podcast

Tea or Books? #86: Empathy vs Sympathy and The Child That Books Built vs When I Was A Child I Read Books

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Marilynne Robinson, Francis Spufford, empathy and sympathy!

Welcome to episode 86, in which we talk about characters we feel empathetic towards and those we feel sympathetic towards. And if you aren’t sure of the distinction, don’t worry, we’ve got that covered too.

In the second half, we compare two books with similar titles but very different contents: When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson and The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford.

Do get in touch if you have any suggestions for topics or a question for the middle bit – we’re at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com. Find us in your podcast app of choice, on Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts. And you can support us on Patreon, where there are also bonus ten-minute episodes from me.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Game by A.S. Byatt
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt
The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
The Vanishing Act by Adrian Alington
Dorothy L Sayers
Agatha Christie
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Goodbye To Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Henry James
Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Ian McEwan
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Dr Thorne by Anthony Trollope
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
Ivy Compton-Burnett
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Biggles series by W.E. Johns
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
The Way We Live Now by Meg Rosoff
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Wish Her Safe at Home by Stephen Benatar
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
White Cargo by Felicity Kendal
William Shakespeare
The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith
Look Back With Love by Dodie Smith
Look Back With Astonishment by Dodie Smith
Look Back With Mixed Feelings by Dodie Smith
Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh
Wise Children by Angela Carter
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Lover’s Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald
Sea Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard
At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald
Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Famous Five series by Enid Blyton
Bookworm by Lucy Mangan
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
Crossriggs by Jane and Mary Findlater
Emma by Jane Austen

Tea or Books? #85: One House or Many Houses, and A Thatched Roof vs Fresh From The Country

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Houses, Miss Read, Beverley Nichols!

In the first half of today’s episode, we look at whether we prefer novels that stay in one house or those that go all over the place. In the second half, we explore two novels that contrast the countryside and the town: Beverley Nichol’s fictionalised-autobiography A Thatched Roof and Miss Read’s Fresh From the Country.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com if you have suggestions for topics – we love hearing from you. And you can find us at Apple podcasts, or whatever your podcast app of choice is. And if you can work out how to review us, then please do!

Books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Fidelity by Susan Glaspell
Brooke Evans by Susan Glaspell
The Glory of the Conquered by Susan Glaspell
Our Man in Havana by Grahame Greene
The City and the City by China Miéville
My Discovery of England by Stephen Leacock
The Provincial Lady in America by E.M. Delafield
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Rosamunde Pilcher
Daphne du Maurier
The Sundial by Shirley Jackson
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson
Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson
Yellow by Janni Visman
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski
Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D.E. Stevenson
The New House by Lettice Cooper
Greengates by R.C. Sherriff
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Thornyhold by Mary Stewart
Sarah Waters
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Ivy Compton-Burnett
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
A Regiment of Women by Clemence Dane
Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols
A Village in a Valley by Beverley Nichols
Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols
Sunlight on the Lawn by Beverley Nichols
Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
Powers That Be by E.F. Benson
George Orwell
Thrush Green series by Miss Read
When I Was A Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford

Tea or Books? #84: Sea vs Mountains and Her Son’s Wife vs Auntie Mame

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Dorothy Canfield [Fisher], Patrick Dennis, sea, and mountains – episode 84!

 

In the first half of this episode, we talk about novels set in the mountains vs those set by the sea. The classic dichotomy. In the second half, we compare two very different novels about relatives – Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield, also known as Dorothy Canfield Fisher, and Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[@]gmail.com if you’d like to suggest a topic or a question for the middle section – and rate/review us if you can! Find us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whichever podcast app you use – and you can support the podcast, and get little bonus eps, at Patreon.

The books and authors we talk about in this episode:

The Vanishing Celebrities by Adrian Alington
Dorothy L Sayers
Agatha Christie
Beverley Nichols
Inferno by Catherine Cho
What Have I Done by Laura Dockrill
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Heidi by Joanna Spyri
The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher
Famous Five by Enid Blyton
Jane Austen
Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Egg and I by Betty Macdonald
Katherine Mansfield
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
39 Steps by John Buchan
Proud Citadel by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill
Spring by Ali Smith
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
A Day in Summer by J.L. Carr
The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield
Stoner by John Williams
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Abbie by Dane Chanos
Fresh From the Country by Miss Read
A Thatched Cottage by Beverley Nichols

Tea or Books? #83: Comfort Zones (Yes or No?) and Two Willa Cather Novels

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Comfort zones, comfort novels, and two novels by Willa Cather – welcome to episode 83!

In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I talk about whether or not we have comfort zones when it comes to reading – and what our comfort reading is, which isn’t quite the same question. In the second half, we pit two Willa Cather novels against each other: A Lost Lady and Lucy Gayheart.

We hope that Tea or Books? can be a ray of sunshine in this complicated and anxious time. We’ll keep recording as much as we can! Do let us know if you have any suggestions for future episodes – and please do rate and review us at your podcast app of choice SHOULD you wish. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, and we’re on Spotify too now. If you’d like to support the podcast, that’s an option at Patreon.

You can get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com. Please do!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
Tension by E.M. Delafield
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Denis Mackail
Rose Macaulay
Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm
Virginia Woolf
Gertrude Stein
The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
Two Lives by Janet Malcolm
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Remarkable Life of the Skin by Monty Lyman
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Love Child by Edith Olivier
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The People on the Bridge by Wisława Szymborska
Circe by Madeleine Miller
Miss Read
Agatha Christie
Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
The Illustrated Dustjacket 1920-1970 by Martin Salisbury
Penguin By Design by Phil Baines
When I Was A Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford
The Road to Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
The Shelf by Phyllis Rose
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Phantoms on the Bookshelves by Jacques Bonnet
A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
Packing My Library by Alberto Manguel
Jorge Luis Borges
The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Aunt Mame by Patrick Dennis
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Tea or Books? #82: Australia vs New Zealand and two Adrian Bell books

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? , 6 Comments

Australia, New Zealand, and Adrian Bell – welcome to episode 82!

In the first half, we do a topic suggested by Lindsay – books by Australians and books by people from New Zealand. And my GOODNESS we don’t know anywhere near enough to be discussing it. But we plough on!

In the second half, we look at two non-fiction books by Adrian Bell: Corduroy and A Suffolk Harvest.

If you’d like to get bonus mini episodes, and a whole bunch of other things, you can find us at Patreon. And you can listen via Apple Podcasts or your podcast app of choice. Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com if you have topic suggestions or just want to say hi!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Rose Macaulay: A Writer’s Life by Jane Emery
Rose Macaulay by Constance Babington Smith
Rose Macaulay: A Biography by Sarah LeFanu
Aunt Mame by Patrick Dennis
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
Circe by Madeline Miller
‘The Garden Party’ by Katherine Mansfield
Janet Frame
Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh
My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Emma by Jane Austen
My Place by Sally Morgan
The Middle of Nowhere by Geraldine McCaughrean
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
Poor Man’s Orange by Ruth Park
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
Breathe by Tim Winton
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin
Elizabeth von Arnim
Barbara Comyns
Sylvia Townsend Warner
A.A. Milne
Corduroy by Adrian Bell
A Suffolk Harvest by Adrian Bell
The Balcony by Adrian Bell
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather

Tea or Books? #81: Style vs Plot and Living vs Loving by Henry Green

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Henry Green, style over substance, and some listener questions – here’s episode 81!

In the first half of this episode, we discuss style vs substance – or, to put it another way, writing style vs the plot of the novel. Which is more important to us? In the second half, we compare two novels by Henry Green – Loving and Living. One of us finished the book. Won’t say which one.

If you’d like to support us on Patreon and get the new mini bonus episodes, it’s here. We’re on iTunes and any podcast app of your choice. And do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com if you’d like to ask us questions, suggest topics, or anything else. We love hearing from you!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
A Bite of the Apple by Lennie Goodings
Margaret Atwood
Ethel Wilson
Stephen Leacock
My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes
Bad Girl by Vena Delmar
The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
Chatterton Square by E.H. Young
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
Hilary Mantel
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Grief is a Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
Lanny by Max Porter
Elizabeth Bowen
Virginia Woolf
George Orwell
Chess by Stefan Zweig
Charles Dickens
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford
Dorothy Whipple
Mary Webb
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Thornyhold by Mary Stewart
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West
The Death of Noble Godavary by Vita Sackville-West
Grand Canyon by Vita Sackville-West
Caught by Henry Green
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Blindness by Henry Green
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
The Years by Virginia Woolf
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce
Party Going by Henry Green
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
John Braine
Of Love and Hunger by Julian McLaren-Ross
Rosamond Lehmann
Corduroy by Adrian Bell
A Suffolk Harvest by Adrian Bell

Tea or Books? #80: Should Authors Only Write What They Know? and Agatha Christie vs Dorothy L Sayers

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A couple of Queens of Crime and an important question about what writers should be allowed to write…

 

In the first half of episode 80, we ask if writers should only write what they know – whether that means their race, gender, or experiences. In the second half we compare and contrast 4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie and Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers, and find out if I’ve got over my loathing of Lord Peter Wimsey.

We always love hearing from you – thanks to everyone who has sent in topic suggestions to teaorbooks@gmail.com. And if you have any requests for reading advice for the middle segment, do let us know.

You can see us at Apple Podcasts or by searching on Spotify, you can support the podcast at Patreon, and if you can work out how to rate and review us through your podcast app then we’re always grateful for that!

The books and authors we mentioned in this episode are:

The Book of William by Paul Collins
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Kate Atkinson
Alva and Irva by Edward Carey
Little by Edward Carey
My Caravaggio Style by Doris Langley Moore
Lord Byron
The Call by Edith Ayrton Zangwill
No Surrender by Constance Maud
Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith
The Happy Foreigner by Enid Bagnold
Diary Without Dates by Enid Bagnold
The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
J.K. Rowling
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
William Shakespeare
The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
The Masters by C.P. Snow
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee
The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
The Garrick Year by Margaret Drabble
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie
Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie
Loving by Henry Green
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen

Tea or Books? #79: Political Books (Yes or No?), and The Diary of a Bookseller vs Bookshop Memories

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Shaun Bythell, George Orwell, and a whole host of politicians – it’s episode 79!

We have a special guest for this episode – my very good friend Lorna, who was meeting Rachel for the first time. We recorded in person in Rachel’s flat, bunched along the sofa. It was really fun – and since Lorna is a broadcast journalist, I feel like we’ve elevated ourselves…

In the first half we talk about political books, both fact and fiction. In the second half we compare two works on running bookshops – Shaun Bythell’s The Diary of a Bookseller and a short essay by George Orwell called ‘Bookshop Memories’.

If you’d like to support the podcast through Patreon, you can! And here we are on Apple Podcasts and you can find us on Spotify too – any reviews or ratings much appreciated. Do get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com with any questions or suggestions.

Here are the books and authors we mention in this episode:

Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
The Quest for Christa T by Christa Wolf
The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
The Past is Myself by Christabel Bielenberg
Goethe
Theft By Finding by David Sedaris
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Why I’m No Longer Speaking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Island by Victoria Hislop
Unleashing Demons by Craig Oliver
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
Tory Heaven by Marghanita Laski
Love on the Supertax by Marghanita Laski
Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood
Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli
Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli
Walter Scott
Charles Dickens
Emile Zola
George Eliot
Middle England by Jonathan Coe
Ian McEwan
Autumn by Ali Smith
Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe
Holy Deadlock by A.P. Herbert
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden
The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden
Head of State by Andrew Marr
Mrs Harris, MP by Paul Gallico
Flowers For Mrs Harris by Paul Gallico
Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
E.M. Delafield
Old Books, Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie

Peas in a Podcast #9

StuckinaBook Peas in a Podcast 1 Comment

Here’s the latest episode of the podcast I do with my twin bro Colin – Peas in a Podcast. It’s been waiting for me to edit it for SO long that all the topical references now mean nothing. FUN. Enjoy!

You can find us on iTunes or Apple Podcasts or whatever. And if you’re one of the nice people who listen, why not rate us? Someone gave us a one star rating, which was mean. Fair but mean.

Tea or Books? #78: 19th Century vs 20th Century and Two Unfinished Jane Austen Novels

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? , 2 Comments

Sanditon, The Watsons, and a whistle-stop tour of the centuries – we’re back!


 
In the first half of this episode, we take a suggestion from Elizabeth – do we prefer the nineteenth or twentieth century for literature? That’s an awful lot to cover, so we just look at British literature… and not very much of that tbh. But it’s fun!

In the second half, we look at Sanditon and The Watsons – two unfinished novels by Jane Austen – and pick which one is our favourite, and which we wish had been finished.

Do get in touch if you’d like to suggest topics or want to ask us advice – you can do that at teaorbooks@gmail.com. You can support the podcast at our Patreon page and rate or review us at Apple Podcasts.

And if the Georgianary Group sounds interesting, you can find it at GoodReads.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
William Blake
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Dorothy L Sayers
Georges Simenon
The Secret of High Eldersham by Miles Burton
Diaries of Cecil Beaton
Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden
The Wells of St Mary’s by R.C. Sherriff
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Jane Austen
Elizabeth Gaskell
George Eliot
Wilkie Collins
Charles Dickens
Mrs Henry Wood
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Arthur Conan Doyle
Amy Levy
Bronte sisters
Mary Shelley
Virginia Woolf
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Drabble
Margaret Forster
Nina Bawden
Penelope Mortimer
Anthony Trollope
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Monk by Matthew Lewes
The Italian by Ann Radcliffe
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Cecilia by Fanny Burney
Evelina by Fanny Burney
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Self-Control by Mary Brunton
Discipline by Mary Brunton
Emma by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Loving by Henry Green
Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers
4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie