This week’s guest is the author, critic and journalist Hannah Beckerman, whose new novel If Only I Could Tell You has dazzled and captivated readers. Hannah is a professional book addict. She’s a critic for the Observer, the FT and the Sunday Express, as well as regularly contributing to Sara Cox’s BBC Radio 2 show. She’s a frequent judge, panel host and festival guest, and she’s spent time with Phillip Roth and Jackie Collins.

BOOKS (Click on titles for more)

Daisy Buchanan - The Sisterhood

Hannah Beckerman - If Only I Could Tell You

Bill Clegg - Did You Ever Have a Family?

Ayelet Gundar-Goshen - Liar

Ayelet Gundar-Goshen - Waking Lions

Enid Blyton - Secret Seven

Enid Blyton - Famous Five

Enid Blyton - St Clare's

Enid Blyton - Malory Towers

Anne Digby - Trebizon

Enid Blyton - Naughtiest Girl in the School

Judy Blume - Forever

Judy Blume - Deenie

Noel Streatfeild - Ballet Shoes

Jackie Collins - Thrill

Jackie Collins - The Santangelos 

Jonathan Coe - Middle England

Ayisha Malik - This Green and Pleasant Land

Noel Streatfeild - Apple Bough

Stephen Moss - Dynasties

Various - Explanatorium of Nature

Ruth Symons - Story of Life: Evolution

Gabrielle Balkan & Sam Brewster - Book of Bones

Allie Esiri & Zanna Goldhawk - A Poem for Every Day of the Year

Fiona Waters & Frann Preston-Gannon - I Am the Seed That Grew the Tree

Rebecca Reid - Perfect Liars

Isabel Sanchez Vegara - Little People Big Dreams: Agatha Christie

Isabel Sanchez Vegara - Little People Big Dreams: Audrey Hepburn

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Alfred Lord Tennyson - Select Poems

Andrew Thomson & Heidi Postlewait - Emergency Sex

Various - Greek Island Hopping

Maggie O’Farrell - This Must Be The Place

Tessa Hadley - Late in the Day

Sigmund Freud - Collected Works

Adam Kay - This Is Going To Hurt

Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook

Barbara Trapido - Brother of the More Famous Jack

Elaine Dundy - Dud Avocado

Doris Lessing - Martha Quest

Sarah Waters - Tipping The Velvet

Phillip Roth - Portnoy’s Complaint

Phillip Roth - American Pastoral

Lisa Halliday - Asymmetry

David Nichols - One Day

David Nichols - Us

Edward St Aubyn - Some Hope

Anita Brookner - Family and Friends

Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho

Angela Carter - The Bloody Chamber

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

In an episode with a slight difference, we meet the multi-million-book bestselling, Marie Kondo of feelings, Sarah Knight. Sarah is the celebrated author of The Life Changing Magic Of Not Giving A F**k, and changed her life by moving to the Dominican Republic. Sadly we could not afford to go to the Dominican Republic so we caught up with Sarah at Foyles bookshop in London, during her UK tour for her brilliant new book Calm The F**k Down. Sarah discusses discovering talent, her love of Doritos eating and the one (ONE!) physical book that she owns.

BOOKS (CLICK ON THE TITLES FOR MORE INFO)

Daisy Buchanan - The Sisterhood

Sarah Knight - The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k

Sarah Knight - Calm the F**k Down

Sarah Knight - Get Your Sh*t Together

Sarah Knight - You Do You

Jessica Knoll - Luckiest Girl Alive

Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn - Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn - Dark Places

Morag Joss - Half Broken Things

John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany

PD Eastman - Go Dog Go

John Berendt - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Jonathan Harr - A Civil Action

Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Erik Larson - Devil in the White City

Emma Morgan - A Love Story for Bewildered Girls

Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility

Louisa May Alcott - Little Women

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

This week we’re in Central London – home of some of the greatest shops in the world and our guest, the multimillion selling superstar novelist Sophie Kinsella. Sophie is the author of 30 books, including novels, children’s books and her hit Shopaholic series, and she’s as prolific a reader as she is a writer. We talked about PG Wodehouse, Jilly Cooper, sex, jokes, bums and why she ended up buying four copies of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch…

BOOKS (CLICK FOR MORE)

Sophie Kinsella - Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic

Sophie Kinsella - I Owe You One

Norman Hunter - The Dribblesome Teapots

Dorothy Edwards - My Naughty Little Sister

Beverly Cleary - Ramona

Nick Hornby - High Fidelity

PG Wodehouse - The Code of the Woosters

PG Wodehouse - Blandings

Sophie Kinsella - Undomesticated Goddess

Jilly Cooper - Rivals

Jilly Cooper - Imogen

Jilly Cooper - Harriet

Jilly Cooper - Riders

Shirley Conran - Lace

Sophie Kinsella - Can You Keep a Secret

Donna Tartt - The Goldfinch

JG Links - Venice For Pleasure

Leila Slimani - Adele

George & Weedon Grossmith - Diary of a Nobody

EM Delafield - Diary of a Provincial Lady

Katherine Heiny - Standard Deviation

Phillip Pullman - Northern Lights

Michael Grant - Gone

EF Benson - Mapp and Lucia

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Joan Didion - Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Sarra Manning - Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp

Lilly Singh - How To Be a Bawse

Dave Eggers - The Circle

Sophie Kinsella - Finding Audrey

Noel Streatfeild - A Vicarage Family

Noel Streatfeild - Ballet Shoes

Noel Streatfeild - White Boots

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

We're venturing deep into East London this week to peruse the library of journalist and author Lauren Bravo. Lauren recently released What Would The Spice Girls Do? a joyous and energetic celebration of girlhood, friendship and pop culture. A wide ranging discussion covered the use of wee in James Joyce, Colin Firth in your pencil case, upsetting Ali Smith and an extraordinarily accurate Psammead impression.

BOOKS (CLICK FOR MORE)

Daisy Buchanan - The Sisterhood

Lauren Bravo - What Would The Spice Girls Do?

Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen - Oh My God What a Complete Aisling

Nora Ephron - Wallflower at the Orgy

Gabrielle Fernie - Lush

Tara Westover - Educated

James Joyce - Ulysses

Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Nancy Mitford - The Pursuit of Love

EF Benson - Mapp and Lucia

Barbara Pym - Excellent Women

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Judy Blume - Forever

Judy Blume - Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself

Judy Blume - Deenie

Viv Albertine - To Throw Away Unopened

Noel Streatfeild - Party Frock

Noel Streatfeild - Ballet Shoes

Noel Streatfeild - The Bell Family

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones’s Diary

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones Edge of Reason

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's Baby

Helen Fielding - Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination

Ruby Ferguson - Jill’s Pony Trek

Jane Shaw - Susan at School

Jane Shaw - Susan Rushes In

Jane Shaw - Susan’s Helping Hand

Lucy Mangan - Bookworm

Enid Blyton - Malory Towers

Anne Digby - First Term at Trebizon

Ana Sampson - She is Fierce

Nina Stibbe - Love Nina

Nina Stibbe - Paradise Lodge

Nina Stibbe - Man at the Helm

Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend

Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens - Bleak House

Various - Norton Anthology of Poetry

Ovid - Metamorphosis

Jilly Cooper - Mount

Geoffrey Chaucer - The Riverside Chaucer

Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible

Barbara Kingsolver - The Lacuna

Donna Tartt - The Little Friend

Olivia Laing - Crudo

Meena Kandasamy - When I Hit You

Ali Smith - How To Be Both

Carson McCullers - The Member of the Wedding

Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Francoise Sagan - Bonjour Tristesse

Toni Morrison - Jazz

Isabel Allende - House of the Spirits

Toni Morrison - Beloved

Heather Havrilesky - How to be a Person in the World

Sloan Crosley - I Was Told There’d be Cake

Helen MacDonald - H is For Hawk

Barbara Trapido - Brother of the More Famous Jack

Barbara Trapido - Frankie and Stankie

Barbara Trapido - Temples of Delight

Barbara Trapido - Juggling

E Nesbit - Five Children and It

E Nesbit - The Story of the Treasure Seekers

George & Weedon Grossmith - Diary of a Nobody

Rebecca Reid - Perfect Liars

Louise Rennison - Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

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

This week we're travelling to sunny Deal on the Kent coast to peruse the shelving of author, travel writer, sports scribe and broadcaster Charlie Connelly. Charlie has written books on a baffling array of subjects including Elvis, walking, weather and World War I. He is perhaps best known for his glorious book about the Shipping Forecast, Attention All Shipping and he has just released a wonderful book about the magic of radio listening, Last Train To Hilversum. We talked to Charlie about cricket, gothic plagiarists, fighting Ben Fogle and loving Margaret Rutherford.

