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  • The Carnegies 2025!
    2025/06/03

    Librarian Ros Harding tells Sara all about The Carnegies - the UK's longest running children's book awards.

    Ros is this year's Head Of Judges - and tells us why these awards are important for recognising writers and illustrators, and why encouraging children to read is so vital.

    She also shares her Top Five Reads Of The Year!

    Louisa Reid - 'Handle with Care' Sarah Crossan - 'Where the Heart Should Be' Ravena Guron - Mondays are Murder' Richard Osman - 'We Solve Murders' Holly Bourne - 'So Thrilled For You'

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    9 分
  • 'Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil' by V.E. Schwab
    2025/05/27

    V.E. Shwab returns to the Radio 2 Book Club to discuss her new novel, 'Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil'

    She has written and published 25 books in just 15 years (quite an achievement!) and was featured on the pod for her last novel - 'The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue'

    She talks to Sara about 'fantasy with a small f', reading outside your comfort zone, writing queer love stories and why she likes vampires!

    Here's a little more on the book:

    Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1837. Boston, 2019.

    Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

    One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

    And all of them grow teeth.

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    18 分
  • Superstar Librarian Luke shares his Top Five Reads
    2025/05/20

    Luke Burton is one of our Superstar Librarians who helps choose our Radio 2 Book Club titles.

    He's now a big cheese at Arts Council England, and talks to Sara about the importance of libraries and...how he comes from a family of qualified librarians (so it really is in his blood!)

    He shares his Top Five Reads - and the books he's looking forward to reading this year.

    Here is his list:

    'In the Blink of an Eye' by Jo Callaghan

    'What a Way to Go' by Bella Mackie

    'The Masquerades of Spring' by Ben Aaronovitch

    'Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown' by Roy Carroll

    'American Dirt' by Jeanine Cummins

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    12 分
  • 'The Book Of Guilt' by Catherine Chidgey
    2025/05/13

    Sara welcomes author Catherine Chidgey to the Radio 2 Book Club.

    They discuss her new novel, 'The Book Of Guilt', which is an eerie, dark, chilling story set in England, in the late 1970s (but a slightly different England to what we know now)

    Catherine talks about her inspirations, the things she does in the name of research (going on a rollercoaster even though she's terrified of them) and how she created the unnerving feeling in her books.

    She also gives us some great book recommendations too!

    Remember you can join in the conversation at any time - the email is radio2bookclub@bbc.co.uk

    Here's the blurb for The Book Of Guilt:

    England, 1979. Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents of a secluded New Forest home, part of the government’s Sycamore Scheme. Every day, the triplets do their chores, play their games and take their medicine, under the watchful eyes of three mothers: Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night.

    Their nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams. Their lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge. And their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.

    All the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.

    Gradually surrendering its dark secrets, The Book of Guilt is a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.

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    16 分
  • Listener Reviewer Stef Loughrey
    2025/05/06

    Listener Reviewer, Stef Loughrey, shares the five books she has loved reading recently.

    She also tells Sara about her job as a TV producer, sharing books on Insta - and - which new novels she's looking forward to coming out this year...

    Here are her picks:

    Penance by Eliza Clark

    Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

    All The Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman

    The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

    Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

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    15 分
  • 'The Correspondent' by Virginia Evans
    2025/04/29

    Our Book Club pick this week is 'The Correspondent' by Virginia Evans.

    She joins Sara down the line from the USofA to tell us all about the inspiration behind this novel, why she loves writing letters and how she once lost a draft of an entire book on her laptop!

    She also gives us some great book recommendations too!

    If you have read any of our choices recently, well we'd love to hear from you. Remember you can email anytime: radio2bookclub@bbc.co.uk

    Here's the blurb for The Correspondent:

    In her letters to family and friends we come to know the life of Sybil Van Antwerp: stubborn, cantankerous, opinionated, always steadfast in her belief in the power of the written word.

    But as the clock begins to tick for Sybil, the need for a few post-scripts to the life she’s led becomes apparent. Fixing her difficult relationship with her children. Taking a final chance at romance. Atoning for an old legal case which has come back to haunt her. And finally, reckoning with a devastating loss that she has spent the last thirty years holding close to her chest.

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    16 分
  • Superstar librarian, Becki Pritchard, shares her Top Five Reads
    2025/04/22

    Becki works for Barnsley Libraries, and is also a member of the Radio 2 Book Club panel, who help choose our book choices.

    She tells Sara which books have been flying off the shelves recently, shares her Top Five Reads of the year so far - and - reviews one of our previous Book Club choices ('The Favourites' by Layne Fargo)

    Remember, if you'd like to be one of our listener reviewers on a future episode, all you have to do is email us your top five reads of the year so far, a little bit about yourself - and a contact number! The email is: radio2bookclub@bbc.co.uk

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    15 分
  • 'Ordinary Saints' by Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin
    2025/04/15

    Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin joins Sara in the Book Club to chat about her debut novel, 'Ordinary Saints'.

    She discusses her writing journey, the weaving of many different themes in one book and why ultra marathons and writing go hand in hand!

    Niamh also recommends us a book she has loved reading recently and confesses to leaving the first draft of her novel in a pub (which was, thankfully, retrieved)

    Book Blurb:

    Brought up in a devout household in Ireland, Jay is now living in London with her girlfriend, determined to live day to day and not think too much about either the future or the past. But when she learns that her beloved older brother, who died in a terrible accident, may be made into a Catholic saint, she realises she must at last confront her family, her childhood and herself . . .

    Inspired by the author's own devout upbringing, Ordinary Saints is a brilliant debut novel from a fresh, exciting new voice which asks - who gets to decide how we are remembered - and who we will become?

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    19 分