A Good Read

ALL FOURS by Miranda July, chosen by Desiree Akhavan UNTRUE by Wednesday Martin, chosen by Rosie Wilby DRAGON TALK by Fleur Adcock, chosen by Harriett GilbertFilmmaker and writer Desiree Akhavan joins comedian, writer and podcaster Rosie Wilby as they discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Desiree's choice is All Fours by Miranda July, a novel about a perimenopausal woman's sexual awakening on an unusual road trip. By coincidence, Rosie Wilby chooses a non-fiction book which looks at research into women's sexuality, Untrue by Wednesday Martin. Harriett's choice is a volume of poetry by Fleur Adcock, dealing with matters of family and childhood.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc Photo credit Cecila Frugiuele

THE IRON AGE by Arja Kajermo A SHORT STAY IN HELL by Steven L Peck STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL by Charlotte WoodJames Rebanks is a farmer from the Lake District as well as author of The Shepherd's Life. His new book The Place of Tides is about his time in Norway learning from an elderly woman who cared for eider ducks on a remote island. His book choice is The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo, a Finnish novel about rural life in the 1950s, told from the perspective of a young girl. James finds it speaks to his northern sensibility as it documents the hard life of an impoverished farming family in post war Finland.Kiri Pritchard-McLean is a multi-award winning Welsh comedian, satirist and writer. Her choice is A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L Peck about a Mormon condemned to exist in Hell for millennia. Kiri says it's a book bursting with ideas about life and its meaning.Harriett picks Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood set in a religious retreat outside of Sydney where a woman has come to reassess her life.There's plenty of lively and good natured disagreement about the books. Listen here and add your thoughts to our Instagram Book Club @agoodreadbbcProducer: Maggie Ayre

NAUSEA by Jean-Paul Sartre GO WENT GONE by Jenny Erpenbeck LAURUS by Evgeny VodolazkinBudgie is best known as the drummer with Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, as well as The Slits. His memoir The Absence: Memoirs of A Banshee is published in July 2025. Together with the Korean novelist Juhea Kim he chooses his favourite book to discuss with Harriett Gilbert. His choice is Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre because he it resonated with him as a young man finding his place in the world.Juhea Kim is the author of two critically acclaimed novels - Beasts of A Little Land and City of Night Birds. Juhea's choice is set in 15th century Russia and is the story of Arseny, a healer who makes a pilgrimage through plague ridden Europe to Jerusalem. Laurus by Evgeny Vodolazkin is a densely packed novel that deals with fundamental questions about the purpose of life and death. It's also extremely humorous in parts.Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck is Harriett's choice. Set in Berlin, it is the story of a newly retired German Professor and how he becomes involved with a group of African asylum seekers trapped within a bureaucratic system that bounces them back and forth between Italy and Germany with no resolution in sight.It's produced by Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio in BristolPhoto credit Billy & Hells

WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT by Sarah Winman, chosen by Harry Trevaldwyn THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho, chosen by Xantoné Blacq JAMES by Percival Everett, chosen by Harriett GilbertMusic producer and composer Xantoné Blacq joins actor and writer Harry Trevaldwyn to share the books they love with presenter Harriett Gilbert. First up, Harry brings to the table a book by The Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah Winman. A book about childhood and growing up, friendships and families, triumph and tragedy and everything in between. When God Was a Rabbit celebrates the magic of the everyday for Harry, but what do the others think of it?Next up, Xantoné chooses The Alchemist by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, which since publication in 1988 has become a widely translated international bestseller. A blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore, Xantoné finds it an incredibly motivational read. Are Harry and Harriett also inspired by it?Finally, Harriett puts forward Percival Everett's most recent book, the 2024 Booker Prize nominated 'James'. Both funny and horrifying, soulful and thrilling, Everett reframes the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. Harriett is blown away by it - do the others agree? Producer: Becky RipleyPhoto credit CK Morrison

BIG SWISS by Jen Beagin, chosen by Nussaibah Younis A HEART SO WHITE by Javier Marías, chosen by Josh Cohen THE END OF EDDY by Edouard Louis, chosen by Harriett GilbertBig Swiss is a 29-year-old gynecologist who has never had an orgasm. Greta Work is an audio transcriber for a sex therapist who is infatuated by one of his clients. After an encounter at the dog park, they strike up an affair. Nussaibah calls this one of the funniest books she's ever read. What do the others think? A Heart So White, by the Spanish author Javier Marias and recommended by Josh, has a shocking opening page. What unravels after is a harrowing tale of family secrets and their resonances through different generations. First published in 1992. Finally, The End of Eddy, Harriett's pick, was a sensation when it was first published in France in 2014. An autobiographical novel of a violent and mostly difficult childhood, it also can be read as a portrait of a poor, rural community in Northern France.Josh Cohen is a psychoanalyst and writer, whose many books include Not Working: Why We Have to Stop; How to Live: What to Do and, most recently, All the Rage: Why Anger Drives the World. Nussaibah Younis is an expert on contemporary Iraq who for several years advised the Iraqi government on de-radicalising women affiliated with ISIS. Nussaibah’s debut novel Fundamentally was shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. Produced by Eliza Lomas, for BBC Audio Bristol.

AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST by Iain Pears, chosen by Peter Kosminsky HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING by Will Arbery, chosen by Jack Thorne PERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico, chosen by Harriett GilbertThorne and Kosminsky are great friends, but don't fully agree on the books discussed. Topics raised by their choices include toxic masculinity, empathy, and whether or not Succession is a great TV series.Peter has chosen An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears, a restoration murder mystery told by four unreliable narrators. Jack advocates for Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery, a play about four right-wing Catholics meeting at a college reunion. Harriett has gone for Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, a satire telling the tale of a millennial couple living in fashionable Berlin. Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc Photo credit Antonio Olmos

Douglas Stuart author of Booker Prize winning novel Shuggie Bain chooses his favourite book - Train Dreams by Denis Johnson - a short novel encapsulating the history of America in the early 20th century through the life of a lonely man in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. He's joined by Radio 1 and The Voice Wales presenter Sian Eleri whose choice is I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman - a dystopian tale of a group of captive women. Harriett's choice is More Than I Love My Life by David Grossman which examines family trauma through the relationship of three generations of women. Strong themes of loneliness run through all three choices as well as questions about our humanity.Producer: Maggie AyrePhoto credit Sarah Blesener

EVERYONE BRAVE IS FORGIVEN by Chris Cleave, chosen by Lucy Speed THE HUMAN FACTOR by Graham Greene, chosen by Harriett Gilbert 253 by Geoff Ryman, chosen by Sarah MillsFormer Eastenders and present-day Archers actor Lucy Speed and comedian Sarah Mills talk about books set in wartime London, a 1990s underground train, and Graham Greene's MI6.Lucy's choice is Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave, Which tells the tale of Mary, a woman who becomes a teacher at the beginning of the war, only for her life to take some unexpected turns during the Blitz.Sarah has selected 253 by Geoff Ryman, the novel originally published on the Internet which tells the stories of 253 passengers on a London Underground train. Harriett proposes a lesser known a Graham Greene novel, The Human Factor, which takes in apartheid South Africa and communism as well as espionage.Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally HeavenJoin the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbcPhoto: Louise Cole

Actor Nina Sosanya and prize winning poet and writer Joelle Taylor talk favourite books with Harriett. Nina chooses Sally Jones and the False Rose by Jakob Wegelius, a children's novel with a mute gorilla engineer as its protagonist. The book appeals to Nina's love of engineering, and the city of Glasgow!Joelle nominates Booker Prize winning The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka, about a man killed in the Sri Lankan civil war, seeking answers in the afterlife.Harriett's choice is Tasting Sunlight by Ewald Arenz, a novel set in the German countryside at the tail end of summer, featuring two women with mysterious back stories.Two of the choices are novels in translation, which prompts a chat about whether translated books are becoming more common.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven Follow us on instagram: agoodreadbbc

MOON TIGER by Penelope Lively, chosen by Sara Collins NUMBER GO UP: INSIDE CRYPTO'S WILD RISE AND STAGGERING FALL by Zeke Faux, chosen by Oliver Burkeman LORD JIM AT HOME by Dinah Brooke, chosen by Harriett Gilbert"I'm writing a history of the world" - so begins the choice of novelist and broadcaster Sara Collins: Penelope Lively's Booker Prize-winning novel Moon Tiger. Claudia Hampton, a famous writer and historian, lies dying in a hospital bed, her mind flitting across the years of her remarkable life and the people she's known. Sara Collins loves the book's romance, its jagged structure, and its unlikeable heroine. Do the others agree? Sara is the author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton, which won the Costa First Novel Award and was adapted for television in 2023. She was one of the hosts of the How to Write a Book Podcast and is a former judge of the Booker Prize.As a newspaper columnist, for many years Oliver Burkeman wrote This Column Will Change Your Life in The Guardian. He is the bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals and, more recently, Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts. His choice is a non-fiction book by the investigative journalist Zeke Faux about the characters who have made and lost billions in the wild and volatile world of cryptocurrency. And Harriett's choice is Lord Jim at Home, a novel by Dinah Brooke. Giles Trenchard is born into a life of privilege, but also into a world of hidden cruelty and emotional deprivation. Everyone agrees it's brilliantly written, but how do Harriett's guests feel about its dark content?Producer: Mair Bosworth