I chat with the lovely Dr Xine Yao all about literature, the potential harm to be found in reading, and the sense of entitlement often seen when discussing and reviewing books in an ethnographic space.

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Show Notes
I got  the chance to chat with the lovely Dr Xine Yao all about literature, the potential harm to be found in reading, and the sense of entitlement often seen when discussing and reviewing books in an ethnographic space.
Some seriously fascinating thoughts in this episode alongside great recommendations. So many great ideas and topics covered in our short thirty minutes!

Works and authors mentonined in the podcast:
Works:
Indian in the Cupboard by  Lynne Reid Banks
The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende
So Long A Letter by Mariama Bâ
The Heads of the Coloured People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
An American Marriage by Teyari Jones
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
Skim by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki

Authors:
Franz Kafka 
Audre Lorde  
Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton)  

I chat with Hugo Award winning author Mary Robinette Kowal all about books, puppetry, voice acting, and the space between author and audience.

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Show Notes
I had a blast chatting to Hugo Award Winning author Mary Robinette Kowal all about her thoughts on bibliotherapy, the therapeutic effects of writing, and the importance of the membership non profit Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America of which Mary Robinette is President. We chatted a lot about the role of the intermediary in storytelling, both through audio with her work as a voice artist and with the visual with her work as a puppeteer. We discuss that distance between author and audience and how it affects our wellbeing. A fabulous chat with a fabulous author, voice actor, and puppeteer!

Link to Mary Robinette Kowal’s website

As promised all the books and authors mentioned in this episode:
John Scalzi
Guy Gavriel Kay
Martha Wells
Jane Austen
The Sun, The Moon, & The Stars by Stephen Brust
Philip K Dick
Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Glamorous Histories series by Mary Robinette Kowal
Jane Espensen
The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk

Lisa and I chat with Nigel Beale all about beautiful books, libraries worth visiting, and his love of literary tourism.

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Show Notes
I chat with Nigel Beale and my co host Lisa Dalton all about beautiful books this week. We take a journey into Nigel’s literary critic role, his podcast interviews and how they intersect with his love of literary tourism. Nigel discusses how the very visual nature of a book can be therapeutic in and of itself and how he collects a wide variety of books and book related items, all chosen for their beauty.

Things mentioned in the podcast:

Shakespeare
Bruce Taylor
Martin Amis
JM Coetzee
Cultural Amnesia by  Clive James
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies by Susan Elderkin and Ella Berthoud
Think and Grow Rich by Andrew Carnegie
Harry Ransom Center  in Austin, Texas
Houghton Library at Harvard
Beinecke Rare Books Library at Yale
British Library
Book of Kells at Trinity College Dublin

Photo by Polly Antonia Barrowman

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Show Notes
I chat to the lovely academic librarian Megan Rosenbloom this week all about her thoughts on therapeutic reading, death positivity, researching human skin books, and how Ulysses has stayed with her and should be read as part of a community.

There is so much in this episode, brilliant ideas about librarianship along with a hidden gem of an archive open to the public. Megan’s constant journey to read all the books that she can, and how being a medical librarian affected her way of looking at books. There is book history and book anecdotes galore in this glorious extra long episode!

I would also thoroughly recommed Megan’s fantastic book Dark Archives.
Megan’s photo for this episode by Polly Antonia Barrowman.

Authors, works, and places mentioned:
Authors
Ernest Becker

Works
Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom
A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History by Baba the Cat and Paul Koudounaris
The Dreamsongs by John Berryman
Ulysses by James Joyce

Places
The Rosenbach – museum in Philadelphia
The Huntingdon Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens – in LA

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A fascinating episode with the bookseller James Daunt. We talk all about bookshops, libraries, the therapeutic nature of books for both humans and other books on the shelf. James tells us about why libraries and bookshops are essential and the changing nature of books when you re-read them.

Works mentioned:
Moomins by Tove Jansson
Harry Potter  by J.K. Rowling
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Fyoder Dostoevsky
The Little Grey Men by Denys Watkins-Pitchford “BB”
Grief Is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

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Show Notes
Claudia Rubenstein Director of Jewish Book Week Literary Festival chats therapuetic reading & what to expect from this year’s online festival. We talk about Claudia’s love of historical non-fiction and her go to books for comfort.

