The Book Club Review

Kate and Laura are back and diving in to two book club reads, one recent release and one modern classic. Transcription by Ben Lerner was published earlier this year to much critical fanfare. It's a playful, intellectually ambitious exploration of writing, memory, technology and the slippery relationship between fiction and reality. When the narrator's phone fails to record his final interview with an eminent cultural figure, he reconstructs the conversation from memory. But does the truth of an encounter depend on an accurate transcript? And what happens when a novel begins to fold back on itself?

We discuss Lerner's auto-fictional project, his fascination with the act of writing, the glass flowers at Harvard's Natural History Museum, and whether Lerner's novels are genuinely profound or sometimes guilty of taking themselves a little too seriously.

Laura’s book club, meanwhile headed back to the mid-20th century with Dorothy Baker’s classic Cassandra at the Wedding, a brilliantly funny, unsettling and surprisingly contemporary novella about an intensely self-absorbed young woman determined to prevent her identical twin sister from getting married. With its claustrophobic family setting, unreliable narrator, dark comedy and complicated portrait of sisterly love, it's a novel that raises questions about identity, dependence, artistic ambition and the difficulty of allowing the people we love to become themselves – but what did Laura's book club make of it?

As ever in addition to the book club catch up we’re also swapping notes on recent reads and upcoming plans, including diving in to the Booker prize shortlist – the most enticing, we both agree, in years.

Notes and books mentioned

The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models at Harvard

A Portrait of the Artist as an Artist Portraying the Artist by Nathan Anthony West

Indiana by George Sand

Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens

The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel

The Great Dictatorby Matthew Sweet

When the Going was Good by Graydon Carter

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

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Our next reads are A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch (October '26) and Helm by Sarah Hall (November '26).

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The Book Club Review is a podcast about books, book clubs and the books that get people talking.

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It’s the end of summer, so Kate and Laura are looking back over their holiday reading, the books they loved, the ones that disappointed them, and the unexpected discoveries that made their reading lists longer rather than shorter.

We talk about Alex E. Harrow’s huge fantasy novel The Everlasting, and why it turned out to be a surprisingly divisive read. Kate reports back on her pick from the Booker longlist, The Palm House by Gwendolyn Riley. She's also recently completed The Power Broker, Robert Caro's iconic book on New York master-builder Robert Moses, but was it worth the read? She's also discussing The Silver Book, Olivia Laing's most recent work of fiction. In Pankaj Mishra’s The Romantics, Laura found an interesting book club choice, while Kate's flagging up Vladimir by Julia May Jonas, and while on the campus novel theme she also read Joanna Miller’s The Eights, set in 1920s Oxford. Laura wraps things up with the wonderfully atmospheric The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo.

But there’s more as pod-regular Phil Chaffee joins us with two of his favourite summer reads, Sue Prideaux’s Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin and Bret Easton Ellis’s The Shards.

As summer comes to an end, we’re also looking ahead to Booker season, with the shortlist just around the corner and plenty more reading on the horizon.

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Complete booklist

The Power Broker by Robert Caro

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Everlasting by Alex E. Harrow

The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle

Starling House by Alex E. Harrow

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Palm House by Gwendolyn Riley

Famesick by Lena Dunham

My Phantoms by Gwendolyn Riley

The Silver Book by Olivia Laing

The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing

Crudo by Olivia Laing

The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra

The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon

Fathers & Sons by Ivan Turgenev

The Heart of the Nhaga by Lee Young-do (Anton Hur)

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinnerman

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

The Chair (Netflix)

Monsters by Claire Dederer

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

The Eights by Joanna Miller

The Night Tiger and The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

The Digital Critic: Literary Culture Online (Houman Barekat, Robert Barry and David Winters, eds.)

When We Talk About Love by Carl Wilson

Timecodes for the time-poor

00:00 — Welcome & summer reading

02:00 — What did we actually read this summer?

Holiday reading plans, library books and the perennial problem of taking too many books away with you.

04:00 — The Everlasting by Alex E. Harrow

Time loops, quests and a very divided reaction.

15:30 — The End of the Power Broker by Robert Caro

Kate tackles another Booker longlist book and asks: why is this on the longlist?

20:00 — The Booker longlist pick

A frank discussion of Gwendolyn Riley's The Palm House and the pleasures (and pains) of reading for the Booker.

22:20 — The Silver Book by Olivia Laing

A surprise for Kate after her mixed reaction to Laing’s Crudo.

27:30 — An accidental book-club adventure

Laura's brilliant idea: abandon the overheated book-club meeting and send everyone into Foyles to choose books.

28:40 — The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra

A chance discovery — and a Hilary Mantel endorsement that seals the deal.

35:50 — Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

Sex, power, academia and the deliciously murky moral territory of a campus novel.

