First Pages Readings Podcast: Recent Episodes
FirstPages
Celebrating books as cultural messengers and agents of change as they open our hearts and minds to new worlds. Listen to brief commentary and readings (from fiction, non-fiction, YA, middle grade, and poetry). New episodes released once a month.
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Winter Stories by Ingvild Rishoi, translated from the Norwegian by Diane Oatley
- Sunstroke and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
- The Trouble with Happiness and Other Stories by Tove Ditlevsen, translated from the Danish by Michael Favala Goldman
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Cape of Storms by Nina Berberova, translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz
- The Milkman in the Night by Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov, translated from the Russian by Amanda Love Darragh, and
- Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert MacFarlane (2019)
- Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin (2007)
- Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath our Feet by Will Hunt (2018)
A few pages of the following books will be read:
- The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated from the Persian by an anonymous translator
- Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes
- The Land at the End of the World by Antonio Lobo Antunes, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
In this episode a few pages of the following books will be read:
- The Anthropologists by Aysegul Savas (2024)
- An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine (2013)
- The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (1977), translated from the Portuguese by Benjamin Moser (2011)
In this episode a few pages of the following books will be read:
- American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh (2021)
- Wednesday's Child: Stories by Yiyun Li (2023)
- Other Minds and Other Stories by Bennett Sims (2023)
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Bluebeard's First Wife: Stories by Ha Seong-Nan, translated from the Korean by Janet Hong
- Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories by U.S. author Hilma Wolitzer
- The Uncollected Stories of Canadian author Mavis Gallant
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Yonder: Essays by Siri Hustvedt
- The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
- Horizon by Barry Lopez
- The Feast of the Goat by Peruvian-born Mario Vargas Llosa, translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman
- Territory of Light by Japanese author Yuko Tsushima, translated from the Japanese by Geraldine Harcourt
- Amnesty by India-born Aravind Adiga
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World: Essays by Barry Lopez
- Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of My Ancestors by Louise Erdrich
- The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet
In this episode a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews
- A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin
- The Passport and Other Selected Short Stories by Antonis Samarakis, translated from the Greek by Andrew Horton
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Heaven and Hell by Jon Kalman Stefansson, translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton
- Miss Iceland by Audur Ava Olafsdottir, translated from the Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon
- Hotel Silence by Audur Ava Olafsdottir, translated from the Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- The Woman Who Borrowed Memories: Selected Stories by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal and Silvester Mazzarella
- Public Library and Other Stories by Ali Smith
- Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan
- Fruit from the Sands: The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat by Robert N. Spengler III
- Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery Along the Silk Road by Bernard Ollivier, translated from the French by Dan Golembeski
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- The End of the World is a Cul de Sac: Stories by Louise Kennedy
- Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
- Ghostroots: Stories by Pemi Aguda
In this episode a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Alligator & other stories by Dima Alzayat (pub. 2020)
- Canoes by Maylis de Kerangal, translated from the French by Jessica Moore (pub. 2021; English translation pub. 2024)
- The Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector and Selected Stories by Nikolay Gogol, translated by Ronald Wilks (translations pub: 1972; revised for Penguin Classics 2005)
In the episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir by E.J. Koh
- Two Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts by Jessica J. Lee
- The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, translated from the French by Jessica Moore
- What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
- Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata, translated from the Japanese by Edward G. Seidensticker
- My Friends by Hisham Matar
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea, A Memoir by Hannah Stowe
- Riverwalking: Reflections on Moving Water by Kathleen Dean Moore
- Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey through Britian by Roger Deakin
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu
- Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanislaw Lem
- A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman: Complete Short Stories by Margaret Drabble
- Ladies' Lunch and other stories by Lore Segal
In this episode, a few pages from the following books will be read:
- How To Pronounce Knife: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa
- Where The Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton
- The Love Object: Selected Stories by Edna O'Brien
In this episode, a few pages from the following books will be read:
- Dragon Palace by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Ted Goossen
- Aetherial Worlds: Stories by Tatyana Tolstaya, translated by Anya Migdal
- White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Elsewhere, Home, by Leila Aboulela
- The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories, by Yukiko Motoya, translated by Asa Yoneda
- The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories, by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell
In this episode. a few pages of the following memoirs will be read:
- The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster
- Country Girl by Edna O'Brien
- Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life by J.M. Coetzee
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk
- When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Sola, translated by Mara Faye Lethem
- Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi
In this episode, a few pages of the following books will be read:
- A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings: A Year of Keeping Bees by Helen Jukes
- Earth's Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World by Kathleen Dean Moore
- Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez
In today's episode, three poems will be read from:
- Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry, edited by Joy Harjo
- This Is The Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets, edited by Kwame Alexander
- The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry, edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris
In this episode, the first few pages of three YA books will be read:
- Wild Dreamers by Margarita Engle
- Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater
- Down And Across by Arvin Ahmadi
In this episode, the first pages of three novels will be read.
