The Radio 2 Book Club has just announced its Spring Season booklist! As well as coverage on Sara’s show, and other shows on Radio 2, there is a weekly podcast on BBC Sounds.
The Radio 2 Book Club’s weekly podcast will shine a light on some of the best new fiction being published in the UK, across all genres. The books are chosen with help from library staff and other reading experts from across the UK to ensure a fair and unbiased selection process. On alternate weeks, the podcast will feature other great book-related content, including librarians, book clubs, readers and other fantastic guests.
As it always has done, the Radio 2 Book Club will champion new voices as well as featuring some of the most popular authors writing today, with a range of novels that listeners will love. Sara will also get an insight into the craft and writing process of the chosen authors and hear from listeners about what they have been reading and enjoying too.
We’re delighted to share the six books that will be featured in this season of the Radio 2 Book Club with Sara Cox:
Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin
Can you imagine it? I’d say to them. Can you imagine me there in the front row in Saint Peter’s Square? The lesbian sister of a literal saint.
Brought up in a devout household in Ireland, Jay is now living in London with her girlfriend, determined to live day to day and not think too much about either the future or the past. But when she learns that her beloved older brother, who died in a terrible accident, may be made into a Catholic saint, she realises she must at last confront her family, her childhood and herself…
Inspired by the author’s own devout upbringing, Ordinary Saints is a brilliant debut novel from a fresh, exciting new voice which asks – who gets to decide how we are remembered – and who we will become?
Reader comments
“A thought-provoking exploration of contemporary spirituality through the lives of seemingly ordinary individuals”
“Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin captures brilliantly the impact of rejection and misunderstanding”
“A fresh, engaging, raw, emotionally authentic and deeply human story”
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Every morning at around half past ten, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to attend a class she desperately wants to take, to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books.
Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence – full of sharp humour and hard-earned wisdom – to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arms’ length. Until letters from someone she had put out of her mind land on her doorstep, forcing her to reckon with her past mistakes.
For as Sybil is about to learn, it’s never too late to write a few post-scripts.
Reader comments
“A gradual awakening emerged that was all narrated through these brilliant, poignant, funny, angry letters”
“A warm read and personal read, it felt like she was talking directly to me”
“I really enjoyed the plot and all of the characters – I got very attached to all of them”
The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
England, 1979. Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents of a secluded New Forest home, part of the government’s Sycamore Scheme. Every day, the triplets do their chores, play their games and take their medicine, under the watchful eyes of three mothers: Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night.
Their nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams.
Their lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge.
And their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.
All the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.
Gradually surrendering its dark secrets, _The Book of Guilt_ is a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.
Reader comments
“With a fabulous, matter of fact narrative and well-drawn characters, this dystopian book with society’s questionable ethics feels like it could be scarily possible”
“Excellent and though provoking read, this book defies explanation”
“I loved this novel – full of dark secrets and societies judgments”
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab
A new genre-defying, unforgettable novel to sink your teeth into.
Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532.
London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.
Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.
One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.
And all of them grow teeth.
Reader comments
“Glorious, intense love affairs interwoven with toxic sensuality, violence, hunger, passion and loneliness”
“You’ll be gripped so hard this will be finished in a couple of sittings”
“All in all, just a good solid read that kept me gripped throughout and will be very popular with fantasy readers”
The Rush by Beth Lewis
Gold fever has taken him. I believe he means to kill me…
Canada, 1898. The Gold Rush is on in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon. Fortunes are made as quickly as they’re lost, and Dawson City has become a lawless settlement.
In its midst, three women are trying to find their place on the edge of civilisation. Journalist Kate, along with her dog Yukon, has travelled hundreds of miles after receiving a letter from her sister warning that her husband means to kill her. Martha’s hotel and livelihood are under threat from the local strongman, who is set on buying up the town. And down by the river, where gold shimmers from between the rocks, Ellen feels her future slip away as her husband fails to find the fortune they risked so much to seek.
When a woman is found murdered, Kate, Martha and Ellen find their lives, fates and fortunes intertwined. But to unmask her killer, they must navigate a desperate land run by dangerous men who will do anything for a glimpse of gold…
Reader comments
“A really engaging and powerful read that would offer a lot to discuss”
“Very evocative and atmospheric book, I found it really immersive”
“This is a fascinating, beautifully written, and pacy novel, highlighting the savagely raw times living during the Gold Rush”
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer. As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.
Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love – this time among the stars.
Reader comments
“This is such a wide-ranging book that will keep you reading – it has tension, humour and drama”
“It’s a love story to the planet, to science and to invention and human endeavour, to friendship and, being a bit grandiose, it’s a love story to humanity”
“Draws you in from page one and no matter how hard you try you just can’t get away from the story”
For all the latest Book Club content, including interviews with the authors, visit BBC Sounds. You can even subscribe, to make sure you never miss an episode!
Planning to buy any of these books for your book club? Buy books from Bookshop.org and support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no extra cost to you.
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