40:00 — The Eights by Joanna Miller

Women in academia, 1920s Oxford and coming-of-age just after World War I

42:40 — The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

Mystery, folklore, tigers and colonial Malaysia, Laura's perfect summer read

50:45 — Phil’s summer reading

Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux and The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

54:20 — Booker season begins

The shortlist is coming, and summer reading gives way to required reading.

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Looking for the perfect summer read? Kate is joined by Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to compare recent reads before putting this year's biggest summer books to the test. Inspired by reading lists from The New York Times, The Times, Lit Hub and The Booker Prize, they decide which books are beach reads, suitcase books, and which they'd happily leave behind at the airport. Plus, they reveal the books they're packing for their own holidays.

Books discussed

Recently read

• The Golden Mean — Annabel Lyon
• Plato and the Tyrant — James Romm
• Glorious Exploits — Ferdia Lennon
• The Game of Kings — Dorothy Dunnett
• The House of Niccolò series — Dorothy Dunnett
• We Are Green and Trembling — Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (trans. Robin Myers)

Evaluating the picks from the summer reading lists

• Hot Milk — Deborah Levy
• The Eighth Life — Nino Haratischwili
• A Month in the Country— J. L. Carr
• Whistler — Ann Patchett
• The Things We Never Say— Elizabeth Strout
• Land — Maggie O'Farrell
• Instructions for a Heatwave— Maggie O'Farrell
• John of John— Douglas Stuart
• I Want You to Be Happy— Jem Calder
• The Director — Daniel Kehlmann
• Villa Coco — Andrew Sean Greer

Our holiday recommendations

• The Feast— Margaret Kennedy
• Free Food for Millionaires— Min Jin Lee
• Famesick — Lena Dunham
• Swimming Home— Deborah Levy
• Radiant Star— Ann Leckie
• The Balkan Trilogy — Olivia Manning
• Wait for Me — Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire
• The Pursuit of Love — Nancy Mitford

Also mentioned

• Pachinko — Min Jin Lee
• Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo — Douglas Stuart
• Less — Andrew Sean Greer
• Transcription — Ben Lerner
• Reading Lolita in Tehran — Azar Nafisi

Timecodes

00:00 Welcome

02:44 Phil on The Golden Mean

07:39 Laura on Dorothy Dunnett

11:55 Kate on Green and Trembling

16:54 Beach read game rules

18:20 Booker picks: Hot Milk

19:40 Doorstop epic The Eighth Life

21:46 Classic: A Month Country

23:07 NYT Beach Reads, Whistler by Ann. Patchett

25:33 Elizabeth Strout and American vibes

28:22 Switching to the (UK) Times list

28:29 Times list features

29:03 Maggie O'Farrell debate

30:51 Douglas Stuart pick John of John

33:05 New paperback picks

35:03 Kehlmann masterpiece The Director

38:28 The LitHub list of lists

38:55 Villa Coco verdict

41:44 Get more from the pod on Patreon

43:26 Our personal holiday reads

44:03 Phil recommends The Feast

46:01 Min Jin Lee deep dive

48:18 Lena Dunham Famesick

51:44 Laura's summer stack

53:56 Mitfords and Tana French

01:02:20 Final wrap and farewell

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What makes secondhand books so irresistible? Kate and Laura celebrate the joy of used bookshops, their favourite places to shop, literary finds and the thrill of unexpected discoveries. There's also an interview with W. B. Gooderham, author of Dedicated To, a book that explores the touching, funny and sometimes heartbreaking messages that can be found in the handwritten dedications tucked inside secondhand books. Whether you're a devoted secondhand book hunter or simply love hearing readers talk about books, this episode is a celebration of literary serendipity, book collecting, and the enduring pleasure of finding exactly the right book when you least expect it.

Book list and links

Bookshopaholics: The Paperhound • Episode #139

‘Owner of Vancouver's eclectic MacLeod’s Books marks 50 years of serving bibliophiles’,John Mackie for the Vancouver Sun

The Second Shelf bookshop (now in online form)

Aphrodisiacs in your Garden by Charles Connell

The Transitive Vampire by Karen Elizabeth Gordon

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

Things I Learned on the 6.28 by Stig Abell

Griffin Bay Bookstore, San Juan island

Episode #51: Barnabees Bookshop

Skoob books

Dedicated to, compiled by W.G. Gooderham

The Diary of a Nobody by George and Wheedon Grossmith

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend

Wise Children by Angela Carter

Arabella by Georgette Heyer

House of Niccolo and Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett

Judd Books, Bloomsbury

Timecodes

00:00 Welcome and a pod milestone

00:48 Secondhand book-hunting

03:01 Browsing vs. buying

07:58 Secondhand treasures

11:52 Kate's love of books about books

16:23 Dream bookshops

17:18 Our favourite places to buy secondhand

20:42 Patreon Break

21:50 Kate meets W.B. Gooderham

23:43 Skoob books and inscribed editions

27:22 How Wayne's collecting began

28:41 Dedicated To: The forgotten friendships hidden stories and lost loves found in secondhand books

