The Book Club Review

A sweeping and evocative portrait of an Egyptian family at a time of great social change, from Nobel Prizewinning author Naguib Mahfouz. 'Writing worthy of a Tolstoy, a Flaubert or a Proust' said The Independent newspaper but what did Laura's book club make of it? Listen in to find out, plus lots of great recommendations to help you find your next book club read. • Recommendations were Women of Sand and Myrrh by Hanan Al-Shaykh, The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth and Sally recommended The Map of Love by Ahdef Soueif and The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning. • If you'd like to see what we're up to between episodes follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you like what we do please do take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to us on iTunes, it helps other listeners find us and means you'll never miss an episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our latest interview is with Tyona Campbell, owner of Barnabees, a very special secondhand bookshop tucked away in the small Suffolk village of Westleton. Tyona tells us about how her shop is in a small way a protest against the data-gathering online giants, why in her shop you don't so much find the books as they find you, and why books benefit from being coddled and canoodled. She also has a couple of great recommendations for your next book club read. • Follow Barnabees on Instagram @barnabeesbooks, and if you want to visit in person the shop is located on the Yoxford Road in Westleton, IP17 2AF. It's open Thursday–Sunday 11am–5pm. • If you'd like to see what we're up to between episodes follow BCRP on Instagram or Facebook @bookclubreviewpodcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you like what we do please do take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to us on iTunes, it helps other listeners find us and means you'll never miss an episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Happy Reader is a magazine that takes the idea of a book club as its inspiration. To celebrate the launch of their latest issue we're revisiting one of our favourite interviews, with editor Seb Emina. He told us about the careful thinking and attention to detail that goes into putting the magazine together plus has some great book recommendations and a radical suggestion for a book club where no-one is allowed to mention the book club book. Intrigued? Then listen on. • Find out more about The Happy Reader magazine and read along with their next book of the season at www.thehappyreader.com • Books recommended were Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard, The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which we also covered in episode 13 of the podcast. • If you'd like to see what we're up to between episodes follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or why not drop us a line at thebookclubreview@gmail.com and tell us about your book club. And if you're not already, do subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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: it's SPOILER-full, so don't listen unless you've read the book, or have no intention of reading it. • Books mentioned on this episode: Ponti by Sharlene Teo, Half of a Yellow Sun, Why We Should All be Feminists, and Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngoze Adiche and Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. • On our next book club show, we'll be discussing Palace Walk, the first novel in Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy. • To keep up with us between shows follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you're not already, why not subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have time to rate and review us we will love you forever, it helps other listeners find our pod.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tucked away in London's Soho is a hidden gem of a bookshop. The Second Shelf sells rare and antiquarian books, modern first editions, ephemera, manuscripts, and rediscovered works – all by women. We sit down with proprietor A. N. Devers to learn how she went from rare-book dealing to shopkeeping. We also hear about the bookshelves that regularly make customers gasp, and why all women should think about collecting books by women writers. • For more information check out The Second Shelf's website www.thesecondshelf.com, find them on Twitter @secondshelfbks or Instagram @secondshelfbooks • If you'd like to see what we're up to between episodes follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you're not already, why not subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's a slight volume, but 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. The book has been championed by author, international human rights lawyer and general real-life Mark Darcy figure Philippe Sands, while writer A. L. Kennedy said 'Read this – it will explain why you ever read anything, why anyone ever writes.' But what did Kate's book club make of it? Listen in to find out. Plus our usual range of recommendations for your next book club read. • Books mentioned on this episode: A Strangeness in my Mind by Orhan Pamuk A Day in the Life of Yvan Denisovich by Alexander Solyenitzhn The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières • If you'd like to see what we're up to between episodes follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you're not already, why not subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ever dreamed of owning a bookstore? How about one a stone's throw from the beach? When she realised the British seaside town of Margate didn't have a bookshop for new titles, Francesca Wilkins realised it would be the perfect place to realise her lifelong ambition and launch her own store. Listen in for the behind-the-scenes story, some great book recommendations and the secret, in a nutshell, to running a successful bookshop. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In our Bookshelf shows we discuss the books we're reading outside of book club, the ones we get to pick and choose! Join us as we successfully identify a book perfect for beach reading this summer, get to the bottom of Kate's problem with audio books (and the cure, The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton), muse on what it's like reading a book when there's no cover image (the joys of the elegant but inscrutable Fitzcarraldo edition), discuss Laura's intentions to set aside lightweight fluff and get back into some serious reading and hear Kate's true-life encounter with Philippa Perry, author of 'The Book You Wish Your Parents had Read'. • Books mentioned in this episode: Becoming by Michelle Obama, A Brief History of Seven Killings and Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James, The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton, Transcription by Kate Atkinson, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead, Flights and The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, Mr Salary by Sally Rooney, The Book You Wish Your Parents had Read by Philippa Perry and The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer • If you'd like to see what we're up to between episodes follow us on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast, on Facebook and Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com Subscribe, like us, leave a comment, we love all that, and never miss an episode. Thanks for listening and happy reading.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If you've ever dreamed of switching everything off and being able to read for hours, then this is the show for you. Reading Retreats run holidays where people can rediscover their love of uninterrupted reading but what is the experience really like? Your intrepid reporter from The Book Club Review went along to Matlock in Derbyshire with a stack from the TBR pile to find out. • To find out more about Reading Retreats check out their website www.readingretreat.co.uk, or find them on facebook and twitter @retreatandread. • Books mentioned on this show were: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey; in Annie's stack were A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab, Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Aisha Malik, Rosewater by Tade Thompson, Belonging by Umi Sinha and Among Others by Jo Walton; in Sheila's stack were The Only Story by Julian Barnes, Revenge on the Rye by Alice Castle, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan and Broken Ground by Val McDermid and A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert; Sarah Ward recommended The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters; and in my stack were Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner, There There by Tommy Orange, Bad Blood by Jon Carreyrou and Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday. • If you'd like to see what we're up to between episodes follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you're not already, why not subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One book club in south London have found a way to get even more out of their book club meetings, and that's to invite the authors along. Listen in to hear more about the 'Wilde Imagination' book club, plus tips on how to manage your group so that everyone, from the loudest to the quietest, gets to have a say. Books mentioned on this show: A Girl In Traffick by Mamta Valderrama, Eleanor Oliphant is Perfectly Fine by Gail Honeyman, Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant by Shrabani Basu, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi Get in touch with us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram @thebookclubreviewpod or leave us a comment on iTunes, we'd love to hear from you. Subscribe and never miss an episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.