Show Notes
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
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