The Bookshelf

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The Bookshelf

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. 27 SEPT

    What's the verdict on Sally Rooney's new novel Intermezzo?

    Many people have been awaiting the release of Intermezzo, the latest book by Irish writer Sally Rooney, which explores love, grief, growing up, playing chess, understanding and misunderstanding family...Kate and Cassie begin the show with this one, with additional input from millennial author Madeleine Gray. Also, under the sea with Richard Powers in his new novel Playground; and searching the American South with Gayl Jones in The Unicorn Woman, with guidance from historian Ethan Blue. BOOKS Sally Rooney, Intermezzo, Faber Richard Powers, Playground, Hutchinson Heinemann Gayl Jones, The Unicorn Woman, Virago GUESTS Madeleine Gray, critic and writer whose debut novel, Green Dot, was published in 2023 and is now being adapted for screen. Winner of the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year at the 2024 ABIAs Ethan Blue, Associate Professor of History at the University of W.A., where he specialises in histories of punishment, migration and incarceration.  Author of The Deportation Express: A History of America through Forced Removal https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-deportation-express/hardcover OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry Reginald Rose, Twelve Angry Men Miriam Toews, Women Talking Julia Langbein, American Mermaid Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body  Neil Stephenson, Termination Shock Eleanor Catton. Birnam Wood Zora Neal Hurston, There Eyes are Watching God Langston Hughes, works W.E.B. Du Bois, works Richard Wright, works Ella Baxter, Woo Woo Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet Percival Everett, James Ivan Chaar Lopez, The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, Unsettled Borders: The Militarized Science of Surveillance on Sacred Indigenous Lands Frederick Jamieson, The Political Unconscious Margaret Drabble, works Thomas Hardy, works CREDITS CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan, Simon Branthwaite Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

    55 min
  2. 20 SEPT

    French provocateur Michel Houellebecq + Olga Tokarczuk's health resort horror

    Novels from France, Poland and India – with politics, sanatoriums, automata and horror in the mix too. Kate and Cassie read French writer (and provocateur) Michel Houellebecq’s Annihilation (but can they get to the end of the book? There’s the question); while Polish reader and publicist Anna O’Grady joins them to discuss Nobel Prize winning writer Olga Tokarczuk’s The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story; and academic, novelist and memoirist Kári Gislason joins them to review Tania James’ Loot. BOOKS Michel Houellebecq, Annihilation, Picador Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, Text Tania James, Loot, Harvill Secker   GUESTS Anna O’Grady, Publicity Director, Simon & Schuster. Born in Poland, both her parents and grandparents were connected with the Polish publishing industry Kári Gislason, Professor in Creative Writing & Literary Studies, Queensland University of Technology. His books include The Promise of Iceland, the novel The Sorrow Stone and Saga Land (co-authored with Richard Fidler). His latest is the memoir Running with Pirates OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain Samantha Harvey, Orbital Carys Davis, Clear Jennifer Croft, The Extinction of Irena Rey Debra Dank, We Come With This Place Tegan Bennett Daylight, The Details Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals Karl Over Knausgaard, My Struggle series Anna Jacobson, How to Knit a Human CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans  + Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Harvey O'Sullivan + Simon Branthwaite Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    55 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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