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Pandora Sykes


A monthly podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer, who bring a book each to chat about. The one rule: the books have to be more than 2 years old.





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Book Chat

Welcome to Book Chat, a new monthly books podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer which does what it says on the tin: we each bring a book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. First episode dropping 1 Dec.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Book Chat

Welcome to Book Chat! A new monthly books podcast hosted by Pandora Sykes and Bobby Palmer, which does what it says on the tin: we each bring one book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. For our inaugural episode, Bobby has chosen Tin Man by Sarah Winman, and Pandora has chosen Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin. So join us for a meaty book chat and beware for those who have not read the books: there will be spoilers. 

Other books mentioned:

The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan

The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman

When God Was A Rabbit and Still Life by Sarah Winman

Further Tales of The City, Babycakes and Michael Tolliver Lives, by Armistead Maupin

Clip attributions:

Sarah Winman on Writer’s Bone podcast, 2018

Armistead Maupin on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, 2007

Ian McKellan reads Letter to Mama for Letters Live, 2017

You can get in touch with us at bookchatpod@gmail.com

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1. Tin Man & Tales of The City

Welcome back to Book Chat, a new monthly books podcast brought to you by novelist Bobby Palmer and journalist Pandora Sykes, which does what it says on the tin: we each bring one book, and we chat. Our one rule? The books have to be more than 2 years old. NB: this is a meaty book chat, not a book review show, so if you have not yet read the books, there will be spoilers.

For our second episode, Pandora brings White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000) and Bobby, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (2016, trans. 2019). Both books were huge bestsellers and launched each woman as a "literary sensation". We discuss this tag as well as the books themselves: our favourite bits, how they've aged, and what we'd change.

Other books/ articles mentioned:

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

Darling by India Knight

On Beauty, NW, Intimations, Swing Time and Grand Union by Zadie Smith

Life Ceremony and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

White Teeth seemed fresh and optimistic in 2000 - how does it read now? by Sam Jordison for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/jul/14/white-teeth-2000-how-does-it-read-now-zadie-smith

Generation Why? by Zadie Smith for The New York Review of Books https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2010/11/25/generation-why/

In Defence of Fiction, by Zadie Smith for The New York Review of Books https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/10/24/zadie-smith-in-defense-of-fiction/

Zadie Smith interview: On Shame, Rage and Writing, for the Louisiana channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LREBOwjrrw

For Japanese novelist Sayaka Murata, odd is the new normal, by Motoko Rich for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/books/japanese-novelist-sayaka-murata-convenience-store-woman.html

The future of sex lives in us all, by Sayaka Murata for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/opinion/future-sex-society.html

A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham

Darling by India Knight

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

White Noise by Don DeLillo

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Luster by Raven Leilani

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

On Beauty, NW, Intimations, Swing Time and Grand Union by Zadie Smith

Earthlings and Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

You can get in touch bookchatpod@gmail.com.

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2. White Teeth & Convenience Store Woman

It's episode 3 of Book Chat! And this month we are travelling hundreds of years back, to a book Pandora's always wanted to read (Orlando, by Virginia Woolf) and one of Bobby's all-time favourites (Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.) Last episode, Pandora groaned at the prospect of Wuthering Heights, which she read - and loathed - for GCSE. So has she changed her mind? We discuss the two books and also the culture around the two authors: the upper-class, sexually liberal art collective, the Bloomsbury group, which Virginia Woolf was part of, and 'the Bronte myth' which has become part of the Wuthering Heights lore. How were the books received at the time - and do they stand up as modern reads? 

Other books/ articles mentioned:

You Be Mother, by Meg Mason

Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

Mrs Dalloway, Jacob's Room, A Room of One's Own, The Waves and To The Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf 

Terrible literary wigs that I have known and loved, by Maddie Rodriquez for Book Riot https://bookriot.com/terrible-literary-wigs-i-have-known-and-loved/

Who's Virginia Woolf afraid of? by Stephen Unwin for Byline Times https://bylinetimes.com/2022/12/22/whos-virginia-woolf-afraid-of/

Emily, 2022 film https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.985aca68-2553-4b7e-83de-1b6465a3a8e4?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb

Orlando, a play directed by Michael Grandage, on now at The Garrick

Our books for Episode 4 are:

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid

All That Man Is, by David Szalay

You can get in touch bookchatpod@gmail.com

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

3. Wuthering Heights & Orlando

For Episode 4 of Book Chat, we travel back just a decade or so, to Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and David Szalay's short stories in a novel, All That Man Is.

We discuss Mohsin Hamid's ability to condense big ideas - what makes a fundamentalist? What biases are you bringing to the story? - into readable prose (and his other magical novels like Exit West) and David Szalay's attempt to condense modern masculinity from teen to OAP, as it roves Europe - in one book. 

You can get in touch bookchatpod@gmail.com

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes

Books/articles mentioned:

All That Man Is and London and the South-East by David Szalay

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Exit West and The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid

Games and Rituals and Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis

If on a winter’s night a traveller by Italo Calvino

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto

‘All That Man Is’, by David Szalay, review by Christopher Tayler for the Financial Times – https://www.ft.com/content/fe2db1c4-f797-11e5-803c-d27c7117d132 

'All That Man Is,' and a Lot He Is Not, in David Szalay's View, by Dwight Garner for The New York Times – https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/books/review-all-that-man-is-and-a-lot-he-is-not-in-david-szalays-view.html 

I Pledge Allegiance, by Karen Olsson for The New York Times – https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/books/review/Olsson.t.html 

Clip attributions:

David Szalay on Radio 4 Bookclub, 2019

Mohsin Hamid on Radio 4 Bookclub, 2011

Subscribe to Books + Bits: https://pandorasykes.substack.com/ 

Our books for Ep 5:

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Memorial by Bryan Washington

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4. All That Man Is & The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Welcome to episode 5! On the menu today is Memorial by Byran Washington, which just slips over our '2 years old' threshold - the hype is arguably still hyping - and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, which was written 30 years ago and yet still, the hype hypes (StudioCanal just released a sparkly new version of the film.)

