The Booklover Banter Olivia Spooner
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- Arts
Enter the wonderful world of books - booksellers and passionate readers Olivia, Rachel and Laura give a behind the scenes glimpse into the life of a bookseller and offer reading recommendations and more. They'll also be interviewing authors, publishers, fellow booksellers and a host of other people working in the exciting world of books.
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Stonking good reads of 2024 so far (and a couple of duds)
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 -
We judge books by their covers
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
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Special Guest: An interview with Lyndsey Fineran, Artistic Director of the Auckland Writers Festival
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.
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The team talk about The Auckland Writer's Festival and more...
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 -
A book industry legend - Ross Lorimer
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 -
Books on our retirement shelves
Today booksellers Olivia, Rachel and Laura discuss the ones that got away. Prepare to be shocked when we reveal the books we know we should have read, the books our customers assume we have read, the books we really really want to read one day. These are the books we have on our metaphorical (and literal) retirement shelves waiting for the day they can be savoured and enjoyed. Or maybe we'll have to get to them earlier...
Books mentioned in this episode:
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
All the Light we Cannot See and Clou Cuckoo Land by Antony Doerr
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Cutting for Stone and A Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
The Seven Sister series by Lucinda Riley
The Overstory and Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell
The Disposed and Earth Sea trilogy by Ursula Le Guin
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
The Searcher and The Hunter by Tana French
The Secret History and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Tom Lake, Bel Canto and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
All books by JP Pomare
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Anna Karenina and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Middlemarch by George Elliot
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Phew!