Sentimental Garbage

Scenes of a Graphic Nature has been out for over a month, so Caroline and Ella are talking about it! We say this is an 'all spoiler' edition, but in practice there are actually very few spoilers and a lot of discussion of grief, working together, how it feels when a book comes out, how perceptions of Ireland have changed in less than a decade, the use of music in the novel, friendship and porn. Bu...

This week we're talking about food, friendship and the cult favourite of Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin. Brian Eno once said that everyone who bought The Velvet Underground's first record went on to form a band, and the same can be said of Home Cooking and people who went on to write cookbooks. We talk about recipe writing, the godlike power of food writers, our dowdy twenties, tiny flats, and the...

CONTENT WARNING: frequent, graphic mentions of suicide We're back after a short break with more Covid-appropriate reading material, and what's more pandemic-y than The Virgin Suicides, a book where everyone dies and no one leaves their house. We talk about bad faith readings, Lolita, Sylvia Plath, the 'we' voice, suburbia, and Jeffrey's talent for smells. Caroline O'Donoghue has two books out, the...

My second book is out on audio and ebook today, here's me talking about it and doing a reading! Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O'Donoghue https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WN4QNYN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1 Audio narration by Esther O'Moore Donohoe https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Scenes-of-a-Graphic-Nature-Audiobook/1004001509?qid=1592504228&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_...

No new episode this week, but here are some fiction recommendations that you might be interested in given the current political climate: Heads Of The Coloured People - Nafissa Thompson-Spires Kindred - Octavia E Butler Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison Nudibranch - Irenosen Okojie Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid Property - Valerie Martin The Wedding Date - Jasmine Guillory Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardin...

This week we're talking about 1989's smash-hit debut The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. We talk debut novels, immigration literature, why so many women find Amy Tan in their teens, mothers and their daughters, food and how it travels, and why we're still obsessed with Waverly Jong. Lillian Li's "The Love Hate Joy Luck Club” - https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2015/05/the-love-hate-joy-luck-club/ Sentimen...

This week on the Corona Cast, Caroline and Ella discuss the ultimate smart lady holiday book (she's going to Split) American Wife! American Wife is a 2009 novel inspired by the life of Laura Bush, former First Lady and wife of George Bush junior. Here, we know her as Alice Blackwell. Beginning in the mid-west in the 1950s, we follow Alice from her quiet childhood to the car accident in her teens t...

CONTENT WARNING: rape, fat shaming, homophobia, literally all possible triggers a person could have. This week it's another special edition of Sentimental Garbage, where we talk about the novels that are getting us through the corona virus! Today we’re talking about VALLEY OF THE DOLLS by Jacqueline Susann When twenty year-old Anne Welles moves from New England to New York in the summer of 1945, s...

It's week two of the Corona Cast, and we're still stuck in our bedrooms. What better time to get into supernatural YA classic, Margaret Mahy's The Changeover? Ella and Caroline talk about going back to adolescence, magical admin, morally ambiguous witches, suburban New Zealand, forgiveness, the extremely good film adaptation, and "changing over" from girl to woman. Caroline O'Donoghue is an author...

Welcome to our Corona Cast, a series where I invite my favourite people (mostly Ella) to record remotely on their favourite books, regardless of genre, sentimentality, or garbage-y content. Today, we're doing Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido. Katherine is an eighteen year old first year university student who, after meeting the flamboyant and much older John Millet at a book shop...

Hold steady everyone, there’s a WAR ON! Joining Caroline O'Donoghue is author, cook and currently in love with a set of twins, KATE YOUNG and today we’re talking about The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley published in 1984.  Every summer, a group of young cousins – Oliver, Walter, Calypso, Polly and the much younger Sophy – gather at their Aunt Helena and Uncle Richard’s house in Cornwall fo...

Nothing says Christmas like freezing to death in your country estate while your sisters commit themselves to fascism and/or Marxist theory! Caroline O'Donoghue and returning guest Ella Risbridger discuss the Mitford sisters, the political climate (yikes) and why we will never stop loving Nancy, Pam, Diana, Unity, Decca and Debo. The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford Hons & Rebels - Jessica Mitfo...

