Book Chat

Jan 29 2024 12 ep. 44 mins 225
Book Chat Podcast artwork

A monthly podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer, who bring a book each to chat about. The one rule: the books have to be more than 2 years old.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  Leisure  Society & Culture
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


11. Stoner & The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Jan 29 2024 57 mins  
A bittersweet episode of Book Chat has Pandora and Bobby discussing two fittingly bittersweet books: Stoner by John Williams and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Also, “some news”, a hearty goodbye, and a look back on some of our Book Chat faves from episodes past.You can get in touch [email protected] Books/articles mentioned:Stoner and Butcher’s

10. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret & The Bluest Eye

Oct 02 2023 51 mins  
We bring two books both published in 1970 to the table. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by “the poet laureate of puberty” Judy Blume, and The Bluest Eye, by the legendary Toni Morrison. You can get in touch [email protected] Books/articles mentioned:Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Forever and Deenie by Judy BlumeThe Bluest Eye, Beloved, Tar Baby and P

9. Augustown & Home Cooking

Sep 11 2023 36 mins  
After last month’s crowd-pleasers, Bobby and Pandora sink their teeth into two very different, equally meaty books. In Augustown by Kei Miller, a “dismal little valley” in Jamaica becomes a boiling pot of tension when a young boy’s dreadlocks are cut off. And in Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin, the boiling pots are a little more literal – and Pandora shares an all-timer of

8. Bridget Jones’s Diary & High Fidelity

Jul 31 2023 56 mins  
It’s a bumper episode 8, with Pandora and Bobby tackling two million-copy-bestselling, much-loved-movie-inspiring titans of the nineties. In Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, Pandora finds a surprisingly feminist heroine who’s no less funny 25 years on. And in Nick Hornby’s beloved High Fidelity, Bobby meets his match in a perpetually depressed man-boy who needs to l

7. Close Range & A Girl’s Story

Jun 30 2023 56 mins  
Book Chat is back, and episode 7 pits a Pulitzer-winning author against a Nobel-winning author. But not really: in the battle of the Annies whose name ends in ‘X’, both Bobby and Pandora are winners. Discussing Close Range by Annie Proulx, Bobby feels the need to make apologies for the unapologetic bleakness of rural Wyoming – while Pandora is transported back to the excrucia

6. When I Hit You & A Visit from the Goon Squad

Apr 30 2023 45 mins  
Episode 6 takes on one little known book and one very, very well-known book. Pandora finally reads A Visit from the Goon Squad and falls in love with Jennifer Egan's entire canon, while Bobby has mixed feelings about one of Pandora's absolute favourite books of recent times, When I Hit You, about a woman's violent marriage to a communist professor in South India.You can get in touc

5. Memorial & The Virgin Suicides

Mar 31 2023 41 mins  
Welcome to episode 5! On the menu today is Memorial by Byran Washington, which just slips over our '2 years old' threshold - the hype is arguably still hyping - and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, which was written 30 years ago and yet still, the hype hypes (StudioCanal just released a sparkly new version of the film.)We discuss Memorial's literary take on the 'meet the p

4. All That Man Is & The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Feb 28 2023 42 mins  
For Episode 4 of Book Chat, we travel back just a decade or so, to Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and David Szalay's short stories in a novel, All That Man Is.We discuss Mohsin Hamid's ability to condense big ideas - what makes a fundamentalist? What biases are you bringing to the story? - into readable prose (and his other magical novels like Exit West) and David Szal

3. Wuthering Heights & Orlando

Jan 31 2023 48 mins  
It's episode 3 of Book Chat! And this month we are travelling hundreds of years back, to a book Pandora's always wanted to read (Orlando, by Virginia Woolf) and one of Bobby's all-time favourites (Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.) Last episode, Pandora groaned at the prospect of Wuthering Heights, which she read - and loathed - for GCSE. So has she changed her mind? We disc

2. White Teeth & Convenience Store Woman

Dec 31 2022 42 mins  
Welcome back to Book Chat, a new monthly books podcast brought to you by novelist Bobby Palmer and journalist Pandora Sykes, which does what it says on the tin: we each bring one book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. NB: this is a meaty book chat, not a book review show, so if you have not yet read the books, there will&nbs