Book Club with Julia and Victoria: Recent Episodes
Julia Clausen and Victoria Bruick
Hi, we’re Julia and Victoria. Join the Book Club each episode as we choose a text off our shelves to discuss, dissect, and maybe - after another glass of wine - dissolve into a TED talk on the history of the English language. Welcome to the party.
Julia and Victoria discuss the last vampire book of The Vampire & the Octopus series and then get very excited about two questions: Are there any ethical choices under vampirism? And, if so, are ethical vampires even interesting?
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
“I won’t always ask”: Complicating Agency in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling” by Florian Bast
Devil Girl From Mars (film)
Patternmaster by Octavia Butler
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
Grady Hendrix’s vampire podcast Super Scary Haunted Homeschool
Dear Hank and John (podcast)
Recommendations:
The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Invincible comic book series
Currently Obsessed:
Interview with the Vampire (tv series)
We Are Lady Parts (tv series)
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
Scamanda (podcast)
Big Ideas by Remi Wolf (album)
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
Semiotics
The Tusks of Extinction novella by Ray Naylor
Arrival (film)
The Octopus: A Story of California by Frank Norris
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin
Recommendations:
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Biosemiotics: An Examination Into the Signs of Life and the Life of Signs by Jesper Hoffmeier
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang
Currently Obsessed:
Interview with the Vampire season 2
Walkin About podcast
Lawrence album Family Business
Still Woozy album Loveseat
Julia makes her case of why the creature in Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is NOT really a vampire, and Victoria makes a counterargument that it is actually the MOST vampire. They are both generally infuriated with everyone in this novel except Mrs. Green. Content Warning: mentions of sexual violence.
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators. Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Become a Member! Shop with us onBookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria onThe StoryGraph.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Grady Hendrix’s website
“Charleston native Grady Hendrix and best-selling horror author wants to terrify you, and you’ll never be more happily horrified” by Stephanie Hunt, Charleston Magazine
Dirt Candy (book)
Dirt Candy (restaurant)
Amanda Cohen, Iron Chef Canada
Grady Hendrix’s “The Great Stephen King Reread” series
Grady Hendrix’s vampire podcast: Super Scary Haunted Homeschool
The Strain (tv show)
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, edited by Carmen Maria Machado
Recommendations
Unbelievable (tv show)
Spotlight (film)
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
Yellowjackets (tv show)
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Currently Obsessed
Interview With the Vampire season 2 (tv show)
Hacks season 3 (tv show)
Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding season 2 (podcast)
The Dragon Republic (Poppy Wars Trilogy Book 2) by R. F. Kuang
Through the Ages board game mobile app
Julia and Victoria read a pandemic book called The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller where the octopus is not the focus of the story, but is at the heart of the book’s major themes of captivity and embodiment. Victoria makes the ill-advised choice to revisit some of her early-pandemic journals.
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators. Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Staying in With Emily and Kumail
Recommendations:
Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jaqueline Hartman
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Stroud
My Octopus Teacher on Netflix
Currently Obsessed:
Radical Optimism by Dua Lipa (album)
Jacob Collier’s existence
Hit Me Hard and Soft by Billie Eilish (album)
Interview With the Vampire season 2
Julia and Victoria get very hungry talking about the trope-flipping, contemporary vampire novel Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda.
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators. Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Become a Member! Shop with us onBookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph.
Mentioned in this episode:
Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe
Tár (film)
Claire Kohda: "I wouldn’t change being mixed-race for anything" by Isabella Silvers (Mixed Messages)
A Vampire Hungry for Blood and Intimacy by JR Ramakrishnan (Electric Lit)
Recommendations:
Carmilla by Joseph Le Fanu, edited by Carmen Maria Machado
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen maria Machado
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
“Close Cover Before Striking” by Silvia Moreno Garcia in F(r)iction No. 21 The Unseen Issue
Sea Change by Gina Chung
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ugly Delicious on Netflix
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV show)
Currently Obsessed:
Shōgun on Hulu
Heartbreak High season 2 on Netflix
Monkey Man (film)
You Had Me At Hello by ZBI (album)
Boys Love/Ampliverse reaction to ZB1’s “Sweat” MV
The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
The StoryGraph’s buddy read feature
Julia and Victoria discuss Sea Change by Gina Chung and how authors use the octopus to contemplate loneliness and change. They discover that life really is about the friends we made along the way in this first book of The Vampire & the Octopus series.
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators. Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph.
Check out Julia’s bonus discussions of How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler and World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil on our Buy Me a Coffee!
Mentioned in this episode:
“The Love Song of the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat” by Gina Chung in F(r)iction
Green Frog: Stories by Gina Chung
"Losing My Octopus Best Friend is the Final Straw" interview with Gina Chung in Electric Literature
Recommendations:
Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
Before the Ruins by Victoria Gosling
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Currently Obsessed
Djesse Vol. 4 by Jacob Collier (album)
Jacob Collier Unites the World - Switched on Pop
Beyoncé's Country - Switched on Pop
Found Heaven by Conan Gray
“Good Luck Babe” by Chappell Roan
Victoria teaches Julia all about the origins, tropes, and metaphors of vampire lore that create the undead monster we read about today. They discuss the origins of vampire stories in Slavic folklore, the Great Vampire Epidemic of the 18th century, the blood-sucking breakup novel Lord Byron’s “travel companion” wrote about him, and lament the loss of a key source for Victoria’s vampire-as-justice analysis that disappeared when she accidentally closed all her tabs.
(And don’t forget to check out the bonus content where Victoria shares all the thoughts on Twilight that didn’t make it into the episode!)
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Dracula by Bram Stoker
What We Do In the Shadows (tv show)
What We Do In the Shadows (film)
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Interview With the Vampire (tv show)
Slayers and Their Vampires by Bruce McClelland
“Mothers, Daughters, and Vampires: The Female Sexual Dilemma in Eighteenth-Century Vampire Poetry” by Ashley M. Quinn
“Der Vampir” by Heinrich August Ossenfelder
“The Bride of Corinth” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Vampyre by John Polidori
"Two Species of Irish Vampire" (1831)
Olivia Rodrigo’s song “Vampire”
118 Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu — The One with the Lesbian Vampire
011 Dracula by Bram Stoker (archive)
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame Smith
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Julia takes Victoria on a deep dive of octopus stories throughout time and space in this first episode of The Vampire & the Octopus series. We tackle questions like “Are octopus stories a form of colonizer horror?” and “What’s with all the octopus books coming out recently?” and “Why did the 19th century French think the octopus was the physical embodiment of hell?”
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this Episode:
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Finding Nemo (film)
Finding Dory (film)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (film)
Oceanic Mythology by Roland B Dixon
“The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” and “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife” art by Hokusai
Devilfish Bay
“Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” painting by Caspar David Friedrich
“The Kraken” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
“The Octopus or The Devilfish of Fiction and Fact” by Henry Lee
The Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
The Sea Raiders by H. G. Wells
The Call of Cthulu by H. P. Lovecraft
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
It Came From Beneath the Sea (film)
Kraken by China Mieville
The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (TV series)
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith
My Octopus Teacher (film)
The Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Remarkably Bright Creaturesby Shelby Van Pelt
Julia discusses disability, comedy, creativity, and treating people like people with Steven Verdile, the founder of the disability satire publication The Squeaky Wheel.
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Read and follow the Squeaky Wheel:
Website: https://thesqueakywheel.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesqkywheel/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesqkywheel
Merch: https://thesqueakywheel.org/shop/
Mentioned in this Episode:
Ramy (TV series)
Speechless (TV series)
Give Me Liberty (film)
The Squeaky Wheel: Canada (in production)
Special (TV series)
Recommendations:
Reductress
ClickHole
The Onion
Broadway Beat
The Hard Times
Steve Way
Tina Friml
Shane Burcaw
Ryan Haddad
Crip Camp (film)
Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong
Currently Obsessed:
How To With John Wilson (TV series)
The Curse (TV series)
504: The Musical
Julia and Victoria learn what the word “flannel” means in British English and formulate their own theories about what happened to a stranded deep-sea researcher in the devastatingly beautiful novel Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield.
Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Resources for Supporting Palestine::
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions
Resource for calling representatives
Anera
Mentioned in this episode:
Apollo 13 (film)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (film)
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Our Flag Means Death (TV show)
112 Babel by R. F. Kuang — “Boots on the Ground” Storytelling
Graham Norton Book Club episode with Julia Armfield
Regarding the Pain of Othersby Susan Sontag
122 How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu — Throw the Baby
Recommendations:
Arrival (film)
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
This is How You Lose the Time War by El-Mohtar and Gladstone
Piranesi by Susanna Clark
F(r)iction Issue #20 - Bodies
Currently Obsessed:
The Bear Season 2
Home by Billy Strings (album)
Julia and Victoria conclude that How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu is a very good book–Julia is just sad.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
AWP Conference
Victoria’s StoryGraph: @victoriafrombookclub
Psychopomp magazine
Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu
“How a fictional plague helped Sequoia Nagamatsu overcome grief” by Michael Berry
Character map star chart by @bookographic
Recommendations:
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Lucy By The Sea by Elizabeth Strout
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Currently Obsessed:
Quiz Lady on Hulu
Samba Schutte’s Our Flag Means Death Behind the Scenes series
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Julia and Victoria grapple with the grotesque narrative choices in Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan, translated by Chi-young Kim. Julia incorrectly uses the word “epigraph” when she means “epitaph” approximately 25 times.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more
Mentioned in this episode:
Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan
Bonus: Weird Short Fiction with Evan James Sheldon
Minari (film)
Pachinko (TV series)
Modern Family by Cheon Myeong-kwan
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
International Booker Prize – Whale
Namjoon’s Bookshelf Twitter thread on Whale
Aschenputtel - Grimm Fairy Tale version of Cinderella
Bakhtin on The Grotesque
Recommendations:
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Children and Their Cages by Evan James Sheldon
Books that inspired Cheon Myeong-kwan's Whale
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Currently Obsessed:
Handsome (podcast)
Guilty EP by Taemin
Marry My Dead Body (TV series)
Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia by David Graeber
Madewell curvy jeans
Julia and Victoria try to decipher the rules of Eight Billion Genies, the newest comic book series from Charles Soule and Ryan Browne, because Julia likes rules. They also learn about how one random French guy playing fast and loose with a One Thousand and One Nights translation made up most of what the “Western” world “knows” about “genies.” Tale as old as time.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
The very important Arthur Library Card Dance
Curse Words by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne
Undiscovered Country by Scott Snyder, Charles Soule, and others
God Hates Astronauts by Ryan Browne
'Eight Billion Genies' Graphic Novel Sparks Hollywood Bidding War, Amazon Deal For Chicago Artist by Web Behrens (Block Club Chicago)
Paper Girls (Prime Video)
Orientalism by Edward Said
Recommendations:
Saga by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples
Paper Girls by Brian K Vaughn and Cliff Chiang
Invincible by Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker
Invincible (Prime Video)
My Brilliant Friend: The Graphic Novel by Chiara Lagani, Mara Cerri, Elena Ferrante, Ann Goldstein
Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe
Into the Woods
“Disasterology” episode of Ologies podcast
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Hartman
The Question of Palestine by Edward Said
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
Currently Obsessed:
Our Flag Means Death (season 2)
Normal Gossip podcast
Nora From Queens (final season)
Natalia LaFourcade’s album De Todos Los Flores
IN the Mood album by Whee In
Something to Give Each Other album by Troye Sivan
Javelin album by Sufjan Stevens
Freefall album by TXT
the rest EP by boygenius
Julia and Victoria are surprised to find hope and belonging in a new story of humanity with The Dawn of Everything by “the Davids” (Graeber and Wengrow), the anthropological clapback to Sapiens by Harrari.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harrari
Books by David Graeber: Debt, The Democracy Project, Bullshit Jobs
The Origins of Monsters by David Wengrow
“A Flawed History of Humanity” by David A. Bell (Persuasion)
“Digging for Utopia” by Kwame Anthony Appiah (The New York Review of Books)
“‘I’m certainly open to criticism’: David Wengrow and the trouble with rewriting human history” by Andrew Anthony (The Guardian)
“Against Method: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow” by Ian Morris (American Journal of Archaeologists)
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
108 Nobody's Normal by Roy Richard Grinker — How Culture Creates the Stigma of Mental Health
Dark Earth by Rebecca Stott
Bonus: Historical Fiction with Rebecca Stott
116 The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin — ‘70s Sci-Fi in Context
Bliss and Blunder by Victoria Gosling
Recommendations:
Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff
“The Last Human: A Glimpse Into the Far Future” by Kurzgesagt
If Book Could Kill podcast, specifically “The End of History” episode
Currently Obsessed:
Strike Force Five podcast
MUNA’s self-titled album
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Before the Ruins by Victoria Gosling
It’s a Wonderful World board game
Julia is truly bamboozled, Victoria embraces that she is a vampire girlie, and they both dig into the context of Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s Carmilla, edited with commentary by the absolute legend Carmen Maria Machado.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Carmilla (1872) episode of Queer As Fact
The Museum of Jurassic Technology
“A Perfectly Normal Interview with Carmen Maria Machado Where Everything Is Fine” by Theodore McCombs (Electric Literature)
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia
080 Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries web series
Carmilla web series
European Travels for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss
Carmilla the First Vampire by Amy Chu and Soo Lee
Recommendations:
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Tár (film)
F(r)iction – The Monsters Issue
Interview with the Vampire series on AMC
Gentleman Jack series on HBO
Currently Obsessed
My Invented Country by Isabel Allende
Yellowjackets on Showtime
Normal Gossip (podcast)
Past Lives (film)
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
A Suga bias (Julia), a Jungkook bias (special guest RJ), a V bias (special guest Adam), and a person who knows almost nothing about K-pop (Victoria) have a spirited conversation about the style and silences of Beyond the Story: A 10-Year Record of BTS by Kang Myeong-seok and translated by Anton Hur, Clare Richards, and Slin Jung. There are… emotions.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Hang out with Adam and RJ over at The Ampliverse including their Boys Love Boys Love podcast!
Follow The Ampliverse on TikTok and Instagram.
Find RJ @boysloveblove and Adam @AdamNoecker on Twitter.
Mentioned in this episode:
Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS by BTS & Kang Myeong-seok trans. by Anton Hur, Clare Richards & Slin Jung
Adam’s essay “Love Yourself,” Says BTS on The Ampliverse
104 Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong — Deciphering Difficult Poetry
“I Want to Die but I Want to Translate Korean Literature: Why Translation Matters Just as Much as Eating Tteokbokki” by Anton Hur (The Margins)
“I am absolutely ARMY, says BTS book translator Anton Hur” by Rush Mukherjee (Mint Lounge)
A Special Conversation of the Translations for BEYOND THE STORY 10-Year Record of BTS with Anton Hur (IG Live with Indigo)
G.C.F in Tokyo (정국&지민)
Jimin’s Suchwita Interview
CHAPTERS The Rise of Bangtan
The White Paper Project
Road to D-Day (SUGA documentary)
Showgays: A Movie Musical Podcast
Recommendations
Cursed Bunny (English trans by Anton Hur) by Bora Chung
Your Song Changed My Life by Bob Boilen
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey
Currently Obsessed:
ZEROBASEONE (제로베이스원) 'In Bloom' MV
[Eng Sub] Vice Versa รักสลับโลก | EP.1 [1/4] | Uncut Version
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Red, White & Royal Blue (film)
Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Trailer
Julia and Victoria get into the weeds of cultivating a creative life while also having to pay bills with Nate Ragolia—writer, podcaster, and publisher at Spaceboy Books. They also decide which zoo animals they would be.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
See what Nate’s up to: nateragolia.com
Debut Buddies – First Skyscraper (1885) with Victoria Bruick
“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver
Jules Verne
Philip K. Dick
Kurt Vonnegut
Pandemic (2016)
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Recommendations:
One Person Can’t Make a Difference by Nate Ragolia
Debut Buddies podcast
Cyberpunk 2077
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Currently Obsessed:
Good Omens season 2
I’m a Virgo season 1
Exploring anarchism, feminism, and the Cold War, Julia and Victoria unpack the context of The Dispossessed by the brilliant and sassy Ursula K. Le Guin. Join for the sci-fi, stay for Barbenheimer, alien Jesus, and a confusion of Ursulas. Also Julia has minor microphone problems. (She sincerely apologizes).
