The Book Club Review

W!ZARD Studios
W!ZARD Studios
  • 4.5 (129)
  • Books
  • Updated Biweekly

Discussion, debate, even a little dispute – expect it all on The Book Club Review. Join host Kate and her guests as they explore contemporary and classic titles. From hyped new releases to word-of-mouth backlist tips, books are put to the book club test – do they live up to our expectations? Listen in for thoughtful insights, lively opinions and inspiration for your next great read.

  1. 4d ago

    George Saunders' Vigil: The Book Club Debate

    George Saunders is back with Vigil, his first novel since Lincoln in the Bardo. In this episode, Kate is joined by fellow book podcasters Jenny King and Sarah Kemp from The Bookcast Club to discuss it Given his back catalogue, does Vigil live up to the high expectations we have Saunders, one of America's most admired contemporary writers? Why is he so fond of writing about ghosts? Do death, redemption, capitalism and climate change make for an enjoyable read? Do we want novels to be enjoyable? Or do we want them to make a point? We're also exploring Leo Tolstoy's classic novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, cited by Saunders as a key influence on Vigil, and asks what both books reveal about how we live, how we die, and whether it's ever too late to change. Along the way, Kate, Jenny and Sarah share recent reads, their love of a Kobo e-reader, and recommend books (and one film) following on from our book club read. Books discussed Vigil by George Saunders The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy Transcription by Ben Lerner Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino North Woods by Daniel Mason Storyland by Catherine McKinnon Plus a recommendation for the film Palm Springs. Patreon Access extra episodes, join the pod book club and support the show at Patreon.com/bookclubreview Follow on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast email thebookclubreview@gmail.com Timestamps 1:26 Recent Reads & Kobos – Bookshelf chat, Kobo e-reader enthusiasm, and current reads including Ben Lerner's Transcription and Kiran Millwood Hargrave's Almost Life. 11:54 About The Bookcast Club 14:41 Patreon Break 16:17 What Is Vigil? – Spiritual guide Jill escorts a remorseless fossil fuel tycoon toward death. Audiobook excerpt included. 22:16 Discussing Jill 28:22 Climate & KJ Boon 31:21 A Christmas Carol Parallels 34:16 Broader Reflections – Kate wonders if great writers can no longer make moral judgments in today's climate; Transcription raises similar questions. 35:54 Verdict on Vigil 38:30 The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Tolstoy's novella discussed as Saunders' cited influence. 43:00 Tolstoy the Man 48:36 Recommendations 52:42 Wrap-up See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    George Saunders' Vigil: The Book Club Debate

  2. Jun 5

    The 2026 Women's Prize, with Amanda Moulson (Curious Readers)

    In this episode Kate is joined by Amanda Moulson, co-host of Curious Readers, to consider the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist. Ahead of the prize ceremony next week, which one do we think will win? Perhaps like Amanda you have read them all, but if, like Kate, you're going to struggle to get to all six, which ones should you focus on? Which are the standout reads? Which are the books most likely to delight, surprise, and stay with you long after you've turned the final page? We're covering all six books, and you’ll also find out what Amanda has on her TBR, the books she most loves recommending, and how a busy book podcaster organises her bookshelves. Timestamps for the time-poor 00:00 Welcome and Prize Preview 01:31 Meet Amanda Molson 01:44 Quickfire Reading Habits 03:18 Bookshelf Organization 04:06 Favorite Recs and Current Reads 06:20 Kate’s Power Broker Detour 08:54 Patreon Readalong and Book Club 10:12 Women’s Prize Context and History 15:09 Shortlist Book 1 Flashlight 20:51 Shortlist Book 2 Dominion 25:23 Shortlist Book 3 The Correspondent 26:31 Sybil’s Dark Past 27:07 Audiobook Clip Letters 29:15 Cozy Yet Dark 30:22 Famous Author Replies 31:14 Sybil Effect Debate 32:49 Craft and Book Clubs 33:28 The Mercy Step Setup 34:40 Mercy Step Clip 36:35 Child Narrator Power 37:12 Small Press Spotlight 38:01 Kingfisher Obsessive Love 38:50 Kingfisher Clip Warning 40:40 Kingfisher Reactions 41:35 Heart the Lover Clip 44:07 Two Halves Romance 45:36 Illness and Mortality 47:33 Marketing and Triggers 49:04 Winner Predictions 51:23 Wrap Up and Patreon 52:25 Kate’s Recent Reads and Outro Books mentioned Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell You With the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate Open Book by Jessica Simpson A Long Game by Elizabeth McCracken The Power Broker by Robert Caro We Are Green and Trembling Gabriela Cabezón Cámara Feminist History for Every Day of the Year by Kate Mosse The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Flashlight by Susan Choi Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick Dominion by Addie E. Citchens The Correspondent by Virginia Evans The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly Heart the Lover by Lily King Writers & Lovers by Lily King A Bookshop of One’s Own by Jane Cholmeley Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel The Director by Daniel Kehlman The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby This is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin You'll find all the titles we mentioned in our Bookshop.org list. Buying books there helps support independent bookshops, and also supports The Book Club Review. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    The 2026 Women's Prize, with Amanda Moulson (Curious Readers)

