AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST by Iain Pears, chosen by Peter Kosminsky
HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING by Will Arbery, chosen by Jack Thorne
PERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico, chosen by Harriett GilbertThorne and Kosminsky are great friends, but don't fully agree on the books discussed. Topics raised by their choices include toxic masculinity, empathy, and whether or not Succession is a great TV series.Peter has chosen An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears, a restoration murder mystery told by four unreliable narrators. Jack advocates for Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery, a play about four right-wing Catholics meeting at a college reunion. Harriett has gone for Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, a satire telling the tale of a millennial couple living in fashionable Berlin. Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven
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Photo credit Antonio Olmos
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27:43
Douglas Stuart and Sian Eleri
Douglas Stuart author of Booker Prize winning novel Shuggie Bain chooses his favourite book - Train Dreams by Denis Johnson - a short novel encapsulating the history of America in the early 20th century through the life of a lonely man in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.
He's joined by Radio 1 and The Voice Wales presenter Sian Eleri whose choice is I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman - a dystopian tale of a group of captive women.
Harriett's choice is More Than I Love My Life by David Grossman which examines family trauma through the relationship of three generations of women.
Strong themes of loneliness run through all three choices as well as questions about our humanity.Producer: Maggie AyrePhoto credit Sarah Blesener
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27:52
Lucy Speed and Sarah Mills
EVERYONE BRAVE IS FORGIVEN by Chris Cleave, chosen by Lucy Speed
THE HUMAN FACTOR by Graham Greene, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
253 by Geoff Ryman, chosen by Sarah MillsFormer Eastenders and present-day Archers actor Lucy Speed and comedian Sarah Mills talk about books set in wartime London, a 1990s underground train, and Graham Greene's MI6.Lucy's choice is Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave, Which tells the tale of Mary, a woman who becomes a teacher at the beginning of the war, only for her life to take some unexpected turns during the Blitz.Sarah has selected 253 by Geoff Ryman, the novel originally published on the Internet which tells the stories of 253 passengers on a London Underground train.
Harriett proposes a lesser known a Graham Greene novel, The Human Factor, which takes in apartheid South Africa and communism as well as espionage.Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally HeavenJoin the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbcPhoto: Louise Cole
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27:50
Nina Sosanya and Joelle Taylor
Actor Nina Sosanya and prize winning poet and writer Joelle Taylor talk favourite books with Harriett. Nina chooses Sally Jones and the False Rose by Jakob Wegelius, a children's novel with a mute gorilla engineer as its protagonist. The book appeals to Nina's love of engineering, and the city of Glasgow!Joelle nominates Booker Prize winning The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka, about a man killed in the Sri Lankan civil war, seeking answers in the afterlife.Harriett's choice is Tasting Sunlight by Ewald Arenz, a novel set in the German countryside at the tail end of summer, featuring two women with mysterious back stories.Two of the choices are novels in translation, which prompts a chat about whether translated books are becoming more common.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven
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27:41
Oliver Burkeman and Sara Collins
MOON TIGER by Penelope Lively, chosen by Sara Collins
NUMBER GO UP: INSIDE CRYPTO'S WILD RISE AND STAGGERING FALL by Zeke Faux, chosen by Oliver Burkeman
LORD JIM AT HOME by Dinah Brooke, chosen by Harriett Gilbert"I'm writing a history of the world" - so begins the choice of novelist and broadcaster Sara Collins: Penelope Lively's Booker Prize-winning novel Moon Tiger. Claudia Hampton, a famous writer and historian, lies dying in a hospital bed, her mind flitting across the years of her remarkable life and the people she's known. Sara Collins loves the book's romance, its jagged structure, and its unlikeable heroine. Do the others agree? Sara is the author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton, which won the Costa First Novel Award and was adapted for television in 2023. She was one of the hosts of the How to Write a Book Podcast and is a former judge of the Booker Prize.As a newspaper columnist, for many years Oliver Burkeman wrote This Column Will Change Your Life in The Guardian. He is the bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals and, more recently, Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts. His choice is a non-fiction book by the investigative journalist Zeke Faux about the characters who have made and lost billions in the wild and volatile world of cryptocurrency. And Harriett's choice is Lord Jim at Home, a novel by Dinah Brooke. Giles Trenchard is born into a life of privilege, but also into a world of hidden cruelty and emotional deprivation. Everyone agrees it's brilliantly written, but how do Harriett's guests feel about its dark content?Producer: Mair Bosworth
Australia