To celebrate Pride Month, we're putting the spotlight on some brilliant queer literature, courtesy of the Queer Girls Book Club.

Ayse Huseyin joins Sara for a chat about their group and shares with us her Top Five Reads Of The Year so far. We also sent the book club a copy of 'Ordinary Saints' by Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin (a previous choice of ours) and captured a little bit of their discussion. It turns out, they liked it just as much as we did!

Here are Ayse's Top Five Reads of 2025 (so far) as discussed on the episode:

In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Hijab Butch Blues by Lamyah H

How To Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

Two Lives by Vikram Seth

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Taylor Jenkins Reid (the author of 'Daisy Jones & The Six', 'Malibu Rising', 'The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo' and many more) joins Sara for a chat about her new book, 'Atmosphere'.

They discuss space travel in the 1980s, how women were treated at that time in a very male dominated space, her inspirations for this story and her love of the night sky.

We also get a snippet from the audiobook - and - some book recommendations from Taylor too.

Here's the 'Atmosphere' book blurb:

An epic novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer. As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Author Beth Lewis joins Sara in the Radio 2 Book Club to discuss her new historical novel, The Rush.

Beth has set her latest book in the gold rush era in Canada, and has chosen to tell it from the point of view of female protagonists (rather than gnarled face old men we're used to hearing about)

Sara chats about her fascination with this era, her research and why lots of women have been written out of that time. We also learn about Beth's writing routine - and - get a great book recommendation from her too.

We always love to hear what you have been reading and recommending! You can email us anytime: radio2bookclub@bbc.co.uk

Here's a little more about Beth's book:

Canada, 1898. The gold rush is on in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon. Fortunes are made as quickly as they're lost, and Dawson City has become a lawless settlement.

In its midst, three women are trying to survive on the edge of civilisation. Journalist Kate has travelled hundreds of miles after receiving a letter from her sister, who fears that her husband will kill her. Martha's hotel and livelihood are under threat from the local strongman, who is set on buying up the town. And down by the river, where gold shimmers from between the rocks, Ellen feels her future slip away as her husband fails to find the fortune they risked so much to seek.

When a woman is murdered, Kate, Martha and Ellen find their lives, fates and fortunes intertwined. But to unmask her killer they must navigate a desperate land run by dangerous men who will do anything for a glimpse of gold...