30:50 Releasing Books Back

32:09 To inscribe or not to inscribe

33:07 Diary Of A Nobody by George and Wheedon Grossmith

37:32 Adrian Mole Editions

38:39 Wise Children

39:51 Pnin – a collection that took Wayne years to assemble

41:28 Bookshelves and Umberto Eco's library

44:04 Laura shares some of her favourite used-book haunts

47:54 Why secondhand books matter

49:08 Episode wrap

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When the Guardian drops a list of the 100 Greatest Novels in English it's time to drop everything to talk about it. Luckily pod-regular guest, journalist Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance, host of the Curious Readers podcast, also had views, and were willing to get together on a Sunday evening to share them. You'll hear our hits, our misses, how many we’ve read, whether we should have read more and much musing on whether a list like this is the way to get people excited about reading. We explore the joys of the sub-lists – the contributor lists – all squirrelled away on a sub-section of the Guardian's website, that arguably provide more excitement and inspiration than the fairly canonical top 100. Which is the best Brontë? Which is the best Austen? Do we age into certain books? If you've read all seven volumes of Proust shouldn't that count for more than one entry? All this and much, much more. Enjoy – this was an absolute delight to make and I hope it makes you smile as much as it did me.

Have your say: get in touch on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com, or head to our website for full shownotes. What would be in your top-10?

Check out the Patreon for all kinds of extras, from our monthly book club to extra shows and Kate's reading diaries. Find it at patreon.com/thebookclubreview

The Guardian’s List of the 100 Greatest Novels published in English, copied below for ease of reference.

*underlined – the ones Kate has read

• Middlemarch
• Beloved
• Ulysses
• To the Lighthouse
• In Search of Lost Time
• Anna Karenina
• War and Peace
• Jane Eyre
• Pride and Prejudice
• Madame Bovary
• The Great Gatsby
• Bleak House
• Emma
• Mrs Dalloway
• Moby-Dick
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Persuasion
• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
• Wuthering Heights
• The Portrait of a Lady
• Things Fall Apart
• Midnight’s Children
• The Remains of the Day
• Lolita
• Don Quixote
• The Trial
• The Brothers Karamazov
• Pale Fire
• Frankenstein
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• The God of Small Things
• David Copperfield
• Wolf Hall
• Great Expectations
• The Handmaid’s Tale
• Invisible Man
• The Age of Innocence
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Song of Solomon
• Heart of Darkness
• The Magic Mountain
• Housekeeping
• Giovanni’s Room
• The Golden Notebook
• The Leopard
• Vanity Fair
• The Metamorphosis
• A Fine Balance
• Wide Sargasso Sea
• My Brilliant Friend
• The Golden Bowl
• The Transit of Venus
• Orlando
• The Waves
• Mansfield Park
• The Sound and the Fury
• Disgrace
• Never Let Me Go
• Howards End
• The Rings of Saturn
• Half of a Yellow Sun
• White Teeth
• The Good Soldier
• The Color Purple
• The Master and Margarita
• The Man Without Qualities
• Blood Meridian
• Crime and Punishment
• Jude the Obscure
• Kindred
• Our Mutual Friend
• Austerlitz
• Nervous Conditions
• The Bluest Eye
• Dracula
• The Rainbow
• A House for Mr Biswas
• Go Tell It on the Mountain
• Rebecca
• Buddenbrooks
• The End of the Affair
• A Farewell to Arms
• The Talented Mr Ripley
• The Vegetarian
• The Turn of the Screw
• The Line of Beauty
• Ragtime
• The Left Hand of Darkness
• Jacob’s Room
• Life and Fate
• Sentimental Education
• Invisible Cities
• The Known World
• The Return of the Native
• Pedro Páramo
• Catch-22
• The Road
• The Go-Between
• My Ántonia

Particular books we touch on in the show

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• Ulysses by James Joyce
• In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
• Villette by Charlotte Brontë
• Orlando, The Waves and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
• Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not and This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga
• The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
• Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
• The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
• A Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
• The Princess of Clèves by Madame de Lafayette
• The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz
• The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
• The Trial and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley
• Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• A House for Mr Biswas by V. S. Naipaul
• The New Life by Tom Crewe
• Miss Marjoribanks by Mrs Oliphant
• The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope
• The Warden by Anthony Trollope
• The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones

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George Saunders is back with Vigil, his first novel since Lincoln in the Bardo. In this episode, Kate is joined by fellow book podcasters Jenny King and Sarah Kemp from The Bookcast Club to discuss it

Given his back catalogue, does Vigil live up to the high expectations we have Saunders, one of America's most admired contemporary writers? Why is he so fond of writing about ghosts? Do death, redemption, capitalism and climate change make for an enjoyable read? Do we want novels to be enjoyable? Or do we want them to make a point?

We're also exploring Leo Tolstoy's classic novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, cited by Saunders as a key influence on Vigil, and asks what both books reveal about how we live, how we die, and whether it's ever too late to change.

