Shelf-Care | Half Year Reading Wrap Up

In this episode, we delve into another German classic: Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. Published in 1911, this novella tells the story of an ageing author and his trip to Venice which - plot twist - is his slow journey into death. We discuss the story’s problematic main character, Mann’s writing style, how it was a short but tough read, and how death is foreshadowed in the text. In our segment Top or Flop, we tell you about our month’s favourite reads and least loved books and answer a spontaneous bookish question.Find us on Instagram @ThroughthePagesPod and let us know what you thought about this novella.

In this episode, we chat about James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. This 1956 classic tells the story of a young American navigating his Parisian life and relationship with a man named Giovanni. We discuss the novel’s main character David and his relationships while unpacking the story’s topics of sexual identity, the idea of masculinity and internalized homophobia. In our segment Top or Flop, we tell you about our month’s favourite reads and least loved books and answer a spontaneous bookish question!Join us as we revisit this classic story and reflect on if and why it still resonates with readers today! Find us on Instagram @ThroughthePagesPod and let us know what you thought about this novel.

In this month's episode, we dive into S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, a coming-of-age novel that redefined young adult fiction - written by a young adult, for young adults. We explore the tensions between the Greasers and the Socs, unpack Ponyboy’s search for identity, and discuss the novel’s themes of class, loyalty, and belonging.Join us as we revisit this classic story and reflect on if and why it still resonates with readers today! Find us on Instagram @ThroughthePagesPod and let us know what you thought about this novel.

The Age of Innocence, published in 1920, earned Edith Wharton the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction - making her the first woman to win the prize. The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class Gilded Age New York City. With a 1993 film adaptation directed by Martin Scorsese and featuring a star cast and a new Netflix adaptation in the works, The Age of Innocence is more present than ever. Your hosts - bookish friends Mandy & Fanny - want to know why. In this episode, they explore the love triangle at the heart of the novel and unpack the themes of love, duty, and social expectation of 1870s high society.Through the Pages is a podcast in which your hosts, Fanny and Mandy, read books that are considered classics, to figure out if they're worth your while - and to discover why they are amongst so-called "classics". Because books only truly come to live when you talk about them.

Published in 1847, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë was a controversial work to say the least! More than 100 years later it is considered one of the greatest novels of the English classics canon. In this episode we discuss our tragic heroes Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw and how - despite the frequent depiction in pop culture as such - this is everything but a love story! Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is a Gothic Tragedy, published under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell. Emily Brontë died one year after Wuthering Heights was published. Through the Pages is a podcast in which your hosts, Fanny and Mandy, read books that are considered classics, to figure out if they're worth your while - and to discover why they are amongst so-called "classics". Because books only truly come to live when you talk about them.

We turned 30! Aaand we have now known each other for 15 years. To celebrate both these milestones we thought it would be fitting to share 30 books that have moved us, shaped us and inspired us through the years! Have you read any of the books we shared? Fanny's Picks: The Penderwicks / Jeanne Birdsall The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose / Mary Hooper Before I Fall / Lauren Oliver A Great and a Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray Daddy-Long-Legs / Jean Webster Ruby Red / Kerstin Gier The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo / T.J. Reid A Murder is Announced / Agatha Christie Sense & Sensibility / Jane Austen Rebecca / Daphne du Maurier The Yellow Wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman One Day / David Nicholls Emilie Pine / Notes to Self Station Eleven / Emily St. John Mandel Atonement / Ian McEwan Mandy's Picks Guardians of Time Trilogy by Marianne Curley Cathy's Books by Stewart, Weisman, Brigg The Chaos Code by Justin Richards The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton Krabat by Otfried Preussler The Neverending Story by Michael Ende Dracula by Bram Stoker The Secret History by Donna Tartt The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer Gone Girl by Gilian Flynn Les Jeux Sont Faits by Jean-Paul Sartre Warum Charlie Wallace by Stan Van Elderen Die Traumkarten by Natalie Marrer The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenedies Follow us on Instagram @throughthepagespod

It was been a busy few months but our reading hasn't suffered! We're back with a Shelf-Care episode, sharing some high- and lowlights of the first 6 months of reading! We talk Leigh Bardugo, Emily Henry, Bridgerton and everything in between! How has your first half of the year been? Make sure to follow us on Instagram @throughthepagespod to vote on our next classic - spoiler: it's a very Swiss selection

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!