Advertise on podcast: Books & Chat: Short Book Reviews & Literary Discussions

Can't decide what to read next? In this episode of Books & Chat, Christina dives into two recent Gloucester Book Club picks: Dream State by Eric Puchner - a multi-generational literary novel about flawed people, messy choices, and changing times. The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke - The Women's Prize-winning non-fiction account of grief, hope, and life-saving generosity. Tune in to get a quick summary, author background, and our club's final take on both books!

Need a quick book recommendation? In this mini-episode, I’m breaking down Bruce Holsinger’s Culpability alongside Sarah Moss’s Ripeness. Both books dig deep into what happens when secrets unravel and consequences catch up to us - but in completely different ways. Tune in for a quick bite of book talk to add to your reading list!

Two Novellas, two very different worlds In this episode, Christina is joined by Ang to discuss two beautifully written novellas that were chosen for the book club's recent read. Both books unfold over just three days, but they take readers in very different directions. Happy listening!

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth's brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn't realise that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives.

Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and snoozed in your house for hours on end and gave birth to leverets in your study. This happened to me.' When lockdown led busy professional Chloe to leave the city and return to the countryside of her childhood, she never expected to find herself custodian of a newly born hare. Yet when she finds the creature, abandoned, alone and no bigger than her palm, she is compelled to give it a chance at survival. Raising Hare chronicles their journey together and the challenges of caring for the leveret and preparing for its return to the wild. We witness first-hand an extraordinary relationship between human and animal, reconnecting with our childhood enthusiasm for wildlife. This improbable bond of trust serves to remind us that the most beautiful experiences, inspiring the most hope, arise when we least expect them.

Christina and her guest Angela discuss Andrew Miller's The Land in Winter, shortlisted for the Booker Prize - a spare, wintry novel about endurance, loyalty, and the quiet moral choices people make when the world narrows. A calm, thoughtful conversation about a book that lingers.

A concise Books and Chat Bitesize episode exploring the Gloucester Book Club’s Top Three Books of 2025. A reflective look at the stories, themes, and authors that shaped our reading year. About the : Books & Chat is a cosy Gloucester Book Club podcast with short reviews and thoughtful conversations for readers who love good stories.

Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet has stayed with me ever since I first read it — a story so tender, so exquisitely imagined, it felt like it settled into my bones. With the new film adaptation about to arrive, it felt like the right moment to bring back this episode I recorded five years ago, when the book had just swept through my life and my book club. In this short revisit, we talk about the beauty of O’Farrell’s writing, the quiet power of Agnes, and the way love and loss echo through a family. If you’re returning to the story ahead of the film, or discovering it for the first time, I hope this episode offers a gentle way back into that world.

A reflective exploration of Intermezzo and Kairos - the pause that gives the meaning and the moment that matters. In this solo episode, Christina shares insights on how timing and intervals shape our experiences.

Christina sit downs with Ang for a candid conversation about what it means to live on the margins - socially, physically, and politically. From the realities of housing insecurity to the quiet resilience of those navigating systems not build for them, this dialogue blands lived experience with sharp insight and gentle wit.

The non~negotiable superpower! This book, the first of its kind written by a scientific expert, Professor Matthew Walker explores twenty years of cutting-edge research to solve the mystery of why sleep matters. Looking at creatures from across the animal kingdom as well as major human studies, Why We Sleep delves in to everything from what really happens during REM sleep to how caffeine and alcohol affect sleep and why our sleep patterns change across a lifetime, transforming our appreciation of the extraordinary phenomenon that safeguards our existence.

Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025 Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for July 2025 An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's Atonement. It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother's country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep - as a guest, there to stay for the season… In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel's desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.

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 day she arrived that she couldn't be trusted. And I was right. Because Alice didn't come to the village for peace and quiet. She came for revenge. Absolutely love addictive psychological thrillers like THOSE PEOPLE, THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR and THE NEIGHBOUR? Then you will be hooked by this edge-of-your-seat novel about the dark secrets that the neighbours of a Cotswolds village are hiding.

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 world, their beloved boat is struck by a whale and the pair are cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Alone on a tiny raft, their love is put to the test. This is a book about human connection and the human condition; about how we survive – not just at sea, but in life.

Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month for June 2021 Shortlisted for the Portico Prize 2022 Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life. In the summer of 1986, James and Tully ignite a friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over, they rush towards a magical weekend of youthful excess in Manchester played out against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded. And there a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, the phone rings. Tully has news.