The Bookshelf: Recent Episodes
ABC Radio
What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more and join out monthly Book Club on Facebook.
Kate Evans discusses historical fiction onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival with Geraldine Brooks (Horse, Year of Wonders, March), Pip Williams (The Bookbinder of Jericho, The Dictionary of Lost Words) and Sally Colin-James)
A year on from the death of Frank Moorhouse, we examine the work of this much-loved yet troubled writer with his biographer Catharine Lumby and colleague Angelo Loukakis.
Kate and Cassie read Chris Womersley's Ordinary Gods and Monsters, Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos and Tan Twan Eng's The House of Doors with critic Declan Fry and novelist Nilima Rao
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh read Peter Polites' God Forgets About the Poor, Angela O'Keeffe's The Sitter and Guy Guneratne's Mister Mister with poet Madison Godfrey and journalist and novelist Paul Daley
Cassie and Kate read Ann Patchett's Tom Lake, Naoise Dolan's The Happy Couple and Hwang Sok-yong's Mater 2-10 with actor Angourie Rice and novelist Jock Serong
Kate, Cassie and guests examine all six finalists for the 2023 miles Franklin Literary Award.
Kate and Cassie read Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto, Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of this Book and Emily Perkins' Lioness with poet Miles Merrill and literary scholar Bernadette Brennan
Kate Evans and Jonathan Green read Gretchen Shirm's The Crying Room, Richard Ford's Be Mine and Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor with historian Peter McPhee and writer Ashley Hay. Cassie McCullagh will be back for the next edition of The Bookshelf.
Kate Evans onstage with writers Colson Whitehead, Eleanor Catton, Richard Flanagan and Tracey Lien at the recent Sydney Writers Festival, on the state of the novel.
Aboriginal, Chinese-Malaysian and Muslim writer and academic Eugenia Flynn co-hosts the Bookshelf this week with Kate Evans, reading Anna Funder's Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life, Priya Guns' Your Driver is Waiting and Jen Craig's Wall with novelists Max Easton (The Magpie Wing) and Amy Taylor (Search History)
What is it about the Greek myths that make them so adaptable, reusable, ever popular – and up for all manner of rewrites?
Interviews with all six shortlisted authors for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award from RN's The Bookshelf and Book Show (in alphabetical order). The shortlist was announced on 20 June; the winner will be announced on 25 July.
Stealing a manuscript, walking your grief along coastal edges and underhand behaviour at an international AIDS conference: Kate and Cassie read Dennis Altman's Death in the Sauna, R F Kuang's Yellowface and Briohny Doyle's Why We Are Here with guests Benjamin Law and Lee Kofman
A story of wandering pilgrims, woman brewers, stonemasons and eels – in the North of England from the 7th century until now; and Métis-Michif women in Canada across the twentieth and into the twenty-first century: Kate Evans speaks with Katherena Vermette about The Strangers (recorded at the 2023 Brisbane Writers Festival) and Benjamin Myers about Cuddy
Naked politicians, roadtrips with the dead, and funny-sad girls in Berlin: Kate and Cassie read Robert Gott's Naked Ambition, Lorrie Moore's I am Homeless if this is not My Home and Pip Finkemeyer's Sad Girl Novel with critics Jessie Tu and Madeleine Gray.
Step aboard this Book Club edition of The Bookshelf which is hopelessly devoted to the genre of Romantic Comedy.
Kate and Cassie recorded this edition of The Bookshelf onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival on Friday 26 May 2023 with writers Shehan Karunatilaka, Jason Reynolds and Grace Chan
Kate and Cassie read Benjamin Myers' Cuddy, Robyn Cadwallader's The Fire and the Rose and Emma Cline's The Guest with mediaeval historian Clare Monagle and novelist Laura McPhee-Brown
Kate and Cassie read Deborah Levy's August Blue, André Dao's Anam and Catherine Lacey's Biography of X with guests writer and curator Sheila Ngọc Phạm and theatre writer Tom Wright. Histories, family stories, identities, doppelgangers, secrets and lies.
Kate and Cassie read John Kinsella’s Cell Night: A Verse Novel, Jente Posthuma’s What I’d Rather Not Think About and Justin Cronin’s The Ferryman with poet and novelist Omar Sakr and documentary maker Johan Gabrielsson
When Salman Rushdie was attacked in Chautauqua, New York in August last year, Victory City, his latest novel, was already finished. Some say it's not only a return to form, but also uncannily prophetic.
Reading Max Porter's Shy, Han Kang's Greek Lessons and Yan Lianke's Heart Sutra with writers (and writers-in-translation, both) Linda Jaivin and Ennis Ćehić
Reading Pip Williams' The Bookbinder of Jericho, Juan Gómez-Jurado's Red Queen and Nicole Flattery's Nothing Special with writers Ashley Kalagian Blunt and Joanna Horton
Savage explorations of the present, using different literary forms, in two new novels. Kate and Cassie are joined by guests film academic Bruce Isaacs and NZ literary leader Claire Mabey, to read Booker Prize winning novelist Eleanor Catton's latest, Birnam Wood, and American writer Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Chain-Gang All-Stars.
A journey through the myriad of ways weather presents itself in fiction for this monthly edition of The Book Club.
Reading Julia Langbein's comedic take on Hollywood's ruthless screen industry in American Mermaid, and Stephanie Bishop's The Anniversary, a watery mystery about creative tension and desire.
Reading award-winning novelist Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions For You, along with The Silence Project by Carole Hailey, and an interview with Irish novelist Sebastian Barry.
Is there a more enduring theme in literature? From the ancient greats to bestseller romances, it's been the subject of both untold anguish and fascination. Why is it that we never seem to tire of this all-too-human experience?
A Sydney WorldPride edition of the Bookshelf, as Kate and Cassie are joined by guests George Haddad and C S Pacat to read Samantha Shannon's A Day of Fallen Night and K Ming Chang's Gods of Want (with comments from both these writers); and Arinze Ifeakandu (God's Children Are Little Broken Things) on queer lives and writing in Nigeria.
Reading Kevin Jared Hosein's Hungry Ghosts, set in 1940s Trinidad (and we hear from the author too); Tom Rob Smith's Cold People, in a reshaped Antarctica, and Cho Nam-Joo's Saha in a corporate city-state, imagined in Korea. Kate and Cassie are joined by writer Shannon Burns and literary facilitator Michaela Kalowski.
Poet Maxine Beneba Clarke and novelist Michael Winkler join Kate and Cassie as they read Ronnie Scott's Shirley, Eleanor Shearer's River Sing Me Home and James Kelman's God's Teeth and Other Phenomena
Unquiet ghosts, disconcerting babies, a shattered ghost of a despot and a frontier Western: reading Stefan Hertmans' The Ascent, Ben Hobson's The Death of John Lacey and Laura McPhee Browns Little Plum with guests books writer Nicole Abadee and crime podcaster Ben Herder; and speaking with Paul Dalgarno about the books that shaped his latest, A Country of Eternal Light (hint: hello, Frankenstein)
Kate and Cassie are back with new fiction for 2023: reading Bret Easton Ellis' The Shards and Deepti Kapoor's Age of Vice with guests Geordie Williamson and Sue Turnbull; and Brigitta Olubas on her biography of writer Shirley Hazzard
Hoofbeats, assassins and tracks in the snow. Rereading Gillian Mears’ novel Foal’s Bread; reading Kári Gíslason's The Sorrow Stone; and speaking to Karen Joy Fowler about her novel Booth and the books that shaped it.
A child is lost in a nineteenth-century landscape carved out of both thousands of years of history, and more recent expectations and misunderstandings. An entire community rallies to find him – but their pathways diverge, overtake, retrace and obliterate each other. What a story! Novelist Fiona McFarlane speaks about The Sun Walks Down with Kate Evans.
Reading Steve Toltz's Here Goes Nothing and Ashley Goldberg's Abomination, and speaking to Tracey Lien (All That's Left Unsaid) and Sue Orr (Loop Tracks) about the books that have shaped them.
