Curious Readers

A bi-weekly bookchat podcast by Joseph Dance and Amanda Moulson, two time-poor curious readers with eclectic TBRs. Every two weeks we meet to talk all things books and deliver some recommendations for new, classic, and contemporary titles you might want to read next. We cover everything from backlist to frontlist, prize winners to debuts, and we are generally spoiler free.

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Top 10 Curious Readers Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Curious Readers episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Curious Readers for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Curious Readers episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Short Contemporary Classics

Curious Readers

04/23/25 • 53 min

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

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Big Book Fear

Curious Readers

05/09/25 • 59 min

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

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The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Deep Dive) & March releases

Curious Readers

02/28/25 • 50 min

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

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Korean Reads We Recommend

Curious Readers

05/23/25 • 58 min

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

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Reading As an Act of Resistance

Curious Readers

02/14/25 • 59 min

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)

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Our First Episode

Curious Readers

01/15/25 • 56 min

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)

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Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist 2025 - predictions, omissions & hot(ish) takes

Curious Readers

03/26/25 • 46 min

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

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Our Favourite New York/London Novels

Curious Readers

03/12/25 • 52 min

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

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Our Backlist Picks for 2025

Curious Readers

01/29/25 • 48 min

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