Shows
New blue review2020.08.17 – Philip Todres – producer of the Annual Leah Todres Yiddish Song Festival in Cape Town that ran from 2001 to 20102020-08-1813 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - April 2020Beverley Roos-Muller gave considerable thought to her choice of books this month, and has even themed her contribution. No prizes for guessing the topical theme, but there may well be a prize for listening closely to her reviews of The Body: a guide for occupants, by Bill Bryson and Plague, Pox and Pandemics by Howard Phillips. Vanessa Levenstein was duly impressed by Chanel Miller’s Know my name, the memoir of the woman previously known as Emily Doe, who was at the centre of a much publicized rape case in the US. Melvyn Minnaar highly recommends Apeirogon by Colm McCann wh...2020-04-061h 00
Book ChoiceBook Choice - February 2020It’s time for another edition of Bookchoice on Fine Music Radio, it being the first Monday of the month of love, and we’re broadcasting from the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town. I’m Cindy Moritz, and as usual we have a diverse and interesting selection of reading for booklovers around Cape Town, or if you’re streaming online, wherever it is you’re listening.
Melvyn Minnaar fell under the influence of acclaimed Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma’s An Orchestra of Minorities. Beverley Roos-Muller applauds Sir Salman Rushdie's latest novel, Quichotte (pronounced Key-Shot), loosely based on the classic Don...2020-02-0754 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - November 2019Beverley Roos-Muller waded into Booker controversy territory and read both
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, joint winners for 2019. Melvyn Minnaar devoured Furious Hours, Casey Cep’s literary true crime thriller about Harper Lee’s non-fiction novel that never saw the light of day. John Hanks strongly recommends Gary Goldman & Marieka Gryzenhout’s superbly illustrated Field Guide to Mushrooms & other Fungi of South Africa. Debut reviewer Chegofatso Modika explored what it means to be queer in South Africa in They Called Me Queer compiled by Kim Windvogel and Kelly-Eve Koopman. Lesley Beake could not re...2019-11-0455 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - August 2019It’s midday on the first Monday of Women’s month and what better time to put up your feet and join us for Bookchoice on Fine Music Radio, coming to you from the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town. I’m Cindy Moritz, and I’m delighted to bring you this month’s choice of good books from our switched-on team of readers.
Penny Lorimer reviews two unusual thrillers, one by a seasoned British writer and the other by a novice American writer. Joe Country by Mick Herron and Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
“Haunting, poetic and page turning...2019-08-0558 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - July 2019Beverley Roos Muller delves into the complex world of Artificial Intelligence in Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me, calling it elegant as well as disturbing. Andrew Brown feels like Alice in Wonderland reading William Boyd’s Love is Blind, which is now out in paperback. Vanessa Levenstein calls Fiona Snycker’s Lacuna “an articulate response to JM Coetzee’s novel Disgrace, finally giving Lucy Lurie a voice, and Philip Todres speaks to Samantha Smirin, author of Life Interrupted: A Bipolar Memoir. He describes it as a “heartbreakingly honest biography of a person confronting bipolar disorder”. From the human condition to the call of th...2019-07-0153 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - June 2019Beverley Roos Muller explores memory and the discovery of home in Julia Martin’s beautifully written memoir Blackridge House. Vanessa Levenstein gets on the line to Evan Ratliff, author of The Mastermind: Drugs, Empire, Murder, Revenge to find out what drove one cyber-genius to choose honour over crime. From crime to culture as Philip Todres turns the spotlight to professional dancer, teacher and choreographer Richard Glasstone and his latest publications and Cindy Moritz welcomed the chance to scratch further beneath the surface in a conversation with Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Written in History: Letters that changed the world, reviewed he...2019-06-0356 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - April 2019Philip Todres takes you into glorious views of an old family estate Constantia Glen with owner Alexander Waiver as they leaf through Constantia Glen - A Timeless Vision by Clare O’Donaghue, with Craign Fraser’s stunning photographs. And it’s one of today’s Giveaways.
Cruel as ever, Michael Roche-Kelly hopes to keep us awake at night with three gripping thrillers, one of which – The Senior Advisor by Edmund-George King is also one of today’s Giveaways.
Cindy Moritz takes you to a hard-to-find little village in Korea in Karin Cronje’s memoir of her teaching time...2019-04-0157 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - February 2019Melvyn Minnaar is delightfully set alight by Leonard Cohen’s The Flame.
Cindy Moritz finds John Boyne’s A Ladder to the Sky deliciously dark and satisfying.
John Hanks journeys through Ian Glenn’s The First Safari – Searching for Francois Levaillant, an account of South Africa’s first and perhaps the greatest ever birder.
Lesley Beake brings us a dystopian teen novel and a South African story for younger readers.
