December brings our Season 5 finale, and what a way to wrap the year! In this final episode of Books, Baby!, Ian, Bev, and Alo look back at a year of reading, reflecting on the stories that stayed with us long after the last page.

We chat about our favourite reads of the year, the books that surprised us when we least expected it, the ones that didn’t quite live up to the hype, and our standout favourite books in translation. Along the way, we weave it all together with a look at our Spotify Wrapped stats for the podcast — the numbers, the milestones, and what they say about the year that was for Books, Baby!

It’s reflective, opinionated, and full of love for books and listeners alike — the perfect send-off for Season 5 and a celebration of another year spent reading together.

Books mentioned in this episode:

• The Rest of Our Lives - Ben Markovits
• The Slip - Miriam Webster
• A Great Big Beautiful Life - Emily Henry
• Indeterminate Inflorescence - Yi Seongbok
• Days of Reading - Marcel Proust
• The Emperor of Gladness - Ocean Vounge
• Gravity Let Me Go - Trent Dalton
• Lessons in Chemestry - Bonnie Garmus
• The Bee Sting - Paul Murray
• Spinning Around: The Kylie Playlist - Various Authors
• Separate Rooms - Pier Vittorio Tondelli
• Flesh - David Szalay
• Kairos - Jenny Erpenbeck
• Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Iserwood
• On the Calculation of Volume I, II, III - Solvej Balle
• Heart Lamp - Banu Mustaq
• Hunchback - Sao Ichikawa
• Medea Sang Me a Corrido - Dahlia de la Cerda
• Reservoir Bitches - Dahlia de la Cerda
• Between a Wolf and a Dog - Georgia Blain
• Before Night Falls - Reinaldo Arenas
• Hunger - Cho Jin-Young
• The Makioka Sisters - Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
• The Hours - Michael Cunningham
• Minor Black Figures - Brandon Taylor

Connect with us via email (⁠booksbabypod@gmail.com⁠) and on Instagram!

Books, Baby! – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksbabypod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hosts:

Ian – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bookish_ian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Bev – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksgonewilde⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Alo – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@books.swallows.universe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

It’s Books, Baby! Booker Prize episode and Bev, Ian and Alo dive into the 2025 winning novel Flesh by David Szalay. We explore its sharp examination of masculinity, emotional restraint, and the quiet turning points that shape István’s life from adolescence to middle age. This episode also features Sim, joining us for a second guest appearance this season.

Books mentioned in this episode:

• Audition - Katie Kitamura
• Seascraper - Benjamin Wood
• Flashlight - Susan Choi
• The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny - Kiran Desai
• The Rest of Our Lives - Ben Markovits
• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
• Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
• The Bee Sting - Paul Murray
• My Friends - Hisham Matar
• A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
• Open Water - Caleb Azumah Nelson
• Boy Friends - Michael Pedersen
• 
  Seán Hewitt
• 
  Solvej Balle
• 
  Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner, and Sarah Krasnostein
• 
  Sarah Waters
• 
  Suzumi Suzuki
• 
  Brandon Taylor
  

Connect with us via email (⁠booksbabypod@gmail.com⁠) and on Instagram!

Books, Baby! – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksbabypod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hosts:

Ian – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bookish_ian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Bev – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksgonewilde⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Alo – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@books.swallows.universe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Guest Host:

Sim – ⁠⁠⁠@sims_solace

This month, Ian, Bev, and Alo dive into The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, joined by special guest Nell.

The Bee Sting is a sweeping, tragicomic family saga that captured readers (and Booker Prize judges) alike. We unpack its unforgettable characters, explore Murray’s distinct writing style through each point of view, and debate that twist ending that left us reeling.

But before we get stung by all that drama, we kick things off with a lively chat about ABC Radio National’s Top 100 Books of the 21st Century — the surprises, the snubs, and the titles that made us cheer (or roll our eyes).

Books mentioned in this episode:

• Burial Rites - Hanna Kent
• Lola in the mirror - Trent Dalton
• Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton
• Stag Dance - Torrey Peters
• Detransition, Baby! - Torrey Peters
• The burrow - Melanie Chang
• Too Much Lip - Melissa Lucashenko
• Dark Emu -Bruce Pascoe
• Carpentaria - Alexis Wright
• Life of Pi - Yann Martel
• The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
• Prophet Song - Paul Lynch
• The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton
• The Cannibal's Daughter - Rosa Montero
• Bad Girls - Camila Sosa Villada
• Thesis on a domestication - Camila Sosa Villada
• The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny - Kiran Desai
• The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
• A room above a shop - Anthony Shapland

• 
  

Connect with us via email (⁠booksbabypod@gmail.com⁠) and on Instagram!

Books, Baby! – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksbabypod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hosts:

Ian – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bookish_ian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Bev – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@booksgonewilde⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Alo – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@books.swallows.universe⁠⁠⁠⁠

Guest Host:

Nell - @nellreadsbooks