Authors:
Cynthia Ozick
Jean Plaidy
Isaiah Berlin
Delphine Horvilleur
Jay Rayner
Hermione Lee
Nicole Krauss
Howard Jacobson
Edmund de Waal
Simon Schama
Simon Sebag Montefiori

Works:
The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer
A Little History of the World E. H. Gombrich
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood Neal Garber
The Lion in Winter
Jews Don’t Count David Baddiel
A Place of Greater Safety Hilary Mantel

Panels:
Karl Marx: Philosophy and Revolution Shlomo Avineri, chair: John Gray
Why Do Jews Love The Godfather? Harlan Lebo and Rich Cohen
Modern Jewish Literature Howard Jacobson, Dara Horn, and Adam Kirsch
You Talkin’ To Me E J White
The Language of Thieves Martin Puchner
Signatures David Pryce-Jones
How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division Elif Shafak
Burning the Books Richard Ovenden
Mending the Mind Oliver Kamm
The Lives of Lucian Freud William Feaver
The House of Fragile Things James McAuley
Survivors Rob Rinder and Rebecca Clifford
The Pandemic, the NHS and Me: Michael Rosen and Rachel Clarke

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Show Notes
This week I chat with Dr Samantha Rayner, Vice Dean of Wellbeing and Director of Publishing at UCL. We talk about how books affect our wellbeing and how we reach for different books for different reasons. We dive through historical fiction and make a quick stop in the world of mediaeval literature.

Sam has edited a new book on Georgette Heyer which you can find here

Authors and works mentioned in the episode:
Authors:
Georgette Heyer
Robin Hobb
J.R.R. Tolkien
Dorothy Dunnett
Margaret Campbell Barnes
Anya Seaton
Chaucer

Works:
Wilding by Isabella Tree
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Selected Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Katherine by Anya Seton
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Abelard and Heloise by  Peter Waddell
Love Without End: A Story of Heloise and Abelard by Melvyn Bragg
La Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Pearl

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Show Notes
I chat with the lovely Nadya Menuhin this week all about theatre, playwriting, and agenting. We discuss favourite books, mental health, the power of theatre and so much more in a fabulous interview. There’s even some fun squirrel facts at the very end.

Nadya’s twitter
Hive Mind project

Authors and works mentioned:
Authors
David Sedaris
Jeanette Winterson
A. M. Homes
Rachel Cusk
Max Frisch
André Breton
Simon Stevens
Christopher Hampton
Simon McBurney
Yuval Noah Harari
Joseph Conrad

Works
Graceling  by Kristin Cashore
Santaland Diaries  by David Sedaris
Written on the Body  by Jeanette Winterson
This Book Will Save Your Life  by A. M. Homes
Homo Faber  by Max Frisch
Nadja  by André Breton
Art  by Yasmina Reza
Sapiens  by Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus  by Yuval Noah Harari
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov

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Show Notes
I chat with Jonny Geller, literary agent and CEO of Curtis Brown. We talk all about agenting and the stresses attached to it, what books Jonny likes to read (and re-read!) and why as well as about the benefits on mental health of a large literary agency and the difficulties of agenting in a pandemic.
(Jonny’s picture by Dean Belcher)

Link to Curtis Brown Group – Literary Agency
Link to Jonny’s twitter
Link to Curtis Brown twitter

List of authors and works mentioned:
Authors:
Susanna Clarke
Taschen (Publisher)
Gustav Flaubert
Marcel Proust
Ivan Turgenev
Gabriel García Márquez
Tracy Chevalier
David Nicholls
Matthew Syed
John le Carré
William Boyd
David Mitchell
Jane Austen
Anton Chekhov

Works:
Yes, but is it Good for the Jews?  by Jonny Geller
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell  by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi  by Susanna Clarke
Anna Karenina  by Leo Tolstoy
One Hundred Years of Solitude  by Gabriel García Márquez
A Fine Balance  by Rohinton Mistry
Girl with a Pearl Earring  by Tracy Chevalier
Short stories by Chekhov

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Show Notes
In this Shelf Healing interview we chat to Clare Balding, author, broadcaster, and advocate for women in sport. We talk about books that help us understand ourselves better, the power of animals and animals in books, audio and walking, and getting around to reading newspapers.

Link to Clare’s website
Link to Clare’s twitter

Links to charities, people, and podcasts mentioned in the episode:
Strength and Learning Through Horses
Ted the Assiantance Dog
Ebony Riding School
RDA (Riding for the Disabled)
Fortunately
Economist Radio 

Authors and works mentioned in the podcast:
Heroic Animals by Clare Balding
How to Win a Life Without Losing Yourself by Dr Pippa Grange
The Long Win: The search for a better way to succeed by Cath Bishop
The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Animal Farm by George Orwell
My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding
After You’ve Gone by Maggie O’Farrell
One Day by David Nicholls
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Triumps and Turbulence by Chris Boardman
A Few Wise Words
The History of the World in 100 Animals by Simon Barnes