A Pair of Bookends

WE'RE BACK BOOKENDS! Happy new year!
We are so excited to be bringing you the first in our new 'Debut Spotlight' series, each episode we will be in conversation with a debut author, chatting about their debut journey, putting their book on your radar and as always getting their recommendations.
This episode is with Rosie Andrews, author of The Leviathan which is out in paperback now, you can order here: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-leviathan-a-beguiling-tale-of-superstition-myth-and-murder-from-a-major-new-voice-in-historical-fiction-9781526637369/9781526637369

We chat about not getting your first book published, sibling relationships, what makes a terrifying story and much more. To follow Rosie for updates on her and her work: https://twitter.com/rosieandrews22

If you enjoy our conversation, please share with a bookish pal and rate, review & subscribe!

You can follow us @apairofbookendspod on Instagram and @apairofbookends on Twitter and Tik Tok for all upcoming pod news!

Books & Authors discussed:
The North Shore by Ben Tufnell
Dissolution by CJ Sansom
Tolkien
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Paradise Lost by John Milton
"Oh, whistle, and i'll come to you, my lad" by M.R. James
Edgar Allan Poe
The Hollow Sea by Annie Kirby
Weyward by Emilia Hart
Fyneshade by Kate Griffin

Other recommendations:
Happy Valley - BBC Iplayer
Susan Cooper- The dark is rising: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvp7

Until next time bookends, happy reading!

Welcome to our FINAL episode of the year - the Christmas Special! We stripped this one right back to our OG episodes, just the two of us, rambling about our fave festive books, food, TV & more, it's pure festive fun and we hope you love it!

Christmas Films mentioned:
Single All The Way - Netflix
Love Actually
Home Alone 2
Elf
Die Hard (debatable)

Other recommendations:
The Shining by Stephen King
One Day In December by Josie Silver
Sliding Doors
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
The Night Before Christmas - Poem by Clement Clarke Moore

Please do rate, review & subscribe as it helps other bookends to reach us. Follow us @apairofbookendspod on Instagram and @apairofbookends on Twitter and Tik Tok.
Merry Christmas Bookends, thank you for joining us on this wild ride that has been our first year in podcasting, without you this wouldn't be possible. x

Welcome back bookends to our FINAL Book Club episode of the year! We were joined by the beautiful person & author that is, Meg Howrey, to chat about her novel, They're Going To Love You. We couldn't wait to dive in and chat about this book, it's set in New York during the AIDS crisis and follows Carlisle, a young woman training to be a professional ballet dancer, torn between her professional and personal lives, navigating messy family dynamics, love affairs and betrayals and devastating losses, this is a book you don't want to miss out on.

To buy Meg's book: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/they-re-going-to-love-you/9781526655820
To follow Meg on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghowrey/?hl=en-gb
To follow Meg on Twitter: https://twitter.com/meghowrey/
Vogue Essay: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57afb3d3ff7c50648d9808f5/t/57b36c4de4fcb59cf487d53f/1471376463545/Vogue+Essay.pdf

Books & Authors mentioned:
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
Mandy Kahn - Poet
Sybille Bedford
Iris Murdoch
Virginia Woolf
E.M Forster
Ford Madox Ford
William Somerset Maugham
Zadie Smith
Yiyun Li
Ruth Ozeki
Miriam Toews
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Other recommendations:
It's A Sin- Netflix
Tar - Movie
The Walk-In - ITV Hub
This Is Us- Amazon Prime

We hope you enjoy the episode! Please do rate, review & subscribe as it helps us to reach more bookends, you can also follow us @apairofbookendspod on Instagram and @apairofbookends on Twitter and Tik Tok. For publicity enquiries, please email us [email protected]. Han and Lyd x

Hey Bookends! We are back this week with another instalment in our 'Top of your TBR' series and this time we are joined by the warm, funny and generous Cherie Jones- who is the phenomenal writer of the Women's Prize shortlisted novel 'How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House' and she's bringing you an incredible list of recommendations!
In this episode, we chat through her four chosen book titles to add to your TBR piles, her experiences as a debut author, the impact of Carribean folklore, who she draws inspiration from and so much more, you are in for a treat!