  3. May 19

    The Guardian's 100 Best Novels of All Time: A Hot Take, with Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance

    When the Guardian drops a list of the 100 Greatest Novels in English it's time to drop everything to talk about it. Luckily pod-regular guest, journalist Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance, host of the Curious Readers podcast, also had views, and were willing to get together on a Sunday evening to share them. You'll hear our hits, our misses, how many we’ve read, whether we should have read more and much musing on whether a list like this is the way to get people excited about reading. We explore the joys of the sub-lists – the contributor lists – all squirrelled away on a sub-section of the Guardian's website, that arguably provide more excitement and inspiration than the fairly canonical top 100. Which is the best Brontë? Which is the best Austen? Do we age into certain books? If you've read all seven volumes of Proust shouldn't that count for more than one entry? All this and much, much more. Enjoy – this was an absolute delight to make and I hope it makes you smile as much as it did me. Have your say: get in touch on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com, or head to our website for full shownotes. What would be in your top-10? Check out the Patreon for all kinds of extras, from our monthly book club to extra shows and Kate's reading diaries. Find it at patreon.com/thebookclubreview The Guardian’s List of the 100 Greatest Novels published in English, copied below for ease of reference. *underlined – the ones Kate has read MiddlemarchBelovedUlyssesTo the LighthouseIn Search of Lost TimeAnna KareninaWar and PeaceJane EyrePride and PrejudiceMadame BovaryThe Great GatsbyBleak HouseEmmaMrs DallowayMoby-DickNineteen Eighty-FourOne Hundred Years of SolitudePersuasionThe Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, GentlemanWuthering HeightsThe Portrait of a LadyThings Fall ApartMidnight’s ChildrenThe Remains of the DayLolitaDon QuixoteThe TrialThe Brothers KaramazovPale FireFrankensteinThe Prime of Miss Jean BrodieThe God of Small ThingsDavid CopperfieldWolf HallGreat ExpectationsThe Handmaid’s TaleInvisible ManThe Age of InnocenceTheir Eyes Were Watching GodSong of SolomonHeart of DarknessThe Magic MountainHousekeepingGiovanni’s RoomThe Golden NotebookThe LeopardVanity FairThe MetamorphosisA Fine BalanceWide Sargasso SeaMy Brilliant FriendThe Golden BowlThe Transit of VenusOrlandoThe WavesMansfield ParkThe Sound and the FuryDisgraceNever Let Me GoHowards EndThe Rings of SaturnHalf of a Yellow SunWhite TeethThe Good SoldierThe Color PurpleThe Master and MargaritaThe Man Without QualitiesBlood MeridianCrime and PunishmentJude the ObscureKindredOur Mutual FriendAusterlitzNervous ConditionsThe Bluest EyeDraculaThe RainbowA House for Mr BiswasGo Tell It on the MountainRebeccaBuddenbrooksThe End of the AffairA Farewell to ArmsThe Talented Mr RipleyThe VegetarianThe Turn of the ScrewThe Line of BeautyRagtimeThe Left Hand of DarknessJacob’s RoomLife and FateSentimental EducationInvisible CitiesThe Known WorldThe Return of the NativePedro PáramoCatch-22The RoadThe Go-BetweenMy ÁntoniaParticular books we touch on in the show Things Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeUlysses by James JoyceIn Search of Lost Time by Marcel ProustMy Brilliant Friend by Elena FerranteWuthering Heights by Emily BrontëAs I Lay Dying by William FaulknerVillette by Charlotte BrontëOrlando, The Waves and To the Lighthouse by Virginia WoolfOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezMiddlemarch by George EliotPedro Páramo by Juan RulfoRebecca by Daphne du MaurierThe Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di LampedusaNervous Conditions, The Book of Not and This Mournable Body by Tsitsi DangarembgaThe Transit of Venus by Shirley HazzardDon Quixote by Miguel de CervantesThe Magic Mountain by Thomas MannBuddenbrooks by Thomas MannLonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryBlood Meridian by Cormac McCarthyThe Memory Police by Yoko OgawaThe English Understand Wool by Helen DeWittA Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb SalihThe Princess of Clèves by Madame de LafayetteThe Cairo Trilogy by Naguib MahfouzThe Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō TanizakiThe Trial and Metamorphosis by Franz KafkaThe Go-Between by L. P. HartleyMoby-Dick by Herman MelvilleA House for Mr Biswas by V. S. NaipaulThe New Life by Tom CreweMiss Marjoribanks by Mrs OliphantThe Palliser novels by Anthony TrollopeThe Warden by Anthony TrollopeThe Man Without Qualities by Robert MusilThe Known World by Edward P. Jones See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    The Guardian's 100 Best Novels of All Time: A Hot Take, with Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance

  4. May 9

    The Art of the Everyday: Miranda Keeling, The Anthropologists and the books that slow us down

    What if the antidote to our increasingly frantic world isn't a grand gesture, but simply the act of paying attention? This week, Kate and Laura are joined by actor, podcaster, and author Miranda Keeling – returning to the pod to talk about her wonderful new book, The Place I'm In, a collection of the small, luminous moments she's gathered from daily life. After her debut The Year I Stopped to Notice, Miranda is back with more of her 'noticings': fragments from parks, supermarket queues, and streets that remind us how much magic is hiding in the everyday. Their book club read is the perfect complement: The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Şavas – a soulful, quietly funny novel following Asya and Manu as they hunt for an apartment, trying on different futures for size in a city far from home. Asya, a documentary filmmaker, spends her days in the park gathering footage – an anthropologist of the ordinary – and her project rhymes beautifully with Miranda's own. Plus recommendations inspired by the art of the everyday. You can find out more about Miranda and her work at mirandakeeling.com, and her podcast Stopping to Notice – over 200 five-minute episodes of binaural location recording – is the perfect companion listen. Find all the books mentioned at our bookshop.org shop. And if you'd like to join Kate's monthly book club and reading community, head to patreon.com/thebookclubreview. Booklist Ashes and Stones by Alison Shaw – a journey through Scotland in search of the women killed in the witch trials Open Book by Jessica Simpson – Laura takes a nostalgic trip back through her twenties No Such Thing as Monday by Sîan Hughes – a brilliantly written novel from the author of Pearl; up there with Eimear McBride ( A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing) and Maggie O'Farrell The Anthropologists by Aysgul Savas The Imperfectionist, Oliver Burkeman's newsletter Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan Flesh by David Szalay The Café With No Name by Robert Seethaler Memories of Distant Mountains (illustrated notebooks) by Orhan Pamuk A Nobel Laureate's journals offer much colour but little drama, by Dwight Garner for the NYT (gift link) Look Closer: How to Get More Out of Reading by Robert Douglas Fairhurst The Place I'm In by Miranda Keeling See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    The Art of the Everyday: Miranda Keeling, The Anthropologists and the books that slow us down

