You're Booked

We are beyond honoured and excited to bring you this conversation with the legendary Christina Lamb OBE. Christina is the chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Times and during her illustrious career she's reported from hot spots and war zones including Afghanistan, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and currently Ukraine. She's been named Foreign Correspondent of the Year on five occasions and winner of Europe’s top war reporting prize, the Prix Bayeux. 

She is the bestselling, acclaimed author of 10 books including Our Bodies Their Battlefield, House of Stone, The Africa House, The Sewing Circles of Herat and co-writer of the global phenomenon I Am Malala. Her latest book, The Prince Rupert Hotel for the Homeless, looked at the pandemic response in the UK. Our interview with Christina took place during the Jaipur Literature Festival at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives and covers the joy of discovering new foreign authors, the wonders of poetry, books you can't put down and the importance of literature in a war zone.

Find out about Daisy's Limelight book tour on her Instagram page @TheDaisyBee. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

BOOKS

Christina Lamb - The Prince Rupert Hotel for the Homeless

Christina Lamb - The Africa House

Christina Lamb - The Sewing Circles of Herat

Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb - I am Malala

Christina Lamb - Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women

Dennis Wheatley - The Devil Rides Out

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Brothers Karamazov

Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights

Tove Jansson - Tales From Moominvalley

Various - The Fireside Book

Wisława Szymborska - View With a Grain of Sand

Jonny Steinberg - Winnie and Nelson

Ryszard Kapuściński - The Soccer War

Svetlana Alexievich - The Unwomanly Face of War

Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell To Arms

Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood

Andrey Kurkov - Death and the Peguin

Ann Patchett - The Dutch House

Claire Dederer - Love and Trouble

Virginia Woolf - Orlando

Alexander Pushkin - Eugene Onegin

Nadia Anjuman - Gule Dudi

Farzana Marie (Editor) - Load Poems Like Guns: Women's Poetry from Herat, Afghanistan 

Claire Dederer - Monsters

William Boyd - The Romantic

Peter Frankopan - The Earth Transformed

William Boyd - Any Human Heart

Bonnie Garmus - Lessons in Chemistry

Scholastique Mukasonga - Barefoot Woman

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Our love of Jane Austen should be painfully aware. But this week's guest might put our devotion to shame. The brilliant Andrew Hunter Murray hosts two hit podcasts: No Such Thing as a Fish (Andrew is also a QI Elf) and Page 94: A Private Eye Podcast (Andrew also writes for the magazine). He was also part of the UK's premier (and possibly only) Jane Austen based comedy improv group Austentatious - so his devotion to the beloved author is assured. Andrew is also a bestselling author, his first novel The Last Day, was a Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller, and one of the top 10 fiction debuts of 2020. His new book The Sanctuary has been described as 'A brilliantly clever thriller' by Richard Osman. We talked to Andrew about Douglas Adams, fabulous first editions, the brilliance of Persephone books, rewriting classics, sex and science and, of course, Jane Austen. Find out more about Andrew's picks at our Bookshop.org store.

Find out about Daisy's Limelight book tour on her Instagram page @TheDaisyBee. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

BOOKS

Daisy Buchanan - Limelight

Andrew Hunter Murray - The Sanctuary

Andrew Hunter Murray - The Last Day

John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids

George Orwell - Coming Up For Air

Jane Austen - Emma

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen - Persuasion

Jane Austen - Mansfield Park

Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Wendy Cooling - Puffin Book of Stories for Eight-year-olds

Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

George Eliot - Middlemarch

Charles Dickens - Bleak House

Herman Melville - Moby Dick

Cervantes - Don Quixote

Dorothy Whipple - The Other Day

Dorothy Whipple - High Wages

Dorothy Whipple - Random Commentary

Dorothy Whipple - They Knew Mr Knight

Elizabeth Taylor - Angel

DH Lawrence - Lady's Chatterley's Lover

Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day

Lucy Vine - Seven Exes

Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow

Nora Ephron - Crazy Salad

Douglas Adams - So Long and Thanks For All the Fish

Mary Roach - Stiff

Mary Roach - Bonk

Mary Roach - Animals, Vegetable, Criminal

Evelyn Waugh - Sword of Honour

Evelyn Waugh - Vile Bodies

Evelyn Waugh - Scoop

Evelyn Waugh - Decline and Fall

Amanda Craig - Three Graces

Simon Raven - The Rich Pay Late

Evelyn Waugh - Handful of Dust

Nancy Mitford - The Pursuit of Love

Laurie Colwin - Happy All the Time

Frank Herbert - Dune

PD James - Death Comes to Pemberley

Edith Wharton - House of Mirth

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Now this is a treat! Get ready for a fun, frank and fascinating conversation with the great Balli Kaur Jaswal! Balli is the author of five award-wining, bestselling novels, translated into fifteen languages. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows was picked by Reese Witherspoon for her book club, Sugarbread was a finalist for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize and the 2018 Singapore Literature Prize and her new novel Now You See Us has just been released to international acclaim. We talked to her about formative reading adventures in Russia, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines, stories of female solidarity, the book that made her want to build worlds and the unfortunate consequences of starting your own detective club. 

Find out about Daisy's Limelight book tour on her Instagram page @TheDaisyBee. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

BOOKS

Daisy Buchanan - Limelight

Balli Kaur Jaswal - Now You See Us

Balli Kaur Jaswal - Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

Roald Dahl - The Twits

Roald Dahl - The Witches

Francine Pascal - Sweet Valley Twins

Judy Blume - Forever

Beverly Cleary - Ramona Forever

Beverly Cleary - Fifteen

Laura Ingalls Wilder - Little House on the Prairie

Various - The Bookworm Club

Various - The Bookworm Gang

RL Stein - Goosebumps

Daisy Buchanan - Insatiable

RL Stein - Fear Street

Judith Krantz - Scruples

Shirley Conran - Lace

Samantha Irby - Quietly Hostile

Avni Doshi - Burnt Sugar

Abigail Burdess - Mother's Day

Tayari Jones - Silver Sparrow

Tayari Jones - An American Marriage

Elizabeth Gilbert - City of Girls

Kent Haruf - Plainsong

Coco Mellors - Cleo and Frankenstein

Hanya Yanagihara - A Little Life

Patrick deWitt - French Exit

Ann M. Martin - Babysitter's Club

Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility

Kayla Rae Whitaker - The Animators

Louise Bagshawe - Career Girls

Daisy Buchanan - Careering

Hema Sukumar - Minor Disturbances at Grand Life Apartments

Barbara Kingsolver - Demon Copperhead

Charles Dickens - David Copperfield

Abi Dare - Girl With the Louding Voice

Madhuri Vijay - The Far Field

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We are so excited to welcome one of our absolute heroes to the podcast. It's Josie Long! Josie is an internationally renowned, beloved and multi-award-winning stand-up, podcaster, actor, playwright and radio presence. Her first short story collection, Because I Don't Know What You Mean and What You Don't has just been released. We talked to Josie about favourite short story collections, books to make you laugh on the bus, attempting sainthood, radical texts and trying to get your kids to love the books you love. Daisy will be attending the Queen's Reading Room Festival, look out for exclusive behind the scenes content on her Instagram page @TheDaisyBee. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

BOOKS

Josie Long - Because I Don't Know What You Mean and What You Don't

Raymond Carver - What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Jean Rhys - Collected Short Stories

ZZ Packer - Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Kelly Link - Get in Trouble

Dan Rhodes - Anthropology

Richard Yates - Collected Stories

Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451

John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men

Robin Cooper - Timewaster Letters

Frankie Boyle - Meantime

Shirley Hughes - Sally's Secret

Rumer Godden - The Doll's House

Arnold Lobel - Frog and Toad

Michael Rosen - Book of Very Silly Poems

Jacqueline Wilson - Story of Tracy Beaker

Rumer Godden - Miss Happiness and Miss Flower

Rumer Godden - Little Plum

Barbara Sleigh - Carbonel

Maurice Sendak - Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak - In the Night Kitchen

