Name: Sarah

Reading: Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Why did you want to read this? This is the story of a 15 year-old Nigerian girl’s coming of age. It’s about the relationships in her life, set against a military coup. I chose it because it lets you into her world and her steps to independence and it allows you to imagine the society in which she lives. The relationship between her and her deeply religious father, alternating between love and fear, is particularly well drawn. Although I read it over a year ago, it stays in my mind. 

How did you record yourself? My son helped me. He held his phone for me to speak into, in our front room.

Name: Afton

Reading: Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, T Kira Madden

Why did you want to read this? This book has been a huge teacher text for me. It’s incredible at the sentence level--I love the scrappiness of her sounds, consonants especially. I want everyone to listen to and read her. 

How did you record yourself? In the middle of the day, I turned off the heat, which is loud, and sat on my bed with my phone. 

Bonus episode if you'd like to listen to the text read in the original French by Selbi's mum Leila.

Épisode bonus si vous souhaitez écouter le texte lu en français par Leila, la maman de Selbi.

Name: Selbi

Reading: King Kong Theory, Virginie Despentes

Why did you want to read this? I was very moved by this book, it changed the way I think. It's raw and speaks to a woman's condition. It's a feminist manifesto but not the commercial Beyonce T-shirt feminism. I wish I read this book earlier in my life - it is one of those life-changing books, it will not leave you unshaken.

How did you record yourself? I recorded myself sitting at a table where I usually work, in the evening. I've heard that wearing a silk scarf whilst recording yourself reading out loud is a good idea, so I wore one.

Name: Laura

Reading: Potiki, Patricia Grace

Why did you want to read this? Potiki is a novel about indigenous land rights in Aotearoa New Zealand, it follows a Māori community who's ancestral land is under threat. It was published in 1986 but Māori are still facing the same issues as the current government has introduced a bill that limits the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, Aotearoa New Zealand's founding document. Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a gift, and must be protected. 

How did you record yourself? On my laptop in a room with pink walls that looks over the back garden. I am a secondary school teacher and usually have to manage behaviour and circle the classroom while reading aloud, it was nice to sit and be still, to have my mind only on the words. 

Name: Rebecca

Reading: Look at Me, Anita Brookner

Why did you want to read this? Brookner opens 'Look at Me' with a series of close readings of the history of the representation of sickness and madness in art. This has a quality of non-fiction (and reflects Brookner's other life as an art historian) but she also manages to convey so much about her narrator, Frances Hinton. Her isolation, self-estrangement, reticence and rage; her sense of her life's smallness and unfairness. 

How did you record yourself? Sitting in bed with my cat, who I was afraid could be heard purring in the recording. 

Name: Anna

Reading: Lisa Robertson, Cinema of the Present

Why did you want to read this? I chose Cinema of the Present because I'd needed to read it aloud to myself to fully experience it - I love books like that. It's a long poem that moves in and around and through its subjects: time, thought, surfaces, structures and language, and many, many, other things. Evenly spaced lines alternate between italic and Roman type: two sets of almost identical sentences, but ordered differently so that they begin to repeat each other as the book progresses.  The process of reading it aloud animates this typographical structure and brings each image fully into being.

How did you record yourself? I sat on my bed on a wet Sunday morning, phone propped on my knee. 

Name: Ruby

Reading: Quantum Listening, Pauline Oliveros

Why did you want to read this? I aspire to be a good listener. Oliveros's approach to listening is poetic and practical, yet also incredibly complex. The theory of Quantum Listening stretches from the observation of a slight change in pitch to the wide stance of a worldview. It reminds us that listening is an ongoing practice of attuning to one’s environment, caring for each other, and orienting ourselves in a chaotic world. It felt like a gift to dedicate time and attention to this text. May hearing it read aloud allow it to resonate deeply. 

How did you record yourself? I recorded myself at dusk in a friend's apartment that reminds me of a tree house. I read by the warm light of the lamps scattered around the room. Every so often, I would turn around to see that the sun still had yet to set, the sky still a muted blue.

Name: Sophie

Reading: The Hearing Trumpet, Leonora Carrington

Why did you want to read this? I got to know and love this book through teaching it a few years ago, which is a nice way to become familiar with a novel: i.e. with lots of other people. Reading it aloud now reminded me of that time. I find it very, very funny and – if this makes sense – as a book it seems sort of free and unbothered. It has one of my all-time favourite plots, Marian Leatherby is an icon, and I wish Carrington’s writing were as well-known as her visual art.

How did you record yourself? I sat in my bedroom (which is a bit messy) at my partner’s desk, recording with Audacity on my laptop. A couple of years ago, one of my vocal cords was seriously injured – I’ve been having voice therapy to help me get some strength and volume back, particularly for situations in which I need to speak uninterrupted for a block of time. So, recording this was a challenge I opted into, and I felt quite self-conscious while I was reading. But I think it went well!

Name: Freya

Reading: The Emigrants, W.G. Sebald

Why did you want to read this? Lately Sebald’s books have been exactly what I want to read and it felt like it would be really nice to share this one. I think that’s partly what I like so much about the podcast - people sharing what they love, in a gentle way - just putting it out there - and the intimacy of reading aloud.

How did you record yourself? Sitting on a fluffy rug on my bedroom floor with my laptop in front of me, it was a sunny morning.

*Content note: this episode contains mention of death by suicide*