12 episodes

A monthly podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer, who bring a book each to chat about. The one rule: the books have to be more than 2 years old.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Book Chat Pandora Sykes

    • Leisure

A monthly podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer, who bring a book each to chat about. The one rule: the books have to be more than 2 years old.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    11. Stoner & The Unbearable Lightness of Being

    11. Stoner & The Unbearable Lightness of Being

    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 bookchatpod@gmail.com 
    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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    • 57 min
    10. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret & The Bluest Eye

    10. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret & The Bluest Eye

    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 bookchatpod@gmail.com 
    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.

    • 51 min
    9. Augustown & Home Cooking

    9. Augustown & Home Cooking

    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 bookchatpod@gmail.com 
    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.

    • 36 min
    8. Bridget Jones’s Diary & High Fidelity

    8. Bridget Jones’s Diary & High Fidelity

    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

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 56 min
    7. Close Range & A Girl’s Story

    7. Close Range & A Girl’s Story

    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 bookchatpod@gmail.com
    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

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 56 min
    6. When I Hit You & A Visit from the Goon Squad

    6. When I Hit You & A Visit from the Goon Squad

    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 bookchatpod@gmail.com
    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.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 45 min

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