Lucky's Book Lounge

I sat down to talk about a book. I ended up on a 30-minute rant about the end of human intelligence. Sorry not sorry. This week's pick is The Feed by Nick Clark Windo, and yes, I do actually talk about it, for about ten minutes, promise. But then two real-world quotes hijacked the episode entirely: Sam Altman on intelligence becoming a utility, metered out like electricity or water. And a (fabrica...

Have you ever found something and felt, "this was meant for me"? That's how I felt reading The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. You have to go in blind on this one. It's that good. I don't have the words to describe it without giving anything away, so I won't try. This is a literary sci-fi thriller about identity, and that's all I'll tell you about the plot. Read it before you listen to my take on this...

What if every single moment of your life; every word, every choice, every heartbreak, every mistake, is being recorded? This data is not just tracked but is used. It is fed into a system designed to optimize your entire existence. That's the world Ryan David Ginsburg builds in In the Algorithm We Trust. From the moment you're born, your life becomes data. Your relationships aren't just...

This is a sequel to Episode 4. We continue the journey of several black women trying to find their spaces. This episode contains a lot of swearing. I have never realized how much I use the F word in my daily register. I record the same way I speak, and I am not an excellent editor, so I could not take them out, and if I did, it would distort the flow. Which reminds me, there are several mistakes i...

The Chain by Adrian McKinty We all have our biggest fears. Something that we feel that if it happened to us, we would not survive. But sometimes, for those unlucky enough to experience them, we find that those fears are nothing compared to reality. For parents, the big fears are usually getting a call that your child has been in an accident, your child is missing, or the stuff of movies, your chil...

Part Two: Baby Nicole This is the final chapter in our four-part journey through Gilead. By now, we understand something important: regimes like Gilead do not collapse overnight. They are weakened slowly and painfully through years of resistance, sacrifice and ordinary people refusing to let the bastards grind them down. Sometimes, the people fighting back never see victory. Sometimes they die bel...

Part One: Aunt Lydia You are now familiar with Gilead. You understand how it works, how the women are oppressed and exploited, reduced to their bodies. You try to understand the Wives. You excuse the Marthas. You even make sense of the Jezebels; they are surviving the only way they can. But there are the Aunts. The only women who, for some reason, are allowed to read and write. The women who train...

Part Two: Offred Imagine waking up one day and everything has changed. The rights and freedoms you enjoyed, took for granted even, erased. You are no longer a person. You are considered a national treasure. But make no mistake, it's not you who is treasured, just your body. Because of what it can produce. You are not protected; you are controlled. Step out of line, and your body is no longer yours...

Part One: The Structure of Gilead. A totalitarian regime. A patriarchal theocracy. A world where power is absolute and entirely male. You’ve heard the arguments before . That the problems of modern society can be traced back to women. To feminism. To giving women too much freedom, too much voice(hello manosphere). But what if those ideas were taken to the extreme? What if women lost everything? We...

In this episode, we explore the memoir When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. This is the story of a man who did everything right. A life shaped by curiosity, discipline, and purpose, leading him from literature to medicine, and to the brink of becoming a neurosurgeon. And then, everything breaks. Diagnosed with cancer in the final stretch of his residency, he is forced to confront the very qu...

This is a sequel, kind of, to Episode 13: Lightseekers by the same author. You can still listen to the two episodes individually as the stories are different. A woman is dead. Her husband has been arrested for her murder. But this is neither an ordinary marriage nor an ordinary suspect. The accused is a powerful bishop, the revered leader of one of the country’s largest mega-churches, a man worshi...

This is my favourite love story of all time. And like all truly unforgettable love stories… it’s a tragedy. I keep coming back to this story because it captures the kind of love I hope to experience someday. Not the kind that’s extraordinary because it ends in a neat little 'happily ever after,' but the kind that’s extraordinary because of how two people choose to spend the time they’re given. Bec...

It’s Valentine’s week. The air feels heavier; perfumed with roses, promises, and the soft illusion of forever. For lovers, it’s candlelight dinners. Sweet nothings. Slow kisses. Grand gestures. For singles, it’s quieter. A glass of wine. A brave smile. A little self-love. A little jealousy. A stubborn, flickering hope that maybe , just maybe, next year will be different. And then there’s us. The o...

You’ve seen it before. You may have even stood in the crowd. A phone disappears. A bag is ripped away. A wallet is gone. This time, the thief doesn’t escape. He’s caught. Surrounded. Nowhere to run. Anger spreads fast. Not just for this moment, but for every loss before it. Every theft that went unanswered. Every crime that went unpunished. Faces harden. Voices rise. Maybe this is the one who stol...

Picture this: one day, your parents tell you they are going to shoot a reality show in your home. You are excited for sure, but this does not mean much to you as you are only eight years old, and furthermore, it centers around your older sister. What makes your sister so special? Well, apparently, she's possessed, yes, you read that right, and you will be sharing your experience as a family with t...

You have mapped out your life for the next few years. You know what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and the success of which plans comes first so the others can fall into place. You know it's not going to be easy, but your childhood prepared you for this. You are a survivor, a go-getter, a hard worker, a problem solver. You are made of sterner stuff. However, you will soon discover...

On New Year's Eve we gather with friends to welcome the new year. We celebrate with people who have supported us for a whole year and make promises to be there for each other one more orbit around the sun. However, sometimes these relationships are strained. Sometimes we unintentionally hurt each other, other times refuse to acknowledge the hurt we cause to avoid having difficult conversations. We...

Christmas is the season to celebrate with families and friends. Spend time with the people closest to you and extend the cheer to those less fortunate. When a foreign student gets invited to celebrate the holiday with a posh British family, she jumps at the chance to experience something new. Follow her captivating story as we discover what family means to different people and how far they are wil...

Sibling relationships are very nuanced. Some are filled with unconditional love, others are always brewing with jealousy. These relationships are usually authored by our parents/ guardians either intentionally or as a product of our relationships with said caregivers. Oftentimes, the relationship dynamics we experience in our formative years shape the bonds we form as adults. In this book, an elde...

Welcome to Lucky's Book Lounge. A space to talk about books, laugh, dream and get inspired.

When you hear the word(name) Frankenstein what comes to mind? A monster? An unimaginable horror of the night created in a lab? Or a mad doctor obsessed with conquering the science of man? Whatever it invokes in you depends on how much you have engaged with the content from Mary Shelley's masterpiece. Published in 1818, the book explores themes of obsession, loneliness, revenge and the horrific...

I knew what to expect in this book: a dystopian society, a totalitarian regime, oppressed masses, the resistance, a hero, and finally, a hopeful future. Well, 1984 gave me all that, but not in the way I was mentally prepared for. The regime? Not the capitalist one that always takes power in these cases. The masses? Do we even like them or are we just disgusted because we can see ourselves in them?...

A memoir. We have all heard about the girl who stood up for children's education and the Taliban shot her in the head. Let's dive into her upbringing, her family, her fears and her goals. It's a heartwarming story of strength and fortitude, of taking a stand simply because the alternative is unthinkable. Walk with Malala as she grows and learns what it means to have the courage of your...

Be a part of three black women's journey as they seek acceptance and belonging in spaces that consistently remind them that they are outsiders and will never be enough. Enjoy their highs and cry with them during the low moments. Would you want their lives? Would you make better choices? Would you fight harder or would you conform?

Welcome to Lucky's Book Lounge, a warm corner for story lovers, dreamers and imaginative minds. Pull a chair as we travel the magical worlds of books. Let's laugh, feel, dream and learn together.