Liv and Laura talk about books they've read recently and discuss the Women's Prize for fiction shortlist. Laura also candidly shares her love of handwriting - whether it be writing in her diary, or sending letters and postcards. Join us for a lovely chat.
Books mentioned in this podcast:
The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent
The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Dunn
When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzen
The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
All Fours by Miranda July
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
Fundamentally by Nissaibah Younis
The Good Mistress by Anne Tiernan
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Liv, Rach and Laura are back to chat about what they've read, all the new releases they are excited about, and other random bookish musings including a debate on the category of chick-lit - to be or not to be...
Books mentioned in this podcast:
The Cafe with No Name by Robert Seethaler
33 Brugmann Place by Alice Austen
The Mademoiselle Alliance by Natasha Lester
See How They Fall by Rachel Paris
Swept Away by Beth O'Leary
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Best, First and Last by Amy Matthews
Better Days by Claire Zorn
Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell
The Axeman's Carnival by Catherine Chidgey
Proof of my Innocence by Jonathan Coe
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
The Mysterious Bakery on Rue to Paris & The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
Hastings by Dick Frizzell
No Words for This by Ali Mau
38 Londres St by Philippe Sands
Luminous by Sylvia Park
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Dream State by Eric Puchner
Wild Dark Shore & Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Three Wee Bookshops by Ruth Shaw
The Bookshop Detectives 2 by Gareth and Louise Ward
The Eights by Joanna Miller
Wahoo! We're back with Season 2 of Booklover Banter. In our first episode of 2025 the team discuss the newly released Ockham Longlist, what they've been reading over the summer and what they are looking forward to in the year to come. You'll want a notebook and pen (or notes on your phone) handy because we talk about A LOT of great books.
Books mentioned in this podcast:
The Mires by Tina Makereti
Delirious by Damien Wilkins
The Axeman's Carnival by Catherine Chidgey
Unreel by Diana Wichtel
Feijoa by Kate Evans
In the Half Light of a Dying Day by CK Stead
Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud by Lee Murray
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell
The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr
The Women by Kristin Hannah
The Postcard by Anne Berest
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Pool by Hannah Tunnicliffe
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
The Secrets of Maiden Cove by Erin Palmisano
Sorrow Spring by Olivia Isaac Henry
One Dark Night by Hannah Richell
When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole by Geoff Parkes
Dog Man series by Dave Pilkey
Inkbound by Philippa Leathley
Ghostlines by Katya Balen
Crookhaven series by J J Arcanjo
Skandar series by A F Steadman
Novacene by James Lovelock
How to Feed the World by Vaclav Smil
The Serviceberry by Robyn Wall Kimmerer
The Abundant Garden by Niva and Yotam Kay
LifeStyled: Your Guide to a More Organised and Intentional Life by Shira Gill
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Katabasis by RF Kuang
Twist by Colum McCann
38 Londre St by Philippe Sands
This is a bumper episode where we reflect on the year that was 2024. Hear about our top ten bestsellers, our favourite books, the highlights, the challenges and the joys of being booksellers. There's laughing, there's screaming, there's Christmas lights and music and...well, cockroaches.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Place of Tides by James Rebanks
Table for Two by Amor Towles
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Dusk by Robbie Arnott
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
Juice by Tim Winton
The Songbirds of Florence by Olivia Spooner
Moon Road by Sarah Leipciger
The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour/Jude Dobson
You Are Here and One Day by David Nicholls
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
James by Percival Everett
Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton
The Women by Kristin Hannah
The Space Between by Lauren Keenan
Precipice by Robert Harris
All Fours by Miranda July
Days of Innocence and Wonder by Lucy Treloar
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Because All Fades by Freddie Giles
Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst
Playground by Richard Powers
The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
17 Years Later by JP Pomare
Eden Undone by Abbott Kahler
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Ruby Loud Mouse by Alice Pearce
Well Woman by Dr Frances Pitsilis
Marry Me in Italy by Nicky Pellegrino
Lioness by Emily Perkins
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
Runt by Craig Silvey
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
Wild Dark Shore & Once there Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
The Postcard by Anne Berest
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Delirious by Damien Wilkins
The Kill Factor by Ben Oliver
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
The Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
The Knowledge Gene by Lynne Kelly
The Horse by Timothy Winegard
Olivia chats with Rachel and Laura about her new book The Songbirds of Florence. Find out about her research, the editing process, why the title changed and plenty more...
Liv, Rach and Laura talk about books, books and more books: what they've read, what they are excited to read, book covers, book embargoes. Plus hear about what they've been watching, superstitions, pick-up lines and so much more...
Books mentioned in this podcast:
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd
James by Percival Everett
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
The Sanatorium, The Retreat and The Wilds by Sarah Pearse
Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jonasson
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable
Precipice by Robert Harris
Marry Me in Italy by Nicky Pellegrino
A Very French Affair by Maria Hoyle
Entitlement and Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
Juice by Tim Winton
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Time of the Child by Niall Williams
The Alaska Sanders Affair by Joel Dicker
The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
Runt and Honeybee by Craig Silvey
The Age of Enchantment: The Chronicles of Whetherwhy by Anna James
Holmes and Moriarty by Gareth Rubin
Films/TV series mentioned in this episode:
Emily in Paris
Maxton Hall
The Wild Robot
Runt
In this deeply personal and emotion-filled chat, Olivia talks with Ruth Shaw live on stage during the recent NZ Booksellers Conference held at the Crown Plaza in Auckland. They discuss what life is like being both an author and a bookseller and Ruth reveals what she is writing next plus plenty more.
Books by Ruth Shaw mentioned in this episode:
The Bookseller at the End of the World
Bookshop Dogs
Join us at the Booksellers Conference, the biggest event of the year for us booksellers. Come behind the scenes, meet some amazing people, and share in our joy as we chat about what it means to win NZ Bookshop of the Year 2024.
Rachel experiences a fan-girl moment as she sits down to interview one of her favourite authors, J.P. Pomare! Discover the ins and outs of writing crime fiction, including how to write the perfect twist, plus hear his fascinating insights into the state of bookselling in Australia and New Zealand, and so much more...this episode is PACKED with good stuff.
Books and authors mentioned in this podcast:
The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides)
We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Benjamin Stevenson (Fool Me Twice: Two Twisty Mysteries)
Tana French (The Searcher and The Hunter)
Michael Robotham
Val McDermid
Rachel Cusk
Denis Johnson (Train Dreams)
Robbie Arnott (Limberlost)
Diana Reid
Tim Winton (Juice)
The team are back! It's been a while but we are together again to talk about the day in the life of a bookseller. It's fair to say we do a bit of rambling, and laughing, and well, we have a good old banter. It is Booklover Banter after all!
Laura sits down to chat with Suzanne Heywood, author of the bestselling memoir, Wavewalker - one of Laura's favourite books! Hear about Suzanne's incredible childhood spent sailing with her family on a yacht - the highs, the lows and everything in between!
In this episode Olivia talks with Renee Rowland, Association Manager of Booksellers NZ. Find out what this important association is, what it does, and get a behind the scenes view of bookselling in Aotearoa. Renee also reveals her favourite books and she tells listeners about something she has done in her life which we believe you will find extraordinary. This episode has it all.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Rachel sits down to chat with Freddie Gillies, author of Because All Fades and The Big Bike Trip to discuss his writing process, his journey to publication and the real life inspirations that spark his works.
The team get wildly excited about some crackingly good books they've just read and highlight the ones to get excited about over the next few months. In the nicest possible way (no name and shame) they also share a couple of duds.
Books mentioned in this podcast:
You are Here by David Nicholls
Moon Road by Sarah Leipciger
Table for Two by Amor Towles
You Like it Darker by Stephen King
Long Island by Colm Toibin
Skandar series by A F Steadman
Crookhaven series by J J Arcanjo
Dragon Rider by Taran Matharau
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
Groosham Grange by Anthony Horowitz
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
(We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker)
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Juice by Tim Winton
The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
Playground by Richard Powers
Entitlement by Rumaan Alam
(Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam)
Everest Inc by Will Cockrill
The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour and Jude Dobson
The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang
There is a lot of talk in the bookselling world at the moment about book covers so Liv, Rach and Laura thought it was time to jump in and share their thoughts. Plenty to discuss and, well, just a heads up it gets a little heated...
Books mentioned in this podcast:
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
How to Win an Information War by Peter Pomerantsev
The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw
The Crookhaven series by A A Arcanjo
Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton
What I Would Do to You by Georgia Harper
Queen, King, Ace by Olivia Hayfield
Earth and Water by John Boyne
Piglet by Lottie Hazelwood
Because All Fades by Freddie Giles
Honeybee by Craig Silvey
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes
The Women by Kristen Hannah
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
Moon Road by Sarah Leipciger
Jennifer Saints books
Others mentioned in this podcast:
@posiesandpages
@ez.bookdesign
This is a fascinating episode you won't want to miss! Liv is excited and honoured to sit down with Lyndsey Fineran, Artistic Director of the Auckland Writers Festival to talk about her role. Listen in to hear what is involved in creating the programme for the festival and how Lyndsey convinces authors, the likes of Ann Patchett, to travel half way around the world to appear on our stage.
Rachel starts us off by talking about new books she's excited to see on our shelves, then we get stuck into discussing the amazing programme for The Auckland Writer's Festival. We make bold predictions about the Ockham Book Awards and chat about which authors we can't wait to see at the festival, the pros and cons of Q&A's with authors, and plenty more...
Rachel talks about the following books:
The Whisperwicks by Jordan Lees
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Small Hours by Bobby Palmer
The Hunter by Tana French
What I Would Do to You by Georgia Harper
We also discuss these fiction finalists in the Ockham Book Awards:
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
Lioness by Emily Perkins
A Better Place by Stephen Daisley
Audition by Pip Adam
Other Authors we mention who are coming to the Auckland Writer's Festival:
Ann Patchett
Trent Dalton
Bonnie Garmus
Suzanne Heywood
Freddie Gillies
Airana Ngarewa
Paul Lynch
Olivia Spooner :)
Lauren Keenan
Barbara Sumner
In this fascinating episode Olivia sits down to chat with the legendary Ross Lorimer, a household name in the book industry. We're not even going to tell you what he does and how he got to where he is today because it's so much better for you to hear it from the man himself. If you decide to listen to this episode on your way to work, be warned there's a high chance you might be late as you're not going to want to hit pause on this one.
Books and authors mentioned in this episode:
The Lord of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
What colour is your parachute? by Richard Bolles
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Umberto Eco
Mattieu Ricard
Today booksellers Olivia, Rachel and Laura discuss the ones that got away. Prepare to be shocked when we reveal the books we know we should have read, the books our customers assume we have read, the books we really really want to read one day. These are the books we have on our metaphorical (and literal) retirement shelves waiting for the day they can be savoured and enjoyed. Or maybe we'll have to get to them earlier...
Books mentioned in this episode:
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
All the Light we Cannot See and Clou Cuckoo Land by Antony Doerr
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Cutting for Stone and A Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
The Seven Sister series by Lucinda Riley
The Overstory and Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell
The Disposed and Earth Sea trilogy by Ursula Le Guin
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
The Searcher and The Hunter by Tana French
The Secret History and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Tom Lake, Bel Canto and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
All books by JP Pomare
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Anna Karenina and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Middlemarch by George Elliot
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Phew!
It's Valentine's Day!! So what better time to release an episode all about romance. Olivia and Rachel sit down with Bayleigh Gibson, marketing assistant at Harper Collins NZ to talk about the Romance Isn't Dead influencer event held at The Booklover Bookshop last weekend, as well as romance tropes and sex ratings and so much more. We pose so many questions, with very few answers! Love is in the ear (get the pun!).
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Fault in our Stars by John Green
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
Wildfire by Hannah Grace
Too Late by Colleen Hoover
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
The Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon
Kit McBride Gets a Wife by Amy Barry
Tackle by Jilly Cooper
Romance authors Emily Henry and Beth O' Leary