Episodes
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A bittersweet episode of Book Chat has Pandora and Bobby discussing two fittingly bittersweet books: Stoner by John Williams and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Also, “some news”, a hearty goodbye, and a look back on some of our Book Chat faves from episodes past.
You can get in touch [email protected]
Books/articles mentioned:
Stoner and Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr
Emily, Bella, Harriet, Octavia, Prudence and Imogen by Jilly Cooper
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
One Day by David Nicholls
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
The Greatest American Novel You’ve Never Heard Of by Tim Kreider for The New Yorker – https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-greatest-american-novel-youve-never-heard-of
Stoner: the must-read novel of 2013 by Julian Barnes for The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/13/stoner-john-williams-julian-barnes
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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 Blume
The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Tar Baby and Paradise by Toni Morrison
Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin
First Love and My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary Mantel
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Books for episode 10:
Stoner by John Williams
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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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 Miller
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
The Pisces and Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà
Good Material and Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
The Bread The Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Midnight Chicken by Ella Risbridger
Takeaway by Angela Hui
PRE-ORDER SMALL HOURS by Bobby Palmer
Augustown 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 Yorker
Scalding oil, racist prank calls and endless ‘lid duty’: growing up in a Chinese restaurant by Angela Hui for The Guardian
Find out more about the ShelterBox Book Club
Books for episode 10:
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume
Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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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 Fielding
High Fidelity, Fever Pitch and About a Boy by Nick Hornby
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
A Life Of One’s Own by Joanna Biggs
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
One Day and Us by David Nicholls
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
Books for episode 9:
Augustown by Kei Miller
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
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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]
Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes
Books/articles mentioned:
Close Range and The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
A Girl’s Story, The Years, A Man’s Place, A Woman’s Story, Happening, Getting Lost and Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Ordinary Human Failings and Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan
Different Seasons by Stephen King
Stoner and Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
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Episode 6 takes on one little known book and one very, very well-known book. Pandora finally reads A Visit from the Goon Squad and falls in love with Jennifer Egan's entire canon, while Bobby has mixed feelings about one of Pandora's absolute favourite books of recent times, When I Hit You, about a woman's violent marriage to a communist professor in South India.
You can get in touch [email protected]
Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes
Books/articles mentioned:
When I Hit You, The Gypsy Goddess and Exquisite Cadavers by Meena Kandasamy
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Emerald City, Look At Me and The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood
Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis
Open Throat by Henry Hoke
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee
Jennifer Egan on Radio 4 Book Club
Stephanie Sy-Quia reviews Meena Kandasamy for LARB
Books for episode 7:
Close Range by Annie Proulx
A Girl’s Story by Annie Ernaux
Please note, we will be taking a seasonal break for June, and will be back on July 1st.
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Welcome to episode 5! On the menu today is Memorial by Byran Washington, which just slips over our '2 years old' threshold - the hype is arguably still hyping - and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, which was written 30 years ago and yet still, the hype hypes (StudioCanal just released a sparkly new version of the film.)
We discuss Memorial's literary take on the 'meet the parents' romcom, the 'traumedy' genre, and why Mitsuko is one of the best characters ever written; and why The Virgin Suicides' big themes - adolescent mental health, the male gaze, the American Dream - still feel as prescient today.
You can get in touch [email protected]
Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes
Books/articles mentioned:
Memorial by Bryan Washington
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Memorial review by Maria Marchinkoski for The Harvard Review
Memorial review by Tash Aw for The TLS
Memorial review by Ron Charles for The Washington Post
Jeffrey Eugenides interview at The Strand bookstore
Does The Virgin Suicides still hold up 25 years later? By Emily Temple for LitHub
Pre-order Isaac and the Egg in paperback
Books for episode 6:
When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
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For Episode 4 of Book Chat, we travel back just a decade or so, to Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and David Szalay's short stories in a novel, All That Man Is.
We discuss Mohsin Hamid's ability to condense big ideas - what makes a fundamentalist? What biases are you bringing to the story? - into readable prose (and his other magical novels like Exit West) and David Szalay's attempt to condense modern masculinity from teen to OAP, as it roves Europe - in one book.
You can get in touch [email protected]
Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes
Books/articles mentioned:
All That Man Is and London and the South-East by David Szalay
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Exit West and The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid
Games and Rituals and Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis
If on a winter’s night a traveller by Italo Calvino
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto
‘All That Man Is’, by David Szalay, review by Christopher Tayler for the Financial Times – https://www.ft.com/content/fe2db1c4-f797-11e5-803c-d27c7117d132
'All That Man Is,' and a Lot He Is Not, in David Szalay's View, by Dwight Garner for The New York Times – https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/books/review-all-that-man-is-and-a-lot-he-is-not-in-david-szalays-view.html
I Pledge Allegiance, by Karen Olsson for The New York Times – https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/books/review/Olsson.t.html
Clip attributions:
David Szalay on Radio 4 Bookclub, 2019
Mohsin Hamid on Radio 4 Bookclub, 2011
Subscribe to Books + Bits: https://pandorasykes.substack.com/
Our books for Ep 5:
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Memorial by Bryan Washington
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It's episode 3 of Book Chat! And this month we are travelling hundreds of years back, to a book Pandora's always wanted to read (Orlando, by Virginia Woolf) and one of Bobby's all-time favourites (Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.) Last episode, Pandora groaned at the prospect of Wuthering Heights, which she read - and loathed - for GCSE. So has she changed her mind? We discuss the two books and also the culture around the two authors: the upper-class, sexually liberal art collective, the Bloomsbury group, which Virginia Woolf was part of, and 'the Bronte myth' which has become part of the Wuthering Heights lore. How were the books received at the time - and do they stand up as modern reads?
Other books/ articles mentioned:
You Be Mother, by Meg Mason
Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
Mrs Dalloway, Jacob's Room, A Room of One's Own, The Waves and To The Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
Terrible literary wigs that I have known and loved, by Maddie Rodriquez for Book Riot https://bookriot.com/terrible-literary-wigs-i-have-known-and-loved/
Who's Virginia Woolf afraid of? by Stephen Unwin for Byline Times https://bylinetimes.com/2022/12/22/whos-virginia-woolf-afraid-of/
Emily, 2022 film https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.985aca68-2553-4b7e-83de-1b6465a3a8e4?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb
Orlando, a play directed by Michael Grandage, on now at The Garrick
Our books for Episode 4 are:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid
All That Man Is, by David Szalay
You can get in touch [email protected]
Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Welcome back to Book Chat, a new monthly books podcast brought to you by novelist Bobby Palmer and journalist Pandora Sykes, which does what it says on the tin: we each bring one book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. NB: this is a meaty book chat, not a book review show, so if you have not yet read the books, there will be spoilers.
For our second episode, Pandora brings White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000) and Bobby, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (2016, trans. 2019). Both books were huge bestsellers and launched each woman as a "literary sensation". We discuss this tag as well as the books themselves: our favourite bits, how they've aged, and what we'd change.
Other books/ articles mentioned:
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
Darling by India Knight
On Beauty, NW, Intimations, Swing Time and Grand Union by Zadie Smith
Life Ceremony and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
White Teeth seemed fresh and optimistic in 2000 - how does it read now? by Sam Jordison for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/jul/14/white-teeth-2000-how-does-it-read-now-zadie-smith
Generation Why? by Zadie Smith for The New York Review of Books https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2010/11/25/generation-why/
In Defence of Fiction, by Zadie Smith for The New York Review of Books https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/10/24/zadie-smith-in-defense-of-fiction/
Zadie Smith interview: On Shame, Rage and Writing, for the Louisiana channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LREBOwjrrw
For Japanese novelist Sayaka Murata, odd is the new normal, by Motoko Rich for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/books/japanese-novelist-sayaka-murata-convenience-store-woman.html
The future of sex lives in us all, by Sayaka Murata for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/opinion/future-sex-society.html
A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
Darling by India Knight
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
White Noise by Don DeLillo
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Luster by Raven Leilani
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
On Beauty, NW, Intimations, Swing Time and Grand Union by Zadie Smith
Earthlings and Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata
You can get in touch [email protected].
Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Welcome to Book Chat! A new monthly books podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer, which does what it says on the tin: we each bring one book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. For our inaugural episode, Bobby has chosen Tin Man by Sarah Winman, and Pandora has chosen Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin. So join us for a meaty book chat and beware for those who have not read the books: there will be spoilers.
Other books mentioned:
The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan
The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman
When God Was A Rabbit and Still Life by Sarah Winman
Further Tales of The City, Babycakes and Michael Tolliver Lives, by Armistead Maupin
Clip attributions:
Sarah Winman on Writer’s Bone podcast, 2018
Armistead Maupin on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, 2007
Ian McKellan reads Letter to Mama for Letters Live, 2017
You can get in touch with us at [email protected]
Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Welcome to Book Chat, a new monthly books podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer which does what it says on the tin: we each bring a book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. First episode dropping 1 Dec.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