Stories that are tough and joyful, heartbreaking and beautiful, confronting and worth it: Kate Evans speaks with New Zealand writer Becky Manawatu about her novel, Aue; and to American writer Leila Mottley about Nightcrawling
Reading Canadian Métis writer Katherena Vermette's The Strangers, Irish writer Louise Kennedy's Trespasses, and speaking to Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet about Case Study and the bookshelf that made it
What is it about Irish storytelling: that combination of poetry and pain, brutality and a wicked laugh or ten? All that lyrical toughness, and a sense of a history punctuated by a drumbeat of violence, is on display in Audrey Magee's novel, The Colony. A conversation with Kate EvansOther books and writers mentioned in this conversation:Emily Dickinson, worksMarcel Proust, worksJames Joyce, worksColette, worksPeig: The autobiography of Peig SayersWilliam Butler Yeats, works
Reading Chris Womersley's The Diplomat, Lauren John Joseph's At Certain Points We Touch and Jonathan Bazzi's Fever – with Nigel Featherstone; and talking to Nigerian-English writer Nikki May about her novel Wahala and the bookshelf that shaped her
Two writers who grapple with crime, with very different style and intent, in conversation with Kate Evans. American writer John Darnielle is also a musician (The Mountain Goats), and his books include Wolf in White Van and Universal Harvester. He speaks with Kate about his latest, Devil House. New Zealand crimewriter Charity Norman had an earlier career in England as a barrister, but now prefers fictional mysteries. Her books include After the Fall, The Secrets of Strangers and – the one to which we've attached this conversation – Remember Me
Four novels about islands: reading Emily Brugman's The Islands, Audrey Magee's The Colony and Eliza Henry Jones' Salt and Skin; and speaking to Tom Watson about his novel Metronome
English novelist Patrick Gale specialises in hidden lives, secret stories, and celebrating queer histories. His books include Rough Music, Notes from an Exhibition, and A Place Called Winter: and in his latest and seventeenth novel, Mother's Boy, he fictionalises the life of Cornish poet Charles Causley. He speaks to Kate Evans for a special Summer edition of The Bookshelf
Four writers speak to Kate Evans at the 2022 Melbourne Writers Festival about a particularly significant book, that shaped or defined them in some way: Abbas Nazari, Maya Hodge, Sarah Holland Batt and Chloe Hooper
Bestselling English novelist Philippa Gregory speaks with Kate Evans about the radical politics of the seventeenth century and how best to capture that in fiction.
Kate and Cassie are joined by guests literary editor Jason Steger, books podcaster Dani Vee and crime aficionado Felix Shannon to talk their favourite books of 2022 (and yes, we have indeed listed them all)
Talking cricket in fiction, with a particular focus on Inga Simpson's new novel, Willowman, with RN's sports specialist Warwick Hadfield, historian Marion Stell and journalist and crime writer Michael Brissenden
Reading Philip Salom's Sweeney and the Bicycles, Arinze Ifeakandu's God's Children Are Little Broken Things and Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts with Shakespearean scholar Huw Griffiths and novelist Nova Weetman
Walking the streets and exploring the shadows in 1930s Australia, in Fiona Kelly McGregor's Iris; lost towns and lost souls in Shaun Prescott's Bon and Lesley; and a dreamy not-quite-romance in Yumna Kassab's The Lovers with guests novelist Max Easton and literary studied academic Jodi McAlister
Witnessing a great and terrible event in Gail Jones' Salonika Burning; a life up-ended and re-worked in Alex Miller's A Brief Affair; and careful observations of everyday wonder in Luke Carman's An Ordinary Ecstasy.
Witnessing a great and terrible event in Gail Jones' Salonika Burning; a life up-ended and re-worked in Alex Miller's A Brief Affair; and careful observations of everyday wonder in Luke Carman's An Ordinary Ecstasy.
Exploring the novels of Pakistani and English writer Kamala Shamsie with Maryam Azam and Sonia Nair, with a particular focus on Best of Friends and Home Fire
Exploring the novels of Pakistani and English writer Kamala Shamsie with Maryam Azam and Sonia Nair, with a particular focus on Best of Friends and Home Fire
A brother and sister walk uneasy paths, and plumb both literal and hallucinatory depths in Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger; worlds and characters explode across both space and time in Cole Haddon's Psalms for the End of the World; and nineteenth-century Australia and its mythologies remade in Fiona McFarlane's The Sun Walks Down. Kate and Cassie are joined by guests rock star Tim Rogers, and critic and memoirist Shannon Burns
A brother and sister walk uneasy paths, and plumb both literal and hallucinatory depths in Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger; worlds and characters explode across both space and time in Cole Haddon's Psalms for the End of the World; and nineteenth-century Australia and its mythologies remade in Fiona McFarlane's The Sun Walks Down. Kate and Cassie are joined by guests rock star Tim Rogers, and critic and memoirist Shannon Burns
An all-American edition of the bookshelf, with new fiction from George Saunders, Barbara Kingsolver and John Irving. Both Charles Dickens and Herman Melville also get a look in. Kate and Cassie are joined by novelist Felicity McLean and literary academic David Ellison
An all-American edition of the bookshelf, with new fiction from George Saunders, Barbara Kingsolver and John Irving. Both Charles Dickens and Herman Melville also get a look in. Kate and Cassie are joined by novelist Felicity McLean and literary academic David Ellison
Two wildly different sisters are trying to work out how to live and who to love during a sweaty Sydney summer in Diana Reid's hotly anticipated new novel Seeing Other People. In Chris Flynn's short story collection Here Be Leviathans, stories are told from the perspective of animals including a grizzly bear and a family of platypus, as well as inanimate objects like airline seats and hotel rooms. Plus, Ling Ma's Bliss Montage, a dazzling collection of short stories that include a woman who lives with her husband and 100 ex-boyfriends in L.A.
Two wildly different sisters are trying to work out how to live and who to love during a sweaty Sydney summer in Diana Reid's hotly anticipated new novel Seeing Other People. In Chris Flynn's short story collection Here Be Leviathans, stories are told from the perspective of animals including a grizzly bear and a family of platypus, as well as inanimate objects like airline seats and hotel rooms. Plus, Ling Ma's Bliss Montage, a dazzling collection of short stories that include a woman who lives with her husband and 100 ex-boyfriends in L.A.
in this episode Jonathan Green joins Cassie McCullagh to talk about three hard hitting new works of fiction from Robbie Arnott, Donal Ryan and Michael Bennett.
in this episode Jonathan Green joins Cassie McCullagh to talk about three hard hitting new works of fiction from Robbie Arnott, Donal Ryan and Michael Bennett.
In this edition of RN's monthly Book Club, we look at Ian McEwan's extraordinary body of work, paying particular attention to his new novel Lessons, a meditation on history and humanity presented through the span of one man's lifetime.
In this edition of RN's monthly Book Club, we look at Ian McEwan's extraordinary body of work, paying particular attention to his new novel Lessons, a meditation on history and humanity presented through the span of one man's lifetime.
English writer Hilary Mantel has sadly died, aged 70. The Booker prize winning author spoke to Kate Evans for the Big Weekend of Books in 2020.
English writer Hilary Mantel has sadly died, aged 70. The Booker prize winning author spoke to Kate Evans for the Big Weekend of Books in 2020.
Three sisters, locked in their lifelong roles, on a roadtrip, in Peggy Frew's Wildflowers; a London underworld full of betrayal and promise, in Kate Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety (read by Rohan Wilson); and talking to Adrian McKinty about the differences between noir and thrillers.
Three sisters, locked in their lifelong roles, on a roadtrip, in Peggy Frew's Wildflowers; a London underworld full of betrayal and promise, in Kate Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety (read by Rohan Wilson); and talking to Adrian McKinty about the differences between noir and thrillers.
Reading Tracey Lien's All That's Left Unsaid, Diane Connell's The Improbable Life of Ricky Bird and Clarissa Goenawan's Watersong – Kate Evans and Elizabeth Flynn with guests George Haddad and Mandi McIntosh.
Reading Tracey Lien's All That's Left Unsaid, Diane Connell's The Improbable Life of Ricky Bird and Clarissa Goenawan's Watersong – Kate Evans and Elizabeth Flynn with guests George Haddad and Mandi McIntosh.
Kate and Cassie with three new novels: grappling with modernism and creativity in Sophie Cunningham's This Devastating Fever; a young woman caged by intrigue and expectations in Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait; and working soldiers bleed across France in Dan Jones' Essex Dogs – with guests Stephen Gapps and Amy Walters
Kate and Cassie with three new novels: grappling with modernism and creativity in Sophie Cunningham's This Devastating Fever; a young woman caged by intrigue and expectations in Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait; and working soldiers bleed across France in Dan Jones' Essex Dogs – with guests Stephen Gapps and Amy Walters
RN's Book Club in a different format to usual: a panel discussion plus a quick reading guide. The big question: Is crime fiction a literature of resistance? Also, a guide to fiction in translation from Korea
RN's Book Club in a different format to usual: a panel discussion plus a quick reading guide. The big question: Is crime fiction a literature of resistance? Also, a guide to fiction in translation from Korea
A story of three men trying to create a new world, on a craggy island in seventh-century Ireland, in Emma Donoghue's Haven; anxieties about race and migration, in Mohsin Hamid's The Last White Man; and scrappy voices from history, in Selby Wynn Schwartz's fragmentary lesbian colloquy, After Sappho.
A story of three men trying to create a new world, on a craggy island in seventh-century Ireland, in Emma Donoghue's Haven; anxieties about race and migration, in Mohsin Hamid's The Last White Man; and scrappy voices from history, in Selby Wynn Schwartz's fragmentary lesbian colloquy, After Sappho.
