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   Number 1: Summer Reading: The Books Worth Packing This Year, with Kate, Laura and Phil

   Looking for the perfect summer read? Kate is joined by Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to compare recent reads before putting this year's biggest summer books to the test. Inspired by reading lists from The New York Times, The Times, Lit Hub and The Booker Prize, they decide which books are beach reads, suitcase books, and which they'd happily leave behind at the airport. Plus, they reveal the books they're packing for their own holidays. Books discussed Recently readThe Golden Mean — Annabel LyonPlato and the Tyrant — James RommGlorious Exploits — Ferdia LennonThe Game of Kings — Dorothy DunnettThe House of Niccolò series — Dorothy DunnettWe Are Green and Trembling — Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (trans. Robin Myers)Evaluating the picks from the summer reading listsHot Milk — Deborah LevyThe Eighth Life — Nino HaratischwiliA Month in the Country — J. L. CarrWhistler — Ann PatchettThe Things We Never Say — Elizabeth StroutLand — Maggie O'FarrellInstructions for a Heatwave — Maggie O'FarrellJohn of John — Douglas StuartI Want You to Be Happy — Jem CalderThe Director — Daniel KehlmannVilla Coco — Andrew Sean GreerOur holiday recommendationsThe Feast — Margaret KennedyFree Food for Millionaires — Min Jin LeeFamesick — Lena DunhamSwimming Home — Deborah LevyRadiant Star — Ann LeckieThe Balkan Trilogy — Olivia ManningWait for Me — Deborah, Duchess of DevonshireThe Pursuit of Love — Nancy MitfordAlso mentionedPachinko — Min Jin LeeShuggie Bain and Young Mungo — Douglas StuartLess — Andrew Sean GreerTranscription — Ben LernerReading Lolita in Tehran — Azar Nafisi Timecodes 00:00 Welcome 02:44 Phil on The Golden Mean 07:39 Laura on Dorothy Dunnett 11:55 Kate on Green and Trembling 16:54 Beach read game rules 18:20 Booker picks: Hot Milk 19:40 Doorstop epic The Eighth Life 21:46 Classic: A Month Country 23:07 NYT Beach Reads, Whistler by Ann. Patchett 25:33 Elizabeth Strout and American vibes 28:22 Switching to the (UK) Times list 28:29 Times list features 29:03 Maggie O'Farrell debate 30:51 Douglas Stuart pick John of John 33:05 New paperback picks 35:03 Kehlmann masterpiece The Director 38:28 The LitHub list of lists 38:55 Villa Coco verdict 41:44 Get more from the pod on Patreon 43:26 Our personal holiday reads 44:03 Phil recommends The Feast 46:01 Min Jin Lee deep dive 48:18 Lena Dunham Famesick 51:44 Laura's summer stack 53:56 Mitfords and Tana French 01:02:20 Final wrap and farewell See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

   August 07, 2026·1h 4min
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   Number 2: The New Year Reading Reset: Finding fresh inspiration with bibliotherapist Ella Berthoud • #185

   New year, new intentions – but if you're in the northern hemisphere, January can feel less like renewal and more like the darkest, coldest stretch of endless winter. Maybe what you need isn't another resolution. Maybe you just need the right book. Ella Berthoud is an writer and an artist, but most importantly from our point of view a bibliotherapist. She has been prescribing fiction for life's ailments for over a decade. She co-wrote The Novel Cure, a brilliant guide that matches books to every psychological state and is packed with sound recommendations. Who better then to give me some great suggestions for avoiding the January blues. Join Kate and Ella as they talk about the questions that vex every reader: how do we find more time for reading? How do we escape reading slumps? And how can we read more deeply without it feeling like homework? Plus of course we're swapping lots of great book recommendations for January and the year ahead. Listen in for a shot of literary inspiration that might be just what you need. Booklist The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reed Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale Metamorphoses by Ovid Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell The Golden Ass by Apuleius A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter (Jane Degras) Dálvi by Laura Galloway The Artist by Lucy Steeds The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico Things: A Story of the Sixties by Georges Perec Sky Daddy by Kate Folk The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Robin Buss) Find out more about Ella at ellaberthoud.com Find all the books mentioned in this episode in the Book Club Review Bookshop, on Bookshop UK, the online retailer that supports independent bookshops. Patreon Head to Patreon.com/thebookclubreview to join The Book Club Review community for book recommendations, readalongs, book club and, new for 2026, Kate’s Reading Diaries. You can also buy someone gift membership at https://www.patreon.com/thebookclubreview/gift Serious Readers Take advantage of the Serious Readers offer. Head to seriousreaders.com/bcr and use the code BCR at checkout for £150 off any HD light. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

   January 13, 2026·54min
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   Number 3: The Guardian's 100 Best Novels of All Time: A Hot Take, with Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance

   When the Guardian drops a list of the 100 Greatest Novels in English it's time to drop everything to talk about it. Luckily pod-regular guest, journalist Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance, host of the Curious Readers podcast, also had views, and were willing to get together on a Sunday evening to share them. You'll hear our hits, our misses, how many we’ve read, whether we should have read more and much musing on whether a list like this is the way to get people excited about reading. We explore the joys of the sub-lists – the contributor lists – all squirrelled away on a sub-section of the Guardian's website, that arguably provide more excitement and inspiration than the fairly canonical top 100. Which is the best Brontë? Which is the best Austen? Do we age into certain books? If you've read all seven volumes of Proust shouldn't that count for more than one entry? All this and much, much more. Enjoy – this was an absolute delight to make and I hope it makes you smile as much as it did me. Have your say: get in touch on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast or email [email protected], or head to our website for full shownotes. What would be in your top-10? Check out the Patreon for all kinds of extras, from our monthly book club to extra shows and Kate's reading diaries. Find it at patreon.com/thebookclubreview The Guardian’s List of the 100 Greatest Novels published in English, copied below for ease of reference. *underlined – the ones Kate has readMiddlemarchBelovedUlyssesTo the LighthouseIn Search of Lost TimeAnna KareninaWar and PeaceJane EyrePride and PrejudiceMadame BovaryThe Great GatsbyBleak HouseEmmaMrs DallowayMoby-DickNineteen Eighty-FourOne Hundred Years of SolitudePersuasionThe Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, GentlemanWuthering HeightsThe Portrait of a LadyThings Fall ApartMidnight’s ChildrenThe Remains of the DayLolitaDon QuixoteThe TrialThe Brothers KaramazovPale FireFrankensteinThe Prime of Miss Jean BrodieThe God of Small ThingsDavid CopperfieldWolf HallGreat ExpectationsThe Handmaid’s TaleInvisible ManThe Age of InnocenceTheir Eyes Were Watching GodSong of SolomonHeart of DarknessThe Magic MountainHousekeepingGiovanni’s RoomThe Golden NotebookThe LeopardVanity FairThe MetamorphosisA Fine BalanceWide Sargasso SeaMy Brilliant FriendThe Golden BowlThe Transit of VenusOrlandoThe WavesMansfield ParkThe Sound and the FuryDisgraceNever Let Me GoHowards EndThe Rings of SaturnHalf of a Yellow SunWhite TeethThe Good SoldierThe Color PurpleThe Master and MargaritaThe Man Without QualitiesBlood MeridianCrime and PunishmentJude the ObscureKindredOur Mutual FriendAusterlitzNervous ConditionsThe Bluest EyeDraculaThe RainbowA House for Mr BiswasGo Tell It on the MountainRebeccaBuddenbrooksThe End of the AffairA Farewell to ArmsThe Talented Mr RipleyThe VegetarianThe Turn of the ScrewThe Line of BeautyRagtimeThe Left Hand of DarknessJacob’s RoomLife and FateSentimental EducationInvisible CitiesThe Known WorldThe Return of the NativePedro PáramoCatch-22The RoadThe Go-BetweenMy ÁntoniaParticular books we touch on in the showThings Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeUlysses by James JoyceIn Search of Lost Time by Marcel ProustMy Brilliant Friend by Elena FerranteWuthering Heights by Emily BrontëAs I Lay Dying by William FaulknerVillette by Charlotte BrontëOrlando, The Waves and To the Lighthouse by Virginia WoolfOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezMiddlemarch by George EliotPedro Páramo by Juan RulfoRebecca by Daphne du MaurierThe Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di LampedusaNervous Conditions, The Book of Not and This Mournable Body by Tsitsi DangarembgaThe Transit of Venus by Shirley HazzardDon Quixote by Miguel de CervantesThe Magic Mountain by Thomas MannBuddenbrooks by Thomas MannLonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryBlood Meridian by Cormac McCarthyThe Memory Police by Yoko OgawaThe English Understand Wool by Helen DeWittA Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb SalihThe Princess of Clèves by Madame de LafayetteThe Cairo Trilogy by Naguib MahfouzThe Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō TanizakiThe Trial and Metamorphosis by Franz KafkaThe Go-Between by L. P. HartleyMoby-Dick by Herman MelvilleA House for Mr Biswas by V. S. NaipaulThe New Life by Tom CreweMiss Marjoribanks by Mrs OliphantThe Palliser novels by Anthony TrollopeThe Warden by Anthony TrollopeThe Man Without Qualities by Robert MusilThe Known World by Edward P. Jones See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

   July 28, 2026·43min
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   Number 4: Summer Reading: The Debrief, with Kate and Laura

