Books, Baby!

December brings our Season 5 finale, and what a way to wrap the year! In this final episode of Books, Baby!, Ian, Bev, and Alo look back at a year of reading, reflecting on the stories that stayed with us long after the last page.
We chat about our favourite reads of the year, the books that surprised us when we least expected it, the ones that didn’t quite live up to the hype, and our standout favourite books in translation. Along the way, we weave it all together with a look at our Spotify Wrapped stats for the podcast — the numbers, the milestones, and what they say about the year that was for Books, Baby!
It’s reflective, opinionated, and full of love for books and listeners alike — the perfect send-off for Season 5 and a celebration of another year spent reading together.
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Rest of Our Lives - Ben Markovits
The Slip - Miriam Webster
A Great Big Beautiful Life - Emily Henry
Indeterminate Inflorescence - Yi Seongbok
Days of Reading - Marcel Proust
The Emperor of Gladness - Ocean Vounge
Gravity Let Me Go - Trent Dalton
Lessons in Chemestry - Bonnie Garmus
The Bee Sting - Paul Murray
Spinning Around: The Kylie Playlist - Various Authors
Separate Rooms - Pier Vittorio Tondelli
Flesh - David Szalay
Kairos - Jenny Erpenbeck
Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Iserwood
On the Calculation of Volume I, II, III - Solvej Balle
Heart Lamp - Banu Mustaq
Hunchback - Sao Ichikawa
Medea Sang Me a Corrido - Dahlia de la Cerda
Reservoir Bitches - Dahlia de la Cerda
Between a Wolf and a Dog - Georgia Blain
Before Night Falls - Reinaldo Arenas
Hunger - Cho Jin-Young
The Makioka Sisters - Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
Minor Black Figures - Brandon Taylor
Connect with us via email (⁠[email protected]⁠) and on Instagram!
Books, Baby! – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksbabypod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Hosts:
Ian – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bookish_ian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Bev – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksgonewilde⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Alo – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@books.swallows.universe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

It’s Books, Baby! Booker Prize episode and Bev, Ian and Alo dive into the 2025 winning novel Flesh by David Szalay. We explore its sharp examination of masculinity, emotional restraint, and the quiet turning points that shape István’s life from adolescence to middle age. This episode also features Sim, joining us for a second guest appearance this season.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Audition - Katie Kitamura
Seascraper - Benjamin Wood
Flashlight - Susan Choi
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny - Kiran Desai
The Rest of Our Lives - Ben Markovits
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
The Bee Sting - Paul Murray
My Friends - Hisham Matar
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
Open Water - Caleb Azumah Nelson
Boy Friends - Michael Pedersen

Seán Hewitt

Solvej Balle

Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner, and Sarah Krasnostein

Sarah Waters

Suzumi Suzuki

Brandon Taylor

Connect with us via email (⁠[email protected]⁠) and on Instagram!
Books, Baby! – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksbabypod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Hosts:
Ian – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bookish_ian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Bev – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksgonewilde⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Alo – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@books.swallows.universe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Guest Host:
Sim – ⁠⁠⁠@sims_solace

This month, Ian, Bev, and Alo dive into The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, joined by special guest Nell.
The Bee Sting is a sweeping, tragicomic family saga that captured readers (and Booker Prize judges) alike. We unpack its unforgettable characters, explore Murray’s distinct writing style through each point of view, and debate that twist ending that left us reeling.
But before we get stung by all that drama, we kick things off with a lively chat about ABC Radio National’s Top 100 Books of the 21st Century — the surprises, the snubs, and the titles that made us cheer (or roll our eyes).
Books mentioned in this episode:
Burial Rites - Hanna Kent
Lola in the mirror - Trent Dalton
Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton
Stag Dance - Torrey Peters
Detransition, Baby! - Torrey Peters
The burrow - Melanie Chang
Too Much Lip - Melissa Lucashenko
Dark Emu -Bruce Pascoe
Carpentaria - Alexis Wright
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Prophet Song - Paul Lynch
The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton
The Cannibal's Daughter - Rosa Montero
Bad Girls - Camila Sosa Villada
Thesis on a domestication - Camila Sosa Villada
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny - Kiran Desai
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
A room above a shop - Anthony Shapland

Connect with us via email (⁠[email protected]⁠) and on Instagram!
Books, Baby! – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksbabypod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Hosts:
Ian – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bookish_ian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Bev – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksgonewilde⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Alo – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@books.swallows.universe⁠⁠⁠⁠

Guest Host:
Nell - @nellreadsbooks

September’s episode of Books, Baby! takes us into the world of Torrey Peters’ Stag Dance, a bold collection of stories about that doesn’t shy away from messiness, desire, and transformation. Across its pages, Peters gives us characters who are stumbling, reaching, and reinventing themselves in ways that feel both raw and achingly human.
Join Alo, Bev and Ian as we dive into these stories—unpacking their humor, heartache, and the sharp truths about love, gender, and selfhood that Peters threads throughout her work.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley
Seascraper - Benjamin Wood
Audition - Katie Kitamura
Not a River - Selva Almada
Fathoms: the world in the whale - Rebecca Giggs
Detransition, Baby! - Torrey Peters
Separate Roos - Pier Vittorio Tondelli
Honeybee - Craig Silvey

Connect with us via email (⁠[email protected]⁠) and on Instagram!
Books, Baby! – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksbabypod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Hosts:
Ian – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bookish_ian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Bev – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksgonewilde⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Alo – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@books.swallows.universe⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this episode of Books, Baby!, Ian, Bev, and Alo dive into Saou Ichikawa’s haunting novel Hunchback. With its fragmented storytelling and stark lyricism, the book offers an unflinching look at the intersections of embodiment, shame, desire, and intimacy. The hosts unpack how Ichikawa captures the vulnerability of inhabiting a body that exists outside of societal ideals, while also carving out space for tenderness and connection.
Their discussion highlights the way Hunchback brings disabled experiences and desires into focus, expanding what is often represented in contemporary literature in translation.

Books mentioned in this episode:
​When the cranes fly south - Lisa Ridzén
​They came to slay: The Queer culture of D&D - Thom James Carter
​The las one - Fatima Daas
​The white book - Han Kang
​Pink Slime - Fernanda Trías
​Audition - Katie Kitamura
​The land in winter - Andrew Miller
​Flashlight - Susan Choi
​Universality - Natasha Brown
​Intimacies - Katie Katamura
​Tokyo Ueno Station - Miri Yu
Butter - Asako Yuziki
Not such thing as an easy job - Kikuko Tsumara
Just by looking at him - Ryan O'Connell

Connect with us via email (⁠[email protected]⁠) and on Instagram!
Books, Baby! – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksbabypod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Hosts:
Ian – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bookish_ian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Bev – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksgonewilde⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Alo – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@books.swallows.universe⁠⁠⁠⁠