A Good Read

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a guide to spiritual enlightenment and preaches the importance of being in the moment. Alex George has found it an invaluable guide when he has suffered periods of anxiety and poor mental health. Ella Al-Shamahi chooses a first hand account of being imprisoned in Yemen by Abdulkader Al-Guneid, a medical doctor taken from his home and locked up for over a year for posting his political views about the conflict in Yemen on social media. She says Prison Time in Sana'a is a testament to inner strength as well as a guide to understanding a very complex if forgotten war. Harriett's choice is the Mermaid of Black Conch - a novel about the capture of a sea woman by white fishermen on a fictional Caribbean island. Little Mermaid it is not. Monique Roffey's mermaid has bad teeth and is full of sea lice.Producer: Maggie Ayre

Comedian Rob Newman and writer Sarfraz Manzoor talk about favourite books. Rob loves John Berger's novel To the Wedding, but not everyone finds it hugely romantic. Sarfraz has chosen Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume 1. Thus far, there has been no Volume 2. Harriett enjoys Eric Ambler's The Mask of Dimitrious, a thriller which criss-crosses pre-war Europe.Producer Sally Heaven

Novelist Dreda Say Mitchell and the writer and podcaster Emma Gannon talk about their favourite books with Harriett. Dreda chooses An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole, a romance set during the American Civil War. Emma has gone for the mouth watering memoir Dinner with Edward by Isabel Vincent, and Harriett transports us to a very wet Scottish holiday in Sarah Moss' Summerwater. Producer Sally Heaven

A novel about compassion set against the backdrop of the Aberfan disaster is comedian and actor Omid Djalili's choice of a good read. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe is a novel about a young man who becomes an embalmer and who goes straight from his graduation ceremony to help at the site of the tragedy in Aberfan to take care of the deceased's bodies. That experience is to shape the rest of his life and his relationships with his mother and wife as well as an early schoolfriend are all affected. Nikita Lalwani chooses a quirky book of short stories by Charles Yu called Third Class Superhero - the message of which seems to be it's OK to be mediocre. Harriett Gilbert's choice is Elena Ferrante's The Lost Daughter recently made into a film starring Olivia Coleman. It lays bare the complexities of motherhood and the mixed feelings it evokes.Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio Bristol

Julie Hesmondhalgh is a well known face on television and stage. Recently she has been in The Pact on BBC1 and played Hayley in Coronation Street. Her choice of book is Notes To Self by Emilie Pine - a raw and powerful memoir of life for a young Irish woman. It's not a 'mis-mem' or misery memoir as Julie is keen to point out, rather a life affirming and honest account of womanhood, a book she has given copies of to many women friends. Elaine C Smith chooses the memoir of Scots poet Jackie Kay - Red Dust Road - a love letter as Elaine describes it - to Jackie's adoptive parents as well as her birth parents. It deals with the painful quest to find her Nigerian father and Scots mother whilst feeling that she was betraying her loving adoptive parents. It also recounts the prejudices experienced by a young dual heritage girl. Birdsong In A Time of Silence is as you would expect an appreciation of the sounds of nature that suddenly became amplified during the Covid Spring of 2020. Steven Lovatt records his walks and observations of wildlife during the first lockdown. All three agree that it has opened their eyes and ears to avian behaviour in a new way.Producer: Maggie Ayre

BAFTA winning actor Joanna Scanlan champions The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe's tale of Ken Kesey, the Merry Pranksters and US counter culture. Writer Sabine Durrant's favourite is Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, a simple but powerful story of a man's moral predicament in a small Irish community. Harriett enjoys Georgette Heyer's romance set in 1816, The Grand Sophy. Producer Sally Heaven

Comedian Jessica chooses The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science, by Will Storr, provoking a discussion about whether you can empathise with someone, no matter what they believe. Harriett loves The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell, leading to speculation about which of them would be sent to an asylum had feminism not moved things on somewhat. Writer Molly's choice of You're Not Listening by Kate Murphy causes everyone to listen attentively to what the others are saying. Producer Sally Heaven

Actor Alistair Petrie, from TV series Sex Education, found Joan Didion's meditation on grief, The Year of Magical Thinking, unexpectedly uplifting. Writer Alex Wheatle, subject of one of Steve McQueen's Small Axe films, found Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island a means of escape from the horrors of his childhood, and presenter Harriett Gilbert enjoyed Men Don't Cry, by Faiza Guene. Producer Sally Heaven

Radio 1 and CBBC presenter Katie Thistleton and historian and author Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books. Suzannah's choice is Nicci Gerrard's 'What Dementia Teaches Us about Love". Harriett opts for 'The Good Doctor' by Damon Galgut, and Katie's pick is 'And Now for the Good News' by Ruby Wax.Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Toby Field

CHVRCHES frontwoman Lauren Mayberry and comedian and writer Rob Deering are Harriett Gilbert's guests this week. Rob picks a staple of the literary canon, 'Mansfield Park' by Jane Austen, a frothier read than perhaps anyone remembers featuring the "Indiana Jones of 19th century social graces”. Lauren chooses the Japanese dystopian novel 'The Memory Police' by Yōko Ogawa, which she says draws parallels with the political realities of today. 'Kiss Myself Goodbye' by Ferdinand Mount is Harriett's choice in which Mount searches for the truth behind his mysterious Aunt Munca, uncovering a history of deceptions, false identities and abandonment.Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Toby Field