Books and Boba

On this episode, we discuss our April 2026 book club pick, The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao, chosen for us by our patrons (you can help us pick our next patron's choice in July by joining our patreon). Pitched a a Ghibli-style cozy fantasy (but we found it to be a little more than it seems), The Elsewhere Express is a ethereal train that appears to pick up passengers who have lost their purpose in life. This night, it picks up 2 wayward souls, and offers then a chance to find a new purpose on board it's dreamlike cars, but is there a catch?

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

• Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
• Purchasing books at our bookshop
• Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

• Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
• Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

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The Books & Boba May 2026 pick is No-No Boy by John Okada

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

On this episode, we welcome Kelly Yang to the podcast to chat about her adult novel debut, The Take, a story about a young Chinese American woman who aspires to become a novelist, and a veteran Hollywood producer who offers to help her break into the industry... in return for a bit of her youth. We're so excited to finally have the chance to chat with Kelly about her adult debut after a prolific career writing books for middle grade and young adult readers, including past Books & Boba book club pick Front Desk!

Follow Lisa on Instagram at @kellyyanghk and check out her new novel The Take available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

• Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
• Purchasing books at our bookshop
• Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

• Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
• Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Facebook

The Books & Boba April 2026 pick is The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

For our mid-month book news check in for April 2026, we catch up on the latest Asian American publishing announcements as well as check in on some distressing news for our legacy Kindles.

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

• The Library of Lost Time by Vaishnavi Patel
• BoxBoxBoxBox by Wan Sakamoto
• Mama's Magical Hands by Yu An Xie
• The Kids Came Back Wrong edited by Wen-yi Lee
• Crush by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• It Was an Ordinary Name by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• The Golden Shoes by Jocelyn Cho
• The Summer I Turned Pretty Graphic Novel by Cynthia Yuan Cheng and Arielle Jovellanos; illust by Sara Faber
• Before & Now by Balsam El-bayya
• Goat for Dinner by Tao Nyeu
• Curiosities by Robert Kondo and Megan Bartel
• Sarah in Charge by Ellen Oh
• This Is Our Diwali by Jyoti Rajan Gopal; illust by Michelle Pereira
• The Book Witch by Nora Elghazzawi
• Magic Shoyu Shop by Debbi Michiko Florence; illust. by Minako Tomigahara

Book news mentioned on this episode:

• Amazon pulls support from Kindles pre-2013

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

• Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
• Purchasing books at our bookshop
• Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

• Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
• Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Facebook

The Books & Boba April 2026 pick is The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

On this episode, we're very excited to bring you an author chat with Rachel Khong, author of our September 2017 book club pick Goodbye Vitamin (episode 28), to talk about her latest book, My Dear You, a short story collection featuring a genre-spanning stories exploring themes of identity, relationships, and time. From a story about missed connections and a cat that conjures the ghosts of ex-boyfriends, to contemplation of the afterlife both literal and figurative.

Follow Lisa at thedreamside.com and check out her new book My Dear You available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

• Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
• Purchasing books at our bookshop
• Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

• Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
• Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Facebook

The Books & Boba April 2026 pick is The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

We sit down for an author chat with Lisa Lee to talk with her about about her debut novel American Han, a Korean American family drama about the Kims, a family whose members are each going through their own personal crises. When an even bigger crisis occurs the whole family is forced to come together and deal with the consequences of decades of built up resentment and estrangement, all stemming from the relentless pursuit of the "Amerian Dream."

Follow Lisa on Instagram at @lisaleehello and check out her new novel American Han available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

• Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
• Purchasing books at our bookshop
• Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

• Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
• Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Facebook

The Books & Boba April 2026 pick is The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

On this episode, we discuss our March 2026 Book Club Pick, Butter by Asako Yuzuki, a story of food and murder following a Japanese journalist who begins a professional relationship with a convicted serial killer, charged with the murders of three domestic partners, in hopes of getting an exclusive interview. However, she ends up getting more than she bargained for as she gets sucked into the killer's philosophy and worldview that leads her to question amd she knows about the pleasures of food, the importance of friendships, as well as how traditional gender roles makes fools of us all.

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

• Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
• Purchasing books at our bookshop
• Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

• Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
• Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Facebook

The Books & Boba April 2026 pick is TBA (check our Instagram or website in a few days)!

