Reading Between Deadlines Podcast

Does CIRCE live up to the hype?
This episode's pick: Circe by Madeline Miller is a beautifully written retelling of Greek myth that puts the infamous witch from The Odyssey centre stage. Banished to a lonely island for angering the gods, Circe slowly discovers her own strange, dangerous powers and starts to shape a life on her own terms. Along the way, gods, heroes and mortals drift in and out of her world - including Odysseus - and along the way Circe learns the true extent of her power and strength.
This week’s guest is our friend and saviour, superstar virtual assistant, Annie Bucknall. As well as helping us get this pod off the ground, creating our gorgeous branding and rescuing Anthea from many a tech disaster, Annie is a historian/librarian by day and an aspiring writer by night.
In this episode, we cover:
Greek Gods - our passion or lack thereof for them.
Necessity of universal of emotions in fiction.
The many loves of Circe.
Feminine rage and vengeance
Things Anthea doesn’t believe in
💋 And, of course, we rate CIRCE: Kiss, Kill, or Marry.
Which way did the votes fall? You’ll have to listen to find out.
📚 Books Mentioned in this Ep
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons
Road to Paradise by Paulina Simons
Tully by Paulina Simons
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Alchemised
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
What Happened to Nina by Dervla McTiernan
Cold Truth by Ashley Kaligian Blunt
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine
And podcasts - Creative Pep Talk and Haptic and Hue.
⏰ Timestamps
1.0 - Intro our fab guest
2.35 - The best eras of history (Anthea’s pretty historical because she can remember the 70’s..)
4.30 - Shout out to long suffering Annie our RBD Queen - who managed to teach Anthea about the computer machines
7.10 - Zeus, deserted Islands and multiple book blurbs - (Are Greek gods kind of arseholes?)
8.56 - Judging Madeline’s bio - Anthea thinks it needs a few chickens.
11.24 - Circe, Goddess of magic and sorcery - (probably got her edits in on time…)
13.02 - Kiss, Kill or turn some nymph into a sea monster
14.18 - Anthea finally finishes CIRCE and enjoys time in Greece with Hermes
17.25 - Rach enjoys every one of the 124000 words of Circe as much as Prometheus enjoyed feeding his liver to that eagle.
21.14 - Annie loves the language almost as much as Circe loves love (no judgement..)
24. - Men are pigs! (Hey, Homer said it in the Odyssey, not us!)
27.48 - Circe - kind of epic - congrats, Madeline Miller. (Rach has probably had enough now..!)
30. Question Time
33.46 - Annie’s hot tip - spending a weekend with a book, then dumping it and never calling again… harsh but fair.
36. The fear of re-reading.
38. Trigger warnings - yay or nay
44.40 Annie recommends a weird podcast. Bring it on!
46.10 Rachael has us reading about pumpkins and serial killers. In that order - Goodluck!

📖 Coming up next:
👉Next Ep, we’re diving into The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore (Feb 14th)
On Feb 28th guest author Kayte Nunn will make us read My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.
In March we’re reading The Crash by Freida McFadden and our guest John Purcell will make us read The Friend by Sigrid Nunez.
🎽 Do you read between deadlines too? Grab the merch


