Zoe Ball

@bbcradio2 #zoeballbreakfastshow 🎙 :meryl.hoffman@curtisbrown.co.uk •

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Book Recommendations:

ZB

Recommended by Zoe Ball

“Our clever friends the QI Elves @qikipedia have a truly brilliant new book out called #FunnyYouShouldAsk... And this is what the elves look like, super smart, hilarious and a damn fine looking bunch #mumcrush #whyworkshop #questions #answers #mindblowing #love @BBCRadio2 https://t.co/HWHuV62k0T” (from X)

The perfect gift for all those big and little kids in your life who ask'why...?'. With an introduction from Zoe Ball. The QI Elves are the clever clogs behind the hit panel show QI. Every Wednesday the Elves appear on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show’s ‘Why Workshop’ where they answer the ponderings and wonderings of Radio 2's most inquisitive listeners Funny You Should Ask… features the QI Elves’ answers to questions on topics ranging from goosebumps to grapefruit, pizza to pirates and everything in-between. Generously sprinkled with extra facts from the Elves this is essential reading for the incurably curious. How much water would you need to put out the Sun? If spiders can walk on the ceiling why can’t they get out of the bath? What’s the point of snot? Why does my pizza taste so much better the next morning? Why do dads make such bad jokes? Why am I a capital letter and you’re not? Why is there an Essex, a Wessex, a Sussex but no Nossex? Can I dig a tunnel to the other side of the Earth? Why aren’t unicorns called unihorns? Do cats get goosebumps? When does a rock become an island? Why don’t clouds freeze? Can I live forever?

ZB

Recommended by Zoe Ball

“and big love to @BegumNadiya whose new book #NADIYABAKES is out today 🧁💋” (from X)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The host of the beloved Netflix series Time to Eat and Nadiya Bakes and winner of The Great British Baking Show returns to her true love, baking, with more than 100 delicious, Americanized recipes for sweet treats. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME OUT AND THE KITCHN When Nadiya Hussain, the UK's "national treasure," began cooking, she headed straight to the oven—which, in her home, wasn't used for baking, but rather for storing frying pans! One day, her new husband asked her to bake him a cake and then . . . she was hooked! Baking soon became a part of her daily life. In her newest cookbook, based on her Netflix show and BBC series Nadiya Bakes, Nadiya shares more than 100 simple and achievable recipes for cakes, cookies, breads, tarts, and puddings that will become staples in your home. From Raspberry Amaretti Biscuits and Key Lime Cupcakes to Cheat's Sourdough and Spiced Squash Strudel, Nadiya has created an ultimate baking resource for just about every baked good that will entice beginner bakers and experienced pastry makers alike.

ZB

Recommended by Zoe Ball

“Read this book. All the emotions. Utterly brilliant & heartbreaking. Thank you for the gift @NickBall5 #fleishmanisintrouble #books #holidayreads https://t.co/aS01htKROe” (from X)

Fleishman Is in Trouble: A Novel book cover

by Taffy Brodesser-Akner¡You?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST • “A masterpiece” (NPR) about marriage, divorce, and the bewildering dynamics of ambition Now an Emmy Award–nominated FX limited series on Hulu, starring Claire Danes, Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, and Adam Brody ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Entertainment Weekly, The New York Public Library ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, USA Today Vanity Fair, Vogue, NPR, Chicago Tribune, GQ, Vox, Refinery29, Elle, The Guardian, Real Simple, Financial Times, Parade, Good Housekeeping, New Statesman, Marie Claire, Town & Country, Evening Standard, Thrillist, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, BookRiot, Shelf Awareness Toby Fleishman thought he knew what to expect when he and his wife of almost fifteen years separated: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, the occasional moment of tension in their co-parenting negotiations. He could not have predicted that one day, in the middle of his summer of sexual emancipation, Rachel would just drop their two children off at his place and simply not return. He had been working so hard to find equilibrium in his single life. The winds of his optimism, long dormant, had finally begun to pick up. Now this. As Toby tries to figure out where Rachel went, all while juggling his patients at the hospital, his never-ending parental duties, and his new app-assisted sexual popularity, his tidy narrative of the spurned husband with the too-ambitious wife is his sole consolation. But if Toby ever wants to truly understand what happened to Rachel and what happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen things all that clearly in the first place. A searing, utterly unvarnished debut, Fleishman Is in Trouble is an insightful, unsettling, often hilarious exploration of a culture trying to navigate the fault lines of an institution that has proven to be worthy of our great wariness and our great hope. Alma’s Best Jewish Novel of the Year • Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book

ZB

Recommended by Zoe Ball

“'So moving . . . it's a beautiful book'” (from Amazon)

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A remarkable autobiography' Andrew Billen, The Times 'You're struck by his raw honesty in tackling big issues head-on' Tom Bryant, Daily Mirror 'So full of heart' Davina McCall 'I was riveted by it in a heartbreaking way . . . you will be gripped' Ranvir Singh, Lorraine 'So moving . . . it's a beautiful book' Zoe Ball 'Commendable honesty . . . a poignant book about the search for belonging' Daily Express 'Remarkable . . . contains a lesson for all of us and delivers a resounding message of hope and of love' James O'Brien ************* The brave and moving memoir by Long Lost Family presenter and Radio 5 breakfast show host Nicky Campbell reveals how the simple unconditional love of Maxwell, his Labrador, turned his life around and helped him come to terms with his difficult journey as an adopted child. Raw, honest and courageous in One of the Family, Nicky opens up about how being adopted has made him always feel like an outsider; the guilt he has carried towards his Mum and Dad for needing to trace his birth mother, and the crushing disappointment he felt when he finally met her. And for the first time, he writes about his emotional breakdown and how he has learned to live with a late diagnosis of bipolar. Through it all his passion for dogs and animals has been a lifeline. It is Maxwell's magic, a lesson from a Labrador in simple unconditional friendship, that has allowed him to see all the good in his life: from the security and safety of his childhood home, the love of his wife and four daughters and above all, to better understand the decisions taken by his birth mother to give him up for adoption.