The Book Club Review

A magazine that has always been dear to our hearts is Penguin's Happy Reader, an occasional publication that takes inspiration from the idea of a book club. In the early days of the podcast we were delighted to interview its editor Seb Emina. To celebrate the launch of The Happy Reader's latest edition we're releasing that interview again. From the thinking that goes into every issue, from treasure hunts to the perfect way to drink your tea, from book recommendations to unusual ideas for book club meet ups, this episode has it all.  Booklist So many books are mentioned in passing in this episode, but in particular Seb talks about  The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (and listen in to episode 9 of the pod for our full book club discussion on that one) Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard You can find out more about The Happy Reader, buy the latest issue or subscribe at their website thehappyreader.com. You can also sign up to their newsletter, Happy Readings, where once a month you’ll get a little dose of Happy Readerness in your inbox. Seb is on Instagram and Twitter @sebemina 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. Don’t miss our website, thebookclubreview.co.uk, where you can find our archive of almost 100 shows to browse through and sign up for our weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays, and it full of reading inspiration for your week ahead.

Delve into Kazuo Ishiguro's 'The Remains of the Day,' focusing on the contemplative life of a butler reflecting on choices in 1950s England. Explore the protagonist's introspective journey through the picturesque countryside and the complexities of duty and regret. The discussion highlights varied perceptions from book club members about character depth and emotional resonance. Enjoy intriguing literary recommendations, including Ian McEwan's 'Amsterdam' and Paul Scott's 'Staying On,' while considering themes of friendship and societal change.

We chat with Chrissy Ryan, founder of Bookbar, a new bookshop and bar in Kate's North London neighbourhood. Chrissy's vision is for Bookbar to be a social space where people can discover their next read and meet other readers in a place where conversation is encouraged. We loved hearing about everything from her in-house book club featuring authors like Ingrid Persaud, Brit Bennett and Curtis Sittenfeld to her shelf-medicate book subscription service – as Chrissy says, like having a literary matchmaker on speed-dial. We come up with an idea for the perfect book club party and talk favourite books. Listen in for Chrissy's must-reads out now or coming soon. Booklist Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe Bad Blood by John Carreyrou Dopesick by Beth Macy Pachinko by Min Jin Lee Faultlines Emily Atami Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters The Female Persuasion by Meg Wollizer China Room by Sunjeev Suhota Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason Red Comet by Heather Clark Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn For more about Bookbar check out their website. For more from us follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. Drop us a line and let us know what you’re reading – we always love to hear from you. For more listening browse our episode archive where you can also sign up for our weekly newsletter. Our next book club read is The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. That episode is coming soon.

Listen in for Laura’s take on Matt Haig's bestselling The Midnight Library, which Kate hasn’t yet read. Should she? Meanwhile Kate gets swept into literary Paris with Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir. Laura takes us to Iceland with an immersive novel that she now wants everyone to drop everything and read, and we catch up with Deborah Levy with the third volume of her living autobiography, Real Estate. Also, we consider what it’s like to live in Iceland for two years with writer Sarah Moss, and remember Boomerang, Michael Lewis’s enjoyable (though also alarming) economic world tour, and how Iceland’s fishermen took to currency speculation like ducks to water. Booklist The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Parisian Lives by Deirdre Bair Miss Iceland by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir Real Estate by Deborah Levy Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss Boomerang by Michael Lewis Sign up to our weekly newsletter which comes out on Sundays and is full of reading inspiration for the week ahead. You can subscribe via the link in our Instagram bio or on our website, thebookclubreview.co.uk. 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. Drop us a line and let us know what you’re reading – we always love to hear from you.

Join us as we tackle this unusual book that mixes prose with poetry and a play script, in which Death is embodied in the form of an old black woman. Mrs Death befriends a young writer, Wolf, who agrees to ghost-write her memoirs. Laura and her book club had strong reactions against this book. It’s up to Kate and our special guest author Gary Wigglesworth to see if they can make the others see it in a different light. But are they persuasive? Listen in and see what you think. Book list Watership Down by Richard Adams Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller A Lonely Man by Chris Power Grief is a Thing With Feathers by Max Porter. Want to keep up with us between episodes? Sign up for our newsletter, or follow us for daily book reviews and recommendations on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. Don't miss our website thebookclubreview.co.uk for our episode archive and library of book reviews and articles. Do subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and never miss an episode. If you like what we do please take a moment to rate and review the show, which help other listeners find us.

