The Book of Love vs The Dud Avocado: Fantasy, Paris & Book Club Verdicts

In this episode of The Book Club Review, we return to our book club roots with two wildly different novels: The Book of Love by Kelly Link and The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.

The Book of Love is the first novel from acclaimed American short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link. In a seemingly ordinary coastal town three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle. Vulture magazine named it ‘the escapist masterpiece of the year’ but what did Laura’s book club think?

Our second book-club pick is Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado – a fizzing, exuberant novel from 1958 about a young American woman let loose in Paris, determined to live life on her own terms. It gained instant cult status on first publication and remains a timeless portrait of a woman hellbent on living, a book that feels bracingly modern despite being nearly seventy years old. But did it make for a good book club read?

We've also got some listener feedback on Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, we're catching up on recent reads, and the books we’re excited about next.

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Booklist

You'll find all the books mentioned in the pod's Bookshop.org bookshop

Bookshop.org list

Slow Days Fast Company by Eve Babitz

Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett

Other links of note

One Grand Books

Frances Ambler's substack

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Valentine’s-ish Literary Romance: Lucas Oakley on Nearly Departed, Boys Book Club & love stories that stay with you long after reading

Join Kate and Lucas Oakeley for this Valentine's-ish episode of The Book Club Review, recorded at Housmans Bookshop in King's Cross. We're exploring literary fiction where love takes centre stage, but the reward is complexity rather than a guaranteed happy ending.

Nearly Departed manages to combine the enjoyable tropes of Rom Com with the thoughtful exploration through writing that we associate with literary fiction. We explore how Lucas’s real-life experiences—witnessing a fatal cycling accident and his father's first wife dying young—shaped the book's exploration of love, loss, and second chances, and the art of balancing humour with heartbreak while playing with rom-com tropes.

Of course, we’ve got plenty of recommendations for love stories with emotional depth, including Lily King's Writers & Lovers, Andrew Kaufman's All My Friends Are Superheroes, Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, David Nicholls' Sweet Sorrow, Douglas Stuart's John of John, and hot-book-of-the-moment Wuthering Heights. 

We’re also discussing Boys Book Club, the organization Lucas has co-founded to encourage men to read and talk about books. What makes a great book club pick for an all-male book club? We’re going to be finding out.

We’ve even got Valentine's recipe – rigatoni with a long-simmered ‘Sunday sauce’ – and a couple of cocktail ideas. 

All in all, the perfect ingredients for a literary Valentine’s weekend.

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Booklist

You can find all the titles mentioned in this episode in the Book Club Review bookshop on bookshop.org

Nearly Departed by Lucas Oakeley

 Heart The Lover by Lily King

All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls

John of John by Douglas Stuart

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Comfort MOB: Food that Makes You Feel Good

Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser

All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger

Links

Follow Lucas on Instagram and Tik Tok @lucasoakeley, and you can find out all the details for the Boy’s Book Club at theboysbookclub.co.uk

Housmans bookshop, the longest continuous-running radical bookshop in Britain, established in 1945 and based in London’s Kings Cross since 1959

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What makes a bestseller? Is it the quality of the writing, or just the right book at the right time? This week Kate is joined by co-host Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to find out.

Between us we've tackled six of the biggest bestsellers out there – Dan Brown's The Secret of Secrets, Freida McFadden's The Housemaid, Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, Matt Dinnerman's Dungeon Crawler Carl, SenLinYu's Alchemised, and Sarah Adams' In Your Dreams – and we have some opinions.

We're sharing our honest experiences of each one: what worked, what didn't, and whether these books truly earned their place on the bestseller lists. But this isn't just a round of verdicts. We're also pooling our recommendations for the bestsellers we genuinely think are worth your time, like The Correspondant by Virginia Evans – because there are some real gems out there among the hype.

And as always, we round off with our current and upcoming reads.

Press play to find out which bestsellers passed the test – and which ones didn't.

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Booklist

You can also find all the books mentioned in The Book Club Review bookshop on Bookshop.org, the online bookstore that supports independent bookshops.

