The Bookshelf
ABC Australia
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
Mentioned books
Dec 1, 2023 • 53min
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 Book Club with two top-notch crime fiction afficiandoes.
Nov 24, 2023 • 54min
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)
Nov 17, 2023 • 54min
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
Nov 10, 2023 • 54min
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
Nov 3, 2023 • 55min
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.
Oct 27, 2023 • 1h
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 podcaster Kate Mildenhall. Translation, shame, lamentations, renovation and love.
Oct 20, 2023 • 54min
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
Oct 13, 2023 • 57min
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: Australian actors in Hollywood and at Home).
Oct 6, 2023 • 54min
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.
Sep 29, 2023 • 54min
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.
