Reading Percival Everett's James, Dylin Hardcastle's Language of Limbs and James McBride's The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

Cassie and literary interviewer Michaela Kalowski discussed Percival Everett's James in a conversation first broadcast on 15 March 2024

Kate and Jonathan Green reviewed Dylin Hardcastle's Language of Limbs on 19 July 2024

And James McBride spoke to Kate about The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store for Radio National's 2024 Big Weekend of Books

Books you might have missed: from England, Turkey and within the Australian Tongan community

Cassie and critic Beejay Silcox agree to disagree over David Nicholls' You Are Here – from a conversation first broadcast on 19 April 2024

Kate, Richard Aedy and writer Patrick Carey reviewed Oisín McKenna, Evenings and Weekends on 28 June 2024

Cassie, Beejay Silcox and academic Jioji Ravulo read Winnie Dunn's Dirt Poor Islanders on 19 April 2024

And Cassie spoke to Turkish-British author Elif Shafak ahead of the publication of her novel There Are Rivers in the Sky, on Radio National's 2024 Big Weekend of Books

Time to reassess your TBR pile – To Be Read, that is – ready for 2025. To help, some of the best books and literary discussions from the past year.

Kate and Cassie's review of Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot was first broadcast on 16 August 2024

Kate and Richard Aedy's discussion of Catherine McKinnon's To Sing of War was first broadcast on 28 June 2024

Cassie and Kate first delved into Rodney Hall's Vortex on 22 August 2024

Ready for some Big Books? Ambition, money, philosophy, bodies and history – all explored through history.

Cassie and Tom Wright's review of Andrew O'Hagan's Caledonian Road was first broadcast on 28 March 2024

Kate and Cassie with Polish publicist Anna O'Grady, on Olga Tokarczuk's The Empusium, was first broadcast on 20 September 2024

English writer Francis Spufford spoke to Kate about his novel Cahokia Jazz on Radio National's Big Weekend of Books in June 2024

Catch up on the best books and discussions about them from the last year. A songwriter, a plaintive guitar, time travel and a motel are all in the mix.

Kate and Cassie's review of Willie Vlautin's Horse was originally was originally broadcast on 26 July 2024

Cassie and Jonathan Green's appraisal of Kaliane Bradley's Ministry of Time was originally broadcast on 30 May 2024

Kate, Kate Mildenhall and Beejay Silcox disagreed over Miranda July's All Fours back on 21 June 2024

And bookseller David Gaunt and NZ Festival Director Claire Mabey gave their book recommendations on 26 July 2024

Detectives, tea ladies, journos, psychologists – what's the appeal of the crime series and repeat protagonist? Kate Evans with crime writers Michael Robotham, Tim Ayliffe and Amanda Hampson onstage at the BAD Sydney Crime Festival.

GUESTS

Michael Robotham, internationally bestselling crime writer, whose books include the Joe O'Loughlin series and the Cyrus Haven series. His latest is Storm Child.

Tim Ayliffe, journalist and novelist, whose central character is also a media man. John Bailey is his name – and the latest book in that series is The Wrong Man.

Amanda Hampson is an author of many novels, whose crime novels, set in the 1960s, feature tea ladies. Her latest is The Cryptic Clue.

CRIME SERIES MENTIONED IN THE DISCUSSION

Ian Rankin, Rebus series

Michael Connelly, Bosch and McEvoy series

Anne Cleeves, Vera series

Janet Evanovitch, Stephanie Plum series

Kerry Greenwood, Phryne Fischer series

Stieg Larsson, Lisbeth Salander series

Peter Høeg, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow

Stephen King's Holly Gibney series

Patricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta series

Mick Herron's Slow Horses

Tom Clancy, works

Peter Temple's Jack Irish series

John Le Carre, works

Jack Beaumont, Frenchman series

Walter Mosley, Easy Rawlins series

Adrian McKinty, Sean Duffy series

Sulari Gentill, Rowland Sinclair series

Candice Fox, works

Sujata Massey, Perveen Mistry series

Chris Hammer, works

Candice Fox, works

Don Winslow, works

Presenter: Kate Evans

Producer: Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett

Sound engineers: John Jacobs + Tegan Nicholls

Executive Producer: Rhiannon Brown

The best books of 2024 as selected by Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans, Jason Steger, Lev Grossman and Michaela Kalowski. Keep scrolling for a full (and somewhat idiosyncratic) list.

GUESTS

Jason Steger, literary journalist. Former literary editor at the Age and SMH; and regular guest on ABC TV's Tuesday Book Club.

Lev Grossman, bestselling American novelist and journalist — whose books include The Magicians trilogy and (his latest), The Bright Sword (an Arthurian tale).

