Katherine and Ashley discuss their favorite books from 2025.

Katherine Current Reads:

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann

The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits

Ashley Current Reads:

Happy Hour by Marlow Granados

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt

Kat's Top Five:

Foster by Claire Keegan

A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

Heart the Lover by Lily King

Ash's Top Five

Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott

I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O'Farrell

Jillian by Halle Butler

The True True Story of Raja The Gullible by Rabih Alameddine

Heart the Lover by Lily King

Katherine and Ashley discuss Lily King's latest novel, Heart The Lover (20:46).

Katherine Reads:

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

Ashley Reads:

North Sun: Or the Voyage of Esther the Whaleship by Ethan Rutherford

Strange Houses by Uketsu

Katherine and Ashley discuss the film adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's, Hamnet.

Katherine Reads:

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

Ashley Reads:

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

Palaver by Bryan Washington

The Antidote by Karen Russell

Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood

Katherine and Ashley discuss the most mentioned bookfare book: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. Discussion of the book begins at 18:42.

Katherine Reads:

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

What Can We Know by Ian McEwen

Ashley Reads:

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine.

CivilWarLand In Bad Decline by George Saunders

Katherine and Ashley discuss Susan Choi's newest novel, Flashlight. Nominated for both the Booker long list and National Book Award long list. Discussion of the book because at 30:18.

Katherine Reads:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Ashley Reads:

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible

Katherine and Ashley return for Season Three with a roundup of the books they read over the Bookfare break.

Katherine Reads:

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Universality by Natasha Brown

Valentino and Sagittarius by Natalia Ginzburg

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

Endling by Maria Reva

Flesh by David Szalay

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart

Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood

Ashley Reads:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Original Sin: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism

Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

I am, I am, I am, by Maggie O'Farrell

Katherine and Ashley discuss Olga Tokarczuk's Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

Kat Reads:

Mobius Book by Catherine Lacey

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Ash Reads:

This Must Be The Place by Maggie O'Farrell

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsen

Bookfare will be taking a (late) summer break! We will be back with Season 3 in October!

Katherine and Ashley discuss Hal Ebbott's Among Friends. Discussion begins at 22:39.

Katherine Reads

The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey

Ashley Reads

The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Katherine and Ashley discuss Laurent Binet's Perspective(s). Discussion begins at 15:07.

Kat reads:

Like Mother Like Mother by Susan Rieger

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Ash Reads:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Jillian by Halle Butler

Katherine and Ashley discuss Kitamura's latest, Audition (book discussion begins at 12:16).

Katherine Reads:

The Cafe with No Name by Robert Seethaler

Ashley Reads:

Hit Girls: Britney, Taylor, Beyonce, and the Women Who Built Pop’s Shiniest Decade by Nora Princiotti.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel