The Bookshelf
ABC Australia
300 episodes
What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.
Episodes page 4 of 6
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We're back for 2024 featuring new novels from Katherena Vermette, Dolly Alderton and Jonathan Lethem
The Bookshelf is back for 2024 reviewing the latest from Katherena Vermette, Dolly Alderton and Jonathan Lethem.
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Summer Reads: history remade, futures reimagined
Reclaiming and retelling Australian history, where time is both stilled and circular, in Melissa Lucashenko's Edenglassie; and commenting on the past through alternative futures, in Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's…
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Summer Reads: True Crime, historical injustice, NZ satire and God's Teeth
The Bookshelf is a program for dedicated readers and those who wished they read more.
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Summer Reads: from Aphra Behn to Max Porter
Restoration political satire, Mediaeval rumour, eco-terrorism in New Zealand and a young man with a mixtape full of angst. Reading Max Porter's Shy, Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood, Robyn Cadwallader's The Fire and the…
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Summer reading: heists, horses, Harlem, Ireland, rage
Looking for books to rock you back on your heels? You've come to the right place. Kate and Cassie read Deborah Levy's August Blue, Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto, Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of this Book and…
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Summer Reads: Impossible creatures, an Indian thriller and love in a cherry orchard
Best books from the year, and some new interviews too. Kate and Cassie read Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake and Deepti Kapoor’s Age of Vice with guest crime specialist Sue Turnbull (and an extended conversation with Kapoor),…
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Romance, crime, adventure: Summer reading recommendations
Melanie Saward joins Kate for a genre-filled reading recommendation discussion of romance, the pseudonymous crime fiction of Australian author George Johnston (with Derham Groves), and historical fiction of the Hundred…
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Best Books of 2023: What to read now, next and over Summer
Kate, Cassie and three reading guests (critic Beejay Silcox, Books Editor Jason Steger and kids' author Tristan Bancks) on the books they've loved, the books they'd recommend, the books to give to a friend, the books…
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Bad Art Mother: Canberra Writers Festival Book Club pod extra
Kate Evans onstage for the Bookshelf and Canberra Writers Festival with CWF Artistic Director and critic Beejay Silcox, and novelist Edwina Preston, on Edwina's novel Bad Art Mother . . . and art, writing, motherhood,…
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The Book Club: Thrillers
Are you a crime fiction thriller fan? Those stories that get your heart racing and keep you awake all night? Even if you only dip into the genre once in a blue moon, you'll want to join us for a lively thriller themed…
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Reading the end of the world: Naomi Alderman, Michael Cunningham, Nicholas Jose, Katherine Brabon
Kate and Cassie read Nicholas Jose's The Idealist, Michael Cunningham's Day, Naomi Alderman's The Future and Katherine Brabon's Body Friend with guests Eugen Bacon (Serengotti) and Mireille Juchau (The World Without Us)
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Lucy Treloar, Tony Birch, Paul Auster, A K Blakemore: Books to chew on
Kate and Cassie read Lucy Treloar’s Days of Innocence and Wonder, Paul Auster’s Baumgartner, Tony Birch’s Women and Children and A K Blakemore’s The Glutton with academic Bruce Isaacs and writer Laura Elvery
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Memory, history, ghosts and parrots: Richard Flanagan, Sigrid Nunez, Jayne Anne Phillips
Kate and Cassie read Richard Flanagan's Question 7, Jayne Anne Phillips' Night Watch and Sigrid Nunez's The Vulnerables with guests novelist Eleanor Limprecht and writer Patrick Carey
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The Book Club: Historical Fiction with Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend and Zadie Smith's The Fraud
A monthly Book Club edition looking at works by two major literary names that add to the growing body of work attempting to address the past.
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New novels from Christos Tsiolkas, Amanda Lohrey, David Diop and Siân Hughes
Kate and Cassie read Christos Tsiolkas' The In-Between, Siân Hughes' Pearl, Amanda Lohrey's The Conversion and David Diop's Beyond the Door of No Return with guests critic and literary judge James Ley and novelist and…
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Jellyfish, beauty, betrayal and Camelot: new fiction
Kate and Cassie read Victoria Gosling's Bliss and Blunder, Sophie Keetch's Morgan is my Name, Joel Deane's Judas Boys and Mona Awad's Rouge with novelist A J Betts and theatre writer Tom Wright
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Melissa Lucashenko, Charlotte Wood and Bryan Washington: powerful new fiction
Kate and Cassie read Melissa Lucashenko's Edenglassie, Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional and Bryan Washington's Family Meal with guests Meredith Lake (Soul Search) and writer Sam Twyford-Moore (Castmates:…
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Three major new works - Trent Dalton, Paul Harding and Suzie Miller
Three major new works to delve into in this episode, by Trent Dalton, Paul Harding and Suzie Miller.
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The Book Club - Short Stories
In this edition of The Book Club we look at the art, and the science, of the short story with three brand new and intriguing Australian collections.
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Lauren Groff, Daniel Mason and Anna Kate Blair: fables, trees, history and art
Kate and Cassie read Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds, Daniel Mason's North Woods and Anna Kate Blair's The Modern with writer Maggie Mackellar (Graft) and the Art Show's Rosa Ellen. Survival, hunger, lush landscapes,…
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Novels by Anne Enright, Paul Lynch and Emma Donoghue: love, pain, politics and Ireland
Reading yet more extraordinary fiction from Irish novelists (OK Emma Donoghue actually now lives in Canada, but she's originally Irish): Kate and Cassie on Paul Lynch's Prophet Song, Anne Enright's The Wren, The Wren,…
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Bringing the Past to Life: with Geraldine Brooks, Pip Williams and Sally Colin-James
Kate Evans discusses historical fiction onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival with Geraldine Brooks (Horse, Year of Wonders, March), Pip Williams (The Bookbinder of Jericho, The Dictionary of Lost Words) and Sally…
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The Book Club: Frank Moorhouse Retrospective
A year on from the death of Frank Moorhouse, we examine the work of this much-loved yet troubled writer with his biographer Catharine Lumby and colleague Angelo Loukakis.
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New fiction from Chris Womersley, Jenny Erpenbeck and Tan Twan Eng: Australia, Germany, Malaysia
Kate and Cassie read Chris Womersley's Ordinary Gods and Monsters, Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos and Tan Twan Eng's The House of Doors with critic Declan Fry and novelist Nilima Rao
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New fiction from Peter Polites, Angela O'Keeffe and Guy Guneratne
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh read Peter Polites' God Forgets About the Poor, Angela O'Keeffe's The Sitter and Guy Guneratne's Mister Mister with poet Madison Godfrey and journalist and novelist Paul Daley
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New books by Ann Patchett, Naoise Dolan and Hwang Sok-yong: “Good marriages are never as interesting as bad affairs”
Cassie and Kate read Ann Patchett's Tom Lake, Naoise Dolan's The Happy Couple and Hwang Sok-yong's Mater 2-10 with actor Angourie Rice and novelist Jock Serong
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The Book Club - Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023 shortlist
Kate, Cassie and guests examine all six finalists for the 2023 miles Franklin Literary Award.
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Crooked Harlem, corrupt Wellington, bereaved London: books by Colson Whitehead, Emily Perkins and Elizabeth McCracken
Kate and Cassie read Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto, Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of this Book and Emily Perkins' Lioness with poet Miles Merrill and literary scholar Bernadette Brennan
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A crying room, a road trip and blazing fury: Gretchen Shirm, Richard Ford and Claire Kilroy
Kate Evans and Jonathan Green read Gretchen Shirm's The Crying Room, Richard Ford's Be Mine and Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor with historian Peter McPhee and writer Ashley Hay. Cassie McCullagh will be back for the…
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Fiction: The State of the Art
Kate Evans onstage with writers Colson Whitehead, Eleanor Catton, Richard Flanagan and Tracey Lien at the recent Sydney Writers Festival, on the state of the novel.
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Wifedom, hoarded memories and political road rage: New books by Anna Funder, Jen Craig and Priya Guns
Aboriginal, Chinese-Malaysian and Muslim writer and academic Eugenia Flynn co-hosts the Bookshelf this week with Kate Evans, reading Anna Funder's Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life, Priya Guns' Your Driver is…
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The Book Club: The Greek Myths
What is it about the Greek myths that make them so adaptable, reusable, ever popular – and up for all manner of rewrites?
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Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist 2023: pod extra interview special
Interviews with all six shortlisted authors for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award from RN's The Bookshelf and Book Show (in alphabetical order). The shortlist was announced on 20 June; the winner will be announced…
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Gay saunas, dog walking and an extravagant lie: new fiction from R F Kuang, Dennis Altman and Briohny Doyle
Stealing a manuscript, walking your grief along coastal edges and underhand behaviour at an international AIDS conference: Kate and Cassie read Dennis Altman's Death in the Sauna, R F Kuang's Yellowface and Briohny…
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Strangers and Saints: Katherena Vermette and Benjamin Myers
A story of wandering pilgrims, woman brewers, stonemasons and eels – in the North of England from the 7th century until now; and Métis-Michif women in Canada across the twentieth and into the twenty-first century: Kate…
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Politicians, ghosts and sad girls: books by Lorrie Moore, Robert Gott and Pip Finkemeyer
Naked politicians, roadtrips with the dead, and funny-sad girls in Berlin: Kate and Cassie read Robert Gott's Naked Ambition, Lorrie Moore's I am Homeless if this is not My Home and Pip Finkemeyer's Sad Girl Novel with…
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The Book Club - Romantic Comedy
Step aboard this Book Club edition of The Bookshelf which is hopelessly devoted to the genre of Romantic Comedy.
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From the Sydney Writers Festival with Shehan Karunatilaka, Jason Reynolds and Grace Chan
Kate and Cassie recorded this edition of The Bookshelf onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival on Friday 26 May 2023 with writers Shehan Karunatilaka, Jason Reynolds and Grace Chan
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Grifters, pilgrims and scribes: new fiction from Emma Cline, Benjamin Myers and Robyn Cadwallader
Kate and Cassie read Benjamin Myers' Cuddy, Robyn Cadwallader's The Fire and the Rose and Emma Cline's The Guest with mediaeval historian Clare Monagle and novelist Laura McPhee-Brown
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History, identity, doppelgangers: new fiction from Deborah Levy, André Dao and Catherine Lacey
Kate and Cassie read Deborah Levy's August Blue, André Dao's Anam and Catherine Lacey's Biography of X with guests writer and curator Sheila Ngọc Phạm and theatre writer Tom Wright. Histories, family stories,…
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Poetry, jumpers, islands: new fiction from John Kinsella, Justin Cronin, Jente Posthuma
Kate and Cassie read John Kinsella’s Cell Night: A Verse Novel, Jente Posthuma’s What I’d Rather Not Think About and Justin Cronin’s The Ferryman with poet and novelist Omar Sakr and documentary maker Johan Gabrielsson
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The Book Club: Salman Rushdie
When Salman Rushdie was attacked in Chautauqua, New York in August last year, Victory City, his latest novel, was already finished. Some say it's not only a return to form, but also uncannily prophetic.
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New books by Max Porter, Han Kang and Yan Lianke
Reading Max Porter's Shy, Han Kang's Greek Lessons and Yan Lianke's Heart Sutra with writers (and writers-in-translation, both) Linda Jaivin and Ennis Ćehić
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A bookbinder, Andy Warhol's typist and the cleverest woman in the world
Reading Pip Williams' The Bookbinder of Jericho, Juan Gómez-Jurado's Red Queen and Nicole Flattery's Nothing Special with writers Ashley Kalagian Blunt and Joanna Horton
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Dystopia, satire, gladiators and gardeners: new fiction from Eleanor Catton and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Savage explorations of the present, using different literary forms, in two new novels. Kate and Cassie are joined by guests film academic Bruce Isaacs and NZ literary leader Claire Mabey, to read Booker Prize winning…
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The Book Club - weather in fiction with Hannah Kent and Robbie Arnott
A journey through the myriad of ways weather presents itself in fiction for this monthly edition of The Book Club.
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Mermaids, man overboard and more: new fiction from Julia Langbein and Stephanie Bishop
Reading Julia Langbein's comedic take on Hollywood's ruthless screen industry in American Mermaid, and Stephanie Bishop's The Anniversary, a watery mystery about creative tension and desire.
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Sleuths, silence, secrets: new fiction from Rebecca Makkai, Carole Hailey and Sebastian Barry
Reading award-winning novelist Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions For You, along with The Silence Project by Carole Hailey. Plus, an interview with much-loved Irish novelist Sebastian Barry.
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Freedom, family and an all-consuming love: new fiction from Anindita Ghose, Vigdis Hjorth and Alice Nelson
Reading Anindita Ghose's bestseller The Illuminated and Is Mother Dead by Norwegian author Vigdis Hjorth with guest reviewers Maria Takolander and Suma Iyer, and an interview with Australian author Alice Nelson.
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Podcast extra: Infidelity and compassion: changing morality in 19th century fiction
Novels about infidelity can be cautionary tales but also reveal changing attitudes
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