Books On The Go

Anna and Annie discuss the Booker Prize 2024 Longlist . Our book of the week is THE ALTERNATIVES by Caoilinn Hughes.  We loved this Irish novel about four eccentric sisters each grappling with their dysfunctional family in different ways. Gripping, humane and funny, we highly recommend this one. Coming up: WOO WOO by Ella Baxter. Follow us: Email: booksonthegopodcast@gmail.com Instagram: @ abailli...

Anna and Annie discuss the 2024 Women's Prize winners. We reveal our best books of 2024 so far.   Our favourite reads are: THE ALTERNATIVES by Caoilinn Hughes HOME READING SERVICE by Fabio Morábito translated by Curtis Bauer NOT THE END OF THE WORLD by Hannah Ritchie THUNDERHEAD by Miranda Darling REAL AMERICANS by Rachel Khong THE SQUARE OF SEVENS by Laura Shepherd-Robinson Follow us! Instagram:...

A special episode!  Anna chats with author Kemper Donovan about his new crime novel THE BUSY BODY , the first in the Ghostwriter series. A contemporary murder mystery told in the spirit of the Golden Age by the host of the All About Agatha podcast , THE BUSY BODY has been described as Veep meets Agatha Christie and a 'witty and highly entertaining mystery' (Sophie Hannah). Dorothy Gibson, failed p...

Anna and Annie discuss the 2024 Stella Prize winner and the Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist . Our book of the week is Thunderhead by Miranda Darling. A black comedy, set in suburbia, about one woman's struggle to be free, it has been described as a 'feminist triumph and homage to Virginia Woolf' ( Australian Book Review ).  We love a short novel and this is a gem. Coming up: The Busy Body with...

Anna and Annie find some book recommendations to read along with Taylor Swift's new album The Tortured Poets Department. Our book of the week is Question 7 by Richard Flanagan.  This memoir encompasses H. G. Wells, nuclear physics and the atomic bomb and ends in Tasmania, Australia. Memories, encounters and fictional vignettes are woven together into a beautiful tapestry that show how words don't...

Anna and Annie discuss the 2024 Stella Prize shortlist . Our book of the week is Butter by Asako Yuzuki translated by Polly Barton. Described as 'a novel of food and murder' this follows Riko, a journalist, who investigates serial killer Manako Kajii.  Kajii allegedly seduced rich men with her cooking before killing them, and she encourages Riko to cook and appreciate food.  Inspired by a true sto...

Anna and Annie discuss the 2024 Stella Prize Shortlist .  We reveal our favourite recent crime reads.  Our recommendations are: The Many Lies of Veronica Hawkins by Kristina Perez Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan The Sleeping Nymph by Ilaria Tutti translated by Ekin Oklap To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey The Fugitives by Jamal Mahjoub Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead by Jenny Hollander...

A special episode: we chat with author Jenny Hollander about her debut crime novel EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD. Charlie Colbert is an editor at a major magazine and engaged to a publishing heir.  But she witnessed a tragedy at her elite journalism school and lied to the police 9 years ago.  Now a classmate is making a film about the events, which threatens the life Charlie has built.  This...

Anna and Annie discuss the inaugural Women's Prize for Non-Fiction longlist, including Anna Funder's Wifedom . Our book of the week is THE VULNERABLES by Sigrid Nunez. This is the third in a loose trilogy after THE FRIEND and WHAT ARE YOU GOING THROUGH. A writer, a college drop-out and a talking parrot share an apartment in New York during the Covid pandemic.  This is subtler than the first two bo...

It's the Shawn and Anna Book Club! Our first book is Home Reading Service by Fabio Morábito translated by Curtis Bauer. Eduardo is sentenced to a year of community service reading aloud to the elderly and disabled.  Set in Mexico, this novel is witty and poignant.  It even inspired us to discuss poetry!  And the fine line between whacky and eccentric. Also mentioned: Shawn's Bite Sized Book Chat w...

Anna and Annie reveal our book recommendations for the holiday season. Our favourite holiday reads this year are: THE CLUB by Ellery Lloyd NOW YOU SEE US by Balli Kaur Jaswal WEST HEART KILL by Dann McDorman FLIGHT by Lynn Steger Strong THE LIBRARIANIST by Patrick deWitt ROMANTIC COMEDY by Curtis Sittenfeld Follow us! Email: booksonthegopodcast @ gmail.com Facebook: Books On The Go Instagram: @ ab...

Anna and Annie discuss the Booker Prize 2023 winner, PROPHET SONG by Paul Lynch. We reveal the best books we read in 2023.  In no particular order, they are: Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren translated by Agnes Broomé Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton Girl in a Pink Dress by Kylie Needham The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison The Fraud by Zadie...