   It’s the end of summer, so Kate and Laura are looking back over their holiday reading, the books they loved, the ones that disappointed them, and the unexpected discoveries that made their reading lists longer rather than shorter. We talk about Alex E. Harrow’s huge fantasy novel The Everlasting, and why it turned out to be a surprisingly divisive read. Kate reports back on her pick from the Booker longlist, The Palm House by Gwendolyn Riley. She's also recently completed The Power Broker, Robert Caro's iconic book on New York master-builder Robert Moses, but was it worth the read? She's also discussing The Silver Book, Olivia Laing's most recent work of fiction. In Pankaj Mishra’s The Romantics, Laura found an interesting book club choice, while Kate's flagging up Vladimir by Julia May Jonas, and while on the campus novel theme she also read Joanna Miller’s The Eights, set in 1920s Oxford. Laura wraps things up with the wonderfully atmospheric The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo. But there’s more as pod-regular Phil Chaffee joins us with two of his favourite summer reads, Sue Prideaux’s Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin and Bret Easton Ellis’s The Shards. As summer comes to an end, we’re also looking ahead to Booker season, with the shortlist just around the corner and plenty more reading on the horizon. Patreon Come and find the pod on Patreon at patreon.com/thebookclubreview Keep up with the pod between shows on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast For all other information and our episode archive find The Book Club Review online at thebookclubreview.co.uk Complete booklist The Power Broker by Robert Caro Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir The Everlasting by Alex E. Harrow The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle Starling House by Alex E. Harrow Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke The Palm House by Gwendolyn Riley Famesick by Lena Dunham My Phantoms by Gwendolyn Riley The Silver Book by Olivia Laing The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing Crudo by Olivia Laing The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon Fathers & Sons by Ivan Turgenev The Heart of the Nhaga by Lee Young-do (Anton Hur) Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinnerman Land by Maggie O’Farrell The Chair (Netflix) Monsters by Claire Dederer Vladimir by Julia May Jonas The Eights by Joanna Miller The Night Tiger and The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo The Digital Critic: Literary Culture Online (Houman Barekat, Robert Barry and David Winters, eds.) When We Talk About Love by Carl Wilson Timecodes for the time-poor 00:00 — Welcome & summer reading 02:00 — What did we actually read this summer? Holiday reading plans, library books and the perennial problem of taking too many books away with you. 04:00 — The Everlasting by Alex E. Harrow Time loops, quests and a very divided reaction. 15:30 — The End of the Power Broker by Robert Caro Kate tackles another Booker longlist book and asks: why is this on the longlist? 20:00 — The Booker longlist pick A frank discussion of Gwendolyn Riley's The Palm House and the pleasures (and pains) of reading for the Booker. 22:20 — The Silver Book by Olivia Laing A surprise for Kate after her mixed reaction to Laing’s Crudo. 27:30 — An accidental book-club adventure Laura's brilliant idea: abandon the overheated book-club meeting and send everyone into Foyles to choose books. 28:40 — The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra A chance discovery — and a Hilary Mantel endorsement that seals the deal. 35:50 — Vladimir by Julia May Jonas Sex, power, academia and the deliciously murky moral territory of a campus novel. 40:00 — The Eights by Joanna Miller Women in academia, 1920s Oxford and coming-of-age just after World War I 42:40 — The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo Mystery, folklore, tigers and colonial Malaysia, Laura's perfect summer read 50:45 — Phil’s summer reading Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux and The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis 54:20 — Booker season begins The shortlist is coming, and summer reading gives way to required reading. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

   September 01, 2026·57min
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   Number 5: The Bestseller Test • Are bestsellers worth the hype? • Episode #186

   What makes a bestseller? Is it the quality of the writing, or just the right book at the right time? This week Kate is joined by co-host Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to find out. Between us we've tackled six of the biggest bestsellers out there – Dan Brown's The Secret of Secrets, Freida McFadden's The Housemaid, Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, Matt Dinnerman's Dungeon Crawler Carl, SenLinYu's Alchemised, and Sarah Adams' In Your Dreams – and we have some opinions. We're sharing our honest experiences of each one: what worked, what didn't, and whether these books truly earned their place on the bestseller lists. But this isn't just a round of verdicts. We're also pooling our recommendations for the bestsellers we genuinely think are worth your time, like The Correspondant by Virginia Evans – because there are some real gems out there among the hype. And as always, we round off with our current and upcoming reads. Press play to find out which bestsellers passed the test – and which ones didn't. Support the pod on Patreon Explore all the benefits of membership. Kate's weekly reading diary is available to free members. Paid tiers include ad-free episodes, extra shows, chat group access and our monthly book club at Patreon.com/thebookclubreview. Booklist You can also find all the books mentioned in The Book Club Review bookshop on Bookshop.org, the online bookstore that supports independent bookshops. The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams Alchemized by SenLinYu Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir The Martian by Andy Weir Nobody's Fool by Harlen Cobden The Correspondant by Virginia Evans The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Robin Buss) Rivals by Jilly Cooper The novels of Stephen King The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger The Smiley books by John Le Carre The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin Ice by Jacek Dukaj (Author) , Ursula Phillips (Translator) The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt I'll Take The Fire by Leïla Slimani (also The Country of Others and Watch US Dance) Lullaby / The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani Nearly Departed by Lucas Oakeley Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

   February 01, 2026·1h 10min
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