Along the way, Kate, Jenny and Sarah share recent reads, their love of a Kobo e-reader, and recommend books (and one film) following on from our book club read.

Books discussed

Vigil by George Saunders

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

Transcription by Ben Lerner

Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Storyland by Catherine McKinnon

Plus a recommendation for the film Palm Springs.

Patreon

Access extra episodes, join the pod book club and support the show at Patreon.com/bookclubreview

Follow on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast

email thebookclubreview@gmail.com

Timestamps

1:26 Recent Reads & Kobos – Bookshelf chat, Kobo e-reader enthusiasm, and current reads including Ben Lerner's Transcription and Kiran Millwood Hargrave's Almost Life.

11:54 About The Bookcast Club

14:41 Patreon Break

16:17 What Is Vigil? – Spiritual guide Jill escorts a remorseless fossil fuel tycoon toward death. Audiobook excerpt included.

22:16 Discussing Jill

28:22 Climate & KJ Boon

31:21 A Christmas Carol Parallels

34:16 Broader Reflections – Kate wonders if great writers can no longer make moral judgments in today's climate; Transcription raises similar questions.

35:54 Verdict on Vigil

38:30 The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Tolstoy's novella discussed as Saunders' cited influence.

43:00 Tolstoy the Man

48:36 Recommendations

52:42 Wrap-up

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In this episode Kate is joined by Amanda Moulson, co-host of Curious Readers, to consider the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist. Ahead of the prize ceremony next week, which one do we think will win?

Perhaps like Amanda you have read them all, but if, like Kate, you're going to struggle to get to all six, which ones should you focus on? Which are the standout reads? Which are the books most likely to delight, surprise, and stay with you long after you've turned the final page?

We're covering all six books, and you’ll also find out what Amanda has on her TBR, the books she most loves recommending, and how a busy book podcaster organises her bookshelves.

Timestamps for the time-poor

00:00 Welcome and Prize Preview

01:31 Meet Amanda Molson

01:44 Quickfire Reading Habits

03:18 Bookshelf Organization

04:06 Favorite Recs and Current Reads

06:20 Kate’s Power Broker Detour

08:54 Patreon Readalong and Book Club

10:12 Women’s Prize Context and History

15:09 Shortlist Book 1 Flashlight

20:51 Shortlist Book 2 Dominion

25:23 Shortlist Book 3 The Correspondent

26:31 Sybil’s Dark Past

27:07 Audiobook Clip Letters

29:15 Cozy Yet Dark

30:22 Famous Author Replies

31:14 Sybil Effect Debate

32:49 Craft and Book Clubs

33:28 The Mercy Step Setup

34:40 Mercy Step Clip

36:35 Child Narrator Power

37:12 Small Press Spotlight

38:01 Kingfisher Obsessive Love

38:50 Kingfisher Clip Warning

40:40 Kingfisher Reactions

41:35 Heart the Lover Clip

44:07 Two Halves Romance

45:36 Illness and Mortality

47:33 Marketing and Triggers

49:04 Winner Predictions

51:23 Wrap Up and Patreon

52:25 Kate’s Recent Reads and Outro

Books mentioned

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

You With the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate

Open Book by Jessica Simpson

A Long Game by Elizabeth McCracken

The Power Broker by Robert Caro

We Are Green and Trembling Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

Feminist History for Every Day of the Year by Kate Mosse

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

Dominion by Addie E. Citchens

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson

Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly

Heart the Lover by Lily King

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

A Bookshop of One’s Own by Jane Cholmeley

Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel

The Director by Daniel Kehlman

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

This is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin

You'll find all the titles we mentioned in our Bookshop.org list. Buying books there helps support independent bookshops, and also supports The Book Club Review.

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What if the antidote to our increasingly frantic world isn't a grand gesture, but simply the act of paying attention?

This week, Kate and Laura are joined by actor, podcaster, and author Miranda Keeling – returning to the pod to talk about her wonderful new book, The Place I'm In, a collection of the small, luminous moments she's gathered from daily life. After her debut The Year I Stopped to Notice, Miranda is back with more of her 'noticings': fragments from parks, supermarket queues, and streets that remind us how much magic is hiding in the everyday.

Their book club read is the perfect complement: The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Şavas – a soulful, quietly funny novel following Asya and Manu as they hunt for an apartment, trying on different futures for size in a city far from home. Asya, a documentary filmmaker, spends her days in the park gathering footage – an anthropologist of the ordinary – and her project rhymes beautifully with Miranda's own.

Plus recommendations inspired by the art of the everyday.

You can find out more about Miranda and her work at http://mirandakeeling.com, and her podcast Stopping to Notice – over 200 five-minute episodes of binaural location recording – is the perfect companion listen.

Find all the books mentioned at our bookshop.org shop. And if you'd like to join Kate's monthly book club and reading community, head to http://patreon.com/thebookclubreview.

