Book Chat

We bring two books both published in 1970 to the table. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by “the poet laureate of puberty” Judy Blume, and The Bluest Eye, by the legendary Toni Morrison. You can get in touch [email protected] Books/articles mentioned:Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Forever and Deenie by Judy BlumeThe Bluest Eye, Beloved, Tar Baby and Paradise by Toni MorrisonMona of the Manor by Armistead MaupinFirst Love and My Phantoms by Gwendoline RileyFever Dream by Samanta SchweblinEmpire of Pain by Patrick Radden KeefeThe Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary MantelDemon Copperhead by Barbara KingsolverBooks for episode 10:Stoner by John WilliamsThe Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan KunderaSound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora SykesHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After last month’s crowd-pleasers, Bobby and Pandora sink their teeth into two very different, equally meaty books. In Augustown by Kei Miller, a “dismal little valley” in Jamaica becomes a boiling pot of tension when a young boy’s dreadlocks are cut off. And in Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin, the boiling pots are a little more literal – and Pandora shares an all-timer of a kitchen horror story.You can get in touch [email protected] Books/articles mentioned:Augustown by Kei MillerHome Cooking by Laurie ColwinThe Pisces and Milk Fed by Melissa BroderWhen I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene SolàGood Material and Everything I Know About Love by Dolly AldertonWhen We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd BanwoBig Fish by Daniel WallaceLife of Pi by Yann MartelTrespasses by Louise KennedyHome Fire by Kamila ShamsieThe Bread The Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-AgostiniHeartburn by Nora EphronMidnight Chicken by Ella RisbridgerTakeaway by Angela HuiPRE-ORDER SMALL HOURS by Bobby PalmerAugustown by Kei Miller Review by Natasha Tripney for The Observer“Augustown”: A Novel of the Sacred and the Profane in Jamaica by Laura Miller for The New YorkerScalding oil, racist prank calls and endless ‘lid duty’: growing up in a Chinese restaurant by Angela Hui for The GuardianFind out more about the ShelterBox Book ClubBooks for episode 10:The Bluest Eye by Toni MorrisonAre You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. by Judy BlumeSound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora SykesHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a bumper episode 8, with Pandora and Bobby tackling two million-copy-bestselling, much-loved-movie-inspiring titans of the nineties. In Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, Pandora finds a surprisingly feminist heroine who’s no less funny 25 years on. And in Nick Hornby’s beloved High Fidelity, Bobby meets his match in a perpetually depressed man-boy who needs to love himself before anyone else can love him back.Books/articles mentioned:Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen FieldingHigh Fidelity, Fever Pitch and About a Boy by Nick HornbyOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia MarquezThe Master and Margarita by Mikhail BulgakovA Life Of One’s Own by Joanna BiggsShark Heart by Emily HabeckMen Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John GrayQueenie by Candice Carty-WilliamsMe Before You by Jojo MoyesOne Day and Us by David NichollsLess by Andrew Sean GreerHeartburn by Nora EphronTales of the City by Armistead MaupinMating in Captivity by Esther PerelBooks for episode 9:Augustown by Kei MillerHome Cooking by Laurie Colwin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Book Chat is back, and episode 7 pits a Pulitzer-winning author against a Nobel-winning author. But not really: in the battle of the Annies whose name ends in ‘X’, both Bobby and Pandora are winners. Discussing Close Range by Annie Proulx, Bobby feels the need to make apologies for the unapologetic bleakness of rural Wyoming – while Pandora is transported back to the excruciating experience of Catholic boarding school girlhood in Annie Ernaux’s A Girl’s Story.You can get in touch [email protected] by Joel Grove and production by Pandora SykesBooks/articles mentioned:Close Range and The Shipping News by Annie ProulxA Girl’s Story, The Years, A Man’s Place, A Woman’s Story, Happening, Getting Lost and Simple Passion by Annie ErnauxThe Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle ZevinOrdinary Human Failings and Acts of Desperation by Megan NolanDifferent Seasons by Stephen KingStoner and Butcher’s Crossing by John WilliamsThe Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.