Joan of Arc as a capable, scrappy young woman; unmoored on a strange coastline; and trees in both crime fiction and the Australian literary imaginary: reading Scott McCulloch's Basin, Katherine J Chen's Joan (with Prof of Philosophy Karen Green) and crime writer Margaret Hickey's Stone Town on both crime and landscape
Joan of Arc as a capable, scrappy young woman; unmoored on a strange coastline; and trees in both crime fiction and the Australian literary imaginary: reading Scott McCulloch's Basin, Katherine J Chen's Joan (with Prof of Philosophy Karen Green) and crime writer Margaret Hickey's Stone Town on both crime and landscape
Reading Robert Drewe's Nimblefoot, Eliza Henry-Jones' Salt and Skin and Sloane Crosley's Cult Classic with critic and literary judge Susan Wyndham and novelist and funeral director Jackie Bailey
Reading Robert Drewe's Nimblefoot, Eliza Henry-Jones' Salt and Skin and Sloane Crosley's Cult Classic with critic and literary judge Susan Wyndham and novelist and funeral director Jackie Bailey
Writers Hayley Scrivenor, Michael Brissenden and Yumna Kassab join Kate and Cassie onstage to talk libraries, stories, trauma, failure, children, Australian identity and more in this Big Weekend of Books edition of The Bookshelf
Reviewing the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner, Jennifer Down's Bodies of Light, and shortlist with theatre writer Tom Wright and literary critic and interviewer Nicole Abadee
Reading Chris Womersley's The Diplomat and Anjali Joseph's Keeping in Touch plus a guide to Sri Lankan fiction from Smriti Daniel and what's coming out later this year with independent bookseller Mark Rubbo. Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh, bringing you new fiction
Contact history and its 'saviour' mythologies turned upside down in Paul Daley's Jesustown; inside-out fairytales and an invented gothic world in A G Slatter's The Path of Thorns (read by Elizabeth Flynn); and a guide to middle-grade fiction from writer Tristan Bancks. Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh, bringing you new fiction
Australian dystopias, historical shipwrecks and women's lives in Oman: reading Claire G Coleman's Enclave, Jokha Alharthi's Bitter Orange Tree and Jess Kidd's The Night Ship with guests novelist Sally Piper and essayist Eda Gunaydin; and Jane Rawson on her A History of Dreams and its influences
Reading Alexis Wright's Carpentaria and Patrick White's The Vivisector with critic Geordie Williamson - and with words from the writers themselves, as well as other voices and commentators from the ABC Archives
Vale Frank Moorhouse, journalist, essayist, shortstory writer and novelist. Remembering the writer with his friend, Angelo Loukakis, and with archival interviews from 1980 (The Everlasting Secret Family) and 2000 (Dark Palace, the second in the Edith Campbell Berry trilogy, which went on to win the 2001 Miles Franklin Literary Award)
A tough and poetic family story of the Métis (Michif) people of Canada in Katherena Vermette's The Strangers; and exclusion and compassion in Australian history, with a novel set in a lazaret, in Eleanor Limprecht's The Coast (read by historian Dr Ian Hoskins)
Three books by Australian authors: crime in Sydney in Matthew Spencer's Black River; rewriting a sidelined character from a classic of modernism, in Michelle Cahill's Daisy and Woolf, and friendship and exile in an Orthodox Jewish community in Melbourne in Ashley Goldberg's Abomination, with guests writer Kari Gislason and literary interviewer Michaela Kalowski
Reading Geraldine Brooks' Horse, Leila Mottley's Nightcrawling and Zaheda Ghani's Pomegranate and Fig with journalist, music writer and memoirist Mawunyo Gbogbo (Hip Hop and Hymns) and CEO of the Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights, Diana Sayed
Reading Gillian Mears' 2011 novel Foal’s Bread and Craig Sherborne's recent release The Grass Hotel with critic and biographer Bernadette Brennan and writer and cultural historian Luke Stegemann
Reading Brendan Colley's The Signal Line, Louise Kennedy's Trespasses, Lauren John Joseph's At Certain Points We Touch and Jonathan Bazzi's Fever with novelists Nigel Featherstone (My Heart is a Little Wild Thing) and Ellie O'Neill (Family Matters)
Why do we read and reread? And how does rereading read us? From the Sydney Writers Festival, Kate was onstage with bibliomemoirist Ruth Wilson and scholar Bernadette Brennan
In front of an audience, and with plenty of book recommendations, Kate and Cassie are onstage with historian and biographer Jackie Huggins and novelists Damon Galgut and George Haddad
Reading Steve Toltz's Here Goes Nothing, Emiliano Monge's What Goes Unsaid and Dominique Wilson's Orphan Rock with Lauren Chater (The Winter Dress) and Jonty Claypole (Words Fail Us: In Defence of Disfluency)
Reading Paddy O’Reilly's Other Houses, Patrick Gale's Mother’s Boy and Norman Erikson Pasaribu's Happy Stories, Mostly with writers Ennis Ćehić (Sadvertising) and Hilde Hinton (A Solitary Walk on the Moon)
Reading Jennifer Egan's 2010 novel A Visit from the Goon Squad and her newly-released The Candy House, with rock'n'roll reader Tim Rogers and novelist Rhett Davis
Cassie is away this week, so Kate is joined by the ABC's Tiger Webb: reading Emily St John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility, Steven Carroll's Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight, and Mona Awad's All’s Well, with novelist Rhett Davis and critic Nicole Abadee
Reading Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo, Julian Barnes' Elizabeth Finch and Charmian Clift's Sneaky Little Revolutions: Selected Essays with writers Nadia Wheatley and Ruth Wilson (The Jane Austen Remedy)
Reading Jessica Au's Cold Enough for Snow, John Darnielle's Devil House and Julie Otsuka's The Swimmers with novelists Anna Downes and Diana Reid.
Children, violence, landscape, and powerful and strange writing: we're talking fiction from New Zealand with the director of Wellington's Verb Writers' Festival Claire Mabey and novelist Sam Coley. Rereading Keri Hulmes' The Bone People from 1984 and the newly-released The Fish by Lloyd Jones. Passion, laughter, and even some tears
Reading Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor's Paradais, Australian Toni Jordan's Dinner with the Schnabels and English debut novelist Tom Watson's Metronome
Reading Robert Lukins' Loveland, Kári Gíslason's The Sorrow Stone and Harlan Coben's The Match with crime writer Loraine Peck (The Second Son) and mediaeval Icelandic literature specialist Lisa Bennett
Reading Irish novel The Colony by Audrey Magee, and two New Zealand novels, Becky Manawatu's Auē and Sue Orr's Loop Tracks, with guests publisher Jemma Birrell and novelist Lyn Yeowart
Reading Monica Ali's 2003 debut novel, Brick Lane and latest release, Love Marriage with guests writer Roanna Gonsalves and RN's Richard Aedy. Love, marriage, migration, displacement, drama, storytelling.
Western Sydney, coastal Victoria and nineteenth-century America: reading Omar Sakr's Son of Sin, Karen Joy Fowler's Booth and Aoife Clifford's When We Fall with guests historian Ethan Blue and crime afficionado Felix Shannon
Reading Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark, Juhea Kim's Beasts of a Little Land and Claudia Durastanti, Strangers I Know with guests Melissa Fulton from The Big Issue and literary studies academic Julian Novitz
Reading Emily Brugman's The Islands, Vanessa Len's Only a Monster and Hélène Gaudy's A World With No Shore (translated by Stephanie Smee) with writers Michelle Law and Molly Murn
Reading Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel, Rebecca, and Graeme Macrae Burnet's Case Study (which includes a character in the mid 1960s who takes on a Rebecca persona in direct response to du Maurier's novel) - with guests literary lecturer Susannah Fullerton and crime writer Chris Hammer
Reading Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel, Rebecca, and Graeme Macrae Burnet's Case Study (which includes a character in the mid 1960s who takes on a Rebecca persona in direct response to du Maurier's novel) - with guests literary lecturer Susannah Fullerton and crime writer Chris Hammer
Reading Hanya Yanigahara's To Paradise, Gary Shteyngart's Our Country Friends and Nikki May's Wahala with novelist and critic Jessie Tu and poet and performer Geoff Forrester (whose alter ego, Tug Dumbly, also offers up a poem)
A special edition of The Bookshelf, with writer Pip Williams speaking to Kate about her career, research, year in Italy, and interest in the history of words and their visibility, leading to the novel The Dictionary of Lost Words (a conversation from the 2021 Brisbane Writers Festival, online).
Kate and Cassie read Hannah Kent's Devotion; RN's Daniel Browning reads Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water; novelist Rashida Murphy reads Sunjeev Sahota's China Room; and novelist Aravind Adiga on Australian fiction
Reading, writers, family, art and mentors in Siri Hustvedt's essay collection, Mothers, Fathers and Others; and dissipating ghosts, cities and stories in Jennifer Mills' The Airways
Kate and Cassie read Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking About This; Eugen Bacon on Suyi Davies Okungbowa's Son of the Storm; a story from Ann Patchett's These Precious Days; Simon Winchester discussing Anthony Trollope in remote China; and Jay Kristoff on the books that shaped his latest, Empire of the Vampire
Tilly Lawless on her debut novel Nothing but My Body, and her reading inspiration; and Jon McGregor on aphasia and Antarctica, in his Lean Fall Stand
Kate and Cassie on James Ellroy's Widespread Panic; Debra Oswald on Jhumpa Lahiri's Whereabouts; Robert Gott on Guillermo Martinez' The Oxford Brotherhood and Charlotte McConaghy with the Bookshelf that Made Me (and her book, Once There Were Wolves)
Crime writers R W R McDonald (The Nancys, Nancy Business) and Jacqueline Bublitz (Before you Knew My Name) on the books that they are writing against, in concert with, inspired by, and so on (it's a complicated business).