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Hainish Novels and Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin’s 2004 Guardian interview with the great comebacks
Post-Scarcity Anarchism by Murray Bookchin
“The Eye of the Heron: Le Guin’s Introduction to Feminism and Ode to Nonviolence” by Sean Guynes (Tor.com)
Interview with Ursula K. Le Guin 1994 by Jonathan White
Ursula K. Le Guin - A Left-Handed Commencement Address delivered 22 May 1983, Mills College, Oakland, California
13th directed by Ava DuVernay
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Recommendations:
Books by Octavia E. Butler, including Wild Seed
Books by Margaret Atwood, including The Handmaid’s Tale
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
Babel by R. F. Kuang
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by LeGuin
Currently Obsessed:
Secret Chef on Hulu
The Retrievals podcast
Taskmaster season 14
Evergreen by PVRIS
In the End It Always Does by Japanese House
Nosebleeds by Misterwives
Unreal Unearth by Hozier
Barbie (film)
Oppenheimer (film)
Julia and Victoria wrestle with their frustrations with The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki and try to get to the bottom of important questions like, “What happened?” and “Who is this book for?”
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
045 A Tale for the Time Being archived episode on Buy Me a Coffee
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Fantastic Fungi on Netflix
Poured Over: Ruth Ozeki on The Book of Form and Emptiness B&N podcast
Nobody’s Normal by Roy Richard Grinker
Bonus: Julia Wrote a Thesis – Online Autistic Community and Finding Your Writer Voice
“The Book of Form and Emptiness: by Ruth Ozeki” by Miyako Pleines (Spectrum Culture)
“Ruth Ozeki’s Borgesian, Zen Buddhist Parable of Consumerism” by Judith Shulevitz (The New York TImes)
The Women's Prize 2022 • #125 - The Book Club Review
107 Piranesi by Susanna Clarke — Reality and Representation
Recommendations:
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Mari Kondo
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Currently Obsessed:
Who Shat On the Floor At My Wedding podcast
In Bloom - ZB1
Crazy Rich Asians trilogy by Kevin Kwan
Victoria interviews Julia about her master’s thesis in Anthropology on Autistic social groups, disabled futures, and how to make Autistic friends by exchanging fun facts.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price
Nobody’s Normal by Roy Richard Grinker
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 by Naoki Higashida
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Currently Obsessed:
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse
Julia and Victoria apply a postcolonial perspective to Ayana Lloyd Banwo’s When We Were Birds, a novel about death, magical matriarchs, love, and VIBES.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on The StoryGraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon
Books by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
“In All Its Forms: A Conversation with Ayanna Lloyd Banwo” by Will Forrester (PEN Transmissions)
“Trinbagonian author releases debut novel with UK publishing house” by Tevin Gall (Loop Trinidad & Tobago)
Recommendations:
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Black Skin White Masks by Franz Fanon (translated by Richard Philcox)
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova
Currently Obsessed:
KAYTRAMINÉ album by KAYTRAMINÉ (Aminé and Kaytranada)
Boys Planet (TV show on Viki)
Boys Love Boys Planet The Ampliverse podcast
Dear Hank and John podcast
Galvanina Organic Sparkling Lemon soda
Julia and Victoria talk about the marriage of message and form in the “memoir situation” by one of their favorite human beings: 10 Steps to Nanette by Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby
“Hannah Gadsby Talks ‘Queer Joy’ and Calling Out Netflix” by CT Jones (Rolling Stone)
Hannah Gadsby’s Netflix specials Douglas and Something Special
Broken Horses: A Memoir by Brandi Carlisle
Recommendations:
Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price, Ph.D.
Comedy Sex God by Pete Holmes
The episode of Oh I Like That podcast discussing Tár
Everyone You Hate Is Going to Die by Daniel Sloss
Heartbreak High on Netflix
Please Like Me on Hulu
Everything’s Gonna be Okay on Hulu
Currently Obsessed:
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime - season 5
Julia and Victoria are joined by their new literary friend Caleb Tankersley to discuss Caleb’s debut story collection Sin Eaters. They enjoy a lovely ramble about the process of creativity and the value of writing what makes you happy. Plus: some important Oreo discourse.
Become a Member! Shop with us on Bookshop.org! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Find Caleb Tankersley online:
Website: https://calebtankersley.com/
Split/Lip Press: https://www.splitlippress.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caleb.tankersley/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Caleb_of_1988
Mentioned in this episode:
Sin Eaters by Caleb Tankersley
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Mrs. S by Kay Patrick
“The Eternal Combustion Engine” by Caleb Tankersley (Thirteen Bridges Review)
Phantom Advances by Mary Lynn Reed (Split/Lip Press)
Recommendations:
Charles Yu
Kelly Link
Kevin Wilson
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Midnight Mass (Netflix)
Children & Their Cagesby Evan James Sheldon
Poetry by Caitlyn Alario including “As Any Foolish Woman” and “Sapphics II”
Currently Obsessed:
This Wound Is a WorldandMinor Chorusby Billy Ray Bellcourt
Attack on Titan
Something Specialby Hannah Gadsby (Netflix)
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Recipe Club podcast
Julia and Victoria make their case as to why Babel by R. F. Kuang should be two (or three?) books. Point #1: It is amazing, and the people want more.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
Daisy Jones & the Six - Film Club with Julia & Victoria
Part 1 (Episodes 1-5)
Part 2 (Episodes 6-10)
The Poppy Wars trilogy by R. F. Kuang
This “foot boop” scene from Our Flag Means Death (TV show)
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (and Book Club episode 085 where Julia talks about how many times she bought this book).
Recommendations:
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
The Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin
Currently Obsessed:
Fangirl Central podcast
OO-LI album by Woodz
Bad Dates with Jameela Jamil podcast
Julia and Victoria have an epiphany, answer their lingering questions, and discuss major series themes of time and the legacy of oppression while discussing The Stone Sky, conclusion of the Broken Earth trilogy, by N. K. Jemisin.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Crunchyroll interview with N. K. Jemisin
Amal El-Mohtar’s review of The Stone Sky for NPR
Oprah Daily interview with N. K. Jemisin
Recommendations:
Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin
Babel by R. F. Kuang
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amar El Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Currently Obsessed:
Interview With the Vampire series on AMC
Agust D D-Day album
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Next In Fashion season 2 on Netflix
Hold on to your runny sacks. We are wrapping up our discussion of The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin! We’ll be re-releasing episodes on book one and two over the next two weeks. Stay tuned for our concluding discussion of book three, The Stone Sky, coming your way May 2023.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Link to original show notes.
Grab a copy of The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin and support the show!
Hold on to your runny sacks. We are wrapping up our discussion of The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin! We’ll be re-releasing episodes on book one and two over the next two weeks. Stay tuned for our concluding discussion of book three, The Stone Sky, coming your way May 2023.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Link to original show notes.
Grab a copy of The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin and support the show!
Victoria just got back from AWP where she spent five days geeking out with fellow book nerds. Julia and Victoria talk about networking and finding your people as an adult.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Book Club episode on Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Milkweed Editions
Europa Editions
Book Club episode on the Neapolitan Series by Elena Ferrante
Yale University Press
Book Club episode on How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Book Club episode on Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia
Gen Con Indy
Currently Obsessed:
Hozier EP Eat Your Young
So!YoON! album Episode 1 : Love
Jimin mini album Face
RRRon Netflix
Julia has questions. Victoria does some digging. They both gain context on the voice of author Cho Nam-Joo of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 and the impact the novel had on the life and politics of South Korea in 2016.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
“The Heroine of This Korean Best Seller Is Extremely Ordinary. That’s the Point.” by Alexandra Alter (New York Times)
South Korean Bestseller 'Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982' Gives Public Voice To Private Pain by Elise Hu (NPR)
South Korean author Cho Nam-joo: ‘My book is braver than I am’ by Holly Williams (The Guardian)
South Korea’s incoming “anti-feminist” president (Today Explained)
Recommendations:
Kim Jiyoung: Born 1982 (2019 film)
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
18 Must-Read Korean Novels in English by Will Heath (Books and Bao)
Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Foundations by Abigail Stuart
Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S J Sindu
Currently Obsessed:
Moonlight Chicken (TV show)
The Glory (TV show)
Minecraft Dungeons (video game)
Babel by R. F. Kuang
Julia has questions. Victoria does some digging. They both gain context on the voice of author Cho Nam-Joo of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 and the impact the novel had on the life and politics of South Korea in 2016.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
“The Heroine of This Korean Best Seller Is Extremely Ordinary. That’s the Point.” by Alexandra Alter (New York Times)
South Korean Bestseller 'Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982' Gives Public Voice To Private Pain by Elise Hu (NPR)
South Korean author Cho Nam-joo: ‘My book is braver than I am’ by Holly Williams (The Guardian)
South Korea’s incoming “anti-feminist” president (Today Explained)
Recommendations:
Kim Jiyoung: Born 1982 (2019 film)
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
18 Must-Read Korean Novels in English by Will Heath (Books and Bao)
Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Foundations by Abigail Stuart
Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S J Sindu
Currently Obsessed:
Moonlight Chicken (TV show)
The Glory (TV show)
Minecraft Dungeons (video game)
Babel by R. F. Kuang
Julia and Victoria meet up with their internet friend Sofía Syntaxx (of the ANGR podcast) to talk about how much they loved Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, swap stories, compare languages and knowledge systems, and laugh about all the things American scientists “discovered” which indigenous peoples have known for thousands of years. A good deal of swearing is involved, but like, in a fun way.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Connect with Sofia Syntaxx and see samples of their work at linktr.ee/SofiaSyntaxx.
Mentioned in this episode:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Monique Gray Smith and Robin Wall Kimmerer
Film Club with Julia & Victoria - The Personal History of David Copperfield
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019 film)
Episode 073 The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery with Sofia Syntaxx
‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ has gone from surprise hit to juggernaut bestseller (Washington Post)
The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis & the Fate of Humanity by James Lovelock
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Lady Bird (2017 film)
Ron Finley MasterClass
Recommendations:
The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway by Edward Benton-Banai
Firekeepers Daughter by Angeline Boulley
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Alexis Nikole @blackforager on Instagram
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy
Currently Obsessed:
RRR (2022 film)
The Last of Us (TV Show)
Killer by KEY
Moonlight Chicken (TV Show)
A Reckoning by Kimbra
Julia and Victoria learn about the history of mental health stigma in the United States and have some lightbulb moments with Nobody’s Normal by Roy Richard Grinker.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Nobody’s Normal by Roy Richard Grinker
Norma and Norman statues
Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by Roy Richard Grinker
History of Madness by Foucault
Recommendations:
The Wisdom of Your Body by Hilary McBride
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski
Roadmap to Resilience: Supporting Children Experiencing Stress & Trauma (podcast)
Currently Obsessed:
Hospital Playlist (TV series)
No Cure For Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler
French Indie Mix (Spotify playlist)
Julia and Victoria lose their minds talking about reality and worldviews in Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Susanna Clarke's Fantasy World of Interiors by Laura Miller (The New Yorker)
Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag
Heaven’s Gate (podcast)
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Recommendations:
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Babel by R. F. Kuang
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Cast Away (film)
Currently Obsessed:
Alice in Borderland season 2
Welcome to Chippendales
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy
Julia and Victoria reflect on their winding work histories and the rise of pointless labor with the help of Bullshit Jobs by anthropologist David Graeber. They get very excited about it.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Hidden Brain podcast episode “How Meaningless Work Wears Us Down”
“David Graeber, Caustic Critic of Inequality, Is Dead at 59” - The New York Times
Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer
Recommendations:
Silver Spoon (Baepsae) by BTS lyrics (English translation)
“After the pandemic we can’t go back to sleep” by David Graeber in Jacobin
Laziness Does Not Exist by Dr Devon Price
Unmasking Autism by Dr Devon Price
“The Cult of Nonprofits” on Sounds Like a Cult podcast
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
“Working From Home” episode of Oh I Like That podcast
“Workplace Wellness” episode of Maintenance Phase podcast
Hidden Brain podcast episode “How Meaningless Work Wears Us Down”
Currently Obsessed:
The Crown season 5 on Netflix
The Anthropocene Reviewed podcast with John Green
Lego Masters on Hulu
If Books Could Kill podcast
Julia and Victoria imagine new stories for the future.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Show Notes:
You’ve Got Mail (film)
Harry & Meghan (docu series on Netflix)
Indigo by RM (album)
SOS by SZA (album)
Heaven’s Gate (podcast)
Julia and Victoria talk inevitability and unreliable narrators in The Story of the Lost Child and celebrate finishing Elena Ferrante’s iconic Neapolitan series. They try and fail to solve the unsolvable ending.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante
The Lying Life of Adults on Netflix
The Dave Chang Show (podcast)
10 Things I Hate About You
Recommendations:
Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Gilead by Marilyn Robinson
Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson
Currently Obsessed:
Forgive Me by BoA
The Allusionist podcast
Should I Quit podcast
It’s finally happening. We are going to finish our discussion of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series! To catch you up on the conversations about books 1-3, we’ll be re-releasing those episodes over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for the discussion of book 4, and our wrap up of the entire series coming your way NEXT WEEK!
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Link to original show notes.
Grab a copy of Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante and support the show!
It’s finally happening. We are going to finish our discussion of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series! To catch you up on the conversations about books 1-3, we’ll be re-releasing those episodes over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for the discussion of book 4, and our wrap up of the entire series coming your way in a couple of weeks.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Link to original show notes.
Grab a copy of The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante and support the show!
It’s finally happening. We are going to finish our discussion of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series! To catch you up on the conversations about books 1-3, we’ll be re-releasing those episodes over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for the discussion of book 4, and our wrap up of the entire series coming your way next month.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Link to original show notes.
Grab a copy of My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante and support the show!
Julia and Victoria acknowledge that they do not always know what is going on while diving headfirst into the incredible debut poetry collection from Ocean Vuong: Night Sky With Exit Wounds.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in This Episode:
Night Sky with Exit Woundsby Ocean Vuong
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
War baby: the amazing story of Ocean Vuong, former refugee and prize-winning poet (The Guardian)
Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Only Murders in the Building
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Schindler’s List (Movie)
Recommendations:
Crush by Richard Siken
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Currently Obsessed:
League of Their Own (TV Show)
Interview With The Vampire (TV Show)
Paper Girls (TV Show)
Being Funny in a Foreign Language by The 1975
Spelling the Tea: The Vampire Tea Room Magical Mysteries by Erin Johnson
Lord Byron’s Letters of the Future
Julia and Victoria needed to scream about how much they loved crying over the romantic, angsty sci-fi novella This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, so now it is an episode.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Wingspan Board Game
The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone
The bird meme from Amal’s Twitter: (original comic by @FalseKnees
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Doctor Who
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
“Blue-da-ba-dee” by Eiffel 65
Recommendations:
Good Omens by Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett
Julia’s “Becoming Blue” playlist
Travel Light by Naomi Mitcheson
Currently Obsessed:
League of Their Own on Amazon Prime
Hold the Girl by Rina Sawayama
Julia and Victoria explore the Dark Ages with writer, historian, and former professor Rebecca Stott. They discuss Rebecca’s new book Dark Earth: about two sisters who run away to a ruined Roman city in 6th century Britain. They talk genre, archaeology, breaking boundaries, and Julia gets very excited about swords.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 100+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Follow Rebecca Stott:
Website: https://www.rebeccastott.co.uk/
Twitter: @RebeccaStott64
Listen to her radio broadcasts for BBC Radio Four’s A Point of View
Mentioned in this Episode:
The Secret Island by Enid Blyton
“In the Waiting Room” by Elizabeth Bishop
Recommendations:
Cwen by Bryce Gibby
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Circe by Madeline Miller
Currently Obsessed:
Elephant’s Breath paint by Farrow and Ball
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Only Murders In the Building on Hulu
Marchita by Silvana Estrada
Julia and Victoria talk with author Evan James Sheldon about his new book of gloriously weird flash fiction, Children and Their Cages, and his creative process. Julia learns that flash fiction is not, in fact, a story written very fast.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and hang out with Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 100+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this Episode
Follow Evan James Sheldon’s writing on evanjamessheldon.com and Twitter @EvanJamesSheld1. Check out his latest book Children & Their Cagesavailable online at Barnes & Noble.
