Curious Readers

How many times have Amanda and Joseph joined the ‘Just One Book’ Deception Society? Too many to count. This week they are talking about the joy of browsing and the bookshops they love visiting across the UK. Plus, as always they’ll be chatting about what they’ve been reading recently and the titles they're hoping to pick up next.

Recent Reads
I Want You To Be Happy by Jem Calder
Service by John Tottenham

Bookshops and browsing
Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal
The Book of Lost Tales (Volume 2) by J R R Tolkien
Persephone Books, Bath and London @persephonebooks
If The Boot Fits by Rebekah Weatherspoon
Charco Press @charcopress
Daunt Books, Marleybone or Cheapside @dauntbookspub
Bookmongers, Brixton @bookmongersbrixton
Harbour Books, Whitstable @harbourbooks
A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
In The Distance by Hernan Diaz
London Review of Books Bookshop, London @londonreviewofbooks
Judd Books, London @juddbooks
Book Bar, London @bookbaruk
Hatchards, St Pancras @hatchstpancras
Brick Lane Bookshop, London @bricklanebookshop
Pages of Hackney, London @pagesofhackney
The Margate Bookshop, Margate @themargatebookshop
Little Green Bookshop, Herne Bay @thegreenbookshop
Michael’s Bookshop, Ramsgate @michaelsbookshopramsgate
Plunder Books, Ramsgate @plunderbooks
Heffers, Cambridge @heffers_cambridge
Body in the Bookshop, Cambridge @bodiesinthebookshop
Murder and Mayhem, Hay on Wye @murder_and_mayhem
Richard Booth’s Bookshop, Hay on Wye @richardboothsbookshop

What We’re Reading Next
The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockton
The Disappearing Act by Maria Stepanova

Also mentioned
Curious Readers is mixed by the incredibly talented James Whiting @fishislandstudio
Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast and Bluesky @curiousreaderspod.bsky.social for more recommendations in between episodes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Amanda and Joseph as they set out to excavate Land, Maggie O’Farrell’s latest historical novel and family drama which is set in 1860s Ireland, a decade after the Great Famine. Plus, as always they chat about what they've been reading recently and what they hope to pick up next.

Bookish News

Children’s Booker Prize
Frank Cottrell-Boyce @frank_cottrellboyce
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Beast in View by Maragert Millar
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood
@herrealtake

Recent Reads

The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet @lyse.doucet
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series by Juno Dawson @junodawson
Parallel Lives: A Love Story from a Lost Continent by Iain Pears

Selected Books of Maggie O’Farrell @maggieofarrellofficial

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Instructions for a Heatwave
This Must Be the Place
Hamnet
The Marriage Portrait
Land

What We’re Reading Next

The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan @theodysseymovie
Crossing The Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature by Emily Wilson
I Want You To Be Happy by Jem Calder

Curious Readers is mixed by the incredibly talented James Whiting @fishislandstudio
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Amanda and Joseph as they go through the looking glass into the fascinating (and anxiety inducing) world of artificial intelligence - and recommending some fiction and non-fiction picks about Large Language Models, bots, and the machines learning to live like us. Plus, as always they'll be chatting about what they've been reading recently and what they hope to pick up next.

Bookish News

Lambda Literary Awards @lambdaliterary
Nova Scotia House by Charlie Porter
Black Panther Woman by Mary Frances Phillips @maryfrancisphillips
The Lilac People by Milo Todd @todd_milo
Virago Modern Classics @viragopress
Frost In May by Antonia White
Peking Picnic by Ann Bridge

Recent Reads

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout @lizstroutauthor
Soft Core by Brittany Newell @frottage_industry
Good Girl by Aria Aber @aria.aber
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
How to End a Story by Helen Garner
Small Rain by Garth Greenwell @ggreenwell

The Ghost in the Manuscript

Olga Tokarczuk @tokarczuk_olga
Martin Scorcese @martinscorcese
Kane Parsons @kanepixels
Josh Johnson @joshjohnsoncomedy
Field Work as a Sex Object by Meena Kandasamy @k.a.n.d.a.s.a.m.y
The New Age of Sexism by Laura Bates @laura_bates_
Meditations for the Anxious Mind @meditationsfortheanxiousmind
How to Talk to AI (and How Not To) by Jamie Bartlett @jamiejbartlett
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer @sierra_greer_writer
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow

What We’re Reading Next

Whistler by Ann Patchett @annpatchett

Curious Readers is mixed by the incredibly talented James Whiting @fishislandstudio
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the height of Prize Season, Amanda and Joseph are back with a bumper episode asking what all the hullabaloo is about - how are prizes judged and awarded, and are the winners worth our time? Plus, they talk about Amanda’s recent trip to the Women’s Prize ceremony, and as always, what they’ve been reading recently and what they hope to pick up next.