BOOKS (CLICK ON THE TITLES FOR MORE)

Daisy Buchanan - The Sisterhood

Charlie Connelly - Last Train to Hilversum

Charlie Connelly - Attention All Shipping

David Seabrook - All The Devils Are Here

James Joyce - Ulysses

John Betjeman - The Best of Betjeman

Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch

Jan Morris - Fifty Years of Europe: An Album

Jan Morris - Conundrum

Jan Morris - In My Mind’s Eye: A Thought Diary

Jan Morris - The Matter of Wales 

Bill Naughton - The Goalkeeper’s Revenge

Gordon Boshell - Captain Cobwebb

Gordon Bushell - Captain Cobwebb’s Cowboys

Ronnie Barker - Book of Bathing Beauties

Ronnie Barker - Book of Boudoir Beauties

Leonard De Vries - ‘Orrible Murder

Melatu Uche Okorie - This Hostel Life

Margaret Rutherford - How Pleasant To Know Mr Lear

Margaret Rutherford - Autobiography

Maggie Stredder - The Girl With the Glasses

Alan Stafford - Wilson, Keppel and Betty: Too Naked For The Nazis

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen - Oh My God What a Complete Aisling

Various - 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural

Charles Maturin - Melmoth the Wanderer

Sarah Perry - Melmoth

Sarah Perry - The Essex Serpent

Bram Stoker - Dracula

Isak Dinesen - Gothic Tales

Various - Oxford Book of Gothic Tales

Peter Haining - The Shilling Shockers

Matthew Lewis - The Monk

Various - Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

Charlie Connelly - Gilbert: The Last Days of WG Grace

Bella Bathurst - The Lighthouse Stevensons

Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

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

This week, we head to South London to chat to the award winning journalist and author Poorna Bell. Poorna wrote about her story in her acclaimed 2017 memoir, Chase The Rainbow: One Man’s Journey With Mental Health, And The Woman Who Loved Him. She’s quick, clever, extremely funny, a must-follow on Instagram and has a sideboard worthy of envy. 

And as an added bonus for our beloved You're Booked listeners, you can pre-order Daisy Buchanan's new book The Sisterhood from The Margate Bookshop and get 20% off when you use the code BOOKED at checkout.

BOOKS (CLICK ON THE TITLES TO FIND OUT MORE)

Daisy Buchanan - The Sisterhood

Poorna Bell - Chase the Rainbow

Poorna Bell - In Search of Silence

Amrita Narayanan - The Parrots of Desire

Various - The Rig Veda

Haruki Murakami - Men Without Women

Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart

Michael Ende - The Neverending Story

Rosie Blake - The Hygge Holiday

Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic

Dean Windass - Deano

Haruki Murakami - The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

AT Schofield - What a Boy Should Know

Tony Jewell - Reptiles & Amphibians of New Zealand

Mark Leigh & Mike Lepine -Pets With Tourette's

Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita

Sarah J Maas - A Court of Thorns and Roses

David Sedaris - When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Cat Marnell - How To Murder Your Life

Paul Theroux - Fresh-air Fiend

Joan Didion - The Year of Magical Thinking

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

We're venturing to glamorous South East London this week to peruse the shelves of author, columnist and podcaster Caroline O'Donoghue. Described as 'timely and vibrant', Caroline's acclaimed debut novel PromisingYoung Women was released in 2018. She writes a weekly column for The Irish Times and fronts two great podcasts: School for Dumb Women and Sentimental Garbage, focusing on chick-lit. We talked to her about writing sex scenes, tarot, fear and the delights of Louise Mensch.

BOOKS (CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR MORE)

Caroline O'Donoghue - Promising Young Women

Delia Ephron - Hanging Up

Nora Ephron - Scribble Scribble

Daphne Du Maurier - Rebecca

Daphne Du Maurier - Jamaica Inn

Daphne Du Maurier - My Cousin Rachel

Barbara Trapido - Brother of the More Famous Jack

VC Andrews - Flowers in the Attic

VC Andrews - Petals on the Wind

VC Andrews - My Sweet Audrina

Erica Jong - How To Save Your Own Life

Patricia Lockwood - Priestdaddy

Louise Bagshawe -Career Game

Anita Brookner - Hotel Du Lac

Muriel Spark - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen - Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling

Priscilla Presley - Elvis and Me

Christopher Dell - The Occult, Witchcraft and Magic

Stacy Schiff - The Witches: Salem, 1692

John Updike - The Witches of Eastwick

Alice Hoffman - Practical Magic

Jessa Crispin - The Creative Tarot

Michelle Tea - Modern Tarot

Diana Mosley - The Pursuit of Laughter

The Mitfords - Letters Between Six Sisters

Germaine Greer - The Boy

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

This week we travel to the sunny Kent coast to meet writer, reader, podcaster and Brookner fanatic Andy Miller. Andy is the author of The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books Saved My Life and the co-host of the fantastic and highly informative Backlisted podcast. We were allowed VIP access to his exclusive reading shed where we discussed life-changing books, Dan Brown, Peanuts versus Proust and, of course, Anita Brookner.

