Bookies' Favourite

With the official Booker Prize 2025 longlist announcement just around the corner, Aaron, Lucy, and Colin sit down to pitch their top 12 books they’d love to see make the list.

⚡ Plus, Lucy takes us through a speed round of eligible books she’s already read and whether she thinks they’ll appear on the list.

📚 Previous Booker-Eligible Episodes

Want to catch up on some eligible books we’ve already covered? Check out our past reviews:

• Eden’s Shore by Oisín Fagan

• The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine

And stay tuned—in September, we’ll be reviewing Confessions by Catherine Airey, another eligible title. If you're reading it too, send us your thoughts!

👀 What’s Coming Next
🎧 Wednesday – We’ll be uploading a longlist reaction episode, breaking down the official picks revealed in tomorrow's announcement and seeing which of our predictions made it.

🏺 Next week listen out for our review of Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

🪼 Aaron & Lucy will also be launching a read-along mini-series soon, going chapter-by-chapter through Eden’s Shore. Read along and join the discussion!

📚 And once the shortlist is announced in September, we’re planning to read and discuss every book on it.

💬 Share Your Predictions & Hopes!

What books do you want to see on the longlist?
Send us your predictions and hot takes on:
📸 Instagram: @bookiesfavouritebookclub
📩 [email protected]

Follow along and be part of the Booker conversation!

In this special bonus episode, Lucy is joined by Stacey from @whatstaceyreadnext to discuss The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine—a sharp, moving, and freshly released novel set in Belfast.

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of sexual assault as it relates to the themes in the book.

‼️ As we discuss the full book there are spoilers

Both Lucy and Stacey bring local insight to the conversation, exploring the novel’s themes, setting, and characters with care and excitement. With its powerful storytelling and distinct voice, they share why they’re hopeful this book will make the Booker longlist.

Lucy also reports back from a recent event with Wendy Erskine at the Belfast Book Festival, where Wendy shared details about The Benefactors.

📊 Help Pick Our Next Book!

Head to our socials and vote in this week’s polls to help us choose our next book club read:📸 Instagram post & story polls🎧 Poll on this Spotify episodeThe more places you vote, the more power your vote has!

📅 What’s Next

Our next full episode drops Monday, and we’ll be reviewing Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon—the book YOU voted for!

🌊 Then in two weeks, we kick off our Eden’s Shore mini-series, starting with Chapter One: Sea.

💬 Connect With Us

We want to hear what you think of The Benefactors, Glorious Exploits, or the Eden’s Shore mini-series.📩 [email protected]📒 Goodreads📸 Instagram🐦 Twitter/X📘 Facebook

Follow us, share your thoughts, and stay tuned for the next chapters!

In this episode, we dive into Eden’s Shore—a dense, experimental, and rewarding read that left us wanting more. With Hannah away traveling, we’re joined by our Bookie of the Week, Graeme (@graeme_c on Instagram), who shares his take on this powerful and unusual novel.

📚 Eden’s Shore is divided into four main chapters—Sea, Land, Colony, Play—plus a final chapter titled World. We all agreed: we’ve barely scratched the surface. So, we’re launching a mini-series between our regular episodes to unpack each chapter in its own dedicated discussion. If you're reading along, we’d love to hear your thoughts for inclusion in future episodes!

🎧 Bonus: The audiobook is free on Spotify for anyone with a subscription—perfect for those catching up!

🏆 Poll Results Are In!

The next book we’ll be reading together is Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon! Start reading now and send us your thoughts—our next full review episode drops Monday in two weeks.

📊 New Book Club Poll – Vote Now!

Help us choose what to read after Glorious Exploits! You can vote on:

• 🟢 Spotify poll (on this episode)

• 📸 Instagram post poll

• 📸 Instagram Story poll

The more places you vote, the more influence you have!

This week’s picks:

👑 Has Been Crowned – The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Aaron’s pick)
→ Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025

📖 Freshly Bound – The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (Colin’s pick)
→ Recently released and gaining momentum

🏅 Now Renowned – Confessions by Catherine Airey (Lucy’s pick)
→ Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize

💬 Share Your Thoughts

We want to hear what you think of Eden’s Shore, Glorious Exploits, or the books in this week’s poll!

📩 [email protected]
📘 Goodreads
📸 Instagram
🐦 Twitter/X
📘 Facebook

Tap Follow wherever you’re listening so you don’t miss the mini-series or our next review!

We’re back! In this season premiere, we react to Heart Lamp’s big win at the 2025 International Booker Prize, reveal our next book club read—Eden’s Shore by Oisín Fagan—and launch our Book Club Vote to decide what we’ll read after that.

🎧 We also catch you up on what we’ve been reading and planning behind the scenes. Come join the conversation!

📊 Book Club Poll – Vote Now!

You can vote in four places—Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook, and right here on this episode.
📌 Voting closes Midnight GMT on Friday.
📌 The more places you vote, the more your vote counts!

This Week’s Categories & Picks:

👑 Has Been Crowned - Lucy
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

• Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

• Winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize

• Winner of the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award

• Named a Best Book of 2024 by Slate, The Guardian, and the New York Public Library

📖 Freshly Bound - Hannah
Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare

• Published 12th June 2025

• Be among the first to read it!

🏅 Now Renowned - Aaron
The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

• Shortlisted for the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Novella

• Shortlisted for the 2025 Nebula Award for Best Novella

📚 Been Around - Colin
Mother Naked by Glen James Brown

• Colin’s personal top read of 2024

📅 What’s Coming Up

Our next episode drops Monday 16th June, where we’ll review Eden’s Shore and reveal the winner of the vote.
From then on, we’ll be releasing new episodes every two weeks this season.

💬 We Want to Hear From You!

Tell us what you thought of Eden’s Shore, vote in the poll, or recommend our next book!
Which book would you suggest for each category?

📩 [email protected]
📘 Goodreads
📸 Instagram
🐦 Twitter/X
📘 Facebook

👉 Tap Follow on your favourite platform to stay in the loop and help shape what we read next!

The shortlist has been read, the opinions have been aired, and now it’s time... to rank them.

In this special bonus episode of Bookies’ Favourite, we each reveal our final rankings of the six International Booker Prize 2025 shortlisted books—complete with laughs, debates, and a little chaos, especially as Lucy goes head-to-head with the Bookies' Favourite hivemind 👀📚

We also:

• Discuss our aggregate podcast rating based on all previous reviews

• Break down the bookies’ odds and what they might tell us about tonight’s winner

• Share a few last-minute hopes and predictions before the announcement drops this evening

🎉 Stay tuned:
We’ll be back later this week with a reaction episode once the winner is announced, and to share our plans for what we’ll read next—whether that’s more awards, future shortlists, or award-winning books.

💬 We want to hear from you!
Let us know what prize lists, books, or themes you’d like us to cover going forward. This podcast is a book club, after all—and we want your voice in the conversation.

📘 Facebook: Bookies’ Favourite
📸 Instagram: @bookiesfavouritebookclub
🐦 Twitter/X: @BookiesFavorite
📚 Goodreads: Bookies’ Favourite Bookclub
📧 Email: [email protected]

Thanks for joining us on this International Booker journey—see you soon for the winner reveal!

In this final instalment of our International Booker Prize 2025 shortlist read-through, we’re diving into Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi and published by And Other Stories.

A powerful collection of short stories that explore gender, class, and quiet resistance, Heart Lamp left us with a lot to reflect on—and no shortage of opinions. We also hear the thoughtful response of guest @sazloureads on Instagram, whose take adds another layer to our discussion.

This is the last book on the shortlist—but we’re not done yet...

📢 Coming up tomorrow:
We’ll be releasing a bonus episode with our final rankings, Booker predictions, and some final reflections before the winner is announced on Tuesday evening.

🎉 Later this week:
We’ll be back once more with a reaction episode to the big announcement—did our predictions hit the mark, or did the judges surprise us?

✨ Get involved:

Now’s the time to send in your final rankings, predictions, or thoughts on the shortlist—we’d love to feature your opinions in our wrap-up coverage!

📘 Facebook: Bookies’ Favourite
📸 Instagram: @bookiesfavouritebookclub
🐦 Twitter/X: @BookiesFavorite
📚 Goodreads: Bookies’ Favourite Bookclub
📧 Email: [email protected]

Thanks for reading along with us—we’ll see you tomorrow for the final countdown!

This week on Bookies’ Favourite, we’re setting sail with Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson and published by Small Axes. A poignant dive into the conflicted conscience of a woman haunted by guilt after a migrant boat sinks in the English Channel under her watch, Small Boat has us asking: how much of grief can truly be put into words?