Cherie's Top of your TBR picks:
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd-Banwo
Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris: Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton
What Storm, What Thunder by Myriam J.A.Chancy

Other books & authors mentioned:
Happening by Annie Ernaux
The Hills Were Joyful Together by Roger Mais
Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Dare
The Wine of Astonishment by Earl Lovelace
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Summer Lightening and other stories by Olive Senior
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
Banana Bottom by Claude McKay
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs

To buy Cherie's book: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/how-the-one-armed-sister-sweeps-her-house/9781472268792

Follow Cherie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheriejoneswrites/?hl=en

Please do rate, review & subscribe as it helps us to reach more bookends! Follow us on Instagram @apairofbookendspod and on Twitter and Tik Tok @apairofbookends, we love hearing from you. Until next time, Han & Lyd x

Welcome back bookends! Our November book club pick is the incredible, weird and wonderful debut novel Isaac and the Egg. We were so pleased to have Bobby Palmer (Freelance Journalist and author of Isaac and the Egg) on to chat about his work, 80's pop culture references, men's mental health and much, much more. He is every bit as funny and brilliant as his book, we hope you love this conversation.

To buy Isaac and the Egg: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/isaac-and-the-egg-an-original-story-of-love-loss-and-finding-hope-in-the-unexpected/9781472285508

To listen to the audiobook: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Isaac-and-the-Egg-Audiobook/B09KHBWKNW?source_code=M2M14DFT1BkSH082015011R&&ipRedirectOverride=true&overrideBaseCountry=true&gclid=Cj0KCQiA37KbBhDgARIsAIzce14l68Xf44szN2IhKbWwu6uf92uJP_GpCVh3VVFeRDpJlFnogTrPYhIaArEeEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

To follow Bobby Palmer: https://www.instagram.com/thebobpalmer/?hl=en

Books & authors mentioned:
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
George Saunders
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Max Porter
Patrick Ness
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

Cultural recommendations:
The Bear - Disney Plus
Boiling Point- Netflix

Don't forget to rate, review & subscribe, please do share us with all your bookish pals too! Follow us @apairofbookendspod on Instagram and @apairofbookends on Twitter and Tik Tok, we'd love to hear from you! Thanks so much for listening x

Hey Bookends! We are thrilled to be bringing you our October book club episode where we chat to the absolute powerhouse that is Kamila Shamsie, about her latest novel 'Best Of Friends', which we cannot recommend enough. We spoke about childhood friendship, our standpoints on dog-earing book pages, class division and politics in Pakistan and London, the concept of 'girl-fear' and much more. It was a really insightful conversation and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Books mentioned:
Best Of Friends by Kamila Shamsie
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Assembly by Natasha Brown
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
How To Read Now by Elaine Castillo

TV recommendations:
A League Of Their Own - Amazon Prime
Good Girls - Netflix

Buy 'Best of Friends': https://uk.bookshop.org/books/best-of-friends-from-the-winner-of-the-women-s-prize-for-fiction/9781526647702
Buy Kamila's previous novel 'Home Fire': https://uk.bookshop.org/books/home-fire-winner-of-the-women-s-prize-for-fiction-2018/9781408886793

Tickets for Kamila's event in Cambridge: https://www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/kamila-shamsie-best-of-friends/
Tickets to see Kamila at Hay Festival: https://www.hayfestival.com/p-19718-kamila-shamsie-extra-event.aspx
Book How To Academy event with Kamila: https://howtoacademy.com/events/an-evening-with-kamila-shamsie/

Please do rate, review & subscribe, or share with a bookish pal so we can reach more listeners. Give us a follow @apairofbookendspod on Instagram and @apairofbookends on Twitter and Tik Tok. Stay tuned for more amazing guests! Han & Lyd x

Hey bookends! We are thrilled to introduce our latest guest in our 'Top Of Your TBR' series, the author of the incredible dystopian novel 'Dreamland'. This is the longest conversation we've done so far but Rosa was truly the most warm and generous guest and we really hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Books & Authors mentioned:
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Z For Zachariah by Robert C.O'Brien
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Garth Greenwell
The Jane Austen Book Club & Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Howard's End by E.M Forster
Sally Rooney
Bonjour Tristesse & A Certain Smile by Françoise Sagan
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
Doris Lessing
The Ice People by Maggie Gee

Top Of Your TBR recommendations:
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith

Other recommendations:
Book bodega - @bookbodega (Based in Ramsgate, can order online)
The Bear- Disney +
Euphoria- HBO
Feel Good - Netflix
In My Skin - BBC Iplayer

You can follow Rosa @rosarankingee on Instagram and Twitter, and you can follow us @apairofbookendspod on Instagram, @apairofbookends on Twitter and Tik Tok.

