Book Choice

Welcome to Book Choice on Fine Music Radio, sponsored by Exclusive Books. I’m your host, Paige Nick. It’s election day, so I hope you’re out there making your mark. Hey if there are any politicians listening, how about we take VAT off the sale of all books? They are an important staple after all. We have a special tribute show this month. Not just a tribute to books, which is pretty much what we do every month anyway. But this month we’re paying tribute to a very special book about a very special man who made some very fine music that changed this country. October saw the launch of Scatterling of Africa, the new memoir by Johnny Clegg, published by Pan Macmillan. So, stay tuned. We have a review of this book at the end of the show. And all the music in this month’s show are great Johnny Clegg tracks

It’s the first Monday in October, which means you’re tuned into Book Choice on Fine Music Radio. We’ve got reviews, we’ve got interviews, we’ve got fine music, we’ve got everything you need to know about books for this month. I’m your host, Paige Nick, and Book Choice is sponsored by Exclusive Books.

Welcome to Book Choice, sponsored by Exclusive Books. I’m your host Paige Nick, and for the next hour we’ll be talking exclusively about books. Did you know that this year South Africa has not one, but TWO finalists in the Booker Prize Literary Awards. One of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, it’s essentially the Olympics of literature. To celebrate South Africa’s excellent showing, we have interviews with both of these long-listed authors in our special Booker Prize segment, at the end of the show.

South Africa is still offering us plenty of chilly weather, making this the perfect season to curl up with a good book. So good thing that you’re tuned into Book Choice on Fine Music Radio and I’m your host Paige Nick. For the next hour, we’ll be joined by reviewers and authors, sharing what’s on their to-read pile right now. So you can line up your perfect lock down entertainment for the next few weeks.

So, what have you been reading lately? A novel that made you laugh? A biography that made you cry? maybe you read something that comforted you? Or that changed the way you feel about the world, or reasserted something you’ve always felt. Or perhaps you’ve read something that made you furious! I have a friend who once threw the Brett Easton Ellis novel she was reading out the window, she couldn’t bear to have it in her home for one second longer. Or maybe all this Covid trauma has you unable to read anything longer than the back of a cereal box.

Here are a couple of questions for you: Are you unable to walk past a book shop without stepping inside for a quick browse? Do you sometimes smell your books? Do you buy books, even though you already have a pile of unread books? Do you chat about books with friends? Or are you always on the lookout for your next favourite read? If you answered yes to one or more of those questions then you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to Book Choice on Fine Music Radio, I’m your host Paige Nick and for the next hour.

The first Book Choice Teen podcast recording took place at Herzlia High School on 1 June. Grade 10 and 11 learners from Gardens Commercial High and Herzlia High met to discuss the novel An Imperfect Blessing by Nadia Davids. The discussion was facilitated by headmaster Marc Falconer Thank you to Herzlia’s audio engineer, David Watkyns and also to FMR’s sound engineer, Mawande Lobi for post-production. Thank you to learners Amisha Mallum, Benis Seolo, Ethan Myers, Leah Benjamin and Ra-eeza Jacobs; Penguin Random House; and of course, the wonderful author, Nadia Davids.

Today is the first Monday in May, and it’s 12 o clock, which means it’s time for Book Choice. The one hour a month where we get to talk about books. What we’re reading, what we want to read, and sometimes even what we wish we’d never read. My name is Paige Nick, and I’m your Book Choice host here on Fine Music Radio. We’ve got a great show for you this month. In fact, it’s so full that I’m going to get straight into it, with no dilly dallying.

April always makes me happy. It’s my birthday month, and if I’m lucky and my friends and family know what’s good for them, then it’s a month filled with books as gifts. If there is a better gift than a book, I haven’t discovered it yet. I’m Paige Nick and welcome to Book Choice on your favourite station, Fine Music Radio. We’re going to spend the next blissful hour talking about books and listening to music. We’ve got a bumper show filled with interviews and reviews, and as always, lots of views. In our guest review spot this month, we welcome Jabulani Sigege, who will be reviewing Bruce Fordyce’s latest book, Winged Messenger, as well as ten year old Yusuf Asvat, and his latest favourite read by Bear Grylls. And let’s not forget the rest of our regular wonderful reviewers. So let’s get reading.

Wait. What? It’s March. Already! Shew, that happened quickly. Well, I hope your reading year has gotten off to a great start. The world may be in a rather precarious spot right now, but fortunately we can still travel and escape into stories and worlds and lives when we sink into books. My name is Paige Nick and you’re listening to Book Choice on Fine Music Radio. I’m looking forward to spending the next hour with you, and all our reviewers, talking about some of the latest books to hit our shelves this March. Right, so marching on…

Thanks Cindy, and hello to you, our dedicated Bookchoice listeners. We’ve reached the end of this memorable year, it’s the festive season, and we are adamant to find ways to be joyful after the challenges 2020 has brought. As mentioned.

We’ve reached the end of this memorable year, it’s the festive season, and we are adamant to find ways to be joyful after the challenges 2020 has brought. As mentioned, I’m Paige Nick, and I look forward to spending the next hour with you.