- The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
- Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky
- Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza, translated by Thomas Bunstead
- The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert, A Memoir by Shugri Said Salh
- The Pianist From Syria: A Memoir by Aeham Ahmad, as told to Sandra Hetzl and Ariel Hauptmeier, translated by Emanuel Bergmann
- A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire by Emma Southon
In this episode the first pages of three poetry books will be read:
- True Life by Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare Cavanagh
- Things You May Find Hidden in my Ear by Mosab Abu Toha
- Taking the Arrow out of the Heart by Alice Walker
In this episode, the first pages of three Middle Grade STEM books will be read:
- Clues to the Universe by Christina Li
- A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Joy McCullough
- Girls Who Code: The Friendship Code by Stacia Deutsch
In this episode, the first pages of three non-fiction books will be read:
- Speak, Okinawa by Elizabeth Miki Brina
- The Lightless Sky by Gulwali Passarlay with Nadene Ghouri
- Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh
In this episode, the first page of three memoirs will be read:
- The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria by Alia Malek
- Not I: Memoirs of a German Childhood by Joachim Fest, translated by Martin Chalmers
- Funny In Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas
In this episode, the first page of three short story books will be read:
- Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell
- Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta
- The City of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, translated by Lucia Graves and Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The first page of three books of short stories will be read:
- Between My Father and the King, New and Uncollected Stories by Janet Frame
- The Consequences by Manuel Munoz
- The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
In this episode, the first page of three novels will be read:
- At Dusk by Hwang Sok-Yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell
- A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
- My Heart by Semezdin Mehmedinovic, translated by Celia Hawkesworth
In this episode, the first page of three middle grade books will be read:
- Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan
- Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao
- Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee
In this episode, the first page of three books of poetry will be read:
- When The Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through edited by Joy Harjo with Leanne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster, and Contributing Editors
- Nepantla: An Anthology, Queer Poets of Color edited by Christopher Soto
- 100 Poems to Break Your Heart edited by Edward Hirsch
In this episode, the first page of three young adult novels will be read:
- Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao
- As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
- Echoes of Grace by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
In this episode, the first page of three novels will be read:
- When The Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson
- The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
- Outline by Rachel Cusk
In this episode, the first page of three non-fiction books will be read:
- Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth by John Szwed
- Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
- Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's by Tiffany Midge
In this episode, the first page of three books will be read:
- Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time by Natalie Hodges
- Ninth Street Women, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel
- POPS: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout
In this episode, the first page of three books of essays will be read:
- A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home edited by Nicole Chung and Mensah Demary
- In Sensorium: Notes for my People by Tanais
- The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
In this episode, the first page of three books of fiction will be read:
- Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera
- The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
- Skinship by Yoon Choi
In this episode, the first page of three YA novels will be read:
- Darius The Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
- The Epic Story of Every Living Thing by Deb Caletti
- Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia
In this episode, the first page of three poetry books will be read:
- All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran
- On Entering the Sea by Nizar Qabbani
- Honeybee by Naomi Shihab Nye
In this episode, the first page of three middle grade books will be read:
- Thirst by Varsha Bajaj
- The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
- Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono
In this episode, the first page of three non-fiction books will be read:
- The History of the Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer
- Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes
- Cleopatra: The Queen Who Challenged Rome and Conquered Eternity by Alberto Angela
In this episode, the first page of three novels will be read:
- Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko
- The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Le Thi Diem Thuy
- The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
In this episode, the first page of three books of poetry will be read:
- The Undressing by Li-Young Lee
- Enchanted Air, Two Cultures, Two Wings by Margarita Engle
- The Darkness Around Us Is Deep by William Stafford
In this episode, the first page of three YA books will be read:
1.Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian
2. The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga
3. Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
In this episode, the first page of three novels will be read:
- Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak
- The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
- The Besieged City by Clarice Lispector
In this episode, the first page of three books of essays will be read:
- Mothers, Fathers, and Others, Essays by Siri Hustvedt
- Feel Free by Zadie Smith
- The Good Immigrant, 26 Writers Reflect on America edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman
In this episode, the first page of three middle grade books will be read:
- The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim
- Barakah Beats by Maleeha Siddiqui
- CeCe Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera
In this episode, the first page of three books of poetry will be read:
- fuel by naomi shihab nye
- Be With by Forrest Gander
- Riding The Earthboy 40 by James Welch
In this episode, the first page of three YA books will be read:
- We Are Witnesses by Jacob Boas
- A Different Mirror For Young People: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki
- The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport
In this episode, the first page of three books will be read:
- Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat
- Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford
- Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
In this episode, I will read the first page of three non-fiction books:
- Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
- world wild vet by Dr. Evan Antin
- Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman
In this episode, the first page of three books of poetry will be read:
- The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
- The Poems of Octavio Paz by Octavio Paz
- Secrets from the Center of the World by Joy Harjo and Stephen Strom
In this episode, the first page of three novels will be read:
- Stories From Suffragette City edited by M.J. Rose and Fiona Davis
- Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
- Hades, Argentina by Daniel Loedel
In this episode, the first page of three young adult books will be read:
- Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed,
- the Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan, and
- Dominicana by Angie Cruz
In this episode, the first page of three non-fiction books will be read:
- Eat The Buddha by Barbara Demick
- The Smallest Lights in the Universe by Sara Seager
- Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
In this episode, the first page of three novels will be read:
- The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen,
- A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama, and
- The Indian Lawyer by James Welch
In this episode, the first page of three books of poetry will be read:
- WHEREAS by Layli Long Soldier,
- drawing the line by Lawson Fusao Inada, and
- Talking Dirty to the Gods by Yusef Komunyakaa
In this episode, the first page of three middle grade books will be read:
- Rebels of the Kasbah by Joe O'Neill,
- The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, and
- Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn
In this episode, the first page of three YA novels will be read:
- Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins,
- Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip, and
- Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch
In this episode, the first page of three non-fiction books will be read:
- The Year 1000 by Valerie Hansen,
- Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, and
- A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
In this episode, the first page of three books of fiction will be read:
- The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer,
- Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones, and
- Dear Life by Alice Munro
In this episode, the first page of three books of poetry will be read:
- Collected Poems by Robert Hayden,
- West Wind by Mary Oliver, and
- Burning My Birth Certificate by Pamela Sutton
In this episode, the first page of three middle grade books will be read:
- The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman,
- Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed, and
- Blended by Sharon M. Draper
In this episode, the first page of three YA novels will be read:
- Mirage by Somaiya Daud,
- Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven, and
- Wild Bird by Wendelin Van Draanen
In this episode, the first page of three non-fiction books will be read:
- The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway,
- A Devil's Chaplain by Richard Dawkins, and
- Our Towns by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows
In this episode, the first page of three books of fiction will be read:
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford,
- Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, and
- The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
In this episode, the first page of three books of poetry will be read:
- Poems New and Collected by Wistawa Szymborska,
- Hinge and Sign by Heather McHugh, and
- Reign of Snakes by Robert Wrigley
In this episode, the first page of three Middle Grade books will be read:
- Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai,
- The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz, and
- Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
In this episode, the first page of three YA books will be read:
- Dear Martin by Nic Stone,
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, and
- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
In this episode, the first page of three non-fiction books will be read:
- Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez,
- Erosion by Terry Tempest Williams, and
- Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
In this episode, the first page of three books of fiction will be read:
- Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich,
- Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie, and
- Restless by William Boyd
In this episode, the first page of three poetry books will be read:
- The Carrying by Ada Limon,
- The Woman Who Married a Bear by Tiffany Midge, and
- 100 Selected Poems by e.e. cummings
In this episode, the first page of three Middle Grade books will be read:
- Coo by Kaela Noel,
- The Eye of Zeus by Alane Adams, and
- Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
In this episode, the first page of three YA novels will be read:
- We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez,
- The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas, and
- Sammy and Juliana In Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz
In this episode, the first page of three non-fiction books will be read:
- Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
- We Are Still Here by Peter Iverson and Wade Davies, and
- The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E. Baptist
In this episode, the first page of three books of fiction will be read:
- House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
- The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter by Kia Corthron, and
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
In this episode, the first page of three books of poetry will be read:
- Multitudes by Afaa Michael Weaver
- Dark Fields of the Republic by Adrienne Rich, and
- Lifelines by Philip Booth
In this episode, the first page of three Middle Grade books will be read:
- Milky Way Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa
- Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, and
- A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat
In this episode, the first page of three YA novels will be read:
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Mass, and
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
In this episode, the first page of three books of fiction will be read:
- To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
- The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, and
- Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
In this episode, the first page of three non-fiction books will be read:
- Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
- Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, and
- Black Wave by Kim Ghattas
In this episode, the first page of three Middle Grade books will be read:
- The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert
- How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle, and
- Refugee by Alan Gratz
In this episode, the first page of three non-fiction books will be read:
- Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe
- all about love by bell hooks, and
- A Sideways Look at Time by Jay Griffiths
In this episode, the first page of three books of poetry will be read:
- How We Became Human by Joy Harjo
- Love's Ripening by Rumi, and
- Spring Essence by Ho Xuan Huong
In this episode, the first page of three YA novels will be read:
- We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
- Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, and
- An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
In this episode, the first page of three novels will be read:
- Fools Crow by James Welch
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and
- The Stationary Shop by Marjan Kamali