The Bookcast Club

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We are delighted to welcome back podcast favourites Kieran (KD Books) and Sarah (Freshly Read Books) to review the Booker shortlist. They discuss their thoughts on each of the shortlisted books with Sarah, and the three of them try to predict what the winner will be. Buckle up and hope you enjoy! Reviews of tangentially-related novels and popular hair dryers included free of charge in this one.

Want more of Kieran?
Youtube | Instagram [@kdbooks]

Want more of Freshly?
Youtube | Instagram [@freshlyreadbooks]

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• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• To make a one-off donation, we have a Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

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For the first time ever, all four of us get together to record an episode! This is a special Q&A episode, where we answer questions sent in by the listeners over social media from the past few weeks. We really liked doing this episode, so if you would like us to make it a regular thing, please let us know!

The questions we answered are listed below, as well as any people or podcasts we mentioned in our answers. 


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Newsletter
Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.


Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• To make a one-off donation, we have a Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

Questions and stuff mentioned  

• Chris' Youtube channel [Chris Bookish Cauldron]
• Serial podcast
• Books & Blankets podcast
• Kieran Evans [@KDBooks on Youtube]
  
  
  

1. What book or series do you wish there was more of? 
   
   
2. If you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
   > Miriam Margolyes talking about meeting Laurence Olivier
   
   
3. Are your bookshelves full of books yet to be read, or all your kept faves? 
   
   
4. Favourite childhood book?
   > Literary Disco episode on Sweet Valley High [#3 Sweet Valley High & Klassics Korner]
   
   
5. Why does Sarah always threaten me with a good time? 
   
   
6. Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck? 
   
   
7. Would like to learn about the publishing industry. Do you have any plans on doing such an episode?
   > Episode with Abigail Mann [#71 Breaking Romantic Tropes]
   > What Page Are You On podcast
   > Book Riot podcast
   
   
8. Apart from yourself, which author would you pick to write your life story? 
   
   
9. Favourite time of day to read? Favourite place to read? 
   
   
10. Which fictional character would your teenage and present day selves most relate to?
    HBO show Looking 
    
    
11. Is there a character that you wish you could be for a day? Or a world you wished you lived in?
    
    
12. Favourite Welsh book reviewer? 
    
    
13. How do you get over a reading slump and episode production freeze?
    > SemiScribbled podcast
    
    
14. Favourite and least favourite thing about doi

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It's a book club episode! Sarah, Chris, and Alice get together to discuss Hanya Yanagihara's controversial novel, A Little Life. Chris and Alice have both read this before and loved it, and Sarah has read it for the first time. Will she agree with their thoughts on the book? The majority of this episode is spoiler-free, but there is a spoiler section in the latter half. You can use the chapter markers to skip around and avoid the spoilers if you haven't read it. [If your podcast app doesn't have chapter markers enabled: the spoiler section is 35:31-46:36!]

 Please note that this book is quite graphic and comes with a long list of content warnings. If you are thinking about reading this book yourself and have questions about the content, please feel free to send us a message on social media or email us (although we do generally think if you're at all worried about it, it's best to avoid this one).

As mentioned in the episode, we are planning to record a Q&A episode in September! If you have a question for any or all of us (Chris, Sarah, Jenny, or Alice), please send us an email or message us on social media!


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Stuff we mentioned 

• Netflix documentary 13TH
• The History Boys 

Books mentioned

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay 
• Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley 
• Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• If you would like to make a one-off donation you can do so on Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

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Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.


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Sarah and Chris go back to one of their favourite topics, fantasy novels! They discuss what they've been reading in the past year since their last fantasy episode, and make some more recommendations, as your TBR is no doubt lacking in recommendations at this point. They also discuss some books about Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses and the Booker longlist and Chris' plans to read or not read it. 

As mentioned in the episode, we are planning to record a Q&A episode in September! If you have a question for any or all of us (Chris, Sarah, Jenny, or Alice), please send us an email or message us on social media!


Get in touch
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Stuff we mentioned 

• Previous fantasy episode [#58 Fantasy for Beginners]
• Chris' interview with Ali Millar 
• Non-fiction episode [#68 Non-Fiction Special with Mercy's Bookish Musings] 
• May bonus epiode [Category Is: Pride Recommendations!], available via Patreon 
• Mercedes Youtube channel [Mercy's Bookish Musings]
• Karen Joy Fowler interview

Books mentioned

• My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout 
• Booker 2022 longlist
• In The Woods by Tana French
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson 
• The Last Days by Ali Millar 
• Leaving the Witness by Amber Scorah
• Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez 
• Educated by Tara Westover 
• A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray
• Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer 
• Lynn Flewelling books 
• The Soldier Son trilogy by Robin Hobb
• Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey 
• Rules of Ascension by David B Coe
• Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 
• The Last Dragonlord by Joanne Bertin

Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• If you would like to make a one-off donation you can do so on Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

Newsletter
Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.


Get in touch
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Support the Show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Sarah and Alice discuss their love for books with a strong sense of place and make some recommendations. They also talk about Sarah's progress in the Booker longlist, and Sarah tries to convince Alice to read The Little Friend.

