This week, join Amanda and Joseph for one of their most personally revealing episodes yet, as they discuss the books that made them: the teenage obsessions, the gateway reads, and the unforgettable titles, passages and writers that made us the readers they are today.
(1:20) Bookish News
(1:40) The Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist
(2:49) Gloria Don't Speak by Lucy Apps @lucy.emma13
(3:10) The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson @marxia1
(4:32) The International Booker Prize Longlist
(5:36) The Nights Are QuietIn Iran by Shida Bazyar
(5:59) Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur
(6:28) Taiwan Travelogue Yáng Shuāng-zǐ
(8:08) Recent Reads
(8:17) Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert @sophiegilbertwrites
(12:52) The Missing Ink by Philip Hensher @philiphensher
(17:43) The Books That Made Us
(23:16) The Odyssey by Homer (various translations including Robert Fagles and Emily Wilson)
(24:27) O’ Brother, Where Art Thou directed by Joel and Ethan Cohen
(24:54) 'Penelope' by Carol Ann Duffy
(28:43) The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
(32:48) Elidor by Alan Garner
(32:53) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
(34:58) The Odyssey directed by Christopher Nolan
(36:56) The Continuous Life: Poems by Mark Strand
(40:16) The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
(41:25) The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
(46:34) Gilead by Marilyn Robinson
(49:38) A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
(53:55) In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
(54:36) What We’re Reading Next
(55:00) No Friend of This House by Natalie Haynes @nataliehaynesauthor
(55:12) One Aladdin, Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson
(56:07) Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
(56:43) EveryDay Is For The Thief by Teju Cole @_tejucole
Also mentioned
Tate Modern, Nigerian Modernism (on until 16 April 2026)
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
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