A bittersweet episode of Book Chat has Pandora and Bobby discussing two fittingly bittersweet books: Stoner by John Williams and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Also, “some news”, a hearty goodbye, and a look back on some of our Book Chat faves from episodes past. You can get in touch [email protected]  Books/articles mentioned: Stoner and Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang The...

We bring two books both published in 1970 to the table. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by “the poet laureate of puberty” Judy Blume, and The Bluest Eye, by the legendary Toni Morrison.  You can get in touch [email protected]  Books/articles mentioned: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Forever and Deenie by Judy Blume The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Tar Baby and Paradise by Toni Morrison Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin First Love and My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley Fever Dream by...

After last month’s crowd-pleasers, Bobby and Pandora sink their teeth into two very different, equally meaty books. In Augustown by Kei Miller, a “dismal little valley” in Jamaica becomes a boiling pot of tension when a young boy’s dreadlocks are cut off. And in Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin, the boiling pots are a little more literal – and Pandora shares an all-timer of a kitchen horror story. You can get in touch [email protected]  Books/articles mentioned: Augustown by Kei Miller Home...

It’s a bumper episode 8, with Pandora and Bobby tackling two million-copy-bestselling, much-loved-movie-inspiring titans of the nineties. In Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, Pandora finds a surprisingly feminist heroine who’s no less funny 25 years on. And in Nick Hornby’s beloved High Fidelity, Bobby meets his match in a perpetually depressed man-boy who needs to love himself before anyone else can love him back. Books/articles mentioned: Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The...

Book Chat is back, and episode 7 pits a Pulitzer-winning author against a Nobel-winning author. But not really: in the battle of the Annies whose name ends in ‘X’, both Bobby and Pandora are winners. Discussing Close Range by Annie Proulx, Bobby feels the need to make apologies for the unapologetic bleakness of rural Wyoming – while Pandora is transported back to the excruciating experience of Catholic boarding school girlhood in Annie Ernaux’s A Girl’s Story. You can get in touch...

Episode 6 takes on one little known book and one very, very well-known book. Pandora finally reads A Visit from the Goon Squad and falls in love with Jennifer Egan's entire canon, while Bobby has mixed feelings about one of Pandora's absolute favourite books of recent times, When I Hit You, about a woman's violent marriage to a communist professor in South India. You can get in touch [email protected] Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes Books/articles mentioned: When I Hit...

Welcome to episode 5! On the menu today is Memorial by Byran Washington, which just slips over our '2 years old' threshold - the hype is arguably still hyping - and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, which was written 30 years ago and yet still, the hype hypes (StudioCanal just released a sparkly new version of the film.) We discuss Memorial's literary take on the 'meet the parents' romcom, the 'traumedy' genre, and why Mitsuko is one of the best characters ever written; and why The...

For Episode 4 of Book Chat, we travel back just a decade or so, to Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and David Szalay's short stories in a novel, All That Man Is. We discuss Mohsin Hamid's ability to condense big ideas - what makes a fundamentalist? What biases are you bringing to the story? - into readable prose (and his other magical novels like Exit West) and David Szalay's attempt to condense modern masculinity from teen to OAP, as it roves Europe - in one book. You can get in...

It's episode 3 of Book Chat! And this month we are travelling hundreds of years back, to a book Pandora's always wanted to read (Orlando, by Virginia Woolf) and one of Bobby's all-time favourites (Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.) Last episode, Pandora groaned at the prospect of Wuthering Heights, which she read - and loathed - for GCSE. So has she changed her mind? We discuss the two books and also the culture around the two authors: the upper-class, sexually liberal art collective, the...

Welcome back to Book Chat, a new monthly books podcast brought to you by novelist Bobby Palmer and journalist Pandora Sykes, which does what it says on the tin: we each bring one book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. NB: this is a meaty book chat, not a book review show, so if you have not yet read the books, there will be spoilers. For our second episode, Pandora brings White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000) and Bobby, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka...

Welcome to Book Chat! A new monthly books podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer, which does what it says on the tin: we each bring one book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. For our inaugural episode, Bobby has chosen Tin Man by Sarah Winman, and Pandora has chosen Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin. So join us for a meaty book chat and beware for those who have not read the books: there will be spoilers.  Other books mentioned: The Happy...

Welcome to Book Chat, a new monthly books podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer which does what it says on the tin: we each bring a book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. First episode dropping 1 Dec. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.