Your Favorite Book

Another weird book and a blast of an episode! Our guest is Nghi Vo, author of The Chosen and the Beautiful and most recently, Siren Queen. Combining 30s Hollywood with fairyland rules, Siren Queen shows us the dark side of celebrity and what it means to craft a persona for public consumption, and what it takes to climb to the top. The book is part Faustian legend, part Gatsbyesque glamour, and ultimately an aesthetic all its own.

Nghi chooses a book she picked up at a Barnes and Noble over twenty years ago, a book she's read over and over until the cover fell off, Angela Carter's last novel Wise Children. This book is a haphazard, chaotic telling of a deeply dysfunctional family, with humor and darkness thrown in throughout, and ultimately a book that left us speechless at many, many points. We discuss all things celebrity culture and the morality of performance, along with plenty of laughs along the way.

May Short Story Book Club Link: https://lithub.com/inventory/

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Buy Nghi's book: https://bookshop.org/books/siren-queen/9781250788832

It's the end of another month and we're here with another edition of the Short Story Book Club, the lowest stress book club you could ever join. This month it's an essay, and a hilarious one at that. My guest is Jasmine Vyas (from our What We Carry episode) and together we bring together equal parts literary criticism and laughing about trying to make friends as an adult. Okay, it's mostly the latter. Seriously, this is a great one if you just need to kick back and enjoy something funny, but there's some honest insight in this essay and the episode as well. Plus, you can hear me rant about various friend-making apps and why I'll swipe left on your Bumble BFF profile. There are spoilers in this talk, so read the essay! It's linked below.

The essay: https://www.thecut.com/2020/03/book-excerpt-samantha-irbys-wow-no-thank-you.html

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It's been a minute since we've had an honest to goodness childhood favorite on this show. You know the kind, the book you're obsessed with for most of your waking life, to the point where it creeps other people out. For me, it's the Trumpet of the Swan. For Vaishnavi Patel, it might just be Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. Along with talking all things middle grade, writing nuanced characters, portraying trauma in a second world fantasy, and so much more, we also talk about Vaishnavi's own writing journey. Her book Kaikeyi is a retelling of the Ramayana with a focus on its most notorious villainess, and we chat about dealing with backlash, the editing and publishing process, how myths vary across time and space, and so much more. There are spoilers for Gregor, and we do focus mostly on Book 1 of the series.

Books discussed: Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley, The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. 

Buy Vaishnavi's book: https://bookshop.org/books/kaikeyi-9781668609798/9780759557338

April Short Story Book Club: https://www.thecut.com/2020/03/book-excerpt-samantha-irbys-wow-no-thank-you.html

Our guest this week is Dr. Madhushree Ghosh, author of the memoir Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory, and Family. The book defies all real genre constraints by combining food writing, immigrant stories, journalism, explorations of trauma and violence, and so much more. Ghosh brings together her background as a scientist as well as her love for food and her Bengali heritage and creates a work unlike any other, a collection of related essays that embrace the idea as food as a personal and political symbol.

For this episode, Dr. Ghosh chose the recent collection of essays Azadi by Arundhati Roy. Like much of Roy's fiction and nonfiction, the work is deeply political and focuses on the rise of the far-right movement in India, the changing perception of fiction, and the impact of recent politics on nationalistic ideals in India and around the world. This episode is part serious discussion and part recipe sharing, but altogether real and passionate. It's one you don't want to miss!

Books discussed in this episode: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, Curry: Eating Reading and Race by Naben Ruthnum, Southbound by Anjali Enjeti

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Buy Madhushree's book: https://bookshop.org/books/khabaar-an-immigrant-journey-of-food-memory-and-family/9781609388232

Short Story Book Club on April 28: https://www.thecut.com/2020/03/book-excerpt-samantha-irbys-wow-no-thank-you.html

Another heavy one, y'all. My guest this week is Chelsea Bieker, author of the new collection HEARTBROKE. Here we are thrust into the world of California's Central Valley, its landscapes, textures, history, and people. Bieker highlights the fraught relationships between parents and children and shows us the very limits of human endurance. From wandering artists selling more than dreamcatchers on a toxic beach to delusional cowboy fantasies to the dreams and regrets of raisin farmers, the collection is layered, witty, and never ceases to surprise.

