The Bookcast Club

Sarah, Belle, and Jenny gather today to bring you the first of a two-part episode disucssing the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist. Today, they discuss their thoughts on Good Girl by Aria Aber and All Fours by Amanda July, with a sort of half-discussion about Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout.

Are you reading the Women's Prize shortlist this year?

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We welcome back the delightful Shawn Mooney from the Youtube channel Shawn Breathes Books. He and Sarah discuss Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, which was published in 1966 as a response to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. They chat about the book's origins, its role and relationship with the canon, and how they feel about it in isolation plus as a conversational piece with Jane Eyre.

Things mentioned:

• Sarah on Shawn's channel: Zoo...

Belle and Sarah chat through the wonderful back catalogue of Irish writer Claire Keegan, a Bookcast Club fave. If you have any suggestions for future author spotlights please let us know by contacting us on Instagram or email.

Books mentioned:

• Antarctica
• Foster
• Small Things Like These
• So Late in the Day
• Walk the Blue Fields

Things mentioned:

• Claire Keegan on ABC Podcast

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Sarah catches up with former cohost of the Bookcast Club, the fabulous Chris. They chat all things Women's Prize, grief memoirs, and other stuff they've been reading. Will Sarah ever read ACOTAR, or will she just continue to mention it?

Also mentioned: Episode #87 - Books about Grief and Death

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Cannot think of a better title! Big thank you to Patreon supporter Millie for coming on the pod with Jenny to share some recommendations. Jenny's choice was Grady Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism and Millie's choice was Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stephens - but what were our bookish pairings? We also did some recommendations for listeners based on Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers and What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher....

In this episode, Sarah welcomes Cobby back to the podcast! They dive into The Talented Mr. Ripley, comparing Patricia Highsmith’s chilling 1955 novel with Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film adaptation. How does the psychological tension of the book translate to the screen? What changes in character, tone, and setting shift our understanding of Tom Ripley? 

We hope you enjoy the episode!

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It's a non-fiction special! Sarah and Jenny dive into non-fiction, we chat The Women's Prize for Non Fiction and share some of our recent fave reads.

Books mentioned:

• Autocracy Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum
• Code Dependant: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia
• The Wager by David Grann
• See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill
• From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley K...

Sarah and Jenny journey beyond the yellow brick road to compare Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West with its recent film adaptation. They discuss how the film reinterprets key characters, themes, and the moral grey areas of Oz. Have you seen the film/read the book? What did you think of the adaptation?

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Welcome to a new season of The Bookcast Club. Jenny, Belle and Sarah battle time zones to bring you their recent and current reads, plans for the season ahead, YOUR recent 5 star bangers and just the general chaos we like to bless your ears with. Welcome back, we've missed you!

Books mentioned:

• Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
• The Party by Tessa Hadley
• Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan
• Normal Women by Ainsley Hogarth
• The Hotel by Dai...

Belle, Sarah, and Jenny get together to round out the year! They chat through their best books of the year and share their thoughts. This is the final episode of the season; we will be back early next year for Season 3! Let us know if you enjoy the episode, and what you thought of the books!

Books mentioned:

• Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
• Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
• Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
• Splinters by Le...

In the second last episode of the season, Sarah and Belle get together to discuss all three of Sophie Mackintosh's novels: The Water Cure, Blue Ticket, and Cursed Bread.

Have you read any of her novels? What did you think?

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Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2...

Sarah and Jenny discuss Small Things Like These and how the book compares to the 2024 movie starring Cillian Murphy.

Other things mentioned

The Magdalene Sisters (2002)

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Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early acces...

Sarah invites her friend Cobby onto the podcast this week! They chat through most of the books on the Booker shortlist, including the winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey. They share their thoughts on the books they've read on the shortlist and talk about the best Ralph Fiennes film to lift your mood.

Books mentioned:

• Booker shortlist
• The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
• The Submerged Cathedral by Charlotte Wood
• Small Things Like The...

Sarah from Your True Shelf joins Jenny to share their pick of great memoirs. We cover some 'sensible' memoirs and also (our fave) celeb memoirs.

Books mentioned

• Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist
• Strong Female Character by Fern Brady
• Waterfall of Stars by Rosanne Alexander
• Unfamiliar by Kirsty Logan
• Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja
• Why Did You Stay? by Rebecca Humphries
• Mighty Be Our Powers by Carol Lynn Mithe...

Author Abigail Mann joins Jenny to discuss the TikTok favourite Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

Books mentioned

• Constanza by Rachael Blackmore
• Experienced by Kate Young
• All Fours by Miranda July
• So Thrilled For You by Holly Borne
• A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

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Belle and Jenny chat all things spooooooky in this weeks episode. Belle is on a mission to read a really scary book (spoiler - we're struggling to find one!) We share our spookiest book recs along with some (not all that spooky) movie recommendations.

We'd love to know the scariest book you've ever, drop us a comment over on Instagram.

Books mentioned

• We Solve Murder by Richard Osmond
• Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova
• Our ...

Millie from @saltonshine joins Jenny to chat all things cosy reading. We share some of our favourite cosy reads and movies and also chat recent and current reads. Jenny completely forgot to talk about Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, even though her notes were right in front of her, so stick that on your TBR too.

Books mentioned

• The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
• Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
• The Gloaming by Kirsty...

It's the first book club of the season! Belle and Sarah chat about the Booker shortlisted book The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. Join in the conversation over on our Instagram.

Get in touch

Instagram | TikTok | Voice message | Substack | Patreon | Ko-fi

Support The Bookcast Club

• You can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early acc...

We're back! It's season 2 and we're excited! In this episode we welcome Belle to the podcast as an official co-host. We chat about our plans for the season ahead, what we're reading, new releases we're excited for and loads more. Let us know what you think and come say hi over on Instagram.

Books mentioned

• Woo Woo by Ella Baxter
• New Animal by Ella Baxter
• Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
• The Woodland at Mi...