Episode 12: Best books of the year
Ask Penguin
Penguin Books UK
4.1 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2024
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We round-up a year of reading with recommendations from Penguin colleagues of their favourite books of the year and a look at what they are most excited for you to read in 2025. Explore the full list of the books discussed on this episode and the transcript by visiting: Episode 12: Best books of the year.
Thank you for listening to The Penguin Podcast and our new show Ask Penguin. We would love to hear your feedback and if you have any questions for us. To get in contact with the team, send us a message via the email address below. We return in the Spring with a new series. Until then, Happy Reading!
Send us a question: penguinpodcast@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk.
Website: www.penguin.co.uk/podcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Rihanna Dillon and welcome to the Penguin podcast. |
| 0:04.5 | The end of the year is fast approaching and I don't know about you, but it always feels like the new year sneaks up on me. |
| 0:11.0 | Across the series, we have had a wonderful time meeting all sorts of authors and penguin colleagues and answering many, many, many Ask Penguin requests. |
| 0:21.4 | And I really hope that you've found at least some of our suggestions useful. |
| 0:25.3 | But before I hang up my headphones for 2024, |
| 0:28.6 | it feels like the perfect opportunity to look back at some of the literary highlights |
| 0:32.5 | from the last 12 months here at Penguin. |
| 0:35.5 | I took a little wonder around the Penguin office to check in with |
| 0:38.8 | teams across the whole of Penguin and hear about their standout book from 2024. |
| 0:45.0 | I'm Joel Richardson and I'm the publisher on the crime and thriller list at Penguin Michael |
| 0:49.1 | Joseph. So, do you have a crime book that has been a real standout for you in 2024? |
| 0:55.0 | There's a book that I absolutely love that's just published called Ink Ribbon Red by Alex Pervasi, who wrote a brilliant book a couple of years ago called Eight Detectives. |
| 1:04.0 | It's a hard one to describe because it is so clever and original. Alex is a total genius and he set a goal for himself with this book to write the most |
| 1:12.4 | original crime novel that he could imagine. So it starts off in a really classic way. It's a group of |
| 1:17.5 | six friends. They've gone away for a weekend. And on a wet afternoon, they start playing a game and they |
| 1:22.5 | start writing these stories where one of them is a killer. One of them is going to be the victim. |
| 1:27.0 | But as they start telling the stories, obviously they start finding out one another's |
| 1:30.1 | secrets. The things that are happening in the fictional stories start to play out in the real |
| 1:33.8 | world. And we know from the beginning that at the end of this weekend, there's going to be |
| 1:37.9 | a real life murder. My name's Steph. I am campaign director in Eboo's food team. |
| 1:43.4 | My standout book of 2024 is probably board of lunch, healthy slow cooker, even easier. |
| 1:49.4 | I've loved working on that with Nathan Anthony, the author. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Penguin Books UK, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Penguin Books UK and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.