  5. Apr 22

    Liberating Women's Voices: Austen, Wollstonecraft and after, with Bee Rowlatt

    A new local literary festival provided the perfect opportunity to record the very first Book Club Review live. Kate is joined by author and broadcaster Bee Rowlatt, whose books include the best-selling Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad, which went on to be dramatised by the BBC, and In Search of Mary inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft. Bee also runs the Wollstonecraft Society, a human rights charity. Her debut novel, One Woman Crime Wave, is a novel that explores the realities of wealth, influence, and inequality in present-day London and offers plenty of talking points for book club discussion and debate. Join our festival audience to hear more about Bee's life and work and why Mary Wollstonecraft and her writing has never been more relevant. Books mentioned Find all the titles below in The Book Club Review's bookshop on Bookshop.org Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by Bee Rowlatt The Correspondent by Virginia Evans In Search of Mary by Bee Rowlatt Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft One Woman Crime Wave by Bee Rowlatt An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly Uprising by Tahmima Anam Feminism for a World on Fire by Natasha Walter Notes Find out more about The Mary Wollstonecraft memorial sculpture (The Guardian) Follow the Barnsbury Book Festival for news and updates Patreon Discover what's on offer over on The Book Club Review Patreon. In becoming a member you'll get extra shows and become part of a warm community swapping book recommendations and connecting over our shared love of books and reading. At the book club tier you can join our monthly book club and come and talk books with Kate in person every month. And as a paying member you're supporting Kate in making this independent podcast. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Liberating Women's Voices: Austen, Wollstonecraft and after, with Bee Rowlatt

  6. Mar 31

    The Book of Love vs The Dud Avocado: Fantasy, Paris & Book Club Verdicts

    The Book of Love vs The Dud Avocado: Fantasy, Paris & Book Club Verdicts In this episode of The Book Club Review, we return to our book club roots with two wildly different novels: The Book of Love by Kelly Link and The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. The Book of Love is the first novel from acclaimed American short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link. In a seemingly ordinary coastal town three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle. Vulture magazine named it ‘the escapist masterpiece of the year’ but what did Laura’s book club think? Our second book-club pick is Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado – a fizzing, exuberant novel from 1958 about a young American woman let loose in Paris, determined to live life on her own terms. It gained instant cult status on first publication and remains a timeless portrait of a woman hellbent on living, a book that feels bracingly modern despite being nearly seventy years old. But did it make for a good book club read? We've also got some listener feedback on Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, we're catching up on recent reads, and the books we’re excited about next. Get more from the pod on Patreon Come behind the scenes and enjoy extra episodes, book club membership, community chat threads, readalongs, Kate's reading diaries and more, head to patreon.com/thebookclubreview Booklist You'll find all the books mentioned in the pod's Bookshop.org bookshop Bookshop.org list Slow Days Fast Company by Eve Babitz Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir The Book of Love by Kelly Link American Gods by Neil Gaiman What We Can Know by Ian McEwan The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett Other links of note One Grand Books Frances Ambler's substack See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    The Book of Love vs The Dud Avocado: Fantasy, Paris & Book Club Verdicts

