Books & Chat: Short Book Reviews & Literary Discussions

A concise Books and Chat Bitesize episode exploring the Gloucester Book Club’s Top Three Books of 2025. A reflective look at the stories, themes, and authors that shaped our reading year.

About the : Books & Chat is a cosy Gloucester Book Club podcast with short reviews and thoughtful conversations for readers who love good stories.

Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet has stayed with me ever since I first read it — a story so tender, so exquisitely imagined, it felt like it settled into my bones. With the new film adaptation about to arrive, it felt like the right moment to bring back this episode I recorded five years ago, when the book had just swept through my life and my book club.

In this short revisit, we talk about the beauty of O’Farrell’s writing, the quiet power of Agnes, and the way love and loss echo through a family. If you’re returning to the story ahead of the film, or discovering it for the first time, I hope this episode offers a gentle way back into that world.

A reflective exploration of Intermezzo and Kairos - the pause that gives the meaning and the moment that matters. In this solo episode, Christina shares insights on how timing and intervals shape our experiences.

Christina sit downs with Ang for a candid conversation about what it means to live on the margins - socially, physically, and politically. From the realities of housing insecurity to the quiet resilience of those navigating systems not build for them, this dialogue blands lived experience with sharp insight and gentle wit.

The non~negotiable superpower! This book, the first of its kind written by a scientific expert, Professor Matthew Walker explores twenty years of cutting-edge research to solve the mystery of why sleep matters.

Looking at creatures from across the animal kingdom as well as major human studies, Why We Sleep delves in to everything from what really happens during REM sleep to how caffeine and alcohol affect sleep and why our sleep patterns change across a lifetime, transforming our appreciation of the extraordinary phenomenon that safeguards our existence.