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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.