Biographer Bernadette Brennan on why we should read and know Australian writer Gillian Mears; music writer Mark Mordue on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising, and mediaevalist Louise D'Arcens on a new translation of Beowulf
A fictional biography of German Nobel Prize winning writer Thomas Manne (and his extraordinary family) by Irish writer Colm Tóibín, with The Magician; and a roadtrip across America in Emily Gale's Wild Abandon. But what do these writers read?
A new interview with Elizabeth Strout about Oh, William! and the Bookshelf that Made Her; and favourite review discussions from the year about Jane Austen, Joan Silber and Kevin Barry with readers Ruth Wilson and Michael McGirr
Writers and their bookshelves. Sarah Winman's Still Life moves between England and Florence, while Nick Earls' Empires travels from Brisbane to Alaska, London, Vienna and Hong Kong. But what are the books that shaped these novels and these writers?
What are the books that have shaped these writers and (in particular) their latest works? Ken Follett, Rose Tremaine, Amie Kaufman & Jaclyn Moriarty
Reading recommendations from writer and critic Beejay Silcox, crime writer Christian White and memoirist Lech Blaine. What are the books they have especially admired this year?
Actor Claudia Karvan speaks to Kate Evans about her reading life and the Books That Made Us
Reading John Hughes' The Dogs and Kate Grenville's The Secret River with historian David Hunt and writer and philosopher Michael McGirr
Introducing Classic Australian Novels. A collection of interviews from the ABC Archives with Australian authors about their most significant work. In 2007 Alexis Wright won the Miles Franklin Award for her epic novel Carpentaria, set in and around the mythical town of Desperance in Queensland’s Gulf Country.
Introducing Classic Australian Novels. A collection of interviews from the ABC Archives with Australian authors about their most significant work. In True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey took a mythic Australian story and turned it into a Booker Prize winning novel.
Introducing Classic Australian Novels. A collection of interviews from the ABC Archives with Australian authors about their most significant work. With his first two novels Richard Flanagan had already garnered a reputation as great author. But then in 2001 the Tasmanian writer consolidated his literary reputation, and his gift for great titles, with Gould's Book of Fish.
Introducing Classic Australian Novels. A collection of interviews from the ABC Archives with Australian authors about their most significant work. The politics and philosophy of tourism are at the core of Michelle de Kretser’s book Questions of Travel which charts the lives of two characters living worlds apart.
Introducing Classic Australian Novels. A collection of interviews from the ABC Archives with Australian authors about their most significant work. Monkey Grip ushered in a new voice in Australian Literature. Released in 1977 it was Helen Garner’s first novel and the first time Australians had read such a frank account of bohemian life in Melbourne's inner north.
Introducing Classic Australian Novels. A collection of interviews from the ABC Archives with Australian authors about their most significant work. That Deadman Dance was published in 2010 and is the third novel from Miles Franklin winner Kim Scott. Set in the Western Australian whaling port of Albany in the early 1800's it's an exploration of culture, first impressions, and the so called 'friendly frontier'.
Introducing Classic Australian Novels. A collection of interviews from the ABC Archives with Australian authors about their most significant work. Kate Grenville's The Secret River released in 2005 became an instant classic, inspiring a sequel, a television series, and a theatre production.
Reading recommendations from writers Emily Gale and Tristan Bancks (both of whom write for both teens and younger readers); and the Books That Made Us Youth Fiction Prize. (Part 2 of our best reads recommendation on 10 December)
On Christos Tsiolkas' 7 ½: A Novel, Violet Kupersmith's Build your House Around my Body and Jason Mott's Hell of a Book with comedian and writer Matt Okine and writer and producer Sheila Ngọc Phạm
Reading Polish Nobel Prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk's The Books of Jacob and Marisa Fazio's novella Piazza Garibaldi with writers Amanda Lohrey and Bram Presser; and novelist and essayist Ann Patchett on These Precious Days and the bookshelf that shaped her
Join us for a road trip book club, with actor and director Jeremy Sims and novelist and academic Intan Paramaditha. Travel on foot, in a car, on a train, into both ravaged and familiar landscapes
Reading Michelle de Kretser's Scary Monsters, Richard Powers' Bewilderment and Jay Kristoff's Empire of the Vampire with guest reader reviewers food writer Adam Liaw and novelist Hannah Kent
Reading Hannah Kent's much-anticipated new novel, Devotion, Katie Kitamura's Intimacies and Mary Lawson's A Town Called Solace, with guest reader reviewers actor Geraldine Hakewill and novelist Graeme Simsion
Reading Emily Bitto's Wild Abandon, Karl Ove Knausgaard's The Morning Star and Elizabeth Strout's Oh William! with musician Tim Rogers and novelist Pip Williams.
Reading Jonathan Franzen's novel Crossroads and Ruth Ozeki's The Book of Form and Emptiness, with actor Marta Dusseldorp and writer and provocateur John Safran
Smalltown England in the 1830s and a city within a city in the early 1960s: stories of lives and loves, dramas and small moments well told.
Reading Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle and George Eliot's Middlemarch with poet Miles Merrill and literary academic Margaret Harris
On the significance of English writer D H Lawrence and Alison MacLeod's novel, Tenderness; and reading Australian novels Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down and Hannah Bent's When Things Are Alive they Hum; with guests Patrick Carey and Assoc Prof Fiona Morrison
On Colm Tóibín's The Magician (a fictionalised life of Nobel Prize winning author, Thomas Mann), Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Velvet Was the Night and Sarah Bailey's The Housemate with guests Paige Clark and Mark Sutton
Novelist J P Pomare and memoirist Ianto Ware join Kate and Cassie, and the books discussed today are Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where Are You, Paula Hawkins' A Slow Fire Burning and Pascal Janovjak's The Rome Zoo
Why is memory such a potent theme in fiction? On Jessica Anderson's Tirra Lirra by the River and Hugh Breakey's The Beautiful Fall, with guests - novelists both - Robert Lukins and Alison Booth
What does it mean to read like an Australian writer? Insights from writers Belinda Castles, Debra Adelaide and Nicholas Jose. Also, crime writer Will Dean on the dark fairytale woods of Sweden and the Bookshelf that Made Him; and a preview of The Big Weekend of Books
Boastful, funny, clever, skilled and much maligned: meet Geoffrey Chaucer's Wife of Bath, both his fourteenth-century invention and a fresh remaking of her in Karen Brooks' The Good Wife of Bath. Also, the feelgood book of the year, with Sarah Winman's Still Life. Mediaeval literature specialist Louise D'Arcens and novelist Robert Gott join Kate for a lively discussion.
Broadcaster and journalist Melanie Tait joins Kate to talk wild empathy, in Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves. There are also reviews of Jennifer Mills' The Airways and Jessie Greengrass's The High House; the Bookshelf that Made English writer Sunjeev Sahota, and new poetry from Luke Currie-Richardson. (Cassie is away this week.)
Kate and Cassie join guests Larissa Behrendt and Tiger Webb as Irish writer John Boyne takes on the Twittersphere; Nick Earls spins a tale that takes us from Vienna during the Napoleonic Wars through Russia in 1916 and on to contemporary Alaska and Hong Kong; and in Christine Mangan’s Palace of the Drowned we're in a wet and spooky Venice.
Books writer Nicole Abadee and theatre writer Tom Wright join Kate and Cassie to read Amanda Lohrey's The Labyrinth, winner of the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award, as well as the other five books on the award's shortlist
Writers Rashida Murphy (The Historian's Daughter) and Michael Winkler (Grimmish) join Kate and Cassie as they read and review Mark Brandi's The Others, Sunjeev Sahota's China Room and Patrick McGrath's Last Days in Cleaver Square
Writers Kathryn Heyman and Aoife Clifford join Cassie and Kate as they discuss the tawdry and damaged in James Ellroy's Widespread Panic and Lisa Taddeo's Animal; while there's ice cold drama and poetry in Jon McGregor's Lean Fall Stand
Extended interviews by Kate Evans with writers Taylor Jenkins Reid (Malibu Rising and Daisy Jones and the Six) and Dawnie Walton (The Final Revival of Opal and Nev), following on from the recent music-and-fiction Book Club, and finding the 'bookshelf that made me' for both these writers
Double J's Zan Rowe and music journalist and novelist Barry Divola join Kate and Cassie as they talk music in books, focusing on Dawnie Walton's The Final Revival of Opal and Nev and Patti Smith's Just Kids (with bookish recommendations from musicians Amy Shark, Robert Forster and Emma Swift)
Travel to places both real and imagined with writers Heather Rose, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Richard Fidler and Tegan Bennett Daylight, in conversation with Kate Evans onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival
Kate and Cassie are joined this week by poet and music writer Mark Mordue, singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon and Music Show colleague Andrew Ford; and the books discussed are Taylor Jenkins Reid's Malibu Rising, Kate Sawyer's The Stranding and Helen Oyeyemi's Peaces - with a side serving of music on the page.