  7. Feb 15

    Nearly Departed: Love, Loss and Literary Romance, with Lucas Oakeley

    Valentine’s-ish Literary Romance: Lucas Oakley on Nearly Departed, Boys Book Club & love stories that stay with you long after reading Join Kate and Lucas Oakeley for this Valentine's-ish episode of The Book Club Review, recorded at Housmans Bookshop in King's Cross. We're exploring literary fiction where love takes centre stage, but the reward is complexity rather than a guaranteed happy ending. Nearly Departed manages to combine the enjoyable tropes of Rom Com with the thoughtful exploration through writing that we associate with literary fiction. We explore how Lucas’s real-life experiences—witnessing a fatal cycling accident and his father's first wife dying young—shaped the book's exploration of love, loss, and second chances, and the art of balancing humour with heartbreak while playing with rom-com tropes. Of course, we’ve got plenty of recommendations for love stories with emotional depth, including Lily King's Writers & Lovers, Andrew Kaufman's All My Friends Are Superheroes, Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, David Nicholls' Sweet Sorrow, Douglas Stuart's John of John, and hot-book-of-the-moment Wuthering Heights.  We’re also discussing Boys Book Club, the organization Lucas has co-founded to encourage men to read and talk about books. What makes a great book club pick for an all-male book club? We’re going to be finding out. We’ve even got Valentine's recipe – rigatoni with a long-simmered ‘Sunday sauce’ – and a couple of cocktail ideas.  All in all, the perfect ingredients for a literary Valentine’s weekend. Become a member of The Book Club Review community Join The Book Club Review community on Patreon for ad-free listening, extra episodes, Kate’s weekly reading diaries, the opportunity to connect with other listeners in the chat groups, and at the higher tier to talk books in-person with Kate at the monthly book club. Find all the details and how to sign up at patreon.com/thebookclubreview. Booklist You can find all the titles mentioned in this episode in the Book Club Review bookshop on bookshop.org Nearly Departed by Lucas Oakeley  Heart The Lover by Lily King All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls John of John by Douglas Stuart Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë Comfort MOB: Food that Makes You Feel Good Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger Links Follow Lucas on Instagram and Tik Tok @lucasoakeley, and you can find out all the details for the Boy’s Book Club at theboysbookclub.co.uk Housmans bookshop, the longest continuous-running radical bookshop in Britain, established in 1945 and based in London’s Kings Cross since 1959 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Nearly Departed: Love, Loss and Literary Romance, with Lucas Oakeley

  8. Feb 1

    The Bestseller Test • Are bestsellers worth the hype? • Episode #186

    What makes a bestseller? Is it the quality of the writing, or just the right book at the right time? This week Kate is joined by co-host Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to find out. Between us we've tackled six of the biggest bestsellers out there – Dan Brown's The Secret of Secrets, Freida McFadden's The Housemaid, Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, Matt Dinnerman's Dungeon Crawler Carl, SenLinYu's Alchemised, and Sarah Adams' In Your Dreams – and we have some opinions. We're sharing our honest experiences of each one: what worked, what didn't, and whether these books truly earned their place on the bestseller lists. But this isn't just a round of verdicts. We're also pooling our recommendations for the bestsellers we genuinely think are worth your time, like The Correspondant by Virginia Evans – because there are some real gems out there among the hype. And as always, we round off with our current and upcoming reads. Press play to find out which bestsellers passed the test – and which ones didn't. Support the pod on Patreon Explore all the benefits of membership. Kate's weekly reading diary is available to free members. Paid tiers include ad-free episodes, extra shows, chat group access and our monthly book club at Patreon.com/thebookclubreview. Booklist You can also find all the books mentioned in The Book Club Review bookshop on Bookshop.org, the online bookstore that supports independent bookshops. The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams Alchemized by SenLinYu Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir The Martian by Andy Weir Nobody's Fool by Harlen Cobden The Correspondant by Virginia Evans The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Robin Buss) Rivals by Jilly Cooper The novels of Stephen King The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger The Smiley books by John Le Carre The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin Ice by Jacek Dukaj (Author) , Ursula Phillips (Translator) The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt I'll Take The Fire by Leïla Slimani (also The Country of Others and Watch US Dance) Lullaby / The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani Nearly Departed by Lucas Oakeley Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    The Bestseller Test • Are bestsellers worth the hype? • Episode #186
See All (199)

Trailer

4.5
out of 5
129 Ratings

About

Discussion, debate, even a little dispute – expect it all on The Book Club Review. Join host Kate and her guests as they explore contemporary and classic titles. From hyped new releases to word-of-mouth backlist tips, books are put to the book club test – do they live up to our expectations? Listen in for thoughtful insights, lively opinions and inspiration for your next great read.

Information

More From W!ZARD Studios

You Might Also Like