Booklist

Ashes and Stones by Alison Shaw – a journey through Scotland in search of the women killed in the witch trials

Open Book by Jessica Simpson – Laura takes a nostalgic trip back through her twenties

No Such Thing as Monday by Sîan Hughes – a brilliantly written novel from the author of Pearl; up there with Eimear McBride ( A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing) and Maggie O'Farrell

The Anthropologists by Aysgul Savas

The Imperfectionist, Oliver Burkeman's newsletter

Small Things Like Theseby Claire Keegan

Flesh by David Szalay

The Café With No Name by Robert Seethaler

Memories of Distant Mountains (illustrated notebooks) by Orhan Pamuk

A Nobel Laureate's journals offer much colour but little drama, by Dwight Garner for the NYT (gift link)

Look Closer: How to Get More Out of Reading by Robert Douglas Fairhurst

The Place I'm In by Miranda Keeling

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A new local literary festival provided the perfect opportunity to record the very first Book Club Review live. Kate is joined by author and broadcaster Bee Rowlatt, whose books include the best-selling Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad, which went on to be dramatised by the BBC, and In Search of Mary inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft. Bee also runs the Wollstonecraft Society, a human rights charity. Her debut novel, One Woman Crime Wave, is a novel that explores the realities of wealth, influence, and inequality in present-day London and offers plenty of talking points for book club discussion and debate. Join our festival audience to hear more about Bee's life and work and why Mary Wollstonecraft and her writing has never been more relevant.

Books mentioned

Find all the titles below in The Book Club Review's bookshop on Bookshop.org

Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by Bee Rowlatt

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

In Search of Mary by Bee Rowlatt

Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft

One Woman Crime Wave by Bee Rowlatt

An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly

Uprising by Tahmima Anam

Feminism for a World on Fire by Natasha Walter

Notes

Find out more about The Mary Wollstonecraft memorial sculpture (The Guardian)

Follow the Barnsbury Book Festival for news and updates

Patreon

Discover what's on offer over on The Book Club Review Patreon. In becoming a member you'll get extra shows and become part of a warm community swapping book recommendations and connecting over our shared love of books and reading. At the book club tier you can join our monthly book club and come and talk books with Kate in person every month. And as a paying member you're supporting Kate in making this independent podcast.

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The Book of Love vs The Dud Avocado: Fantasy, Paris & Book Club Verdicts

In this episode of The Book Club Review, we return to our book club roots with two wildly different novels: The Book of Love by Kelly Link and The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.

The Book of Love is the first novel from acclaimed American short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link. In a seemingly ordinary coastal town three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle. Vulture magazine named it ‘the escapist masterpiece of the year’ but what did Laura’s book club think?

Our second book-club pick is Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado – a fizzing, exuberant novel from 1958 about a young American woman let loose in Paris, determined to live life on her own terms. It gained instant cult status on first publication and remains a timeless portrait of a woman hellbent on living, a book that feels bracingly modern despite being nearly seventy years old. But did it make for a good book club read?

We've also got some listener feedback on Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, we're catching up on recent reads, and the books we’re excited about next.

Get more from the pod on Patreon

Come behind the scenes and enjoy extra episodes, book club membership, community chat threads, readalongs, Kate's reading diaries and more, head to patreon.com/thebookclubreview

Booklist

You'll find all the books mentioned in the pod's Bookshop.org bookshop

Bookshop.org list

Slow Days Fast Company by Eve Babitz

Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett

Other links of note

One Grand Books

Frances Ambler's substack

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Valentine’s-ish Literary Romance: Lucas Oakley on Nearly Departed, Boys Book Club & love stories that stay with you long after reading

Join Kate and Lucas Oakeley for this Valentine's-ish episode of The Book Club Review, recorded at Housmans Bookshop in King's Cross. We're exploring literary fiction where love takes centre stage, but the reward is complexity rather than a guaranteed happy ending.

Nearly Departed manages to combine the enjoyable tropes of Rom Com with the thoughtful exploration through writing that we associate with literary fiction. We explore how Lucas’s real-life experiences—witnessing a fatal cycling accident and his father's first wife dying young—shaped the book's exploration of love, loss, and second chances, and the art of balancing humour with heartbreak while playing with rom-com tropes.

Of course, we’ve got plenty of recommendations for love stories with emotional depth, including Lily King's Writers & Lovers, Andrew Kaufman's All My Friends Are Superheroes, Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, David Nicholls' Sweet Sorrow, Douglas Stuart's John of John, and hot-book-of-the-moment Wuthering Heights.

We’re also discussing Boys Book Club, the organization Lucas has co-founded to encourage men to read and talk about books. What makes a great book club pick for an all-male book club? We’re going to be finding out.

We’ve even got Valentine's recipe – rigatoni with a long-simmered ‘Sunday sauce’ – and a couple of cocktail ideas.

All in all, the perfect ingredients for a literary Valentine’s weekend.