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
“On Writing and the Business of Writing” by Carmen Maria Machado
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
"Fairy Tale is Form, Form is Fairy Tale" by Kate Bernheimer
“For Everyone Who's Still Fucked Up Over That Story About The Girl With The Ribbon Around Her Neck” by Lauren Yapalater (Buzzfeed)
Recommendations:
The Complete Stories of Leonore Carrington by Leonora Carrington, introduction by Kathryn Davis
“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado
A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba
The Iliac Crest by Christina Riviera Garza
The Summer Book by Tov Jansson
Sin Eaters:Stories by Caleb Tankersley
Friday Black by Nana Kwameh Adjei-Brenyah
Currently Obsessed:
Charco Press
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
The Making Of by Brecht Evans
Julia finds herself of an age somewhere between Jane Eyre and Miss Marple, and she’s asking herself: Does she have money and/or prospects? Remains to be seen.
Happy Virgo Season! Victoria sits down to share six little (ish) reflections she is carrying with her as she waves goodbye to age 26 and steps into age 27.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and join Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 100+) Reading Challenge
Julia and Victoria parse through all the bizarre takes by professional critics and writers on Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.
Become a Member! Follow the podcast on Instagram and join Victoria on Storygraph:
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 100+) Reading Challenge
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
New Film Club with Julia & Victoria episode! Why we’re not persuaded by Netfix’s Austen adaptation
Sayaka Murata’s Eerie “Convenience Store Woman” Is a Love Story Between a Misfit and a Store by Katy Waldman (The New Yorker)
This anti-capitalist novel explores what it means to be 'normal' in an abnormal world by Marianne Eloise (i-D Vice)
I thought I was too different to see myself in a novel – but Sayaka Murata got me by Naoise Dolan (The Guardian)
Life Ceremony: Stories by Sayaka Murata
For Japanese Novelist Sayaka Murata, Odd Is the New Normal by Motoko Rich (The New York Times)
Recommendations:
Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Currently Obsessed:
Only Murders in the Building on Hulu
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix
Severance on Apple TV+
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Wisdom of Your Body by Dr. Hilary McBride
Laziness Does Not Exist by Dr. Devon Price
“My Pleasure” by Ross Reagan
Recommendations:
Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness by Richard Grinker
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
Book Club Membership - ‘Tism Tier for autism-related essays from Julia
The Anxious Achiever podcast
Currently Obsessed:
Reservation Dogs on Hulu
Best Friends with Nicole Byer and Sasheer Kamata podcast
Las Culturistas podcast
Inside the Closet podcast
*Check out our 100th Episode Celebration Giveaway on Instagram!*
Read the Contest Rules here.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
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Mentioned in this Episode:
“Inside the Push to Diversify the Book Business” by Marcela Valdes (The New York Times)
“Season 4: Episode 10: Fantasy Fields w/ Rebecca Roanhorse” (Deadline City podcast)
“The Sci-Fi Author Reimagining Native History” by Lila Shapiro (Vulture)
Book Club episode 099 Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Recommendations:
Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Currently Obsessed:
Moth by Woosung (album)
Jack in the Box by J-Hope (album)
Stranger Things (Season 4)
Dark Academia and the Elements of Fiction
Julia and Victoria step into their English Teacher Mode™ to review the elements of fiction from Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s dynamic debut book, the dark-academic thriller Ace of Spades.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcement of forthcoming Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
High School Musical
074 Beloved by Toni Morrison — Book Club with Julia & Victoria
040 Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - Book Club with Julia & Victoria
Recommendations:
Gossip Girl TV show
Get Out film
Not Me TV show
Elite TV show
Moonlight film
Ace of Spades playlist on Spotify
“Aparna” by Sachin Waikar in F(r)iction issue 17
“Yurrassic Park” by John Manuel Arias in F(r)iction issue 16
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Currently Obsessed:
Everything Everywhere All At Once film
Superache by Conan Gray (album)
The Umbrella Academy season 3 TV show
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Emma by Kate Hamill, based on the novel by Jane Austen, directed by Meredith McDonough
Visual Narration and Heist Stories
Julia and Victoria discuss the complexities of graphic novels and other visual media as they talk about The Banks by Roxanne Gay and Ming Doyle. Victoria narrates several comic panels, and they both try to figure out what male the love interest’s name is.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
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Mentioned in this Episode
Roxanne Gay:
- https://roxanegay.com/
- The Audacity newsletter
- The Roxane Gay Agenda podcast
Book Club episode 096 The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin
Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto
Hunter x Hunter anime
My Hero Academia anime
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Catch That Kid film
Leverage TV show
Ocean’s Eleven film
“Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush
“Kate Bush, Stranger Things, and a hit song four decades in the making” Switched on Pop podcast
Recommendations
Money Heist (La casa de papel) on Netflix
Widows film
The Kitchen by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle
Pound for Pound by Natalie Chaidez
Chu by John Layman and Rob Guillory
Currently Obsessed
Our Flag Means Death on HBO
Stranger Things 4 on Netflix
Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
Julia and Victoria talk about reading and traveling whilst they read and travel.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Our episode Re-Release: Educated by Tara Westover
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Banks by Roxanne Gay and Ming Doyle
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide
Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Malaysia Bagus! Travels from My Homeland by Sharon Cheah
Comedy Sex God by Pete Holmes
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan
Julia and Victoria bring on one of their favorite pop culture experts Victoria Edel to talk about the Pachinko series and the pros and cons of book-to-TV adaptations.
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Follow Victoria Edel:
Twitter @victoriaedel
Gold Plated Girls newsletter
Mentioned in this Episode:
Book Club episode 068 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (book)
Pachinko tv series on Apple TV+
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (book)
Station Eleven tv series
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (book)
The Summer I Turned Pretty tv series
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman (book)
Heartstopper tv series
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
Rick Riordan congratulates the new Percy
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (book)
Sharp Objects tv series
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (book)
Wild film
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (book)
Gone Girl film
MAS*H tv series
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (book)
Brooklyn film
Recommendations:
The Baby tv series
My Brilliant Friend tv series
Minari film
Mr Sunshine tv series
Currently Obsessed:
Recipe Club podcast
Drive My Car film
Our Flag Means Death tv series
Love and Other Disastersby Anita Kelly
Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola
Julia and Victoria explore how and why they connected so much to Pop Song by Larissa Pham, a memoir exploration of art, adulthood, love, and theory.
P.S. A lawn mower was making a ruckus in the background of Victoria’s audio. We apologize for the nuisance!
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Pop Song: Adventures in Art and Intimacy by Larissa Pham
February Staff Picks: Memoirs, TV Shows, Video Games, and Björk! F(r)iction Log
Fantasian by Larissa Pham
Learn So Much and See So Much: Larissa Pham Interviewed BOMB Magazine
Educated by Tara Westover
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors The Broad
Austen Channing Brown’s blog Wild Holy & Free
Recommendations:
Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy
And Then We Grew Up: On Creativity, Potential, and the Imperfect Art of Adulthood by Rachel Friedman
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Currently Obsessed:
Raw Data Feelby Everything Everything
Mr. Morale and the Big Steppersby Kendrick Lamar
Russian Doll Season 2
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Harry’s House by Harry Styles
Magic and Autism Theory
Julia and Victoria discuss autism theory in relation to The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin and try to figure out whose sides the characters are on.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this Episode:
- The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin
- Book Club episode 092 The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
- Film Club with Julia and Victoria - Pachinko Episode 1
- Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
- Critical Theory: A Reader for Literary and Cultural Studies by Robert Dale Parker (aka the one textbook Victoria regrets renting and not purchasing during her university years)
Recommendations:
- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
- The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu
- This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amar El Mohtar
- Far SectorbyN. K. Jemisin (Green Lantern comic series)
- The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin
Currently Obsessed:
- Dance Fever album by Florence and the Machine
- Every Shade of Blue album by The Head and the Heart
- Blue Water Road album by Kehlani
- “Thursday’s Child Has Far to Go” single by TXT
- The Magnus Archives podcast
- Our Flag Means Death on HBO
- Joe Pera Talks With You on HBO
Julia and Victoria discuss book three in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and explore the complications of living life according to your principles.
This is the last episode of Season 9! We’ll be back in late May with more books and more obsessions. In the meantime, you can watch our book-to-TV reviews of Pachinko on Buy Me a Coffee.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stayby Elena Ferrante
Book Club episodes 026 My Brilliant Friend and 084 Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
Pachinko on AppleTV
In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante
In a rare interview, Elena Ferrante describes the writing process behind the Neapolitan novels by Didier Jacob (Los Angeles Times)
Dora Bruder by Patrick Modiano
Recommendations:
Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir
Out of the Dark by Patrick Modiano
The Occupation Trilogy by Patrick Modiano
Currently Obsessed:
Noragami (Stray God) manga
“Blow” music video by Jackson Wang
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy really spoke to Julia and Victoria’s exhaustion with productivity, their love for their houseplants, and their ever-growing need to run away to the woods. Plus: a few tips and suggestions for reading books outside of your cultural context.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Pachinko series on Apple TV+
Book Club minisode on Academic Writing
Everyone You Hate Is Going to Die by Daniel Sloss
Hannah Gadsby’s stand-up special Douglas
Ologies podcast episode Carnivorous Phytobiology (MEAT-EATING PLANTS) with Hali’a Eastburn
American Girl historical fiction books
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Book Club episode onInterpreter of Maladies
Recommendations:
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Tsing
Completely Arbortrary podcast
Ologies podcast episode Indigenous Fire Ecology (GOOD FIRE) with Amy Christianson
The poetry of Rabindranath Tagore
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Currently Obsessed:
Season 3 of My Brilliant Friend on HBO
Motomami album by Rosalia
Multitude album by Stromae
Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls on Amazon Prime
Free Form Mixtape album by Dizzy Fae
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu is made up of intricate world-building, clever language development, and stories-within-stories-within-stories. There’s a lot packed into this little novella! Julia and Victoria do their best to parse through it and how it made them feel.
Become a Member to catch our review of the Pachinko adaptation starting in two weeks! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu
Game for practicing neopronouns
Book Club episode 068 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Pachinko TV show on AppleTV
Voyage Into Genre episode S. Qiouyi Lu and Silvia Moreno-Garcia Talk Neo-Pronouns and Genre-Hopping
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia
S. Qiouyi Lu’s publications
Book Club episode 092 The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
Book Club episode 090 Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Recommendations:
Ghost in the Shell (1995 anime film)
The Matrix(1999 film)
Attack on Titan (anime TV series)
Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
Currently Obsessed:
Authentic: The Story of Tablo podcast by Vice and iHeart
Escaping NXIVM podcast by CBC
And They Lived Happily Ever After by Therese Baharri
Julia and Victoria discuss when they figured out the twist in The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (at very different points in the book) and all the ways Jemisin expertly builds the world of the Stillness (through language, mythology, science, and culture). Also, Julia listened to this while she had a migraine, and now she’s obsessed with the audiobook reader.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned:
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Wired Interview with N. K. Jemisin
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Recommendations:
The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Julia and Victoria read the first book by one of their favorite comedians: Everyone You Hate Is Going to Die by Daniel Sloss. They ask themselves, why do celebrity memoirs get published? And why this one in particular? Then they give a poor imitation of their favorite jokes from the book for their own personal enjoyment.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Everyone You Hate is Going to Die: And Other Comforting Thoughts on Family, Friends, Sex, Love, and More Things That Ruin Your Life by Daniel Sloss
Douglas stand-up special by Hannah Gadsby
Book Club episode 089 Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Jessica Simpson’s memoir Open Book
The Good Place (TV Show)
Book Club episode 051 Becoming by Michelle Obama
30 Rock (TV Show)
Book Club episode 078 Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade
Crashing (TV Show on HBO)
Recommendations:
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Comedy Sex God by Pete Holmes
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
Your Song Changed My Life by Bob Boilen
Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade
Currently Obsessed:
Not Me (YouTube series)
Julia and Victoria (whose mic simply refused to cooperate this episode) dip their toes into the world of science fiction with “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, and its film adaptation Arrival. This inspires them to think some big, timey-wimey thoughts about language and brains and the way our experience of time affects our views on life.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in this episode:
Arrival (2016 film)
The Martian (2015 film)
Ringworld series by Larry Niven
Star Trek
Starlight 2 anthology
Story of Your Life, and Others by Ted Chiang
“Ted Chiang's Soulful Science Fiction” by Joshua Rothman in The New Yorker
Recommendations:
Dune (2021 film)
Dune by Frank Herbert
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968 film)
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke
Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey
The Expanse (TV series)
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
Enders Game (2013 film)
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples
Watchmen (2019 TV mini series)
Currently Obsessed:
The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow
Untitled Dad Project podcast
Sounds Like a Cult podcast
Julia is joined by fellow anthropology graduate student Katie to talk about the alien language of “Academic English” and how it has affected their own academic careers.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Book Club episode 076 Watching the English by Kate Fox
Book Club episode 029 This Is Your Brain on Birth Control by Sarah E. Hill PhD
Recommendations:
Mining Capitalism: The Relationship Between Corporations and Their Critics by Stuart Kirsch
The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior by Kate Fox
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Julia and Victoria provide a little feedback sandwich on Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, a book designed to help women cope with the unique burnout that results from dealing with the patriarchy.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski, Ph.D. and Amelia Nagoski, DMA
Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski PhD
Maintenance Phase podcast
The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination by Gilbert and Gubar
Book Club episode onJane Eyre
Semler
Recommendations:
“Completing the Stress Cycle” episode of Unlocking Us with Brené Brown podcast
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown Ph.D.
The Wisdom of Your Body by Hilary McBride PhD
You’re a Miracle (And a Pain in the Ass)by Mike McHargue
“Fearology (FEAR) Pt. 1” and “Fearology (FEAR) Pt. 2” episodes of Ologies podcast
Currently Obsessed:
Sex Education on Netflix
Under Our Roof podcast
All of Us Are Dead on Netflix
Epik High Is Here Pt 2 album by Epik High
Julia was featured on Sad In the City podcast Ep 10 “Sad But Jokes”!