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Dear RBD Listeners
January is a busy month for EVERYONE, so we decided instead of discussing a particular book this month, we’d ask each other the questions we usually ask our author guests instead.
Enjoy the list of recommendations and non-recommendations mentioned in this ep below.
Book that made you cry?
Anthea - doesn’t cry in books
Rach - Goodnight Beautiful by Dorothy Koomson; Pack Up the Moon by Kristin Higgins; Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Book that got you into reading?
Rach - The Baby-Sitters Club books by Ann M. Martin and late 90s chick-lit
Anthea - The Folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
How do you read?
Anthea - has a Kindle, loved print best but listens mostly to audiobooks these days (currently listening to Secrets by Judi Morison and Circe by Madeleine Miller.
Rach - recently bought a Kobo as is loving it ALMOST as much as print. Audiobooks while cleaning (currently listening to Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan)
What is the book that you wish you’d written?
Rach wishes she’d written The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller.
Anthea wishes she’d written her bestselling novel The War Nurses earlier.
What is the book you recommend the most?
Rach - The Wedding People by Alison Espach, Sandwich by Catherine Newman, The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley (and bonus mention of The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty.
Anthea - somehow we skipped her!?!
Where do you like to read?
Anthea - reading in bed early in the morning with a cup of tea
Rach - bed too but also on an aeroplane and especially on holiday.
What’s your fave book-to-screen adaptation?
Rach - Bridget Jones’ Diary and Gone Girl
Anthea - BBS Pride & Prejudice (Hello, Colin - Rach agrees), North & South.
Do you have snacks and/or drinks while you read?
Anthea - nice cup of tea; no snacks
Rach - Diet Coke or wine; no snacks
What’s the last book you recommended?
Rach - Sandwich and The Wedding People - already mentioned above
Anthea - The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight (listen to our ep about it here)And a shout out to Lara in Denver!! and The Far Flung Life by ML Stedman
Do you reread books?
Anthea - as a rule no, but sometimes she does accidentally as she’s getting old and forgetful, but she does mention MM Kaye and her lovely British murder mysteries.
Rach - wants to reread more, including Three Little Truths by Eithne Shortall, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty, The Invisible Husband of Frick Island and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Are you embarrassed about a book you read?
Anthea - The White Hotel by DM Thomas - but you’ll have to listen to find out WHY!
Rach - not at all embarrassed now but might have been embarrassed once to admit she’d read a lot of M&B novels
Do you have a fave go-to cookbook?
Rach - Nagi’s books and Everybody Loves Cake
Anthea - Jamie Oliver’s and Nagi’s books
Do you DNF books?
Anthea - yes; she really wants to read The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins but just can’t get into it.
Rach - yes (quick mentions of Heart the Lover and Writers and Lovers by Lily King - Rach HAS read them both though)
What book do you wish Booktok would know about?
Anthea - The Drifter by herself (fair)
Rach - The Sun Down Motel by Simone St James
What’s your fave book outside your genre?
Anthea - Lady of Hay and House of Echoes by Barbara Erskine
Rach - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
What’s your three desert island books?
Anthea - the Game of Thrones novels (um, Anthea, that’s FIVE)
Rach - The Paper Palace (AGAIN), Lenny’s Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee, Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld.
What’s a classic book you’ve never read?
Rach - Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Anthea - again, we seemed to skep this!
What are your three auto-buy authors?
Anthea - Rachael Treasure, Emily Henry, Beth O’Leary and Kim Wilkins (Anthea can’t count)
Rach - Marian Keyes, Fredrik Backman, Elin Hilderbrand and Liane Moriarty (yes, Rach can’t count either)
Do you read your own reviews?
Anthea - nope
Rach - yes, with caution
What book do you think is overhyped?
Rach - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, Heart the Lover by Lily King
Anthea - never knows what is hyped ;)
What book do you want to read but haven’t read yet?
Anthea - anything by Jodi Piccoult (Rach raves about Plain Truth and Wish You were Here and Tenderfoot by Toni Jordan.
Rach - My Friends by Fredrik Backman and Ghost Cities by Siang Lu
What is your favourite book of the year so far?
Anthea - The Far Flung Life (already mentioned above)
Rach - The Last Encore by Rebecca Heath
What is your fave book you’ve written and why?
Anthea - The War Nurses, with special mention to The Drifter
Rach - Man Drought (if rural), The Patterson Girls (if general fiction), but Just One Wish if she really has to pick just one! Special mention to How to Mend a Broken Heart.
What are you currently writing/editing?
Anthea - editing The Palace of Lost Virtue
Rach - writing Someone Else’s Fortune and also The Number One Insta Detectives Agency with Mercedes Mercier
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
We’re launching a bonus episode a month for our paid subscribers!!
📖 Coming up next:
👉Next Ep we’re chatting to Virtually Annie about CIRCE by Madeleine Miller.
In February, we’re diving into The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore and guest author Kayte Nunn will make us read My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.
In March, we’re reading The Crash one of Freida McFadden’s ZILLION books and our guest author for the second episode will be John Purcell, who is making us read The Friend by Sigrid Nunez.
For what we’re up to after that, click here.
🎽 Do you read between deadlines too? Grab the merch
Thanks for following. We love ya!


