Curious Readers – Details, episodes & analysis

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This week we learn more about each other and get into the books on our backlist, including our recommendations for non-fiction and fiction reads. We also take a look at the longlist of the Dublin Literary Award and talk about surprises, omissions and favourites that you might want to add to your own TBR.

Recent reads

Nothing Ever Just Disappears: Seven Hidden Histories by Diarmuid Hester 

Evenings and Weekends by Oisin McKenna

From the backlist/longlist 

Hold Still: A Memoir by Sally Mann 

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

King by Jonathan Eig

When the Clock Broke by John Ganz

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safon

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks

Ducks by Kate Beaton

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

Audition by Pip Adam

Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood 

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor

Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast for more recommendations in between episodes 

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Join us for our very first episode in which we quiz each other on how we read, talk all things holiday reading and deliver some great recommendations for new, contemporary and classic books you might want to read next.

Books mentioned in this episode:

What we’ve read:

Prophet by Helen MacDonald and Sin Blanché

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

My Beloved Monster by Caleb Carr

The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş

She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark

Osebol: Voices from a Swedish Village by Marit Kapla

What we’re looking forward to:

Playworld by Adam Ross

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity and Finding Your Life's Purpose by Martha Beck

Love in Exile by Shon Faye

Also mentioned in this episode:

The Stand, Pet Semetary, 11.22.63 by Stephen King

The Storygraph

Harbour Books (@harbourbooks)

Silent BookClub Whitstable (@silentbookclubwhitstable)

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast for more recommendations in between episodes

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This week, we have a chat about why reading is an act of resistance and delve into the books we turn to during a crisis–whether climactic, sociological or existential. We also discuss our favourite reads for a complete escape.

Recent reads

Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers 

The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

Reading for resistance

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong

A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid

For a crisis

Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie

On Freedom by Maggie Nelson 

Eating Animals byJonathan Safran Foer

Surrender by Joanna Pocock

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

Empireland and Empireworld by Sathnam Sanghera

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshanna Zubenoff

To escape

The Moomins and The Summer Book by Tove Janson

You Are Here by David Nicholls

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny

Also mentioned in this episode:

NYRB Classics Challenge

Indigenous Reading Circle

The Galle Literary Festival

Faversham Literary Festival

Margate Bookie

The Margate Bookshop

Brick Lane Bookshop

Birchbark Books & Native Arts

Harbour Books (@harbourbooks)

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast for more recommendations in between episodes 

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This week, we deep dive into Liz Moore’s viral woodland thriller The God of the Woods - and we have opinions. We also talk about the new releases we’re looking forward to reading in March. 

Recent reads

The Future by Catherine Leroux (translated by Susan Ouriou)

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue (translated by Natasha Wimmer)

March 2025 releases

The Horse by Willy Vlautin 

Show Don’t Tell and Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld 

Universality by Natasha Brown

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast for more recommendations in between episodes

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Join either side of the Atlantic as we dive into our favourite London/New York novels. It’s an episode full of stiff upper lips, demonic possessions, sociopaths, bedsits, alcoholic dollmakers, sassy parrots, and white asparagus. Plus we talk about our must visit NY-LON bookshops and reading spots, and we look ahead to new releases set in and around the Big Smoke and the Big Apple we can’t wait to read. 

Recent reads

Universality by Natasha Brown

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (translated by Polly Barton)

Stories of Place:///zinc.level.blindfold edited by Niamh McAnally

Our Favourite NY-LON Novels

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon

The Vulnerables by Sigird Nunez

Look At Me by Anita Brookner

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

There Are More Things by Yara Rodrigues Fowler

NY-LON Books We're Excited to Read in 2025

Confessions by Catherine Airey

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay MacCleod Chapman

Lorne by Susan Morrison

Cursed Under London by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch

An Opinionated Guide to Literary London by John Clegg

Also mentioned

The Strand Bookstore

Books Are Magic

Codex

The London Library

Housmans Bookshop

John Sandoe Books

Judd Books 

Daunt Books

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast for more recommendations in between episodes 

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On this week’s episode we catch up on what we’ve been reading, share our thoughts on the Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist, and talk about some of the April releases we’re looking forward to picking up soon. 