Julia and Victoria get into their feels with A Thousand Mornings, a book of poetry written by Mary Oliver, and chosen by their special guest Samira Sakbay.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
A Thousand Morningsby Mary Oliver
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
“Daisies” by Mary Oliver
What Mary Oliver's Critics Don't Understand by Ruth Franklin in The New Yorker
“No Birth No Death” with Thich Nhat Hanh by Plum Village
Recommendations:
Upstream by Mary Oliver
The Wavesby Virginia Woolf
How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy
The Hidden Life of Treesby Peter Wohlleben
An American Sunriseby Joy Harjo
Ralph Waldo Emerson collected writings
Emily Dickinson collected poems
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
E. E. Cummings collected poems
Rupi Kaur’s Instagram
Morgan Harper Nichols’s Instagram
The Soul of an Octopusby Sy Montgomery
Currently Obsessed:
D.P. K-Drama on Netflix
Highasakite’s new album Mother
Youth of MayK-Drama
Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
Broken Horses by Brandi Carlisle
By the Way, I Forgive Youby Brandi Carlisle
While discussing the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Julia and Victoria ask the question on everyone’s mind: Are there too many World War II novels? Julia gets stuck on the fact that this story is sort of about a magical gemstone.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Janet Jackson’s autobiography True You
About Grace by Anthony Doerr
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Just and Unjust Wars by Michael Walzer
Kristin Harmel Parade article “Words and War: Why WW II Fiction Is so Hot Right Now—and Six Books You Can’t Miss”
Courtney Rodgers Book Riot article “Why I’m Not Reading About WWII Anymore”
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
Recommendations:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Currently Obsessed:
Big Mouth - Season 5 on Netlfix
Wordle
Sad In The City podcast with Taylor Tomlinson
Julia and Victoria make a glorious return to Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series with The Sea of Monsters, in which the heroes complete Odysseus’ ten-year journey in just four days. J & V revisit the “girl power” scenes with Circe as adults, and they have Feelings.
Note: While we're discussing a YA novel, our episode is not intended for young listeners. We use some mild profanity and mention some adult topics.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Book Club episode 059 The Lightning Thief
Rick Riordan Presents imprint
The Odysseyby Homer
Book Club episode 043 Circe
Suicide Squad (2021 film)
Ramy (TV show on Hulu)
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004 film)
Stranger Things (TV show on Netflix)
Recommendations:
The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
Mythos by Stephen Fry
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Currently Obsessed:
Saga by Brian K Vaughn
Paper Girls by Brian K Vaughn
You’re Wrong About podcast
Ologies podcast
Nora From Queens (TV show on HBO)
Insecure (TV show on Hulu)
Gentleman Jack (TV show on HBO)
Apocalypse Wheneverby Bad Suns
Victoria is one to set goals, make plans, collect data, and track progress. So why do reading goals feel so…difficult!? In this solo minisode, Victoria recounts her troubled past of setting reading goals, sings the praises of The StoryGraph (again), and shares questions to consider if you’re looking to set bookish goals (or anti-goals) for 2022.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or The StoryGraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
-
This opening scene of The Emperor’s New Groove (2000 film)
-
Agatha Christie
-
The StoryGraph
-
The StoryGraph Reads the World Challenge
-
The StoryGraph Genre Challenge
Reflection Questions:
-
What do you value about reading? Why do you read?
-
How do you feel when you read? How do you want to feel?
-
How else would you spend your time if you weren’t reading?
DM us or send a message through our website and let us know what your reading goals (or anti-goals) are for this year!
Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! Nothing matters! Julia and Victoria reflect on the changes of 2021.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Book Club episode: The Wisdom of Your Body
James Acaster’s Perfect Sounds podcast
Book Club episode: Red, White & Royal Blue
Julia and Victoria get very excited about their spur of the moment decision to talk about Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, the queer royal romance the world was waiting for. Julia had some technical difficulties and recorded on a less-than-ideal microphone, but it couldn’t be postponed because they were too pumped.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Book Club Take a Hint, Dani Brown episode
Book Club The Story of a New Name episode
Book Club The Wedding Date episode
Casey McQuiston interview with Advocate
Recommendations:
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Case McQuiston
Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory
Julia’s Red, White & Royal Blue Spotify playlist
Yuri on Ice
Currently Obsessed:
The Great British Baking Show
Well over a year later, Julia and Victoria face their fears of long page counts and return to Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series with The Story of a New Name. They discuss the complexity and ingenuity of Ferrante’s depiction of womanhood, and how much they hate Nino Sarratorre.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram or Storygraph!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Book Club episode: My Brilliant Friend
Book Club episode: Pachinko
Book Club episode: Take a Hint, Dani Brown
Recommendations:
Read the rest of Ferrante’s Neapolitan series
Ferrante’s newest release The Lying Life of Adults
My Brilliant Friend on HBO
Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Currently Obsessed:
Mythos by Stephen Fry
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Julia and Victoria (and project manager Rebecca) recorded the Q&A session from their first ever LIVE online Book Club members event. Some audio quality may be compromised, but the enthusiasm for reaching the two year mark of making Book Club is not!
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Learn more about Book Club membership.
Julia and Victoria plumb new psychological (and physiological) depths on the subject of embodiment with The Wisdom of Your Body by Dr. Hillary McBride.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image Dr. Hillary McBride
The Liturgists podcast
Other People’s Problems podcast
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (listen to our episode!)
Concept of “the second arrow” in Buddhism
Recommendations:
You’re a Miracle (And a Pain in the Ass) by Mike McHargue
Headspace app
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van der Kolk
Currently Obsessed:
Parks and Recollection podcast
Big Mouth season 5 on netflix
Aminé album TWOPOINTFIVE
Taco Chronicles on Netflix
No Time to Die (film)
Julia and Victoria, and special guest Chelsea Kuchik, return to the spicy world of contemporary romance fiction with Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert. They find their favorite tropes and consider what Bridgerton did for the acceptance of romance novels.
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Follow @chelsea.is.reading on instagram!
Mentioned in the Episode:
Sarah Dessen (author)
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Bridgerton on Netflix
The Bridgerton novel series by Julia Quinn
Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
The Newsroom
The X Files
Schitt’s Creek
The Princess Switch on netflix
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
We Coach (non-profit)
Sidelined USA (non-profit)
Recommendations:
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert
Bromance Book Club series by Lyssa Kay Adams
Big Mouth
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
The Bright Sessions podcast
The Untamed on Netflix
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (listen to our episode!)
Currently Obsessed:
Sex Education on netflix
Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
Julia and Victoria get super excited about sentence structure and contemplate the chaotic nature of grief with The Year of Magical Thinking by the queen of nonfiction, Joan Didion.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the episode:
“The Second Coming” poem by Yeats
Book Club episode: Gold Plated Girls
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Joan Didion’s website
Run River by Joan Didion
Blue Nights by Joan Didion
“My Universe” by Coldplay and BTS
Red by Taylor Swift
Recommendations:
Still Aliceon Hulu
The Center Will Not Hold documentary
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Dora Bruder by Patrick Modiano
Currently Obsessed:
Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay
The Financial Feminist podcast
Lucy Dacus
Our Gold Plated Girls guest essay!
Julia and Victoria are joined by Hayley and yet another Victoria (No, this is not confusing at all.) from Gold Plated Girls to chat about creativity and pop culture, choosing your team and fighting imposter syndrome, and--unbelievably--baseball.
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Follow Gold-Plated Girls!
Subscribe to the Gold-Plated Girls newsletter on Buttondown
Twitter: @goldplatedgirls @victoriaedel @bluesuedeschue
Instagram: @gold.plated.girls @bluesuedeschue
Mentioned in the episode:
“Julia,” by the Beatles
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!
Victoria Edel’s piece in the New Yorker
How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy by Lynette Rice
People We Meet on Vacationby Emily Henry
The Secret History by Donna Tart
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
“The Most Surprising Side Effect of Regular Exercise” by Hayley Schueneman
Squid Game
Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
Scarlett Johannsen suing Disney
Parasite
Recommendations:
Taskmaster
New Girl
Mystic Pizza
Pray Away documentary
Julia and Victoria make another foray into the gothic genre with Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and spend a fair amount of time talking about mushrooms.
Quick note: In this episode we misspoke when discussing War of the Worlds. It was in fact written by H.G. Wells and not H.P. Lovecraft!
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the episode:
The Shining by Stephen King
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Moreno-Garcia
Moreno-Garcia interview
The Dark (horror magazine)
Innsmouth Free Press
Book Club Jane Eyre episode
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Voyage Into Genre podcast
Recommendations:
Fantastic Fungi documentary
If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power by Halsey on HBO
Friction Vol. 18 Legacy
Velvet Was The Night by Moreno-Garcia
War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Currently Obsessed:
Koval whiskey
Podnews.net
Thestorygraph.com
Squid Game
Julia and Victoria have an impromptu therapy session discussing And Then We Grew Up by Rachel Friedman about the complicated relationship creative adults have with the art forms they pursued in their youth.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Good Girls Guide to Getting Lost by Rachel Friedman
Cave Painting article in The Guardian
Recommendations:
On Balance by Adam Philips
Missing Out by Adam Philips
Still Writing by Dani Shapiro
Scratch by Manjula Martin
Having and Being Had by Eula Biss
EveningCrickets YouTube channel
Veronique Doisneau from Paris Opera Ballet on Youtube
Currently Obsessed:
Wheelchair Sports Camp (musician)
Kikwetu coffee roaster in Chicago
Sam Trump (musician)
No philosopher ever needs to ponder the nature of humor or ask the question, “What makes something funny?” ever again because Julia and Victoria have definitely solved it with this episode’s discussion of Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the episode:
The West Wing (HBO)
View From the Top (film)
The West Wing Weekly (podcast)
The Graham Norton Show
The Mighty Boosh
The Double (film)
Submarine (film)
The Crystal Maze (game show)
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
John Oliver
The Arctic Monkeys
Radiohead
The YeahYeahYeahs
Vampire Weekend
Kasabian
The Great British Baking Show
“Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper
Heideger (philosopher)
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Watching the English by Kate Fox
Shrill by Lindy West
Samin Nosrat
Hrishikesh Hirway
Recommendations:
The Grip of a Film by Richard Ayoade
Gold Plated Girls newsletter
Big Fat Quiz of the Year
IT Crowd
How Did This Get Made (podcast)
Shit, Actually by Lindy West
Currently Obsessed:
Big Mouth (Netflix)
The Allusionist (podcast)
“ Isolation,” by The Parasocial Club
Dear White People season 4 (Netflix)
Money Heist season 5 (Netflix)
Montero by Lil Nas X
Starcrossed by Kacey Musgraves
Screen Violence by Chvrches
Julia and Victoria, along with Julia’s mom, chat about their comfort books and the novel Leave It To Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that give us a commission if you decide to make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
Mentioned in the Episode:
A Bounty of Blandings by P. G. Wodehouse
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
Twelfth Night by Shakespeare
She’s the Man
King Lear by Shakespeare
Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade
Blade Runner 2049
Recommendations:
Psmith series by Wodehouse
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Currently Obsessed:
Victoria’s storygraph account
Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat (restaurant)
Sex Education season 3
Dune (film)
If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power album by Halsey
Before Julia and Victoria return for Season 8, Book Club’s Project Manager Rebecca selected her favorite episode from the pod’s back catalogue to reminisce on the early pandemic days and listen to the delightful conversation with special guest Simone about Becoming by Michelle Obama.
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Julia and Victoria read their favorite (and only) social anthropology book, Watching the English by Kate Fox, which helped Julia tap into her innate anthropological powers.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
Topping and Company Booksellers, Ely
Anthropologist Robin Fox
Star Trek
Recommendations:
Quietby Susan Cain
Ugly Delicious on Netflix
Home Game on Netflix
Xby Daniel Sloss
The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
NativLang on Youtube
Lost in the Pond on Youtube
Currently Obsessed:
Exiles by Max Richter
Julia and Victoria try to solve the Who, the How, and the Why of Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu and may or may not reach a verdict. Victoria invents a new grammatical tense.
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Mentioned in this Episode:
- Birdman(film)
- Master of None on Netflix
- Bob’s Burgers on Fox
- Westworld on HBO
- Legion on Hulu
- Sorry For Your Loss on Facebook Watch
- Charles Yu on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
- Law and Order: SVU on Hulu
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
- Jane Austen’s Use of Free Indirect Discourse
- Virginia Woolf
Recommendations:
- Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade
- Community on Netflix
- The Truman Show (film)
- How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu
- Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu
Currently Obsessed:
- Duolingo
- Bleachers new album Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night
Julia and Victoria enter a dream state to talk about Beloved by Toni Morrison and its place within both the horror genre and American history.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
- American Horror Story, TV Series
- National Women’s History Museum
- St Anthony
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Sula by Toni Morrison
- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
- True story of Margaret Garner
- Charlotte Brontë
- Get Out film, directed by Jordan Peele
- Rosemary’s Baby film, directed by Roman Polanski
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- Outlander, TV series
- Beloved film directed by Jonathan Demme
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks film, directed by George C. Wolfe
- BROCKHAMPTON, band
Recommendations:
- Atlanta, TV Series
- Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
- Jazz by Toni Morrison
- Paradise by Toni Morrison
- Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Currently Obsessed:
- American Boyfriend, albumby Kevin Abstract
- Atypical season 3
- Olympics story of male high jumpers sharing gold
- Hotel TV, album by Lawrence
- Anna Locke moon circles
Julia reads her essay “What Your Autistic Body Feels Is Real: How I Found Out I Was Gaslighting Myself For Years and What I’m Doing Now.”
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Mentioned in the Episode:
The Cozy Robot Show
Neurotribes, by Steve Silberman (and Book Club episode)
The Reason I Jump, by Naoki Higashida (and Book Club episode)
Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8, by Naoki igashida (and Book Club episode)
The Rosie Project,by Graeme Simsion (and Book Club episode)
Book Club membership tiers
The original essay on medium
Julia and Victoria, who had somehow never read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery, are joined by ANGR Podcast host Sofia Syntaxx, who has collected upwards of ten editions of the book from all over the world, including the most recent translation into their indigenous language Anishinaabemowin. They talk about translation across languages and cultures, childhood dreams, and being haunted by the Duolingo owl.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
ANGR podcast
Sofia’s blog Too Sexy for Contacts
link.tree/sofiasyntaxx
Book Club #bookstagram episode
There There by Tommy Orange
Gambit from X-Men
Anishinaabemowin language - The Seven Grandfather teachings
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Wind, Sand, and Stars by Atoine de Saint Exupery
Ogimaans: Ojibwe translation of The Little Prince
Reading Rainbow
“The Emperor’s New Clothes”
Lemonade (film) by Beyonce
Recommendations:
Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Currently Obsessed:
This Way Up season 2 on Hulu
Halsey’s new album/film If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power
Black Widow film
Camp Creep podcast
You’re Wrong About podcast
Maintenance Phase podcast
You Are Good podcast
Julia and Victoria contemplate mortality (and whether they could be buried under paper trees to become books in their next lives) with the help of the darkly comic memoir Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Katelyn Doughty about a young woman trying to become a mortician and revolutionize the way Americans handle death.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
The Office
Parks and Recreation
The Order of the Good Death, website
“Ask a Mortician” YouTube series
From Here to Eternity, book by Doughty
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs,book by Doughty
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Keaton Henson, musician
Giri / Haji, on Netflix
Omnivore’s Dilemma, book by Michael Pollan - listen to our episode here!
Science Mike from the podcast, The Cozy Robot Show
“Stories of the Pandemic” Book Club minisode - listen here!
The Great British Baking Show
Recommendations:
“Dark,” comedy special by Daniel Sloss
Institute of Human Anatomy YouTube channel
“Movement to bring death closer,” episode/article from The Daily/New York Times
Tale for the Time Being, bookby Ruth Ozeki
Currently Obsessed:
Perfect Sounds, podcast
Laura Mvula, musician
Julia and Victoria revisit the hugely influential essay “The Case For Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates and examine the ways reparations have played out in the US and beyond.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
Austin Channing Brown’s newsletter
We Were Eight Years In Power,essay collection by Ta-Nahesi Coates
Listen to our eposide!
National Sorry Day in Australia
Evanston, Ill. sets a plan for reparations
Information from the city of Evanston
NPR article
Episode from The Daily
Trevor Noah / The Daily Show, video about the history of black farmers
Article about Mackenzie Scott’s donations since divorce
Article about black-owned textured hair care brands
Recommendations:
Dear Church by Lenny Duncan
Watchmen on HBO
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
“The Power of Apologies” episode of Hidden Brain
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Listen to our episode!