Novelist Meg Mason (Sorrow and Bliss) and journalist Michael Dulaney join Cassie and Kate as they discuss Briohny Doyle's Echolalia and Angelike Schrobsdorff's You Are Not Like Other Mothers; and English writer Elizabeth MacNeal reveals the books and ideas that shaped Circus of Wonders
Kate and Cassie are joined by reviewer Dr Ruth Wilson, whose PhD on Jane Austen and education was awarded last year, when she was 88 years old. Together, they read Joan Silber's Secrets of Happiness and Alice Pung's One Hundred Days
Crime writer Michel Robotham and playwright Joanna Murray Smith join Kate and Cassie to discuss the work of Patricia Highsmith, high priestess of dark psychological thrillers. With cameos by Highsmith herself, her biographer Richard Bradford, crime writer and singer Jane Clifton, and featuring critiques from members of the ABC Book Club Facebook Group
Ahead of this week's RN Book Club on Patricia Highsmith, her biographer Richard Bradford answers questions from readers and members of the ABC Book Club Facebook Group. An intriguing woman, and a writer who places you inside the perspective of her dark and disquieting characters
Kate and Cassie read Michael Mohammed Ahmad's The Other Half of You, Cassandra Austin's Like Mother and Suyi Davies Okungbowa's Son of the Storm with writers Monica Dux and Eugen Bacon
Ern Malley was the poet at the centre of Australia's most famous literary hoaxes: an invented poet, supposedly discovered by his sister, Ethel. Well, Ethel has been revived and rediscovered, made solid by the novelist Stephen Orr in his Sincerely, Ethel Malley. Kate and Cassie are joined by Debra Oswald and Gavin Williams as they read this and new novels by Jhumpa Lahiri and Imbolo Mbue
Writer and translator Subhash Jaireth tracks his life through both countries and bookshelves, from India to the (then) Soviet Union and onto Australia, with many countries and literary traditions in between. He speaks to Kate Evans about where reading and books have taken him.
Writer Krissy Kneen and podcaster Mike Williams join Cassie and Kate as they discuss Rahul Raina's How to Kidnap the Rich, Jamie Marina Lau's Gunk Baby and Jasper Gibson's The Octopus Man. An Indian satire, a contemporary not-quite-dystopian shopping centre, and following the voice of a tentacled deity. Three new works of fiction.
India's first woman lawyer practiced, against the odds, in the 1920s. Novelist Sujata Massey used that woman as inspiration for her fictional character, Perveen Mistry, amateur sleuth in a country bursting with change. Sujata Massey speaks to Kate Evans about her own writing and the bookshelf that shaped her. Reading recommendations abound.
Novelist Bram Presser and comparative literature academic Rebecca Suter join Kate and Cassie to talk about Kazuo Ishiguro's latest novel, Klara and the Sun, in light of all his other novels. And yes, the quality of light, shining down on this Artificial Friend - Robot Girl - is one of the many things at stake in this bookish discussion
It's been a long time since Kate and Cassie have seen either writers or readers in person, but here we all are . . .
Fighting aliens with bows arrows, reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and why he's drawn to historical fiction. Former Governor General Peter Cosgrove speaks to Kate Evans about books, reading, history, political biography and writing memoir
Kate and Cassie discuss Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking About This, Peace Adzo Medie's His Only Wife and Marco Missiroli's Fidelity with writer Sefakor Zikpi and journalist Penelope Green, while Jacqueline Maley reflects on the books that sit beside her own new novel, The Truth About Her
Maria Dahvana Headley knows how to write - and read - monsters. And in doing both she remakes them, as she explains to Kate Evans
Fame, fate, a fair bit of love lost and serial killers in this week's edition of The Bookshelf.
Novelist Steven Carroll speaks with Kate Evans about both the books and publishing history imbedded in his novel O
Language specialist Tiger Webb joins Kate while Cassie is away this week, to discuss Blair James' Bernard and Pat, Patricia Engel's Infinite Country and Haruki Murakami's short story collection First Person Singular - with novelist Ronnie Scott and scholar Dominique Hecq
Fiona Mozley's latest novel, Hot Stew, buzzes and rumbles with history, change, gangsters and sex workers. She speaks to Kate Evans about the books that have shaped her
Reading Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Committed and Nam Le's The Boat with Dai Le and Nathalie Nguyen
English writer Francis Spufford speaks to Kate Evans about his latest novel, Light Perpetual, and the books that shaped it and him
Archaeologist Estelle Lazer and writer Patrick Carey join Kate and Cassie to read books layered with history and story. Trevor Shearston's Australian novel, The Dig and English writer Fiona Mozley's Hot Stew. Also, the bookshelf and reading recommendations of Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water
Robert Jones Jr's novel The Prophets is the story of a defiant love story enacted on a slave plantation in the American south. The author speaks to Kate Evans about the books that have shaped it and him, and those works that his writing acts to resist.
Kate and Cassie are joined by journalist Brooke Boney and academic Nicole Moore as they read Edward St Aubyn's Double Blind, Lisa Harding's Bright Burning Things and Steven Carroll's O
Daisy Buchanan is an English columnist, books podcaster and novelist. She speaks to Kate Evans about her latest novel, about reading sexy books, about writing greed and desire, and about the books that have shaped her.
Novelist Susan Johnson and journalist Avani Dias join Cassie and Kate as they read Ella Baxter's New Animal and Francis Spufford's Light Perpetual; and Artistic Director of the Sydney Writers' Festival, Michael Williams, explains Debutante Balls and the program of the (forthcoming) Sydney Writers' Festival
Max Porter answers readers' questions about his latest book, The Death of Francis Bacon (this is the full version of his conversation with Kate Evans, which you may have seen as an online video/ Zoom interview)
Cassie and Kate are joined by artist Paul Ryan and art-historian and novelist Katherine Kovacic as they discuss art in fiction, with a focus on Max Porter's The Death of Francis Bacon and Dominic Smith's The Last Painting of Sara de Vos.
Writer Simon Winchester (The Surgeon of Crowthorne, The Map that Changed the World, Land etc) read a book at the age of almost-22 that changed everything about his life. He speaks to Kate Evans about the books that have shaped him
Kate and Cassie are joined by novelist Robert Gott as they discuss new fiction by John Kinsella and Guillermo Martínez; and the book/s that made writers Simon Winchester and Sarah J Maas
'It's a classic novel about a Black girl in Mississippi, and I was a Black girl in Mississippi, and it was the first time I ever read a book about someone I could see myself in.'
RN presenter Daniel Browning and novelist Kavita Bedford join Kate and Cassie as they discuss Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water, Melissa Broder's Milk Fed and Sònia Hernández's Prosopagnosia
Andrew Pippos' novel Lucky's travels in and out of Greek Australian cafes in Sydney and elsewhere - but what are the literary and other influences that sit on those formica tables?
Kate and Cassie are joined by Prof of Mediaeval Literature Louise D'Arcens and novelist Petronella McGovern as they discuss Maria Dahvana Headley's new translation of Beowulf, Una Mannion's The Crooked Tree and Robert Jones Jr's The Prophets
Following on from last week's Book Club on work, which featured Madeleine St John's The Women in Black, an extended interview with St John's biographer Helen Trinca
On Madeleine St John's The Women in Black and Kikuko Tsumura's There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job with doctor and memoirist Yumiko Kadota and RN presenter Richard Aedy (and featuring St John's biographer Helen Trinca)
Rewriting westerns in the 1890s, sex and desire in the present, and romance in Ireland. Three new works of fiction with Kate and Cassie and guests Michael McGirr and Emma Kate Lewis
Australian fiction from 1901, 1980 and 2014. Miles Franklin, Shirley Hazzard, Joan London
On Aravind Adiga's Amnesty, Richard Flanagan's The Living Sea of Waking Dreams and Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet
On Laura Jean McKay, The Animals in that Country, Curtis Sittenfeld, Rodham and Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs - and putting Jane Harper's The Dry on screen
Some of the best books and discussions about them from 2020: on Robbie Arnott's The Rain Heron, Michael Christie's Greenwood and Polly Samson's A Theatre for Dreamers and Andrew O'Hagan on the Bookshelf that Made Him
Novelist Jock Serong, music writer and broadcaster Stuart Coupe and bookseller and literary judge Fiona Stager join Cassie and Kate for more book recommendations
American fantasy writer Naomi Novik on her latest novel, A Deadly Education, and the Bookshelf that Made Her
On fantasy foundational texts, finding books from childhood in booksales and libraries, and the lure of imaginary bookshops
On Gail Jones' Our Shadows and Randolph Stow's The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea with guests writer Ailsa Piper and historian Frank Bongiorno
Writer Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell; Piranesi) with Kate Evans, on the bookshelf that shaped her, why statues are fascinating, and creating a world out of ruins and seawater
On Sayaka Murata's Earthlings, Ayad Akhtar's Homeland Elegies and Thomas McMullan's The Last Good Man
Fantasy writer and former literary critic Lev Grossman speaks to Kate Evans about his foundational texts and wider reading in fantasy and elsewhere; and they go on a magical train journey courtesy of his new children's novel, The Silver Arrow
The author of Here We Are, Last Orders, Mothering Sunday, Waterland and so many more joins Kate Evans to talk reading, writing, influences and why a book he first read as a twenty year old was just so important
On Andrew Pippos’ Lucky’s, Kate Mildenhall’s The Mother Fault and Karen Wyld’s Where the Fruit Falls
Ceridwen Dovey’s Life After Truth, Don Delillo’s The Silence and Martin Amis’ Inside Story: A novel with critics Tegan Bennett Daylight and Geordie Williamson
Malcolm Knox’s Bluebird and Tim Winton’s Breath under scrutiny with surfwriter Stuart Nettle and documentary maker Johan Gabrielsson
On Sofie Laguna’s Infinite Splendours, Nardi Simpson’s Song of the Crocodile and Nicolas Mathieu’s And Their Children After Them with writers Sam Coley and Mykaela Saunders
Richard Flanagan's The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, Avni Doshi's Burnt Sugar, and Cassie meets bestselling author Ken Follett.
