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Books & Boba

This is a book club and podcast dedicated to books written by authors of Asian and Pacific Islander descent.

03/01/2025

Happy New Year! Though it's not the year of the snake quite yet according to the Lunar calendar, we will be reading on theme. Our Jan 2025 book club pick is SISTER SNAKE, a darkly funny, contemporary fairy tale about estranged sisters who were once snakes basking under a full moon in Tang Dynasty China.

***rbooks

02/12/2024

Happy December! Our final book for the year 2024 is KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo and translated by Jamie Chang.

This international bestseller follows Kim Jiyoung, a thirty-something-year-old "millennial everywoman," who has recently left her white-collar desk job in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time--as so many Korean women are expected to do. The book follows Jiyoung's psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.

02/11/2024

For our November 2024 book club pick, has chosen Charles Yu's award winning novel INTERIOR CHINATOWN, just in time for him to actually read the book before watching the television adaptation coming out later this month!

Read along with us on Goodreads or Discord if you're a Patreon supporter (links in bio)

17/10/2024

Did you know that Books & Boba has official merch? To celebrate our 8th anniversary, get 15% off all items in our store using the promo code BOBABOOKS8 (Patreon supporters get a deeper discount code)!

Check out our merch store at booksandboba.com or using the link in our bio

01/10/2024

For our Spooky Month 2024 book club pick, we're reading THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by ! It's a novella so a lighter lift after last month's heavier read (unless you're not good with spooks), but we're excited to dive into this story of plague doctors and flesh-eating mermaids (thanks to Patreon supporter cupojen for the rec)!

Read along with us on Goodreads or our Discord if you're a patreon member (all links in bio)

04/09/2024

Our September 2024 book club pick is A BURNING by Megha Majumdar (.maj), a story following three people in modern India caught up in a terrorist attack, a Muslim girl accused of the attack after making a careless post on social media, and two others who's own stories will determine the girl's fate.

Read along with us on our discord (exclusive to our patreon supporters) and tune into our podcast discussion at the end of the month! (links in bio)

01/08/2024

Our August 2024 book club pick is Land of Milk & Honey by C Pam Zhang ()! A sci-fi story about a chef who leaves their dystopic city to work for an enigmatic employer at a decadent mountaintop colony for the uber elite.

Longtime book club members will know that we love it when Asian Americans use food to tell stories, and we're excited to dive into this novel for book club!

Read along with us and join our discussion on our discord (for Patreon supporters) or Goodreads (links in bio)!

02/07/2024

Heads up! Our July 2024 book club pick is .salesses' THE SENSE OF WONDER, a novella about the struggles of Asian Americans to be seen in sports and entertainment, following the story of a rising basketball star, the sports writer who covers him, and an entertainment executive trying to bring K-Dramas to the states.

This book was a Patron's choice! Join our Patreon to help us pick our next Patron's choice book next quarter! (Link in bio)

01/06/2024

Book Club announcement! Our June 2024 pick for the Books & Boba Book Club is GRETA & VALDIN by Rebecca K. Reilly (.k.reilly), following the story of a brother and sister as they navigate q***rness, multiracial identity, and the dramas big and small of their entangled, unconventional family, all while flailing their way to love.

We're excited to dive into this one! Read along with us on discord or goodreads.

31/05/2024

Finally, for our last mood board, we present our May 2024 book club pick, KILL HER TWICE by , the queen of Chinese American historical fiction. The novel is a YA noir mystery about two Chinese American sisters who investigate the murder of their friend, an up and coming Hollywood starlet, in 1930's Los Angeles.

*Be sure to tune into our discussion episode for KILL HER TWICE (out now!) to hear our thoughts about this book!

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Los Angeles, 1932: Lulu Wong, star of the silver screen and the pride of Chinatown, has a face known to practically anyone, especially to the Chow sisters—May, Gemma, and Peony—Lulu's former classmates and neighbors. So the girls instantly know it's Lulu whose body they discover one morning in an out-of-the-way stable, far from the Beverly Hills mansion where she moved once her fame skyrocketed.

The sisters suspect Lulu's death is the result of foul play, but the LAPD—known for being corrupt to the core—doesn't seem motivated to investigate. Even worse, there are signs that point to the possibility of a police cover-up, and powerful forces in the city want to frame the killing as evidence that Chinatown is a den of iniquity and crime, even more reason it should be demolished to make room for the construction of a new railway depot, Union Station.

Worried that neither the police nor the papers will treat a Chinese girl fairly—no matter how famous and wealthy—the sisters set out to solve their friend’s murder themselves, and maybe save their neighborhood in the bargain. But with Lulu’s killer still on the loose, the girls’ investigation just might put them square in the crosshairs of a coldblooded murderer.