Order Dreamland: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/dreamland-an-evening-standard-best-new-book-of-2021-9781471193842/9781471193842

We hope you enjoy getting stuck into this juicy list of recommendations and if you haven't already read Rosa's novel, please do order via the link above- you won't regret it! Please do rate/review/subscribe as it helps us to reach new listeners. See you next time, Han and Lyd x

Welcome back bookends! Our third episode in our Top Of Your TBR series features the wonderful Claire Fuller and my goodness, does she have some excellent book recs for you! We absolutely loved reading her four choices and we hope you do too.

Books mentioned:
New Animal by Ella Baxter
Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy

Top Of Your TBR recommendations:
Snegurochka by Judith Heneghan
The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson

You can follow Claire on Instagram @writerclairefuller and follow her amazing bookish hashtag #clairesbooksatbreakfast for even more of her wonderful recommendations!

Buy Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/unsettled-ground-winner-of-the-costa-novel-award-2021/9780241457443
Pre-Order The Memory Of Animals: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-memory-of-animals-from-the-costa-novel-winning-author-of-unsettled-ground/9780241614822

Please do rate & review the podcast if you have time as we would LOVE to reach more listeners. Give us a follow on Instagram @apairofbookendspod, Tik Tok 'A Pair Of Bookends' and Twitter @apairofbookends. Thank you so much for listening, Han & Lyd x

Hey bookends!
Welcome back to another book club episode, this month's book club pick is The Life Of The Mind by Christine Smallwood, an incredible debut novel that explores miscarriage, female friendship, loss and faith and how these things interlink. We are thrilled to have Christine on the podcast and we hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did- please note the conversation does include talk of miscarriage which may be triggering for some listeners.

Thank you to Europa Editions for our gifted copies and for making this conversation possible.
To follow Christine & her work: https://twitter.com/xtinesmallwood, https://christinesmallwood.space/

To buy the book: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-life-of-the-mind-sharp-and-funny-daily-mail/9781787704268

Books & Authors mentioned:
Shirley Hazzard
Dorthe Nors
Deborah Levy- Things I Don't Want To Know, The Cost of Living, Real Estate
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Shyness and dignity by Dag Solstad

Other cultural recommendations:
The Worst Person In The World (Film) - Amazon Prime
You Must Remember This (Podcast) - http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/


Please do rate/review/subcribe as it means other book lovers can find us! Follow us on Instagram @apairofbookendspod, on Twitter @apairofbookends and Tik Tok 'A Pair Of Bookends'

See you next time!

Welcome back bookends to another book club episode! This month's book club pick is Common Decency- the second novel by the immensely talented author and poet Susannah Dickey who we were thrilled to spend an hour chatting to! We recorded via zoom with some occasional internet issues so we apologise for any audio that may have been affected.
Trigger Warning: conversations on grief.
Aswell as a deep dive into the mind of Susannah and the worlds of her books we chatted about unhinged novels, chaotic females, the mother/daughter relationship, grief, affairs and killing fish... IYKYK.

To stay up to date with Susannah and what she's up to next you can follow her here: https://twitter.com/susannahdickey?lang=en

To buy 'Common Decency': https://uk.bookshop.org/books/common-decency-a-dark-intimate-novel-of-love-grief-and-obsession/9780857526885
To buy 'Tennis Lessons': https://uk.bookshop.org/books/tennis-lessons/9781784165055

Books & Authors mentioned:
The wings of the dove by Henry James
Long Live The Post Horn! by Vigdis Hjorth
NW by Zadie Smith
How to be both by Ali Smith
Rachel Cusk
Lorrie Moore
Mieko Kawakami
Sayaka Murata

Cultural Recs from Susannah:
Love & Anarchy - Netflix
Hold me closer by Britney Spears and Elton John -https://open.spotify.com/track/72yP0DUlWPyH8P7IoxskwN?autoplay=true

Please do rate, review & subscribe to the podcast and do give us a follow on Instagram @apairofbookendspod and Tik Tok @apairofbookends

Stay tuned for two upcoming author features! x