The Book Club Review

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' made Barack Obama's summer reading list. But what did Laura's book club make of it? Listen in to find out. Plus we interview a book club who meet in the convivial surroundings of a seaside bakery. And we finish with some great recommendations for your next book club read. Get in touch with us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram @thebookclubreviewpod, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or leave us a comment on iTunes. Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you. Subscribe and never miss an episode. Books mentioned in this episode: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance, When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant, A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, Lady Chatterly's Lover by D. H. Lawrence, Crudo by Olivia Laing and The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. For our next book club we will be reading and discussing The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit.

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 Spark Challenge Book Group, and find out what it's like being part of a book group who only read a single author's work. We finish with the usual round of recommendations to help you find your perfect book club read. Get in touch with us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram @thebookclubreviewpod, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or leave us a comment on iTunes. Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you. Subscribe and never miss an episode. Books mentioned in this episode: The Driver’s Seat; The Girls of Slender Means and Robinson, all by Muriel Spark, Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Terson,  Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adoyemi, The Possessed by Elif Batuman, The Unseen by Roy Jacobson and Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi.   On our next episode we’ll be discussing Educated by Tara Westover, which is the latest read for Laura's book club.

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 fresh recommendations for your next book club read. •
 Get in touch with us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram @thebookclubreviewpod, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or leave us a comment on iTunes. Drop us a line – we’d love to hear from you. Subscribe and never miss an episode. • Books mentioned on this episode were 'The Concubine’s Children' by Denise Cheong, 'The Noise of Time' by Julian Barnes, 'The Rest is Noise' by Alex Ross, 'Ru' by Kim Thuy and 'Brother' by David Chariandy. Terri Jane of the Radical Reading Group talked about 'Close to the Knives' by David Wojnarowicz, 'Your Silence Will Not Protect You' by Audre Lorde and 'Too Much and Not in the Mood' by Durga Chew-Bose. To find out more about the Radical Reading group find them on facebook under Radical Reading London. And if you keep listening to our extra bit at the end we discuss 'Children of Blood and Bone' by Tomi Adeyemi, 'Bleaker House' by Nell Stevens and 'Cartes Postales' by Victoria Hislop. • 
Next up on The Book Club Review is A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark

We love books, we love book clubs, and so we created a show dedicated to both. We review the books read most recently by our own book clubs. We interview people about their book clubs to get tips and tricks. And finally we pull together great recommendations to make your next book club book your best yet.

It has been called her finest novel, 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 book club read. • Get in touch with us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram @thebookclubreviewpod, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or leave us a comment on iTunes. Drop us a line – we’d love to hear from you. Subscribe and never miss an episode. • Our bookseller recommendation comes from Carrie and Becca of The Bookstore Podcast. If you want to hear more check out their show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts: we love it. •
 Books mentioned in this episode were Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, Feel Free by Zadie Smith, You are Free by Danzy Senna and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Plus if you stay listening for our extra bit at the end we discuss The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (we've come up with an ending – be the first to hear it!), Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward, Exit West by Mosin Hamid, Educated by Tara Westover and the collected works of Gerald Durrell. • 
Next up on The Book Club Review is Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.

East West Street is a 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. Powerful stuff, but what did Kate's book club make of it? Did it make for a good book club read? Plus we talk to an all-male book club on the value of friendship and shared conversations about books, and lightly delve into the mystery of what makes a book 'manly'. We end with some recommendations for your next book club read. Get in touch with us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram @thebookclubreviewpod, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or leave us a comment on iTunes. We’d love to hear from you. Subscribe and never miss an episode. Books mentioned on this episode were: The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal, In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, The Tobacconist and A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler, Under the Glacier by Halldor Laxness, Blindness by José Saramago, A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul and Life, A User's Manual by Georges Perec. Henry from The Book Hive in Norwich recommended Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and Heather, A Totality, by Matthew Weiner. For our next book we will be reading and discussing Swing Time by Zadie Smith. Keep listening for our extra bit at the end in which we discuss My Family and Other Animals by Lawrence Durrell, A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility by Amor Towles and Solar Bones by Mike McCormack. We also take a quick look at Bailie Gifford (Samuel Johnson) prizewinners.

We find out what Kate's book club made of Dr Fischer of Geneva, or The Bomb Party, by Graham Greene. Published in 1980, at the end of Greene’s life, this novella explores ideas of love, morality, good and evil, but did it strike any chords with our book club? Listen in to find out. In our regular interview we talked to Phil Chaffee about his intellectually hard-hitting book club, and the conversations that change you. And we finish with some recommendations for your next book club read. Get in touch with us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram @thebookclubreviewpod, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or leave us a comment on iTunes. Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you. Subscribe and never miss an episode. Books mentioned in this episode: Compass by Mathias Enard (trans. Charlotte Mandel), A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Brighton Rock and The Quiet American by Graham Greene, Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen, The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and Lullaby by Leïla Slimani (trans. Sam Taylor). For our next book club we will be reading and discussing Swing Time by Zadie Smith.

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 houseguest Oliver. But were we carried away by Aciman’s evocation of one long passionate summer? Or did it leave us only with a feeling we should start planning our July getaways now? Our interview is with Kay Dunbar, founder of the Ways With Words literary festivals, who lets us in on the secret to running a successful bookclub for over twenty years. And we finish with some great recommendations for your next book club read. • Find out more about Kay Dunbar’s Ways With Words festivals at www.wayswithwords.co.uk • Episode booklist: The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, Barracuda by Christos Tsioklas, Olivia by Dorothy Strachey and At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill. Kay Dunbar mentions Patrick Gale, whose most recent novel is A Place Called Winter. And if you keep listening you’ll hear our extra bit at the end where we get into Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff, This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay, Hot Milk by Deborah Levy and Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea novels. • Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bookclubreviewpodcast. Email us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, find us on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or leave us a comment on iTunes. If you like the show then click subscribe and never miss an episode. 

In which journalist Kat Brown tells us all about her Jilly Cooper book club, and we decide Jilly Cooper is essentially the same as Proust. Find out more about the Jilly Cooper bookclub using #jillybookclub on twitter or seek them out on facebook. Kat Brown can be contacted using @katbrown. Books mentioned on this episode: Rivals, Polo, Harriet and Octavia by Jilly Cooper War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bookclubreviewpodcast. Email us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, find us on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or leave us a comment on iTunes. If you like the show then click subscribe and never miss an episode. 

We debate Two Serious Ladies, a 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. They both come highly recommended and are purportedly funny. But did our book clubs agree? For our regular interview, we talk to Kat Brown about how she started the Jilly Cooper Book Club. • Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bookclubreviewpodcast. Email us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, or leave us a comment on iTunes. If you like the show then click subscribe and never miss an episode.  • Find out more about the Jilly Cooper bookclub using #jillybookclub on twitter or seek them out on facebook. Kat Brown can be contacted using @katbrown. • Books mentioned in this episode: To The End Of The Land by David Grossman, The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, Rivals and Harriet by Jilly Cooper, La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust) by Philip Pullman, The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown and Swing Time by Zadie Smith. • For our next book club we will be reading and discussing Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman.