The Book Club Review The Book Club Review

Exploring literary worlds beyond fiction: a dive into non-fiction
 
Join Kate, as she ventures to South London to visit Backstory, a unique indie bookstore founded by former journalist Tom Rowley. Rowley shares his journey from journalism to opening a bookshop, the challenges and joys of running a bookstore, the importance of community engagement, and launching the second issue of the Backstory Magazine. 
 
We then turn our attention to non-fiction, pulling out some favourites, both backlist and new releases. As Tom says, 'I just read. I want good stories, I don't care whether they're true or not'
 
00:40 A visit to south London's indie bookshop Backstory, and why Kate's name is on the wall
 
01:53 From journalism to bookshop owner: Tom's lockdown dream comes true
 
04:25 Embracing the community: the transition from market stall to bookshop
 
09:26 Launching Backstory Magazine: a new chapter in storytelling
 
14:54 Exploring non-fiction: feel the fear and read it anyway
 
17:49 Just what is deep backlist? Tom's first recommendation is My War Gone By, I Miss it So by Anthony Lloyd (September Publishing)
 
20:18 Kate recommends Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston (Penguin)
 
22:46 Tom's next pick: Maurice and Marilyn: A Whale, A Shipwreck, A Love Story by Sophie Elmhurst (Penguin)
 
25:52 Kate pulls out The Wager by David Grann (Simon & Schuster) (and we also talk about Devil in the White City by Erik Larson [Penguin])
 
29:08 Tom recommends The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson (Penguin)
 
31:15 Great minds think alike: Kate and Tom both recommend The Moth and the Mountain by Ed Caesar (Penguin), author and now DJ!
 
35:32 An aside from Kate about The Possessed by Elif Batuman (Granta)
 
37:17 Towards the end of the episode we reach 'peak Tom', with Little Englanders by Alwyn Turner (Profile)
 
41:17 Book club reads: Red Memory by Tania Branigan (Faber) and Close to Home by Michael Magee (Penguin)
 
42:25 Tom's book of the summer: The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin)
 
44:18 List of books, how to get support the pod and get extras via our Patreon account and details of our upcoming episode in which Phil and Laura join Kate to talk about books that make us laugh
 
Notes
Visit Backstory online at www.backstory.london
 

So Many Damn Books podcast creator and host Christoper Hermelin joins Kate to swap book recommendations and discuss the magic of book club, recent book discoveries and bookish pet peeves.
EPISODE BOOK LIST
The Eyes & The Impossible by Dave Eggers
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
McSweeney’s magazine, including The Panorama issue
How I Won A Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto
Non-Fiction by Julie Myerson
Butter by Asako Yuzuki (Polly Barton, trans.)
Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai (Polly Barton, trans.)
Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton
The Extinction of Irena Ray by Jennifer Croft
James by Percival Everett, and we also mentioned Erasure and The Trees
Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schultz by Luca Debus and Francesco Mateuzzi
NOTES
Join the club and support us on Patreon
Follow The Book Club Review on Instagram and Threads @bookclubreviewpodcast
 

Two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and the passionate search for social and sexual freedom in late 19th-century London. Publishers Penguin call The New Life by Tom Crewe ‘A brilliant and captivating debut, in the tradition of Alan Hollinghurst and Colm Tóibín' but what did our book club make of it? Kate is reporting back, with regular guest Philip Chaffee joining from New York. We'll be catching up on the discussion as well as bringing you our take on recent reads FAKE ACCOUNTS by Lauren Oyler and NORTH WOODS by Daniel Mason, as well as our recommendations for books inspired by Crewe's novel.
Booklist
Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler
The Smiley Novels by John Le Carre
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Maurice by E. M. Forster
Alec by William di Canzio
Young Bloomsbury by Nino Strachey
Blackouts by Justin Torres
Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant
The Ladies Lindores by Margaret Oliphant
Tom Crewe's booklist on bookshop.org.uk
Podcast episode on Young Bloomsbury
The audiobook of The New Life is read by Freddie Fox and published by Penguin Audio, available wherever you get your audiobooks
Keep up with us between shows. Follow us on Instagram or Threads @bookclubreviewpodcast, browse our website for our full archive, or drop us a line at thebookclubreview@gmail.com
Want the deep dive? All the details of our Patreon extras and how to sign up here.
Thanks for listening, happy reading, happy book clubbing

What did our podcast book club make of Mild Vertigo, Japanese author Mieko Kanai's 1997 novel, recently translated into English by Polly Barton. A 'modernist masterpiece' written in sentences that go on for pages with hardly any paragraph breaks might not seem like an obvious book club winner; listen in to find out if we were won over.
To discuss it Kate is joined by Yuki Tejima, also known as @booknerdtokyo, and Shawn Mooney, aka Shawn the Book Maniac. Listen in for their thoughts on Mild Vertigo, their current reads and our book recommendations for anyone wanting the inside track on great Japanese fiction.
Book list
A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata (trans. Juliet Winters Carpenter) 
Home Reading Service by Fabio Morábito (trans. Curtis Bauer)
Woman Running in the Mountains by Yūko Tsushima (trans. Geraldine Harcourt)
Also Territory of Light and Child of Fortune by Yoko Tsutshima
Grass for my Pillow by Sayiichi Maruya (trans. Dennis Keene)
The Little House by Kyoto Nakajima (trans. Ginny Tapley Takamori)
There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuo Tsumura (trans. Polly Barton)
Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton
Porn: An Oral History by Polly Barton
Butter by Asako Yuzuki (trans. Polly Barton)
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Support the show and get Kate's weekly book-recommendations email, access to our book spreadsheets, connect with fellow readers and join our book club: find all the details on our Patreon page.
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Find full shownotes and our episode archive at our website thebookclubreview.co.uk

Join me (Kate) and Laura as we go through our bookstacks and discuss our recent reads. Find out what why Laura can’t put down The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Meanwhile I’ve discovered Mrs Miniver, a comfort read from the 1930s that still has a message for us today, Laura’s made a discovery of her own – that there’s more to Anita Brookner than Hotel du Lac, with her 1988 novel The Latecomers. We go from one good book club read to another with The Fraud by Zadie Smith, and Laura reports in from the recent backlist past with How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang. I take a detour through a ring of enchanted toadstools with Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, and Laura confesses to having spent a weekend lost in the pages of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. She's only interested in the dragons, mind.
Books mentioned
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
The Latecomers by Anita Brookner
The Fraud by Zadie Smith (UK paperback out in June)
How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang
Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
UK listeners can find all the books listed above at our Bookshop.org.uk bookshop, if you purchase them there you'll be supporting independent bookshops and your favourite indie podcasters.
Find out all the details of what we're offering on our Patreon here, including a weekly book recmomendations newsletter from Kate, occasional extra bits and bobs plus access to our pod book spreadsheets, and at the higher tier you can join our bookclub and talk books with Kate in person once a month.
And come and find Kate on Instagram or Threads, or drop us a line at thebookclubreview@gmail.com and let us know your thoughts on the books discussed here anytime.

We’ve put our 2023 reading lists behind us, and now it's time to look ahead to 2024. Who better to guide us through all the new titles coming our way than Chrissy Ryan, owner of North London’s buzziest bookshop and social space, Bookbar.
New books by favourite authors, a non-fiction page-turner that will have you hooked, a high-concept potential blockbuster and a follow-up novel from the author of a debut that got people talking, we’ve got something for everyone.
Not to mention our tips and strategies for how to avoid feeling overwhelmed by that TBR.
Listen via the media player above or your preferred podcast player with this podfollow link.
Books mentioned You are Here by David Nicholls (April)
All that Glitters by Orlando Whitfield (May)
Some Trick by Helen DeWitt
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Glass Houses (May), and Voyeur by Francesca Reece
England is Mine by Nicholas Padamsee (April)
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (out in paperback May 2024)
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Fire Weather by John Vaillant
Not the End of the World by Dr Hannah Ritchie
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman (March)
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Come and Get It by Kiley Reid (and we also mentioned Such a Fun Age)
Notes Find out what we're up to and support the show on Patreon.
The 10 Best New Novelists for 2024, The Observer
Who is Still in the Metaverse by Paul Murray for New York Magazine