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams

Alchemized by SenLinYu

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir

Nobody's Fool by Harlen Cobden

The Correspondant by Virginia Evans

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Robin Buss)

Rivals by Jilly Cooper

The novels of Stephen King

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Smiley books by John Le Carre

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin

Ice by Jacek Dukaj (Author) , Ursula Phillips (Translator)

The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt

I'll Take The Fire by Leïla Slimani

(also The Country of Others and Watch US Dance)

Lullaby / The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani

Nearly Departed by Lucas Oakeley

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

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New year, new intentions – but if you're in the northern hemisphere, January can feel less like renewal and more like the darkest, coldest stretch of endless winter. Maybe what you need isn't another resolution. Maybe you just need the right book.

Ella Berthoud is an writer and an artist, but most importantly from our point of view a bibliotherapist. She has been prescribing fiction for life's ailments for over a decade. She co-wrote The Novel Cure, a brilliant guide that matches books to every psychological state and is packed with sound recommendations.

Who better then to give me some great suggestions for avoiding the January blues. Join Kate and Ella as they talk about the questions that vex every reader: how do we find more time for reading? How do we escape reading slumps? And how can we read more deeply without it feeling like homework?

Plus of course we're swapping lots of great book recommendations for January and the year ahead. Listen in for a shot of literary inspiration that might be just what you need.

Booklist

The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud

 Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reed

Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale

Metamorphoses by Ovid 

Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell

The Golden Ass by Apuleius

A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter (Jane Degras)

Dálvi by Laura Galloway

The Artist by Lucy Steeds

The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

Things: A Story of the Sixties by Georges Perec

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Robin Buss)

Find out more about Ella at ellaberthoud.com

Find all the books mentioned in this episode in the Book Club Review Bookshop, on Bookshop UK, the online retailer that supports independent bookshops.

Patreon

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We're celebrating the end of the year with a look back over our favourite reads of 2025, from new releases to backlist gems, best book club books, best non-fiction, best comfort reads and more. Between us we read over 350 books in 2025. Listen in to hear the ones we loved best. We've also got a radical new idea for a book club involving cold-water swimming and the works of Robert B. Parker, and how to embrace DNFing without guilt. Join us for recommendations to see you through the festive season and set your new reading year off in style.

With Phil Chaffee and Sarah Oliver

Serious Readers

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Patreon

Head to Patreon.com/thebookclubreview for all the benefits of membership and how to sign up.

You can also buy someone gift membership at https://www.patreon.com/thebookclubreview/gift 

Booklist

Mother Mary Come to Me by Arundhati Roy

The Silver Book by Olivia Laing

Crudo by Olivia Laing

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngoze Adiche

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Heart the Lover by Lily King

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley

The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart

Lake Shore by Gary Shteyngart

Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm

The First Man by Albert Camus

Robert B. Parker novels

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Muybridge by Guy Delisle

The Sense & Sensibility Diaries by Emma Thompson

The Lockwood & Co novels by Jonathan Stroud

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower

Shattered Lands by Sam Dalrymple

Maurice and Marilyn, or A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhurst

Agent Zo by Clare Mulley

The Devil Two Step by Jamie Quattro

Train Dreams by Denis Johnston

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnston

The Director by Daniel Kelman

We Do Not Part by Han Kang

How to End a Story by Helen Garner (3 volume diaries collection)

The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner

This House of Grief by Helen Garner

Eucalyptus by Murray Bail

Wild Thing by Sue Prideaux

Nonesuch by Francis Spufford

Pet Sematary 1983 cover

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'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train' wrote Oscar Wilde, in the Importance of Being Ernest. In this episode Kate is joined by critic, editor and podcaster Lucy Scholes and regular pod guest Phil Chaffee to explore the intimate world of diaries. Can immersing ourselves in the details of other people's lives offer us valuable insight into how to fully appreciate the passing moments of our own? From gossipy self-mythologising Samuel Pepys right up to the present with the experimentation of Sheila Heti's Alphabetical Diaries, and the beauty and hard-won insight of Helen Garner's Baillie Gifford prize-winning diaries. Also not to be missed, living it up Vanity Fair style through the glitz and glamour of 80s New York, with Tina Brown.

