Booktails Podcast

✨Recent Adaptations 1✨📖 The more we know of the world we more we are convinced that nothing will top Jane Austen! We require so much! This week we are giving up our family estate to live in positive squalor in Devonshire of all places! That’s right, we are joining the Dashwood sisters and hoping to make auspicious marriages (hopefully with some love thrown in)! We are discussing Sense and Sensibility, both the classic book and the most recent 2026 adaptation -and some chat about the 1995 adaptation too because how could we not?! Expect discussions on historical hairstyles, secret engagements, our opinions on Jane Austen age gap romances (what do you MEAN Alan Rickman was 48 when he played Colonel Brandon???) and advocate for justice for Mrs Jennings, who we all aspire to be!  Join us in the parlour with this week’s ‘Just a Dash-wood’ cocktail and let’s try to keep calm and be mistresses of ourselves!

🦇BLACK HISTORY HALLOWEEN 5🦇 🚨Trigger warning🚨:This book and our conversation on it includes graphic violence including infanticide and sexual assault. Look after yourselves.  This October we are celebrating Black History Month and Halloween together- delving into spooky, paranormal tales written by black writers. 🐈‍⬛ For our final book in this series, we had to pull out the big guns. It’s time for ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison. 🪦 Eighteen years ago Sethe was faced with the ultimate decision: allow her children to be taken back into slavery or do the unthinkable.  Shunned by society and living alongside a malevolent ghost, Sethe and her daughter Denver are joined by a man from Sethe’s past as a slave, and a young woman who seems to know too much and has an unhealthy obsession with Sethe. Could she be the spirit of the baby whose headstone read simply ‘Beloved’? 🍬 This book is a classic for a reason and if you haven’t read it already take this as your sign to. 🏆 Expect discussions on the possible rational explanations for Beloved’s appearance, the depiction of “benevolent” slave owners, the stark contrast between characters at the beginning and end of the book and the horrors of the past that we just cannot outrun. 🪺 If you haven’t already, go and check out previous episodes in this series: ‘Die for Me’ by Shirlene Obuobi, with special guest Alyssa from Stories and Spoilers Podcast, ’The Reformatory’ ,‘The Gilda Stories’ and ‘White is for Witching’! ✨

🦇BLACK HISTORY HALLOWEEN 4🦇 This October we are celebrating Black History Month and Halloween together- delving into spooky, paranormal tales written by black writers. 🐈‍⬛ This week in ‘White is for Witching’ by Helen Oyeyemi, a haunted house is calling your name and no matter how far you go you won’t be able to escape its’ secret passageways and ghostly footsteps… 🧙‍♀️ Miranda is slipping away, not eating food, not sleeping and she no longer looks like photographs of herself from a year ago. Is she being called to the witchy business of her ancestors? When she disappears entirely her twin brother, girlfriend and even the house itself all have their take on where she is, but who can be trusted? And will Miranda ever come back? 🍎 Expect discussions on the appeal of an unsolvable mystery, Caribbean folklore, Miranda’s stilettos, racist haunted houses, wunderkind authors and debates on what those apples really meant… 🏚️ It’s one of our highest rated books of the year for a reason, we can’t recommend this one highly enough and hope you’ll join us to delve into a page turning, spine chilling adventure that raises more questions than it answers…⌚️

🦇BLACK HISTORY HALLOWEEN 3🦇 This October we are celebrating Black History Month and Halloween together- delving into spooky, paranormal tales written by black writers. 🐈‍⬛ What’s next in our Jack o’ Lantern of Treats? ‘The Gilda Stories’ by Jewelle Gomez 🧛‍♀️ A runaway slave from Mississippi becomes a humane vampire and travels the US for over 200 years watching society change around her.  Expect discussions on sapphic vampires, historical fiction meeting sci fi, quite a lot of champagne, the definitive ranking of periods of modern history, and our thoughts on which celebrities are probably secret vampires. 🩸 They take blood, not life- and they always, always leave something behind… ⚰️ If you haven’t already, go and check out previous episodes in this series: ‘Die for Me’ by Shirlene Obuobi, with special guest Alyssa from Stories and Spoilers Podcast and ’The Reformatory’!