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Booklist

You can find all the titles mentioned in this episode in the Book Club Review bookshop on http://bookshop.org

Nearly Departed by Lucas Oakeley

Heart The Loverby Lily King

All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls

John of John by Douglas Stuart

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Comfort MOB: Food that Makes You Feel Good

Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser

All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger

Links

Follow Lucas on Instagram and Tik Tok @lucasoakeley, and you can find out all the details for the Boy’s Book Club at https://www.theboysbookclub.co.uk/

Housmans bookshop, the longest continuous-running radical bookshop in Britain, established in 1945 and based in London’s Kings Cross since 1959

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What makes a bestseller? Is it the quality of the writing, or just the right book at the right time? This week Kate is joined by co-host Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to find out.

Between us we've tackled six of the biggest bestsellers out there – Dan Brown's The Secret of Secrets, Freida McFadden's The Housemaid, Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, Matt Dinnerman's Dungeon Crawler Carl, SenLinYu's Alchemised, and Sarah Adams' In Your Dreams – and we have some opinions.

We're sharing our honest experiences of each one: what worked, what didn't, and whether these books truly earned their place on the bestseller lists. But this isn't just a round of verdicts. We're also pooling our recommendations for the bestsellers we genuinely think are worth your time, like The Correspondant by Virginia Evans – because there are some real gems out there among the hype.

And as always, we round off with our current and upcoming reads.

Press play to find out which bestsellers passed the test – and which ones didn't.

Support the pod on Patreon

Explore all the benefits of membership. Kate's weekly reading diary is available to free members. Paid tiers include ad-free episodes, extra shows, chat group access and our monthly book club at https://www.patreon.com/thebookclubreview.

Booklist

You can also find all the books mentioned in The Book Club Review bookshop on Bookshop.org, the online bookstore that supports independent bookshops.

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden

Gone Girlby Gillian Flynn

In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams

Alchemized by SenLinYu

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Dungeon Crawler Carlby Matt Dinniman

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir

Nobody's Foolby Harlen Cobden

The Correspondantby Virginia Evans

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Robin Buss)

Rivals by Jilly Cooper

The novels of Stephen King

The Time Traveller's Wifeby Audrey Niffenegger

The Smiley books by John Le Carre

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin

Ice by Jacek Dukaj (Author) , Ursula Phillips (Translator)

The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt

I'll Take The Fire by Leïla Slimani

(also The Country of Others and Watch US Dance)

Lullaby / The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani

Nearly Departed by Lucas Oakeley

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

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New year, new intentions – but if you're in the northern hemisphere, January can feel less like renewal and more like the darkest, coldest stretch of endless winter. Maybe what you need isn't another resolution. Maybe you just need the right book.

Ella Berthoud is an writer and an artist, but most importantly from our point of view a bibliotherapist. She has been prescribing fiction for life's ailments for over a decade. She co-wrote The Novel Cure, a brilliant guide that matches books to every psychological state and is packed with sound recommendations.

Who better then to give me some great suggestions for avoiding the January blues. Join Kate and Ella as they talk about the questions that vex every reader: how do we find more time for reading? How do we escape reading slumps? And how can we read more deeply without it feeling like homework?

Plus of course we're swapping lots of great book recommendations for January and the year ahead. Listen in for a shot of literary inspiration that might be just what you need.

Booklist

The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud

Atmosphereby Taylor Jenkins Reed

Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale

Metamorphoses by Ovid

Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell

The Golden Ass by Apuleius

A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter (Jane Degras)

Dálvi by Laura Galloway

The Artist by Lucy Steeds

The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

Things: A Story of the Sixties by Georges Perec

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Robin Buss)

Find out more about Ella at http://ellaberthoud.com

Find all the books mentioned in this episode in theBook Club Review Bookshop, on Bookshop UK, the online retailer that supports independent bookshops.

Patreon

Head to http://patreon.com/thebookclubreview to join The Book Club Review community for book recommendations, readalongs, book club and, new for 2026, Kate’s Reading Diaries. You can also buy someone gift membership at https://www.patreon.com/thebookclubreview/gift

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We're celebrating the end of the year with a look back over our favourite reads of 2025, from new releases to backlist gems, best book club books, best non-fiction, best comfort reads and more. Between us we read over 350 books in 2025. Listen in to hear the ones we loved best. We've also got a radical new idea for a book club involving cold-water swimming and the works of Robert B. Parker, and how to embrace DNFing without guilt. Join us for recommendations to see you through the festive season and set your new reading year off in style.

With Phil Chaffee and Sarah Oliver

Serious Readers

Take advantage of Serious Readers offer. Head to http://seriousreaders.com/bcr and use the code BCR at checkout for £150 off any HD light.

Patreon

Head to http://Patreon.com/thebookclubreview for all the benefits of membership and how to sign up.