Ben and Jerry’s website page on reparations
Currently Obsessed:
The Friendship Onion podcast
Braving the Elements podcast
Solar Opposites on Hulu
Chef’s Table on Netflix
Julia and Victoria try to figure out why their 2011 Harper Teen copy of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte looks suspiciously like Twilight and why that’s interesting for the genre of Gothic literature.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer
Jane Eyre (2011), directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
Fallen, novel by Lauren Kate
Beautiful Creatures, first novel in Caster Chronicles series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
Jane, graphic novel by Aline Brosh McKenna
The Madwoman in the Attic, book by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar
Sour, album by Olivia Rodrigo
Shrill, TV series by Lindy West
Recommendations:
Agnes Grey, by Anne Brontë
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë
Middlemarch, by George Elliot (Mary Anne Evans)
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Currently Obsessed:
Shit, Actually, book by Lindy West
Call Me If You Get Lost, album by Tyler, the Creator
Baumgartner Restorations YouTube channel
When Julia and Victoria found out there was a book out there in the world which combined feminism, writing, and data (aka their three favorite things) called Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, they absolutely had to read it for Book Club. Victoria talks very fast about women’s unpaid labor, and Julia realizes she can ask the world to design things that actually fit her tiny hands. Fair Warning: This is not the book to read before bed because it will fill you with a burning feminist rage that cannot be contained.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
The Women’s Room project
Do It Like a Womanby Caroline Criado Perez
Olivia Rodrigo
Seven-Eights Piano
Gender-inclusive Bible translation
US Army expanding acceptable hairstyles for women
Book Club episode on This Is Your Brain on Birth Control by Dr Sarah E Hill
John Mulaney Kid Gorgeous
Article about doctors ignoring self-reported pain of black women
Shark Tankon ABC
Thinx period underwear
HuffPost article on Twitter report button
Book Club episode on Feminist Essays
Recommendations:
Perez’s Invisible Women newsletter
Men Explain Things to Meby Rebecca Solnit
Roxanne Gay
This Is Your Brain On Birth Controlby Dr. Sarah E. Hill
Period. End of Sentence.documentary
Wanda Sykes Not Normal
Currently Obsessed:
Master of Noneseason 3
The Legend of Korra on Netflix
The Queen’s Gambitminiseries
Gatcha! by Lucy
prAna activewear
Julia and Victoria are joined by their friend Andy Park to discuss Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and his family’s experiences as Korean American immigrants. Julia makes several K-Pop references.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
Free Food for Millionairesby Min Jin Lee
Interview with Min Jin Lee on Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books podcast
Escaping North Koreaby Mike Kim
Fred Armisen learns he’s a quarter Korean
John Oliver AAPI episode
Parts Unknown with Anthony Bordain S2: EP1
Asian Boss youtube channel
Concept of “Han”
Recommendations:
Pachinkominiseries
The Imperial Cruiseby James Bradley
Goby Kazuki Kaneshiro
Homegoingby Yaa Gyasi
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
Mr. Sunshineon Netflix
White Paper Project
Minari 2020 film
Currently Obsessed:
Insideby Bo Burnham
The Mitchells Vs. The Machineson Netflix
TXT album Freeze
Agatha Christie novels
Arlo Parks album Collapsed in Sunbeams
Arlo Parks episode on Song Exploder podcast
One-Punch Mananime
Kim’s Convenienceon Netflix
Julia and Victoria contemplate how they will remember the pandemic.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Mentioned in the Episode:
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
“Why Are There Almost No Memorials to the Flu of 1918” from NYT
Book Club Episode 066 We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“McDonald’s Workers Will Strike for $15 an Hour in Fifteen Cities” from Vice
Julia and Victoria take a look at the children’s classic The Giver by Lois Lowry with fresh eyes as an extended critique of whiteness and dominant culture.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
Other books by Lois Lowry:
Gathering Blue
Messenger
Son
Number the Stars
The Willoughbys Return
Nancy Drew series
The Boxcar Children series
The Magic Treehouse series
Descartes/Cartesian logic
You’re a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass) by Mike McHargue
The Cozy Robot Show
Attack on Titan
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
The Red Couch Podcast
Propaganda (the rapper)
Recommendations:
The Giver quartet
Other books by Lowry:
The Silent Boy
The Willoughbys
Gossamer
“The Era” short story from Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Listen to our episode!
“The Sunday Read: ’ The movement to bring death closer,’” by The Daily
Currently Obsessed:
Given anime
Hood Politics podcast
AdoreMe subscription boxes
Julia and Victoria outline the parallel narratives of We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates: 1. The journey of Coates as a writer and thinker on the rise during Obama’s presidency, and 2. His essays unraveling the true tragedy of America’s history buried underneath the country’s larger-than-life myths.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Mentioned in the Episode:
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ website
Article about Coates writing Superman screenplay
Black Classic Press
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Listen to our episode!
Nas
Ida B Wells
James Baldwin
"The Case for Reparations" essay by Coates
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Listen to our episode!
"How to Write a Tragic Story" by Shaunta Grimes
Decolonize Palestine FAQ
Recommendations:
Toni Morrison
“I Am Not Your Negro” documentary
"13TH" documentary
NYT Magazine 1619 project
The Next Question series by Austin Channing Brown
The Humanity Archive podcast
Currently Obsessed:
Wingspan board game
KiwiCo
Where does our food come from? (And why is there so much corn in everything?) Julia and Victoria, with special guest and Book Club’s project manager Rebecca Gesme, discuss Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma in which he endeavors to answer these very important and complicated questions.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Mentioned in the Episode:
Michael Pollan’s website
Netflix series, “Cooked”
Judith Belzer, painter
Pollan’s interview on Fresh Air (2018)
Recommendations:
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
2016 Washington Post follow-up article by Pollan
Documentary, “Fantastic Fungi”
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer
Cookbook, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchenby Sean Sherman
Ron Finlay
Currently Obsessed:
Keeping up with the Kardashians season 20
The West Wing
Cowboy Bebop
Julia and Victoria take a little interlude from reading to discuss the Instagram book community known as #bookstagram: the positive side of democratizing book reviews, the struggles of bowing to the almighty algorithm, and the weird trends that don’t make any sense.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Mentioned in this episode:
@bookclubwithjv
bookstagram
Here’s an Annoying New Instagram Trend: Throwing Yourself on a Pile of Open Books by Hillary Kelly (Vulture)
Recommendations:
@maxi.mally
@wellreadblackgirl
@lit.memery
@melanatedreader
@thestackspod
@alexereads
@maria_reads_and_remembers
Julia and Victoria endeavor to answer some fundamental questions about Untamed by Glennan Doyle, such as “What is this book exactly?” and “What’s it about?” and “Who is actually it for?” Unclear whether they succeed.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Mentioned in the Episode:
Brené Brown Episode 054: “Braving the Wilderness”
Glennon Doyle’s Blog, Momastary
Abby Wambach
The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan
Book Club Minisode: “The History of the Novel”
The Defining Decade by Meg Jay, PhD
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
Scary Close by Donald Miller
Recommendations:
Thisby Michael Gungor
The Liturgists podcast
Dirty Rotten Church Kids podcast
Kevin Garcia
I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown
White Homework (website & podcast) by Tori Williams Douglass
Andre Henry’s podcast, Hope and Hard Pills
Henry’s newsletter, It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
Shameless by Nadia Bolz Weber
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image by Hilary McBride, PhD
Currently Obsessed:
Nlve, “Tired”
Natalia LaFourcade deluxe album, Hasta La Raiz
Propaganda’s new album, Terraform: The People
Hidden Brain podcast episode, “The Easiest Person to Fool”
Misterwives album, Superbloom
Naoki Higashida brought the tea with his most recent book in translation Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 about his experience as a non-verbal autistic young adult, and an extremely successful writer and speaker. Julia and Victoria share some of their favorite insights from his work on everything from ableism in education to the importance of allowing disabled people to express their full humanity in a world that prefers to pretend they do not exist.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Mentioned in the Episode:
The Reason I Jumpby Naoki Higashida, Book Club episode 046
Haruki Murakami
Naoki Higashida’s Japanese blog
Mindset by Carol S Dweck PhD
Pandemic Parenting webinar about building resiliency in children
Dr Bruce Perry’s work on trauma and resilience
Invisible Womenby Caroline Criado Perez
Womanism and Alice Walker
Recommendations:
I am Gretafilm on Hulu
Crip Camp film on Netflix
Join the Book Club With JV ‘Tism Tier for more of Julia’s autism articles
Neurotribesby Steve Silberman
Morgan Harper Nichols
Currently Obsessed:
DPR Ian album Moodswings In This Order
Lucy (band) and their new song “Flowering”
Half-Alive song “Rest” ft. Samm Henshaw
Recipe Clubpodcast
Samin Nosrat’s tahdig recipe
My Persian Kitchen recipe blog
This week on the podcast, Julia and Victoria try to define just what exactly Red at the Bone by Jaqueline Woodson is about, and after an hour of conversation, they land on “nothing and absolutely everything,” which does not do this incredible and soul-stirring book justice. But it’s the best they’ve got.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Mentioned in the Episode:
Rudine Sims Bishop, Ph.D, mirrors and windows concept
Baldwin for the Arts fellowship
NYT interview with Jaqueline Woodson
“A Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Watchmen tv show on HBO
Recommendations:
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Talking to Ourselves by Andrés Newman
Currently Obsessed:
Run River North, Creatures In Your Head album
Tablo podcast
Staged season 2 on Hulu
Dirty Rotten Church Kids podcast
Semler music
Julia and Victoria are back to discuss The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion about an undiagnosed autistic man trying to navigate all the weird social rules of dating and relationships with a bunch of people who won’t explain anything. So for Julia, it was a comical reminder of her own journey not knowing how to make friends in college, and for Victoria, the book was a super fun love story and a good reminder on the importance of open and clear communication.
Become a Member! Follow Us on Instagram! or Join the Storygraph Challenge!
Mentioned in the Episode:
Yuri on Ice on Crunchyroll
The Unkindest Cut by Joe Queenan
I Am the Messengerby Markus Zusak
Scholastic Dictionary of Idiomsby Marvin Terban
The Rosie Effectby Graeme Simsion
The Rosie Resultby Graeme Simsion
Two Steps Forward by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion
Elf (2003)
Recommendations:
The Kiss Quotientby Helen Hoang
Act Your Age, Eve Brownby Talia Hibbart
Gold-Plated Girlspop culture newsletter
ConSensualromance fiction podcast
Currently Obsessed:
Julian Baker new album “Little Oblivions”
The Untamedon Netflix
The West Wing on HBO Max
Roeser’s Bakery Chicago
Pan Artesenal bakery Chicago
Let’s Throw a Party by Sammy Rae & The Friends
What’s going on with Book Club With Julia & Victoria? Why did they take such a long break? And what are their plans for the future? Find out in this week’s minisode as J&V reveal their hopes and dreams and big ideas.
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Julia hasn’t stopped talking about BTS for an entire year, so she decided to channel that energy into a podcast episode. She’s joined by her fellow BTS fan (also called ARMY) Kristine Ilagan to go over their favorite BTS songs and all the reasons why they love these talented artists and their message of love and acceptance.
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Every Single Thing We Mentioned in the Episode:
“Paradise”
Love Yourself: Tear
Wonder Girls
“Butterfly”
BTS at the Grammys
BE behind making videos and commentary
In The Soop
“Anpanman” (song)
Anpanman (character)
“Home”
BE album
“Life Goes On”
Zayne Lowe interview
Esquire interview
“Spring Day”
“Baepsae”
“Baepsae” explained video
Run BTScooking, Lotte World episodes
Golden Closet Films by Jungkook
Baekhuyn, EXO
“Telepathy”
“Sweet Night” by V
Monoby RM
D-2by Agust D (aka Suga)
Hope Worldby J-Hope
RM mixtape by RM
“Ddaeng”
“Ddaeng” making-of Bangtan Bomb
“Black Swan” MV and MMA performance
BTS Carpool Karaoke with James Corden
FESTA 2021
HYYH Pt 2
One In An ARMY philanthropy projects (get involved!)
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Julia and Victoria have relied on the insights of Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly countless times throughout the past year of lockdown. So during the Book Club hiatus, they wanted to share it again to spread some positive messages on the importance of vulnerability and love and acceptance.
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This week Julia and Victoria travel all the way back to their sixth episode! Victoria was severely jetlagged, and they were recording into a computer mic on Julia’s bed. Ah, simpler times. Please enjoy this little time machine back to an exploration of the incredible book Educated by Tara Westover.
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Julia and Victoria are taking a bit of a vacation to figure out what the hell they’re doing with their lives. But in the meantime, here’s one of their favorite episodes they’ve made so far (and the last one they recorded before the world shut down): My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, with special guest Jessia Campion Park.
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Show Notes: See the show notes for the original episode here!
Julia and Victoria spend a good portion of their conversation about Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine trying to figure out what a Lyric poem is. After that they can finally get into all the reasons why Rankine’s incredible, multi-media work about the experience of being a black person in America should be required reading for, well, everyone.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Morgan Parker’s poetry
Black Lives Matter national organization
“Situations” video series by Claudia Rankine
Milton, Paradise Lost
“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe
“My Lost Youth” by Longfellow
Sappho
The Wavesby VIrginia Woolf
Good Omenstv series
Doctor Whoon HBO
Recommendations:
I’m So Fine: A List of Famous Men and What I Had Onby Khadijah Queen
Friday Blackby Nan Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The Stacks podcast, Citizen episode
Button Poetry
Morgan Harper Nichols instagram
Campaign Zero
White Homework by Tori Douglass Williams
Lighthouse Foundation Chicago
Currently Obsessed:
Staged on Hulu
The Fitness Marshall
Grab your blue licorice, your celestial bronze swords, and your Ancient Greek dictionaries, because this week Julia and Victoria are diving into the 2005 young adult classic, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Watchmenby Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Big Red Tequila by Rick Riordan
39 Clues book series
RIck Riordan Presents imprint
“Charon” by Keaton Henson
Social Model of Disability
Book Club Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire episode
Recommendations:
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
Heroes of Olympus series
Trials of Apolloseries
The Kane Chronicles series
Circeby Madeline Miller
The Storm Runnerby J. C. Cervantes
Dragon Pearlby Yoon Ha Lee
Aru Shah and the End of Timeby Roshani Chokshi
Currently Obsessed:
Epik High is Here (part 1)album
Daniel Sloss stand-up special X on HBO
Fabriq app
This week with There There by Tommy Orange, Julia and Victoria get another chance to read their favorite type of book - one composed of lots of little stories to create a collage of perspectives - this one representing the urban Native American experience in Oakland, California.
Mentioned in the episode:
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Silence of the Girlsby Pat Barker
history of the “Teddy’s Bear”
The Tsar of Love and Technoby Anthony Marra
Eliteon Netflix
Native American occupation of Alcatraz island
Recommendations:
Interpreter of Maladiesby Jhumpa Lahiri
Girl, Woman, Otherby Bernardine Evaristo
Latin History for Moronsstand-up special by John Leguizamo
Breakdances With Wolves,Indigenous Pirate Radio
Clevermanon Netflix
“Arctic” Liturgists episode and documentary
Heart Berriesby Terese Marie Mailhot
Whereasby Layli Long Soldier
Currently Obsessed:
Tiny Pretty Thingson Netflix
Yuri on Iceon Crunchyroll
E-Ficionado podcast with Delanie Fischer
Yoga With Adriene 30-day challenge
Julia and Victoria are back with their friend David to discuss the second installment in the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife. They can’t agree on whether or not it’s a good sequel and why, but they do have very strong feelings about the ending, so spoiler alert!
