Julia and Victoria know absolutely nothing about comic books, but they’re diving into the deep end this week and sharing their unqualified opinions about the grim, layered, and existential graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

Book Club with Julia and Victoria

056 Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

In this week’s episode on The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, Julia and Victoria talk about the journal entries they wrote as teenagers, Julia’s failings as a Spanish translator, using tweezers to write poetry, and how rare it is to find nuanced discussions of religion in YA fiction.

055 The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

It’s time for deep talks about vulnerability and bravery as Julia, Victoria, and their friend Marlowe dig into Brené Brown’s 2016 publication Braving the Wilderness.

054 Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown

Happy Holidays! Julia and Victoria celebrate by turning on the microphone during their solitary Thanksgiving dinner and trying to make sense of the year 2020.

Minisode: Home for the Holidays

What can we learn about embodiment from an octopus? And what does that have to do with neurodiversity and empathy? Julia and Victoria discuss all this and more with their friend Cayla, whose special interest is octopuses, as they dig deeper into The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery.

053 The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Julia and Victoria settle in for a cozy little detective novel: Agatha Christie’s iconic Murder on the Orient Express. Julia nerds out about this prolific mystery writer who defined the genre, and Victoria almost forgets the ending again.

052 Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

“I just love her so much... I would gladly be in a one-sided friendship with Michelle Obama. I would submit myself to that kind of heartbreak.” - Simone Stevens, guest for this episode, in which Julia and Victoria discuss Becoming by Michelle Obama

051 Becoming by Michelle Obama

Why was language created? Why are so many millennials obsessed with a giant history book? And what the heck even IS money? J & V contemplate these questions and more during their discussion of international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari with special guest Varun Bhoopalam.

050 Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Victoria interviews the creators of The House of Baba Yaga, a feminist-horror radio drama from The Impostors Theater company, about their experiences in the production process and their thoughts on the genre of horror as a whole.

Bonus: The House of Baba Yaga with The Impostors

Julia and Victoria host an introvert support group with their friend Sherilyn Koshy, over the book Quiet by Susan Cain, as they examine their experiences as sensitive people in a chaotic and extroverted culture.

049 Quiet by Susan Cain

Julia’s college friend and former editor, Nicole Block, joins J&V for a discussion on Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, a novel of twelve interwoven stories in a poetic and Virginia-Woolf-esque style. Join us as we learn about empathy, and English queer history, and property rights, and everything in between.

048 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

This week Julia and Victoria answer the question: “What’s on your bookshelf?” And it leads them to surprisingly deep thoughts about home and belonging, authenticity and the search for happiness. Plus Victoria is still searching for a long-lost book she made the mistake of loaning, so if you find it, let them know.

Minisode: What's On Your Bookshelf?

Julia and Victoria are joined by creative writing grad student Waringa Hunja this week to cover Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collection Interpreter of Maladies that covers a wide variety of unique perspectives from the Indian diaspora. Turns out, after winning a Pulitzer for this book, Lahiri taught herself Italian and starting publishing books in her fourth language just for fun, so J & V are particularly excited to have a writer as a guest so they can all drool over Lahiri’s incredible talent and general awesomeness together.

047 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Julia, Victoria, and guest Hayoung Roh learn more about autism this week with Naoki Higashida’s debut book The Reason I Jump about his experience as a nonverbal autistic boy growing up in Japan. Julia is autistic, Hayoung has a brother with autism, and Victoria is their friend who’s trying to learn as much as humanly possible to be supportive; so whether you’ve done tons of research on autism or have no idea what’s going on, you’re in good company! With Naoki Higashida’s help, we’ll work together to unlearn our biases and try to find actionable ways to make the world a better place.

046 The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

Get ready to contemplate the nature of reality this week with Julia and Victoria and special guest Reidlee Lynn as we read A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, the author’s award-winning third novel about two women on different continents in different times connected by a single story. Follow along as they discuss their theories on what happened to Nao, empathize with the characters’ struggle against existence, and marvel at Jiko the 104-year-old Buddhist nun. Also Julia manages to explain the concept of non-duality on the fly, so she’s pretty proud of that.

045 A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Hi, we’re Julia and Victoria. Join the Book Club each episode as we choose a text off our shelves to discuss, dissect, and maybe - after another glass of wine - dissolve into a TED talk on the history of the English language. Welcome to the party.

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Book Club with Julia and Victoria

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