#50 Our Mid-Year Favourite Books: Part 1

In this episode, the Sarahs discuss their reading in the first half of the year, and share their favourite books so far for 2021. The episode transcript should be accessible from within your podcasting app - or check out the transcript here.

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Books mentioned:
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Fake Account by Lauren Oyler
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The complete works of Robin Hobb ;)
Disoriental by Negar Djavadi
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Still Life by Sarah Winman
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman 
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
A Net For Small Fishes by Lucy Jago
Green Island by Shawn Yang Ryan
The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley

Other episodes mentioned:
#49 Reading More Asian Authors
Sarah K talked about Robin Hobb extensively on episodes #44 (Recent favourite author discoveries) and #46 (My Life in Books with Chris)

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Transcript

00:00:00 SARAH K

People on YouTube were always like “so I haven't made a video in a while”, and I'm like, I literally have no idea when you upload, nor do I care [laughs]

00:00:03 SARAH T

No idea mate.

[THEME MUSIC PLAYS]

00:00:24 SARAH K

Hello and welcome to the Bookcast Club, a fortnightly podcast for people that like to chat book. Today it's me, Sarah, and her, Sarah.

00:00:32 SARAH T

Hello!

00:00:33 SARAH K

…And we are going to talk about our favorite books of the first half of the year.

00:00:38 SARAH T

So how you doing?

00:00:39 SARAH K

I am doing… I'm all right. Yeah, I'm all right. Very let me hang on, let me think about that. How am I? No I'm fine. How are you?

00:00:51 SARAH T

[laughing] Let me think about it for a moment. Yeah, I'm all right.

I'm quite… I'm quite tired. I have to admit - I'm going to mention it and get it out the way the weather in England and in the UK is terrible.

00:01:01 SARAH K

Oh God. I’m going to cut all this out mate. 

00:01:03 SARAH T

Sarah, it's terrible. No, don't cut it out! It's in vital information! For our listeners who are not in the UK. We are having a currently terrible summer.

And I'm mad about it.

00:01:15 SARAH K

Well, it's been very hot here this week. Over 30 most of the days I think we're having a real summer. I don't know why our weather so different. That's weird, but anyway.

How's your reading going this for the first half of the year? Tell me how that's been.

00:01:28 SARAH T

Oh, it's a real mixed bag if I'm perfectly honest. I still haven't found my rhythm. Lockdown, the lack of concentration in lockdown really... Yeah, it's been a real struggle and I've spoken to quite a few people about this and saying I'm really struggling to read more than a page.

I haven't properly been able to commit to a book and I totally get it. I think there is a, uh, lockdown fatigue. And then, as we've been sort of coming out of it, the emotional rollercoaster.

Some freedoms, some freedoms, not some more freedoms or not quite going as well. And I think it's the I think everything being very unsettled in a weird way has unsettled my reading and I know it has for a few other people at this. So when we were preparing for this and I was looking through my list of books which isn't as long as I sort of expect it to be at this point of the year. I have only got four five-star [books].

And I feel like maybe I would normally have more, but we're not living in normal times. There we go. How's your reading going?

00:02:37 SARAH K

Not as bad as yours. That's for sure. Where I live in the world - for people who don't know, it's the Netherlands. Our lockdown situation has been a lot more consistant than yours, right? Like we've had the same rules for a long time. The UK has been very what I would describe as high drama. 

So like in and out on and off, up and down, and so my.

00:02:54 SARAH T

Oh yeah, baby.

00:02:59 SARAH K

Yeah, like a lockdown experience has been. We've had restrictions for a lot longer than you, I think, but it's been a lot will sort of been locked down for a lower level for a longer period of time, so it's been a bit less of a deal, and we have always been able to socialize on a small scale.

They never really cut that, so it hasn't been -  Of course, it's been very hard and et cetera, no one needs me to explain that.

But it has not been as difficult for us, and it certainly hasn't been as as many changes back and forth as you guys have had.

So I think for us it's been a little bit easier. 

00:03:34 SARAH T

when also you've gotten into the groove of it, whereas ours is been so... Like you say, high drama woman is this woman. It's that and so no ones, I think it is that sort of the sense of being settled, and I think when you are unsettled, I think, unfortunately, your concentration it does go, so it's sort of inevitable, really.

00:03:50 SARAH K

So yeah, I haven't really been paying attention to them. The rules changing 'cause they haven't really been changing that not should be honest.

Of course, for like businesses and stuff, it's been very important, but in terms of like who you can have in your house and that kind of thing, it's been basically the same rules for a long time. So yeah, yeah, it has certainly hasn't been as bad for me it has as it has been for you, but this something I have been doing a lot this year is that I have been DNF ING a lot of books, i.e., starting books or not finishing them. I've been a lot more like brutal this year. Like no, I'm not interested, not finishing that. So I've been doing that at a very high pace this year.

