Mostly Books Meets...

On the podcast this week we are speaking to award-winning novelist Kamila Shamsie.

I thought for a long time about how best to introduce a writer as renowned and respected as Kamila. I toyed with the idea of listing off her many accolades and achievements, but each time I read them out loud I found it didn’t capture the experience of reading a Shamsie novel for the first time.

Instead, I’ll tell you that those who know and love her work talk about it in the same way they might recount a chapter from their own lives. Those who have yet to read one of her novels soon find themselves the subject of a swift conversion. Home Fire, with its beautiful and heart-breaking merging of the personal and the political, had a profound effect on me. And so, too, did Kamila’s latest novel, Best of Friends, which is published on 27th September. Best of Friends is an exquisite portrayal of friendship, of coming of age both physically and politically, and an exploration of how even those closest to us can still remain unknowable.

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton @jackwrighton and the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. It is edited by Michael Roberts @michael.glyn.roberts. Best of Friends is published in the UK by Bloomsbury.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 9780007323128

Meatless Days by Sara Suleri ISBN: 9780241342466

Companion Piece by Ali Smith ISBN: 9780241541340

Sterling Karat Gold by Isabel Waidner ISBN: 9781913512040

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan ISBN: 9781472150912

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf ISBN: 9780141183411

Best of Friends BY Kamila Shamsie ISBN: 9781526647702

On this week’s episode we have the amazing R. F. Kuang, the author of the much loved and lauded Poppy War Trilogy. Rebecca is a Marshall Scholar, translator, and has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford and is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.

Rebecca’s new novel, Babel, was published on 1st of September. It is both an exciting edition and challenge to the genre of the Oxford novel, a riveting story, a reflection on language’s power to subjugate and to liberate, and so much more besides.

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the Mostly Books team. It is edited by Michael Roberts. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Babel is published in the UK by @HarperVoyagerUK.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

Animal Farm by George Orwell ISBN: 9780141182704

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 9780356500843

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 9780141185262

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ISBN: 9781784744649

SPQR by Mary Beard ISBN: 9781846683817

Babel by R. F. Kuang ISBN: 9780008501815

It is our great pleasure to welcome to the podcast this week a true legend of crime fiction, the novelist Karin Slaughter.

Karin launched onto the scene in 2001 with her first novel Blindsighted, which marked the beginning of the Grant County series. Since then she has gone on to write more than twenty instant New York Times bestselling novels, including the much-loved Will Trent series which is due to be televised by Disney. Kim’s second-to-none storytelling has caught the eye of many a producer with her 2018 novel Pieces of Her being released as a limited series on Netflix starring Toni Colette.

Karin has built a loyal fanbase with her stories that defy you to put them down and has garnered readers from across the globe. On top of very successful career as a novelist, she is the founder of Save the Libraries a nonprofit organization, which was established to support libraries and library programming. A cause that those of us at Mostly Books and many of our listeners will be passionate about.

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Michael Roberts.

Girl, Forgotten is published in the UK by HarperCollins.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter ISBN: 9780099553052

Encyclopaedia Brown by Donal J. Sobol ISBN: 9780553482973

Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor ISBN: 9780571245789

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury ISBN: 9780571245789

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler ISBN: 9781788168632

Girl, Forgotten by Karin Slaughter ISBN: 9780008303563

Mostly Books Meets is back for another season and our first guest novelist, Kim Sherwood!

Kim’s first novel Testament was published in 2018, and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Award, shortlisted for the Best First Novel Award, and won the Bath Novel Award and the Harper's Bazaar Big Book of the Year.

A James Bond fan since a young age, and described as a “Fleming aficionado of the highest order”. In 2021 it was announced that a new series of double-0 novels penned by Kim had been authorized by the Fleming estate. These new novels mark an exciting departure, as they are set in the world of James Bond but instead turn their focus on a new generation of double-0 agents.

Double or Nothing, the first in Kim’s new Bond series, publishes on the 1st of September. Kim has used her brilliant talent at characterization to expand the dramatis personae of the Bond universe with a story that is sure to attract new fans to the series, as well as delighting its old friends.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Michael Roberts. Double or Nothing is published in the UK by Harper Collins.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

Double or Nothing by Kim Sherwood

The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Famous Five by Enid Blyton

Our guest this week is Sunday Times best-selling author, Cathy Rentzenbrink.

Cathy is an integral part of the publishing world who regularly chairs literary events, runs creative writing courses, and speaks and writes on life, death, love, and literature. She believes that everyone's life would be improved by picking up a pen and is at her happiest when encouraging her students to have the courage to delve into themselves and see the magic that will start to happen on the page.

Her first book, The Last Act of Love, was the heart-breaking account of the tragic loss of her brother and the follow up, A Manual for Heartache is a searingly honest account of how she dealt with her grief.

Cathy’s third book, Dear Reader, is a brilliant account of the books she’s read and the impact they’ve had on her. It’s a perfect trip down memory lane and covers so many books that will be familiar to readers everywhere.

Her first novel, Everyone is Still Alive, was published last year and Cathy’s latest book, Write it All Down, came out in January.

