Rob Rinder and Juno Dawson

A Good Read

BBC

Arts, Books

4.2 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Augusten Burroughs, chosen by Rob Rinder THE ODD WOMAN AND THE CITY by Vivian Gornick, chosen by Harriett Gilbert EARTHLINGS by Sayaka Murata, chosen by Juno Dawson

The barrister, television presenter and writer Rob Rinder and author Juno Dawson talk books with Harriett Gilbert. Juno Dawson selects Sayaka Murata's Earthlings, the follow-up to her cult hit Convenience Store Woman. Rob Rinder advocates for Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs' memoir of a deeply bizarre childhood, and Harriett has gone for The Odd Woman and the City, Vivian Gornick's essays celebrating New York.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc

Photo credit: Ollie Rosser

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Things just swirling around my head.
0:03.6	Am I really the product of this?
0:06.1	Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests.
0:11.0	Little did I know what more was to come.
0:13.4	I'm Jenny Clemen and in the new series of The Gift,
0:17.5	we'll hear more stories emerging out of the ever-expanding global DNA database.
0:22.7	They did know that I was different.
0:25.7	You had kids together.
0:27.0	Yeah.
0:27.4	Then you met.
0:28.3	Then we met.
0:29.2	The Gift.
0:30.1	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:33.5	Books, Stephen King once wrote, are a uniquely portable magic.
0:38.3	Well, maybe no longer uniquely in this age of mobile phones, but portable magic, yes.
0:43.9	And today we're going to suggest more books to add to your collection of enchantment.
0:48.0	With me, our first, the BAFTA Award-winning broadcaster Rob Rinder,
0:51.9	presenter of among much else Rob and and Rylans' grand tour,
0:55.7	Amazing Hotels and The Holy Land and Us.
0:59.8	Inspired by his experience as a barrister, Rob has written three novels of which the most recent
1:04.2	the protest came out in June.
1:07.5	With him, the author and journalist Juno Dawson, erstwell columnist for Attitude magazine,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.