Curious Readers

Book News

The Hugo Awards

Galle Literary Festival, 22-25 January 2026

Edinburgh International Book Festival, 9-24 August 2025 

Current reads

Free Play: Improvisation in Life & Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch

On Elizabeth Bishop by Colm Tóibin

The Names by Florence Knapp

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins-Reid

Deep Dive into Kristin Hannah 

Firefly Lane 

The Nightingale

The Winter Garden

The Four Winds

The Women 

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

What We’re Reading Next

The Sunflower Boys by Sam Wachman

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

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

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Join us this week as we delve into our favourite memoirs and recommend some bizarre stories of fame, feuds, cults, and figure skating. Of course, we also share the latest book news, current reads and what we plan to read next.

Book News

Close to Home by Michael Magee

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Current reads

A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry 

Lost Souls Meet Under A Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura

Lonely Castle In The Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura

Memoirs 

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy

In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Aftermath by Rachel Cusk

Dying of Politeness by Geena Davis

Bossy Pants by Tina Fey

Homesick: A Memoir by Jennifer Croft 

The Extinction Of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft

Flights by Olga Tolkaczuk

The Books Of Jacob by Olga Tolkaczuk

Into The Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough

The Woman In Me by Britney Spears

Daisy Jones And The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

The Museum Of Lost And Fragile Things by Suzanne Joinson

The Sound Of Gravel by Ruth Wariner

Educated by Tara Westover

Stay True by Hua Hsu

Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick 

Knife by Salman Rushdie

The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen

Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby

This Is The Place To Be by Lara Pawson

What we’re reading next

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher

The Echoes by Evie Wyld 

Days Of Light by Megan Hunter

Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser

Orlanda by Jacqueline Harpman

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Also mentioned 

The Harrison Chambers Of Distinction

Cool People Reading Podcast

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

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Who says queer lit is just for June? In our latest episode we talk about some queer titles and authors that we'd recommend reading all year round. Plus, we walk through some queer literary milestones and of course chat about what we've been reading recently and what we're looking forward to picking up next.

Book News

The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya

Winter Animals by Ashani Lewis

Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood In Black Gay Britain by Jason Okundaye

Food For The Dead by Charlotte Shevchenko Knight

Current reads

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher

The Story Of A Heart by Dr. Rachel Clark

Queer literature

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin 

Joseph And His Friend by Bayard Taylor 

The Picture Of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde 

The Well Of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

Death In Venice by Thomas Mann 

The City And The Pillar by Gore Vidal 

The Price Of Salt by Patricia Highsmith 

‘Carol’ by Todd Haynes 

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Loving Her by Ann Shockley 

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt 

Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Who’s Afraid Of Gender? by Judith Butler

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly

A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White 

Love Me Tender / PlayBoy by Constance Debré 

The End Of Eddy by Edouard Louis 

Love In Exile by Shon Faye

Girlhood / Abandon Me: Memoirs by Melissa Febos

A Short History Of Trans Misogyny by Jules Gill-Peterson

The Best Of Me by David Sedaris

This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson

Nothing Ever Just Disappears: Seven Hidden Histories by Diarmuid Hester

Our Pride picks

The Lost Past Of Billy McQueen by Neil Alexander

Valencia by Michelle Tea

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

Tiepolo Blue by James Cahill

And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

What We’re Reading Next

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn

The Employees by Olga Ravn

Helm by Sarah Hall 

Close To Home by Michael Magee

The Names by Florence Knapp 

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

Curious Readers is mixed by the incredibly talented James at Fish Island Studio (@fishislandstudio)

Register as an organ donor at organdonation.nhs.uk (UK) and donatelife.net (US)

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This week’s episode is about the perennial conundrum that faces every reader at this time of year - what to read at the beach? We talk about which genres are best suited for reading al fresco and give you our favourite holiday read recommendations. Of course, we also share our latest book news, current reads and what we plan to read next.

Book News

The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan 

Albion by Anna Hope

Fair Play by Louise Hegarty

Petals Of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong’o 

Current reads

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

Wild Boar by Hannah Lutz

Beach reads

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

Circe by Madeline Miller

Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Trio by Johanna Hedman 

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller 

The Overstory by Richard Powers

The Guest by Emma Cline

The Girls by Emma Cline 

The Swimmer by John Cheever

Walking On The Ceiling by Ayşegül Savaş 

Summer by Edith Wharton

Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Brutes by Dizz Tate

Spent by Alison Bechdel  

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel

You Killed Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi 

Sunset by Jessie Cave 

Girlfriends by Holly Bourne 

What we’re reading next

A Marriage At Sea by Sophie Elmhurst

Necessary Fictions by Eloghosa Osunde

Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu

Also mentioned

@BeesBookShare

The Garden Gate Project Margate

Louisiana Channel by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek in Denmark

The Hay Player

Hay Festivals

Open Water by Chris Kentis

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

Curious Readers is mixed by the incredibly talented James at Fish Island Studio (@fishislandstudio)

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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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This week’s episode is a brief encounter with short contemporary classics and the lilliputian tomes under 200 pages we recommend if you’re looking for something to get you out of a reading slump. We also talk book news, what we’ve been reading recently, and the titles we’re looking forward to picking up in May. 

Recent reads

Ministry Of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Playworld by Adam Ross

Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott

Short classics

Fair Play by Tove Jansson

The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson

Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing 

Ben, In The World by Doris Lessing

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver 

The Tenth Man by Graham Greene

What we’re reading next

Soft Core by Brittany Newell

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley

The Emperor Of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Let Me Tell You by Paul Griffiths

Let Me Go On by Paul Griffiths

Also mentioned 

@LadiesLitSquad

Disney+ Dying for Sex

Dolly Alderton and Netflix’s Adaptation of Pride & Prejudice

Can You Ever Forgive Me 

Dune

A Complete Unknown

Wellness by Nathan Hill

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

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

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On this week’s episode we dive deep into Rejection – not the emotion – the novel in stories by Tony Tulathimutte. We also discuss things we’ve read and want to read in April and revisit the Women’s Prize nominations now that they have been shortlisted.

Our deep dive

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

Private Citizens by Tony Tulathimutte

Recent reads

The Iliad by Homer and translated by Emily Wilson

The Odyssey by Homer

Hype Machine: Inside the Cult of Crypto by Joshua Oliver

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Green Dot by Madeline Gray 

Women’s prize shortlist

Good Girl by Aria Aber

All Fours by Miranda July

The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

What we’re looking forward to in April 

Twist by Column McCann

Tilt by Emma Pattee

The Colony by Annika Norlin

Audition by Katie Kitamura

Notes to John by Joan Didion

Also mentioned

The Coach and Horses Pub Quiz, Whitstable

The Book Lovers’ Pub Quiz

The BookClub Review Podcast

Adolescence on Netflix

Let the Great World Spin by Column McCann

Apeirogon by Column McCann

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

Blue Nights by Joan Didion

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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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