Recent reads

Carnality by Lina Wolf, tr. by Frank Perry

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor

The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas 

The Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist

Good Girl by Aria Aber

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Somewhere Else by Jenni Daiches

Amma by Saraid de Silva

Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings

All Fours by Miranda July

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nesting by Roisín O'Donnell

A Little Trickerie by Rosanna Pike

Birding by Rose Ruane

The Artist by Lucy Steeds

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

Our Contenders

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

Orbital by Samantha Harvey 

There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak

Gliff by Ali Smith  

The Echoes by Evie Wylde

It Lasts Forever And Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken

Excited to Read in April

Room on the Sea by Andre Aciman

Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert

Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt

Also mentioned

The Stella Prize

The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast for more recommendations in between episodes 

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This week’s episode is one of deep dives, this time into Audition by Katie Kitamura, an ambiguous and destablising read that packs a lot into very few pages. We also share some recent book and literary prize news and talk about what’s on our TBRs.

Books:

Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq (translated by Deepa Bhasthi)  

The Book Of Sand by Geetanjali Shree

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Small Boat by Vicent Delacroix (translated by Helen Stevenson)

Clear by Carys Davies (Winner of the Ondaatje Prize 2025)

The Adversary by Michael Crummey (Winner of the Dublin Literary Award 2025)

Red Milk by Sjón

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Audition / Gone To The Forest / The Longshot / A Separation / Intimacies by Katie Kitamura 

My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe 

Also mentioned: 

Teatime Book Club, @Teatime.pictures

Rosemary’s Baby by Roman Polanski

Suspiria by Dario Agento (with a 2013 remake by Luca Guadagnino)

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast for more recommendations in between episodes 

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This week’s episode is all about our favourite reads by Korean and Korean-American authors, including books about sulky giant octopuses, sinkhole tourism, empathy bypasses, diasporic depression, simulated marriages, and tearful encounters with gochujang. And as always, we discuss recent reads and what’s next on our TBRs.

Recent reads

In Search Of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (tr. Terence Kilmartin)

Sweat by Emma Healy

The Meteorites: Encounters With Outer Space And Deep Time by Helen Gordon

Korean books and authors 

Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Sea Change by Gina Chung

The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun (tr. Lizze Buehler)

Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home by Eric Kim

The Hive And The Honey by Paul Yoon 

The Trunk by Kim Ryeo-Ryeong (tr. The KoLab)

Almond by Won-Pyung Sohn (tr. Sandy Joosun Lee)

Black Girl From Pyongyang: In Search Of My Identity by Monica Macias

Up next

The Women by Kristin Hannah

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid

My Friends by Frederik Backman

Kakigori Summer by Emily Itami

Endling by Maria Reva

Also mentioned 

@angelazbao

Snow Piercer, Parasite by Bong Joon Ho

Libro FM

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast for more recommendations in between episodes 

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This week’s episode is a BIG one. Or at least, one in which we talk about big things, namely big books and why – or why not – we find them intimidating. And as always, we discuss recent reads and what’s next on our TBRs.

Recent reads

On The Calculation Of Volume (Volume I) by Solvej Balle 

Confessions by Catherine Airey

Big Book Fear 

The Book of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk 

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray 

Middlemarch by George Eliot – narrated by Juliet Stevenson

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Lost Illusions and Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac

2666 by Roberto Bolaño

In Search Of Lost Time by Marcel Proust 

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvilli

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany

Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain In A Digital World by Maryanne Wolf

11.22.63 by Stephen King

Angle Of Repose by Wallace Stegner

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Secondhand Time: The Last Of The Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich 

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

The Goldfinch / The Secret History / The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

Cherry by Nico Walker

The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Future Reads

Days Of Light by Megan Hunter

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins

Wild Ground by Emily Usher

Also mentioned 

The Ondaatje Prize 2025 shortlist 

Chatsworth House

The Storygraph 

The Book Club Review Podcast Patreon

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast for more recommendations in between episodes 

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