And if you enjoy this conversation don't miss Part II, over on the Patreon, where we swap notes on our favourite fictional diaries, consider the diaries we'd love to read if they had only been published and share some thoughts on our own diary keeping. You'll find that episode plus lots of benefits including ad-free listening, extra episodes, our community of readers and the pod book club over at patreon.com/thebookclubreview.

And to take advantage of that Serious Readers offer of £150 off any HD light head to serious readers.com/bcr and use the code BCR at checkout.

Book list

The Private Life of the Diary by Sally Bayley

The Paris Review

They by Kay Dick

Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke

Love Life of a Cheltenham Lady by Dinah Brooke

Part of the Story by Margaret Busby

Woman Alive by Susan Ertz

Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista

Look Closer by Robert Douglas Fairhurst

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Robert Latham (ed)

The Diaries of Virginia Woolf

How To End a Story by Helen Garner

Henry Chips Channon: The Diaries

The James Lees Milne diaries

Writing Home by Alan Bennett

There and Back: 1999–2009 by Michael Palin

The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983–1992 by Tina Brown

End of a Berlin Diary by William L. Shirer

War in Val D'Orcia by Iris Origo

Russian Journal by Andrea Lee

Beloved Son Felix: Coming of Age in the Renaissance by Felix Platter

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati

Modern Nature by Derek Jarman

Pharmacopeia by Derek Jarman

Went to London, Took the Dog by Nina Stibbe

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter

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Explore this year's Booker Prize shortlist on the latest episode of the Book Club Review! Hosts Kate and Laura and contributors Phil Chaffee and Martin Vovk discuss and debate the six shortlisted novels.

Listen in to hear our predictions, and then find out our reaction to the winner as we listen in to the live Booker Prize ceremony. We won't spoil the plots for you, just whet your appetite to read some or all of the books, all of which make for brilliant discussion.

Booklist

Paddy Clark, Ha, H, Ha by Roddy Doyle

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Flesh by David Szalay

All That Man Is by David Szalay

Starling House by Alex E. Harrow

Any Human Heart by William Boyd

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markowits

Carmageddon by Daniel Knowles

You Don't Have To Live Like This by Ben Markowits

Oh William by Elizabeth Strout

All Fours by Miranda July

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Audition by Katie Kitamura

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

Booker Longlist episode

Episode 181 of The Book Club Review

Links

A Good Read: Colm Toibin and Zadie Smith discuss Flesh

Martin's Eyes On the Prize blog

Browse Martin's archive and discover his extensive reviews (including The Women's Prize) here.

Patreon

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Serious Readers

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In which Kate is joined by pod regular, journalist Phil Chaffee and Professor Elizabeth Eva Leach. Both read over 200 books a year, and their reading stacks this year have included the Booker longlist.

And so who better to consider the books that didn't make the final cut – but which are, notwithstanding, the 'best' books selected from over 150 submitted titles.

As we know, really great books can get overlooked for the shortlist. Consider Trust by Hernan Diaz, longlisted but not shortlisted, or, going further back Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and before that Penelope Fitzgerald's miraculous novel The Blue Flower. The fallibility of the judging process thus proven let's leave no stone unturned in considering this year's selection. Did the judges overlook a new favourite read?

The Booker Prize is announced on 10th November and we'll be recording an episode on the shortlist on the night. Coming soon!

Booklist

• Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga

• Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

• Endling by Maria Reva

• One Boat by Jonathan Buckley

• The Outline Trilogy by Rachel Cusk

• The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

• Universality by Natasha Brown

• The South by Tash Aw

• Love Forms by Claire Adam

• Barn 8 by Deb Olin Unferth

• The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Patreon

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Serious Readers

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Instagram

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In this episode: Kate and Laura are catching up on their pre-Booker season reading.

Did You Are Here by David Nicholls make Laura want to lace up her walking boots? How did Kate get on with A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm, a page-turning account that explores a side of the city that tourists never see. We're also reporting back on book club reads Mouthing by Orla Mackey and The Pretender by Jo Harkin. Mix in the enjoyment of Curtis Sittenfeld's latest collection of short stories, and the all-too relevant classic Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and that's our Autumn bookshelf.

Books mentioned

You Are Here and One Day by David Nicholls

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Your Life and Other Stories and Exhalations by Ted Chiang

The Left-Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Mouthing by Orla Mackey

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Every One Still Here by Liadan ní Chuinn

The Pretender by Jo Harkin

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovitz

You Don't Have To Live Like This by Benjamin Markovitz

Serious Readers

Book Club Review listeners get £150 off any HD Essential Reading Light, plus free UK delivery. Go to SeriousReaders.com/bcr and use the code BCR at checkout. It's completely risk-free with a 30-day home trial. If you don't feel the difference, they'll collect it for free and fully refund you.

Patreon

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Book Club: Universality by Natasha Brown & Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O'Donnell

Welcome to The Book Club Review! In this episode, Laura joins Kate to dive into two book club picks: Natasha Brown's much-anticipated second novel, Universality, and the debut Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O'Donnell.

In this episode:

Kate and Laura catch up on their current reads, including Sky Daddy by Kate Folk and A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, before diving into a discussion of Universality. How did it compare to Brown's acclaimed debut Assembly, and did the satirical style, bold narrative choices, and themes of media, class, and culture wars work for our book club.

We then move on to Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O'Donnell, an historical tale of alchemy set across 18th-century London and Ireland. We're exploring the vivid sense of place and real-life inspirations behind the story, but did the many different characters and story arcs knit together?

We're also meeting Kristina Ambrosia, who offers a creative twist on book club with her "Graffiti Book Club," where members are encouraged to write, doodle, and annotate in their books before passing them around.

All that plus our current reads and community updates on how to join the Book Club Review Patreon, participate in chat groups, and readalongs.

Books mentioned:

• Universality by Natasha Brown
• Assembly by Natasha Brown
• Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O'Donnell
• Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
• A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
• Katabasis by R. F. Kuang
• Welcome to Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal
• The Women by Kristin Hannah
• Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• All Fours by Miranda July
• Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
• And more!

Links & Extras:

• Special offer for Serious Readers HD Essential Reading Lights: visit seriousreaderscom/bcr and use code BCR at checkout.
• Join the Book Club Review community on Patreon for ad-free episodes, bonus content, and monthly book club meetings: patreon.com/thebookclubreview
• Follow on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast or email [email protected]

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with friends or leave a review – your support helps us reach more book lovers!

Happy reading!

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Something a little different this episode as I invite you to head down the rabbit hole with me into the world of books about books. Accompanying us into this particular wonderland is Joseph Dance, host of the Curious Readers podcast. From meta-fictional narratives to booksellers with shadowy agendas, we're flagging up some of our favourites both for behind-the-scenes insights into the literary world, and for the way they allow us to discover yet more books we might want to read. From Alberto Manguel's library of 35,000 titles, to Alejandro Zambra's essay collection On Not Reading, we're considering a broad spectrum of perspectives that help us reflect on and enrich our reading lives. And so listen in to hear what happens when two book podcasters get together to talk about their favourite topic.

Booklist

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Possession by A.S. Byatt

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

Packing my Library by Alberto Manguel

The Book Forger by Joseph Hone

Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire

Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef

A Bookshop of One's Own by Jane Cholmeley

In Search of Lost Books by Giorgio van Straten

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati

Further reading / listening

Alberto Manguel's library

And here's Manguel sharing his favourite bookstores and libraries with Biblio-file podcast host Nigel Beale

Umberto Eco's library on Youtube

Kate's Moleskine reading journal

Read this wonderful review of Shelf Life from Australian critic Beejay Silcox, who lived for two years in Cairo and knew the Diwan bookstore well.

Patreon

Head to patreon.com/thebookclubreview for full membership details and how to join

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