Season 3 Episode 6: In Conversation with Lucy & Rachel (Idle Readers)
Just ahead of their second anniversary, I had a chat with Lucy and Rachel, the co-founders of the Manchester-based book club Idle Readers. From moving the book club online to shadowing the 2020 Booker Prize and having authors join the virtual sessions, Lucy and Rachel talk through this year’s book club highlights, their favorite reads of the year, and what they’re looking forward to in 2021.
To know more about Lucy, Rachel, and their fantastic book club, check out this interview from last year on The FBC Paris blog.
Show Notes
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The Reading Agency
From their website: The Reading Agency’s mission is to work towards a world where everyone is reading their way to a better life. We mean everyone - from toddlers to children to young adults, prisoners, and older people - irrespective of age or economic background. We believe that reading can tackle life's big challenges, from social mobility to mental health - and we're determined that no one is left behind as we strive towards realising our vision. In 2019-20, The Reading Agency reached over 1.8 million people across the UK, including more than 950,000 children and over 900,000 adults and young people.
October’s Idlea Readers book was Burnt Sugar (Avni Doshi) - shortlisted for the Booker Prize
December’s Idle Readers books will be Supper Club (Lara Williams)
Forced Out (Kevin Maxwell)
From the publisher: Forced Out is a revelatory expose combining deeply affecting memoir with sharp analysis and a fascinating insider perspective on day-to-day life in the force. It is a touchstone for the silent many who have either tried to ignore abuse for the sake of their career or who have been bullied out of their jobs. It paints a sobering portrait of an institution that has not yet learned the lessons of the past and whose prejudice is informing the cases it chooses to investigate and the way it investigates them. And it asks the important question: what needs to change?
Animals (Emma Jane Unsworth)
From the publisher: It is the moment every twenty-something must confront: the time to grow up. Adulthood looms, with all its numbing tranquility and stifling complacency. The end of prolonged adolescence is near. Laura and Tyler are two women whose twenties have been a blur of overstayed parties, a fondness for drugs that has shifted from cautious experimentation to catholic indulgence, and hangovers that don’t relent until Monday morning. They’ve been best friends, partners in excess, for the last ten years. But things are changing: Laura is engaged to Jim, a classical pianist who has long since given up the carousing lifestyle. He disapproves of Tyler’s reckless ways and of what he perceives to be her bad influence on Laura. Jim pulls her toward adulthood and responsibility, toward what society says she should be, but Tyler isn’t ready to let her go. But what does Laura want for herself?
Some books that Lucy and Rachel have enjoyed this year:
Girl, Woman, Other (Bernardine Evaristo)
Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen (Amrou Al-Kadhi)
Notes To Self: Essays (Emilie Pine)
The Hate U Give (Angie Thomas)
Convenience Store Woman (Sayaka Murata)
Expectation (Anna Hope)