Maurice Sendak - Outside Over There

Dorothy Whipple - The Other Day

Tyler Feder - Bodies Are Cool

Roald Dahl - The Witches

Virginia Sole Smith - Fat Talk

Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre

Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea

Fern Brady - Strong Female Character

Katherine May - Electricity of Every Living Thing

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's Diary

Elizabeth Smart - By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

Ann Patchett - The Dutch House

Ann Patchett - These Precious Days

Brit Bennet - The Vanishing Half

Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions

Kurt Vonnegut - Slapstick

Kurt Vonnegut - Timequake

Kurt Vonnegut - Jailbird

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5

Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut - Galapagos

Kurt Vonnegut - Man Without a Country

Anne Tyler - Saint Maybe

F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

Kate Pickett & Richard Wilkinson - The Spirit Level

Nesrine Malik - We Need New Stories

Lola Olufemi - Experiments in Imagining Otherwise

Rebecca Solnit - Hope in the Dark

Nathalie Olah - Steal As Much As You Can

Alan Lane - Club on the Edge of Town

James Schneider - Our Bloc

Rob Hopkins - From What Is To What If

Rius - Marx For Beginners

Martin Rowson/Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto

Howard Zinn - People's History of American Empire

Alison Bechdel - Fun Home

Marian Keyes - Rachel's Holiday

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This week we are welcoming legendary TV royalty to You're Booked Towers. It's Steve Jones! Steve is an instantly recognisable face to anyone with a telly, presenting T4 for many years, plus The X Factor USA, Hair, Drop Zone and F1 coverage on Channel 4. Steve has recently released his first novel the very funny Call Time to rave reviews (and as you'll hear, already has books 2 and 3 in the bag). We talked to him about loving Tolkien, having fun with Filth, writing routines, the power of Stephen King and living life as a Librocubicularist.

Daisy will be attending the Queen's Reading Room Festival, look out for exclusive behind the scenes content on her Instagram page @TheDaisyBee. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. For your chance to appear on the podcast, pre-order Daisy's next book Limelight from Bookshop.org. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

BOOKS

Steve Jones - Call Time

Nick Hornby - High Fidelity

JRR Tolkien - The Hobbit

JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings

David Mack - Star Trek: Destiny

Jeff Lindsay - Dexter

Arthur Conan Doyle - Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Agatha Christie - Poirot: The Complete Short Stories

Elizabeth Gilbert - Big Magic

Stephen King - On Writing

Stephen King - Carrie

Stephen King - Christine

Stephen King - Misery

Lauren Bravo - Preloved

Herman Melville - Moby Dick

Charles Dickens - Bleak House

Anthony Shaffer and Robin Hardy - The Wicker Man

Gillian McAllister - Wrong Place Wrong Time

Stephen King - The Institute

Norman Mailer - American Dream

Norman Mailer - Executioner's Song

Katherine Heiny - Games and Rituals

Roald Dahl - Kiss Kiss

Roald Dahl - Tales of the Unexpected

Juno Dawson - Her Majesty's Royal Coven

Holly Bourne - Girl Friends

Stephanie Meyer - Twilight

Irvine Welsh - Filth

Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho

Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City

Gregg Hurwitz - The Last Orphan

Matthew Richardson - The Scarlet Papers

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Dream guest alert! We are very, very excited to welcome the wonderful Jenny Jackson to You're Booked! As well as being the author of smash hit novel Pineapple Street, Jenny has been a book editor for many years working with such YB faves as Katherine Heiny and Helen Fielding. So we had much to talk about. On the agenda is the genius of Laurie Colwin, the joy (and stress) of discovering new authors, some great, secret Katherine Heiny insight and Helen Fielding's paramedic skills (plus the recording is interrupted by a cheese alarm!) This conversation took place at the fabulous Mr B's Emporium bookshop in Bath.

Daisy will be attending the Queen's Reading Room Festival, look out for exclusive behind the scenes content on her Instagram page @TheDaisyBee. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. For your chance to appear on the podcast, pre-order Daisy's next book Limelight from Bookshop.org. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

Jenny Jackson - Pineapple Street

Amanda Boyden - Pretty Little Dirty

Patrick Somerville - The Cradle

Emily St John Mandel - Station Eleven

Lauren Fox - Still Life with Husband

CS Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia

Terry Jones - Erik the Viking

J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit

J. R. R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings

Francine Pascal - Sweet Valley Twins

Ann M. Martin - Babysitters Club

Francine Pascal - Sweet Valley University

Laurie Colwin - Happy All the Time

Laurie Colwin - Home Cooking

Virginia Sole Smith - Fat Talk

Taffy Brodesser-Akner - Fleishman is in Trouble

Paul Auster - The New York Trilogy

Claire Messud - The Emperor's Children

Cecily von Ziegesar - Gossip Girl

Edith Wharton - The House of Mirth

Kevin Kwan - Crazy Rich Asians

Kevin Kwan - China Rich Girlfriend

Anita Brookner - Look at Me

Lee Israel - Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Free Love - Tessa Hadley

Jen Beagin - Big Swiss

Dawn Winter - Sedating Elaine

Katherine Heiny - Games and Rituals

Katherine Heiny - Early Morning Riser

Katherine Heiny - Standard Deviation

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's Diary

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason 

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries

Helen Fielding - Cause Celeb 

Helen Fielding - Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination 

Curtis Sittenfeld - Romantic Comedy

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This week we are delighted to welcome superstar author Caleb Azumah Nelson to the YB airwaves. As I'm sure you're well aware, Caleb's first book Open Water was a massive, bestselling success and won the prestigious Costa First Book award. His follow-up is the highly-anticipated Small Worlds which Candice Carty-Williams calls 'Beautiful, unforgettable and all-consuming'. We talked to Caleb about the joys of the Scholastic book fair, writing routines, the beauty of rereading, love stories in all their forms, favourite poets and inspirational writing advice from Toni Morrison.

Daisy will be attending the JLF Soneva Fushi literary festival and the Queen's Reading Room Festival, look out for exclusive behind the scenes content from both on her Instagram page @TheDaisyBee. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. For your chance to appear on the podcast, pre-order Daisy's next book Limelight from Bookshop.org. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

BOOKS

Daisy Buchanan - Limelight

Caleb Azumah Nelson - Open Water

Caleb Azumah Nelson - Small Worlds

Malorie Blackman - Noughts and Crosses

EM Forster - A Room With a View

Bryan Washington - Memorial

Deborah Levy - Hot Milk

Elizabeth Strout - My Name is Lucy Barton

Danez Smith - Homie

James Baldwin - If Beale Street Could Talk

Toni Morrison - Jazz

Katie Kitamura - Intimacies

Donatella Di Pietrantonio - A Girl Returned

Andrew Sean Greer - Less

Eve Babitz - Slow Times Fast Company

Toni Morrison - The Source of Self Regard

Kayo Chingonyi - Kumukanda

Ann Patchett - These Precious Days

C Pam Zhang - Land of Milk and Honey

Jessica George - Maame

Zadie Smith - NW

Zadie Smith - Swing Time

Candice Carty-Williams - People Person

Candice Carty-Williams - Queenie

Victoria Adukwei Bulley - Quiet

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We can't think of a better way to kick off a new series than a fabulously fun and illuminating chat with one of our favourite authors: Mhairi McFarlane! Mhairi has been mentioned frequently on the podcast since we began and she is the beloved author of Mad About You, You Had Me At Hello, Here’s Looking At You, It’s Not Me It’s You, Last Night, Who’s That Girl and her latest Between Us. We talked to her about illicit uses of Judy Blume's Forever, formatively reading Fay Weldon and Gloria Steinem, the social media life of Jane Austen and the highs and lows of holiday reading.

Daisy will be attending the JLF Soneva Fushi literary festival and the Queen's Reading Room Festival, look out for exclusive behind the scenes content from both on her Instagram page @TheDaisyBee. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. For your chance to appear on the podcast, pre-order Daisy's next book Limelight from Bookshop.org. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

BOOKS

Daisy Buchanan - Limelight

Mhairi McFarlane- Between Us

CS Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia

Fay Weldon - The Life and Loves of a She-Devil

Gloria Steinem - Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions

Judy Blume - Forever

Judy Blume - Deenie

Judy Blume - Are You There God, It's Me Margaret

Glenn Savan - White Palace

Roald Dahl - Fantastic Mr Fox

Roald Dahl - Matilda

Rachel Ingalls - No Love Lost

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen - Persuasion

Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's Diary

David Nicholls - Sweet Sorrow

Taylor Jenkins Reid - Malibu Rising 

David Nicholls - One Day

David Nicholls - The Understudy

Liane Moriarty - Apples Never Fall

Lisa Jewell - The Family Upstairs

Lisa Jewell - None of This is True

Lisa Jewell - Ralph's Party

Steig Larsson - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Dan Brown - Da Vinci Code

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Book lovers everywhere, you are in for a treat! It's the brilliant, global sensation Emily Henry! Emily is the New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read, as well as her latest, soon-to-be blockbuster: Happy Place. We talked to her about libraries as her Narnia, books as a curse (in a good way), reading crushes, and a deep dive into literary astrology. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. For your chance to appear on the podcast, pre-order Daisy's next book Limelight from Bookshop.org. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

BOOKS

Emily Henry - Happy Place

Emily Henry - Book Lovers

Emily Henry - Beach Read

CS Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia

Lois Lowry - The Giver

Lois Lowry - Anastasia Krupnik

E. L. Konigsburg - From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler 

Cecsa Major - Maybe Next Time

Austin Siegemund-Broka and Emily Wibberley - The Roughest Draft

Jasmine Guillory - By the Book

Katherine Applegate - Anamorphs

Sally Rooney - Normal People

Ann M. Martin - Babysitters Club

Hanya Yanagihara - A Little Life

Mhairi McFarlane - Just Last Night

Michael Cragg - Reach for the Stars

Carol Ann Duffy - Valentine

Leigh Bardugo - Shadow and Bone

Lauren Weisberger - Devil Wears Prada

Sarra Manning - Unsticky

Carson McCullers - Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Kirsten Miller - The Change

Catherine Steadman - The Family Game

Kate Alice Marshall - What Lies in the Woods

Kate Elizabeth Russell - My Dark Vanessa

Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights

Mhairi McFarlane - Here's Looking at You

Holly Bourne - Girlfriends

Kennedy Ryan - Before I Let Go

Lauren Kung Jessen - Lunar Love

Daisy Buchanan - Careering

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This week we are incredibly excited to bring you a writing legend and, dare we say, international treasure to the podcast. It's Cecelia Ahern! Cecelia is the author of 19 books, that have sold 25 million copies in 30 languages, including PS I Love You, Where Rainbows End, The Time of My Life, How To Fall in Love, The Year I Met You, Flawed, Perfect, Lyrebird, ROAR, Postscript and Freckles. Her latest is the eagerly anticipated In a Thousand Different Ways. We talked to her about crime favourites, books that feel like a hug, perfect gift books and enormous turnips. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack HERE. For your chance to appear on the podcast, pre-order Daisy's next book Limelight from Bookshop.org. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to: FurtherReading.Substack.com.

BOOKS

Cecelia Ahern - PS I love you

Cecelia Ahern - In a Thousand Different Ways

Ann M. Martin - Babysitters Club

Francine Pascal - Sweet Valley Twins

Francine Pascal - Sweet Valley High 

Enid Blyton - Famous Five

Cecelia Ahern - Flawed 

Cecelia Ahern - Perfect

Francine Pascal - Sweet Valley University

Marita Conlon-McKenna - Under the Hawthorn Tree

Steven Levenkron - Best Little Girl in the World

Enid Blyton - Magic Faraway Tree

James Redfield - Celestine Prophecy

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Charlie Mackesy - The Boy The Mole The Fox and The Horse

Adam Mansbach - Go the F*** to Sleep

Julia Donaldson - The Gruffalo

BJ Novak - Book With No Pictures

Vera Southgate - The Enormous Turnip

Helen Cresswell - The Piemakers

Alexander McCall Smith - The Perfect Hamburger

Andrew Kaufman - The Tiny Wife

Andrew Kaufman - Born Weird

Andrew Kaufman - Ticking Heart

Andrew Kaufman - All My Friends are Superheroes

James Acaster - Perfect Sound Whatever

Karin Slaughter - Blindsighted

Lee Child - Killing Floor

Jane Casey - The Burning

Caroline Corcoran - What Happened on Floor 34

Rupi Kaur - The Sun and Her Flowers

Rupi Kaur - Milk and Honey

Anne Frank - Diary of a Young Girl

Nina Stibbe - One Day I Shall Astonish the World

Curtis Sittenfeld - Romantic Comedy

Audrey Niffenegger - Time Travellers Wife

Cesca Major - Maybe Next Time

Gabrielle Zevin - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Claire Douglas - The Girls That Disappeared

Ciara Geraghty - Queen Bee

Toshikazu Kawaguchi - Before the Coffee Gets Cold

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