Book Chat

A bittersweet episode of Book Chat has Pandora and Bobby discussing two fittingly bittersweet books: Stoner by John Williams and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Also, “some news”, a hearty goodbye, and a look back on some of our Book Chat faves from episodes past.

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Books/articles mentioned:
Stoner and Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr
Emily, Bella, Harriet, Octavia, Prudence and Imogen by Jilly Cooper
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
One Day by David Nicholls
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

The Greatest American Novel You’ve Never Heard Of by Tim Kreider for The New Yorker – https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-greatest-american-novel-youve-never-heard-of

Stoner: the must-read novel of 2013 by Julian Barnes for The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/13/stoner-john-williams-julian-barnes
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We bring two books both published in 1970 to the table. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by “the poet laureate of puberty” Judy Blume, and The Bluest Eye, by the legendary Toni Morrison.

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Books/articles mentioned:
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Forever and Deenie by Judy Blume
The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Tar Baby and Paradise by Toni Morrison
Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin
First Love and My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary Mantel
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Books for episode 10:
Stoner by John Williams
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After last month’s crowd-pleasers, Bobby and Pandora sink their teeth into two very different, equally meaty books. In Augustown by Kei Miller, a “dismal little valley” in Jamaica becomes a boiling pot of tension when a young boy’s dreadlocks are cut off. And in Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin, the boiling pots are a little more literal – and Pandora shares an all-timer of a kitchen horror story.

You can get in touch [email protected]

Books/articles mentioned:
Augustown by Kei Miller
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
The Pisces and Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà
Good Material and Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
The Bread The Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Midnight Chicken by Ella Risbridger
Takeaway by Angela Hui

PRE-ORDER SMALL HOURS by Bobby Palmer

Augustown by Kei Miller Review by Natasha Tripney for The Observer

“Augustown”: A Novel of the Sacred and the Profane in Jamaica by Laura Miller for The New Yorker

Scalding oil, racist prank calls and endless ‘lid duty’: growing up in a Chinese restaurant by Angela Hui for The Guardian

Find out more about the ShelterBox Book Club

Books for episode 10:
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a bumper episode 8, with Pandora and Bobby tackling two million-copy-bestselling, much-loved-movie-inspiring titans of the nineties. In Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, Pandora finds a surprisingly feminist heroine who’s no less funny 25 years on. And in Nick Hornby’s beloved High Fidelity, Bobby meets his match in a perpetually depressed man-boy who needs to love himself before anyone else can love him back.

Books/articles mentioned:
Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
High Fidelity, Fever Pitch and About a Boy by Nick Hornby
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
A Life Of One’s Own by Joanna Biggs
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
One Day and Us by David Nicholls
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel

Books for episode 9:
Augustown by Kei Miller
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Book Chat is back, and episode 7 pits a Pulitzer-winning author against a Nobel-winning author. But not really: in the battle of the Annies whose name ends in ‘X’, both Bobby and Pandora are winners. Discussing Close Range by Annie Proulx, Bobby feels the need to make apologies for the unapologetic bleakness of rural Wyoming – while Pandora is transported back to the excruciating experience of Catholic boarding school girlhood in Annie Ernaux’s A Girl’s Story.

You can get in touch [email protected]

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes

Books/articles mentioned:

Close Range and The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

A Girl’s Story, The Years, A Man’s Place, A Woman’s Story, Happening, Getting Lost and Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Ordinary Human Failings and Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan

Different Seasons by Stephen King

Stoner and Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.