As mentioned in the end of the episode, we are planning to record a Q&A episode in September! If you have a question for any or all of us (Chris, Sarah, Jenny, or Alice), please send us an email or message us on social media!

Get in touch
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Books mentioned

• Booker longlisted books:
  • Booth
  • Case Study
  • Small Things Like These 
  • Nightcrawling
• How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
• Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton 
• Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
• These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card
• The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
• Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo 
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt 
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 
• The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
• To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara 
• If We Were Villains by ML Rio 
• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 
• The Good People by Hannah Kent 
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 
• Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton 
• Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier 
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 
• A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James 
• The Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson 

Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• If you would like to make a one-off donation you can do so on Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

Newsletter
Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.

Get in touch
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Support the Show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a Text Message.

Today we are delighted to welcome Kate from The Book Club Review podcast to the Bookcast Club. She and Sarah both run book clubs, and they talk through what book clubs mean to them, what makes a good book club book, and make some recommendations for your book club. Links to Book Club Review podcast, and all the books and other things we talked about, can be found below. Thanks for listening!


The Book Club Review podcast
Book Club Review website
Book Club Review episode #109 [Best Book Club Books of 2021]
Instagram | @bookclubreviewpodcast
Twitter | bookclubrvwpod


Other things mentioned
Shawn the Book Maniac (Youtube | Instagram)
Bookcast Club episode with Shawn [#64 My Life in Books with Shawn the Book Maniac]

The Bookstore podcast
Books on the Go podcast


Books mentioned

• "Campus" novels:
  • Real Life by Brandon Taylor
  • The Idiot by Elif Batuman 
  • Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
• "Australian" novels
  • The White Girl by Tony Birch 
  • The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
  • Devotion by Hannah Kent
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
• I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn
• The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies 
• Perfume by Patrick Süskind
• Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• Stories of Your life and Others by Ted Chang
• Tenth of December and Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
• The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
• The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• If you would like to make a one-off donation you can do so on Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

Newsletter
Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.

Get in touch
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Support the Show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Always one of our favourite episodes to record, Jenny, Alice and Chris share their mid-year favourites! From vampires to courgettes, which books have we enjoyed the most in the first half of 2022?

Books mentioned

Love Marriage by Monica Ali
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
The Year of Miracles: Recipes About Love + Grief + Growing Things by Ella Risbridger
Midnight Chicken by Ella Risbridger
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Everyone in this Room Will Someday be Dead by Emily Austen
Taste by Stanley Tucci
We had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets
Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life by Amber Scorah
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• If you would like to make a one-off donation you can do so on Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

Newsletter
Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.

Get in touch
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Support the Show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a Text Message.

Today's episode features a wonderful special guest, Sarah Freshly from the Youtube channel Freshly Read Books. She talks to Sarah (continuing the tradition on this podcast of having as many people called Sarah as possible) about the books in her life that have meant the most to her. A big thank you to Sarah for coming on the pod, and if you're not familiar with her channel already, check it out!


Links to Sarah Freshly
Freshly Read Books on Youtube
One of Sarah's TBR Tackle videos
Instagram | @freshlyreadbooks


Books mentioned 

• Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
• The Princess Diaries and Avalon High by Meg Cabot 
• Animorphs series by K. A. Applegate
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Slaughterhouse-Five, Slapstick, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Circle, The Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers
• D&D Player's Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook)
• Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

Other things mentioned
Kieran's 2022 TBR Tackle challenge
My Brother, My Brother and Me [podcast]
The Adventure Zone [podcast]


Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• If you would like to make a one-off donation you can do so on Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

Newsletter
Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.

Get in touch
Twitter | Instagram | Website | Voice message

Support the Show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a Text Message.

It's a book club episode! We asked you to pick a Women's Prize shortlisted book for us and you chose The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. You'll be pleased to hear we have differing opinions and we agreed it made for a great book club read. We also share our current and recent reads.

Books mentioned
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Cultish by Amanda Montell
Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steven Hassan
Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
We the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner
We had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• If you would like to make a one-off donation you can do so on Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

Newsletter
Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.

Get in touch
Twitter | Instagram | Website | Voice message

Support the Show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a Text Message.

Today we welcome author Abigail Mann to the pod, to discuss the romance genre. Abi shares her honest thoughts on 1 star reviews and how not fitting into a specific genre makes those 1 star reviews unavoidable. Jenny and Abi discuss romantic tropes and then share our favourite books that break them.

Books mentioned
The Lonely Fajita by Abigail Mann
The Sister Surprise by Abigail Mann
The Wedding Crasher by Abigail Mann
Idol by Louise O'Neill
Everyone in This Room Will Someday be Dead by Emily Austin
Who's that Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
First Time for Everything by Henry Fry
Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Other stuff mentioned

Single White Female (film)
Waitress (film)

Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  
• If you would like to make a one-off donation you can do so on Ko-fi.  
• A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.

Newsletter
Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.

Get in touch
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We encourage you to support independent bookshops or libraries. You can find a list of independent bookshops to support on our website, many of which do home delivery.

Support the Show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.