The Booklover Banter Olivia Spooner

Rachel sits down to chat with Freddie Gillies, author of Because All Fades and The Big Bike Trip to discuss his writing process, his journey to publication and the real life inspirations that spark his works.

The team get wildly excited about some crackingly good books they've just read and highlight the ones to get excited about over the next few months. In the nicest possible way (no name and shame) they also share a couple of duds.
Books mentioned in this podcast:
You are Here by David Nicholls
Moon Road by Sarah Leipciger
Table for Two by Amor Towles
You Like it Darker by Stephen King
Long Island by Colm Toibin
Skandar series by A F Steadman
Crookhaven series by J J Arcanjo
Dragon Rider by Taran Matharau
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
Groosham Grange by Anthony Horowitz
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
(We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker)
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Juice by Tim Winton
The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
Playground by Richard Powers
Entitlement by Rumaan Alam
(Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam)
Everest Inc by Will Cockrill
The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour and Jude Dobson
The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

There is a lot of talk in the bookselling world at the moment about book covers so Liv, Rach and Laura thought it was time to jump in and share their thoughts. Plenty to discuss and, well, just a heads up it gets a little heated...

Books mentioned in this podcast:

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

How to Win an Information War by Peter Pomerantsev

The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw

The Crookhaven series by A A Arcanjo

Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton

What I Would Do to You by Georgia Harper

Queen, King, Ace by Olivia Hayfield

Earth and Water by John Boyne

Piglet by Lottie Hazelwood

Because All Fades by Freddie Giles

Honeybee by Craig Silvey

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes

The Women by Kristen Hannah

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

Moon Road by Sarah Leipciger

Jennifer Saints books

Others mentioned in this podcast:

@posiesandpages

@ez.bookdesign

 

This is a fascinating episode you won't want to miss! Liv is excited and honoured to sit down with Lyndsey Fineran, Artistic Director of the Auckland Writers Festival to talk about her role. Listen in to hear what is involved in creating the programme for the festival and how Lyndsey convinces authors, the likes of Ann Patchett, to travel half way around the world to appear on our stage. 

Rachel starts us off by talking about new books she's excited to see on our shelves, then we get stuck into discussing the amazing programme for The Auckland Writer's Festival. We make bold predictions about the Ockham Book Awards and chat about which authors we can't wait to see at the festival, the pros and cons of Q&A's with authors, and plenty more...

 

Rachel talks about the following books:

The Whisperwicks by Jordan Lees

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

Small Hours by Bobby Palmer

The Hunter by Tana French

What I Would Do to You by Georgia Harper

 

We also discuss these fiction finalists in the Ockham Book Awards:

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Lioness by Emily Perkins

A Better Place by Stephen Daisley

Audition by Pip Adam

Other Authors we mention who are coming to the Auckland Writer's Festival:

Ann Patchett

Trent Dalton

Bonnie Garmus

Suzanne Heywood

Freddie Gillies

Airana Ngarewa

Paul Lynch

Olivia Spooner :)

Lauren Keenan

Barbara Sumner

In this fascinating episode Olivia sits down to chat with the legendary Ross Lorimer, a household name in the book industry. We're not even going to tell you what he does and how he got to where he is today because it's so much better for you to hear it from the man himself. If you decide to listen to this episode on your way to work, be warned there's a high chance you might be late as you're not going to want to hit pause on this one.

 

Books and authors mentioned in this episode:

The Lord of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

What colour is your parachute? by Richard Bolles

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Umberto Eco

Mattieu Ricard