🦇BLACK HISTORY HALLOWEEN 2🦇 This October we are celebrating Black History Month and Halloween together- delving into spooky, paranormal tales written by black writers.  If you haven’t already, go and check out last week’s episode on Die for Me by Shirlene Obuobi, with special guest Alyssa from Stories and Spoilers Podcast!  But next up we have another treat for you: the deliciously creepy ‘The Reformatory’ by Tananarive Due. Based on the harrowing true story of a real school where the author’s great uncle died as a child, this is the story of Robert who is unfairly sentenced to the Reformatory and his ability to see the ghosts who are trapped there is quickly seen and exploited- but these ghosts may just hold the key to finally finding justice and escape before the living join the dead.  Join us to discuss the real life inspiration, the dual storylines of the reformatory and racial prejudice and injustice, the importance of the setting to the paranormal aspects and those poor dogs!  Because sometimes a place can be haunted by things far scarier than ghosts…

🦇BLACK HISTORY HALLOWEEN 1 🦇 This October we are celebrating Black History Month and Halloween together- delving into spooky, paranormal tales written by black writers.  Up first we are so excited to team up with Alyssa from Stories and Spoilers Podcast who recommended this book to us!  Paranormal romance. Strong female lead.  Age gap.  Chosen family.  And so much more!  This week’s book is ‘Die for Me’ by Shirlene Obuobi, the tale of a strong, successful interventional cardiologist who meets a handsome, charming younger man who seems too good to be true, especially when she starts getting sick whenever they’re apart and her dark hair turns grey overnight…  Expect discussions on inherent good and evil, the importance of Sean’s life before Julian, the real life badass author, and the possibilities of future books!  Beware the man of your dreams; it may not be safe to go to sleep! 

📆BIRTH YEAR PICK 2: 1994 📆 Before we get into spooky season it’s time for a ✨Booktails Interlude! ✨ We are doing a two book series based on our years of birth! 🐣 Up next, Rachel has chosen a book published in 1994, Serena’s year of birth: ‘By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept’ by Paulo Coelho. It’s a timeless tale of a young woman at a crossroads in her life who reconnects with her first love. He has turned to faith and is said to perform miracles- but is willing to give it all up for her. But can they really be together or are these star crossed lovers destined to end in tragedy?  Dive into the River Piedra headfirst with Serena and Rachel to discuss nameless heroes, the hundredth monkey effect (the real one), spirituality  and the utter joy of an unexpected happy ending.  Our game this week has us speaking in tongues (maybe from the tequila based cocktail!) but will you be able to decode?  Ready to go for a swim? (hopefully not in our own tears!💅)

📆BIRTH YEAR PICK 1: 1990 📆 Before we get into spooky season it’s time for a ✨Booktails Interlude! ✨ We are doing a two book series based on our years of birth! 🐣 First up Serena has chosen a book published in 1990, Rachel’s year of birth: The Game (first published as ‘Invitation to the Game’ by Monica Hughes. 🎲 We have just three words to sell it to you:  Dystopian. Game.  Survival.  ♟️ And if you’re now buzzing with excitement then get ready because it’s only going to get better. Join Rachel and Serena to discuss this young adult tale set in a world where jobs are scarce and artificial intelligence is taking over (no you’re feeling called out by a book written 35 years ago). 🤖 Including talk of interplanetary travel, planning who we would kidnap to start a new civilisation, the matrix, drinking another blue cocktail and trying to hypnotise each other (and maybe also you at home?!). 🌌 One thing’s for sure: the game is afoot. But will we ever wake up from it?  🎮

End of Days 4 🛘🔥☄️🌊 This series on Booktails Podcast we are using the enduring narrative of the four horsemen of the apocalypse as our inspiration to read four books based around War, Pestilence, Famine and Death. 🏇🏇🏇🏇 And now here we are at the end of the end. It’s time for possibly the bleakest of all: famine. 🌾 Our book for this topic is Kirstin Hannah’s ‘The Four Winds’: the heart wrenching tale of a mother forced to flee her barren farm with her two children for the chance at a new life across the country, meeting challenges at every turn and losing and finding love along the way! 🧳 Join Serena and Rachel as they discuss the meaning of strength, the mysterious fate of Elsa’s husband, some Dust Bowl history and the absolute terror of having nothing to eat. Today’s cocktail is a Dirty Famine Margarita and you will all be pleased to know that we will finally be able to answer the question “if you were a southern US state which would it be?” 🌎

End of Days 3 🛘🔥☄️🌊 This series on Booktails Podcast we are using the enduring narrative of the four horsemen of the apocalypse as our inspiration to read four books based around War, Pestilence, Famine and Death. 🏇🏇🏇🏇 Today, step up to the stage Pestilence! That’s right! We’re talking locusts, demons, disease and all things plague. 🦗 And we’re travelling back to medieval Black Death times and joining a knight, a young saint and a priest on a quest to vanquish the demons plaguing France and avoid catching the plague whilst they’re at it! 💀 Rachel and Serena will be deep diving into dream sequences, getting philosophical with the meaning of sin and evil, and most importantly, finding out which Keanu Reeves character would save us during the apocalypse! Grab your sweet and spicy Pestilence marg and let’s spread the word (not the germs)! 🦠