BOOKS

Andy Miller - The Year of Reading Dangerously

Andy Miller - Tilting at Windmills

Andy Miller- The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society

Hilary Mantel - Beyond Black

Philip Roth - Everyman

Luke Rhinehart - The Dice Man

Mikhail Bulgakov - Master and Margarita

EM Forster - Howards End

George Eliot - Middlemarch

Charles Bukowski - Post Office

Herman Melville - Moby Dick

Iris Murdoch - The Sea The Sea

John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces

Patrick Hamilton - 20,000 Streets Under the Sky

Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 100 Years of Solitude

Cath Carroll - Never Break the Chain

Simon Reynolds - Rip It Up and Start Again

Colin MacInnes - Absolute Beginners

Graham Greene - Brighton Rock

Anita Brookner - A Start in Life

Dan Brown - Da Vinci Code

Lee Child - Killing Floor

Gabrielle Moss - Paperback Crush

Craig Brown - Ma'am Darling

Anita Brookner - Look At Me

Jean Rhys - Tigers Are Better Looking

Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea

Sylvia Townsend Warner - The Corner That Held Them

Nora Lofts - The Town House

Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time

Charles M Schulz - Complete Peanuts

Edward St Aubyn - Patrick Melrose Novels

Anthony Powell - Dance To The Music of Time

Hilary Spurling - Invitation To The Dance

Tove Jansson - Moominvalley in November

Tove Jansson - Moominpappa at Sea

Mary Stewart - Ludo and the Star Horse

Russell Hoban - Riddley Walker

Penelope Fitzgerald - The Bookshop

Penelope Fitzgerald - The Beginning of Spring

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

For our very, very special Christmas extravaganza we visit the Cornwall home of the brilliant Nina Stibbe. Nina is the celebrated author of the beloved memoir Love Nina, plus the novels Paradise Lodge and Man at the Helm. Her collection of festive stories An Almost Perfect Christmas is an ideal gift at any time of year. We talked about funny books, Harry Potter, suspect driving instructors and, of course, Adrian Mole.

BOOKS (Click on the titles to find out more)

Nina Stibbe - Love Nina

Nina Stibbe - Man at the Helm

Nina Stibbe - Paradise Lodge

Nina Stibbe - An Almost Perfect Christmas

Nina Stibbe - Reasons To Be Cheerful

Margaret Drabble - The Millstone

Edna O'Brien - The Country Girls

Tina Brown - The Vanity Fair Diaries

Lissa Evans - Old Baggage

JK Rowling - Harry Potter Complete Collection

Sue Townsend - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

David Sedaris - Calypso

David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day

David Sedaris - Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls

Patrick Gale - Take Nothing With You

Andy Stanton - You're a Bad Man Mr Gum

Jeff Kinney - Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Roger Hargreaves - Mr Men

Lucy Mangan - Bookworm

Julia Donaldson - Room on the Broom

Garth Jennings - The Wildest Cowboy

Lucia Berlin - A Manual For Cleaning Women

George & Weedon Grossmith - Diary of a Nobody

Paul Ewen - Francis Plug - How To Be a Public Author

Caitlin Moran - How To Build a Girl

Jackie Collins - The World is Full of Married Men

Colleen McCullough - The Thorn Birds

Andrew Sean Greer - Less

DM Thomas - The White Hotel

Edward St Aubyn - The Patrick Melrose Novels

Anthony Powell - Dance To The Music of Time

Maria Semple - Where'd You Go Bernadette?

Katherine Heiny - Standard Deviation

Elizabeth McKenzie - The Portable Veblen

Gail Honeyman - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

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

We're heading, once more, to leafy, lovely North London to meet the author, journalist and podcast supremo Elizabeth Day. Elizabeth is the author of four novels and will soon release her first memoir, based on her massively successful podcast How To Fail. While snooping around her (small but perfectly formed) flat, we discussed being nosey, literary heroines, EM Forster related tattoos and learning the facts of life from The Thorn Birds.

BOOKS (Click on the links for more)

Elizabeth Day - The Party

Elizabeth Day - How To Fail

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Cazalet Chronicle

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Sea Change

Elizabeth Jane Howard - After Julius

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Long View

Elizabeth Day - Scissors, Paper, Stone

Judy Blume - Forever

Judy Blume - Deenie

Elizabeth Day - Home Fires

Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway

TC Boyle - The Terranauts

Neel Mukherjee - The Lives of Others

Alasdair Gray - Lanark

Muriel Spark - Momento Mori

Muriel Spark - The Girls of Slender Means

Aldous Huxley - Beyond the Mexique Bay

Aldous Huxley - Two or Three Graces

Tara Westover - Educated

Simon Reid-Henry - Fidel & Che

Sally Field - In Pieces

Sophie Mackintosh - The Water Cure

Lily Allen - My Thoughts Exactly

James O'Brien - How To Be Right

Damian Dibben - Tomorrow

Leila Slimani - Adele

Colleen McCullough - The Thorn Birds

Barbara Taylor Bradford - A Woman of Substance

John Banville - The Sea

Barbara Kingsolver - Unsheltered

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