The Bookshelf

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The Bookshelf Podcast

What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

  1. 30 AUG

    2024 mid-year review

    An overview of the books of the year so far, what’s coming up for the rest of the year, and the 'to be read' book pile of regret as Kate and Cassie confess all with bookseller Jon Page and literary interviewer and editor of The Monthly Michael Williams. BOOKS MENTIONED BY CASSIE Percival Everett, James Ceridwen Dovey, Only the Astronauts Iain Ryan, The Strip Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow  Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything Robbie Arnott, works Tim Winton, Juice BOOKS MENTIONED BY JON PAGE Sarah J. Maas, Court of Thorns series Rebecca Yarros, The Empyrean series Téa Obreht, The Morningside Murray Middleton, No Church in the Wild Garry Disher, works Jane Harper, The Dry Chris Hammer, works Christian White, works Hayley Scrivenor, works Michael Robotham, works Peter Temple, works Barbara Kingsolver, works Haruki Murakami, works Nagi, Recipe Tin Eats cookbooks Jock Serong, Cherrywood Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything Tim Winton, Juice Cormac McCarthy, The Road Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time BOOKS MENTIONED BY KATE Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz Rodney Hall, Vortex Dylin Hardcastle, A Language of Limbs Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13 Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War Andrew O'Hagan, Caledonian Road Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium Louise Erdrich, The Mighty Red James McBride, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store BOOKS MENTIONED BY MICHAEL WILLIAMS Melissa Lucashenko, Edenglassie Tony Birch, Women and Children Kate Grenville, Dolly Maunder Jonathan Lethem, Brooklyn Crime Novel Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers Nam Le, 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem Richard Osman, We Solve Murders series Sally Rooney, Intermezzo Helen Garner, The Season Melanie Cheng, The Burrow   An overview of the books of the year so far, what’s coming up for the rest of the year, and the 'to be read' book pile of regret as Kate and Cassie confess all with bookseller Jon Page and literary interviewer and editor of The Monthly Michael Williams. BOOKS MENTIONED BY CASSIE Percival Everett, James Ceridwen Dovey, Only the Astronauts Iain Ryan, The Strip Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow  Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything Robbie Arnott, Dusk Tim Winton, Juice BOOKS MENTIONED BY JON PAGE Sarah J. Maas, Court of Thorns series Rebecca Yarros, The Empyrean series Jonathan Lethem, Brooklyn Crime Novel Téa Obreht, The Morningside Murray Middleton, No Church in the Wild Garry Disher, works Jane Harper, The Dry Chris Hammer, works Christian White, works Hayley Scrivenor, works Michael Robotham, works Peter Temple, works Barbara Kingsolver, works Haruki Murakami, works Nagi Maehashi, Recipe Tin Eats series Jock Serong, Cherrywood Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything Tim Winton, Juice Cormac McCarthy, The Road Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time BOOKS MENTIONED BY KATE Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz Dylin Hardcastle, A Language of Limbs Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13 Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War Andrew O'Hagan, Caledonian Road Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium Louise Erdrich, The Mighty Red James McBride, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store BOOKS MENTIONED BY MICHAEL WILLIAMS Melissa Lucashenko, Edenglassie Tony Birch, Women and Children Kate Grenville, Restless Dolly Maunder Jonathan Lethem, Brooklyn Crime Novel Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers Nam Le, 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem Richard Osman, We Solve Murders series Sally Rooney, Intermezzo Helen Garner, The Season Melanie Cheng, The Burrow CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Beth Stewart + Emrys Cronin Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    55 min
  2. 26 JUL

    Willy Vlautin's The Horse: drenched in twangy music and heartbreak

    Award-winning U.S. author Willy Vlautin's The Horse is his poignant new novel about the life of a lonely country musician in Nevada and his chance encounter with a half blind horse. Plus, bookseller David Gaunt reviews Ammar Kalia's A Person Is a Prayer, one family's story of migration from Kenya and India to the UK; and Wellington based critic and curator Claire Mabey looks at Laurence Fearnley's At The Grand Glacier Hotel, which follows a stormy family holiday set on New Zealand's South Island. BOOKS Willy Vlautin, The Horse, Faber Ammar Kalia, A Person is a Prayer, Oldcastle Books Laurence Fearnley, At the Grand Glacier Hotel, Penguin GUESTS David Gaunt, co-owner, Gleebooks, Sydney – independent bookshop [and one of the founding board members of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation] Claire Mabey, NZ based books editor and critic; founder of Verb Wellington readers and writers festival, co-curator of the writers program at the Aotearoa Festival of the Arts – and she has just written her first novel for children, The Raven’s Eye Runaways OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Patrick O'Brian, Aubrey–Maturin series Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac Evie Wyld, The Echoes Katherine Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne Sinead Gleeson, Hagstone  CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans  + Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Russell Stapleton Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min
  3. 19 JUL

    Dylin Hardcastle's A Language of Limbs: emotionally true, structurally complex

    Kate Evans and Jonathan Green with guests Pip Williams and Sarah Bailey read Dylin Hardcastle's A Language of Limbs, Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword, Valeria Usala's A Woman in Sardinia and Jean-Baptiste del Amo's The Son of Man. Australian fiction, novels in translation, secrets and violence, cities and regions, queer love and emotional truths, and a hint of fantasy. BOOKS Dylin Hardcastle, A Language of Limbs, Picador Lev Grossman, The Bright Sword, Del Ray Valeria Usala, A Woman in Sardinia (trans from the Italian by Katherine Gregor), Text Jean-Baptiste del Amo, The Son of Man (trans from the French by Frank Wynne), Text GUESTS Pip Williams, writer whose novels include The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho [Adelaide studios] Sarah Bailey, crime writer whose books include The Dark Lake, The Housemate and – her latest, released in February this year – Body of Lies [Melb studios] OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED: Shubnam Khan, The Djinn Waits 100 Years Italo Calvino, If On a Winter's Night a Traveller J P Pomare, Seventeen Years Later Frederick Backman's Beartown Arthuriads (an incomplete list) Thomas Mallory, Le Morte D'Arthur Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy (The Crystal Cave etc) T H White's Once and Future King + series Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Guy Gavriel Kay, Fionavar Tapestry/ The Darkest Road trilogy M K Hume's Merlin Emrys trilogy Victoria Gosling, Bliss and Blunder Sophie Keetch, Morgan is my Name CREDITS • Presenter, Kate Evans + Jonathan Green • Producer, Kate Evans + James Pattison • Sound engineer, Roi Huberman + Simon Branthwaite • Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

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What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

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