Just in time for Banned Books Week (5-11 October), Joseph and Amanda talk about literary censorship and recommend the samizdat titles they think are worth exploring. They also chat about this year's Booker Prize Shortlist which was announced on 23 September and run through their picks from the Baillie Gifford Prize shortlist, one of the UK's biggest literary prizes for non-fiction. Plus, as always, they talk about what they've been reading recently and what they're excited to pick up next. 

Book News

(1:22) The Booker Prize

(7:16) The Baillie Gifford Prize

Current Reads

(11:16) I Am Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself by Glynnis MacNicol

(15:44) Ask Me How It Works by Deepa Paul

(16:19) Authority: Essays On Being Right by Andrea Long Chu

Banned Books

(21:08) Banned Books Week, 5-11 October 2025

(22:57) PEN America

(27:28) Index on Censorship: 100 Banned Novels

(27:44) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 

(29:07) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 

(29:16) Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell 

(31:37) The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (Amanda’s Pick #1)

(35:17) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Joseph’s Pick #1)

(39:16) Deenie by Judy Blume (Amanda’s Pick #2)

(42:17) Judy Blume Forever

(45:35) July’s People by Nadine Gordimer (Joseph’s Pick #2)

(49:50) This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson (Amanda’s Pick #3)

(54:42) A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Joseph’s Pick #3)

What We’re Reading Next

(58:01) The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits

(58:03) The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

(58:09) Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth

(58:40) Transcription by Ben Lerner

(59:19) The Renovation by Kenan Orhan

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

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