Michaela Kalowski, literary interviewer and the curator of Radio National's Big Weekend of Books

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

(listed according to the person who made the recommendation)

Lev Grossman:

Percival Everett, James

Paolo Bacigalupi, Navola

Tana French, The Hunter

Kate Atkinson, Death at the Sign of the Rook

M.T. Anderson, Nicked

Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Third Realm

Nick Harkaway, Karla's Choice

Cassie McCullagh:

Percival Everett, James

Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz

Ceridwen Dovey, Only the Astronauts

Michaela Kalowski's selection (in categories)

Uplifting (subject matter or style):

Ailsa Piper, For Life

Julia Baird, Bright Shining 

International:

Percival Everett, James

Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz 

Australian:

Robbie Arnott, Dusk 

Lexi Freiman, The Book of Ayn

Tim Winton, Juice 

Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War 

James Bradley, Deep Water 

Julian Borger, I Seek a Kind Person 

Books in Translation:

Greek Lessons by Han Kang

Fantasy:

Kelly Link, The Book of Love

Jason Steger

Uplifting/ positive:

Colm Tóibín, Long Island

Melanie Cheng, The Burrow

Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

Other highlights

Nick Harkaway, Karla's Choice

Helen Garner, The Season

Samantha Harvey, Orbital

Heather Taylor Johnson, Little Bit

Kate Evans

Positive/ Joy or beauty:

Niall Williams, Time of the Child

Hanif Kureishi, Shattered

Deborah Levy, the Position of Spoons

International:

Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz

Alan Hollinghurst, Our Evenings

Richard Powers, Playground

In translation:

Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium

Australian:

Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13

Dylin Hardcastle, A Language of Limbs

Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War

Robbie Arnott, Dusk

Inga Simpson, The Thinning

CREDITS

Presenters: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh

Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett

Sound engineers: Craig Tilmouth, Ann Marie Debettencor

Executive Producer: Rhiannon Brown

What do Kate and Cassie make of Will Self’s Elaine, a portrait of a frustrated fifties housewife, based on his mother's own diaries. Plus, The City and its Uncertain Walls, the much anticipated new novel by Haruki Murakami with a dreamy library in a parallel universe at its centre; and Rosalia Aguilar Solace’s The Great Library of Tomorrow, another novel set in an alternate world that pays tribute to libraries.

BOOKS

Will Self, Elaine, Grove Press

Haruki Murakami, The City and its Uncertain Walls (translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel), Harvill Secker

Rosalia Aguilar Solace, The Great Library of Tomorrow, Text

GUESTS

Jon Page, long-time bookseller. General Manager, Dymocks, Sydney CBD store 

C.S. Pacat, writer whose books include the Dark Rise and Captive Prince series, and the graphic novel Fence series. 

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

Stephanie Meyers, Twilight seriesSamantha Harvey, OrbitalAsako Yuzuki, ButterGenevieve Cogman, Invisible LibrariesJorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel; Labyrinths Anne Rice, The Vampire ChroniclesChristine Dwyer Hickey, Our London Lives Colum McCann, Apeirogon; Twist

CREDITS

Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, Beth StewartExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

A focus on literature in translation with special guests Bora Chung and Anton Hur, both of whom are South Korean authors and translators, who translate each others' work, and write outside the system of state-sanctioned literature. Anton translates from Korean into English; Bora translates Russian and Polish works into Korean. In this episode, they describe each others' work, discuss translation, give recommendations, and respond to fellow South Korean writer Han Kang's Nobel Prize in literature.

We also meet Chinese podcaster and translator Yu Shi, who has translated Margaret Atwood and Jeanette Winterson's fiction into Mandarin.

GUESTS

Bora Chung, lecturer, fiction writer and translator from South Korea, who translates from Russian and Polish into Korean. Her books include Cursed Bunny (which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize), Your Utopia and Grocery List

Anton Hur, novelist and translator. He translates from Korean into English. His books are Toward Eternity and No One Told Me Not To. He also translated the global phenomenon I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki by Baek Se-hee

Yu Shi, Chinese podcaster and translator 

Bora Chung and Anton Hur were in Australia as guests of the Korean Cultural Centre

ALL BOOKS MENTIONEDHan Kang, The Vegetarian; Human Acts; Greek Lessons; We Do Not PartFyodor Dostoevsky, worksBruno Jasieński, worksBruno Schulz, worksOlga Tokarczuk, worksStanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, worksWitold Gombrowicz, worksMargaret Atwood, The Testaments; The Handmaid’s TaleJeanette Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only FruitStephen King, worksPaul Auster, worksMishima Yukio, works

CREDITS

• Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh
• Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer: Peter Climpson
• Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

Derided, disparaged and cursed to the heavens, book critics are depicted as literature’s grand villains – as frustrated creators and gleeful wreckers. But what do critics really do? And why are they necessary for a healthy literary ecosystem? James Jiang, Beejay Silcox and Christos Tsiolkas join Kate and Cassie as part of a panel discussion at Canberra Writers' Festival - five Aussie critics - making the case for criticism.