Writer Andrew O’Hagan on autobiographical fiction, an old copy of Dickens’ David Copperfield, why J M Barrie’s Peter Pan is so important, and other books that have shaped him and his latest novel, Mayflies
Trent Dalton's All Our Shimmering Skies, Marilynne Robinson's Jack, and Craig Silvey for Me, Myshelf and I.
Chris Riddell is an illustrator, cartoonist and novelist. Here, he discusses collaboration, reading, influences, poetry and why he draws political cartoons instead of shouting at the radio
Elena Ferrante's new novel The Lying Life of Adults, and the 1958 classic, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard
American novelist Sue Miller discusses both her latest novel, Monogamy, and the bookshelf that shaped her
Werewolves running nightclubs in Berlin, Supernatural Sydney, witches with attitude and a whole slew of terrific fantasy recommendations from writer Maria Lewis
On Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Ken Follett’s The Evening and the Morning and Edmund White’s A Saint from Texas
It was the Summer where everything changed: Meg Rosoff, her new novel and the bookshelf that made her
From dragons and mythical origin stories to adventures in the stars, fantasy and SF writer Christopher Paolini has plenty to say about how his genre works
Two writers on this podcast extra edition of the Bookshelf, both of whom write very broadly in a ‘Northern’ English tradition. Sarah Moss and Ian McGuire speak (separately) with Kate Evans
On Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies, Eley Williams’ The Liar’s Dictionary, Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words and Rose Tremain’s Islands of Mercy
Raymond E Feist on writing, and reading, fantasy fiction. World building, foundational texts, and how the genre has changed
Stage and screen actor Dugald Bruce Lockhart has now turned to fiction. Here, he reveals the books – and plays – that made him
The city of New York is coming alive, but its enemies are against it. Urban fantasy, overturning racist narratives, and some very large genre tentacles
Mauritian writer Kester Grant on her fantasy novel The Court of Miracles (inspired by Victor Hugo) and the books that have shaped her
Biographer, critic and novelist Nicholas Shakespeare on his latest novel (The Sandpit) and the books and writers that shaped him
On Jock Serong's The Burning Island, Sarah Moss's Summerwater and Ian McGuire's The Abstainer with writers Aoife Clifford and Emily Maguire
Michaela Kalowski and Kate Evans read Sam Coley’s State Highway One, Jasper Fforde’s The Constant Rabbit and Rebecca Dinerstein Knight’s Hex with writers Christopher Raja and Karina Kilmore
On Nicholas Shakespeare's The Sandpit, Nguyẽ̂n Phan Qué̂ Mai's The Mountains Sing and Amanda Lohrey's The Labyrinth
Imbi Neeme's The Spill, Victoria Hannan's Kokomo and Steven Conte's The Tolstoy Estate with writers Gina Inverarity and Roger Pulvers
The winner of this year's Miles Franklin's Literary Award, Tara June Winch's The Yield; and the debut novel of the benefactor of the Award, Miles Franklin' 1901 novel My Brilliant Career
On Samanta Schweblin's Little Eyes, Daisy Johnson's Sisters and Luke Horton's The Fogging with reviewers Jessie Tu (A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing) and Mark Sutton
On Ottessa Moshfegh's Death in Her Hands, Megha Majumdar's A Burning and Catherine Noske on the Australian gothic tradition
On Kate Grenville’s A Room Made of Leaves, David Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue and Frances Cha’s If I Had Your Face
Reading Lawrence Wright’s pandemic thriller The End of October with crime writers Candice Fox and Ben Hobson
Crank up the poetry find a chair for your music (and how ageing is dealt with in dystopian fiction).
Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening, Sreedhevi Iyer’s The Tiniest House of Time and Me Myshelf and I with Kawai Strong Washburn.
On Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Patsy, Ingrid Persaud’s Love after Love and Sujata Massey’s A Murder at Malabar Hill
On Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half, Patrick Allington’s Rise and Shine and Martha Wells’ Network Effect (A Murderbot novel). Eating emotions in the books we read
Australian fiction discussed with academic and critic Bernadette Brennan and novelist Robert Lukins, on Joan London’s The Golden Age & Shirley Hazzard’s The Transit of Venus
On Robbie Arnott's The Rain Heron, Zalika Reid-Benta's Frying Plantain and Maike Wetzel's Elly.
On Curtis Sittenfeld's Rodham, Anne Tyler's Redhead by the Side of the Road, and Naoise Dolan's Exciting Times
On Catherine Noske's The Salt Madonna, Jennifer Rosner's The Yellow Bird Sings, Suzanne Leal's The Deceptions, Mieko Kawakami's Breasts and Eggs
Reading and reviewing Jeet Thayil's Low, Chris Flynn's Mammoth and Sue Monk Kidd's The Book of Longings.
On the first week of every month, we're going to talk books together. To begin: reading in isolation with guests Ailsa Piper and Tom Wright
James Bradley's Ghost Species, Laura Jean McKay's The Animals in that Country, Jessica Moor's Keeper, Kirsten Krauth's Almost a Mirror
Polly Samson's A Theatre for Dreamers takes us to Hydra with Charmian Clift, George Johnston, Leonard Cohen and the rest; Fernanda Melchor's Hurricane Season takes us into a bloody Mexico; and Evie Wyld reveals a disquieting bookshelf.
Reading Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet, Sophie Hardcastle's Below Deck, Kawai Strong Washburn's Sharks in the Time of Saviours and Julian Leatherdale's Death in the Ladies’ Goddess Club - and the state of play for the arts and books under this pandemic lockdown
Emily St John Mandel's The Glass Hotel, Mirandi Riwoe’s Stone Sky Gold Mountain, C Pam Zhang's How Much of these Hills is Gold and book recommendations that include Jane Austen, F Scott Fitzgerald and a couple of Very Big Books Indeed
Tom Keneally’s The Dickens Boy, Joan Silber’s Improvement, Ceridwen Dovey’s Inner Worlds Outer Spaces, Ken Gelder’s The Colonial Kangaroo Hunt and Jo Lennan's In the Time of Foxes
Tomasz Jedrowski's Swimming in the Dark, Lars Mytting's the Bell in the Lake, Sarah J Maas's Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood - and being Mary Gulliver in 1702
Three new novels: Louise Erdrich's The Night Watchman, Graham Swift's Here We Are and Cho Nam-Joo's Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
On Michael Christie's Greenwood, José Luis de Juan's Napoleon’s Beekeeper and the bookshelf that made crimewriter Abir Mukherjee
Leap into the early 1980s, step onto an isolated rocky outcrop, and walk through a fraught dream house, all in a collection of new writing.
A woman in a series of hotel rooms, two boys riding bikes in 1960s Sri Lanka, and a girl fleeing an ominous pairing of a Priest and a Poacher. New fiction.
Reviews and discussion of Garth Greenwell's Cleanness, Jeanine Cummins' American Dirt and Isabel Allende's A Long Petal of the Sea. New fiction, every week
Me Myshelf and I with Indian writer Tishani Doshi; with Roger Pulvers, who reads Russian and Japanese; YA novelist David Nicholls and children’s author Katherine Rundell
What does it mean if you have to grit your teeth to get through a book? Endurance reading with too much pain or violence?
Three fantasy writers share the bookshelves that have shaped them, and some writing insights too.
Boxing, fairytales and political scandal as three writers share the bookshelves that have shaped them.
Novelist Graeme Simsion and reviewer Nicole Abadee on Marcy Dermansky's Very Nice and Curdella Forbes' A Tall History of Sugar, and reading America in Ben Lerner's The Topeka School
A podcast special edition of the Bookshelf, in which English poet and writer Lemn Sissay reveals his life and history as a child in care, and connects it to the many foster children of literature.
In this podcast extra edition of The Bookshelf, writer Charlotte Wood talks to Kate Evans about writing friendship, ageing, grief and joy.
From stage to screen to page, Leah Purcell has taken Henry Lawson's 1890s story of a lone woman in a tough landscape and remade it as her own in The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson. And thrillers and crime stories with recurring characters.