28/05/2024

We're in the final week of and our last batch of mood boards! Our 7th mood board is for Abraham Chang's () debut novel 888 LOVE AND THE DIVINE BURDEN OF NUMBERS, an Asian American coming-of-age love story set in mid-90's New York.

(In retrospect, we probably should have scheduled this one for mood board no. 8)

*We're chatting with Abraham about his novel in a future podcast episode, so stay tuned for more on this book!

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Young Wang has received plenty of wisdom from his beloved uncle: don’t take life too seriously, get out on the road when you can, and everyone gets just seven great loves in their life—so don’t blow it. This last one sticks with Young as he is an obsessive cataloger of his life: movies watched, favorite albums . . . all filtered through Chinese numerology and superstition. He finds meaning in almost everything, for which his two best friends endlessly tease him. But then, at the end of 1995, when Young is at New York University, he meets Erena. She’s brilliant, charismatic, quick-witted, and crassly funny. They fall in love and, for Young, it feels so real that he’s thrilled and terrified. As Young and Erena’s relationship blossoms, we get flashbacks to Young’s first five loves. That means Erena is “number six.” Was his uncle wrong—is she the one and only? Or are they fated for failure to make room for Young’s final, seventh love?

20/05/2024

Our sixth mood board for is for RELATIVE STRANGERS by .writer. This contemporary spin on SENSE & SENSIBILITY features two mixed-race Korean American sisters, their ex-hippie mother, multiple messy love affairs, and one explosive secret that could expose everything.

We talked to A.H. Kim on Episode 266. You can listen to our conversation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

*Tw: Cancer, death of spouse*

Amelia Bae-Wood’s life is falling apart. Unemployed, newly single and completely broke—for reasons she hasn’t told anyone yet—she finds herself hitchhiking across California to deal with the fallout of her mother’s eviction from the family estate. Amelia needs somewhere to live and time to figure out what to do with the rest of her life, so moving with her mother and sister to Arcadia, the cancer retreat center where her sister volunteers, seems like as good an idea as any.

Amelia’s sister, Eleanor, has too much on her plate, including being caught up in a court battle with a man who claims to be their half brother from Seoul and their late father’s only son—a secret love child from his Korean youth—who’s fighting for a piece of everything that belongs to the Bae-Wood women. And when Amelia adds herself to Eleanor’s list of problems, Eleanor must figure out what to hold on to—and when to let go—before things starts to unravel.

17/05/2024

Our fifth mood board is of HOW TO END A LOVE STORY by .kuang. Emotional and sexy, this contemporary romance novel is about two writers linked by a shared tragedy who are thrown into a writers room for a TV show and discover a spark between them that complicates everything.

*Tw: Su***de, death of a sibling, panic attacks*

Helen Zhang hasn't seen Grant Shephard once in the 13 years since the car wreck that killed her sister. Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. Suffering from imposter syndrome and writers block, she moves from NYC to LA to join the writers' room of the TV adaptation of her popular YA novel, hoping to start fresh.

Meanwhile, Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet… the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.

13/05/2024

Our fourth mood board for our 2024 is of A CRANE AMONG WOLVES by .

Set in 1506 Joseon, Hur's latest historical mystery follows Iseul, who embarks on a dangerous journey to the capital in hopes of stealing her sister back from the court of King Yeonsan, one of Korea's most hated tyrants. When she crosses path with Prince Daehyun, who has lived his whole life under the tyranny of his bloodthirsty half-brother, the two reluctantly join forces to launch the riskiest gamble the kingdom has ever experienced.

We talked to June Hur about her novel THE RED PALACE on Episode 168. You can listen to our chat wherever you listen to podcasts.

09/05/2024

Our third mood board for our is of THE MONSTROUS MISSES MAI by .

Set in 1959 Los Angeles, the book follows Cordelia Mai Yin, who leaves her Vietnamese immigrant parents' home after a fight over her dream to become a fashion designer. With little money and prospects, Cordelia is relieved when a white man named Callum offers her a place at a loft apartment rented by three other Asian American girls: Tessa, Audrey, and Silly. Aside from sharing the middle name "Mai," all four girls must contend with racism and sexism that prevent them from reaching greater success in their careers. So when Callum introduces them to a magic Ponzi scheme that will give them success in exchange for a sacrifice, the girls eagerly perform the rituals. Soon, the cost of magic grows to dangerous heights, and the girls must decide how much of themselves they are willing to sacrifice.

01/05/2024

Our May 2024 book club pick is from this time, who felt drawn to read some historical fiction in honor of , so we're reading 's latest novel KILL HER TWICE, a YA noir mystery about the murder of a Chinese film star in 1930's Los Angeles.

Read along with us on Goodreads or our members-only discord if you're a Patreon supporter!

01/05/2024

For this year's , we're inviting people to create mood boards for books by Asian and Asian diaspora authors. Our first mood board features THIS BOOK WON'T BURN by .

