The Book Club Review

Our bookshelf shows are the ones where we get to cut loose and follow our own preferences, so listen in as Kate and Laura swap feel-good early summer reads. Much to their relief after Rodham, the sex in Curtis Sittenfeld's latest novel ROMANTIC COMEDY turns out to be as good as the rest of it. Meanwhile Kate is surprised and entertained by Monica Heisey's REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY. Via the discerning edit of the books aisle in her upmarket grocery store, Laura discovers PINEAPPLE STREET, and enjoys it hugely. Kate is fascinated and entertained by British actress Miriam Margolyes and her autobiography THIS MUCH IS TRUE, enjoying the social commentary as much as if not more than the showbiz stories (though those are good, too). And finally in a preview of Laura's thoughts on Women's Prize shortlisted DEMON COPPERHEAD, she reports back on what she thought of it. And if you thought you were over re-tellings of Greek myths Kate urges you to think again with STONE BLIND by Natalie Haynes. Booklist Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld Really Good, Acutally by Monica Heisey Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes and in our current reads section we talked about GREY BEES by Andrey Kurkov, and POD by Laline Paull. https://www.faber.co.uk/journal/cover-design-demon-copperhead/If you were interested by our discussion of the cover design for Demon Copperhead and want to know more, there's a brilliant behind-the-scenes into the design process on Faber's website, here. Get in touch with us and tell us what you're reading or recommend us a book on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. Find our full episode archive at thebookclubreview.co.uk and don't forget to like, subscribe, tell a friend, share on social media – it helps us reach new listeners and we really do appreciate it :)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

So Many Damn Books is a show that aims to celebrate reading in all its forms, and to do so with a cocktail in hand. For over 200 episodes now Christoper Hermelin has been chatting to authors and crafting them bespoke drinks. From George Saunders and Ruth Ozeki to lesser-known but no less interesting authors, every episode in his archive is a delight. And it was no less of a delight to welcome him onto the Book Club Review podcast. So sit back and enjoy this very special episode, where you'll find out about a Stateside literary cult that's turns out to be an excellent resource should you need a new best friend, a book so good you'll end up dreaming about it, and how to cope when you've gone so deep into the reading world that you can no longer simply buy a book in a bookshop. Luckily, a problem shared is a problem halved, or at least a problem understood! Booklist Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris by Leanne Shapton Skippy Dies by Paul Murray The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno Spangle by Gary Jennings Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo Notes Enjoyed this episode? In the mood for more? Head over to SMDB and listen to Christopher's episode here. Amongst other things we discuss the amazing KICK THE LATCH by Kathryn Scanlan, and lesser-known gem PARNASSUS ON WHEELS by Christoper Morely. Want to know more about the Tournament of Books? 2023 is here Or browse the ToB archive Keen to fall down a nostalgia rabbit hole? Try the Mac vs. PC commercials, but be aware it's half an hour of your life you won't get back. Admin If you'd like to see what we're up to between episodes do follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or get in touch direct at thebookclubreview@gmail.com. Website: https://www.thebookclubreview.co.uk Instagram post: [link coming soon] Newsletter sign-up: https://substack.com/@thebookclubreview Patreon: Coming soon… And if you enjoy our shows and want to do a nice thing in return please do leave us a quick star rating and review. Wondering how to do that? From apple podcasts click the '...' next to the episode title (under the square graphic) and choose 'go to show'. From there scroll down past the episodes till you find 'Ratings & Reviews'. Tap the stars to add a star rating, tap 'write a review' slightly further down to add a comment. Thank you!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Salman Rushdie's most recent novel Victory City was published in February 2023 to much critical acclaim but, as ever here at the Book Club Review, we're interested in what Laura's book club made of it. Our friend and pod regular, journalist Philip Chaffee is here to report back, along with first-time guest, avid reader and keen book clubber Charlie Chichester. Listen in for our full and frank discussion, plus our recommendations for follow on reads, and the books we've currently got on the go. Book list Baudolino by Umberto Eco Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon The Princess Bride by William Goldman How Westminster Works and Why it Doesn't by Ian Dunt Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Revolutionary Spring by Christopher Clark Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley Enjoyed the show? Want to express your thanks? Here's how: From apple podcasts click the '...' next to the episode title (under the square graphic) and choose 'go to show'. From there scroll down past the episodes till you find 'Ratings & Reviews'. Tap the stars to add a star rating, tap 'write a review' slightly further down to add a comment. Thank you!