You can also buy someone gift membership at https://www.patreon.com/thebookclubreview/gift

Booklist

Mother Mary Come to Me by Arundhati Roy

The Silver Book by Olivia Laing

Crudo by Olivia Laing

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngoze Adiche

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Heart the Lover by Lily King

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley

The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart

Lake Shore by Gary Shteyngart

Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm

The First Man by Albert Camus

Robert B. Parker novels

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Muybridge by Guy Delisle

The Sense & Sensibility Diaries by Emma Thompson

The Lockwood & Co novels by Jonathan Stroud

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower

Shattered Lands by Sam Dalrymple

Maurice and Marilyn, or A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhurst

Agent Zo by Clare Mulley

The Devil Two Step by Jamie Quattro

Train Dreams by Denis Johnston

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnston

The Director by Daniel Kelman

We Do Not Part by Han Kang

How to End a Story by Helen Garner (3 volume diaries collection)

The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner

This House of Grief by Helen Garner

Eucalyptus by Murray Bail

Wild Thing by Sue Prideaux

Nonesuch by Francis Spufford

Pet Sematary 1983 cover

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'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train' wrote Oscar Wilde, in the Importance of Being Ernest. In this episode Kate is joined by critic, editor and podcaster Lucy Scholes and regular pod guest Phil Chaffee to explore the intimate world of diaries. Can immersing ourselves in the details of other people's lives offer us valuable insight into how to fully appreciate the passing moments of our own? From gossipy self-mythologising Samuel Pepys right up to the present with the experimentation of Sheila Heti's Alphabetical Diaries, and the beauty and hard-won insight of Helen Garner's Baillie Gifford prize-winning diaries. Also not to be missed, living it up Vanity Fair style through the glitz and glamour of 80s New York, with Tina Brown.

And if you enjoy this conversation don't miss Part II, over on the Patreon, where we swap notes on our favourite fictional diaries, consider the diaries we'd love to read if they had only been published and share some thoughts on our own diary keeping. You'll find that episode plus lots of benefits including ad-free listening, extra episodes, our community of readers and the pod book club over at https://www.patreon.com/thebookclubreview.

And to take advantage of that Serious Readers offer of £150 off any HD light head to serious readers.com/bcr and use the code BCR at checkout.

Book list

The Private Life of the Diary by Sally Bayley

The Paris Review

They by Kay Dick

Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke

Love Life of a Cheltenham Lady by Dinah Brooke

Part of the Story by Margaret Busby

Woman Alive by Susan Ertz

Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista

Look Closer by Robert Douglas Fairhurst

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Robert Latham (ed)

The Diaries of Virginia Woolf

How To End a Story by Helen Garner

Henry Chips Channon: The Diaries

The James Lees Milne diaries

Writing Home by Alan Bennett

There and Back: 1999–2009 by Michael Palin

The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983–1992 by Tina Brown

End of a Berlin Diary by William L. Shirer

War in Val D'Orcia by Iris Origo

Russian Journal by Andrea Lee

Beloved Son Felix: Coming of Age in the Renaissance by Felix Platter

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati

Modern Nature by Derek Jarman

Pharmacopeia by Derek Jarman

Went to London, Took the Dog by Nina Stibbe

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter

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Explore this year's Booker Prize shortlist on the latest episode of the Book Club Review! Hosts Kate and Laura and contributors Phil Chaffee and Martin Vovk discuss and debate the six shortlisted novels.

Listen in to hear our predictions, and then find out our reaction to the winner as we listen in to the live Booker Prize ceremony. We won't spoil the plots for you, just whet your appetite to read some or all of the books, all of which make for brilliant discussion.

Booklist

Paddy Clark, Ha, H, Ha by Roddy Doyle

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Flesh by David Szalay

All That Man Is by David Szalay

Starling House by Alex E. Harrow

Any Human Heart by William Boyd

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markowits

Carmageddon by Daniel Knowles

You Don't Have To Live Like This by Ben Markowits

Oh William by Elizabeth Strout

All Fours by Miranda July

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Audition by Katie Kitamura

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

Booker Longlist episode

Episode 181 of The Book Club Review

Links

A Good Read: Colm Toibin and Zadie Smith discuss Flesh

Martin's Eyes On the Prize blog

Browse Martin's archive and discover his extensive reviews (including The Women's Prize) here.

Patreon

Head to https://www.patreon.com/thebookclubreview for all the benefits (extra shows, readalongs, book club and more) and how to sign up.

Serious Readers

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Instagram

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In which Kate is joined by pod regular, journalist Phil Chaffee and Professor Elizabeth Eva Leach. Both read over 200 books a year, and their reading stacks this year have included the Booker longlist.

And so who better to consider the books that didn't make the final cut – but which are, notwithstanding, the 'best' books selected from over 150 submitted titles.

As we know, really great books can get overlooked for the shortlist. Consider Trust by Hernan Diaz, longlisted but not shortlisted, or, going further back Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and before that Penelope Fitzgerald's miraculous novel The Blue Flower. The fallibility of the judging process thus proven let's leave no stone unturned in considering this year's selection. Did the judges overlook a new favourite read?

The Booker Prize is announced on 10th November and we'll be recording an episode on the shortlist on the night. Coming soon!