00:04:22 SARAH T

You’re always so good at that. You’re so good at going “I’m not going to enjoy this book”. Whereas I always - I'm getting better, but I try to persevere like the whole thought of oh but what if it gets good and deep down you probably know it doesn't. [laughs]

Or at least gets good for you enough to keep reading, that's the difference. 

00:04:45 SARAH K

Yeah, I always just think that for those kind of books you will hear about them like in a year's time, 'cause a lot of people will be like “God, that book that came out last year was good”, like you'll probably get an indication if a book is one that you should have kept on with, but I certainly haven't felt that about any of the books.

I even DNFed NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS by Patricia Lockwood, and I still don't regret it even though everyone loves it. 

00:05:09 SARAH T

Yeah, I've got to read that one. I've got it on my bedside table, but you said it's  a lot of social media.

00:05:16 SARAH K

Jen loved it, I know. I just didn't.

00:05:19 SARAH T

I think that's it. I think it's quite a Marmite-y book, because I think and that really reminds me of FAKE ACCOUNTS, which is high on my honorable mentions list. But FAKE ACCOUNTS equally deals with the sort of high drama of social media and the sort of slightly mad nature and made up man made nature of it.

But so – FAKE ACCOUNTS is by Lauren Oyler. But I've love that. I thought….I mean it was terrifying. It was terrifying, and it made me sort of want to quit everything and stop interacting with social media, but equally I quite enjoyed that. But you said NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS is more sort of like a Twitter dystopia.

00:06:01 SARAH K

Yeah, I'll have to… Let's not talk about it now 'cause I have to talk about it with Jen next week and I've gotta rearrange my thoughts for it [laughs] 

They're very premature at this point. So please hold for that conversation.

00:06:13 SARAH T

Tune in next time and we will discuss! So one book I quickly wanted to talk about… did you like my segue? I hope you did. 

…is ANIMAL by Lisa Taddeo.  She is known for her book THREE WOMEN, and this has just come out.

It came out last week and it's her first debut fiction book. So THREE WOMEN was a sort of - it was a non fiction book and this is her writing stories and it's really good. I'm really enjoying it. I have to confess I haven't read THREE WOMEN, so shh, don’t tell anyone I actually have it, but I haven't got round to it. 

00:06:53 SARAH K

[laughs] Yeah, same. 

00:06:55 SARAH T

I'm really enjoying this and it's a sort of quite a dark, compulsive thriller that's all about desire and a sort of catch phrase of it is, I am depraved. I hope you like me, so it's quite a punchy look at sex and desire and it's in the mind of this - the character is called Joan and it's published by Bloomsbury.

And yeah, that is hot off the press, so if anyone is looking for a new book and liked her book THREE WOMEN, then that is ANIMAL by Lisa Taddeo.

00:07:30 SARAH K

Nice. My library just opened up again, which is very exciting, so I've been like putting - it. Yeah, far more books on hold than I 

00:07:34 SARAH T

That is exciting.

00:07:38 SARAH T

Yeah, far more books on hold than I can.. [laughter]

00:07:38 SARAH T

Actually physically carry? 

00:07:40 SARAH K

Yeah [laughs] Carry or read. Yeah so I'm currently reading Chinua Achebe’s ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH. 

00:07:47 SARAH T

Look at that cover!

00:07:49 SARAH K

Yeah, that's a really nice cover. He wrote – he’s most famous for THINGS FALL APART, which is part of what’s called THE AFRICAN TRILOGY, which I read like 10 years ago to be honest, found it… I could understand that it was good, but I really found it hard to read and didn't really understand it.

And as I am reading this, I'm finding it a lot easier to read and I'm getting into it a lot more and finding him like quite funny. Yeah, which I guess it means I've matured, which is nice to nice to know. [laughter]

00:08:11 SARAH T

Well done you!

00:08:12 SARAH K

I’ll give myself a pat on the back.

00:08:15 SARAH T

10 years you've evolved. Well done.

00:08:17 SARAH K

Yeah, yeah, I'm really really enjoying it. It's pretty old.

00:08:21 SARAH T

Can I just mention about the going to the -

00:08:23 SARAH K

Hang on, no, you can't mention I'm still talking [Sarah T groans]

1967 it came out – sorry, 87, I can’t read. 1987. There you go.

00:08:34 SARAH T

Can I - Can we really briefly just talk about the slight shame… Not shame, but like I don't know what the emotion would be. The look that the librarian gives you when you rock up to collect your holds and you can't fit them all in your bag. [laughter] 

00:08:55 SARAH K

That doesn't happen to me.

00:08:57 SARAH T

Oh, it happens to me so much.

00:09:01 SARAH K

I do this thing where I go several times a week 'cause I I live very close to my library so I just walk there every time something comes in and just like grab it and sneak out the door again.

I mean, I check it out of course, obviously, but it's all above board, but I don't want to like have a huge amount, so I just kind of shuffle in, grab my books, shuffle out again, like don’t look at me.

00:09:18 SARAH T

Oh, mine’s like high drama. It's like, oh look who's here the woman who takes out too many books and they always look at me in amusement and they sort of. Sometimes I take a big bag and then I've even been caught out with that.