Sarah first met Cathy at the Bookseller’s Association conference which, in normal times, takes place once a year and is a joyful couple of days where booksellers, publishers, authors and others from the trade get together for a celebration of all things books. Cathy has hosted the conference for as long as I have been a bookseller and just makes the event. We are thrilled to be welcoming her to Mostly Books Meets.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter. Write It All Down is published in the UK by @panmacmillan

Books mentioned in this episode include:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis – 9780007323128

Quilt on Fire: The Messy Magic of Midlife by Christie Watson – 9781784744045

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi – 9781784701994

Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books by Cathy Rentzenbrink - 9781509891559

Write It All Down: How to Put Your Life on the Page by Cathy Rentzenbrink – 9781529056228

Everyone Is Still Alive by Cathy Rentzenbrink – 9781474621120

It’s our great pleasure to welcome onto the podcast this week writer, journalist, and academic Sunny Singh.

Sunny was born in Varanasi, India and went on to study in India, the USA, and Spain. Her first book, published in the year 2000, was the prize-winning Nani’s Book of Suicides. She has since gone on to release two other novels as well as works of nonfiction, and her short stories have been published by the likes of Drawbridge and World Literature Today.

In 2016, she co-founded the Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour which seeks to champion the work of British and British resident BAME writers. For two years in a row Mostly Books has been proud to be a Jhalak Prize Champion.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter www.twitter.com/mostlyreading & Instagram www.instagram.com/mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short www.instagram.com/alongstoryshorter. We’re Going to Find the Monster is published in the UK by Puffin Books.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

The Three Fat Men by Yuri Olesha – 9781843914525

Living While Black by Guilaine Kinouani – 9781529109436

Jhalak Prize Children’s and YA Shortlist:

We’re Going to Find the Monster by Malorie Blackman & Dapo Adeola – 9780241401309 (https://bit.ly/3PCMxMy)

Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide – 9781474967532 (https://bit.ly/3wOIdm2)

Musical Truth by Jeffrey Boakye – 9780571366491 (https://bit.ly/3wSNB6m)

The Crossing by Manjeet Mann – 9780241411445 (https://bit.ly/3sYc5tO)

Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths by Maisie Chan – 9781800780019

The Sound of Everything by Rebecca Henry – 9781911427155

This week, we are delighted to be speaking to Eve Chase. Eve is a star on the rise. She has published four novels, the latest of which, The Birdcage, was out in April.

Her third novel, The Glass House, was a Sunday Times bestseller, Richard and Judy pick and sold nearly 200,000 copies across all formats. We’re expecting readers to be just as excited about The Birdcage.

Eve’s novels are perfect for book groups, and The Birdcage is storytelling at its best. With wide-ranging reader appeal, her books have been reviewed in many publications including the New York Times and one of our previous guests, Lisa Jewell, has called her ‘one of the most enthralling novelists of the moment’.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter. The Birdcage is published in the UK by @penguinukbooks.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

The Birdcage – Eve Chase 9781405940986

The Wishing-Chair Collection - Enid Blyton 9781444959512

Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gillian McAllistair 9780241520949

The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition – Anne Frank 9780141315195

This week we are speaking to author, Louise Hare.

Louise is a major author on the rise – she was one of the Observer’s top 10 debuts for 2020, and her first book, This Lovely City was a BBC 2 Between The Covers pick and was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. The book received near-universal acclaim with blanket review coverage. Louise’s profile is only continuing to grow, particularly surrounding the work she does to champion black British authors and writing.

Louise’s new book, Miss Aldridge Regrets is published on 28th April.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter. Miss Aldridge Regrets is published in the UK by HarperCollins.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

Secret Seven by Enid Blyton (9781444913439)

Vine Street by Dominic Nolan (9781472288851)

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (9781860498831)

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare (9780008332617)

Our guests this week are Kitty & Al Tait. Breadsong, the part memoir, part recipe book by Kitty & Al was published on 28th April.

The book tells the story of Kitty’s battle with depression and anxiety, and how baking bread with her Dad changed everything. The result of their journey is the Orange Bakery in Watlington, renowned throughout the local area for their sourdough bread and fresh pastries.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter. Breadsong is published in the UK by Bloomsbury.

The book discussed in this episode is:

Breadsong : How Baking Changed Our Lives by Kitty & Al Tait (9781526631855)

This week we’re speaking to children’s author, Alex Falase-Koya.

Alex was the winner of Spread the Word’s 2019 London Writers Awards for YA/children’s books and his Letter to my Future Self can be found on their website.

Alex was inspired to write his debut novel, ‘Marv and the Mega Robot’ after struggling to find superheroes in fiction who looked like him. By creating Marv, a superhero whose strengths are kindness and imagination, Alex hopes to have created a character to whom all children can relate.

The first two books of Alex’s series on Marv were published on 3rd February.

The podcast is produced and presented by the team at Mostly Books. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop. Edited by Nick Short @alongstoryshorter. Marv and the Mega Robot & Marv and the Dino Attack is published in the UK by Oxford University Press

Books mentioned in this episode include:

The Witches by Roald Dahl – 9780141365473

Marv and the Mega Robot by Alex Falase-Koya – 9780192780423

Marv and the Dino Attack by Alex Falase-Koya – 9780192780447

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – 9780571258093

The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney – 9781782952459

The Breakfast Club Adventures: The Beast Beyond the Fence by Marcus Rashford & Alex Falase-Koya - 9781529076622