Mentioned in the Episode:
His Dark Materialson HBO
The Golden Compassby Philip Pullman
Book Club episode on The Golden Compass
Recommendations:
The Big Pictureby Sean Carroll
The Trials of Apolloby Rick Riordan
The Amber Spyglassby Philip Pullman
A Tale for the Time Beingby Ruth Ozeki
Currently Obsessed:
Yuri on Ice on Crunchyroll
The Red Tentby Anita Diamant
Pachinkoby Min Jin Lee
Civilization VI on PS4
Julia and Victoria know absolutely nothing about comic books, but they’re diving into the deep end this week and sharing their unqualified opinions about the grim, layered, and existential graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Mentioned in the episode:
Watchmen on HBO
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
CSI on CBS
Alan Moore character rights controversy
Doctor Who Magazine
Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore
V for Vendettafilm
Game of Throneson HBO
Tulsa Massacre of 1921
Recommendations:
Sin City by Frank Miller
V for Vendettaby Alan Moore
Wormweb serial by John C. McCrae
Currently Obsessed:
Yuri on Iceanime by MAPPA
Song Exploderon Netflix
“Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails
The West Wingon HBO
The West Wing Weekly podcast by Hrishikesh Hirway and Joshua Malina
In this week’s episode on The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, Julia and Victoria talk about the journal entries they wrote as teenagers, Julia’s failings as a Spanish translator, using tweezers to write poetry, and how rare it is to find nuanced discussions of religion in YA fiction.
Mentioned:
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Kill Bill (film)
Gladiator (film)
Acevedo interview for George Washington University
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Book Club episode on The Golden Compass
Recommendations:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
Currently Obsessed:
Attack on Titan (anime)
The Expanse season 5
Watchmen on HBO
It’s time for deep talks about vulnerability and bravery as Julia, Victoria, and their friend Marlowe dig into Brené Brown’s 2016 publication Braving the Wilderness.
Mentioned in the episode:
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
Brené Brown’s Netflix special
How to Get Away With Murder (tv show with Viola Davis)
iweigh episode on Loneliness with Vivek Murthy
Recommendations:
Teaching to Transgress by Bell Hooks
Brené Brown’s podcast Unlocking Us
The Cozy Robot Show with Science Mike
Liturgists episode on Loneliness
The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen by Lisa Gungor
Currently Obsessed:
Ghost of Tsushima PS5 game
Search Party on HBOMax
Big Mouth season 4
Juice WRLD album Legends Never Die
Anastasia animated film
Happy Holidays! Julia and Victoria celebrate by turning on the microphone during their solitary Thanksgiving dinner and trying to make sense of the year 2020.
Mentioned:
Staying In With Emily and Kumail podcast
Elf film
The Joffrey Nutcracker
Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown
What can we learn about embodiment from an octopus? And what does that have to do with neurodiversity and empathy? Julia and Victoria discuss all this and more with their friend Cayla, whose special interest is octopuses, as they dig deeper into The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery.
Mentioned:
Ilan Lev
The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery
You’re a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass) by Mike McHargue, Book Club episode
Temple Grandin by Sy Montgomery
Recommendations:
My Octopus Teacher documentary on Netflix
Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet documentary
I Am Greta documentary on Hulu
New England Aquarium youtube channel
Currently Obsessed:
Fantastic Fungi film
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
My Favorite Shapes, Julio Torres stand-up special
Jhene Aiko album Chilombo
We Fix Space Junk narrative podcast
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Switched on Pop, “The Cyndi Lauper Conspiracy”
Self-Helpless, “Impact of Teachers”
Julia and Victoria settle in for a cozy little detective novel: Agatha Christie’s iconic Murder on the Orient Express. Julia nerds out about this prolific mystery writer who defined the genre, and Victoria almost forgets the ending again.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Murder on the Orient Express film adaptation (1974)
The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
Sherlock Holmes
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie disappearance
Poirot BBC series
Recommendations:
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
The Hollow by Agatha Christie
Leave It To Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse
Buzzfeed Unsolved
Veronica Mars
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries tv show
Currently Obsessed:
E-Ficcionado podcast with Delanie Fischer
The Crown season 4
Unseen radio drama podcast
“I just love her so much... I would gladly be in a one-sided friendship with Michelle Obama. I would submit myself to that kind of heartbreak.” - Simone Stevens, guest for this episode, in which Julia and Victoria discuss Becoming by Michelle Obama.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Becoming documentary on Netflix
Obama’s memoir (part 1) A Promised Land
Enneagram quiz
Hamilton performed at the White House
Recommendations:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
On Beautyby Zadie Smith
Knock Down the Housedocumentary on Netflix
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonceby Morgan Parker
Currently Obsessed:
Haikyu!! season 4 on Crunchyroll
My Favorite Murder podcast
The Crownseason 4 on Netflix
Red Couch Podcast with Propaganda and Dr Alma
Why was language created? Why are so many millennials obsessed with a giant history book? And what the heck even IS money? J & V contemplate these questions and more during their discussion of international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari with special guest Varun Bhoopalam.
Mentioned in the episode:
The Liturgists podcast
You Made It Weird podcast
Homo Deus by Harari
Sapiens: A Graphic History by Harari
Science Mike episode on Book Club
This Is Your Brain on Birth Control by Sarah E. Hill, PhD
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
What to read next:
Watching the English by Kate Fox
The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong
“How Storytellers Use Math” on LitHub
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Currently Obsessed:
Vianney new album N’attendons Pas
Novo Amor new album Cannot Be, Whatsoever
Bob Ross painting videos
What’shername women’s history podcast
New World Sourdough by Bryan Ford
Worm web serial and fan-made audiobook
Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles new album
Victoria interviews the creators of The House of Baba Yaga, a feminist-horror radio drama from The Impostors Theater company, about their experiences in the production process and their thoughts on the genre of horror as a whole.
Mentioned in the Episode:
The Impostors Theatre Co
The House of Baba Yaga on Youtube
EP044 Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod by Traci Brimhall
History of Baba Yaga
Recommendations:
The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix
Luce film
Jennifer’s Body film
Stranger Things on Netflix
Super8 2011 film
John Hughes films
Circe by Madeline Miller
Alexandra’s website
Emma Smart on instagram
Julia and Victoria host an introvert support group with their friend Sherilyn Koshy, over the book Quiet by Susan Cain, as they examine their experiences as sensitive people in a chaotic and extroverted culture.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Quiet Revolution
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
Girls Who Code
Recommendations:
Watching the English by Kate Fox
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl series by Issa Rae
Brave Not Perfect by Reshma Saujani
Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
Introvert’s Way by Sophia Dembling
Life Recs:
7 Wonders Duel game
Soup Club Chicago
It’s Ok to Not Be Ok on Netflix
KiwiCo
powerthepolls.org
Julia’s college friend and former editor, Nicole Block, joins J&V for a discussion on Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, a novel of twelve interwoven stories in a poetic and Virginia-Woolf-esque style. Join us as we learn about empathy, and English queer history, and property rights, and everything in between.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Semicolon bookstore Chicago
Evaristo’s interview with Desert Island Discs on BBC4
Evaristo’s twitter
Free Indirect Speech
Episode 047 Interpreter of Maladies
Recommendations:
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
I May Destroy You on HBO
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
In The Heights film (coming soon)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
What Brings Us Joy:
Shore, Fleet Foxes new album
Luna Luna, band
Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix
MeUndies
VOTE!! Illinois voting guide
This week Julia and Victoria answer the question: “What’s on your bookshelf?” And it leads them to surprisingly deep thoughts about home and belonging, authenticity and the search for happiness. Plus Victoria is still searching for a long-lost book she made the mistake of loaning, so if you find it, let them know.
Julia and Victoria are joined by creative writing grad student Waringa Hunja this week to cover Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collection Interpreter of Maladies that covers a wide variety of unique perspectives from the Indian diaspora. Turns out, after winning a Pulitzer for this book, Lahiri taught herself Italian and starting publishing books in her third language just for fun, so J & V are particularly excited to have a writer as a guest so they can all drool over Lahiri’s incredible talent and general awesomeness together.
Mentioned in the Episode:
bookshop.com
Domenico Starnone, Italian author
Ann Goldstein, translator
Interview with Jhumpa Lahiri for Lit Hub
What to Read Next:
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin
Homecoming King by Hasan Minjah
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
The Big Sick film by Kumail Nanjiani
What We’re Obsessed With:
Keaton Henson’s upcoming album
@DirtyRottenChurchKids on instagram
Julia, Victoria, and guest Hayoung Roh learn more about autism this week with Naoki Higashida’s debut book The Reason I Jump about his experience as a nonverbal autistic boy growing up in Japan. Julia is autistic, Hayoung has a brother with autism, and Victoria is their friend who’s trying to learn as much as humanly possible to be supportive; so whether you’ve done tons of research on autism or have no idea what’s going on, you’re in good company! With Naoki Higashida’s help, we’ll work together to unlearn our biases and try to find actionable ways to make the world a better place.
Mentioned in the Episode:
The Reason I Jump film at Sundance
Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 by Naoki Higashida
Higashida’s website, blog, and other Japanese publications
Julia’s Autism Starter Pack:
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
Autism in Heels by Jennifer O’Toole
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Autism Self Advocacy Network
Autism Women & Nonbinary Network
“Don’t Mourn for Us” by Jim Sinclair
“What Women With Autism Want You to Know” on Youtube
Autism Stories podcast
Them Aspergers podcast
Girl in Space podcast
Unnmasked on instagram
the.autisticats on instagram
theautisticlife on instagram
Douglas by Hannah Gadsby on Netflix
Atypical on Netflix
It’s Ok To Not Be Ok on Netflix
The Lynx Project autism advocacy series
Mitchell’s Life With Autism blog
What We’re Obsessed With:
BTS!!! (watch their Carpool Karaoke with James Corden for instant serotonin)
Worm audiobook (fan-made)
Get ready to contemplate the nature of reality this week with Julia and Victoria and a special guest as we read A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, the author’s award-winning third novel about two women on different continents in different times connected by a single story.
Follow along as they discuss their theories on what happened to Nao, empathize with the characters’ struggle against existence, and marvel at Jiko the 104-year-old Buddhist nun. Also Julia manages to explain the concept of non-duality on the fly, so she’s pretty proud of that.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Zen Buddhism
Ruth Ozeki’s films
Circe by Madeline Miller
nonduality
quantum computing
ikigai and/or raison d’etre
What to Read Next:
Get In Trouble by Kelly Link
Wolf359 the narrative podcast
This by Michael Gungor
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Dora Bruderby Patrick Modiano
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
Things that Bring Us Joy:
Haikyuu on Netflix
Oh Hello the P’dcast
Next Week:
Listen to Julia and Victoria, with special guest Emma Smart, as they lose their minds over the gritty poetry of Traci Brimhall in her newest collection Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod. Follow Brimhall on her journey as she tries to find small joys in a dark world, grapples with tragedy after tragedy, and defies the gods of Love and Death.
Support Us:
Become a Member!
PodHero
Mentioned in the Episode:
Shel Silverstein
Freud’s Drives Theory
Greek gods Eros and Thanatos
Pablo Neruda
Cain and Abel
Emma Smart on instagram
@graveyardgravy on instagram
John Donne
What to Read Next:
The Powerby Naomi Alderman
Wit by Margarent Edson
Julia and Victoria are joined this week by women’s health advocate Elizabeth Endara to dive into the bestselling second novel by Madeline Miller, Circe, about an often-misunderstood figure from Greek Mythology and her experience of being a woman on the margins. They discuss the ways Miller plays with tradition, Circe’s complicated relationships with men, and the surprising experience of relating to a woman stranded alone for years with no contact with the chaotic outside world who starts teaching herself magic and talking to plants to pass the time. It’s time to get witchy!
Mentioned in the Episode:
Elizabeth Endara’s website and her guest minisode
Mulan trailer
Lena Headey (actress)
Frozen songwriters
Gilmore Girls by Amy Sherman-Palladino
Balrog from The Lord of the Rings
Recommendations:
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Life Recs:
Room to Breathe Chicago
Love Island (UK)
Troye Sivan’s new EP
Unseen (by Wolf359 podcast team) crowdfunding page
Hamilton film on Disney+
Julia and Victoria return once again to the story of Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis 2 as young Marji navigates the perils of living on her own in a foreign country, particularly one where her race and heritage are viewed as a political statement, and the difficulty of deciding the direction of her future adult life. Satrapi’s story blows open our culture’s generalizations about “The Middle East” with nuance and humor and heartbreak. This book also makes it abundantly clear that no one will ever be as cool as Satrapi - absolutely no competition.
Stuff we talked about:
Persepolis 1 and Book Club Episode 32
ALA Most Challenged Books of 2014
What to read next:
Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi
March by John Lewis
Life Recs:
Palm Springs 2020 film
Unorthodox miniseries on Netflix
Glass Animals new album Dreamland
Amine new album Limbo
Max Richter new album Voices
Hunter x Hunter anime on Netflix
Romance may be struggling to break the six-foot barriers that divide us out in the world, but on Book Club with Julia & Victoria, romance is not yet dead. This week we’re trying out something new, reading international bestselling romance novel The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory. We’re joined by our recently-engaged friend from high school Bethany to discuss the relatable characters, important themes, and sweet moments that make this book special.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Austin Channing Brown’s video series The Next Question
NaNoWriMo
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Robin Jones Gunn
10 Things I Hate About You
ConSensual podcast
Autistic women and dating
What to Read Next:
Courtney Milan novels
The Rosie Projectby Graeme Simsion
Life Recs:
Misterwives new album
The Naked and Famous new album
Norsemen on Netflix
Ronny Chieng comedy special
“F2020” by Avenue Beat
Taylor Tomlinson comedy special
No matter how highly we anticipated reading Friday Black, the debut short story collection by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, there was nothing that could have prepared us for range of genres, disturbing imagery, and thought-provoking fantasy that we found in this book — everything from consumerism zombies to post-apocalyptic knife queens. Join us as we barely scratch the surface on the brilliance of this collection and explore how distancing ourselves from reality helps us see the world how it truly is.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Adjei-Brenyah essay “Why do you write political stories?”
Jordan Peele, actor, writer, director, producer
Sorry to Bother You, film by Boots Riley
Kimberly Jones, “Equality not Revenge,” interview with Trevor Noah
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Ronny Chieng comedy special, Asian Comedian Destroys America!
Beyonce’s directory of black-owned businesses
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Ray Bradbury short story “There Will Come Soft Rains”
What to Read Next:
Son by Lois Lowry
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Noughts & Crosses novel series by Malorie Blackman
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
If Julia and Victoria have learned one thing from Morgan Parker’s book of poetry There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, it is this: Beyoncé is an eternal member of the classical poetry canon, and her words will be taught in schools and make their mark on society for years to come; as will Morgan Parker’s. Can’t argue with facts.
Mentioned in this episode:
Beyoncé
Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker
Morgan Parker interview on Between The Covers
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
“Poet Morgan Parker’s LA Apartment Features Great Art, Cool Books, and One Seriously Sexy Sectional” Apartment Therapy
Wes Anderson
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens
“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Hayley
“99 Problems” by Jay Z
Lady Gaga
The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot
Her Body & Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (Episode 013)
Enjoyed this book? Here’s what else we recommend:
Magical Negro by Morgan Parker
How to Be Drawnby Terence Hayes
I’m So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had Onby Khadijah Queen (Episode 007)
Life recommendations (because quarantine is just life now…)
Violet Street by Local Natives
“Local Natives” episode of You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes
RamySeason 2
Julia and Victoria should have read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe in high school or college, and yet here they are in their twenties, with little to no knowledge of one of the most important figures in African literature. Listen in as we learn new things and attempt to use a podcast platform to remedy one of the failings of the American education system.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Ehud the Left-Handed
The Iliad
Postcolonial Literature
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Akram Khan’s Giselle
Kathak
Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Recommendations:
Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Uprightby Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
Next Week:
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker
(Correction: Julia incorrectly states in the episode that this is Parker’s first book, when in fact it is her second. Her first book of poetry is called Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night.)