Set in a rural and conservative town in Illinois, this YA contemporary novel follows high school senior Noor Khan as she and her friends rally to protest against book banning after discovering that their school board propose a policy to remove hundreds of books by q***r and BIPOC authors.

Stay tuned for our conversation with author Samira Ahmed in an upcoming episode of Books & Boba.

📷 Top center block portrays Edha Gupta, a former Central York High School student and organizer of the Panther Anti-Racist Union, protesting against her school district's book ban. (Photo by Bill Kalina, The York Dispatch)

30/04/2024

It's gonna be May! 🎶 Asians, our heritage month is coming up soon. We have a new Asian Books Challenge prepared for you this year. We're asking folks to create mood boards for books by Asian authors they've read or are planning to read in 2024. You can design your mood board any way you like, but for those who need a little help, we have an easy template for you to screenshot and use. Authors are also more than welcome to join in on the fun. There is no limit on how many mood boards you can make for this challenge.

Don't forget to tag us on and use the hashtag so we can see your recs! You get extra credit if you include any tropes or bullet points about your book pick in the captions.

Looking forward to seeing all your bookish aesthetics this APAHM!

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On our 300th episode (!!!), we chat with author @clareosongco about her debut novel MIDNIGHTS WITH YOU, a YA coming of age story about a girl living with her strict Filipino mother and her secret midnight driving lessons with the new boy next door. Listen to the full author chat now on your favorite podcast player (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #bookclub #books #author #clareosongco #midnightswithyou #literature

Have you listened to our author chat with @rosakwoneaston yet? Check out our conversation about her debut historical fiction novel WHITR MULBERRY, about Koreans in Japan during ww2, inspired by the real-life experiences of her grandmother. Listen to the full episode now at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #authorchat #BookClub #books #whitemulberry

We invited our friends @adatseng88 & @husbrian from the SATURDAY SCHOOL podcast to help us discuss our November 2024 book club pick, INTERIOR CHINATOWN by Charles Yu Listen to the full episode now at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #bookclub #books #potluckpod #podcast #interiorchinatown

On our latest podcast, author @julieleongbooks joins us to chat about her debut novel, THE TELLER OF SMALL FORTUNES, a cozy fantasy that's perfect for your holiday reading list. Listen to the full episode now at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #bookclub #books #cozyfantasy #author

On our latest author chat, we sit down with Nayantara Roy to discuss her debut novel THE MAGNIFICENT RUINS, following a young professional woman who learns that she has inherited her grandfather's manor in India and returns to settle her affairs with her extended family who still lives there, including her estranged mother. Listen to the full chat now at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #bookclub #books #author #themagnificentruins

@reeraboo schools @marvinyueh on obscure fairy tales on the latest Books & Boba podcast! Listen to us as we discuss our October 2024 spooky month book club pick THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by @casskhaw! Listen to the full episode now at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #books #bookclub #asianbooks #booksandboba

On our latest podcast, we chat with Joanne Howard ( @joannesbooks) about her debut novel SLEEPING IN THE SUN, a coming-of-age story about the youngest son and servant of an American missionary family in India during the last days of the British rule. Joanne shares how her story was inspired by her own family's history. Listen to the full episode now at booksandboba.com and on your favorite podcast player (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #books #bookclub #author

On our latest author chat, we sit down with author/cartoonist @by_teresawong to talk about her latest graphic memoir ALL OUR ORDINARY STORIES. In this clip Teresa shared how she fell into illustrating her own work. Listen to the full episode now at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #asiancanadian #author #cartoonist #graphicnovel #books #Bookstagram

On our latest episode, we discuss our September 2024 book club pick A BURNING by @megha.maj, a gripping social novel about how corruption and injustice go hand in hand with power and the myth of social mobility. Listen to our full discussion at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #bookclub #asian #books #podcast

Don't miss our latest author chat with Preeti Chhibber (@runwithskizzers) about her new novel PAYAL MEHTA'S ROMANCE REVENGE PLOT, following the ill-conceived machinations of a high school senior in South Florida to get back at her crush for micro-aggressioning her. Listen to the full episode now at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #bookclub #books #authorchat

On our latest podcast, we chat with author @aurorapalit about her debut romance novel SUNSHINE AND SPICE, about two opposites who engage in a fake relationship to solve their personal and professional issues in their conservative Bengali Canadian community. We chat with Aurora about her inspirations as well as how she approaches writing a spicy scene. Listen to the full chat now at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianbooks #asiancanadian #authorchat #author #books

Don't miss our latest podcast episode featuring an amazing author chat with @RandyRibay who joins us to chat about his new YA fiction novel EVERYTHING WE NEVER HAD, a multigenerational family drama about 4 generations of Filipino fathers and sons. Listen to the full episode now at booksandboba.com (links to show in bio) #asianamerican #filipinoamerican #books #authors #bookclub

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