Briony Chisholm chats about her delightully titled One Night Only, her debut novel that’s a fun and flirty take on the romantic don...2019-02-0458 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - October 2018It’s noon on the first Monday of the month, so it’s BOOK CHOICE on Fine Music radio, and it’s a warm welcome from me, Gorry Bowes Taylor Matabata . . . .. This happy hour Andrew Marjoribank, Wordsworth Books brings you a bagful about his knees and his Passion for Opera, and his book is one of today’s Giveaways. Cindy Moritz spies a grand thriller in Daniel Silva’s The Other Woman. More spine chillers from Mike Fitzjames, including the new Tony Park, which is also one of today’s Giveaways. The 10th of October is World Mental Health Day. The Enumerat...2018-10-0144 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - June 2018This cheerful hour Andrew Marjoribanks cheers us with great choices in Wordsworth Books fiction and non-fiction. And, for the first time, we review an app as John Hanks is cheerfully aflutter about Steve Woodhall’s Butterflies of South Africa. This beautiful and engaging app is also one of our Giveaways today. Vanessa Levenstein is cheered by her chat with Mick Herron about his dark, politically incorrect, poetic and hysterically funny, London Rules, the latest spy thriller in the Slough House series. Legal eagle, police reservist and writer Andrew Brown found William Boyd’s The Dreams of Bethan Mellmouth searingly clever – and hu...2018-06-0437 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - May 2018This happy hour Andrew Marjoribanks, with, as always, a bagful of the best in fiction and non-fiction from Wordsworth Books. Philip Todres talks to Jeremy Maggs, one of ENca’s brightest and best presenters, who says very nice things about FMR and whose book Compelling Conversations with 20 Successful South Africans is indeed compelling. Cindy Moritz holds her breath over AJ Finn’s The Woman in the Window, a psychological thriller for anyone who loved Gone Girl or Girl on the Train. Conservationist John Hanks flightily reviews Featherings – True Stories in Search of Birds edited by twitcher Vernon RL Head while Melvyn...2018-05-0708 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - April 2018It’s the first Monday of the month, so it’s BOOK CHOICE on Fine Music Radio 101.3 - I‘m Gorry Bowes Taylor: This happy hour Andrew Marjoribanks, Wordsworth Bools, brings you an inspiring bagful of the best in fiction and non-fiction. John Hanks finds cardinal imperatives and some omissions in James Clarke’s Overkill – The race to save Africa’s wildlife, while Phillippa Cheifitz finds gorgeous food for the gluten-intolerant in Jenny Kay’s The South African Gluten-free Cookbook, and more munhies in Olami, Nirit Saban’s gluten-free cookbook. Melvyn Minnaar finds Dictatorland. The Men Who Stole Africa by Paul Kenyon a fa...2018-04-0240 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - March 2018This sunny hour: Andrew Marjoribanks, Wordsworth Books, brings a bagful of the best in fiction and non-fiction. Beveley Roos Muller finds 'Head Case' by Ross Armstrong unforgettable, an absolute one-off; smart, cheeky, with the oddest and most original detective character. John Hanks takes a trip down the 'River of Gold – Narratives and exploration of the Great Limpopo' by Peter Norton, Mike Gardiner and Clive Walker much, much more than Kipling’s ‘great, grey, green, greasy Limpopo all set about with fever trees’. Philip Todres talks to Sylvia Brunders who has just published 'Parading Respectability – The cultural and moral aesthetics of the Christ...2018-03-0550 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - January 2018Welcome to BOOK CHOICE on the first Monday of the month and to a bright, bookish New Year! I’m Andrew Marjoribanks, Wordsworth Books with a big bundle of good books on which to spend your book vouchers. Beverley Roos Muller finds Chris Barnard as beautiful and brilliant as she remembers him in Heartbreaker: Christiaan Barnard and the first heart transplant by James Brent Styan. Philip Todres is gobsmacked by Ballenesque, the long-awaited restrospective from one of the world’s most important photographers – Roger Ballon, who, for the first time, reveals his compelling and particular vision. Vanessa Levenstein loved Dear World...2018-01-0850 min
Book ChoiceBook Choice - December 2017Andrew Marjoribanks, Wordsworth Books has pleasant present ideas in fiction and non-fiction. Even the politically well-connected Peter Soal is gobsmacked by the strong stuff we thought we knew – but didn’t - in The President’s Keepers by Jacques Pauw. Beverley Roos Muller is thunderstruck by The Third Reef by SJ Naude, while Jay Heale suggests that surely one of his book selections would make the ideal Christmas present, and Cindy Moritz was inflamed by Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ing. Philip Todres chats to Anne Emslie as she leads us on a guided tour through the rooms of the Owl Ho...2017-12-0437 min