Something to Eat and Something is a podcast about cooking and reading, and reading about cooking. Hosted by food writer Sophie Hansen and Bibliotherapist/Psychotherapist Germaine Leece; we believe that you should never go anywhere, or for too long, without something to eat and something to read.
So every episode we’re going to dive into a book we’ve both read and talk about the ’shape’ it left on both of us. And because this is a podcast about reading about cooking; these books will all have a strong connection with food (of course). Part two will be the listener letter which we’ll select then read out loud. Germaine will prescribe a book and I’ll recommend a recipe.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy putting it together for you, Sophie and Germaine x
somethingtoeatandsomethingtoread.substack.com (https://somethingtoeatandsomethingtoread.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
How would you cope if time fell apart for you but kept ticking on for the rest of the world? This is what happens to Tara, the protagonist of this episode’s ‘book guest’. The Calculation of Volume, Part 1, by (https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Solvej-Balle-translated-by-Barbara-J.-Haveland-On-the-Calculation-of-Volume-I-9780571383375)Solvej Balle (https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Solvej-Balle-translated-by-Barbara-J.-Haveland-On-the-Calculation-of-Volume-I-9780571383375).
Tara Selter is an antiquarian book dealer who keeps waking up on November 18. She realises that she is trapped in a time loop and seems to be reliving this one day indefinitely while the rest of the world, including her husband, friends and family, all move on to November 19 completely unaware. While everyone and everything (except the food she consumes) resets to their exact state each morning, Tara ages and her memories accumulate.
This first volume was shortlisted for the Booker Prize last year, and the judges said, “It takes a familiar narrative trope – protagonist inexplicably stuck in the same day – and transforms it into a profound meditation on love, connectedness and what it means to exist.”
It gave us plenty to talk about in this episode, and as always, you don’t have to have read the book to (we hope) resonate with the threads we pull from it. And there are no spoilers.
Links and show notes are coming to subscribers shortly.
Something to Eat and Something to Read is a podcast for people who love reading and eating and reading about eating (and cooking), hosted by Sophie Hansen, a food writer and farmer from Orange in central-west New South Wales and Germaine Leece, a bibliotherapist and psychotherapist based in Sydney.
Germaine and Sophie x
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we are recording today – Sophie on Wiradjuri Country in central-west New South Wales and Germaine on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation in Sydney. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations people listening.
Get full access to Something to Eat and Something to Read at somethingtoeatandsomethingtoread.substack.com/subscribe (https://somethingtoeatandsomethingtoread.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
30 Jul 2026
Yesteryear
Hello and welcome back to Something to Eat and Something to Read, a podcast for people who love food and cooking and reading, hosted by Germaine Leece, a bibliotherapist and psychotherapist based in Sydney and Sophie Hansen, a food writer and farmer from Orange in central-west New South Wales
This episode’s book ‘guest’ is the hugely successful Yesteryear (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/780686/yesteryear-a-gma-book-club-pick-by-caro-claire-burke/) by Caro Claire Burke (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/780686/yesteryear-a-gma-book-club-pick-by-caro-claire-burke/). And the conversation we have around it is a juicy one, spanning everything from returnism, the ‘performance’ of eating, cooking and parenting, friction-maxing, trad wife culture, cooking as care vs cooking as control and how this book ‘misses the most important point of all’.
What did you think of this page-turner?
Show notes are coming to our subscribers shortly.
Germaine and Sophie x
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we are recording today – Sophie on Wiradjuri Country in central west New South Wales and Germaine on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation in Sydney. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations people listening.
Get full access to Something to Eat and Something to Read at somethingtoeatandsomethingtoread.substack.com/subscribe (https://somethingtoeatandsomethingtoread.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
14 May 2026
Feast on your Life
Today’s book ‘guest’ is Feast on Your Life: Kitchen Meditations for Every Day (https://www.tamareadler.com/feast-on-your-life) by Tamar Adler (https://www.tamareadler.com/feast-on-your-life) and how reading it has nudged us both to think more about noticing the small pleasures we can so easily miss every day and what it means to actually pay attention to your own life.
Show notes are coming soon, featuring lists of all the books and topics we discuss.
In the meantime, thank you for listening, and thank you to our wonderful producer, Kristy Reading (https://www.instagram.com/kristyreading/?hl=en), for putting this and every episode together so beautifully.
Germaine and Sophie x
We acknowledge that the land on which we work and live is the traditional land of the Wiradjuri Nation (Sophie) and the Gadigal of the Eora Nation (Germaine). We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations people.
Get full access to Something to Eat and Something to Read at somethingtoeatandsomethingtoread.substack.com/subscribe (https://somethingtoeatandsomethingtoread.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.6 / 5
7 ratings
Spotify
4.7 / 5
17 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 53 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
55
Social presence
91
YouTube
0
Engagement
85
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Guest appearances
Books guests
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