I get way too carried away and my library doesn't do the suspend hold thing. I can't hold something and then pause it. Ttoo quick. Yeah, my library is. I'm trying to encourage them to have lots of English language books, so I'm always like getting out loads to try and like be prolific.

00:09:51 SARAH T

Like “there's a demand for this, honey! There’s a demand!”

00:09:54 SARAH K

Then, like it's actually just this girl. I wish she’d buy her own books. [laughter]

00:09:58 SARAH T

You’ll just be blacklisted one day like she can't come in anymore.

00:10:01 SARAH K

So let's talk about our favorites. Our favorites for the first half of the year. 

00:10:04 SARAH T

Our favorites. OK I have got [counting]..  I've got four to talk about with two honorable mentions.

00:10:13 SARAH K

I've got five to talk about with two honorable mentions.

00:10:17 SARAH T

She always has to beat me. If they're all Robin Hobb, then this is not a conversation we're having.

00:10:24 SARAH K

Well, let me tell you. Well, let's just start my first one I just wrote “Robin Hobb” as number one.

I'm not going to harp on about it too much. If you want to hear me talking about Robin Hobb, there are many episodes where I've done that which we will link in the show notes. I love Robin Hobb, she's a fantasy author, get into it. She’s the best. 

So yes, I love all of her books, but I've just used them as one spot.

00:10:46 SARAH T

OK, I mean, that's very very very, very good of you to not just be like and another one and another one and another.

I actually had a very strange dream last night that I went into a secondhand book shop, and I found, like the entire Robin Hobb's series. Isn’t that bizarre?

00:11:02 SARAH K

That is very specific.

00:11:04 SARAH T

I think it's because I went into a secondhand book shop at the weekend and did see quite a few of them. And then, weirdly, I processed that in a dream.

00:11:10 SARAH K

Really, I've never seen her in secondhand book shops, interesting.

00:11:13 SARAH T

This is a really good one. It was Oxfam as the Oxfam book Shop in Crouch End in London town.

00:11:19 SARAH K

[laughs] “London Town” – sometime in the last century. 

00:11:24 SARAH T

[laughs] But it’s a particularly good, uh, charity book shop and it had so much there. I came away with seven books.

So my first book is DISORIENTAL by Negar Djavadi, which I read very early on in the year and I absolutely loved this story. It is not an easy read. It is told in waves of sort of anecdotes, and it's as if someone is regurgitating their story as quickly as possible to you, 'cause they're trying to get it all down.

But I absolutely loved it. So it's the story of a young girl and her family, and at the core it explores Iranian history. It follows his family that have had to flee Iran, and it follows in particular Kimya, at the age of 10, and she has to flee with her mother and her sisters to join her father in France who's already sort of been kicked out of the country and we find her as a grown up in a fertility clinic in Paris and she's while she's sort of in this environment. She's recalling all these stories and all these ideas about family and ancestors, and her own memories of everything that happened and what it means to have to flee your country and find a new identity and what it's meant for her or her family and the you know what's been inherited from the fact that they've become immigrants and and all those.

And it’s a hard read. There's violence in there. There's trauma, there's identity struggle but it's beautiful. Like I really, really, really enjoyed it. And I’ve never read a story from an Iranian-French lady, so yeah, it was a really beautifully unique story and I couldn't recommend it more. 

00:13:26 SARAH K

I've started that one. So I have it and I was reading it. I really liked that when I started it, but I was reading at the same time as I was trying to read. Like the Women prize shortlist and a few other bits and pieces. And I was just struggling to follow it and you know when you're reading a book and you can feel like this book needs more attention than I'm giving it.

So I was sort of going in and out and I had like a four or five other books on the go, so I put it down. But I fully intend to read it again in the later half of the year, just when I can properly just read it by itself and absorb it.

00:13:57 SARAH T

Oh yeah, it it needs that sort of dedicated attention because yeah, it is very free flowing. It is very… there's a lot of family. There's a lot of characters, but like I said to you, you've almost got to let that wash over you and just accept that you don't quite exactly know like which Uncle is doing which you just sort of accept that that you are sort of part of the family.

Do you know what it really reminds me of is when you either meet a friend or you go to a partner you know partner’s family for the first time, or like there's a big birthday and then you suddenly meet like all the cousins. Or all these people and it really, really reminds me in that situation where people just are talking sort of at you and like oh this is Kathy or oh. This is Bob and and you have absolutely no idea who's who and what relationship they all have, but there is a sort of common cause, obviously because they're all in the same place and it's a bit like that in a story.

So you've just sort of got to go into it knowing that it's going to be a little difficult to follow the characters, but that's kind of its beauty because she's a big theme of the book is family and then this family. That's sort of torn apart by values and ideas and having to bit, you know, flee countries and what that does to families. And so it's all very, very well done. But yeah, it definitely isn't the most straightforwardly structured novel.

