Through the Pages your bookish podcast

We are reviewing the good, the bad, the new and the (un)honourable mentions of our Q1 reading experience!



We're back on the Whodunnit train, do love ourselves some historical fiction and share one honourable and one unhonourable mention to end these first 3 months of reading in 2024.



Titles mentioned:


The English Understand Wool by Helen deWitt
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
In Memoriam: A Novel by Alice Winn
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
Brutes by Dizz Tate
Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto
What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
Anthony Horowitz' works (notably: Magpie Murders)
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson



Thank you for listening!

Our most enchanted episode yet - or is it?

In this episode, we tackle our first fairy tale and chat about a story we probably all know: Cinderella. But if your first thoughts upon hearing this are Disney, glass slipper and happily ever after, you're in for a surprise. The original story, put into writing by the Brothers Grimm in 1812/15 in their collection of tales is slightly... bloodier and a tad more sinister.

We chat about evil stepmothers, dumb princes, the heavy moral of the story and wonder - have we now developed a phobia of pigeons?!

As always, we love to hear from you. Follow us @throughthepagespod⁠.

After we both had a great reading year in 2023, we’re excited about all the bookish discoveries we’ll make in 2024. In this episode we chat about our reading intentions for the coming year, the books we’re looking forward to, what we’d like to read more of, and why we started the year with a bunch of short reads (short books for the win!).



Books mentioned in the episode 📚

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady*

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher

The Diviners by Libba Bray

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro



*and correction of the audio, the author is Scottish!

For the 100th anniversary of Kafka's death, we have decided to feature him on our podcast for a second time. This time with the absurd, cruel, and creepy novella about Gregor Samsa's terrifying awakening.



We talk about the elephant in the room and what it could mean and chat about why this particular story was particularly disturbing.



Let us know what you think! Have you read it? Did you prefer it to The Trial?

We all know the story, a lot of us grew up with it: Alice and her fun little trip to Wonderland. But, if like us, you’ve never actually read the story, this one’s for you!

Tag along as we go down the rabbit hole and try to wrap our head around Lewis Caroll’s novel that was first published in 1865. We chat about Alice’s unsettling trip and the characters she meets on the way, tackle the novel’s problematic background and the age old question: "Can we separate artists and their work?", and try to find some sense in the nonsensical. That’s right - it gets trippy. 

As always, we love to hear from you. Follow us @throughthepagespod on Instagram and TikTok & check out our Patreon to discover our additional bookish content!

One of the most well known Bildungsromane, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë follows the life of the title character from one unfortunate event to the next. In this episode we talk about how this 1847 classic still translates well into our current time and inner monologues and how Rochester might make the top 5 worst men in literary history!