Rupert Campbell Black is back, he's fighting for a TV franchise in rural Gloucestershire (????) and he's in love with an Irish teenager! This week bestselling Irish author Cathy Kelly joins us to talk Jilly Cooper's Rivals. Here, the vast cast of characters are condensed into 800 page epic that shows us that Jilly doesn't just do horses and sex - she also does corporate takeovers. Cathy talks eigh...

Why DOES Mummy Drink? This week we're talking about the Gill Simms blog-turned-literary sensation WHY MUMMY DRINKS. WMD tells the story of Ellen, a mother of two who drinks too much, swears too much, and probably likes her kids when she's not aggressively despising everyone around her. Bestselling author of Lies Lies Lies Adele Parks joins us to talk about her relationship with the series as well...

Regular guest and deep friend of the pod Ella Risbridger is back, but this time to talk about poetry! In her anthology SET ME ON FIRE, Ella gathers some of the best, weirdest, sexiest poetry that she could afford and dedicated it to MEEEE!!!!! We talk about our long and bitter arguments about poetry, why it's such a easy artform to hate, and how you can change your mind about it (especially if sch...

Is this the only Sentimental Garbage to win a Pulitzer? This week we talk to writer, editor and spiritual bottom Phil Ellis about Andrew Sean Greer's LESS, the funniest and sweetest novel to ever win a major literary prize. We talk about love, the struggles of freelance life, ageing while gay, being friends with your exes and why we're both so bad at spotting twists. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...

This week is the anniversary of our first episode, so what better way to celebrate than with the MOST requested book on our list - yes, I've received your emails, and we are doing Riders. Jojo Moyes talks to us about her horsey beginnings in Hackney, and we discuss Rupert Campbell Black, the world of competitive showjumping, and the overall genius of Dame Jilly Cooper. Get your feet firmly in the...

Grab your bucket and spade and your flask of ginger beer, because we're taking a trip back to 1930s Bognor Regis! Today we're talking about RC Sheriff's The Fortnight in September with Backlisted's own Andy Miller. We talk family holidays, unreasonable fears of Clapham Junction, and why it's so rare to read good books about nice people. Yes, they're boring and annoying. But aren't we all? Hosted o...

Rev up your motorcycle and buckle in for your drink driving accident because the Sweet Valley twins are here and a trail of death and destruction usually follows them. This week we talk to author of I'm Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come author Jessica Pan about her childhood in conservative Texas, high drama, slut-shaming, ghost-writing, the romance of twins and what it's like longing for twin...

This week, we're exploring Sarah J Maas's insanely popular A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES series with Litwitchure maven Jennifer Cownie. This fantasy-retelling of Beauty and the Beast lets us explore horny pagan rituals, blind worms, Stockholm Syndrome, exquisite sexual tension and why NA (New Adult) fiction has become so huge with adult women. Spoiler: it's because we're all randy as hell and love m...

We're back for season 4 with Caroline Kepnes, the bestselling author of YOU, to talk about the book that made her lock herself into an ice-cream shop. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough is a sweeping inter-generational epic that focuses on a love triangle between an old woman, a little girl and a Catholic priest. We talk about destiny in romance literature, Bunny McDougall, the horrors of Austr...

It's the last episode of the season, and we're rounding it off with one of my favourite books of all time The Signature Of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, with one of my favourite people of all time, artist and photographer Gavin Day. We talk about swashbuckling dads, rivalries with Kew Gardens, how historical novels make us face contemporary issues, masturbating in closets and how we want to rai...

CW: addiction, anorexia, bulimia. They tried to make her go to rehab... and frankly, it was a good idea. This week we're talking about the most anticipated book ever on Sentimental Garbage, Rachel's Holiday. Marian Keyes' modern classic tells the story of Rachel, a deeply insecure Irish ex-pat who has developed a coke addiction while living in New York and becomes committed by her family to a reha...

What came first, the music or the misery? We invite podcaster Alan Maguire on to talk about Nick Hornby's classic High Fidelity, discussing relationships, break-ups, Jack Black's animal magnetism, performing your relationship for other people, the world of record shops, the biting insight that still makes us cringe in recognition, and whether we can cancel Rob in good faith when he's trying so har...

To celebrate the release of the audiobook of Caroline's book, Promising Young Women, writer, podcaster and now audiobook star Tessa Coates comes to talk to us about Carrie Fisher's Postcards From The Edge, as well as discussing the unnervingly unsupervised world of audio books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.