Booklist

•

Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga

•

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

•

Endling by Maria Reva

•

One Boat by Jonathan Buckley

•

The Outline Trilogy by Rachel Cusk

•

The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

•

Universality by Natasha Brown

•

The South by Tash Aw

•

Love Forms by Claire Adam

•

Barn 8 by Deb Olin Unferth

•

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Patreon

Head to https://www.patreon.com/thebookclubreview for all the benefits (extra shows, readalongs, book club and more) and how to sign up, and know that you'll be supporting a show that takes a lot of time and love to make.

Serious Readers

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Instagram

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In this episode: Kate and Laura are catching up on their pre-Booker season reading.

Did You Are Here by David Nicholls make Laura want to lace up her walking boots? How did Kate get on with A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm, a page-turning account that explores a side of the city that tourists never see. We're also reporting back on book club reads Mouthing by Orla Mackey and The Pretender by Jo Harkin. Mix in the enjoyment of Curtis Sittenfeld's latest collection of short stories, and the all-too relevant classic Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and that's our Autumn bookshelf.

Books mentioned

You Are Here and One Day by David Nicholls

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Your Life and Other Stories and Exhalations by Ted Chiang

The Left-Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Mouthing by Orla Mackey

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Every One Still Here by Liadan ní Chuinn

The Pretender by Jo Harkin

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovitz

You Don't Have To Live Like This by Benjamin Markovitz

Serious Readers

Book Club Review listeners get £150 off any HD Essential Reading Light, plus free UK delivery. Go to http://www.seriousreaders.com/bcr and use the code BCR at checkout. It's completely risk-free with a 30-day home trial. If you don't feel the difference, they'll collect it for free and fully refund you.

Patreon

Support the show on Patreon and get ad-free episodes, extra shows, chat groups, book clubs and readalongs. Head to https://www.patreon.com/thebookclubreview to find out all the benefits and how to sign up.

Instagram

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Book Club: Universality by Natasha Brown & Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O'Donnell

Welcome to The Book Club Review! In this episode, Laura joins Kate to dive into two book club picks: Natasha Brown's much-anticipated second novel, Universality, and the debut Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O'Donnell.

In this episode:

Kate and Laura catch up on their current reads, including Sky Daddy by Kate Folk and A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, before diving into a discussion of Universality. How did it compare to Brown's acclaimed debut Assembly, and did the satirical style, bold narrative choices, and themes of media, class, and culture wars work for our book club.

We then move on to Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O'Donnell, an historical tale of alchemy set across 18th-century London and Ireland. We're exploring the vivid sense of place and real-life inspirations behind the story, but did the many different characters and story arcs knit together?

We're also meeting Kristina Ambrosia, who offers a creative twist on book club with her "Graffiti Book Club," where members are encouraged to write, doodle, and annotate in their books before passing them around.

All that plus our current reads and community updates on how to join the Book Club Review Patreon, participate in chat groups, and readalongs.

Books mentioned:

• Universality by Natasha Brown
• Assembly by Natasha Brown
• Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O'Donnell
• Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
• A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
• Katabasis by R. F. Kuang
• Welcome to Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal
• The Women by Kristin Hannah
• Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• All Fours by Miranda July
• Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
• And more!

Links & Extras:

• Special offer for Serious Readers HD Essential Reading Lights: visit seriousreaderscom/bcr and use code BCR at checkout.
• Join the Book Club Review community on Patreon for ad-free episodes, bonus content, and monthly book club meetings: patreon.com/thebookclubreview
• Follow on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with friends or leave a review – your support helps us reach more book lovers!

Happy reading!

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Something a little different this episode as I invite you to head down the rabbit hole with me into the world of books about books. Accompanying us into this particular wonderland is Joseph Dance, host of the Curious Readers podcast. From meta-fictional narratives to booksellers with shadowy agendas, we're flagging up some of our favourites both for behind-the-scenes insights into the literary world, and for the way they allow us to discover yet more books we might want to read. From Alberto Manguel's library of 35,000 titles, to Alejandro Zambra's essay collection On Not Reading, we're considering a broad spectrum of perspectives that help us reflect on and enrich our reading lives. And so listen in to hear what happens when two book podcasters get together to talk about their favourite topic.

Booklist

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Possession by A.S. Byatt

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

Packing my Library by Alberto Manguel

The Book Forger by Joseph Hone

Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire

Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef

A Bookshop of One's Own by Jane Cholmeley

In Search of Lost Books by Giorgio van Straten

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati

Further reading / listening

Alberto Manguel's library

And here's Manguel sharing his favourite bookstores and libraries with Biblio-file podcast host Nigel Beale

Umberto Eco's library on Youtube

Kate's Moleskine reading journal

Read this wonderful review of Shelf Life from Australian critic Beejay Silcox, who lived for two years in Cairo and knew the Diwan bookstore well.

Patreon

Head to http://patreon.com/thebookclubreview for full membership details and how to join

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