In this delightful episode of Bookable Space, we're joined by Natalie Leon. Natalie reads from The Japanese Art of Living Seasonally and talks about travel, living seasonally, and believing in your projects.

About the Book: The Japanese Art of Living Seasonally, is a treasure trove of the traditional Japanese foods, flowers, festivals and folklore that have delighted and inspired me since I started travelling to Japan almost a decade ago, which has forever changed how I connect with the natural world and the seasons.

This beautiful guide unlocks the secrets of Japan's seasonal culture to help you relish the seasons wherever you are.

About the author: Natalie Leon is a British Japanologist and non fiction author based in London. She is a seasonality specialist and a practitioner of The Way of Tea. Passionate about slow living, traditional Japanese art, culture and tea.

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In this episode of Bookable Space, we're joined by Maisie Nesbitt. Maisie reads to us from Stay Calm and Cheerful. We talk about writing, safe spaces, and more.

About the writer: Maisie Nesbitt is the nom-de-plume of a teacher who has dabbled in poetry since the Covid-19 pandemic. Writing about her experiences with online learning and more broadly, the rollercoaster of emotions that is relating to her pupils and colleagues, Maisie now delves into something more personal with this newest work. She enjoys cooking, practicing yoga and mindfulness (with a

wonderfully contradictory passion for to-do lists ). She remains sane thanks to singing in

a choir and adding books to her ever-growing Shelves.

About the book: Started as a way to elaborate the loss of a sibling by suicide, the poems in this collection are a raw, honest narrative of what grief can bring in its day-to-day challenges. The collection also explores topics of friendship; familial relationships; mental health; career hopes and pressures; and the experience of conception and family planning . Hoping to provide a relatable insight into all of this and more, "Stay Calm and Cheerful" also hopes to ground and normalise the uncomfortable thoughts we may not always be able to explain or share.

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In this episode of Bookable Space, we're joined by Kristina W. Kelly. Kristina reads to us from Tavern Tale and Imaginari and talks about writing, gaming, and the joy of exploring the side quest.

About Tavern Tale:

What if the side quest is really the main quest?

Divine has chased the thief who stole her talisman across half of Trelvania. The talisman is the key to accessing her magic well, and without it, she is powerless. Divine meets Saph, a flirty tavern owner with an eyepatch who will help Divine locate her talisman if Divine helps her complete a mysterious quest in a chest.

About the author:

Kristina W. Kelly writes fantasy, sci-fi, and poetry. Her works include her coauthored epic science fantasy series The Etherea Cycle, her fantasy romance Tavern Tale, and her sci-fi and fantasy poetry collection, Imaginari. Kristina is a trumpet player, plays video games, and tends to her flower garden and two children in Indiana.

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In this episode of Bookable Space, host Yvonne Battle-Felton is joined by Allie Cresswell. Allie reads to us from The Cottage on Winter Moss.

About the author:

UK-born Allie Cresswell has a BA and an MA in English Literature.

She was a print-buyer, pub landlady, bookkeeper and college lecturer, but nowadays she writes full time, producing the kinds of books that she herself enjoys reading; character-driven historical and contemporary fiction and prose as delicious as a rich, truffle chocolate.

She lives in remote, coastal NW England, where The Cottage on Winter Moss, her 13th novel, is set.

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In this engaging episode of Bookable Space, we’re joined by Joanne Limburg. Joanne reads from Small Pieces and talks to us about writing grief, taking care of yourself while writing, and writing as a monument.

About the book

When Joanne Limburg's brother Julian took his own life, she found herself holding the fragments of a shattered family narrative. In Small Pieces, she assembles them into a new pattern, with pieces from their shared childhood, their wider family history, their Jewish background, the three-year period between her brother's death and that of her mother, and the ten strange days after his death, spent in the town where he lived and died.

About the author

Joanne Limburg grew up in NW London. She published her first poetry collection with Bloodaxe Books, Femenismo, in 2000. Since then, there have been two further poetry collections for adults, one for children, three non-fiction books and one novel. Her most recent book is Letters to my Weird Sisters: on Autism and Feminism. She lives in Cambridge and teaches at the Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education.

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Bookable Space is a reading podcast that celebrates books and introduces readers to books we may have missed the first time around. In this episode of Bookable Space, host Yvonne Battle-Felton is joined by Laura Gwendolyn Hill. Laura reads to us from The Saxon Sword: The Song of Artemis Book One

About the book:

On a remote Scottish island, a baby girl, Artemis, is born. As a child, she is determined to unravel the mystery of her father’s identity. As a young woman with the heart of a warrior, she leaves home to find her father and faces many dangers on the road.

Fate leads Artemis into the kingdom of Northumbria where Edwin reigns as High King of Britain. Artemis is oath-bound to protect a princess, but can she prove her worth in a man’s world? Is she worthy of wielding the Saxon Sword?

Bio

Laura Gwendolyn Hill is a Sheffield based author, musician, and mother. ‘The Saxon Sword’ is her debut novel.

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Bookable Space is a reading podcast that introduces readers to books we may have missed the first time around. In this episode of Bookable Space, Yvonne Battle-Felton, author of Curdle Creek, is joined by C.C. Legault. C.C. reads to us from Who is Bobbie-Mae?

About the book:

Bobbie-Mae wakes up alone in a hospital room. In the aftermath of a life-threatening car accident, there is complete darkness in her recall. Unsure whether her memories will ever return, Bobbie-Mae starts to read her old journals with the hope that they will help her understand who she was so that she can discover who she wants to be.

Bio:

C.C. Legault lives in Canada with her husband, three children, and her dog Lulu. She is currently a teacher, but she has previously worked in a university, a library, a coffee shop, and a cemetery. People, stories, and music are her passions. Who Is Bobbie-Mae? is her debut novel.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cclegault.author/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cc.legault

Website: www.cclegault.com

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Bookable Space is a reading podcast that introduces readers to books we may have missed the first time around. In this episode of Bookable Space, Yvonne Battle-Felton, author of Curdle Creek, is joined by Victoria Bennett. Victoria reads to us from All My Wild Mothers.

About the book:

Weaving together memoir and herbal folklore, All My Wild Mothers is a story of motherhood, grief, and growing. At seven months pregnant, Victoria learns that her eldest sister has died in a canoeing accident. In that moment, her life changes. Five years later, and struggling with the demands of motherhood, grief and full-time care, Victoria and her family move to a new social housing estate in rural Cumbria. Here, in the rubble of a former industrial estate, she and her young son begin to grow a wild apothecary garden: daisy, for resilience; dandelion, for strength against adversity; sow thistle, to life melancholy, and borage, to bring hope in dark and difficult times. Stone by stone, seed by see, they discover that sometimes life grows, not in spite of what is broken, but because of it."

Victoria Bennett is a disabled writer, carer and mother. Her writing has received several awards for poetry and narrative non-fiction, including the New Writing North Debut Award. Her debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers: motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden, is published by John Murray Press (2023), and won the Nautilus Award for Memoir 2024, was shortlisted for the Lakeland Book of the Year, and long listed for the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize. She lives in Orkney. When not juggling writing, care and chronic illness, she can be found where the wild things grow, tending her apothecary garden.

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