The Book Club Review

The Guardian's 100 Best Novels of All Time: A Hot Take, with Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance

When the Guardian drops a list of the 100 Greatest Novels in English it's time to drop everything to talk about it. Luckily pod-regular guest, journalist Phil Chaffee and Joseph Dance, host of the Curious Readers podcast [https://podfollow.com/1789800439], also had views, and were willing to get together on a Sunday evening to share them. You'll hear our hits, our misses, how many we’ve read, whether we should have read more and much musing on whether a list like this is the way to get people excited about reading. We explore the joys of the sub-lists – the contributor lists – all squirrelled away on a sub-section of the Guardian's website, that arguably provide more excitement and inspiration than the fairly canonical top 100. Which is the best Brontë? Which is the best Austen? Do we age into certain books? If you've read all seven volumes of Proust shouldn't that count for more than one entry? All this and much, much more. Enjoy – this was an absolute delight to make and I hope it makes you smile as much as it did me. Have your say: get in touch on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcast or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com, or head to our website [https://www.thebookclubreview.co.uk] for full shownotes. What would be in your top-10? Check out the Patreon for all kinds of extras, from our monthly book club to extra shows and Kate's reading diaries. Find it at patreon.com/thebookclubreview The Guardian’s List of the 100 Greatest Novels published in English [https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time], copied below for ease of reference. *underlined – the ones Kate has read 1. Middlemarch 2. Beloved 3. Ulysses 4. To the Lighthouse 5. In Search of Lost Time 6. Anna Karenina 7. War and Peace 8. Jane Eyre 9. Pride and Prejudice 10. Madame Bovary 11. The Great Gatsby 12. Bleak House 13. Emma 14. Mrs Dalloway 15. Moby-Dick 16. Nineteen Eighty-Four 17. One Hundred Years of Solitude 18. Persuasion 19. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman 20. Wuthering Heights 21. The Portrait of a Lady 22. Things Fall Apart 23. Midnight’s Children 24. The Remains of the Day 25. Lolita 26. Don Quixote 27. The Trial 28. The Brothers Karamazov 29. Pale Fire 30. Frankenstein 31. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 32. The God of Small Things 33. David Copperfield 34. Wolf Hall 35. Great Expectations 36. The Handmaid’s Tale 37. Invisible Man 38. The Age of Innocence 39. Their Eyes Were Watching God 40. Song of Solomon 41. Heart of Darkness 42. The Magic Mountain 43. Housekeeping 44. Giovanni’s Room 45. The Golden Notebook 46. The Leopard 47. Vanity Fair 48. The Metamorphosis 49. A Fine Balance 50. Wide Sargasso Sea 51. My Brilliant Friend 52. The Golden Bowl 53. The Transit of Venus 54. Orlando 55. The Waves 56. Mansfield Park 57. The Sound and the Fury 58. Disgrace 59. Never Let Me Go 60. Howards End 61. The Rings of Saturn 62. Half of a Yellow Sun 63. White Teeth 64. The Good Soldier 65. The Color Purple 66. The Master and Margarita 67. The Man Without Qualities 68. Blood Meridian 69. Crime and Punishment 70. Jude the Obscure 71. Kindred 72. Our Mutual Friend 73. Austerlitz 74. Nervous Conditions 75. The Bluest Eye 76. Dracula 77. The Rainbow 78. A House for Mr Biswas 79. Go Tell It on the Mountain 80. Rebecca 81. Buddenbrooks 82. The End of the Affair 83. A Farewell to Arms 84. The Talented Mr Ripley 85. The Vegetarian 86. The Turn of the Screw 87. The Line of Beauty 88. Ragtime 89. The Left Hand of Darkness 90. Jacob’s Room 91. Life and Fate 92. Sentimental Education 93. Invisible Cities 94. The Known World 95. The Return of the Native 96. Pedro Páramo 97. Catch-22 98. The Road 99. The Go-Between 100. My Ántonia Particular books we touch on in the show * Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/55499/things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe-introduction-by-biyi-bandele/9780141186887] * Ulysses by James Joyce [https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/ulysses/] * In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/56841/in-search-of-lost-time-volume-1-by-marcel-proust----------trans-lydia-davis-adv-ed-christopher-prendergast/9780141180311] * My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante [https://www.europaeditions.co.uk/book/9781609450786/my-brilliant-friend/] * Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/431788/wuthering-heights-vintage-classics-bronte-series-by-bronte-emily/9781784870744] * As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/356600/as-i-lay-dying-by-faulknerwilliam/9780099479314] * Villette by Charlotte Brontë [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/183887/villette-by-charlotte-bronte/9780141199887] * Orlando [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57180/orlando-by-woolf-virginia/9780143138211], The Waves [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/484649/the-waves-by-woolf-virginia/9781841594446] and To the Lighthouse [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/353652/to-the-lighthouse-by-woolf-virginia/9781529946338] by Virginia Woolf * One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/25335/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/9780241968581] * Middlemarch by George Eliot [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/354412/middlemarch-by-george-eliot/9780141439546] * Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo [https://groveatlantic.com/book/pedro-paramo/] * Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier [https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/daphne-du-maurier/rebecca/9780349006574/] * The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/354871/the-leopard-by-giuseppe-tomasi-di-lampedusa/9780099512158] * Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not and This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga [https://www.faber.co.uk/author/tsitsi-dangarembga/] * The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard [https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/shirley-hazzard/the-transit-of-venus/9781860491818/] * Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes [https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/don-quixote/] * The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/354863/the-magic-mountain-by-thomas-mann/9780749386429] * Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/369722/buddenbrooks-by-mann-thomas/9780749386474] * Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry [https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/larry-mcmurtry/lonesome-dove/9781529099942] * Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy [https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/cormac-mccarthy/blood-meridian/9781529077162] * The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1118840/the-memory-police-by-ogawa-yoko/9781784700447] * The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt [https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-english-understand-wool/] * A Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/354409/season-of-migration-to-the-north-by-tayeb-salih/9780141187204] * The Princess of Clèves by Madame de Lafayette [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/354838/the-princess-of-cleves-by-madame-de-lafayette/9780140445879] * The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz [https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/CATR/cairo-trilogy] * The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/365109/the-makioka-sisters-by-tanizaki-junichiro/9780749397104] * The Trial [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57053/the-trial-by-kafka-franz/9780241820483] and Metamorphosis [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451553/metamorphosis-by-kafka-franz/9780241573730] by Franz Kafka * The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57119/the-go-between-by-hartley-l-p/9780141187785] * Moby-Dick by Herman Melville [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/351745/moby-dick-by-herman-melville/9780142437247] * A House for Mr Biswas [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/373032/a-house-for-mr-biswas-by-naipaul-v-s/9781857152135] by V. S. Naipaul * The New Life by Tom Crewe [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/447017/the-new-life-by-crewe-tom/9781529919714] * Miss Marjoribanks by Mrs Oliphant [https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/margaret-oliphant/miss-marjoribanks/9781844082087/] * The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope [https://trollopesociety.org/product/palliser-novels/] * The Warden by Anthony Trollope [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/410159/the-warden-by-anthony-trollope/9780099528654] * The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil [https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/robert-musil/the-man-without-qualities/9781447289432] * The Known World by Edward P. Jones [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-known-world-edward-p-jones] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