00:15:29 SARAH K

Yeah, with those kind of books I like to just read them. Kind of not in one go, but like do a solid sit with them and then yeah read them a bit more quickly then I find it easier to kind of get into them.

00:15:40 SARAH T

So that was DISORIENTAL by Negar Djavadi.

00:15:44 SARAH K

My next one is THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR by Yoko Ogawa, which I talked about a lot in the last episode, so I'm not going to harp on about it here. Translated from the Japanese, I really like Ogawa.

I think one of my favorite books last year was one of her other books, THE MEMORY POLICE. This is about, as it says, a housekeeper and a professor and he has lost his memory. He's a mathematics professor and she, the housekeeper, is looking after him and it's about how they connect without really recognizing each other because he doesn't recognize her, he has to be introduced to her every day, and then they build up a really close friendship.

And it's about how they connect without this memory thing. So it was really, really good, beautiful, quite short, absolutely. Absorbing, engaging, loved it, couldn't fault it. I love her.

00:16:36 SARAH T

Which did you say - you read THE MEMORY POLICE first?

00:16:39 SARAH K

Yes, I read that last year I think.

00:16:42 SARAH T

Do you prefer THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR?

00:16:44 SARAH K

Yeah, but that's because THE MEMORY POLICE is dystopian and I'm not a huge fan of dystopian so, but they're both like - I mean, I gave them both five stars. They're both extremely good. THE MEMORY POLICE she wrote about 10 years before she wrote THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR, so they're quite different but they both. Yeah, they're both fantastic.

00:17:03 SARAH T

THE MOUNTAINS SING is my next favorite by Nguyen Phan Que Mai and it is incredible book and that we discovered through doing lots of research on Asian authors and part of my sort of bookish journey this year is to read much more widely and Sarah, we've been talking a lot about it, haven't we as well? Kind of trying to read from different countries, and this is an amazing book that tells the tale of the Tran family and it's a multi generational story set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.

And it's beautifully written, like absolutely breathtakingly. I read it in a single day and it talks about the implications of war and the consequences and the cost of human life. And it's tragic. But it’s not gratuitous in the violence it obviously details enough so you can understand the context and what it means and it is trying to convey to you the trauma that's been felt from this war. But it also shows the resilience the absolute power of hope that you know humans can find within themselves. You know the power of family, the power of love and kindness. It's an incredible book and I have recommended it to a lot of people.

And so much so actually can this be my little claim to fame that a lady that follows me on Instagram told me that she had to ask Waterstones to specifically order it, 'cause they didn't have any?

And and they were like, oh, you're the third person to have ought to have ordered it this week. 

Then she said that's because of you! And there's my tiny little claim to fame making Waterstones do their do some hard work by ordering in books. But yeah, I would really recommend this book. It's very easily structured, especially in comparison to DISORIENTAL but yeah, I really. I just really loved it. I thought it was a really different story. And yeah, getting to know this chapter of history from someone that's actually relevant to like not a you know an English person’s take on it.

This is the real deal which I absolutely loved.

00:19:38 SARAH K

Yeah, I really liked it. Yeah, I what I liked the most about it. I thought I think is that the setting I found very immersive, very believable. I've spent a bit of time in Vietnam and the way that she it, just like brought me straight back there. The way that she describes it. So I think it's really it's really well-written. It’s on my honorable mentions. I think it’s absolutely worth reading. That's how I would describe it. I would put it on lists of books worth reading!

00:20:05 SARAH T

Books worth reading. I love that. That's a good list. Did you listen to the audiobook? 

00:20:10 SARAH K

I did listen to the audio book, which I liked. We talked about it briefly in the last episode that we did on Asian authors. Christine also listened to your audiobook and she actually didn't like the audiobook too much, so I'm not sure if I would necessarily recommend it. I mean, listen to the sample and see if you like it. But yeah, she didn’t like it that much. 

00:20:29 SARAH T

So that is THE MOUNTAINS SING by Nguyen Phan Que Mai.

[THEME MUSIC STARTS]

00:20:42 SARAH T

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[THEME MUSIC ENDS]

00:21:28 SARAH K

Right? What should I do next? I just wrote them in the order I thought of them, I have no order by the way.

00:21:33 SARAH T

I don’t have an order either, just as I googled them and wrote down my little bits of notes.

00:21:37 SARAH K

[laughs] As you Googled them… “google, what did I read this year?” 

Yeah, my next one is IN THE DREAM HOUSE by Carmen Maria Machado. This is a memoir which came out earlier - I think it came out earlier this year maybe? Whatever, I don’t know when it came out. Who cares. It's a memoir. It's her memoir. She's an American writer, she wrote HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES, a short story collection. Do you remember when that was going around like three years ago? Yeah, that's how most people probably know her.

This is detailing a very short period of time in her life. Only a couple of years in her 20s where she was is dating a woman who is quite emotionally abusive to her and it's about how she kind of gets into this relationship and then how she's kind of trapped in this situation, which isn't like physical violence. It's emotional abuse and how she kind of feels about it and how it's not really talked about. And if she kind of describes how her partner is treating her, people are just they don't really accept it as abuse, you know?

