Hannah MacDonald
229 episodes listed below
Fast, warm conversations for serious book browsers.
A Pair of Bookends is a conversational books show led by Hannah MacDonald, built around author interviews, book club episodes, and screen adaptation chats. It moves quickly from plot and premise into craft, memory, reading habits, and why particular scenes stay lodged in the mind.
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A Pair of Bookends is a brisk, conversational literature show centred on books, authors, and the ways stories move between page, screen, memory, and personal taste. Hannah MacDonald leads with warmth. The format is guest-led, but the framing stays active, so each episode feels like a guided chat rather than a static Q&A. Recent conversations show a strong appetite for new fiction, debut authors, book club picks, graphic novels, and screen adaptations. A Project Hail Mary episode with Susie Green lingers on the pressure of an opening chapter, the loss and gain of adaptation choices, and the pleasure of a final line that changes the whole room. The show notices craft. It also notices feeling. In the conversation with Sian Hughes, No Such Thing As Monday becomes a route into shame, memory, gender inequality, unsafe love, poverty, friendship, and the possibility of a happy ending that still feels earned. The Lizzy Stewart episode widens the brief, giving graphic novels the same seriousness as prose without losing the fun of drawing hair, clothes, posture, and family resemblance. That chat is loose, visual, and practical. It makes character design sound like a form of reading. Book club episodes carry a different rhythm, using shared novels such as Minbak to move through family secrets, displacement, censorship, han, and South Korea's deregulated adoption industry. Debut Spotlight entries give newer writers room to explain the obsessions behind their work. Bar Fridman Tell's Honeysuckle brings in feminist Frankenstein energy, flowers, rot, body horror, epigraphs, and obsession. Jess Shannon's Cleaner opens onto unnamed narrators, stylistic imitation, cleaning, and the small relief of reading something hopeful. Charlotte Cross's The Brides brings Dracula, psychics, sapphic relationships, historical fiction, and feminist gothic horror into the mix. A live episode with Anna Brook-Mitchell adds event energy, applause, screenwriting, Guernsey, and a conversation around Motherfaker. The show is plainly enthusiastic. It prefers concrete examples to grand theory, which is why a scene, chapter ending, visual choice, or reading habit often becomes the way into the bigger idea. It suits readers who like literary recommendations with actual texture. It also suits anyone who wants contemporary fiction discussed with warmth, speed, and enough specificity to know what might land next.
Made for: For readers who want lively author conversations, sharp book recommendations, and thoughtful chats about adaptation, craft, genre, and new fiction. It especially suits people who enjoy contemporary novels, gothic stories, graphic fiction, and debut spotlights.
What sets it apart: A Pair of Bookends stands out for its easy shift between readerly excitement and close attention to craft. It can talk about a spaceship opening, a graphic character's posture, a gothic premise, or a difficult family history with the same engaged curiosity.
A weekly bookish podcast hosted by Hannah MacDonald. Join us for monthly Book Club episodes - read the book at your own pace and then listen to us deep dive with the author! Our Debut Spotlight series is to put the freshest authors and their work firmly on your radar and in our new series we bring you a monthly culture round up of all the recommendations we've collected over the previous month of consuming. Follow us @apairofbookendspod on Instagram and @apairofbookends on Twitter and TIk Tok.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Hannah MacDonald shows how authors turn history, memory, class and gender into deliberate choices on the page.
A Pair of Bookends treats books as constructions whose smallest choices deserve scrutiny. Hannah MacDonald asks authors and fellow book podcasters about narrative voice, character relationships, illustration and adaptation, keeping the conversation close to what happens on the…
One minute you're judging an adaptation; the next, a cup of tea explains a character.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A lively adaptation discussion that favors the novel's mystery while noting the film's quicker route through it.
Project Hail Mary anchors this Books to Screen conversation, and it works best when Hannah MacDonald and Susie Green weigh the novel's opening mystery against the film's quicker path through it.
A close, humane conversation about survival, friendship, and family damage.
Hannah MacDonald and Sian Hughes talk through No Such Thing As Monday, following Steffi, whose childhood is shaped by poverty, chaos, humor, and hope. The strongest part of the discussion is how it handles her ideas about love and fear.
A warm, thoughtful graphic novel conversation that ties drawing to style, taste, and self-presentation.
Hannah MacDonald keeps the episode anchored in a practical question: how drawing helps shape a character on the page. The best stretches stay close to the work itself, from making people visually distinct to noticing what they wear or how they carry themselves, then learning by…
A warm year-end conversation about favorites, taste, and the small disagreements that make reading more interesting.
A Pair of Bookends turns its Christmas special into a tidy year-end conversation about the books that stayed with Hannah MacDonald and Emma, with five favorites carrying the discussion.
A warm YA fantasy chat built around habits, memory, and the small things people keep.
Hannah MacDonald and Emma Hines use Witch Law to talk through the kind of character work that makes fantasy stick. The strongest stretch is the one about Bastien and Lando, the awkwardness of pushing back at a parent, and how small domestic details like tea or coffee can hold…
Two classical-education teachers slow-read novels like Jane Eyre, chapter by chapter.
Book talk with room to wander.
Hannah MacDonald welcomes Susie Green of In My Good Books for a Books to Screen chat about Project Hail Mary.
Hannah MacDonald welcomes Sian Hughes to talk about No Such Thing As Monday.
Hannah MacDonald welcomes Lizzie Stewart for the podcast’s first episode about a graphic novel.
This episode features an interview with author Ella Lee about her novel Minbak, exploring themes of censorship, Han, and South Korea's deregulated adoption industry through a multigenerational story.
This episode features an interview with debut author Bar Fridman Tell about her novel Honeysuckle, described as a feminist Frankenstein with flowers, exploring themes of creation, obsession, and decay.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews debut author Jess Shannon about her novel Cleaner, discussing her background and current reading habits.
This episode features an interview with debut author Charlotte Cross about her feminist gothic horror novel 'The Brides', which reimagines the brides of Dracula with psychics and sapphic relationships in historical fiction.
Host Hannah MacDonald introduces a live book club episode celebrating Anna Brooke Mitchell's debut novel 'Motherfaker' at Sorrenti Booksellers.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews author Michelle Steinbeck about her novel Favorita, discussing the book's themes and the author's background.
Host Hannah MacDonald and author Catherine Airey discuss the film adaptation of Wuthering Heights and its themes.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews author Rhiannon Lucy Cosslet about her novel Female Nude, exploring themes of art, motherhood, and friendship.
Host Hannah MacDonald and guest Sophie Crawford discuss the modern film adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, specifically the 1999 movie Ten Things I Hate About You.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews debut novelist Elspeth Wilson about her book 'These Mortal Bodies' in a book club format.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews debut author Rebecca Ferrier about her historical novel The Saltbind, discussing its setting, themes, and the author's background.
Host Hannah MacDonald and guest Emily Goulding discuss why Donna Tartt's novel The Secret History has never been successfully adapted for screen.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews author Roxy Dunn about her new novel 'Wants and Needs' and discusses her previous debut 'As Young As This'.
Host Hannah MacDonald and author Emma Hines discuss the film adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel Hamnet.
This January book club episode features an interview with debut author Grace Murray about her campus novel 'Blank Canvas', exploring themes of deception, queer love, and class.
Hannah MacDonald and Emma kick off a Christmas special built around their reading year.
Hannah MacDonald welcomes Emma Hines back to A Pair of Bookends.
This episode features an interview with author Hayley Dunlop discussing her debut Christmas novel, which explores themes like grief and female friendship through the lens of Hallmark-style holiday tropes.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews author Chloe Michelle Hamilton about her novel 'Heap Earth Upon It' at a live book club event.
Host Hannah MacDonald introduces the October book club episode featuring 'It's Not a Cult' by Joey Beatty, a folk horror novel about a band that starts a death cult.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews debut author Chloe de Lullington about her novel Kakarithes, starting with what she's currently reading.
Host Hannah MacDonald introduces the book club episode featuring Susan Choi's novel 'Flashlight' and interviews the author.
Host Hannah celebrates the 150th episode, thanks listeners, and promotes the podcast's Patreon for bonus content.
Host Hannah MacDonald and guest Emma Hines preview a summer reading guide episode, discussing their literary tastes and planning book recommendations by holiday vibes.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews author Emma Hines about her new novel 'The Quick and the Dead' and discusses her writing career.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews author Indiana Schneider about her novel 'Since the World is Ending' and discusses her current reading.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews debut author Emily Buchanan about her novel Send Flowers, discussing her writing journey and current reading.
Host Hannah MacDonald interviews debut author Loretta Rothschild about her novel Finding Grace and discusses current reading.
Host Hannah MacDonald discusses the novel 'Somewhere Else' by Jenny Dijez, longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, with the author.