It’s midday on the first Monday of November, and we’ve apparently entered into the season of summer in 2020. I’m Cindy Moritz. This month the FMR Bookchoice team has gone all out to bring you their best suggestions, so we’re going to get straight into it. I’m joined in the studio by MZUKISI MAKETA and we look forward to spending the next hour with you.

Book Choice is broadcast every alternating Tuesday of each month presented by Paige Nick. While you’re munching your lunch or driving the myriad motorways, you’ll hear all that’s best in books. Cape Town’s top book reviewers will entertain and inform you as they cheerfully chat about the newest and nicest fiction and non-fiction on current book shelves. You love author interviews? Well, we line up those for your pleasure and leisure too. You want an easy-peasy competition each month with good prizes? All there, prettily planned for your lovely listening. Do join us for your delectation… for your entertainment… for your information.

It’s the first Monday of the month, and we are somewhat gobsmacked to admit that it’s already the Spring edition of Bookchoice. The months have certainly merged into each other this strange year, but if you’re listening I think we can all agree that our constant has been that we’ve been able to turn to a reliable book, whether hard copy, e-book or audio version, to broaden our world when it has often seemed rather frustratingly restricted and small. Happily, here in South Africa we are emerging into warmer weather, fewer rules and regulations and hopefully better health.

We begin with a memoir, reviewed by Vanessa Levenstein, titled Undeniable – Memoirs of a covert war, written by Phillippa Garson. It’s her riveting account of working as a journalist during the early 1990s in South Africa. Melvyn Minnaar found the world of art worth a detailed visit in William Feaver’s The Lives of Lucien Freud: Youth 1922-1968, and Leanne Voysey regales us with her thoughts on Felicity McLean’s debut novel, The van Apfel Girls are Gone. Beverley Roos-Muller remains loyal to one of her favourite writers, Martin Cruz Smith and gives us her take on The Siberian Dilemma, and Philp Todres brings rhinos centre stage with Remembering Rhinos, part of the Remembering Wildlife series of four books by Margot Ragget. Seasoned ornithologist Rob Little recommends Rupert Watson’s Peacocks & Picathartes, Reflections on Africa’s birdlife, for those who’d like to stay in touch with the wonders of our truly rich African bird diversity, and Beryl Eichenberger spoke to Hedi Lampert, author of The Trouble wit

Vanessa Levenstein could not contain her excitement at getting her hands on Hamnet, by one of her favourite authors, Maggie O’ Farrell. Melvyn Minnaar calls The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts, “a glorious travelogue with a difference”, and Beryl Eichenberger reviewed A Daughter’s Tale by Arnando Lucas Correa, in which seven decades of secrets unravel with the arrival of a box of letters from the distant past. Beverley Roos-Muller grappled with her views on the much anticipated third in trilogy The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel, and Philp Todres was impressed with Jonathan Safran Foer’s ability to give a personal and emotive voice to climate change in his latest offering, We are the Weather. John Hanks calls Warwick and Michele Tartboton’s A guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of South Africa, “one of the best illustrated field guides anywhere in the world”, and Lesley Beake suggests two good reads for the 10-12 year old age group, Tiger Heart by Penny Chrimes and Mirror Magic by Claire

Beverley Roos-Muller gave considerable thought to her choice of books this month, and has even themed her contribution. No prizes for guessing the topical theme, but there may well be a prize for listening closely to her reviews of The Body: a guide for occupants, by Bill Bryson and Plague, Pox and Pandemics by Howard Phillips. Vanessa Levenstein was duly impressed by Chanel Miller’s Know my name, the memoir of the woman previously known as Emily Doe, who was at the centre of a much publicized rape case in the US. Melvyn Minnaar highly recommends Apeirogon by Colm McCann which he describes as “truly uplifting”, giving “hope amid our and all division”, while Penny Lorimer provides our monthly dose of thrillers with Blood Will Be Born by Gary Donnelly and Three hours by Rosamund Lupton. John Hanks gives his sweeping view of Birds of Southern Africa and their tracks and signs, by Lee Gutteridge, and Beryl Eichenberger stays with flying things but takes us across continents with The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy

Book Choice - March 2020

It’s time for another edition of Bookchoice on Fine Music Radio, it being the first Monday of the month of love, and we’re broadcasting from the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town. I’m Cindy Moritz, and as usual we have a diverse and interesting selection of reading for booklovers around Cape Town, or if you’re streaming online, wherever it is you’re listening. Melvyn Minnaar fell under the influence of acclaimed Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma’s An Orchestra of Minorities. Beverley Roos-Muller applauds Sir Salman Rushdie's latest novel, Quichotte (pronounced Key-Shot), loosely based on the classic Don Quixote story, and which was shortlisted for the Booker last year. Philip Todres spoke to John Matisonn about his new book, released in December, titled Cyril’s Choices, Lessons From 25 Years of Freedom in South Africa, and Penny Lorimer discovered Canadian author Louise Penny with her most recent, A Better Man, and also read A Death In The Medina by James Von Leyden. John Hanks found value in Grant Fowld and Graha