Associate Professor of English, Alison Espach joins Phil and Natalie this week, to discuss her break out third novel, The Wedding People. This went straight into the New York Times Top Ten and has been picked up by Tristar to become a movie.

It walks a tightrope of heart wrenching and seriously funny. Alison talks about posh hotels, weddings and her time working the photo both at them, plus her role as an Exec Producer on the movie of her own novel.

TRIGGER WARNING: The plot of this book involves a woman turning up to a hotel where everyone except her is part of a wedding party. The woman has gone there with the express intention of taking her own life. Whilst we don't discuss methods of suicide, it is clearly a theme in this novel and if you might be triggered by that, we'd like very much to direct you to organisations such as the National Suicide Prevention Helpline UK at 0800 689 5652 (6pm to midnight every day), or the Samaritans, who areavailable 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can call 116 123, or email: jo@samaritans.org.

Looking for your next read to take on holiday, or the commute, or to read before bed? Then Nat and Phil have got you covered. Here they talk you through 10 new books they are either currently reading, or want to read - that's 5 choices from Nat, and 5 from Phil. There's a range of genres from mystery to memoir, love story to thriller, and hopefully at least one of these will be the next book you want to reach for too.

The recommendations are:

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Never Flinch by Stephen King

The Compound by Aisling Rawle

Must You Go by Antonia Fraser

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann

Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi

City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim

What the Night Brings by Mark Billingham

Swept Away by Beth O'Leary

Galway Confidential by Ken Bruen

With a special mention to Books Are Magic, a Brooklyn bookstore, whose hat Nat was coincidentally wearing for this recording!

On this episode we're talking the joy of thrillers as Iris Mwanza opens up about what inspired her debut page-turner, The Lion's Den. From growing up in a household where people would drop off boxes of books they couldn't take abroad, to channeling the themes of her day job at the Gates Foundation into her fiction work, Iris shares the challenges and rewards with getting a novel out of her brain and into a bookstore. She's currently working on not one, but two novels, one of which is a sequel to the story we discuss here, so prepare to meet rookie lawyer Grace Zulu and strap in, it's a fascinating ride.

To go straight away to Iris's book recommendations, just head to www.bestsellerspodcast.com

Please note, Bestsellers Podcast is an Amazon Associate, and so earns from qualifying purchases

OK, so we love a book where music plays a key role but it's so hard to do that well, and make you truly believe in a made-up musician. Thankfully, Holly Brickley has played it brilliantly with Deep Cuts, about a music obsessive and a musician who meet at college and deeply impact each other's lives. Hopefully you trust our instincts, but just in case, actors Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler are already on board to play those two roles in the upcoming movie adaptation. This chat with Holly covered a lot of ground, from merging literary and commercial writing styles, to making music sing on the page, and getting the seal of approval from director Cameron Crowe (who elevated Elton John's Tiny Dancer to the legend status it deserves thanks to his movie Almost Famous).

There's a Spotify playlist to accompany the book which we also highly recommend! You can listen to that here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ZN7YF1Kn24S2kaEGF5JOz?si=4136a5dd2cc44fec

And for more episodes and info on author's recommendations, check out www.bestsellerspodcast.com

The Master Crime Writer and Phil's all time favourite writer, Michael Connelly, returns to Bestsellers to talk about his 40th novel. NightShade features a brand new character, Detective Stilwell, whom Michael loves so much, he's going to return to in future books.

We chat to him about the challenges of creating a brand new series when you're forty books in; where Stilwell fits into the Connelly Universe that already includes Bosch, Ballard and The Lincoln Lawyer and why his characters who all work around law enforcement, seem to be Anti Establishment!

We love Mike here at Bestsellers and wish him well with the unforeseen medical procedures his doctors have ordered, which have led to the cancellation of his UK and US tour. This information was not in the public domain at time of recording, hence why we don't talk about it.

Chris Chibnall is responsible for writing some of the biggest moments in British television. From Broadchurch to Dr Who, you'll have seen his work on screen. Now he's turned his attention to novel writing and speaks to Phil and Natalie about his debut, Death at the White Hart. It's a Christie-esque whodunnit with a follow up already in the works and he's adapting his own novel himself for ITV.

Here he speaks about the challenges of page versus screen, the joy of acquiring new skills later in his career and how he has to be very careful not to wipe the entire plot off his whiteboards when things aren't going his way!

The bestselling author of Elizabeth is Missing is back with a brand new chilling thriller called Sweat. Set around gyms and exercise, the book features a woman who gets the opportunity to exact revenge on a controlling ex-boyfriend. But will she get away with it and at what cost..?

It's a deeply personal book for Emma. She talks openly about obsessive fasting and over exercising after pregnancy and how both these things influenced this novel.

There's also plenty of laughs and no amount of persuasion is ever getting Natalie into the gym!

This is the book for you if you've ever wanted to know what it's *really* like to do a job that is very different to yours. Charlie Colenutt has interviewed and collated the work stories of 68 employees, from a range of backgrounds, at varying stages in their careers, who all share the truthfulness of their working lives. There's joy and stress and sadness and life-changing moments to enjoy here, and Charlie himself is a gifted storyteller.

Charlie also shares the books he loves that you might like to read as well, so head to www.bestsellerspodcast.com and click on 'Author Recommends' to see those now.

You can also support the production costs of making this podcast by purchasing Nat and Phil a metaphorical coffee at https://ko-fi.com/bestsellerspodcast