Julia and Victoria spend most of the episode discussing how problematic Rowling’s representation is of the House Elf justice movement, so it is a prime example of “the Harry Potter generation” becoming disillusioned with its author. This will be the last of the Harry Potter series for us as we move onto more worthy subjects.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Daniel Radcliffe’s Statement for The Trevor Project
I Weigh interview with surgeon Dr Rachel Bluebond-Langner
Identifying and unpacking bad faith arguments against Puberty Blockers
Academic essay on Rowling’s flawed treatment of oppression
Recommendations:
Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Amazing list of YA fiction that addresses racism well
Quarantine Recs:
Pose on Netflix
Raleigh Ritchie’s new album Andy
Gordi’s new album Our Two Skins
Dark season 3
The Umbrella Academy season 2
Swaay’s anti-racism resource list
Up-to-date Black Lives Matter action carrd
Julia and Victoria have not stopped talking this book since it came out in April, so they decided to put their ongoing conversation on tape. In You’re a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass), science expert, empathetic public speaker, and hard-core nerd Mike McHargue (known professionally as Science Mike) dives into the core of what it means to be a human in the twenty-first century. Starting with the essential question, “Why do I do things I don’t want to do?,” this book covers everything from the ways technology and pizza are shaping social justice movements, to how an understanding of brain structure and core emotions can lead us into radical self-love and acceptance. An essential read for any human being who feels feelings and thinks thoughts.
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Buzzfeed article on Black Lives Matter Foundation
Official Black Lives Matter website
Guidestar
Hilary McBride
Rachel Held Evans
Austin Channing Brown
Pete Holmes, You Made It Weird
Finding God in the Waves
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
AEDP behavioral therapy model
Recommendations:
This Is Your Brain on Birth Control by Dr. Sarah E Hill
Rabbit Hole podcast
Brene Brown, Unlocking Us podcast
RTJ4
Ask Science Mike episode "This Feels Hard"
Disclosure documentary
What are the physical and emotional costs of time travel? Why is Crookshanks literally the smartest cat who has ever lived? What are the magical properties of chocolate? How much does Dumbledore really know? And when did Hermione become an animal rights activist? All this and more as Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban takes us to darker, more thoughtful places, and leads us to discussions about mental health, trauma, and what it means to actually be a good adult human.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Reader Response Theory
Daniel Radcliffe’s statement with The Trevor Project
Recommendations:
Ugly Delicious documentary with David Chang
Douglas stand-up special by Hannah Gadsby
This episode we follow the journey of two half sisters and their descendants through more than 300 years of Ghanaian and United States history in Yaa Gyasi’s novel Homegoing. From Cape Coast Castle and the slave plantations of Alabama to Jazz Age Harlem and the African independence movements, Gyasi examines the generational trauma caused by colonialism and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We’re joined by guest Hayley Schueneman, a Chicago-based writer, and together we explore Gyasi’s brilliant debut novel.
Recorded on May 24, 2020
Where to Donate:
Minnesota Freedom Fund
George Floyd Memorial Fund
I Run With Amaud Fund
Justice for Breonna Taylor
Where to Learn More:
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Hope and Hard Pills podcast with Andre Henry
Intersectionality Matters with Dr Kimberle Crenshaw
The Red Couch Podcast with Propaganda and Dr Alma
Uncivil podcast
White Homework resources by Tori Williams Douglass
Be the Bridge educational resources by Latasha Morrison
Links to Things Mentioned in the Episode:
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Our Guest Hayley Schueneman’s writing for The Cut and Reductress
Women and Children First feminist bookstore
Postcolonial Literary Theory and Frantz Fanon
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Marie Antionette film by Sofia Coppola
Recommended Reading Mentioned in the Episode:
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley
13th film by Ava Duvernay
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
Quarantine Recommendations:
Notes on a Conditional Form album by The 1975
D-2 mixtape by Agust D
Daechwita music video by Agust D
The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser
Headspace app (free for the unemployed)
Julia and Victoria embark on an important investigation to answer one simple question: Why is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets most likely to be readers’ least favorite book in the series? Plus, in the process, we solve other mysteries, such as “Why is Professor Lockhart so annoying?” and “What happens when Hermione isn’t around to keep Ron and Harry from doing something stupid?”
Mentioned in the Episode:
Universal Studios LA
Warner Bros Studio Tour London
Wizarding World of Harry Potter Orlando
If Hermione were the main character of Harry Potter by Buzzfeed
Hermione Granger the Goddamn Patriarchy by The Mary Sue
How Harry Potter Changed the World by Vox
JK Rowling tells of anger at attacks on casting of black Hermione by The Guardian
Riz Ahmed’s Speech on Diversity to the House of Commons on Channel 4
Next in the Series:
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban by J K Rowling
Quarantine Recommendations:
Harry Potter at Home Readings on Spotify
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Aristocrats song by Raleigh Ritchie
Marjane Satrapi prefers to call her seminal work Persepolis (about her life growing up in Iran in the 1980s) a Comic Book rather than a Graphic Novel, as we hoity toity Americans like to describe our more “serious” books, which is a perfect example of how Satrapi is always determined to buck the status quo. During a period of political upheaval and war in her country, Satrapi read comic books about Karl Marx, and listened to Iron Maiden, and stood up for her beliefs at political rallies or at school. She’s so punk, it’s incredible. So dive into Persepolis with us to learn more about the history of Persia and to spend some time with a young Marjane, the heroine the world desperately needs.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Free online classes with Harvard
Persepolis Film adaptation
Chicken With Plums film by Satrapi
The Voices film by Satrapi
Radioactive film by Satrapi
History of Iran/Persia
Prince of Persia game
Iron Maiden
Kim Wilde
Action Philosophers! Comic Book
Diary of Anne Frank
US Support for Iraq in Iran/Iraq war
Gulf War
Recommendations:
Persepolis book 2
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Lois Lowry’s books: The Giver series, The Willoughbys
Embroideries by Satrapi
Craig Thompson graphic novels:
Quarantine Recommendations:
La Casa de Papel on Netflix
Harry Potter at Home (people reading Harry Potter)
Cleaning Your Closet with Mari Kondo
Legos
Ah, yes, the classic tale of a young boy who is trapped in a cupboard by his evil step family, and then rescued by a group of wizards who run a school in Scotland and send children into the woods to fight an immortal supervillain. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J K Rowling sounds strange and unsuitable for young people when we summarize it, and yet it is by far one of the most incredible children’s books ever written. Join us as we reminisce about simpler times when all we had to worry about was whether Ron would receive yet another maroon sweater at Christmas, and then try to understand why every adult in Harry’s life is so irresponsible.
Recommended Reading:
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Quarantine Recommendations:
The Long Goodbye by Riz Ahmed (album)
Rabbit Hole by New York Times (podcast)
You’re a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass) by Mike MacHargue (book)
Normally we talk about books that have already been released, but this week we’re peeking behind the curtain as we talk to the founders, writers, and producers of ConSensual LLC about their upcoming feminist romance novel, Ten Week Turnabout. Join us as we muse on the merits of the romance genre, get excited about creating the kind of content we want to read and enjoy, and bemoan the difficulties of recording audio during social isolation. Check out Ten Week Turnabout on Spotify June, 24!
Guest: ConSensual LLC
Instagram - @consensualpod
Spotify - ConSensual
Mentioned In the Episode:
Music by Baby Money & The Downpayments
Design by Silpa Joe
What is a Turnabout?
Recommendations:
Wolf359 Podcast
Lego Masterson Hulu
My Dad Wrote a Porno podcast
Mrs. America on Hulu
Helen Hoang romance novels
Jasmine Guillory romance novels
One girl dead. Another girl missing. A reporter returns home to cover the story, and is forced to confront her past in Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. This gripping fiction thriller had Victoria sucked in, Julia pretty disturbed, and both feeling a bit let down by the HBO series based on the novel. While we didn’t spoil the ending in this intro, we will in the episode — so speed through the book now and join us for discussion of this female-forward mystery.
Listener discretion advised: Please note that this episode includes discussion of some really dark stuff such as murder, suicide, self harm, rape, and child abuse.
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Marie Kondo + the KonMari method
Gillian Flynn’s bio on her website
Sharp Objects, HBO Limited Series nominations and awards
Game of Thrones theme song
Sharp Objects opening credits music - interpretations of “Dance and Angela”
Recommendations for further reading:
Gone Girlby Gillian Flynn (also a movie)
Dark Placesby Gillian Flynn (also a movie)
Agatha Christie novels including Murder on the Orient Expressand The Hollow
Things we’ve been enjoying during quarantine times and recommend:
Books
Ayoade On Top by Richard Ayoade
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Podcasts:
Staying In with Emily & Kumail
How Did This Get Made
Ask Science Mike
The Liturgists podcast, meditations + online community
Fighting
COVID-19: The Science, How To Help, and Handling The Stress
Self-helpless
You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes
Breakdances with Wolves
TV Shows
Babylon Berlin (Netflix)
Money Heist (Netflix)
My Brilliant Friend (HBO) - check out our episode on the book that inspired the show!
Itaewon Class (Netflix)
Music
HAIM - Something to Tell You
The Parasocial Club
Panic!
Where is the Money?
Jacob Collier
Djesse Vol 2
In My Bones ft. Kimbra and Tank & the Bangas
Palo Santo - Years & Years
BTS - Map of the Soul: 7
App Game
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Writer, doula, and women’s health advocate Elizabeth Endara sat down with Julia back in January for some commentary on the state of women’s health and the importance of trusting women’s knowledge of their own bodies. After hearing our woefully under-informed opinions last episode on This Is Your Brain on Birth Control, now it’s time to learn from the wisdom of a women’s health professional!
Connect with Elizabeth and her community:
Elizabeth's website + writing
@elizabetheendara on Instagram
Release the Women - a community committed to elevating the voices of women
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Like a Mother by Angela Garbes
This Is Your Brain on Birth Control by Sarah E Hill PhD
Interoception
What is a doula?
The Birth Hour podcast
Works by Ina May Gaskin
This week we’re reading This Is Your Brain on Birth Control by Sarah E. Hill PhD. We are joined by the only person legally allowed to be in our home during this time of shelter in place: our dear roommate Natasha. We are so excited to discuss this book together and share our stories of self-discovery as we learn how to trust our experiences and make informed decisions about our own bodies. Highly recommend this book to anyone who knows anyone who takes birth control… so, everyone!
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Fish with three genders: the plainfin midshipman
Crash Course: Anatomy & Physiology - Reproductive System - YouTube series by Hank & John Green
Gone Girlby Gillian Flynn
Recommendations:
Explained docu-series on Netflix by Vox
The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter & How to Make the Most of Them Nowby Meg Jay, PhD
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinkingby Malcom Gladwell
This episode we are finally discussing Julia’s favorite book of all time: I Am The Messenger (known as The Messenger internationally) by Markus Zusak! Escape from social isolation (mentally) and join us for our discussion of this cheeky, thrilling, relatable, and mind-blowing YA novel about the value of beauty of the stories that are happening all around us, if only we pay attention.
Links to random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Gaga People
Messenger by Lois Lowry
The Book Thief(Movie)
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
“Markus Zusak on how Bridge of Clay left him 'beaten up and bruised'“ The Guardian
Leverage (TV Show)
The Great Divorceby C.S. Lewis
Gandalf - character from Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Characters from The Wizard of Ozby L. Frank Baum
The Hunger Gamesby Suzanne Collins
Recommendations:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Where’d You Go Bernadette?by Marie Semple
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
After Nobel-Prize-winning author Patrick Modiano found a personal ad about a missing Jewish girl in a Parisian newspaper from 1945, he was shocked to discover how much their lives might have intersected, and he became determined to uncover as much about her life as he could. Dora Bruder chronicles his eight-year pursuit of her story, the hidden history of Paris, and the painful memories that his project brings up from his own life. Join us as we discuss this short but powerful book about the importance of remembering.
Mentioned in the episode:
German occupation of France
You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes podcast
French student revolt in May 1968
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Great Believers by Rebeccah Makkai
Recommendations:
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Devil In the White City by Erik Larson
Works of Jonathan Safran Foer
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
One of the best books about shoes ever written. A female-centric bildungsroman for the ages. “If Jane Austen got angry.” Whatever you want to call My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan epic narrative about two young women struggling to find power and agency in post-war Italy is a stunning work of art, and we can’t wait to talk about it with our special guest, Jessica. Plus there’s an incredible Italian miniseries that airs on HBO: As Bong Joon Ho said, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”
Mentioned in the epidoe:
Parasite (film) by Bong Joon Ho
Jojo Rabbit (film) by Taika Waititi
The entire series by Elena Ferrante
HBO series My Brilliant Friend
Recommendations:
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Circe by Madeline Miller
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Now that the gender-bending adaptation of High Fidelity with Zoe Kravitz is out on Hulu, we had to dust off this classic about music, heartbreak, and the art of the listicle (long before Buzzfeed made it cool). Join us as we list off our favorite music and discuss how the show updated the music references for the millennial generation.
Mentioned In the Episode:
High Fidelity tv show on Hulu
Questlove executive music producer
Frank Ocean
Recommendations:
About a Boy by Nick Hornby
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman
Your Song Changed My Life by Bob Boilan
Few books have the ability to make Julia cry, but this one definitely did. Lisa Gungor’s 2018 memoir discusses the themes of motherhood and the divine feminine, and follows the ups and downs of being a Christian celebrity who loses her faith. Join us as we discuss how these themes intersect with our lives, and whether or not spaghetti is a good visual metaphor for evolving belief systems.
Recommendations:
The Liturgists Podcast
Lisa’s new music project, Isa Ma
The Very Worst Missionary by Jamie Wright
Next Week:
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
(And don’t forget the show on Hulu!)
Who knew that some of the most personally transformative non-fiction of our time would come from a shame researcher? And yet, here we are, crying over Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly as she covers the walls we put in place to protect ourselves from vulnerability, the dominant shame messages we receive based on gender scripts, and the terrifying but essential tools we need to knock them all down.
Mentioned in the episode:
Brené Brown’s previous works
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
What is the proper plural of Octopus?
Brené Brown Netflix Special: The Call to Courage
Scary Close by Donald Miller
This Is Your Brain on Birth Control by Sarah E Hill, PhD
Hilary McBride
Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man In the Arena” speech
Guilt vs Shame
“Men are afraid women will laugh at them; women are afraid men will kill them.”
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Is self care becoming a burden? (NPR article)
Recommendations:
Shame episode by The Liturgists podcast
The Mask You Live In documentary
Shameless by Nadia Bolz-Weber
This by Michael Gungor
Scary Close by Donald Miller
Mothers, Daughters & Body Image By Hilary McBride
If, like Julia, you are obsessed with books about deeply meaningful coincidences, then you’ll love this multi-generational book of stories by Anthony Marra about every human’s fight to not be erased. The Tsar of Love and Techno spans 60 years, 3 Russian cities, 3 regime changes, 9 major characters, and even multiple planets in the solar system, all centered around a very well-traveled painting of the countryside. Join us as we try to untangle this very elaborate, expertly-crafted plot and recount the many times we unexpectedly laughed or cried, or both at once.
Things in the episode:
Anthony Marra’s website
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
What’s a casette tape again?
Censorship of images in the Soviet Union
Greek Chorus
What is a Gulag?
Chechen-Russian conflict
Intergenerational Trauma
The last Tsar of Russia
Kit Kittredge and the Great Depression
Recommendations:
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (and the HBO adaptation)
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (and the 2019 film adaptation)
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
Scary Close is a memoir by Donald Miller that covers one of the scariest topics in the world: Vulnerability. (No! Please! Anything by vulnerability! I’m too young to die!) Follow the compelling journey of a man (and his trusted sidekick, Lucy the labrador) as he learns to be his authentic self, create healthy boundaries, and show up for the most important relationships in his life. Then follow him on instagram for pictures of his dog.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Father Fiction
Blue Like Jazz book, and film (2012)
The Mask You Live In (documentary about male gender scripts and emotional connection)
Donald Miller’s friend Bob Goff
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Scary Close Website (Playlist and Wedding Photos)
Recommendations:
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
You’re a Miracle (And a Pain in the Ass) by Mike McHargue
Love Does by Bob Goff
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
We talk about the Enneagram a lot, possibly too much, in fact. But we’re on the air one more time talking about what we have learned since we released the Sacred Enneagram episode last fall. We discuss questions like, What are the limits of this tool, and How do we use it to find the next step in our journey toward wholeness? Also a list of our favorite meme accounts!
J&V have a lot of questions about daemons: How do they bathe? How are they born? Do they need to eat? What if a person’s daemon turns into an elephant and they can never go inside again? This week we’re having a blast talking about the incredible world of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass and wishing we were witches. Join us for a wild ride as we journey to the far North with the iconic heroine Lyra Silvertongue, and then dive deep into the logistics of having a physical daemon.
Mentioned in the Episode:
The Book of Dust trilogy by Philip Pullman
Meaning of “daemon” in Ancient Greek
His Dark Materials HBO series
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Andrew Scott (from Fleabag and Sherlock)
Ruth Wilson (from Luther and The Affair)
Recommendations:
Inkheart Trilogy by Cornelia Funke
Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
Harry Potter series by J K Rowling
The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J R R Tolkien
The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis
Victoria and her mom dive into an important discussion of how body image gets passed down through generations of women and what the pair of them did to break the cycle. Read the book, call your mom, and then join us for a lovely, deep discussion on body positivity.
Recommendations:
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn
Gardenias for Breakfast by Robin Jones Gunn
The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen by Lisa Gungor
Julia and her brother Michael would have spent their Christmas holiday reading Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, re-watching the 1994 classic with Winona Ryder, getting up to see Greta Gerwig’s remake in theaters Christmas Day, and discussing all three at length at 2am anyway. So we thought, why not record their conversation for the podcast? Join us for something a little different as we spend time with our families and sing the praises for Florence Pugh’s Amy March. Happy New Year Everyone!
All the References In the Episode:
Parks and Recreation
Jo’s Boys and Little Men
Moby Dick
1994 Little Women, and its Soundtrack
How Did This Get Made podcast
Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth, Fighting With My Family, and Little Drummer Girl
Doctor Who
Gilmore Girls
Fleabag by Phoebe Waller Bridge
James Norton in War and Peace and Grantchester
The Crown
Perks of Being a Wallflower
Bob Odenkirk and Christian Bale
Timothee Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name
Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Dickens
Bechdel Test
Alexandre Desplat and the new soundtrack
Recommendations:
Lady Bird by Greta Gerwig
Mistress America by Noah Baumbach
20th Century Women
East of Eden by Steinbeck
How have the books we read this year shaped us? And how did our daily lives color the books we read? Join us for some coffee and contemplation as we look back on 2019 - the adventures we traveled, the jobs we started, and the crazy decision we made to put recordings of our voices onto the internet for literally anyone to listen to.
Books Mentioned in this Episode:
The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile
Neurotribesby Steve Silberman
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Malaysia Bagus! by Sharon Cheah
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
It’s not a comic, or a graphic novel; it’s a graphic memoir. And apparently, graphic memoirs can be truly incredible works of art with gripping stories, that also last about as long as a single installment of Lord of the Rings. So if you feel overwhelmed by the pressure of always trying to be a “good reader,” whatever that means, join us as we rest our burnt out souls and engage with this truly incredible, visual text about family and identity after the Vietnam War by Thi Bui.
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
“Life is Much More Difficult to Manage During Periods”: Autistic Experiences of Menstruation in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
“Cartoonist Thi Bui Weaves Together Personal And Political History” - All Things Considered, NPR
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Here is a more complete history of Vietnam.
To support immigrants and refugees coming to America, consider supporting the American Civil Liberties Union or Asylum Access.
Recommendations for further reading:
March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Why was prominent feminist author and advocate affectionately known as RHE doing truly wild things like sitting on her roof, camping on her front lawn during her period, and the most horrifying of them all, waking up before dawn? To dismantle the Christian patriarchy, obviously! Join us as we dig into the book that taught us small-town, religious girls how to be feminists.
Mentioned In the Episode:
Rachel Held Evans’ website and blog
Other works by RHE
“What Rachel Held Evans Meant to Christians,” article from The Atlantic
Garden liturgy album by The LIturgists
“There Are No Women on My Theology Bookshelf,” blog post from Maggi Dawn
Green & Black chocolate
Recommended Reading:
I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown
Transforming by Austin Hartke
Nadia Bolz Weber (any of her works)
Poetry! Love! Education! Mattresses? The ex-planet Pluto? Julia is skeptical of one of Victoria’s favorite books of poetry by Taylor Mali, but they still find themselves in a deep conversation about the nature and purpose of poetry. So buckle up because it’s serious-poetry-nerd time!
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Article about Taylor Mali’s marriage to his second wife from New York Times
The Whetting Stone by Taylor Mali
Galway Kinnell
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot read by Jeremy Irons & Eileen Atkins
Recommendations for further reading (and listening)
Emergency Kit: Poems for Strange Times edited by Jo Shapcott and Matthew Sweeney
Button Poetry
Welcome to Cook Club! In honor of Thanksgiving, we're making recipes from the mind of corgi lover, Queer Eye star, and Prince of Avocado Antoni Porowski. Join us as we talk about veganism with our first returning guest Rebecca Gesme, eat some veggies, and remember how food and family have shaped our lives.
The Recipes We Made:
Cauliflower Steaks with turmeric and crunchy almonds
Tangy Beluga Lentils
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with ginger and lime
Julia and her childhood best friend remember the books they read as kids, the fictional characters they had crushes on, their identities as book nerds, and the stories that made them into who they are today.
Books Mentioned in the Episode:
The Squires Tales series by Gerald Morris
Harry Potter series by J K Rowling
The Oracles of Fire series by Bryan Davis
1984 by George Orwell
Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke
Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle
Haruki Murakami
We thought we understood what this book is about, and then we really, really didn’t. There are apocalyptic viruses and sci-fi-esque body-altering surgeries; people turning invisible and reading minds. There’s even SVU fan fiction. Prepare to be shook as we get into this truly remarkable, genre-bending, heart-wrenching book of short stories by rising author Carmen Maria Machado.
Mentioned in the Episode
Jojo Rabbit (film) by Taika Waititi
TV Show Development of Her Body and Other Parties
Iowa Writers Workshop
Magical Realism
Carmen Maria Machado’s individually published short stories
Law and Order SVU
Buzzfeed Article “For Everyone Who’s Still F*cked Up Over That Story About the Girl With the Green Ribbon Around Her Neck”
Recommendations
A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel
“Incarnations of Burned Children” by David Foster Wallace (from Oblivion: Stories)
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra (Episode 022)
Nick Hornby’s Funny Girl is one of those rare books that both tells profound truths and can be consumed in a single 24-hour period. This episode begins with Victoria claiming there is little to say about this book besides the fact that it is laugh-out-loud funny, and it ends on a serious discussion of the nature of high art versus low art, so clearly this book has range. Join us as we follow “Funny Girl” Sophie Straw and her band of misfits through the perils of making a television show in the 1960s.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Book Club Book Swap! Give a book, get a book from J&V!
A Long Way Down by 2014 film
An Education
Wild
Brooklyn
Stuff I’ve Been Reading Nick Hornby column
Lucille Ball
Dee Henderson
Harry Potter vs Twilight debate
Recommendations:
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
About A Boy by Nick Hornby
Gillian Flynn
Gone Girl
Sharp Objects
Mindy Kaling
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
Why Not Me?
This old wrinkly vampire is a far cry from the ageless, sparkly teen version we’ve come to know and… tolerate. But the history of these creatures is so much deeper than their empty veins. Read the book, or watch one of your favorite vampire flicks, and join us for a good, old-fashioned, Victorian-era spook.
Random Things From the Episode:
Victorian Literature
Fin De Siecle
Darwinism
Sexuality in Victorian England
History of Vampires in Pop Culture
1992 Dracula film by Francis Ford Coppola
Physiognomy
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Importance of Being Earnest 2002 film
Recommended Reading:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Middlemarch by George Elliot
Goblin Market Christina Rossetti
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Our multi-talented graphic designer, Gaby Febland, joins us for a delightful discussion on the meaning of art, book-to-film adaptation, and unreliable narrators in The Goldfinch. Watch the movie first, try to make a dent in this 900+ page novel, give up a few times, then join us for some quality banter about one of the most popular books of the last two years.
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Hamilton (soundtrack)
Frida Kahlo - Viva la Vida, Watermelons
Winged Victory of Samothrace
Augustus V. Tack - Golden Rhythms
The story of The Goldfinch by Fabritius
Find our guest Gaby FeBland online:
www.gabyfebland.com
Friends of the Bog
South Side Weekly
Luna at Filament Theatre
Recommended Reading:
The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
Lincoln in the Bardoby George Saunders
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Why do we say “Ye Olde Taverne” when we’re trying to sound old and British? Why did an Irish poet create a competition to build a better alphabet on his deathbed? And what the hell is an ampersand? This week in Book Club: Minisodes, Victoria goes deep into the history of the English language and alphabet. It’s gonna be a wild ride, so let’s get into it!
References:
Old English Letters and Runes
A History of the English Language 6th Edition by Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable
Victoria is a fervent believer in the importance of intelligent and inclusive children’s literature, and Julia likes to say wheee while she rides a robot bird into a magical land where stories are born. Join us as we laugh and cry and remember why we fell in love with books in the first place.
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
TimesTalks Interview with Salman Rushdie
PEN International
Books by E.B. White: The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little, and Charlotte’s Web
Books by Laurie Halse Anderson: Chains (Seeds of America Series) and Fever 1793
Recommendations for further reading:
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Lioness & Her Knight by Gerald Morris
The Tale of Despereauxby Kate DiCamillo
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
A 3 and a 5 have a chat about what we have learned from Chris Heuertz’s The Sacred Enneagram and why we sometimes don’t understand each other’s intelligence centers. If that sounds like complete nonsense, we’ll try our best to explain.
Recommendations for further listening & reading:
The Liturgists:
Enneagram Episode
27 Subtypes Episodes
The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile
Eclectic Energies: Free Enneagram Test
Rhiso-Hudson Enneagram Institute
Our special guest and published poet Ola Faleti guides us through Queen’s seminal work about personal power and the male gaze, and we all learn new things. Buy the book! Support working poets! You’ll be glad to have this beauty on your shelf.
This week’s guest:
Ola Faleti’s website and poetry
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Khadijah Queen’s website
Review of I’m So Fine on Medium.com
Famous Men:
Zachary Quinto
Aziz Ansari
Master of None
Stand-Up Special “Right Now”
Samuel L. Jackson
Modernism
Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos
Black Peculiar by Khadijah Queen
Audiofeed Festival
The Hunts
Lisa Gungor
The Brilliance
Recommendations for further reading:
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker
[insert] boy by Danez Smith
The Crown Ain't Worth Much by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
The Last Time As We Are by Taylor Mali
Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur
Victoria is officially back from her travels and ready to learn new things! Julia and Victoria discuss the difficulty of balancing forgiveness and self-advocacy, ponder the validity of essential oils, and get schooled on the importance of education. Take back your power and join us as we dissect this important book.
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
“I guess I just haven’t learned that yet.” Instagram post from Shauna Niequist
Y2K
Recommendation for further reading:
The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen: Opening Your Eyes to Wonder by Lisa Gungor
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
A lively discourse in which Miss Clausen exhibits her ‘encyclopedic knowledge of Jane Austen’ and Miss Bruick is amused. Have some tea, look at pictures of young Colin FIrth, journal in the third person about who has 10,000 a year, and then join the party for our discussion of Emma and Jane Austen.
Some things we mentioned in the episode:
Jane Austen’s Other Works
Pride and Prejudice
Mansfield Park
Sense and Sensibility
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen Society of North America
The 12 Publishers Who Rejected JK Rowling
Jane Austen’s brothers in the Royal Navy
Pride and Prejudice (2005) film
History of the Royal Navy
Is Jane Austen a Feminist?
Virginia Woolf on Jane Austen
A Room of One’s Own
American Suffrage Movement
Film/TV Adaptations
BBC Emma (2009) Miniseries
Persuasion (2007)
Why Is Jane Austen Still Relevant Today? (BBC Article)
Book Recommendations:
Middlemarch, by George Elliot
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
Some things we mentioned in the episode:
Jane Austen’s Other Works
Pride and Prejudice
Mansfield Park
Sense and Sensibility
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen Society of North America
The 12 Publishers Who Rejected JK Rowling
Jane Austen’s brothers in the Royal Navy
Pride and Prejudice (2005) film
History of the Royal Navy
Is Jane Austen a Feminist?
Virginia Woolf on Jane Austen
A Room of One’s Own
American Suffrage Movement
Film/TV Adaptations
BBC Emma (2009) Miniseries
Persuasion (2007)
Why Is Jane Austen Still Relevant Today? (BBC Article)
Book Recommendations:
Middlemarch, by George Elliot
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
When did we start separating stories into truth and fiction? And what does that have to do with women's liberation? This week, we're taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming to delve into one of Julia's favorite subjects: The History of the Novel. Get ready, it's Nerd Time!
Random tidbits mentioned in this minisode:
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra,
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Any men out there wanna ‘splain this podcast episode for us? Well too bad, because we brought in our mysterious third roommate and resident sustainability expert Rebecca to give us a hand with these two small but mighty feminist texts.
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Beyoncé - ***Flawless ft. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - YouTube
Women in the Church - The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (1985)
CTCR Review of 2005 Task Force Guidelines for the Service of Women in Congregational Offices (LCMS - 2014)
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Frieden
Simone de Beauvoir
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
Recommendation for further reading (and watching):
Writings by Judith Butler
Veronica Mars (TV Show - streaming on Hulu)
Books by Nadia Bolz-Weber
Shameless: A Sexual Reformation
Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People
Books by Rachel Held Evans:
A Year of Biblical Womanhood
Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church
Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again
A neurodivergent friend and a neurotypical friend walk into a podcast… and then discover too late how much important information is in this very long book. If the 500+ page-length scares you, feel free to listen to this ‘Spark Notes’ version. (Content Warning: ABA, shock therapy, eugenics)
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
My Brilliant Friend and Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
“Abigail Echo-Hawk on the Art and Science of Decolonizing Data” | Crosscut.com
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Autistic People of Color Fund
Recommendation for further reading:
Thinking in Pictures and other books by Temple Grandin
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida
Autism in Heels: The Untold Story of a Female Life on the SpectrumbyJennifer Cook O'Toole
Read the novel. Cry. Question whether you have a soul. Watch the movie. Cry again. Then listen to the podcast.
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Yo-Yo Ma performing Bach Cello Suites 1-6 presented by BBC Proms
Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go Featurette - Exploring the Story by FOX Searchlight
BONUS: Tiny Desk Concert we love of Yo-Yo Ma jamming with his bluegrass crew
Recommendation for further reading:
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
Welcome to Book Club! The Earth is a Libra, God is a woman, Aziraphale and Crowley are in love, and the world is ending. What a time to be alive! Go read the book and watch the Amazon series and then come back for a chat with us about this quirky tale.
Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:
Ansafone
M25 motorway
“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Recommendation for further reading:
Anything by Nick Hornby, especially Funny Girl and Juliet, Naked