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingbetweendeadlines.substack.com/subscribe

Does A MAN CALLED OVE live up to the hype?
This episode's pick: A Man Called Ove follows Ove, a rigid and irritable man whose carefully ordered life is disrupted when new neighbours move in next door. As the story moves between present-day encounters and moments from Ove’s past, we begin to understand the experiences that shaped him, including his sad childhood and one great love. It’s a character-driven story about grief, love, and finding community.
This week’s guest - is our friend Sally Hepworth (It’s true - Rach even has her phone number). We met Sally in the early days of her writing career and have watched her soar from height to height. Sally has now written TEN novels, including her latest Mad Mabel, hit The New York Times Bestseller list multiple times, and had her novel The Family Next Door adapted for TV, with more projects in the works. She’s based in Melbourne with her family and, despite all her success, is still the same warm, down-to-earth, utterly lovely human we first met all those years ago.
In this episode, we cover:
How perimenopause wreaks havoc with writing.
Is this a quiet novel?
How specificity elevates a story.
How to write humour that isn’t cruel.
Is the setting important?
Differences between American and Australian readers
Sally’s reading loves and hates.
💋 And, of course, we rate A MAN CALLED OVE: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?
Which way did the votes fall? You’ll have to listen in…

📚 Books Mentioned in this Ep
The Hiding Place – Kate Mildenhall
Babysitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Anything by Enid Blyton
Tully – Paullina Simons
Anything by Marian Keyes
The Gambler – JP Pomare
The Names – Florence Knapp
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Red Belly Crossing - Candace Fox

⏰ Timestamps
1.0 Welcome to Sweden!
2.21 Intro Sally Hepworth and her mate, Mad Mabel!
4.00 Sally’s bio and her divorce dog.
5.58 Fredrik Backman – way funnier than his bio would suggest.
8.25 A Man Called Ove – a blurb put together with an Allen key and a
bit of swearing.
9.57 Good Reads – almost 1.2 million people can’t be wrong…
10.49 Kiss, Kill, Marry – (just make sure you have consent).
12.08 We suspect Sally has a crush on Ove.
16.52 Anthea makes a sporting analogy, (because she knows a tonne
about sport and is keen to share).
19.12 Hands off, Sally! Rachael loves Ove, too, and shares a beautiful
quote for all the handymen out there.
25.41 Sally talks about being funny, without actually being funny. Alanis
Morrisette would regard that as irony.
27.50 Sally recommends…
35.40 Reviews – the most fun you can have with your clothes on.
37.38 Backman scores a Did Not Finish review. Ikea closes its doors in
solidarity.
38.00 Sally confirms that Australian audiences are just BETTER. (Not
really, but we knew what she meant)
40.36 Rachael tricks Sally into giving us free writing advice. #masterclass
42.43 HOMEWORK.. Don’t pack up – the bell hasn’t gone yet…

📖 Coming up next:
👉Next Ep (14th Jan) Rach And Anthea grill each other in the way they normally grill their guests.
Our first guest for the year is Virtually Annie (Jan 28th) - she’s making us reading Circe by Madeleine Miller and we hope you’ll read it to.
In February, we’re diving into The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore (Feb 14th) and guest author Kayte Nunn will make us read My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Feb 28th).
And here’s our list for the first half of 2026.
🎽 Do you read between deadlines too? Grab the merch
☕ If you’re loving the show, we’d be so grateful if you’d buy us a coffee (or a prosecco). It helps keep the pod fun, frequent, and free.