The Art of the Everyday: Miranda Keeling, The Anthropologists and the books that slow us down

What if the antidote to our increasingly frantic world isn't a grand gesture, but simply the act of paying attention? This week, Kate and Laura are joined by actor, podcaster, and author Miranda Keeling – returning to the pod to talk about her wonderful new book, The Place I'm In, a collection of the small, luminous moments she's gathered from daily life. After her debut The Year I Stopped to Notice, Miranda is back with more of her 'noticings': fragments from parks, supermarket queues, and streets that remind us how much magic is hiding in the everyday. Their book club read is the perfect complement: The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Şavas – a soulful, quietly funny novel following Asya and Manu as they hunt for an apartment, trying on different futures for size in a city far from home. Asya, a documentary filmmaker, spends her days in the park gathering footage – an anthropologist of the ordinary – and her project rhymes beautifully with Miranda's own. Plus recommendations inspired by the art of the everyday. You can find out more about Miranda and her work at mirandakeeling.com [http://mirandakeeling.com], and her podcast Stopping to Notice – over 200 five-minute episodes of binaural location recording – is the perfect companion listen. Find all the books mentioned at our bookshop.org shop [https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/190-the-art-of-the-everyday-with-miranda-keeling?&new-list-page=true]. And if you'd like to join Kate's monthly book club and reading community, head to patreon.com/thebookclubreview [http://patreon.com/thebookclubreview]. Booklist Ashes and Stones [https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/allyson-shaw/ashes-and-stones/9781529395495/] by Alison Shaw – a journey through Scotland in search of the women killed in the witch trials Open Book [https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/open-book-jessica-simpson?variant=55638493954427] by Jessica Simpson – Laura takes a nostalgic trip back through her twenties No Such Thing as Monday [https://theindigopress.com/product/no-such-thing-as-monday/] by Sîan Hughes – a brilliantly written novel from the author of Pearl; up there with Eimear McBride ( A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing [https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/paperback-shop/a-girl-is-a-half-formed-thing]) and Maggie O'Farrell The Anthropologists [https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Anthropologists/Aysegul-Savas/9781398529939] by Aysgul Savas The Imperfectionist [https://www.oliverburkeman.com/the-imperfectionist], Oliver Burkeman's newsletter Small Things Like These [https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571392605-small-things-like-these/?srsltid=AfmBOorCC70HMNIJl-R_4aOSFfcAbWaW2Rr5FXvcWE7e7HWW2nJZ8U4M]by Claire Keegan Flesh [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/420940/flesh-by-szalay-david/9781529932423] by David Szalay The Café With No Name [https://canongate.co.uk/books/5112-the-cafe-with-no-name/] by Robert Seethaler Memories of Distant Mountains [https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571384587-memories-of-distant-mountains/?srsltid=AfmBOooEPWPqZ1SkBABim6mNFpVb5i0cvZlrnvbB6zyPSHYaWe-nS0rW] (illustrated notebooks) by Orhan Pamuk A Nobel Laureate's journals offer much colour but little drama [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/books/review/orhan-pamuk-memories-of-distant-mountains.html?unlocked_article_code=1.g1A.OuVQ.6Bz3rbNkhQOm&smid=url-share], by Dwight Garner for the NYT (gift link) Look Closer: How to Get More Out of Reading [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/462430/look-closer-by-douglas-fairhurst-robert/9781911717317] by Robert Douglas Fairhurst The Place I'm In [https://www.quarto.com/books/9781836004790/the-place-i-m-in] by Miranda Keeling See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Liberating Women's Voices: Austen, Wollstonecraft and after, with Bee Rowlatt

A new local literary festival provided the perfect opportunity to record the very first Book Club Review live. Kate is joined by author and broadcaster Bee Rowlatt, whose books include the best-selling Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad, which went on to be dramatised by the BBC, and In Search of Mary inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft. Bee also runs the Wollstonecraft Society, a human rights charity. Her debut novel, One Woman Crime Wave, is a novel that explores the realities of wealth, influence, and inequality in present-day London and offers plenty of talking points for book club discussion and debate. Join our festival audience to hear more about Bee's life and work and why Mary Wollstonecraft and her writing has never been more relevant. Books mentioned Find all the titles below in The Book Club Review's bookshop on Bookshop.org [https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/189-liberating-women-s-voices-austen-wollstonecraft-and-feminism-with-bee-rowlatt?&new-list-page=true] Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by Bee Rowlatt The Correspondent by Virginia Evans In Search of Mary by Bee Rowlatt Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft One Woman Crime Wave by Bee Rowlatt An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly Uprising by Tahmima Anam Feminism for a World on Fire by Natasha Walter Notes Find out more about The Mary Wollstonecraft memorial sculpture [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/dec/25/london-mary-wollstonecraft-statue-one-of-2020s-most-polarising-artworks] (The Guardian) Follow the Barnsbury Book Festival [https://www.barnsburybookfestival.org] for news and updates Patreon Discover what's on offer over on The Book Club Review Patreon. In becoming a member you'll get extra shows and become part of a warm community swapping book recommendations and connecting over our shared love of books and reading. At the book club tier you can join our monthly book club and come and talk books with Kate in person every month. And as a paying member you're supporting Kate in making this independent podcast. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

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

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. Get more from the pod on Patreon Come behind the scenes and enjoy extra episodes, book club membership, community chat threads, readalongs, Kate's reading diaries and more, head to patreon.com/thebookclubreview [https://www.patreon.com/c/thebookclubreview/] Booklist You'll find all the books mentioned in the pod's Bookshop.org bookshop Bookshop.org list [https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/188-book-club-the-book-of-love-and-the-dud-avocado?new-list-page=true] 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 [https://onegrandbooks.com/] Frances Ambler's substack [https://francesambler.substack.com/] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Nearly Departed: Love, Loss and Literary Romance, with Lucas Oakeley

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. Become a member of The Book Club Review community Join The Book Club Review community on Patreon for ad-free listening, extra episodes, Kate’s weekly reading diaries, the opportunity to connect with other listeners in the chat groups, and at the higher tier to talk books in-person with Kate at the monthly book club. Find all the details and how to sign up at patreon.com/thebookclubreview [http://patreon.com/thebookclubreview]. Booklist You can find all the titles mentioned in this episode in the Book Club Review bookshop [https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/187-nearly-departed-love-loss-and-literary-romance-with-lucas-oakeley?&new-list-page=true] on bookshop.org [http://bookshop.org] Nearly Departed [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781835012949] by Lucas Oakeley  Heart The Lover [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781837265497]by Lily King All My Friends are Superheroes [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781846590009] by Andrew Kaufman Sweet Sorrow [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781444715422] by David Nicholls John of John [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781472639615] by Douglas Stuart Wuthering Heights [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781784870744] by Emily Brontë Comfort MOB: Food that Makes You Feel Good [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781529369816] Theory & Practice [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781914502163] by Michelle de Kretser All My Precious Madness [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781913111724] by Mark Bowles The Count of Monte Cristo [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9789358566055] by Alexandre Dumas The Time Traveler’s Wife [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781784878290] by Audrey Niffenegger The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Tales of the Jazz Age [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9780007925506] by F. Scott Fitzgerald Life Out of Order [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2647/9781787336766] 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 [https://www.theboysbookclub.co.uk/] Housmans [https://housmans.com] bookshop, the longest continuous-running radical bookshop in Britain, established in 1945 and based in London’s Kings Cross since 1959 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].