A books podcast made by readers
Welcome to The Book Club Review, the independent podcast about the books that get people talking, hosted by Kate and Laura. From literary prize shortlists to book club favourites we’re always on the hunt for those books that provoke conversations, the ones we can’t wait to share, the ones perfect for book club. With our cast of regular and special guests, we promise you honest opinions and lively debate. As featured in Vogue, Stylist, the iPaper, Waitrose Weekend and BBC Radio 5 Live. Listen via your favourite podcast player or browse our archive for back episodes full of book recommendations. If you want to find your way to some really good books, there’s no better place to start. Wondering if we’ve covered one of your favourites? Type the title into the search tab to find out.
Just out, listen to our most recent episode
Lucas Oakeley joins Kate to discuss Nearly Departed and literary love stories with complexity over happy endings. Book recommendations, The Boys Book Club, and Valentine’s menu ideas – everything you need for the perfect literary Valentine’s Day weekend. Listen via the media player or head to the episode page for full shownotes.
What makes a bestseller? Is it the quality of the writing, or just the right book at the right time? This week Kate is joined by co-host Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to find out. Listen here or head to the episode page for full shownotes.
New Year, new intentions. Find the right book with Bibliotherapist Ella Berthoud. Listen via the media player below or head to the episode page for the booklist and full shownotes.
We’re celebrating the end of the year with a look back over our favourite reads of 2025. With Phil Chaffee and Sarah Oliver. Listen via the media player below or head to the episode page for the booklist and full shownotes.
Explore this year’s Booker Prize shortlist on episode #182 of the Book Club Review! Hosts Kate and Laura are joined by contributors Phil Chaffee and Martin Vovk to discuss and debate the six shortlisted novels, plus hear our live reaction to the winner’s announcement. Head to the episode page for the booklist and shownotes.
Keep up with the pod between episodes
Reviews, recommendations and more.
@mark.a.bowles, author of ALL MY PRECIOUS MADNESS, our Patreon book club pick this month, joined me to talk about the quiet power of fiction. Watch the full interview on YouTube - link in the bio
@galley_beggar_press @spiraclehq
#literaryfiction #authorinterview #bookstagram #contemporaryfiction #indiepress
📚 Kate Recommends: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (vols 1–8) by Beth Brower.
These are utterly delightful diaries set in the late-19th century following Emma, a young woman navigating London society whilst trying to overcome an education comprising only embroidery and homemaking. Emma’s social world is livened up by a hot poetry loving vicar, a Roman ghost, an aloof duke, a brooding photographer, and the best part? Watching Emma build her own library, one precious book at a time. I’ve been mildly obsessed with this series for over a year - they’ve been self-published until now under Brower’s own Rhysden Press imprint, but Bloomsbury just picked them up and I genuinely think they’re going to be huge. Are you a fellow fan? Let me know in the comments. Imperterritus!
#emmamlion #unselectedjournals #bookclubreviewpodcast @bloomsburypublishing
Just out on Patreon - link in bio • Australian podcast Books on the Go is a favourite listen of mine and I’m always happy to catch up with Anna Baillie Karas on one of her flying visits to London. Join us as we swap notes over Arundhati’s Roy’s incredible memoir MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME and consider a few other favourite memoirs by writers including JOYRIDE by Susan Orlean and getting inspired by Amitava Kumar’s THE BLUE BOOK and Orhan Pamuk’s MEMORIES OF DISTANT MOUNTAINS. We’re also looking ahead to forthcoming titles we can’t wait to read inspired by the books we heard about at the @faberbooks Spring Showcase. Everything to brighten up a rainy British weekend.
Booklist
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Luminous Solution by Charlotte Wood
Joyride by Susan Orlean
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Goodbye To All That edited by Sari Botton (essay collection)
Memories of Distant Mountains by Orhan Pamuk
The Blue Book by Amitava Kumar
My Beloved Life by Amitava Kumar
Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar
The Mother is Restless and She Doesn’t Know Why by Gemma Parker
At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell
Look What You Made Me Do by John Lanchester
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
I Want You To Be Happy by Jem Calder
The Anthropologists by Aysegül Savas
Kiss, Marry, Kill by Yemi Dipeolu
Advocado Baby by John Burningham
Father Christmas by Raymond Biggs
Said the Dead by Doireann ni Ghriofa
The Newer World by Sebastian Barry
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Departure(s) by Julian Barnes
NEW EPISODE • Nearly Departed, Love, Loss and Literary Fiction, with @lucasoakeley • Link in bio
Romance and recommendations, with Lucas Oakeley, author of Nearly Departed @bedfordsq.publishers and co-founder of @boys.book.club
Book recommendations, food, cocktails, and conversation. Listen via the link in the bio, or wherever you get your pods.
#bookspodcast #nearlydeparted #romcombooks #boysbookclub #thebookclubreview @bedfordsq.publishers @lucasoakeley
NEW EPISODE • Nearly Departed, Love, Loss and Literary Fiction, with @lucasoakeley • Link in bio
As listeners will know, we love a good romance novel with a guaranteed happy ending. But what about literary fiction where love takes centre stage, but the reward is complexity rather than certainty? Recorded on location at London’s iconic Housmans bookshop, I’m joined by Lucas Oakeley, author of Nearly Departed - a novel that brilliantly combines rom-com tropes with real emotional depth. It’s the story of Joel, whose girlfriend Beth dies but doesn’t quite leave. She made him promise to find new love within three years, and now she’s back as a ghost to keep an eye on him.
We talk about how grief and humour can sit side by side in fiction, we swap recommendations for love stories that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page - think Kazuo Ishiguro, David Nicholls, and yes, Wuthering Heights.
Plus, Lucas shares his go-to Valentine’s recipe - a slow-simmered Sunday sauce - and tells us about The Boys Book Club, the organization he’s co-founded to get more men reading and talking about fiction.
Books, food, cocktails, and conversation. Everything you need for a literary Valentine’s weekend. Listen via the link in the bio, or wherever you get your pods.
#bookspodcast #nearlydeparted #romcombooks #boysbookclub #thebookclubreview @bedfordsq.publishers @lucasoakeley
This week’s Reading Diaries • Out now, free to read on Patreon - link in the bio • Reasons to read Heated Rivalry, the sauna master, The Blue Book by Amitava Kumar, Ludwig vs. The Count of Monte Cristo, does a canapé taste better when it has been handed to you at the Faber Books Spring Showcase?, Project Hail Mary audiobook, Doireann ní Ghriofa, and The Mother is Restless by Gemma Parker
New episode for Patreon subscribers • One of the great joys of having subscribers on Patreon is that some of them are also bookshop owners!
In this episode we’re travelling to Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland with Helene Heaney of Elk Books, an independent bookshop that opened just six months ago.
Helene made the leap from lifelong reader to bookshop owner, and we talk about what it really takes to turn that dream into reality: the scary moments, the joyful ones, and the books she’s hand-selling to everyone who walks through the door.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to open a bookshop - or you just love hearing about people who follow their passion - this conversation is for you.
Head to Patreon to listen now (link in bio) 📚
#bookshop #indiebookshop #newbusiness #bookpodcast #patreon northernireland
This week’s Reading Diaries • The Secret of Secrets, cafe curtains, the Prague sex museum, the pleasures of a lobster pot, the Giant Irish Elk, Big Kiss, Bye-Bye, how to spell ‘evaporate’ and an October release I’m excited about.
More recent episodes
Kate and Laura swap notes on their Autumn reading, while gearing up to dive into the Booker Prize shortlist. Listen via the media player below or head to the episode page for full shownotes and a transcript.
Kate and Laura dive into two recent book club reads, Universality by Natasha Brown and Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O’Donnell. Did they make for good book club books? Plus recent reads and we hear from a book club with a brilliant twist. Listen via the media player below or head to the episode page for full shownotes and a transcript.
Kate and Joseph Dance discuss a favourite topic among literary aficionados, books that explore the world of books and reading. Listen via the media player below or head to the episode page for full shownotes and a transcript.
Kate and Laura talk books in Seattle, including recent reads and bookshop favourites. Also featured, literary cocktails. Listen via the media player below or head to the episode page for full shownotes and a transcript.
Join Kate in New York as she drinks cocktails and chats books with Christopher Hermelin of So Many Damn Books and Drew Broussard of The Lit Hub Podcast. Listen via the media player below or head to the episode page for full shownotes and a transcript.
Inspired by the recent Apple adaptation of Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, we’re diving in to all things book to TV and film. Find out our favourites, plus we hear from Philippa Donovan, literary scout, who gives us the inside track on what it takes for a book to succeed on the screen. Listen via the media player below or head to the episode page for full shownotes and a transcript.
Daisy Buchanan joins Kate to explore the healing power of books and reading to inspire, comfort and fortify – and generally bring us joy Listen here or head to the episode page for full show notes.
With New Year’s resolutions still in mind it’s the perfect time to step into a world of philosophical musings and practical wisdom with Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals is his latest book designed as a four-week mental retreat, promising to help readers lead a ‘saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life’. He joins Kate to discuss it. Listen here or head to the episode page for full show notes.
Join Kate, Sarah, Phil and Laura as they consider the NYT’s Best Books of the 21st Century list, and come up with a Book Club Review Top 20 picking up on the ones they think were overlooked. Listen in to find out if they’ve picked any of your favourites. Listen here or head to the episode page for full show notes.
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Discussion, debate, even a little dispute
Every month we bring you a new episode. That could be Book Club where we chat about the book read most recently by one of our book clubs. An interview with a book club, bookshop or book lover. Or Bookshelf, an episode dedicated to the books we’re reading outside of book club – the ones we get to pick and choose.