In episode 34 of James and Ashley Stay at Home, we speak to bookish entrepreneurs and writers Amy and Laura about how Secret Book Stuff evolved from a kindness-generating project into a business, how books have been transformative in their lives, and how reading makes you better in bed.

Secret Book Stuff is an online bookshop specialising in book subscriptions and gifts for book-lovers. For every book sold, Secret Book Stuff plants a tree.

One of this episode’s highlights was learning Laura’s and Amy’s favourite books.

Laura’s Top 5 Books*
– In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
– Tonight I’m Someone Else by Chelsea Hodson
– Insomniac City by Bill Hayes
– High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
– White Oleander by Janet Fitch
– Felicity by Mary Oliver
– I’ll Tell You in Person by Chloe Caldwell
– anything by Joan Didion

Amy’s Top 5 Books
– High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
– White Oleander by Janet Fitch
– Insomniac City by Bill Hayes
– Animal People by Charlotte Wood
– Hot Little Hands by Abigail Ulman

*Because why stop at five?

More books and authors discussed in this episode
– Hold Your Own by Kae Tempest;
– Tonight I’m Someone Else by Chelsea Hodson;
– Women by Chloe Caldwell;
– Samantha Irby;
– The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien;
– The Neverending Story by Michael Ende;
– Fun Home by Alison Bechdel;
– Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid;
– Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid;
– Betty by Tiffany McDaniel;
– The Animals in that Country by Laura Jean McKay;
– Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez;
– A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet;
– Ghost Species by James Bradley (read James’s review here)

Listen to episode 34 of James and Ashley Stay at Home here, or on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favourite podcast app, and find out about past episodes here.