For this episode, Chelsea chose a recent novel and a polarizing one, Lisa Taddeo's ANIMAL. We discuss the nature of an unlikeable protagonist, the difference between trauma sharing and dumping, the relatability of power imbalanced relationships, and so much more. As always, no spoilers for any of the books discussed.

Buy Chelsea's book: https://bookshop.org/books/heartbroke/9781646221271

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We're back with another short story for the end of the month. This one goes all the way back to 1922 by renowned short story writer Katherine Mansfield. Don't be fooled by the simple premise, there's a lot under the surface when it comes to craft, narrative framing, and social commentary. My guest is my beloved mom, Sreelatha. Mom talks about her experiences with this story in her sixth grade literature class, what's changed over the years, how we can discern theme from the movement of characters in a story, and so much more. Seriously, if you think anything I say is smart, you've gotta listen to my mom.

Read the story (there are spoilers in this one!): https://www.allenisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001197/Centricity/Domain/2344/A%20Cup%20of%20Tea.pdf

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This week’s guest is Elaine Hsieh Chou, whose debut novel Disorientation is part campus novel, part political satire, part analysis of Asian American identity, and adds up to far more than the sum of its parts. The novel follows Ingrid, a PhD student making her way through her dissertation on Chinese-American poet Xiao-Wen Chou. Through her research she comes across a shocking discovery that throws not only her research into new light, but every aspect of her day to day life. Her family life, romantic relationship, friendships, and relationship to her Asian identity at large. As things spiral further out of control, Ingrid is forced to reexamine her worldview and fight for the reality she wants, even if it goes against what she's currently constructed for herself.

Chou celebrates the off-the-rails satire by celebrating Fran Ross's 1974 novel Oreo. This book, an interpretation of the myth of Theseus starring a biracial teen, was unappreciated in its time and warrants more consideration. Oreo, our titular character, goes on an epic quest to uncover the secret of her birth, and along the way battles adversaries large and small. The novel defies our modern concepts of characterization and interiority, and in ways is both very of its time and ahead of its time. We discuss the merits of experiencing the novel both in print and via audio, the inherent wackiness of Greek mythology, and why this book remains uncelebrated in a world that worships Ulysses. Even if you've never read Oreo, it's certainly worth the listen. As always, there are no spoilers here.

March Short Story Book Club: https://www.allenisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001197/Centricity/Domain/2344/A%20Cup%20of%20Tea.pdf

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Follow Elaine on twitter @elainehsiehchou

We're back with another nonfiction pick this week, and it's a heavier one this time. Renowed activist Valarie Kaur's memoir SEE NO STRANGER allowed BGB cofounder Mishika Narula to see herself in print in more ways than one. Kaur's work on revolutionary love draws heavily on her Sikh faith and her experiences as an activist and lawyer in a variety of settings. Mishika and I sit down and chat about the nuances of representation, the many facets of South Asian literature, unpacking labor as metaphor, and our favorite breakfast foods. It's a lively, insightful conversation that you don't want to miss! No spoilers in the book either.

Books discussed today: All About Love by bell hooks, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Follow Mishika on instagram @browngirlbookshelf

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March Short Story Book Club pick: https://www.allenisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001197/Centricity/Domain/2344/A%20Cup%20of%20Tea.pdf

We're doing something new here at YFB, a celebrity memoir! Actor Kal Penn details the story of his life and career in a new memoir, entitled YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS. Despite the reputation celebrity memoirs often have, both Shreshtha and I adored this book, its ability to combine humor with real commentary on racism and politics in the United States. Along the way, we also chat about the 2008 election, our favorite Taylor Swift albums, and the magic of a great audiobook.

Books discussed: Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, Good Talk by Mira Jacob

Follow Shreshtha on instagram: @shreshtha_reads

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We're back with February's short story book club, and my guest is a voice you might recognize from our Song of Achilles episode, Deedi Brown! Deedi and I chat about this sci-fi classic, its reinterpretations, how it's changed context in recent years for us, and so much more. Deedi even shares a bit about her hot tea obsession and her lavish smart mug (seriously, it sounds like the most unnecessary necessity in the world). There are spoilers for this one, so please read first! It's only 4 pages guys, come on.

The Story: http://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf

Follow Deedi on instagram @deedireads

Follow the podcast on instagram and twitter @yfbpodcast