghue/e/B07CR7SFJM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1588717449&sr=1-1You can find Ella Risbridger's books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ella-Risbridger/e/B07KR8NDY8?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1588717479&sr=1-1 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the Corona Cast, Caroline and Ella discuss the ultimate smart lady holiday book (she's going to Split) American Wife! American Wife is a 2009 novel inspired by the life of Laura Bush, former First Lady and wife of George Bush junior. Here, we know her as Alice Blackwell. Beginning in the mid-west in the 1950s, we follow Alice from her quiet childhood to the car accident in her teens that killed her first crush and changed her life forever. After becoming a school librarian, she meets Charlie Blackwell at the barbecue of some mutual friends and begins a whirlwind romance that leads to a long marriage, and eventually, the White House. Sentimental Garbage is produced and edited by Caroline O'Donoghue, mixed by Hannah Varrall and hosted by Acast. You can find Caroline's books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caroline-ODonoghue/e/B07CR7SFJM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1588717449&sr=1-1You can find Ella Risbridger's books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ella-Risbridger/e/B07KR8NDY8?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1588717479&sr=1-1 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CONTENT WARNING: rape, fat shaming, homophobia, literally all possible triggers a person could have. This week it's another special edition of Sentimental Garbage, where we talk about the novels that are getting us through the corona virus! Today we’re talking about VALLEY OF THE DOLLS by Jacqueline SusannWhen twenty year-old Anne Welles moves from New England to New York in the summer of 1945, she’s pretty enough to be a model but settles for being a secretary at a theatrical agency. Here she meets a host of showbiz characters, including Neely, a vaudevillian teenager; Jennifer North, a starlet fresh from a marriage to an Italian prince; Helen Lawson, an ageing broadway star and Lyon Burke, a wannabe writer who she falls in love with. Over twenty years, the novel covers their rise and fall through show business, as each woman battles with age, men, and their mutual pill addictions.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's week two of the Corona Cast, and we're still stuck in our bedrooms. What better time to get into supernatural YA classic, Margaret Mahy's The Changeover? Ella and Caroline talk about going back to adolescence, magical admin, morally ambiguous witches, suburban New Zealand, forgiveness, the extremely good film adaptation, and "changing over" from girl to woman. Caroline O'Donoghue is an author and would like you to pre-order her new book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/9780349009940Ella Risbridger is a cookbook writer and children's author, and would also like if you bought her books: https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/ella+risbridger Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our Corona Cast, a series where I invite my favourite people (mostly Ella) to record remotely on their favourite books, regardless of genre, sentimentality, or garbage-y content. Today, we're doing Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido. Katherine is an eighteen year old first year university student who, after meeting the flamboyant and much older John Millet at a book shop, is asked to join him for a weekend in the country to visit some old friends. When she gets there, she realises that it’s the home of her University professor, Jacob Goldman. What follows is a love story spanning two decades as Katherine attaches herself to various members of the Goldman family, including Jacob’s two sons Roger and Jonathan, as well as his wife, Jane.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hold steady everyone, there’s a WAR ON! Joining Caroline O'Donoghue is author, cook and currently in love with a set of twins, KATE YOUNG and today we’re talking about The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley published in 1984. Every summer, a group of young cousins – Oliver, Walter, Calypso, Polly and the much younger Sophy – gather at their Aunt Helena and Uncle Richard’s house in Cornwall for an idyllic beachside holiday. We meet them in August of 1939, where people are still saying that the Nazis are splendid and the war will never happen. That night after their inaugral dinner party, it does. What follows is the explosion of their teenage innocence, and we watch them grow up through the war and find the Blitz isn’t actually all that bad, when you get used to it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.