And then in in the memoir she meets her, the woman who is her wife now and how they kind of how she kind of gets out of the relationship and and is in a new one with this woman, Val, and how they get married. So really really interesting. Yeah just beautifully written. Brilliant as quite poetic. Yeah, I'm super interesting and definitely also a book that's also really, really worth reading.

00:22:56 SARAH T

That sounds really great and also something I picked up recently is a book called KNOW MY NAME by Chanel Miller, which is she's the survivor of the Stanford sexual assault case, and it's like her.

Her story, her side of the story of what happened with the Stanford assault case. You said it's quite a short period of time and I think that's quite an interesting way of writing a sort of autobiography memoir, isn't it, because actually, normally you get these like sweeping years upon years, and it's little developing time. But actually it's this is a really good way of describing a really significant part, even if it's only a few years. But yeah, I've really enjoyed reading that, and that sounds really good. I might have to pick that up, actually.

00:23:50 SARAH K

Yeah, it's really good. It's not super grim. I found it really, even though obviously it's like it's a bit tense and you know from the start that she ends up marrying someone else, so you know that she ends up getting out. I didn’t find it to read and I I read through it really, really quickly. I thought it was fantastic. 

00:24:10 SARAH T

I think that's interesting about the physical versus emotional abuse and the sort of perception of it from others in society. 

00:24:20 SARAH K

Because it's things that her partner says to her, that's that's really. She does make is a bit of physical abuse towards the end. But yeah, it starts off with her sort of saying these things that are a bit backhanded and weird.

And then Carmen is a bit taken aback by it and she doesn't really know what to think. And it's also I think her first relationship with a woman, so she's not sure. She's sort of sitting there like is this normal? I mean, you don't really have a model for a same-sex relationship, I don't think.

00:24:45 SARAH T

Gosh yeah.

00:24:50 SARAH K

So she’s like “is this how it is for most people?” 

00:24:55 SARAH T

So there’s all the questioning and all the sort of internal wondering of what's going on.

Yeah, that's fascinating. I'll put that on the list.

00:25:10 SARAH K

So that was IN THE DREAM HOUSE by Carmen Maria Machado.

00:25:15 SARAH T

My next one is something incredibly different for me, jokes and it absolutely fits into one of my favorite genres, but I think it is an exemplary take on this genre. So also very recently come out. It's one of the most beautiful books covers I've ever seen and it's STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman who wrote TIN MAN and [WHEN] GOD WAS A RABBIT and I think that’s how people know her. 

So it's set just after World War Two. And there's these two characters called Ulysses and Evelyn, who meet for one night in 1944, and they should have share an evening together, not in a sexual way.

In a celebratory kind of “the war’s ending” way. I don’t know why I said that, not in a sexual way. But that’s quite important. Anyway, it mostly follows the story about Ulysses and he comes back to London. The East End. And has this sort of elective family. It's all this idea of an elective family and like complicated relationships and his past lover has a child by another man and then he sort of ends up raising her, but there's this mad event that happens during World War Two to Ulysses that means he ends up living in Florence after the war and he takes this sort of like elective family with him. It's one of those books that no one thing happens. It's very character driven, but sort of everyday driven. It's about this life and it's about relationships and it's about all these amazing things. It's about love and it's about, you know, fate, family and choosing your family for yourself and fate and there's this is really interesting story about Ulysses and Evelyn and they sort of keep missing each other’s or these misconnections and it's a really interesting take on how they never quite make it together, but their stories are so involved with each other and the setting of Florence is just so beautifully done like I was sort of salivating to just book myself on a holiday to Florence. Especially with being in a pandemic where you're not allowed to go anywhere, I was just…

This is perfect timing this book coming out because it is armchair traveling to the finest degree she's written it so beautifully and so detailed and I could see Florence in my head and I could picture it there. They turn a sort of house into a B&B, and there's all these wonderful characters, and for me it's just like, oh gosh, I wish I want to like live this life.

And ultimately, it's about kind of love and the sort of beauty of the everyday. But it’s funny, it’s different, it’s mischievous, wonderfully just ordinary, but sort of the how beautiful the ordinary can be. I yeah, it's a very hard book to describe because it is lots of people’s stories and it's just a telling of what happens over some generations, but I just absolutely loved it. It comes out in early June. 

00:28:52 SARAH K

Yeah, right, I think it's going to be very popular, deeply popular, let me say.

00:28:56 SARAH T

But not by Sarah Kemp.

00:28:59 SARAH K

[laughs] Will you be offended if I don't read it?

00:29:01 SARAH T

Absolutely not. It's not your sort of book at all.

00:29:05 SARAH K

Yeah, I'm not going to read it, but I think it will be very popular and lots of people love it as lots of our listeners as well I'm sure.

