Name: Larissa

Reading: Eros the Bittersweet, Anne Carson

Why did you want to read this? sappho is my favourite poet and anne carson looks at her writing in such a beautiful way. it is such a beautiful way of thinking and writing about poetry. it also talks about love and desire, which are themes i deeply care about.

How did you record yourself? sat on bed, the sun shining on my legs, with the laptop on my lap.

Name: Bettina

Reading: The Lying Life of Adults, Elena Ferrante

Why did you want to read this? I loved Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, and this is Ferrante’s most recent book, set in Naples again. The book allows you to inhabit the inner turmoil of adolescent Giovanna who enters the lying life of adults... I revel in the idea that Ferrante’s prose feels totally uncensored.

Name: Sarah

Reading: Death Comes to Pemberley, P.D. James

Why did you want to read this? I was given this book as a present from my Mum - the joy at unwrapping a continuation of one of the most beloved stories of all time AND with a detective twist?! The perfect story for anyone who watched the BBC dramatisation of Pride & Prejudice so many times when it came out as a teenager (and probably far too many times since) they could recite most of the show line for line - and loves a Poirot/Dalgliesh etc novel.

How did you record yourself? At home in my new office/yoga space at Heligan Mill in Cornwall. Where the floor slopes unreasonably, the walls and most of the floorboards are painted white, and you can see a tropical woodland garden from the window. Seated on a high stool at my standing height desk, I read from a hardback copy direct into my mac book pro.

Name: Monica

Reading: Agua Viva, Clarice Lispector

Why did you want to read this? Because I love Clarice and the cryptic power of her introspective, impressionistic worlds! Her novels and their inhabitants are always so bold & strange. I think she’s a writer who is hyperconscious of language, always searching within it, determined to reconcile it with reality and vice versa. Of her works, this search feels most urgent in Água Viva, and I wanted to feel and share some of this fragmented searching by reading it out loud.

How did you record yourself? At my desk at home in London, with a tea and warm water next to me. I also propped up an Ursula Le Guin book that I’m currently reading, with the author photo facing me, as I was told I would sound better if I read as though speaking to someone.

Name: Emily

Reading: The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald 

Why did you want to read this? I was loaned Rings of Saturn on a trip to Norway. At that time, I had never been truly alone in a foreign country. As I was walking along the shore of Sydspissen, Tromsø coming to terms with the loneliness and isolation I felt, The Rings of Saturn proved a curious companion. It combines two of my favourite things; travel and rambling meditations on seemingly unrelated things. It's a book that feeds my curiosity, is thought provoking, poignant and bewildering at times. Essentially, a jumble of things that reflect the jumbled state of my emotions in early 2014 and late 2020. 

How did you record yourself? In my very patient boyfriend's makeshift studio in our spare room.

Name: Zanna

Reading: How to Eat, Nigella Lawson

Why did you want to read this? I wanted to read this, because I love how Nigella talks about her love for food. You so rarely hear people talking about the joy of actually eating, and I love how simple that idea is. I also thought it might be a fun thing to read, and that if I get any of the reading wrong, I can pretend it's pronounced that way, like 'microwahveh'.

How did you record yourself? I recorded myself in a music studio, using some quite complicated technical recording gear and absolutely no idea how to use any of it, but it was very fun (mostly due to the patience of the owner of said studio and some very good instructions).

Name: Elizabeth 

Reading: The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy 

Why did you want to read this? I love Roy’s tidal, circular writing, and the textures of her eccentric characters. This was brought out vividly when reading – you might hear me stumble over some of her dizzying, alliterative sentences. When I first read the novel, I was a teenager drawn by the John Berger epigraph, and I remember being spellbound at her use of structure: the overlapping of multiple seasons, memories, people, and breathless monsoon days. I had never read anything like it, and have not since.  

How did you record yourself? I was lucky to get access to a small recording studio – so it was a weirdly VIP experience! I was cocooned from the outside world save for getting water from the small kitchen – where like Roy’s characters I was met with the lives of small creatures, could hear birds making nests in the old roof.

Name: Julie

Reading: The Waves, Virginia Woolf

Why did you want to read this? I chose to read this as I love the sea in literature, as I do in my own life. It always feels a blank canvas on which to project so many thoughts and metaphors. As well as being mysterious and beautiful, Virginia Woolf’s writing is extraordinary to read but not always easy. In the opening to The Waves I am astonished by how she enters the minds of the children and describes their inner worlds and imaginings. And she conjures up the garden, sea, woods and school room on a summer’s day.

How did you record yourself? I recorded myself in a comfortable chair looking out onto plants and flowers. I used my phone and found myself aware of every background noise like the clock ticking and next door’s dog barking!

Name: Isabella

Reading: Les Liaisons dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Why did you want to read this? I wanted to record this for the pure delicious wickedness of having these words in my mouth. In these last months, I have read so many letter-exchanges: Nin/Miller, Jonker/Brink, Acker/Wark, Bachmann/Celan, Camus/Casares, Bowen/Ritchie, Vita/Violet/Virginia, Kafka to Milena and Shklovsky's Zoo, and I've found great solace in reading how other people write to their distant and impossible loves. But they don't quite match the dubious thrills of a book that was itself condemned by a criminal court...

How did you record yourself? I recorded this in sections over several weeks, as it was almost impossible to get time where some sort of noisy activity was not taking place. I recorded it in my studio, with my dog for company, thinking about my own correspondence.

Name: Fiona

Reading: Breath of the Sun, Isaac R. Fellman  

Why did you want to read this? I love the depth of world-building in this book, and the satisfying way it’s spooled out throughout the story, both by the narrator and interjecting footnotes and edits from others. It’s about trying to climb an unknowably tall mountain that reaches into space, and science, and faith, and the complex, intense relationships that the narrator has with the people around her, alive and dead. It’s one of my favourite fantasy novels. 

How did you record yourself? Sitting in my kitchen/living room with my laptop. I used my headset from work, since the microphone is (slightly) better.