Anna and Annie discuss authors' concerns about Spotify streaming books and highlights from the 2024 Adelaide Writers Week lineup. Our book of the week is Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren translated by Agnes Broomé. Sandgren has been described as "Sweden's Sally Rooney" ( The Times ).  Collected Works is a thought-provoking, intellectual novel set in Gothenburg.  At the heart of it is the mystery...

Special guest Shawn Mooney of Shawn the Book Maniac joins Anna for Book Club! We discuss TRUE BIZ by Sara Nović and Y/N by Esther Yi.  These books have taken us down rabbit holes of deaf culture (True Biz) and super fandom (Y/N). Two interesting and thought-provoking reads! Shawn recommends the interview with Esther Yi on Jaylen's The Bar and the Bookcase podcast. We're currently reading: GIBBONS...

Anna and Annie discuss the 2023 Booker Prize Shortlist and the authors taking action over the generative AI use of their work. Our book of the week is WIFEDOM: MRS ORWELL'S INVISIBLE LIFE by Anna Funder.  An innovative biography of Eileen Orwell by the Miles Franklin and Samuel Johnson prize winner, it has been described as a masterpiece and we think would make a great book club book. Coming up: B...

Anna and Amanda discuss the Nero Book Awards which will commence in 2024. Our book of the week is CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS by Shankari Chandran.  A layered story about a nursing home in Sydney whose residents have traumatic memories of the civil war in Sri Lanka, this won the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award.  Coming up: WIFEDOM by Anna Funder. Follow us! Email: booksonthegopodcast@gmail.co...

A special episode: Anna chats with Shawn Mooney of Shawn the Book Maniac. We recommend three books and each choose one to read for our next episode: the Anna and Shawn book club! Books discussed: The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard True Biz by Sara Nović Y/ N by Esther Yi Loop Tracks by Sue Orr Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life by Anna Funder The Recent East by Thomas Grattan   Coming up: C...

Anna and Annie discuss a recent study on reading to young children . We wrap up Women in Translation month.  The books we read (or Annie did at least!) and recommend are: Slime: A Natural History by Susanne Wedlich translated by Ayca Turkoglu Heaven by Mieko Kawakami translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd What You're Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama translated by Alison Watts Collect...

Anna and Annie discuss the 2023 Booker Prize Longlist .   Our book of the week is The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor. A novel about friends and lovers set in Iowa City, it is both intimate and explores wider issues in contemporary life and art. Taylor was short-listed for the Booker Prize for Real Life and won the Story Prize for his collection Filthy Animals .  The Late Americans is an instant...

Anna and Amanda discuss Elizabeth Gilbert pulling her novel The Snow Forest from publication because of its Russia theme. Our book of the week is This Other Eden by Paul Harding. Based on a true story, an island community of castaways and misfits is disrupted when a well-meaning but racist preacher enters their lives.  It has biblical feels yet resonates today.  Described as 'a harrowing tale of p...

Anna and Amanda discuss the Women's Prize winner Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Our book of the week is The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland.  This tells the true story of Rudolf Vrba who escaped from Auschwitz with Fred Wetzler and their attempt to tell Jewish leaders the truth about the Final Solution and prevent more deaths.  A S...

A special episode:  Anna chats with author Ennis Ćehić about his debut collection of short stories, Sadvertisin g . Ćehić is based in Melbourne and Sarajevo and writes about displacement, creativity and existentialism. The stories in Sadvertisi ng are set in the advertising world and explore the tension between art and capitalism.  Satirical and very funny, with elements of meta-fiction and the su...

A special episode: Anna chats with author Christine Keighery about her new novel The Half Brother . Christine Keighery has written over 35 novels for children and young adults (as Chrissie Perry).  The Half Brother is her first novel for adults.  It's a psychological suspense story about a family, secrets and coercive control. Described as "sinister, suspenseful and tightly written, with an ending...

Anna and Amanda discuss The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard.  This novel set in Japan and Hong Kong in 1947 explores the colonial era with a forbidden love story at its centre.  Described as "the last masterpiece of a vanished age of civility" ( Wall Street Journal ) it won the 2003 Miles Franklin Award and the National Book Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize. We also re...

A special episode: Anna chats with author Kylie Needham about her debut novel, Girl In A Pink Dress . Girl in a Pink Dress centres on Frances, an artist in her 40s who is invited to her former lover's exhibition opening in Sydney.  A beautiful, spare novel that explores the idea of two artists living together and female rage, against the backdrop of the Australian landscape.  Described as "a quiet...