About Us
Three siblings. Three different perspectives. We read hundreds of books every year so you don’t have to. Every title we discuss has earned its place through honest debate, careful selection, and a shared belief that your reading time is too valuable to waste.
Beyond the PhIrst Page was started by Phebe and Phil with the goal of staying in touch more, and building their relationship as siblings through a shared love of reading. After Isaac listened to the first episode and realized he had been left out of the “sibling podcast”, he was quickly brought aboard. The three siblings have continued to grow closer in their relationships with each other, improved the frequency of their communication and quality of their communication, and have loved the challenge of working together to create something worth listening to, and that brings value to others. The goal of this podcast is first and foremost to build on their relationship as siblings. Where this benefits everyone else, is that all three of them have always loved to read. They collectively read hundreds of books a year, and because of that volume of reading, can be very selective about books that make it onto the Beyond the PhIrst Page Podcast, and about the books they recommend on the podcast. If a book is being read for the book club, it has been vetted by all three siblings, and been deemed a book worth reading, and letting others know to read it too. There is a ton of media out there recommending books, but no one is doing the serious vetting work that the siblings are for this podcast.
Three readers. Three unique perspectives. One shared goal—helping you discover books worth your time.
Phebe is the middle of the three siblings. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in hospitality management and commissioned out of ROTC as an Air Force Personnel Officer. She has lived in Seattle, LA and Washington DC for the Air Force, and got her masters degree in Technology Management from UC Santa Barbra while stationed in LA. She gravitates toward fantasy books, especially romantic fantasy. A murder mystery is a close second to a fantasy book, and if she wants to become more emotionally involved in a book, she’ll pick up an award winning novel. Phebe currently lives in DC with her husband Jayden and their baby, Dot.
Phil is the youngest of the three siblings. He is always reading at least two books at a time. His favorite genre is fantasy, and a close second is thrillers, but he will give any book a chance if it has a good plot. Plot is the most important part of a book for Phil. He likes books that are adventurous without being confusing, and loves when a story has a fantastic twist. He loves the medieval setting for a story, and is very into dragons. Phil currently lives in Nashville with his wife, Marion, where he attends Vanderbilt as an Economics PhD candidate and the couple run a rapidly growing vegan jerky business, Snapper Creek Jerky.
Isaac is the oldest Cornell sibling. His favorite genres are fantasy and mystery novels. He is probably the sibling that enjoys general nonfiction the most, liking anything from business books to history. The best books to Isaac have characters that he can see himself as, either as someone he can relate to, or someone he would aspire to be. Being able to put himself into a story, fictional or not, takes a book to the next level. Isaac is a pilot in the Air Force. He lives with his wife, Emily, and son, Evan, in Oklahoma City, where they have fully embraced the OKC Thunder basketball team and are attempting to get Evan to every Oklahoma state park.
One book recommendation per week from our combined 400-a-year reading stack. No filler. Just the title, our take, and where it lands on the ranking. Join the readers who get first access.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. We respect your reading time.