00:29:11 SARAH T

Yeah, I think it's perfect for the setting. if time timing is very much on its side. The fact that people haven't been able to go anywhere, it's so beautifully descriptive of Italy and Florence and I've never heard of him, which to my shame But it’s been described as Maupin-esque. There’s an author called Armistead Maupin. And apparently he was very, very good at sort of detailing the everyday. And it's a very particular way of writing And he wrote THE TALES OF THE CITY in the 70s, which is a very very popular book that details again. It's a similar idea. It's a house in San Francisco, and it's a complex run by an eccentric landlady, and it's all these, and it's sort of a safe haven for LGBTQI plus characters, but how it was in the 70s. It's a very beloved book and series.

00:30:24 SARAH K

Oh, I haven't heard of it either.

00:30:25 SARAH T

No, I think it's actually been made into a Netflix thing now.

But it's this idea of it is this is the elective family and choosing you know, choosing the people that you know you have in your life and it's very interesting, but yeah, so it's been described in that sense in the it's, you know, one place, lots of characters and it. It's the details of their life, so that is STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman.

00:30:55 SARAH K

Sounds good, my next one is LITTLE EYES by Samantha Schweblin. and which I talked about very briefly at another episode. Samanta Schweblin is an Argentinian author, this has been translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell.

This is a pretty weird dystopian to be honest. I can't remember why I read this. I I can't give you any back story. I can't tell you, but I can tell you that I read it and I loved it, so I hope that's enough for you.

It's a dystopian setting, some unnamed time in the future. I think you might remember me talking about this. This is the one where people have like Furbies in their in their world that are real.

00:31:31 SARAH T

Oh yeah, and I just for me. That was the absolute no. 'cause I used to have a Furby

00:31:37 SARAH K

Maybe saying Furbies is selling them short, but you can buy these animals that are kind of realistic animals. They're like animatronic animals and you can either have one of these animals in your house or you can log on to one that's in someone elses house and zoom around their house. It was really amazing. It's really stayed with me. I read it in one sitting. I couldn't put it down.

It's actually absolutely compulsive reading it, and it's a very fast paced book. The way that she writes is quite urgent, you know, so you just kind of find yourself turning page after page and it's about the things that connect people all over the world because it has little vignettes from characters that are literally all over the world.

She has people in Peru, people in parts of Germany, etc and she's talking about like what it means to be logged on, why we're interested in so in other people's lives.

It got me thinking about like vlogging and that kind of thing. How that's become pretty normal and how weird that actually is. I have to say if you're looking for a book club pick, I would really, really recommend this because it's very quick reading it is very easy, it's very pacey and it's quite short but there's a lot of stuff in there to discuss like it really gets you thinking.

Which in my opinion, is a perfect book club book. 

So which I, in my opinion, is a perfect book book. If it's not a slog, it's only like 150 pages.

00:32:51 SARAH T

Short and sweet.

00:32:53 SARAH K

Yeah, which is my favorite kind of book. Like get through it and then have a nice discussion. So that was LITTLE EYES by Samanta Schweblin. 

00:33:00 SARAH T

The next book I'm going to mention is SORROW AND BLISS by Meg Mason, who is from New Zealand.

And this novel has, I think I've got a book hangover from it. I haven't really been able to get stuck into anything else recently. It’s about a lady called Martha, and she knows there's something wrong with her, but she doesn't know what it is. And it details…. Again, it's a tricky one. It sort of details the breakdown of her marriage, but not in a very obvious way.

It's more about the sort of internal monologue of her knowing something that is wrong, but not knowing what her discovery and the desperation of just wanting to find an answer and it's actually I think it's more about that.

She describes herself as at 16 as a bomb going off in her brain and things haven't been right since then. I will absolutely caveat it and say now if you are struggling with your own mental health, then I wouldn't recommend this book. It's very, very honest and very detailed.

00:34:19 SARAH T

In terms of how someone is feeling and it's very internal, so when you're reading it, it it, it's really affecting in a way.

00:34:29 SARAH T

'cause you could almost be reading it as as if it is you. So yeah, I would definitely tread carefully if you've got your own mental health struggles and you know it's an affecting book and it's really stuck with me. I read it in a single sitting. It's really good because it's not falling into the trap of oh, mental health is something that everybody talks about these days. Let's make a book about that. It's absolutely the opposite of that and really deep dives on what it really feels like and what the physical manifestation of it is and and the things that we say to ourselves. And it's really internal and it's very well written and there is incredible kind of delicacy to it from the author as well, and the mental health struggles are never explicitly said and as an incredible bit that when she reaches a certain diagnosis, it's all blanked out because that's not the point of the story. It's not about OK, cool, so you found out what it is, blah blah blah. It's it's much more about the sheer reality of what it's like to feel a certain way and not know what's going on and trying to find an answer to a problem.

Or you know it's all about those questions and how kind of harsh we can be to ourselves and also trying to explain that to the outer world.

And you know that whole idea of what is normal and what's not. It it's a really, really good book, but I would definitely tread carefully with it, if you have your own struggles.

