A Good Read

Lively conversation around three book choices. Presenter Harriett Gilbert talks to two guests about books they love.This week Mike Kroeger bassist and founder member of Canadian band Nickelback guests with YA author, Professor Anthony Kessel, Deputy Medical Director of NHS England.Anthony Kessel's choice is THE SAFEKEEP by Yael van der Wouden set in The Netherlands in the 1960s.Mike Kroeger chooses THE COMFORT CRISIS by American journalist Michael Easter, who argues that, in the Western world, our bodies and minds are suffering because life is too physically comfortable.Harriett's pick is BLACK WATER by Joyce Carol Oates a retelling of the Chappaquiddick incident, in which a young woman in a car driven by a famous US Senator drowns, when he careers off the road and abandons her trapped inside.Producer for BBC Audio Bristol Maggie Ayre Follow us on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

Lively conversation around three book choices. Presenter Harriett Gilbert talks to two guests about books they love.A SEVERED HEAD by Iris Murdoch, chosen by Lucy Kellaway LITTLE BOY LOST by Marghanita Laski, chosen by Harriett Gilbert SPECIMEN DAYS by Walt Whitman, chosen by John BirdLucy Kellaway, former Financial Times journalist turned secondary school teacher and founder of the charity Now Teach, chooses a slim novel by author-philosopher Iris Murdoch. A Severed Head (1961) centres on the marriage and affairs of Martin Lynch-Gibbon and his circle of friends and family.Lord Bird MBE, more commonly known as John Bird, founder of The Big Issue and now a crossbench peer campaigning on homelessness and poverty prevention in the House of Lords, picks the American poet Walt Whitman's memoir Specimen Days (1882). Written when Whitman was in his sixties, it details, in fragmentary form, his experiences of the Civil War and his love of the natural world.Presenter Harriett Gilbert brings Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski (1949), which follows Hilary Wainwright's search for his lost son amid the ruins of post-war France.Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol Join the conversation on instagram @agoodreadbbcPhoto credit: The Big Issue

Lively conversation around three book choices. Presenter Harriett Gilbert talks to two guests about books they love.Raymond Antrobus chooses Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa Guy Gunaratne chooses The Use of Photography by Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie Harriett Gilbert chooses The Mars Room by Rachel KushnerRaymond Antrobus is a poet whose memoir The Quiet Ear, which investigates the intersection of race and deafness, was published in 2025. His choice for the programme, Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, is the startling story of a severely disabled woman who blogs pornography from her care home.Guy Gunaratne is a prizewinning novelist who has chosen Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie's work which explores sex, ill health and photography over the course of their relationship.Harriett nominates The Mars Room, a novel which looks at the lives, experiences and motivations of the inmates of an American women's prison.Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbcPhoto credit: Marco Giugliarelli

Lively conversation around three book choices. Presenter Harriett Gilbert talks to two guests about books they loveEUPHORIA by Lily King HUNGER PAINS by Derek Owusu LOVED AND MISSED by Susie BoytSelina Brown has written three children's picture books. She is the founder and CEO of the Black British Book Festival. Her book recommendation is Hunger Pains by Derek Owusu - a novel that puts the growing trend of male obsession with appearance and fitness under the spotlight.Fellow guest Andrea Wulf is author of eight books, including the Founding Gardeners and The Invention of Nature. Her latest, The Traveller, is about the life of ethnographer George Forster, She chooses the novel chooses Euphoria by Lily King. It's based on the life of the life of the American explorer and anthropologist Margaret Mead.Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt is Harriett's choice - a poignant story about the fierce love of a grandmother who brings up her troubled daughter's child.Producer: Maggie Ayre, BBC Audio Bristol Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbcPhoto credit: Antonina Gern

Guests discuss books they love. This time: Loving and Giving by Molly Keane, chosen by podcaster and Archers actor Susie Riddell The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, chosen by education activist Dr Vee Kativhu The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, chosen by presenter Harriett GilbertProduced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sarah Goodman Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

A sharing of book recommendations and lively discussion. Harriett Gilbert is joined by children's author Lauren Child and musician David McAlmont to talk about books they love by George Orwell, Elizabeth Strout and Alan Bennett. The books are: Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout, chosen by Lauren Child Burmese Days by George Orwell, chosen by David McAlmont Killing Time by Alan Bennett, chosen by Harriett GilbertProducer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

Writer, actor and comedian Cariad Lloyd and writer Geoff Dyer join Harriett Gilbert for an enthusiastic and robust discussion about favourite books.The books are: The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard, chosen by Geoff Dyer Question 7 by Richard Flanagan, chosen by Harriett Gilbert The Others by Sheena Kalayil, chosen by Cariad LloydProduced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Eliza Lomas Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, chosen by Joanne Harris Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, chosen by Harriett Gilbert Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz, chosen by Islam IssaJoin us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbcProduced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven

The classicist and the author talk about books they love with presenter Harriett Gilbert. One of the books is eerily prescient about the state of the world today.The books are:Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, chosen by classicist Daisy Dunn Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household, chosen by podcaster and author Andrew Hunter Murray A Life's Music by Andreï Makine, translated by Geoffrey Strachan, chosen by presenter Harriett GilbertProduced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Beth O'Dea Join us over on instagram @agoodreadbbcPhoto credit: Timothy Foster

A special episode of A Good Read, recorded live at the Hay Festival. The books are:London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe, chosen by psychotherapist and artist Philippa Perry All Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills, chosen by presenter and writer Stuart Maconie Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie, chosen by presenter Harriett GilbertProduced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbcPhoto credit: Pal Hansen