Join us for this 'bookshelf' episode as we discuss the books we've been reading outside of book club. In this episode Kate gets tied up in existential knots over House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas and we consider the parallels between this 800-page fantasy bonkbuster and War and Peace. We explore the idea of ‘reading offsetting’ whereby we balance our guilty pleasures with books more worthy of our time. We rediscover the Queen of Fantasy Ursula Le Guin and remember why we think her books are so amazing. Kate pronounces ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’ by Emma Dabiri her new favourite book of the year. And we end with an excursion into Arctic landscapes and consider moving to Svaallbad where apparently you don’t need a visa!  Books mentioned: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas A Fall from Grace and Philippa Holds Court by Jennie Goutet The Western Shore trilogy by Ursula L. Guin Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri Americanah by Chimamanda Ngoze Adichie A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter Terra Incognita by Sara Wheeler Want to keep up with us between episodes? Sign up for our newsletter, or follow us for daily book reviews and recommendations on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. Don't miss our website thebookclubreview.co.uk for our episode archive and library of book reviews and articles. Do subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and never miss an episode. If you like what we do please take a moment to rate and review the show, which help other listeners find us.

Bibliotherapist and author (with Susan Elderkin) of classic books about books The Novel Cure and The Story Cure, Ella Berthoud's most recent work is The Art of Mindful Reading, a practical guide that promises to help people to read more mindfully, bringing their lives to books and books into their lives equally. As you might expect we have a lot of book recommendations in this show, plus advice on everything from how to keep a successful book journal to what to do when you’re not enjoying your book club book – we've all been there. Listen in and learn how to make the very most of your precious reading time, and even find out how to carve out more of it. Book recommendations What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey, The Pisces by Melissa Broder, Elijah’s Mermaid by Essie Fox, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar, Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towes and There But For The by Ali Smith You can keep up with Ella via her website, ellaberthoud.com and don’t miss her themed sessions on Damian Barr’s Literary Salon facebook page and her Instagram and YouTube channels. And if you’re in need of a literary makeover or have something you want to work through in your life you can sign up for a bibliotherapy session at the School of Life website. • sign up for our weekly newsletter here • Follow us on Instagram  • Follow us on Facebook • Follow us on Twitter • Check out our website

Join us as we discuss the 2020 Costa Book of the Year, The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey. ‘A fishy tale of doomed womanhood’, even Margaret Atwood got excited about it, tweeting ‘Not your standard mermaid. No comb and glass, no Lorelei hair. No catch and release…’ This unusual novel weaves together sex, misogny and race with love, music, magic and myth, plus it throws in a few spliffs, a virginal mermaid, a crooked cop, and a chorus of vindictive women. All that in one book? Yes, indeed. Did it make for a good book club book? Listen in to find out. Our book recommendations were Indigo by Marina Warner, Blonde Roots by Bernadine Evaristo, The Left-Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, Kitsch by Anthony Joseph, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar. Want to keep up with us between episodes? Sign up for our newsletter, or follow us for daily book reviews and recommendations on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReview podcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com. Don't miss our website thebookclubreview.co.uk for our episode archive and library of book reviews and articles. Do subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and never miss an episode. If you like what we do please take a moment to rate and review the show, which help other listeners find us.  

What is a reader's dream cookbook? One that has delicious recipes but also a wealth of literary references to inspire your next read? It turns out these books exist! With her Little Library series of cookbooks Kate Young has carved out a particular niche intertwining her love of food with the books that have inspired her and shaped her life. And so you might find a recipe for French Toast inspired by Maria Semple’s comic novel Where d’You Go Bernadette? or lemon verbena lemonade to accompany the perfect picnic inspired by Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte lounging on the lawn together in Brideshead Revisited. These are cookbooks with two indexes, one of things to eat, the other of things to read. We talk about lockdown cuisine, book recommendations and the difficulties of finding the right book club – and of course a ton of book recommendations. Books mentioned were: Midnight Chicken by Ella Risbriger, A Half-Baked Idea by Olivia Potts, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The Stranding by Kate Sawyer, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller, Real Life by Brandon Taylor, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. And you can find all the details about Kate, her books and her recipes at her website thelittlelibrarycafe.com Enjoyed this episode? Looking for more? Check out thebookclubreview.co.uk where you can find our archive of over 80 shows to browse through, including our most recent episode on Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, we’ve also covered everything mega-hits like Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and Normal People by Sally Rooney to hidden gems from the backlist like All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West. You can also explore our ‘library’ of book reviews and articles, and find our weekly round-ups of reading inspiration under ‘what to read’. We’re also launching a newsletter – check the website for details of how to sign up. Follow us for daily book reviews and recommendations 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 like what we do please do take a moment to rate and review the show, and help other listeners find us.  

On the one hand 'bleak, meandering and depressing' on the other a beautifully written book that has touched the hearts of its readers – but what did Kate's book club make of Douglas Stuart's 2020 Booker winner Shuggie Bain? We're joined by friend and journalist Phil Chaffee to discuss it. Has Laura managed to make it through more than the first sixty pages? Listen in to find out, plus our usual recommendations for follow-on reads. Books recommended Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijnveld Follow us for daily recommendations and reviews on Instagram or Facebook @bookclubreviewpodcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or check out our website thebookclubreview.co.uk for our archive of over 80 episodes plus reviews, articles and reading guides. Drop us a line and let us know what you're reading for book club or any thoughts you have about the show. We love to hear from you.