We’re joined by special guest Stacey from @whatstaceyreadnext who shares her thoughts on the book, and we also hear from some of our listeners—thank you to everyone who wrote in!

📖 Next week’s episode is a bumper one!
We’ll be discussing Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, a collection of short stories translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi and published by And Other Stories. It’s the final book on the International Booker 2025 shortlist—and with the winner announced Tuesday, May 20th, we’ll also be:

• Ranking all six books in order of our personal favourites

• Predicting the winner with our take on the bookies’ odds

• Reading out your final rankings and reactions!

✨ Get involved:
Send us your shortlist rankings, predictions, or general Booker thoughts—we’d love to include your takes in our final episode of the season.

📘 Facebook: Bookies’ Favourite
📸 Instagram: @bookiesfavouritebookclub
🐦 Twitter/X: @BookiesFavorite
📚 Goodreads: Bookies’ Favourite Bookclub
📧 Email: [email protected]

Thanks for listening — we’re almost at the finish line!

This week on Bookies’ Favourite, we’re tackling the ambitious and reality-bending On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland and published by Faber.

It’s the first book in a septology, and we’re diving deep into its looping timelines, philosophical undercurrents, and quiet emotional resonance. What’s it like to relive the same day again and again—especially when no one else notices? Is this the boldest book on the shortlist so far?

We’re joined by special guest Imie Kent-Muller, aka @mythicreader, who brings her sharp insight to this cerebral and structurally daring novel.

📖 Next week: We’ll be reading Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson and published by Small Axes. A quiet, lyrical novella about grief, music, and drifting through memory, it’s a haunting journey we can’t wait to discuss. New episode lands Monday, May 12th—read along with us!

✨ Join the club:

Have thoughts on Volume, Boat, or the shortlist in general? We love hearing from listeners—send us your takes and we might feature them in future episodes!

📘 Facebook: Bookies’ Favourite
📸 Instagram: @bookiesfavouritebookclub
🐦 Twitter/X: @BookiesFavorite
📚 Goodreads: Bookies’ Favourite Bookclub
📧 Email: [email protected]

Thanks for listening—and don’t worry, this episode only happens once.

This week on Bookies’ Favourite, we’re diving into A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson and published by Lolli Editions.

⚠️ Content Warning:
This episode includes discussions of mental illness and suicide, major themes within the novel. If you’d prefer to skip, feel free to rejoin us next week.

We unpack the book’s exploration of grief, loneliness, and fragile mental states, and we discuss the divisive writing stylethat sparked some strong reactions. We also share thoughts from multiple listeners—including special guest Ashlee (@afewofchifavoritethings)—who weigh in with their perspectives on this moving, elusive story.

📖 Next up:
We’ll be reading On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland and published by Faber. New episode drops Monday, May 5th!

✨ Get involved:
We love hearing your reactions—whether you loved a book, hated it, or felt somewhere in between. Send us your thoughts and we may feature them in a future episode!

📘 Facebook: Bookies’ Favourite
📸 Instagram: @bookiesfavouritebookclub
🐦 Twitter/X: @BookiesFavorite
📚 Goodreads: Bookies’ Favourite Bookclub
📧 Email: [email protected]

Thanks for being part of the club ❤️

This week on Bookies’ Favourite, we’re diving into the second book on the 2025 International Booker Prize shortlist: Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda and published by Granta Books.

In this episode, we share our thoughts on Kawakami’s surreal, poetic, and quietly haunting novel. From its strange dream logic to its tender moments of grief and connection, we unpack what worked for us—and what left us scratching our heads. As always, we pitch alternative titles and imagine how this unique story could be adapted into other media (animated series?).

📖 Aaron only made it halfway through, so while he’s got some thoughts, the others carry most of the conversation this time around.

Next week, we’ll be reading A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson and published by Lolli Editions. That episode lands Monday, April 28—grab a copy and read along!

✨ We want your opinions!
If you’ve read this book—or any of the shortlist—send us your reactions, reviews, or rants! We’d love to include listener thoughts in future episodes.

📘 Facebook: Bookies’ Favourite
📸 Instagram: @bookiesfavouritebookclub
🐦 Twitter/X: @BookiesFavorite
📚 Goodreads: Bookies’ Favourite Bookclub
📧 Email: [email protected]

From unfinished reads to full-on literary obsessions, we’re all about honest book chat.