Bookish News

Hay Festival
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams @sarahww_
Women’s Prize
Women’s Prize Live and other events
Rivals on Disney+
Felicity Blunt @thebluntoffice
Laura Wade
Katherine Parkinson @parkinson.katherine
Field Work as a Sex Object by Meena Kadasamy @k.a.n.d.a.s.a.m.y
Rapture by Emily Maguire @emilymaguirewriter
These Impossible Things by Salma El-Wardany @salmaelwardany
The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet @lyse.doucet
The Correspondent by Virgina Evans @virginia.l.evans
Dominion by Addie E. Kitchens @addie_citchens
The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson @marxia1

Recent Reads

Air by Christian Kracht
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht
Imperium by Christian Kracht
You With the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate @christinapplegate

Prizes and Prize-Worthy Recommendations

The Nobel Prize for Literature
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Booker Prize
National Book Award
Milkman by Anna Burns
‘The Hemingway Veto’ and For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Riders In The Chariot by Patrick White
The Tree of Man by Patrick White
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
Martyr by Kaveh Akbar @kavehakbar.kavehakbar
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Trust by Hernan Diaz

What We’re Reading Next

The Beautiful Ones by Prince and Dan Piepenbring
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout @lizstroutauthor

Also mentioned

Curious Readers is mixed by the incredibly talented James Whiting @fishislandstudio

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast and Bluesky @curiousreaderspod.bsky.social for more recommendations in between episodes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where have the last six months gone? Join Amanda and Joseph as they check in on the reading goals they set themselves in January. Find out if they’ve stuck to their promises, or if they’ve bombed out on their reading resolutions. Plus, they talk about more prize news, and as always, what they’ve been reading recently and what they hope to pick up next.

Bookish News

Hay Festival
Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi (translated by Lin King)
John of John by Douglas Stuart @douglas_stuart
Ruth Ozeki @ozekiland
Carol Shields Prize for Fiction
Canon by Lee Lai @_leelai
Hellions by Julia Elliott @jelliottic6
A Guardian and A Thief by Megha Majumdar @megha.maj
Women’s Prize
The Booker Prize

Recent Reads

Famesick by Lena Dunham @lenadunham
May We Feed The King by Rebecca Perry @poorsasquatch
Stone Fruit by Rebecca Perry

Our Mid-Year Reading Goals

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan @patrickryanyc
The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine @wednesdaywerskin
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke @caroclaireburke
The Wreck by Lizzy Stewart @lizzy_stewart
Prairie Oyster by Sophoe Robinson @sophiepoetry
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe @praddenkeefe
Dominion by Addie E. Kitchens @addie_citchens
The Correspondent by Virgina Evans @virginia.l.evans
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash @madelinecash
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Guardian’s ‘100 Best Novels of All Time’
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
Ordinary People by Haldor Laxness
Death’s End by Cixin Liu
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert @sophiegilbertwrites
A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness by Michael Pollan @michael.pollan
You With the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate @christinapplegate
Indignity by Leah Ypi
Winter In The Blood by James Welch
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones @stephengrahamjones
The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
The Oldest Bitch Alive by Morgan Day @yeah_okday
The Sleep Thief by Ibtisam Azem @ibitisam.azem
Charco Press 2026 Fiction Bundle @charcopress
Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz @arianaharwiczw
Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly
Angel Down by Daniel Kraus @kraus_author
Kin by Tayari Jones @tayari
Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn
On The Calculation of Volume series by Solvej Balle
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Practice by Rosalind Brown
Land by Maggie O’Farrell @maggieofarrellofficial
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout @lizstroutauthor
Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason
Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel @emilystjohnmandel

What We’re Reading Next
John of John by Douglas Stuart
The Left and the Lucky by Willy Vlautin

Also mentioned

Curious Readers is mixed by the incredibly talented James Whiting @fishislandstudio

Follow us on Instagram @curiousreaderspodcast and Bluesky @curiousreaderspod.bsky.social for more recommendations in between episodes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.