Rewriting the end of the 19th century in London; rewriting colonial Africa from the inside; and lighting up Faha, Ireland
What will fans of André Aciman's Call Me By Your Name make of his follow-up novel, Find Me?
Crime writing dominates this week's show, with Garry Disher's novel Peace and Michael Connelly (Bosch) sharing his own bookshelf. And reading novellas with Griffith Review's Ashley Hay
Fantasy writer Garth Nix and arts journalist Martin Portus join Cassie and Kate to discuss a collection of water-filled novels: Beyond the Sea, The Starless Sea and The River Capture
Kate and Cassie with guests Meredith Lake (Soul Search), Karen Viggers (The Orchardist's Daughter) and Chris Hammer (Scrubland, Silver) as they discuss new fiction by Christos Tsiolkas, Helen Phillips and Jacqueline Woodson - and many more besides
Kate and Cassie onstage with writers Holden Sheppard (Invisible Boys) and Roanna Gonsalves (The Permanent Resident), and Mitchell Librarian Richard Neville, as they read new novels by Australian writers Charlotte Wood and Katherine Johnson, American Alice Hoffman and Frenchman Philippe Besson
Book influences and recommendations from India, Russia, Japan, Australia, the USA and more, in a podcast extra edition of The Bookshelf
Political satire from Ian McEwan and Heather Rose, a short story collection by Zadie Smith and the state of historical fiction with Robert Gott and Elisabeth Storrs
Me Myshelf and I, as novelists Jessie Burton and Dominic Smith (The Electric Hotel), and comedian Corey White, reveal the books and reading that has shaped them
On Philip Pullman's The Secret Commonwealth, Favel Parrett's There Was Still Love and Nino Haratischvili's The Eighth Life (For Brilka)
Kate and Cassie are joined by writer Chloe Higgins and interviewer Michaela Kalowski as they discuss Edna O'Brien's Girl, Benjamin Myers' The Offing and Etgar Keret's Fly Already
Autoethnographer and storyteller Denise Chapman and shortstory writer Amanda O'Callaghan join Kate and Cassie as they discuss Ann Patchett's The Dutch House, Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other and Emma Donoghue's Akin
Novelist Hannah Kent and literary academic Stephen Knight join Cassie and Kate as they discuss four new novels: Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again, Peter Goldsworthy's Minotaur and Alvydas Šlepikas's In the Shadow of Wolves
Bookseller Jon Page and historian Clare Corbould join Cassie and Kate as they discuss Deborah Levy's The Man Who Saw Everything, the late Andrew McGahan's The Rich Man's House and Claire G Coleman's The Old Lie
Guests Susan Wyndham, Krissy Kneen and Catherine du Peloux Menagé join Kate and Cassie as they travel across America with Salman Rushdie, onto a crumbling island with Lucy Treloar, through women's desire with Lisa Taddeo and toward coastal-western-noir as they ponder crime fiction
Katherine Rundell makes the case for Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are so Old and Wise, and Meg Keneally and Johan Gabrielsson join Cassie and Kate to talk new fiction from Ben Hobson, Carolina Setterwall and Kate Forsyth
A Western, a war saga and a plate of dumplings. Téa Obreht's Inland, Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad, Wai Chim's The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling and writer Julia Phillips with 'Me Myshelf and I.'
Writer Bri Lee and broadcaster Joey Watson join Kate and Cassie to talk new fiction by Alix Nathan, David Nicholls and Lisa See, while novelist Lenny Bartulin reveals 'Me Myshelf and I'
Writers Luke Carman and Laura Elizabeth Woollett join Kate and Cassie to review new novels from Australia, the USA and the Netherlands.
Critic and digital producer Patrick Carey joins Kate and Cassie as they discuss Joyce Carol Oates' My Life As a Rat and Peter Polites' The Pillars, while crime writer Sulari Gentill reveals the books that have influenced her in our newly-named segment, 'Me Myshelf and I'
Literary monsters with gothic writer Sarah Perry, an over-the-top monster in Thomas Harris' new novel Cari Mora, and a monstrous system in Philip Kerr's Metropolis
Incarceration, possibility and punishment in fiction. Historian Ethan Blue and commentator Mark Sutton join Cassie and Kate to discuss new fiction from Colson Whitehead (The Nickel Boys), Ocean Vuong (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous) and Sarah Hopkins (The Subjects)
Novelists Malla Nunn and Aoife Clifford join Cassie and Kate to review new novels from Tara June Winch, Tony Birch and Julia Phillips
Musician and writer Robert Forster (solo artist, ex-Go Betweens), and novelist and performance artist Fiona McGregor (A Novel Idea) join Kate and Cassie to talk books, reading, reviews and (in a surprising confluence of fictional themes) silent film in the first decade of the twentieth century
Bonus interviews and book recommendation from novelists Damian Barr, Andrea Goldsmith, Simon Cleary and Emma Ashmere and poet and filmmaker Nguyen Phan Que Mai
Novelists Emma Ashmere and Simon Cleary join Kate and Cassie to discuss new fiction by Damian Barr, Chip Cheek and Alex Landrigan; and Damian Barr himself comes along to talk about the books that have shaped him
Cassie and Kate are joined by literary academic Rodney Taveira and historian and RN colleague Meredith Lake as they discuss new fiction from the noir-ish James Ellroy, the biblical Elizabeth Cook and the dog-obsessed Tishani Doshi
Brett Evans and Anthea Taylor join Cassie and Kate to discuss new novels by Susan Choi, Elizabeth Gilbert and Richard Anderson, and Irish writer Caolinn Hughes reveals the books that have shaped her.
Kate and Cassie are joined by writers Lee Kofman and Rozanna Lilley as they discuss Jeanette Winterson's playful homage Frankissstein, Guzel Yakhina's Russian epic Zuleikha and Annaleese Jochems' dark New Zealand debut, Baby
What does it mean if reading becomes an endurance test in the face of trauma? Critic Beejay Silcox asks what it means to read books that are pointlessly distressing. Also, gothic Australian writer Chris Womersley on the bookshelf that made him, an extended interview with Julianne Schultz and reading recommendations from Sarah Kanowski, Justine Hyde and Catherine Keenan
Kate Evans is joined by broadcaster Sarah Kanowski, writer Justine Hyde and Catherine Keenan from The Story Factory to discuss new fiction from Ali Smith, Mark Haddon and Laila Lalami; and Julianne Schultz from the Griffith Review reflects on reading for 'digital natives'.
In this podcast extra edition of The Bookshelf, Kate Evans talks to English fantasy writer Samantha Shannon about the bookshelf that made her and Shannon's latest novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree; while authors of Aurora Rising Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, speak about the practicalities of writing collaboratively and why laughter matters.
Fictionalising both the future and the past, with the help of Antony Funnell and the dystopian novel Daughter of Bad Times by Rohan Wilson, the YA SF Aurora Rising by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff (#loveOzYA) and the battle between history and fiction with historian Hallie Rubenhold and The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
On Friday 3 May Kate and Cassie present the Bookshelf live onstage from the Sydney Writers Festival with guests English novelist Max Porter, American writer Alexander Chee and Nigerian novelist Oyinkan Braithwaite.
A podcast only edition of the Bookshelf, in which Kate Evans talks to Suzanne Leal about this week's NSW Premier's Literary Awards, to Chinese acquisitions editor Li Kangqin about reading in China, and novelist Holly Throsby reveals the bookshelf that made her.
Crime writer Andy Muir and cultural historian Catie Gilchrist join Kate Evans and Mark Sutton as they discuss T C Boyle's Outside Looking In, Don Winslow's The Border and Simon Cleary's The War Artist
Consciousness and artificial intelligence in Ian McEwan's Machines Like Me, a life defined by books and reading with Caro Llewellyn, writing Irish police procedurals in Perth with Dervla McTiernan, and a longtime fan of Joanne Harris reviews her latest novel.
Journalist and television presenter Jenny Brockie, and writer Sam Twyford-Moore, join Kate and Cassie to review Siri Hustvedt's Memories of the Future and Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive, and Louise Swinn from the Stella Prize for writing by Australian women comes along to discuss this year's selection
Novelists Jamie Marina Lau and Belinda Castles join Kate and Cassie as they talk about Max Porter's Lanny, Alexander Chee's Edinburgh and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel and Dave Eggers' The Parade. And crime writer Katherine Kovacic reveals the Bookshelf that Made Her.
Critic Kate Jinx and ABC RN producer of audio fiction Sophie Townsend join Cassie and Kate as they discuss Andrea Goldsmith's Invented Lives, Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall, Niviaq Korneliussen's Crimson and Felicity McLean's The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone, while Portuguese writer José Luís Peixoto reveals the books that have influenced him.
Writers Ceridwen Dovey and Kelly Gardiner join Kate and Cassie to talk new books, and Andrea Goldsmith reveals how reading has allowed her to be 'privately wild'.
Crime fiction specialist Sue Turnbull and reviewer Nicole Abadee join Kate and Cassie as they ponder, among other things, whether liking a character (or not) impacts a reader's sense of literary merit.
Novelist and translator Tiffany Tsao and music industry specialist Leanne de Souza join Cassie and Kate in a show that features four novels by women, for International Women's Day.
