Jo recommends Augusto Higa Oshiro’s restrained The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu, while Charlotte’s encounter with the first Twilight book (13:00) leads ineluctably to the Black Eyed Peas. Decorated journalist Connie Wang (26:30) joins to share the delights of Sanmao, the prolific Chinese memoirist who puts Joan Didion to shame. 

Connie Wang is a journalist and writer based in Los Angeles. She was born in Jinan, China and raised in Minnesota. She’s the recipient of several Front Page Awards for her fashion reporting at Refinery29, and an Online Journalism Award for a multimedia essay with the NYT about a generation of Asian American women named after Connie Chung. My book, Oh My Mother! A MEMOIR IN NINE ADVENTURES is with Viking Books, and you can buy it now (please buy it now).

Send questions, requests, recommendations, and your own thoughts about any of the books discussed today to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com. 

Charlotte is on Instagram and Twitter as @Charoshane. Her memoir, An Honest Woman (August 13, 2024) can be pre-ordered now. She has a newsletter called Meant For You, with additional writing at charoshane.com

Jo co-edits The Stopgap and their writing lives at jolivingstone.com.

Learn more about our producer Alex at https://www.alexsugiura.com/

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