We’ve finally done the reviewers vs recommendations episode! Also: E Nesbit and Dorothy Whipple.
Every now and then, the critics vs bloggers debate rears its head. In the first half of the episode, we take a slightly different look at that – newspaper reviews vs friend’s recommendations – but we also talk about blogs along the way, unsurprisingly. In the second half, we pit two novels about women finding jobs against each other – E Nesbit’s The Lark (1922) and Dorothy Whipple’s High Wages (1930).
You can support the podcast (and get some rewards) at our Patreon page – including the first bloopers reel! And our iTunes page is here. As always, let us know if you have any suggestions for topics etc. And rate/review if you can work out how to!
If you’re after the complete E Nesbit ebook, it’s available here or through wherever you buy ebooks.
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
The Akeing Heart by Peter Haring Judd
Sylvia Townsend Warner by Claire Harman
Marilynne Robinson
Oliver Sacks
Touching the Rock by John Hull
Dan Brown
Hilary Mantel
A Life of One’s Own by Claire Tomalin
Apple of My Eye by Helene Hanff
The Lark by E. Nesbit
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
The Incredible Honeymoon by E Nesbit
Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple
They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
A Pin to See the Peepshow by F Tennyson Jesse
The Enchanted Castle by E Nesbit
They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple
Penelope Lively
Lifting the Veil by Ismat Chughtai
Birds of America by Mary McCarthy
Meatless Days by Sara Suleri
Kamila Shamsie
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Cover designs by Martha Rich!
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
I love your podcast, my only problem is that I listen to it in the car and therefore forget the titles of the books you have mentioned that I really want to read and then I forget to check the show notes so now I am listening to each episode again.
Has Rachel remembered the name of the crime programme she was watching on Netflix as I am interested to watch it?
Thank you
Hi Linda, it’s called Unforgotten – so good!
Fab thank you, I will check it out this evening.
Lovely episode, as usual! Both these books sound perfect for me. I’m having trouble finding The Lark and Dorothy Whipple’s novels at my library here in the U.S. I even had some trouble finding them at an amazing bookstore in Portland, OR, called Powell’s. I need to actually order books online instead of relying on serendipity when I’m browsing books in used bookstores. I’m not sure I want to resort to eBooks quite yet. :D I very much appreciate the recommendations I get from Tea or Books! Thank you!
I requested that my library buy The Lark, and they are! Yay! Now to work on them getting more Dorothy Whipple… :D
Great news, Elizabeth! I hope you enjoy it :D
Read The Lark over the weekend and loved it! Thanks for another great recommendation. :)
Yup. I’m totally influenced by the bloggers I trust – because the bottom line is that it comes from the heart and they’re reading because they love books. And the interaction is so important- I started my blog partly because no one I know in r/l loves books like me! 😁
Hello Simon, Rachel and fellow ToB listeners,
Given your concern about professional reviewers potentially knowing the authors whose books they are reviewing, you might be interested to listen to this interview with the editor of the Sunday Times books section:
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/meet-the-writers/116/
So far as I recall, he has a policy of trying to prevent friends reviewing friends. Indeed, he seems to go to some lengths to avoid being compromised by connections.
Thanks for recommending ‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ in a previous edition. I am loving it. It’s like a cross between an Agatha Christie whodunnit and Kate Atkinson’s ‘Life after life’.
Very interesting, thanks David!