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our Bookshelf episodes are the ones dedicated to the books we're each reading outside of book club, the ones we tend to love because we chose them for ourselves. Laura has been reading the latest from ANIMAL LIFE, the latest novel from podcast favourite, Icelandic author Audur Ava Olafsdottir. A short, quiet novel, but one that struck a chord. She's also been happily working through THE MIRROR VISITOR QUARTET by French author Christelle Dabos. What is it about this epic fantasy series that has her so happily hooked? Kate has been catching up with LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus, the smash hit that tells of scientist turned tv-cooking show presenter Elizabeth Zott. Also on her stack is I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU, by Rebecca Makkai, the New York Times bestseller that has been described as 'A twisty, immersive whodunit perfect for fans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History.' And for a non-fiction palette cleanser she's been reading Saving Time: Discovering Life Beyond the Clock, by artist and writer Jenny Odell. To read it, fellow time-philosopher Oliver Burkeman comments, ''is to experience how freedom might feel'. Listen in for all this plus the current reads and books we can't wait to get to, including SUPER-INFINITE by Katherine Rundell, STONE BLIND by Natalie Haynes and MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY buy Winifred Watson. And just why are Laura's book club struggling with Salman Rushdie's latest, VICTORY CITY? NOTES Whenever you listen to this episode if you have thoughts on it we'd love to hear them. Comment anytime on the episode page on our website thebookclubreview.co.uk, where you'll also find full shownotes, book recommendations and a transcript. Comments there go straight to our inboxes so drop us a line, we always love to hear from you. You can also sign up for our bi-weekly-ish newsletter for extra reviews and recommendations, and find out about our Patreon stream, and how you can support us there. To see what we're up to between episodes follow us on Instagram @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or get in touch at thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you enjoy our shows one other way to support us, as ever, is to tell your bookish friends and help us find new listeners. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're joined by friend and journalist Phil Chaffee to discuss FREE by Lea Ypi, a memoir of her Albanian childhood and of life amid the collapse of Communism. The book won the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje prize and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford non-fiction prize and was on many a best-book of 2022 list. Both our book clubs read this one, but what did they make of it? We'll be reporting back. We're also discussing THE SNOW BALL by Brigid Brophy, a swirling, sensual feast that takes place over one night at a New Year's Eve masquerade ball. The novel was published in 1964 and was something of a scandalous sensation at the time. It has recently been re-released to much acclaim, but what did Kate's book club think of it? We'll also have some trusty follow-on recommendations to help you find your next great read. Booklist BORDER by Kapka Kassabova SECONDHAND TIME by Svetlana Alexievich HOMELAND ELEGIES by Ayad Akhtar MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY by Winifred Watson 50 GREAT WORKS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE WE COULD DO WITHOUT by Brigid Brophy, Michael Levey and Charles Osborne. Let us know your thoughts, we love to hear from you. Find us on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email us at thebookclubrevew@gmail.com. You can also check out the episode page on our website, thebookclubreview.co.uk, where you'll also find full shownotes and a transcript. If you enjoy our shows please support us by telling your bookish friends – we love to reach new listeners.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When in Vancouver, run to the coolest bookstore you can find and interview the owner. Such is the busman's holiday I've recently been enjoying on a visit to Laura's hometown. It also fits nicely into a new series we've been cooking up where we get to indulge our love of independent bookshops. First up is The Paperhound, owned by Kim Koch and Rod Clarke, which offers a fine selection of used and rare, new and notable books. Join me as I chat to Kim and learn about the joys of book collecting and the time she found a signed first edition of Borges' Ficciones in a box of books left on the street. We'll be pulling out some treasures from her shelves and chatting about life in the strange and wonderful world of used-books. Book list A Little Book of Pussy Cats by Louis Wain Mary Shelly's Frankenstein Aphrodisiacs in your Garden by Charles Connell Minor Detail by Adania Shibli Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins The Paperhound For full shownotes and episode transcript head to our website: The Book Club Review 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 get in touch at thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you enjoy our shows one other way to support us, as ever, is to tell your bookish friends and help us find new listeners.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our bookshelf episodes are the ones where we kick back and talk about the books we've been choosing for ourselves outside of our book club reading. And so join us as we get swept away by the French Revolution and Hilary Mantel's spellbinding book A PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY, consider myth and storytelling with a surprisingly feminist slant thanks to Salman Rushdie's latest novel, VICTORY CITY, see another side to New York with our guest Phil Chaffee and Chang Rae Lee's book NATIVE SPEAKER, plan an architectural tour of Norwegian Stave churches thanks to THE BELL AND THE LAKE by Lars Mytting, which Laura reports is a tale of love and drama set among a remote community in 18th-century Norway. We also catch up with Barack Obama's summer reading pick THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS by Jessamine Chan – with a brief aside to celebrate Kate's new-found love for Richard and Judy's book club here in the UK. Phil reports back on the FT's business book of the year, CHIP WAR by Chris Miller, which turns out to be a thumping page-turner, plus we quick fire through a stack of other books we couldn't bear not to mention. Book list A PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate) VICTORY CITY by Salman Rushdie (Penguin) NATIVE SPEAKER by Chang Rae Lee (Granta) THE BELL AND THE LAKE by Lars Mytting (Hachette) THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS by Jessamine Chan CHIP WAR by Chris Miller (Simon & Schuster) Plus THE PEARL by John Steinbeck SHADOW AND CLAW by Gene Wolff CHARLOTTE by David Foenkinos ROSES IN THE MOUTH OF A LION by Bushra Rehman (published in the UK in January 2023, from St. Martin's Press) Notes Browse the newsletter archive of Three Lives & Company booksellers, New York. Our Emily's Walking Book Club episode # 76 The article Phil mentioned is The 25 Most Significant New York City Novels from the Last 25 Years See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's always good to have things to look forward to in life, and the books we can see coming up on the horizon are no exception. In this episode we'll be finding out the books that Chrissy Ryan and her team at Bookbar are excited about. Whether it's new books from authors we here at the Book Club Review have loved in the past or exciting new debuts from authors we've never heard of, we're primed and ready to get reading as soon as they drop. Plus we have a nerdy dive into what it takes to run a small independent bookshop, and why it's so important to be reading ahead of the pack. Listen in and be prepared to add to your TBR.Book listChrissy recommended Rosewater by Liv Little (Dialogue books / Hachette) Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Penguin) Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin (Harpercollins)Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery (Bloomsbury) The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan (W&N)Mrs S by K Patrick (Europa Editions) Yellowface by R. F. Kuang (Harper Collins) The Guest, Emma Cline (Penguin) Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks (Penguin)Lucy recommended Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater (Hachette) In Memoriam by Alice Wynn (Penguin) Romantic Comedy by Curtis SittenfeldChandler and Frankie recommended One Small Voice by Santanu Bhattacharya (Penguin)Penance by Eliza Clark (Faber)Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren (Pushkin) Tomás Nevinson, Javier Marías (Penguin)The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor (Penguin)And Frankie also mentioned Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery (Bloomsbury)In addition to bookselling Frankie is also author Francesca Reece and so you might also be interested to try her book Voyeur: 'Devastatingly witty, compulsively readable . . . like Sally Rooney meeting Martin Amis in Paris' writes Francine Toon, author of Pine.To sign up to read and review proofs head to Netgalley UK or Netgalley.comNotesCheck out the episode page on our website for full shownotes and a transcript, and do comment there anytime if you have thoughts on any of the books discussed in this show. You'll also find our archive of over one-hundred episodes to browse through, from our Booker Prize or Women's Prize specials to regular book club chats and interviews with authors and other book industry folk. You can also sign up to our free newsletter for more book recommendations between shows, and find out the details for our Patreon account and how to support us there.A quick free way to support us is to take a moment to rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts, it really helps us reach new listeners. Tell your friends, share on social media, it means so much to us when you do.You can also find us on Instagram @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's Bookshelf time here at The Book Club Review podcast, when we talk about the books we're reading outside of book club, the ones we get to pick and choose for ourselves. And so listen in to find out what Laura thought of The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd, a lesser-known backlist gem, A Place of Greater Safety, Booker-winner Hilary Mantel's immersive doorstop about the French revolution, and The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison's blend of court intrigue, goblins and steampunk. Meanwhile I'm reporting back on Babel by R.F. Kuang, the bestselling fantasy epic set in 19th-century England, Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, part bruisingly tender love story, part nerve-clanging submarine thriller, and Either / Or by Elif Batuman, the follow-on from her first novel The Idiot. It's the continuing adventures of her protagonist, Harvard student Selin, and has been described as 'a second year of love, sex, and books'. Whenever you listen to this episode if you have thoughts on it we'd love to hear them. Comment anytime on the episode page on our website thebookclubreview.co.uk, where you'll also find full shownotes, book recommendations and a transcript. Comments there go straight to our inboxes so drop us a line, we'd love to hear from you. You can also sign up for our bi-weekly-ish newsletter for extra reviews and recommendations. 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 get in touch at thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you're not already do subscribe to us and take a moment to rate and review the show in your podcatcher of choice – it helps other listeners to find us and is a great way to support us.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When a book sells upwards of five and a half million copies and film rights are snapped up by none other than Steven Spielberg it seems to us a special episode is in order. And so join us as we dive into, and attempt to make sense of, the publishing phenomenon that is The Thursday Murder Club, the cozy crime novel set in a retirement community by TV-producer and presenter-turned-author Richard Osman. Join us as Kate and two very special guests give The Thursday Murder Club the book club treatment. Our first guest is author and friend-of-the-pod Colleen Hubbard, whose debut novel Housebreaking was published by Hachette last year and is out in paperback April 2023. She joined Kate over Zoom and brought along her friend Sue, a pilates instructor and keen reader, to help give us more insight into how older readers are responding to this book. Then it's back to Kate and Laura for a stack of our favourite follow-on crime reads, cozy or otherwise. If you haven't yet read The Thursday Murder Club don't worry, we will not spoil the plot for you. What we will do is take a friendly but critical overview to see if we can fathom the secrets behind the book's appeal Book recommendations The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse The Wych Elm by Tana French Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession. Notes The Thursday Murder Club is published by Penguin. Find out more about Colleen and her novel Housebreaking (Hachette) at Colleenhubbard.com The Thursday Murder Club audiobook is produced by Penguin Audio Whenever you listen to this episode if you have thoughts on it we'd love to hear them. Comment anytime on the episode page on our website https://thebookclubreview.co.uk, where you'll also find full shownotes, book recommendations and a transcript. Comments there go straight to our inboxes so drop us a line, we'd love to hear from you. You can also sign up there for our bi-weekly-ish newsletter for extra reviews and recommendations. If you'd like to see what we're up to between episodes follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReviewpodcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or get in touch at thebookclubreview@gmail.com. And if you're not already, why not subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to support us please do take a moment to rate and review the show, which helps other listeners find us.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.