Episode 720: Alexandra Pierce, Ian Mond, and The Totally Temporary Book Club

With Gary away at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Florida, and celebrating his 80th birthday (!!!!!), Jonathan sat down to chat with Alexandra Pierce and Ian Mond about why we read books, why we talk about and review them, and three great new books from 2026 that we loved.

Along the way, we talked about Johanna Bell's The Department of the Vanishing, S.L. Huang's The Language of Liars, and Francis Spufford's Nonesuch, which led to the spontaneous inaugural meeting of The Totally Temporary Book Club, because by sheer chance all three had read and loved it.

The books in this episode are:

• Johanna Bell's The Department of the Vanishing;
• S.L. Huang's The Language of Liars; and
• Francis Spufford's Nonesuch.