Joan's picks: By Any Other Name and Safe Enough

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult. Told in two timelines, one in the 16th century and one in the present (well, almost present – the action takes place against Covid, just as there was a plague back in the earlier timeframe) – the premise being that women have been, and in the modern world are often, still unable to be credited for work which is presented as being done by men when in fact the women were the creators but have no voice. Jodi places much of the action around Shakespeare and posits that a woman named Emelia Bassano was actually the writer of his plays and sonnets but that the only way for them to be performed and published was to do so under his name. An enormous amount of research has clearly gone into this and it’s one of the most interesting and thought provoking books she’s done in a very long time.   Safe Enough by Lee Child. Twenty short stories by Lee Child, who proves that he’s not a one-series wonder with the Jack Reacher books – but in fact it’s clear reading these that they could also easily come from the same pen, and I think would be enjoyed by all Reacher fans. Easy to read as they’re bite sized stories and it’s a book you can pick up and put down without losing your place. The themes and characterisations are really clever. Quite macho as you’d expect from the Reacher creator, but a great addition to his oeuvre.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.