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

For our mid-month book news check in for March 2026, we catch up on the latest Asian American publishing announcements as well as check in on the ongoing fight against book bans:

• The Carlton Girls: Casey and the Cruel Thief by Julie Abe
• The Goodfolke Family by Roshani Chokshi
• P.S. Are We Friends Now? by John Schu and Jasmine Warga
• My Neighbor Yokai by noho
• Fall, in Love by Mia Kayla
• The Gravedigger's Apprentice by Linda Cheng
• Seeking Wonderful by Susan Yoon; illust. Veronica Mang
• We Are the Light: A Story of Diwali by Rajani LaRocca; illust. Sayan Mukherjee
• Home Is Waiting to Be Found by Tina Athaide; ilust. Vũ Thủy Ngọc Hà
• Matcha & Matches by Cara Tanamachi
• Tea Leaves and Fate Strings by C.B. Lee
• The Red Thread by Laura G. Lee
• Scream, Queen! by Sujin Witherspoon

Book news mentioned on this episode:

• Lee & Low postpones their quadrennial Diversity Baseline Survey in order to concentrate on fighting book bans

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

• Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
• Purchasing books at our bookshop
• Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

• Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
• Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Facebook

The Books & Boba March 2026 pick is Butter by Asako Yuzuki

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

On this episode, we discuss our February 2026 book club pick, Behind Frenemy Lines by Zen Cho, a romantic comedy about two Asian lawyers in London who share an (kinda?) adversarial relationship who end up sharing an office and perhaps become something more as they find themselves in a pseudo fake relationship to help with each other's personal troubles. We read Zen Cho's Regency era fantasy romance Sorcerer to the Crown almost a decade ago and were very excited to see what a contemporary Zen Cho romance looks like.

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

• Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
• Purchasing books at our bookshop
• Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

• Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
• Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Facebook

The Books & Boba March 2026 pick is Butter by Asako Yuzuki

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

Happy New Year! On our first mid-month book news check-in episode for the year of the horse, we go over a hefty list of latest Asian American publishing news as the publishing industry revs back into gear after the holidays.

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

1. Blur the Lines by Kanitha P.
2. Paper Ghosts by Samantha Chong
3. Cold Blood by Aashna Avachat
4. Untitled Contemporary YA By Jesmeen Kaur Deo
5. The Strange Sketches of Luna Li by Gloria L. Huang
6. She Comes Out at Night by Michelle Jing Chan
7. If We Could Be Everywhere by Sarah Suk
8. The Sisterhood of Southern Peaches by Katrina Moore
9. Footprints in Snow by Keiko Hayner
10. Something Inside Me Knows by Malinda Lo
11. The Luckies by Sarah Mlynowski and Christina Soontornvat; illust. by Madi Wong
12. The Monster Inside by Cherry Mo
13. Jitty and the Machine by Mitali Banerjee Ruths; illust.by Iacopo Bruno
14. Wipe Out by Saadia Faruqi; illust. by Karen De la Vega
15. The Erhu Sings by Sally Deng
16. Blooming Behind Barbed Wire by Traci Huahn; illust. by Mayumi Sasage
17. House of Forgotten Souls by Kat Cho
18. Hello, DELA, by Kiku Hughes
19. Tae Lim Decks It Out by Angela Ahn
20. Izzy and Wolfi by Dane Liu; illust. by Maya Tatsukawa
21. The Light Garden by Joanna Ho; illust. by Minako Tomigahara

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

1. Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
2. Purchasing books at our bookshop
3. Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

1. Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
2. Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

1. Instagram
2. Twitter
3. Goodreads
4. Facebook

The Books & Boba February 2026 is Behind Frenemy Lines by Zen Cho

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

Happy New Year! We ring in the Year of the Horse with an exciting author chat with Lillian Li (author of past book club pick #1 Chinese Restaurant), who joins us to chat about her newest novel Bad Asians, a coming of age story following four childhood friends who all move home after graduating college in 2008 after their well laid plans were derailed by the great recession. They inadvertently become part of a viral Youtube documentary that will continue to haunt them throughout their adult lives as they drift apart and come back together again and again.

Follow Lillian on Instagram at @zillianzi and check out her new novel Bad Asians available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

1. Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perks
2. Purchasing books at our bookshop
3. Rocking our Books & Boba merch

Follow our hosts:

1. Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
2. Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

Follow us:

1. Instagram
2. Twitter
3. Goodreads
4. Facebook

The Books & Boba February 2026 is Behind Frenemy Lines by Zen Cho

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective