Blurbs and Kazuo Ishiguro – welcome to episode 88!
In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I talk about whether we want blurbs – i.e. do we do research on what we’re reading before we pick it up. In the second half, we look at two novels by Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go.
Do let us know if you have any questions for the central bit of the podcast – or any topic suggestions; we always love to hear them. You can find us in your podcast app of choice, via Apple podcasts, or on Spotify. And you can support the podcast on Patreon, should you so wish!
Incidentally, apologies for Hargreaves miaowing for his tea throughout… which, indeed, he had already eaten.
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Talk of the Devil by Frank Baker
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Letters of Virginia Woolf
Essays by Gloria Steinem
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Mrs Parkington by Louis Bromfield
Gelett Burgess
The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg by Louis Bromfield
Barbara Pym
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Asleep in the Sun by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
No blurbs! Rarely help me in any way, often have no relation to the impression I have of the book.
I can’t stand the blurbs which are the endless quotes about how good a book is – can’t bear it. I do prefer just a little something which gives me a hint of what the book is about but alas mostly the modern ones are so overblown they’re just offputting. Random book finds – that’s the thing!