Welcome to Book Club With Julia and Victoria, the podcast for book friends!
If you just finished a book and HAVE to talk about it with someone, if you’re a casual reader looking for book recs, or if you’re the type of deep thinker who has formative memories of their high school English teacher, you’re in the right place.
We believe a good book can come from anywhere, so we read classics and recent releases, bestsellers and little-known gems. But ultimately, this podcast is for the books we just can’t shut up about.
Welcome to Book Club With Julia and Victoria, the podcast for book friends!
If you just finished a book and HAVE to talk about it with someone, if you’re a casual reader looking for book recs, or if you’re the type of deep thinker who has formative memories of their high school English teacher, you’re in the right place.
We believe a good book can come from anywhere, so we read classics and recent releases, bestsellers and little-known gems. But ultimately, this podcast is for the books we just can’t shut up about.
Content warning: this episode includes discussions of suicide and homophobia.
Julia and Victoria reminisce about their 20s comparing the novel Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park, translated by Anton Hur, and its recent TV adaptation. It involves a lot of pointing out red flags and crying about friendship.
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:
Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park (book)
117 Beyond the Story by BTS & Kang Myeong-seok — A Memoir or an Official Wiki?
Love in the Big City (TV show)
Love in the Big City (film)
The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta by Sang Young Park
Boys Love Boys Love (podcast)
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, English translation by Anton Hur
Anton Hur interview with Booker International Prize
True to You: A Therapist's Guide to Stop Pleasing Others and Start Being Yourself by Dr. Kathleen Smith
Film Club with Julia & Victoria
127 The Pairing by Casey McQuiston — Who Is the Elf?
V&O: Sea Change by Gina Chung — Loneliness & Adaptation
Recommendations:
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
To My Star 2 (film)
The Wedding Banquet (2025 film)
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu
Sea Change by Gina Chung
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Currently Obsessed:
Taskmaster (season 19)
The Last of Us (season 2)
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Slow Horses (TV show)
Green Frog by Gina Chung
Las Culturistas (podcast)
Julia and Victoria try to find the line between history and fantasy in The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang. They use their incredible communication skills to meet in the middle of their opposing opinions.
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:
The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Circe by Madeline Miller
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
“The Fires of Pompeii” - Doctor Who, Season 4, Episode 2
“In The Poppy War Series, R.F. Kuang Asks: 'What If Mao Was A Teenage Girl?'” by Alan Yu (NPR)
Victoria’s favorite reddit review of Poppy War
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Recommendations:
The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
Shanghai 1937 by Peter Harmson
Comfort Women by Yoshimi Yoshiaki
The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
The Dragon Republic by R. F. Kuang
The Burning God by R. F. Kuang
Babel by R. F. Kuang
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Currently Obsessed:
SABLE, fABLE by Bon Iver (album)
Hacks, Season 4 (TV show)
Deli Boys (TV show)
The Pitt (TV show)
True to You: A Therapist’s Guide to Stop Pleasing Others and Start Being Yourself by Dr. Kathleen Smith
Cat and Bird by Kyoko Mori
The Book Club takes a big bite of all the genres and references in Casey McQuiston’s fourth romance novel, The Pairing. Julia invents a new branch of theory entirely based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Victoria calculates her Saturn Return.
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 Pairing by Casey McQuiston
124 One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston — Spec-Fic-Rom WooLaWoo (Book Club with Julia & Victoria)
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
085 Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (Book Club with Julia & Victoria)
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Pushing boundaries, breaking norms, and the ADHD brain (Casey McQuiston's story) (ADHD Aha! podcast)
Casey McQuiston: Celebrating queer love and joy and navigating the future of romance (Bookends podcast)
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Roman Holiday (1953)
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkein
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkein
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkein
Recommendations:
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
A Room With a View (1985 film)
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Moonlight Chicken (tv series)
Only Friends (tv series)
Novels by Jasmine Guillory
I’ll Get Back to You by Becca Grischow
Currently Obsessed:
Heaven’s Official Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Love in the Big City (tv show)
Julia and Victoria marvel over the masterful point of view shifts and scream about the ending of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Victoria buys some lemonade.
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:
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin - Book 1 and Season 1
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult - Book and Movie
The Divergent series by Veronica Roth
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Tamsyn Muir interview with Three Crows magazine
Recommendations:
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Babel by R. F. Kuang
The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood
Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
Yellowjackets (TV show)
Currently Obsessed:
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
This discussion of Index, a History of the by Dennis Duncan is a big day for Victoria because it’s an episode all about her favorite thing ever: sorting things into categories. Julia is there to help translate the Middle English quotes.
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:
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Book Parts edited by Dennis Duncan and Adam Smyth
Victoria’s very rough attempt at an index of Julia’s thesis
Recommendations:
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chaika
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (book)
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (podcast)
Garbage Day newsletter on Substack
Currently Obsessed:
Alligator Bites Never Heal 2024 album by Doechii 2024
What a Devastating Turn of Events 2024 album by Rachel Chinouriri
Dunya 2024 album by Mustafa
“Excuse me, sir, there’s some magic in this romance”: Julia and Victoria unpack Casey McQuiston’s sophomore novel, One Last Stop.
This episode was recorded on September 2, 2024.
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:
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Casey McQuiston Is As Attached To Their Characters As You Are by Olivia Harrison (Refinery 29)
Lost (TV series)
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
Recommendations:
We Are Lady Parts (TV show available on Hulu)
Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers
The Brown Sisters series by Talia Hibbert
Last Night at the Telegram Club by Malinda Lo
Currently Obsessed:
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
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:
“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
“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:
Crip Camp (film)
Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong
Currently Obsessed:
How To With John Wilson (TV series)
The Curse (TV series)
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
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 Others by 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
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
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)
Marry My Dead Body (TV series)
Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia by David Graeber
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
“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.
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Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 1-100) Reading Challenge
Book Club with Julia & Victoria (Episodes 101+) Reading Challenge
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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
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Before the Ruins by Victoria Gosling
It’s a Wonderful World board game
