Beyond the PhIrst Page

For Club Meeting 75 the Second Pagers read The Correspondent, Virginia Evans’ debut novel. This book is about a retired clerk who interacts mostly through her correspondences. The siblings discuss along with guest and retired CFO of W. W. Norton & Company Publishing how surprised they were by this book. It took a second to get into but the character and clever way this author told her story ha...

This is Chapter 6! Debut Novels and we are reading 4 great books: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans Upward Bound by Woody Brown The Poet Empress by Shen Tao The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Listen along to see which books might be up your alley! All are worth the read in our opinion!

The Siblings discuss this highly entertaining novel with Reyna a sex worker and creative writing student who was able to lend a really interesting perspective to this book club discussion. They discussed how the parallel between pro wrestling and OnlyFans was so cleverly written and how Margo was such a well written character. Reyna was able to offer insight into the "believability" whic...

This week on Beyond the PhIrst Page Podcast the siblings along with Michael Charles, a citizen of the Navajo nation, discuss The Round House by Louise Erdrich. This national book award winner follows Joe Coutte's a Native American boy growing up on the Ojibwe Reservation in North Dakota. This coming of age novel has many dark themes while keeping the reader laughing throughout. Listen to the e...

This starts off the Beyond the PhIrst Page podcast's chapter on Coming of Age Novels. They discuss East of Eden by John Steinbeck with Archivist Peter Van Coutren from the John Steinbeck Institute in San Jose. Peter is able to give a unique perspective on why Steinbeck wrote certain characters the way he did as well as shed some light on who Steinbecks intended audience was. Listen to the end...

If you are looking for three amazing books to read this fall listen to this episode of Beyond the PhIrst Page Podcast! We are reading coming of age novels and really bringing three outside the box reads for that genre. This episode doesn’t have any spoilers so listen along as you figure out which of these books you want to go beyond the phIrst page on!

Go Beyond the PhIrst Page with the Cornell siblings as they discuss Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. This book wraps up the third and final book in their Chapter on Fantasy Academy Tropes. This book is a must read for fantasy lovers and the siblings debate if the second and third book hold a candle to the first. This book has all the tropes you would want in a fantasy book including one of the most bad...

This club meeting the siblings discuss Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater with Nicole, who loves to read but by her own omission does not gravitate towards the  fantasy genre. This was the book in the chapter that the siblings thought readers who didn’t love fantasy would like. It errs more on the side of super natural and magical realism themes. The club members also talk about the young adult genre...

In one of our favorite episodes ever recorded we talk to the author of one of our favorite series. Chapter 67 of the Beyond the PhIrst Page podcast finds the siblings discussing Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne by Brian Staveley with Brian Staveley. They talk about his biggest regrets and favorite characters as well as how he uses the psychic view to play with how he tells a story. As always they cl...

We are talking fantasy academy tropes for Chapter 4 of the Beyond the PhIrst Page Podcast! The books we will be discussing are The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, The Emperor's Blades by Brian Stavely, and Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. Listen to this episode to see which of these three books you should read this summer!! Spoiler... it might be all three

In Club Meeting 65 the siblings talk to Dr. Shirley Samuels who is the Picket Family Chair of the Literatures in English Department at Cornell University. She discussed the following three texts from “American Women’s Suffrage: Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote 1776–1965”: Letters from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March - 5 April 1776 Ernestine L Rose's Speech at the National Woman...

This club meeting the siblings discuss the following three texts from Black Writers of the Founding Era: 1. A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture 2. 1799 Petition of Absalom Jones, and Others, People of Color, and Freemen Against the Slave Trade to the Coast of Guinea 3. Belinda Sutton’s 1783 Petition Professor Marquita Reed-Wright joins them in the conversation to lend her professiona...

To kick off Chapter 3 the Beyond the PhIrst Page read a staple in American Revolution Literature, “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine. They discuss what each of them thought was the most compelling argument that Paine made for America to separate from Great Britain and how the text can be applied to America today. This chapter was inspired by House of Speakeasy’s “We The People Tour” where our friend D...

Chapter 3 of the Beyond the PhIrst Page Podcast is celebrating the 250th Anniversary of America by reading texts about the American Revolution in collaboration with the "We The People x Library of America Bookmobile Tour." The siblings decided to read "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine, selections from "Black Writers of the Founding Era" and selections from "American...

In this episode of Beyond the PhIrst Page Podcast the siblings get to talk with Don who studied philosophy at Princeton and focused specifically on the presocratic philosophers. There is no place this discussion doesn't go from Hollywood all the way to feminism isim in ancient greek texts. As always they end the episode with their recommendations if you liked Stephen Fry's retelling of the Odyssey...

This episode the siblings are discussing a classic in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. They discuss how the trailers to this new release give very different vibes than this novel does. This is less a love story and more of a revenge story. Phil also shares a few historical tidbits that really shed light on this story. As always, they end with book recommendations and their ratings of this boo...

Beyond the PhIrst Page discusses Hamnet which is Maggie O’Farrell’s take on why Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. This book is unique because it is told from the perspective of Shakespeare’s wife Agnes or Anne Hathaway. The siblings discuss with Max who majored in Preforming Media Art at Cornell University about the subtle nods to Hamlet that this book had as well as the accessibility of this novel on the...

Chapter 2 is centered around recent books to movie adaptations.

The siblings saved the best for last! They close out Chapter One of 2026 with In the Woods by Tana French. The last installation in their detective novel chapter. They talk about how good this book is all around, plot, characters, and writing. This is a book for everyone but especially people who love a phycological murder mystery that will leave you wanting another book with these same characters...

Club Meeting 56 finds the siblings discussing book two in their Detective Novel Chapter: The Late Show by Michael Connelly. The siblings dub this book and series a classic for readers looking for a true cop book. They discuss the way that Connelly ties together his universe as well as somehow drawing a comparison between Renee Ballard, the main character, and a gynecologist?? Listen till the end t...

This weeks episode kicks of the first book in Chapter One, our chapter on detective novels! We are starting off with a book by Anthony Horowitz called The Word is Murder. The unique aspect of this book is that Horowitz himself is a character in the book. The siblings discuss this nontraditional take on a detective novel, the parallels between this book and Sherlock Holmes and if red herrings are a...

Happy 2026! This year the Beyond the PhIrst Page Podcast is breaking up their segments into Chapters. Each Chapter will have a theme giving the second pagers a couple of really good options to read within a specific theme of book. To start of the siblings read 3 different detective novels and are going to discuss them for chapter one. Listen to this episode first to see which of the 3 you would be...

On the final episode of Season Two of Beyond the PhIrst Page Podcast, the siblings discuss The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. This book is a great New Years book since it is all about following your dreams and achieving your goals. The siblings discuss the religious aspects of this book as well as the overwhelming amount of life lessons packed into the pages of this short novel. As always at the end t...

This club meeting the siblings discuss Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These. A short story set in a small Irish town. They discuss how they saw the actions of the main character differently from each other. They also talk about how much they enjoyed Keegan's writing and were happy to read a second book by her for the podcast. As always they closed with their ratings and suggestions if y...

This week on the PhIrst Page Podcast the siblings talk with the one and only Evan Cornell or as they like to call him "Dad." Evan talks with them about one of his favorite children's books "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate Dicamillo. They discuss how great the characters are, how well executed the writing is and how deep and poignant the message is. This epi...