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Ah, the bliss of childhood ... before life got REALLY scary. In today's episode, we're packing our literary first aid kits to survive those pre-teen years (which becomes a great excuse to talk about our favourite books we read as children). Jump to: 00:00 - Intro & what we’re reading; Nicola’s reading Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen and Angela’s reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles; we also chat a bit about the 2020 Booker winner & shortlist! 08:49 - ‘Adaptation Station’ - today we’re talking about The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix 12:12 - We share our first aid kits! Angela’s kit: The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson Matilda by Roald Dahl Nicola’s kit: The Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton The Bed and Breakfast Star by Jacqueline Wilson Vinegar Street by Philip Ridley Other resources / books we mention: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (again!) Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart The Problem of Susan by Neil Gaiman Bright: The Apotheosis of Lazy Worldbuilding (video essay) from Lindsay Ellis The Naughtiest Girl in the School by Enid Blyton Interview with Jacqueline Wilson (British Library) Find us on Twitter @firstaidlit and share your thoughts - what would you pack in your first aid kit? Let us know. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a challenging existence and it comes in many forms. Good thing there's plenty of literature to guide us through the nuances and celebrations of being a woman. We talk about what books we might give to our daughters. Note - this episode was recorded when it was (briefly!) legal for two members of different households to mix indoors. Angela's first aid kit: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Nicola's first aid kit: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo The Bell Jar by Syvia Plath Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy Other resources/books we mention: Everything Under by Daisy Johnson The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert How 'The Bell Jar' Became Pop Culture's Code for Female Sadness (Nylon) Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly Find us on Twitter @firstaidlit and share your thoughts - what would you pack in your first aid kit? Let us know. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just in time for Halloween - we're off to a haunted house with our first aid kit packed with books to keep us sane while things go bump in the night. Will our books keep us safe from ghouls and poltergeists? There's only one way to find out... Note - this episode was recorded when it was (briefly!) legal for two members of different households to mix indoors. Angela's first aid kit: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire by Arthur Conan Doyle (you can read it online here) Nicola's first aid kit: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson The Turn of the Screw by Henry James Dracula by Bram Stoker Other resources/books we mention: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward A Rather Haunted Life: Guardian review The Lottery by Shirley Jackson The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilmour Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Bram Stoker Claimed That Parts of Dracula Were Real. Here's What We Know About the Story Behind the Novel (Time) Find us on Twitter @firstaidlit and share your thoughts - what would you pack in your first aid kit? Let us know. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the most relatable feeling in the world: we've all had a period of time where we've felt lonely, even when surrounded by people. Whether for escapism or inspiration, what books have helped us survive that rubbish feeling of being alone? We've packed our first aid kits. Angela's first aid kit: The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien Red Dust: A Path Through China by Ma Jian The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt Nicola's first aid kit: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton Other resources/books we mention: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo Forgotten Women: The Leaders by Zing Tsjeng Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rushdie Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move by Reece Jones Poorna Bell on Instagram dear juliet... from Jessie Burton's blog Find us on Twitter @firstaidlit and share your thoughts - what would you pack in your first aid kit? Let us know. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's episode 2 and we're hopping in our time travel machines, taking our literary first aid kits with us to guide us through the mind-boggling concept of being some-when else. Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads! (But we do need books.) Forgive a mild tech issue on Nic's side in this episode - there's a little bit of static feedback. Promise it's a one-off. Nicola's first aid kit: A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Angela's first aid kit: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger Kindred by Octavia E. Butler Life After Life by Kate Atkinson Other resources/books we mention: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth The British History podcast They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie Jones-Rogers Hyperion by Dan Simmons The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng Until the End of Time by Brian Greene Find us on Twitter @firstaidlit and share your thoughts - what would you pack in your first aid kit? Let us know. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

For our VERY FIRST episode, we're packing a literary first aid kit for surviving (and solving) a murder mystery! Will our books spare us from becoming the victim of a most grisly murder? Let's hope so... Angela's first aid kit: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn The Secret History by Donna Tartt The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon Nicola's first aid kit: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Fingersmith by Sarah Waters Other resources/books we mention: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng CBC IDEAS podcast: 'Reading with a Grain of Salt' (3-part series) @ferguscraig on Twitter - 'Detective Roger LeCarre' (Dad reads from his crime novel) Find us on Twitter @firstaidlit and share your thoughts - what would you pack in your first aid kit? Let us know. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.