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BBC Radio 4

Find reading inspiration with favourite books chosen by our guests.

A Good Read

Two books featuring teenage killers feature this time. Nicola Sturgeon MSP votes for Elif Shafak's Honour as her good read. It details the reasons behind the so-called honour killing carried out by a young Turkish Kurd living in London in the 1970s. Nicola says it provides valuable cultural insight into the reasons behind a particular form of violence against women.
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet is set in the feudal system of the Highlands in the late 1800s where crofters were at the mercy of the local Laird and his staff. Roddy's father is barely eking out a living from a small patch of land near Applecross. When his family's livelihood is threatened by a local man exerting his power over them, Roddy commits a brutal triple murder. Harriett enjoys it because it traces the events leading up to the event and Roddy's subsequent trial posing the question of whether he is legally insane or criminally violent.
Something gentler is Alistair McGowan's choice. Fair Stood The Wind For France is HE Bates' wartime novel of an RAF airman crash landing in occupied France. As he recovers from his injuries he falls for the daughter of a farming family who take him in. Alistair believes Bates to be one of the finest English writers of last century but being best known for The Darling Buds of May says he's often overlooked.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre

Photo credit: Charlotte Hadden

Nicola Sturgeon and Alistair McGowan

THE STONE DIARIES by Carol Shields, chosen by Tom Cox
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS by Umberto Eco, chosen by Sophie Scott
PARADISE by Abdulrazak Gurnah, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Writer Tom Cox joins neuroscientist Sophie Scott to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Tom's choice is the 1995 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Stone Diaries. Following the story of one woman’s life from birth to death, the novel also charts the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. Sophie puts forward a very different book, a non-fiction by Italian writer and academic, How to Write a Thesis. It first appeared on Italian bookshelves back in 1977, but still rings true for many. And finally, Harriett's choice is a historical novel called Paradise by the Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah, which is both a coming-of-age story, and a tale of the corruption against the backdrop of European colonialism in East Africa. 

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley

Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc

Tom Cox and Sophie Scott

THE STONE DIARIES by Carol Shields, chosen by Tom Cox
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS by Umberto Eco, chosen by Sophie Scott
PARADISE by Abdulrazak Gurnah, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Writer Tom Cox joins neuroscientist Sophie Scott to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Tom's choice is the 1995 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Stone Diaries. Following the story of one woman’s life from birth to death, the novel also charts the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. Sophie puts forward a very different book, a non-fiction by Italian writer and academic, How to Write a Thesis. It first appeared on Italian bookshelves back in 1977, but still rings true for many. And finally, Harriett's choice is a historical novel called Paradise by the Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah, which is both a coming-of-age story, and a tale of the corruption against the backdrop of European colonialism in East Africa.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley

Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc

OPEN by Andre Agassi
SONIC YOUTH SLEPT ON MY FLOOR by Dave Haslam
THE SECRET HOURS by Mick Herron

Television and radio broadcaster Chris Tarrant nominates the autobiography of tennis legend Andre Agassi, and novelist Mike Gayle has gone for Dave Haslam’s memoir of his time spent DJing at Manchester’s famous Hacienda. Harriett is hoping the two of them will enjoy an espionage novel by Slow Horses author Mick Herron.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc

Chris Tarrant and Mike Gayle

BEAR by Marian Engel, chosen by novelist Sarah Waters
THE TRUE BELIEVER by Eric Hoffer, chosen by film editor Walter Murch
THE VISITOR by Maeve Brennan, chosen by presenter Harriett Gilber

Sarah Waters, acclaimed author of Fingersmith and The Night Watch, and Walter Murch, legendary film editor of Apocalypse Now and The English Patient choose the books they love.

Sarah's choice is a cinematic novel set in Northern Canada. Bear by Marian Engel is the unusual tale of a woman's friendship and subsequent sexual relationship with a bear when she travels to a remote island for the summer.

The True Believer is a remarkably prescient examination of mass movements from 1951. Author Eric Hoffer examines political fanaticism throughout the ages. Walter Murch chose it because he says so much of it rings true in today's fractured world.

Harriett's choice is the story of different generations of women in an unhappy home in Ireland. Maeve Brennan's novella The Visitor is a haunting tale of a chilly tight-lipped Dublin home.

Producer: Maggie Ayre, BBC Audio Bristol

Photo: Charlie Hopkinson

Sarah Waters and Walter Murch

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Augusten Burroughs, chosen by Rob Rinder
THE ODD WOMAN AND THE CITY by Vivian Gornick, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
EARTHLINGS by Sayaka Murata, chosen by Juno Dawson

The barrister, television presenter and writer Rob Rinder and author Juno Dawson talk books with Harriett Gilbert. Juno Dawson selects Sayaka Murata's Earthlings, the follow-up to her cult hit Convenience Store Woman. Rob Rinder advocates for Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs' memoir of a deeply bizarre childhood, and Harriett has gone for The Odd Woman and the City, Vivian Gornick's essays celebrating New York.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc

Photo credit: Ollie Rosser

Rob Rinder and Juno Dawson

OBLIVION by Héctor Abad, chosen by Colm Tóibín
FLESH by David Szalay, chosen by Zadie Smith
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME by André Aciman, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Authors and good friends Zadie Smith and Colm Tóibín join Harriett Gilbert to share books they love. For a longer edition of this episode, check out the A Good Read podcast. 

Colm Tóibín chooses Oblivion, a memoir by Colombian writer Héctor Abad. It’s a deeply moving tribute to Abad’s father – a warm, generous, and witty man who was a doctor, university professor, and tireless human rights campaigner. His life was tragically cut short when he was murdered by paramilitaries in Medellín in 1987. What do the others make of this powerful portrait of love and loss?

Next, Zadie Smith recommends Flesh, a taut and compelling novel by Hungarian-British author David Szalay. The story follows István, a Hungarian man whose life takes a picaresque turn – from the army to prison, and eventually to London, where he works as a security guard for a wealthy family. As he becomes entangled in their world in unexpected ways, do the others find the novel as gripping as she does?

Finally, Harriett Gilbert brings Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman, the novel that inspired the acclaimed film starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer. Set during a languid summer on the Italian Riviera, it captures the intense infatuation between Elio and Oliver. But how does the novel compare to the much-loved film?

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including The Master, The Magician, Brooklyn, and Long Island, the latter now out in paperback. And Zadie Smith has written six novels, among them White Teeth, Swing Time, and her most recent, The Fraud.

Producer: Eliza Lomas

Zadie Smith and Colm Tóibín

THE TRUCE by Primo Levi, chosen by Horatio Clare 
THE SUN DOES SHINE by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin, chosen by Joanna Hardy-Susskind
SULA by Toni Morrison, chosen by Harriett Gilbert 

Writer Horatio Clare joins criminal defence barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Horatio's choice is a book he returns to every winter, The Truce, in which writer Primo Levi recounts his survivor's journey home to from Auschwitz across a war-torn Europe. Joanna puts forward another powerful autobiography, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, in which Anthony Ray Hinton recounts his time on death row after being wrongly accused of murder. And finally, Harriett's choice is an early novel by Toni Morrison, called Sula, which follows the turbulent friendship of two girls as they grow into adulthood within a poor but close-knit community in Ohio. 

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley 

Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc
Photo Credit: Ivan Weiss

Joanna Hardy-Susskind and Horatio Clare

ALL FOURS by Miranda July, chosen by Desiree Akhavan
UNTRUE by Wednesday Martin, chosen by Rosie Wilby
DRAGON TALK by Fleur Adcock, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Filmmaker and writer Desiree Akhavan joins comedian, writer and podcaster Rosie Wilby as they discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Desiree's choice is All Fours by Miranda July, a novel about a perimenopausal woman's sexual awakening on an unusual road trip. By coincidence, Rosie Wilby chooses a non-fiction book which looks at research into women's sexuality, Untrue by Wednesday Martin. Harriett's choice is a volume of poetry by Fleur Adcock, dealing with matters of family and childhood.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven
Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc
Photo credit Cecila Frugiuele

Desiree Akhavan and Rosie Wilby

THE IRON AGE by Arja Kajermo
A SHORT STAY IN HELL by Steven L Peck
STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL by Charlotte Wood

James Rebanks is a farmer from the Lake District as well as author of The Shepherd's Life. His new book The Place of Tides is about his time in Norway learning from an elderly woman who cared for eider ducks on a remote island. His book choice is The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo, a Finnish novel about rural life in the 1950s, told from the perspective of a young girl. James finds it speaks to his northern sensibility as it documents the hard life of an impoverished farming family in post war Finland.

Kiri Pritchard-McLean is a multi-award winning Welsh comedian, satirist and writer. Her choice is A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L Peck about a Mormon condemned to exist in Hell for millennia. Kiri says it's a book bursting with ideas about life and its meaning.

Harriett picks Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood set in a religious retreat outside of Sydney where a woman has come to reassess her life.

There's plenty of lively and good natured disagreement about the books. Listen here and add your thoughts to our Instagram Book Club @agoodreadbbc

Producer: Maggie Ayre

James Rebanks and Kiri Pritchard-McLean at the Hay Festival

Politician Shirley Williams and novelist Margaret Drabble join Harriett Gilbert to discuss their favourite books by Winifred Holtby, Mary McCarthy and James Joyce. 

The Group by Mary McCarthy 
Publisher: Virago

South Riding by Winifred Holtby 
Publisher: Virago

Dubliners by James Joyce 
Publisher: Penguin

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2015.

Shirley Williams and Margaret Drabble

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