00:36:19 SARAH K

That sounds really, really good.

00:36:21 SARAH T

It was really unexpected. I knew it got a bit of hype and I was a bit unsure and I didn't quite know what it was about. But once I started reading and it's funny, there's laugh out loud, funny bits. It's done in a really honest human way. And I absolutely loved it. Absolutely loved it.

00:36:41 SARAH K

I actually had not heard of it until you mentioned it the other day I haven't seen it anywhere, but it sounds really, really good.

00:36:47 SARAH T

Yeah I'd seen it a bit on Twitter I think, and I was aware it had just come out and I was going off on a short little holiday and I went into Waterstones and it was there so I grabbed it and I thought I'm going to give this a try.

00:37:02 SARAH K

Oh, it sounds really good. Really, really good.

00:37:04 SARAH T

So that is SORROW AND BLISS by Meg Mason.

00:37:09 SARAH K

My last one is my favorite book of the year so far and that is TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM by Yaa Gyasi. I read this couple of months ago. We've talked about here on here, I think before, haven't we?

00:37:24 SARAH T

Yes, we have, yeah.

00:37:25 SARAH K

We have OK. It's a novel about a woman who is an American scientist, born of Ghanaian parents and she has a lot of like deeply complicated issues in her personal life with her family and it's about her sort of struggling with those.

Her brother has a drug addiction. How this has kind of influenced her life. There's a lot of stuff in there about grief and about like family and how these things intersect. There is a really detailed look at the intersection between science and faith, because obviously she comes from a family that has like a deep cultural faith.

And now she works in the sciences and is a neuroscientist. So how these things kind of intersect, especially on on matters of grief, and that kind of thing. I just adored it, I found it to be… it’s complicated, it's very intimate. You have to as you're reading it, you have to keep reminding yourself that this is a novel.

It's incredibly immersive and well done. And yeah, for me this was a deeply personal book and it really really spoke to me on almost every level. I adored it.

00:38:36 SARAH T

Ah what a book. That's why I didn't mention it 'cause it's also on my list.

Yeah, I love it and you haven't read HOMEGOING?

00:38:49 SARAH K

I don't know if I'm like super keen to. I will, of course, but everyone says the same thing which is like God, they're completely different books, so I'm not like hankering for it. You know what I mean?

00:38:56 SARAH T

Yeah they are. They are so so different and I kind of love them in their own ways.

I preferred TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM and I would encourage everyone to pick up both but TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM. I would probably like push a little bit further forward, but I think you're right I think there is this really interesting moment where you have to remind yourself and go. This is not an autobiography, it's so intimately written and so again just really internal and you feel really kind of privileged to be able to be part of this story and yeah, I really really loved it, I think.

It's on the favorite list for a reason.

00:39:42 SARAH K

The difference between HOMEGOING and TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM, I think, really speaks to how incredibly talented Yaa Gyasi is as a writer like she's so assured to write these stylistically, thematically, completely different books. So I'll be very, very interested to see what she comes out with next. It's funny 'cause I've heard people talking about HOMEGOING so much I could like rattle off a description to you as if I've read it. But I haven't actually read it. 

00:40:33 SARAH T

If you want to treat yourself or you know you're looking for a gorgeous edition, I have to say the hardback cover the UK cover, especially, it's green and got this dark green and pinks and gold on it and I don't know. I always look at it on my bookshelf and I think that's a really attractive book.

And it sits next to HOMEGOING and they're both really gorgeous and I want to shout out to the cover designers on those because they are fantastic looking books.

00:41:07 SARAH K

I actually bought just yesterday, the paperback of the American edition because I really like that one, so they're both they're both beautiful, very different covers. My book shop stocks the UK and US editions of lots of English books, so you can chose your favorites

00:41:24 SARAH T

That's cool, that's nice though. Yeah, 'cause you’d never get that here. Yeah, that’s lush.

00:41:40 SARAH K

Oh, that was TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM, by Yaa Gyasi.

00:41:43 SARAH T

So my honorable mention is a A NET FOR SMALL FISHES by Lucy Jago. Oh I loved this book. I really enjoyed this book. It's historical fiction and it's set in the 17th century in the English court under King James, who was the dude that Guy Fawkes tried to blow up. I think that's the easiest way of describing the historical setting that we're in, and it details this friendship between Francis Howard, who he's becomes Francis carer. 

And it's sort of all the all the rumblings of the two decor and all the sort of you know it's slightly further on from Henry the eighth but all the you know drama that of court life that he introduced through all his many marriages and stuff is all still sort of felt and it's all very high drama and stuff, but it's it at the heart is this friendship between this sort of lower gentlewoman and this high aristocratic Lady Frances Carr and it's actually based on the Overbury scandal, which is when a man called Thomas Overbury died in - he was in the tower, but they believed he was poisoned by these women. So she - so Frances Howard could then go on to become Frances Carr.