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Does Persuasion stand the test of 208 years?
This episode’s pick: Persuasion by none other than Jane Austen, the patron saint of slow-burn and witty banter. We don’t know how many copies it’s sold but if people are still reading our books in a couple of centuries time, we’ll consider that a resounding success. Persuasion - the last novel our dear Jane ever finished - is a quiet story about love that refuses to die despite a whole cast of characters believing they know better!
In this episode, we cover:
Which authors will still be being read in 250 years.
How Jane should be ‘loving herself sick’ - term borrowed from friend of the pod Sophie Green.
A little constructive criticism for Jane.
How modern writing may have ruined us all.
One of the most romantic letters ever written!
💋 And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry.
⏰ Timestamps
00.0 Intro – Jane Austen – Happy Birthday - and thanks for Colin Firth!
2.49 Jane Austen - 250 years old and she’s still got it. (Kind of)
4.40 Long Careers, like Jane, Emily Henry, Trent Dalton and Tim Winton
5.48 Jane Austen – rom com queen
8.25 Persuasion blurb – like a regular blurb, only classier
9.07 Jane Austen’s bio – look, she’s dead, so she’s not been up to much recently.
12.24 Goodreads Ratings – more than an elegant sufficiency
14.28 Rach and Anthea rate Persuasion – Three, two, one – and curtsey to your partner
15.17 Rachael craps on Jane Austen’s grave (Anthea is all astonishment.)
20.00 Rachael teaches Jane Austen a thing or two about writing… (cheeky..)
22.51 Anthea defends Jane, offers constructive criticism (and considers asking for Colin Firth’s number..)
27.01 Rachael’s favourite line from Persuasion, other than THE END
28.18 Mary, kind of a dick – but also a feminist icon
30.27 Persuasion adaptation, with that chick who was dating Chris Martin
32.00 Jane Austen - a light, whimsical read
34.30 Frederick – Hot, or Not? (Rach says not!)
36.43 How to eat a pair of jeans, and other reviews
37.30 Persuading Rachael..
40.48 What’s next for RBD??
📖 Coming up next:
👉Next Ep we’re chatting to Sally Hepworth about A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.
In January we will answer our own regular reading questions for the first episode and the second episode we’ll discus Circe by Madeline Miller with Virtually Annie - can’t wait!
In February, we’re diving into The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore and guest author Kayte Nunn will make us read My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.
Thanks for following.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingbetweendeadlines.substack.com/subscribe

Do all crime novel mysteries need to be resolved?
This episode's pick: In the Woods by Tana French, the award-winning, Celtic-mist-soaked psychological mystery that launched the Dublin Murder Squad. When a young girl is found murdered at an archaeological dig, detective Rob Ryan is forced back into the very woods where he once vanished as a child, an incident he has no memory of, except for his blood-soaked shoes. As Rob and his partner Cassie Maddox investigate, the line between past and present blurs. It’s atmospheric, character-driven, and the kind of book that makes you glance over your shoulder at every little noise.
This week’s guest - Dervla McTiernan is an internationally bestselling Irish-Australian crime writer and a great friend of ours. She’s the powerhouse behind the Cormac Reilly series, as well as the gripping standalones The Murder Rule and What Happened to Nina?. Her novels have topped bestseller lists around the world and earned shelves of awards, and we’re thrilled to have her with us.

In this episode, we cover:
Dervla being a superstar.
What Dervla loves about Tana French’s writing.
The expectations of a crime novel.
Unreliable narrators.
What makes a great villain.
Authors reading their own reviews
📚 Books Mentioned on the Pod
Tanya French – The Likeness
Tanya French – Secret Place
Tanya French – The Witch Elm
Stephen King – The Outsider
Stephen King – Lisey’s Story
Marian Keyes – This Charming Man
Rhys Bowen – The Royal Spyness Series
💋 And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?
Which way did the votes fall? You’ll have to listen in…

⏰ Timestamps
1.0 Welcome to Only Fans for Middle Aged Ladies in Glasses Cum-unity.
2.03 – Meet Dervla McTiernan – Just how many awards is it legal to win??
4.35 – Meet Tanya French – Into the Woods (not as many awards as Dervla..!)
6.45 – Anthea bans Dervla for all time – serves her right.
9.39 – Time to Kiss, Kill, Marry!
12.13 – Dervla’s favourite backhanded compliment (looking at you Lit-fic!)
13.44 – Rach tries to sort out Rob Ryan’s love life.
14.36 – What do you MEAN they don’t solve the crime??
18.43 – Just because people have been murdered, doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.
20.40 – Is Rob Ryan a bit immature?
21.41 – Rosalyn – DO NOT DATE.
24.20 – Rob – unreliable narrator? Liar? MURDERERERER??
24.40 – Dervla sensationally admits to ripping off Steven King and Marian Keyes.
(we’ll never tell…)
29.43 – The joy of reading to your (disinterested) partner.
35.12 – Dervla recommends reading the back of the Cornflake box.
39.24 – Demon Copperhead. What a pile of crap!
40.34 – Brutal honesty – is the best policy. Sometimes.
41.34 – Reading reviews – fun for ALL the family!
42.20 – Dervla’s favourites.
45.02 – Dust off Persuasion – and drag out your piano forte! Jane Austen rides again.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingbetweendeadlines.substack.com/subscribe