Books & Chat: Short Book Reviews & Literary Discussions
Episodes
Bitesize episode - A Review of Intermezzo by Sally Rooney and Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
07 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A reflective exploration of Intermezzo and Kairos - the pause that gives the meaning and the moment that matters. In this solo episode, Christina shar...
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Christina sit downs with Ang for a candid conversation about what it means to live on the margins - socially, physically, and politically. From the re...
Bitesize Episode: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The non~negotiable superpower! This book, the first of its kind written by a scientific expert, Professor Matthew Walker explores twenty years of cutt...
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for July 2025An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histori...
The Bitesize Book Review - The Book Club by CJ Cooper
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can you trust the woman next door? The book club was her idea, of course - Alice's. It was her way into our group. A chance to get close. I knew from ...
The Bitesize Book Review: Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bored of 1970s suburban life, Maurice and Maralyn plan their escape: sell the house, build a boat, set sail for New Zealand. Then, halfway around the ...
Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month for June 2021Shortlisted for the Portico Prize 2022Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your l...
The Bitesize Book Review: We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who knows you better than your best friend? Who knows your secrets, your fears, your desires, your strange imperfect self?Edi and Ash have been best f...
Go As A River by Shelley Read
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When a moment changes everything, how do you live the rest of your life?1940s Colorado: Teenage Victoria Nash is the only woman in a family of trouble...
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
an affair between a young Catholic woman and a married Protestant barrister drives this brilliant novel set in 1975 Belfast.
Christopher Bland Prize winner The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
25 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Salt Path is a 2024 British biographical drama film directed by Marianne Elliott based on the book of the same name and one read in book club a fe...
Gloucester Book Club's Top 3 Books of 2024
05 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode by host, Christina Young, talks about the top 3 books Gloucester Book Club read together in 2024, as voted for by book club members. Cr...
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Waterstones Novel of the Year 2023 A gripping, heart-shattering love story between two soldiers in the First World War.It's 1914, and talk of war fee...
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary, but Logan Mountstuart's - lived from the beginning to the end of the twentieth century - contains more ...
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Morrison siblings have been haunted by tragedy since the sudden death of their parents in an accident when they were young. Kate found an escape f...
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our Missing Hearts is the third novel by the American author Celeste Ng. It was published in 2022 by Penguin Press. The novel follows Noah Gardner...
A Chat with Rachel Sargeant author of the Gloucestershire Crime Series
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel Sargeant is the author of The Roommates, The Good Teacher, and The Perfect Neighbours. She also writes the Gloucestershire Crime Series, whi...
Hard By a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Shortlisted for the Wilbur & Niso Smith Adventure Prize for Fiction - could this be the winner? An extraordinary tale of family, scarifice and our nev...
Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Athena Liu is a literary darling.June Hayward is literally nobody. But when June just happens to witness Athena die in a freak accident, she realises ...
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is your ability to focus and pay attention in free fall? You are not alone. The average office worker now focuses on any one task for just three minut...
The Dust That Falls From Dreams by Louis de Bernieres
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the brief golden years of King Edward VII's reign, Rosie McCosh and her three very different sisters are growing up in an eccentric household in Ke...
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End is a 2014 non-fiction book by American surgeon Atul Gawande. The book addresses end-of-life care, h...
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an ...
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward...
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Shortlisted for The British Book Awards 2023 Fiction Book of the Year. ‘O'Farrell paints as evocative a picture of Renaissance Italy as she did Shak...
Heaven My Home by Attica Locke
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The thrilling follow-up to the award-winning Bluebird, Bluebird: Texas Ranger Darren Matthews is on the hunt for a boy who's gone missing - but it's t...
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
08 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It is the tale, simply told, of one ordinary middle-aged man - Bill Furlong - who in December 1985, in a small Irish town, slowly grasps the enormity ...
Top 4 books from 2023
05 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gloucester Book Club’s top 3 books read and discussed in 2023 and voted for by members of book club
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by Kate Nivison
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From Stories For Christmas and the festive season - British Library
Ticket for a Carol Concert by Audrey Burton
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Taken from Stories for Christmas and the festive season - British Library Women Writers
French Braid by Anne Tyler
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Redhead by the Side of the Road returns with a luminous new novel that paints a joyous ...
A Visitor by Holly Crawford from Spooky Ambiguous
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The second episode of our Halloween series of short stories from Spooky Ambiguous, ghost stories and poetry fangs and fairy tales, published by Crumps...
Prohibido El Paso by Patrick Booth - a short story for Halloween 🎃👻💀
13 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Taken from Spooky Ambiguous - an intriguing collection of short stories and poetry where nothing and no-one is as they seem. With permission from Crum...
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved Library. Together with her fellow librarians, O...
The Five - Hallie Rubenhold. How do I know if this book is for me - just listen in!
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“A passionate condemnation of the misogyny Jack the Ripper's victims have been held in for over a century, The Five tells an engrossing group biogra...
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“Tackling the issue of long-term mental illness with wit and candour, Mason’s remarkable novel takes a rounded, empathetic look at the condition t...
Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
But there she was Sadie Green, in the flesh. And to see her almost made him want to cry. It was as if she were a mathematical proof that had eluded hi...
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Waterstones book of 2022, British Book Awards author of 2023, debut novelist Bonnie Garmus brings us Lessons in Chemistry. “smart,funny, joyous and ...
Stoner by John Williams
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
John Williams’s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, b...
Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A dazzling new novel of friendship, identity and the unknowability of other people – from the international bestselling author of Home Fire, winner ...
Flamingo by Rachel Elliott
03 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A brilliantly moving story of the cost of secrets and the power of hope, Flamingo revolves around two families, an unforgettable summer they spend tog...
Gloucester Book Club’s top 3 novels of 2022
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe, Still Life by Sarah Winman, A Town Solace called Solace by Mary Lawson
Lessons by Ian McEwan
13 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“In October 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, an English schoolboy arrives unannounced at his piano teacher’s house. He stands on h...
Small Mercies - a Christmas short story by Kate Atkinson
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A festive tale from ‘Festive Spirits’ written by Kate Atkinson 2019. Read by Christina Young
The Girl who Killed Santa Claus by Val McDermid. Narrated by Christina Young
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A short story taken from a chilling collection of short stories ‘Christmas is Murder’ published by Sphere in 2020
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
25 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nineteen-year-old William’s decision to volunteer at the tragic scene of the 1966 Aberfan landslide transforms his life forever in this moving story...
A Sweet Obscurity by Patrick Gale
04 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A moving and intensely felt examination of the lengths to which we will go to seek protection and security in others. Returning to haunted Cornish lan...
Mirror Mirror by Michael Bartlett read by Christina Young
29 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A spooky short story taken from a wonderful collection of gothic fairy tales and poetry, where nothing and no one is as they seem…..
For Halloween 🎃🧛Blood Moon by Amaris Chase
21 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A short story for Halloween from Spooky Ambiguous - a collection of ghost stories and poetry, fangs and fairy tales published by Crumps Barn Studio in...
In conversation with Christine Jordan, author of her debut crime novel ‘Misper’
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ten years ago, Sophie Shaw vanished. Kat, a technician who works in a DNA testing lab, is still haunted by the unsolved disappearance, and when she no...
A Halloween spooky story! 🎃👻. The Strange Tale of the Hobnail Boots by Margaret Royall
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A spooky story for Halloween set in the English countryside taken from a collection of short stories and poetry with a witchy feel ‘Spooky Ambiguous...
Violeta by Isabel Allende
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * This sweeping novel from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose li...
Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning novelist Jon McGregor returns with a stunning novel that tenderly unpicks the notion of heroism and explores the indomitable human impul...
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER* 'HELL YES. This is one of those books that has the potential to change things - a monumental piece of researc...
The British Book Awards Book of the Year Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - podcast updated July 2022
02 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Abandoned as a girl, Kya raised herself in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumors of the marsh girl haunted Barkley Cove, isola...
Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
'Riveting, twisty, page-turning stuff' Guardian A 'best books of 2020' pick for BBC Radio 4 Open Book, the Guardian, the Telegraph and Good Housekeep...
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
28 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Longlisted for Booker Prize 2021. Waterstones Says The acclaimed Canadian author of Crow Lake intertwines the lives of three characters brought togeth...
Still Life by Sarah Winman
29 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a big-hearted story of people brought together by love, war, art and the ghost of ...
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Waterstones Says Another acutely observed evocation of Middle America, Redhead by the Side of the Road is both a deliciously offbeat love story and an...
Booker Prize Winner 2021 The Promise by Damon Galgut
25 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Promise is a family saga spanning four decades, each of which features a death in the family. It concerns the Afrikaner Swart family and their far...
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
28 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
'A deeply emotional love story that follows one day in the life of Elle Bishop as she navigates the unravelling of secrets, lies and a very complex lo...
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest release and made it onto Barack Obama’s 2021 Reading List! A speculative story about a robot called Klara and her relation...
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
26 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you co...
A Colourful Country Escape with author Anita Faulkner
13 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I chat with Anita about her new book to be published next year.
Winner of the Glass Bell best novel award 2017 (UK) The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then wh...
An Extra Pair of Hands by Kate Mosse
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An Extra Pair of Hands is beautiful, heartbreaking, honest and ultimately uplifting story of carers, and by carers I mean women. I read it in one sitt...
Women’s Prize for Fiction winner Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she’s accepted an invitation from a mentor...
Costa Book Awards Best Novel Normal People by Sally Rooney
20 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Normal People is the story of deceptive simplicity, a very accessible narrative of two seemingly mismatched young people who share a profound, inescap...
Amazon’s Best Novel of 2017 Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we share our thoughts about this fantastic novel by Celeste Ng.
Women’s Prize for Fiction Winner Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we discuss the themes contained in Hamnet which won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020. We also talk about the history of the tim...
Aspen Words Literary Prize winner The Beekeeper of Aleppo By Christy Lefteri
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we discuss the themes in The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Women’s Prize for Fiction winner An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we are talking about the themes contained in An American Marriage
Booker Prize winner Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 2 in which we're chatting about the Booker Prize winner Girl, Woman, Other.
Relax in Book Lounge
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Brief describes what we do in our podcasts