But yeah, it is really interesting. I know female friendships are maybe sort of slightly overdone or like slightly thing. I really enjoy them if they're done well, and I think this is a really interesting take on that.

It's also really good look at the historical time, but also, uh, an interesting detail in the history, but I didn't hear about 'cause obviously so much of it is always on the gunpowder plot.

And this is sort of it mentions it very briefly, but actually it is about this Overbury scandal. And this this man, who was believed to be poisoned.

And yeah, just beautifully written, really great descriptions or the costumes and the details about court life.

I really, really enjoyed and historical London, which I really. I always really enjoy reading about sort of old London, but yeah, that was a sort of a 4.5 stars. Really enjoyed that one. So THAT'S A NET FOR SMALL FISHES by Lucy Jago.

00:44:18 SARAH K

Umm, I forgot you'd read that actually, but I remember you saying at the time that you really liked it.

I I haven't really seen it apart from you mentioning it, I don't think I've really seen it around.

00:44:27 SARAH T

Published by Bloomsbury. I think it might be a debut. It's something Jen would really like it, Jen, if you’re listening. 

00:44:32 SARAH K

She better be listening.

00:44:36 SARAH T

And so it's a true story. That's sort of been fictionalized, if that makes sense.

00:44:41 SARAH K

Do you have any other honorable mentions?

00:44:43 SARAH T

I don't.

00:44:44 SARAH K

OK, well I've got two. I'll quickly mention the both. So the first one is THE MOUNTAINS SING by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, which we just talked about, one of Sarah’s tops for the year. And my second one is one that Christine and I talked about at length in the last episode, which is GREEN ISLAND by Shawna Yang Ryan, which is fantastic. Taiwanese family absolutely fantastic novel. We'll link that episode below if you want to hear more about it, but it is an excellent novel.

00:45:14 SARAH T

I really want to mention THE MISSING SISTER by Lucinda Riley. Mostly because very, very sadly Lucinda Riley has passed away in the last couple of weeks and it's absolutely devastating.

And sadly, she passed away from cancer, of which it seems that nobody really knew other than her family. And I have definitely mentioned it before, but her Seven Sisters series is one of my absolute favorite escapist comfort reading series that I would recommend to anyone who wants a really accessible stories that dabble in a little historical fiction. They're all really beautifully woven together, and THE MISSING SISTER is the latest installment and she recently announced that the last two parts of the last part of the story, she's split into two. And it kinda makes me wonder now, because she knew maybe because of her illness that she's done it so she could because she knows that her readers aren't going to get anymore of the story. 

This book was about the 7th sister, but there's also the mysterious figure of the father within the story, so she's broken it down and she's told the story of the missing sister, and there's going to be another book, I believe that comes out next autumn. That's going to be all about the mysterious figure that adopts these sisters, this adopts his children. It's absolutely fantastic series, and I think it's a really good sort of summer, get-stuck-into series.

00:46:49 SARAH K

It came out in May, didn't it? And then she passed away only like two or three weeks later. I think it was really shocking.

00:46:51 SARAH T

As the news broke that she was top of the bestseller lists. And yeah, really, really tragic and my heart goes out to her family.

00:47:04 SARAH K

Yeah, she's only 43 or something. I read really, really young. Yeah, they're super popular her they've, I mean before she passed away, they were already absolutely rocketing to the top of the bestseller list in the Netherlands and also in Germany. They're really popular. 

And actually, when I went to the book shop yesterday, I forgot to show you a photo, but they had this beautiful tribute to her. They had like the whole series and like a photo of her in a little stand. And it was really, really nice and they had a little bio saying that she had passed away and about her series and they had all the English translations – sorry, all the English novels and the Dutch translations and everything there. It was really nice.

00:47:42 SARAH T

Oh that’s incredible. So  I think I would always recommend those books anyway to anyone, especially like going back to what we said at the start of the episode if you've been struggling to read, I think these are a very easy buy in to get into that. You know they're very well-done stories and they're easy to dip in and out of there. You know it's very kind of easy language and but immersive, and I'd always recommend them.

And now I just I look at them on their shelf and I go – cause as a reader, I need to know what happened. But equally, I’m like oh Lucinda! And so yeah, so that that definitely is they always for me. They're always sort of five star books. And just for me because of the pure enjoyment I get out of them.

THE MISSING SISTER by Lucinda Riley has just come out, the series is called THE SEVEN SISTERS if you're after a new series.

00:48:39 SARAH K

And yeah, it sounds like she finished them, which is good.

00:48:42 SARAH T

I believe so, yeah.

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00:48:45 SARAH K

OK, well they were our favorites. The first half of the year. Hope you enjoyed listening to them. Hope you got some recommendations. And please do let us know like what your favorite book has been of the first half of the year so far. Let us know what you think of our selections. Who had better selections, me, of course.

00:49:01 SARAH T

Sarah T all the way! 

00:49:05 SARAH K

Thank you very much for listening, and we will… I don’t know where I’m going with that. Bye! 

00:49:11 SARAH T

Bye!

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