Writer and poet Maxine Beneba Clarke and bookseller and academic Elias Greig join Cassie and Kate to talk reading, throwing books through windows and (specifically) Melissa Harrison's All Among the Barley, Nana Kwama Adjei-Brenyah's Friday Black and Emiliano Monge's Among the Lost
Writers Chris Hammer (Scrublands) and John Connell (The Cow Book) join Cassie and Kate to talk new fiction
Novelist Mirandi Riwoe and sound engineer Tim Jenkins join Kate Evans to talk new fiction from Latin American writer Roberto Bolaño and French novelist Delphine de Vigan, while English crime writer Lynda La Plante and Hungarian novelist Ferenc Barnás reveal the books that have influenced them.
Novelist Trent Jamieson and writer Patrick Carey join Cassie and Kate to discuss new fiction from Marlon James, Debra Adelaide and Tessa Hadley, while film critic David Stratton reveals the bookshelf that has shaped him
Jacqueline Kent, Robert Lukins and Michael Cathcart join Cassie and Kate to examine new fiction from Caoilinn Hughes, Steven Carroll, John Lanchester and Graeme Simsion
Kate and Cassie are back with bookseller Anna Lowe, arts journalist Melanie Kembrey and documentary maker Johan Gabrielsson to reveal their best novels of Summer and to discuss Nigerian novels Ben Okri's The Freedom Artist and Chigozie Obioma's An Orchestra of Minorities and Danish screenwriter Søren Sveistrup's The Chestnut Man
New interviews with writer Matthew de Abaitua (Self and I) and Sofie Laguna (The Choke), and revisiting the Finnish Weird of Laura Lindstedt's Oneiron and the formative bookshelf of Morris Gleitzman
Why Cassie rereads Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, while Kate returns to 20th C novelists like Michael Ondaatje and A S Byatt. Also, talking Berlin noir and the works of Philip Kerr, reading English literature in Bangladesh, and the appeal of country house mysteries with Stuart Turton
New revelations of the bookshelves that made them, from novelists Patrick de Witt and Lisa Ireland; while Cassie talks to Christos Tsiolkas about reading Patrick White, and Mireille Juchau and Susan Johnson enjoy Rachel Cusk's Kudos.
On this Summer Edition of the Bookshelf, Kate hears about the long history of dog-earing books and discovers it wasn't an abhorred practice until the nineteenth century, and Cassie and Kate revisit Irvine Welsh's Dead Men's Trousers and Audrey Schulman's Theory of Bastards with Stuart Coupe, Margo Lanagan and Felicity Castagna
New material as well as some of the best books of the year, on The Bookshelf's Summer series. Tara Westover reflects on the books that shaped her, in an American family almost entirely cut off from the mainstream, while Kate and Cassie also talk fiction from Tayari Jones and historian Peter Cochrane
Kate Evans talks books and writing with Viv Albertine - former punk guitarist from The Slits turned memoirist, as well as Jessie Burton whose latest book retells a fairy tale, and Spanish writer Jorge Carrion who has written a history of bookshops.
Literary fiction, short stories, music writing and SF and fantasy: Kate and Cassie sit down with a trio of readers, to discuss their best reads of 2018, and a few clues for books to be released in 2019
Novelists Trent Dalton and Shaun Prescott, and professional reader Amelia Lush, join Kate and Cassie to talk about their best reads of the year.
A podcast extra edition of the Bookshelf in which Cassie talks Sydney Noir with John Dale, Mandy Sayer and Mark Dapin; Kate talks to children's author Sally Rippin about the bookshelf that made her; Minette Walters has plague pits in her backyard, and Anne Summers talks about the writing strategies and impact of the New Journalism
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh talk new books with historian David Hunt and crime writer Aoife Clifford. The books in front of them? Graham Norton's A Keeper, R.O. Kwon's The Incendiaries and Georgina Harding's Land of the Living.
Reading and disagreeing about Patrick Gale's Take Nothing With You, Rick Gekoski's A Long Island Story and Amitava Kumar's Immigrant, Montana with Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh, Liz Byrski and Bernard Cohen, while Minette Walters reveals the bookshelf that has made her.
You did what with your salad spinner? Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh continue their bookish conversation with poet Fiona Wright and historian Kimberley Knight, and writers Stephanie Bishop and Moreno Giovannoni share the bookshelves that shaped them
Kate and Cassie are joined by essayist Fiona Wright and historian Kimberley Knight as they discuss Anna Burns' Irish novel Milkman, Esi Edugyan's story of slavery and escape Washington Black and a Finnish novel of claustrophobic decay, The Summer House. Oh, and there are saints and tears in the mix too.
A conversation with Jean Moorcoft Wilson on the life of British war poet and novelist, Robert Graves; and a postscript on the life of writer and peace activist Vera Brittain.
How has the First World War been fictionalised, in Australia, over the past century? And what about the Indian experience, with 1.5 million soldiers at war: has that story entered its popular imagination?
On Andrew Miller's Now We Shall be Entirely Free, Anne Tyler's Clock Dance and Victor LaValle's The Changeling, with novelists Jane Rawson and John Tesarsch and literary academic David Ellison. (Speaking with Kate Evans on her lonesome this week, while Cassie McCullagh is away.)
Kate and Cassie are joined by historian Ruth Balint, crime writer Peter Cotton and Science Fiction reader George Williams to discuss fiction by Krissy Kneen, Les Zig, Margaret Morgan, Peter F Hamilton and Sayaka Murata
Cassie and Kate are joined by TV writer and Dylanologist Mark Sutton to discuss Murakami's mammoth Killing Commendatore and Sarah Perry's gothic Melmoth, while novelist Kristina Olsson (Shell) reveals the bookshelf that made her.
Kate and Cassie talk books with novelist Suzanne Leal and translator and memoirist Vicki Laveau-Harvie. Kristina Olsson's reimagining of the building of the Sydney Opera House (Shell), Markus Zusak's ramshackle family story (Bridge of Clay) and Prayaag Akbar's dystopian tale of 'purity' (Leila).
Writers and their reading: novelist Melissa Lucashenko (Too Much Lip) and crime writers Emma Viskic (And Fire Came Down), Chris Hammer (Scrublands) and Christian White (Nowhere Child)
Kate and Cassie speak to novelist Ceridwen Dovey about J M Coetzee, encounter very different ghosts in the latest novels of Sebastian Faulks (Paris Echo) and Kate Morton (The Clockmaker's Daughter), and encounter both cows and awkward teens in Irish fiction
Kate and Cassie discuss Louis de Bernières' So Much Life Left Over, Kate Atkinson's Transcription, Andrew Sean Greer's Still and Rebecca Lim's The Relic of the Blue Dragon, with writer Sam Twyford-Moore and academic Zora Simic.
Kate and Cassie are joined by lawyer and novelist Andreas Heger and publisher and writer Phillipa McGregor to discuss the latest books by Pat Barker and Patrick de Witt, while Morris Gleitzman tells Cassie about the Australian Reading Hour and the bookshelf that made him.
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh with rather a lot of short stories, and the reader reviewers Roanna Gonsalves, Brett Evans and Michael Dulaney
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh with reader Patrick Carey, editor of the Australian Book Review Peter Rose, writer and translator Tiffany Tsao and a whole lot of books.
Peter Corris was known as the Godfather of Australian crime. He wrote more than forty Cliff Hardy novels, as well as works of history, co-authored biography and many more (ninety books at least)
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh are joined by arts journalist Martin Portus, literary scholar Helen Groth and historian Clare Monagle to talk fiction.
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh with novels about animals, sex and research (and a few other things)
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh with crime writer Ann Cleeves, historian David Hunt, memoirist Vicki Laveau-Harvie and bookseller Jennifer Stephens - and a whole lot of revolutionary novels.
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh with literary academic Nicole Moore and the Sydney Story Factory's Catherine Keenan on Melissa Lucashenko's Too Much Lip, Chris Hammer's Scrublands and Gregory Day's A Sand Archive
Kate and Cassie disagree (again!) about Mario Vargas Llosa's The Neighbourhood, writers Bridie Jabour and Sheila Pham review debut novels by Libby Page and Sharlene Teo, and journo and novelist Tim Ayliffe reveals his crime and suspense filled bookshelves
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh are at loggerheads this week over Tara Isabella Burton's Social Creature, and you'll hear from the American writer herself. Barry Hill reveals a career shaped by encounters with writers and writing, and Sally Seltman reviews two Australian novels.
Novelists Mireille Juchau and Susan Johnson join Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh to discuss Rachel Cusk's Kudos and Maria Tumarkin's Axiomatic; and Kim Scott reveals the bookshelf that shaped him
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh with what Alexander McCall Smith reads (hint, there's a collection of poetry in his pocket), why Barbara Kingsolver reads at traffic lights, and Christopher Fowler on The Book of Forgotten Authors
Writers, readers and reviewers Michael Robotham, Robyn Annear, Antony Funnell, Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus join Kate Evans to talk books books books.
Kate and Cassie are joined by readers and reviewers, historian Stephen Gapps, novelist Peggy Frew and essayist Michael Dulaney.