We discuss Memorial's literary take on the 'meet the parents' romcom, the 'traumedy' genre, and why Mitsuko is one of the best characters ever written; and why The Virgin Suicides' big themes - adolescent mental health, the male gaze, the American Dream - still feel as prescient today.

You can get in touch bookchatpod@gmail.com

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes

Books/articles mentioned:

Memorial by Bryan Washington

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

White Noise by Don DeLillo

Memorial review by Maria Marchinkoski for The Harvard Review

Memorial review by Tash Aw for The TLS

Memorial review by Ron Charles for The Washington Post

Jeffrey Eugenides interview at The Strand bookstore

Does The Virgin Suicides still hold up 25 years later? By Emily Temple for LitHub 

Pre-order Isaac and the Egg in paperback

Books for episode 6:

When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy 

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

5. Memorial & The Virgin Suicides

Episode 6 takes on one little known book and one very, very well-known book. Pandora finally reads A Visit from the Goon Squad and falls in love with Jennifer Egan's entire canon, while Bobby has mixed feelings about one of Pandora's absolute favourite books of recent times, When I Hit You, about a woman's violent marriage to a communist professor in South India.

You can get in touch bookchatpod@gmail.com

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes

Books/articles mentioned:

When I Hit You, The Gypsy Goddess and Exquisite Cadavers by Meena Kandasamy

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Emerald City, Look At Me and The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood

Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis

Open Throat by Henry Hoke

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee

Jennifer Egan on Radio 4 Book Club

Stephanie Sy-Quia reviews Meena Kandasamy for LARB 

Books for episode 7:

Close Range by Annie Proulx

A Girl’s Story by Annie Ernaux

Please note, we will be taking a seasonal break for June, and will be back on July 1st.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

6. When I Hit You & A Visit from the Goon Squad

Book Chat is back, and episode 7 pits a Pulitzer-winning author against a Nobel-winning author. But not really: in the battle of the Annies whose name ends in ‘X’, both Bobby and Pandora are winners. Discussing Close Range by Annie Proulx, Bobby feels the need to make apologies for the unapologetic bleakness of rural Wyoming – while Pandora is transported back to the excruciating experience of Catholic boarding school girlhood in Annie Ernaux’s A Girl’s Story.

You can get in touch bookchatpod@gmail.com

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes

Books/articles mentioned:

Close Range and The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

A Girl’s Story, The Years, A Man’s Place, A Woman’s Story, Happening, Getting Lost and Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Ordinary Human Failings and Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan

Different Seasons by Stephen King

Stoner and Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

7. Close Range & A Girl’s Story

It’s a bumper episode 8, with Pandora and Bobby tackling two million-copy-bestselling, much-loved-movie-inspiring titans of the nineties. In Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, Pandora finds a surprisingly feminist heroine who’s no less funny 25 years on. And in Nick Hornby’s beloved High Fidelity, Bobby meets his match in a perpetually depressed man-boy who needs to love himself before anyone else can love him back.

Books/articles mentioned:

Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

High Fidelity, Fever Pitch and About a Boy by Nick Hornby

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

A Life Of One’s Own by Joanna Biggs

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

One Day and Us by David Nicholls

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel

Books for episode 9:

Augustown by Kei Miller

Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

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8. Bridget Jones’s Diary & High Fidelity

After last month’s crowd-pleasers, Bobby and Pandora sink their teeth into two very different, equally meaty books. In Augustown by Kei Miller, a “dismal little valley” in Jamaica becomes a boiling pot of tension when a young boy’s dreadlocks are cut off. And in Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin, the boiling pots are a little more literal – and Pandora shares an all-timer of a kitchen horror story.

You can get in touch bookchatpod@gmail.com 

Books/articles mentioned:

Augustown by Kei Miller

Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

The Pisces and Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà

Good Material and Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Big Fish by Daniel Wallace

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

The Bread The Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Midnight Chicken by Ella Risbridger

Takeaway by Angela Hui

PRE-ORDER SMALL HOURS by Bobby Palmer

Augustown by Kei Miller Review by Natasha Tripney for The Observer

“Augustown”: A Novel of the Sacred and the Profane in Jamaica by Laura Miller for The New Yorker

Scalding oil, racist prank calls and endless ‘lid duty’: growing up in a Chinese restaurant by Angela Hui for The Guardian

Find out more about the ShelterBox Book Club

Books for episode 10:

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume

Sound by Joel Grove and production by Pandora Sykes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

9. Augustown & Home Cooking

A bittersweet episode of Book Chat has Pandora and Bobby discussing two fittingly bittersweet books: Stoner by John Williams and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Also, “some news”, a hearty goodbye, and a look back on some of our Book Chat faves from episodes past.

You can get in touch bookchatpod@gmail.com 

Books/articles mentioned:

Stoner and Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr

Emily, Bella, Harriet, Octavia, Prudence and Imogen by Jilly Cooper

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

One Day by David Nicholls

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris 

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

The Greatest American Novel You’ve Never Heard Of by Tim Kreider for The New Yorker – https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-greatest-american-novel-youve-never-heard-of 

Stoner: the must-read novel of 2013 by Julian Barnes for The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/13/stoner-john-williams-julian-barnes 

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

11. Stoner & The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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