Book Club with Julia and Victoria

Julia and Victoria are joined by their friend Andy Park to discuss Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and his family’s experiences as Korean American immigrants. Julia makes several K-Pop references.

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Mentioned in the Episode:

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

Interview with Min Jin Lee on Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books podcast

Escaping North Korea by Mike Kim

Fred Armisen learns he’s a quarter Korean

John Oliver AAPI episode

Parts Unknown with Anthony Bordain S2: EP1

Asian Boss youtube channel

Concept of “Han”

Recommendations:

Pachinko miniseries

The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley

Go by Kazuki Kaneshiro

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante

Mr. Sunshine on Netflix

White Paper Project

Minari 2020 film

Currently Obsessed:

Inside by Bo Burnham

The Mitchells Vs. The Machines on Netflix

TXT album Freeze

Agatha Christie novels

Arlo Parks album Collapsed in Sunbeams

Arlo Parks episode on Song Exploder podcast

One-Punch Man anime

Kim’s Convenience on Netflix

Marjane Satrapi prefers to call her seminal work Persepolis (about her life growing up in Iran in the 1980s) a Comic Book rather than a Graphic Novel, as we hoity toity Americans like to describe our more “serious” books, which is a perfect example of how Satrapi is always determined to buck the status quo. During a period of political upheaval and war in her country, Satrapi read comic books about Karl Marx, and listened to Iron Maiden, and stood up for her beliefs at political rallies or at school. She’s so punk, it’s incredible. So dive into Persepolis with us to learn more about the history of Persia and to spend some time with a young Marjane, the heroine the world desperately needs.

Mentioned in the Episode:

Free online classes with Harvard

Persepolis Film adaptation

Chicken With Plums film by Satrapi

The Voices film by Satrapi

Radioactive film by Satrapi

History of Iran/Persia

Prince of Persia game

Iron Maiden

Kim Wilde

Action Philosophers! Comic Book

Diary of Anne Frank

US Support for Iraq in Iran/Iraq war

Gulf War

Recommendations:

Persepolis book 2

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

Lois Lowry’s books: The Giver series, The Willoughbys

Embroideries by Satrapi

Craig Thompson graphic novels:

Quarantine Recommendations:

La Casa de Papel on Netflix

Harry Potter at Home (people reading Harry Potter)

Cleaning Your Closet with Mari Kondo

Legos

Julia and Victoria return once again to the story of Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis 2 as young Marji navigates the perils of living on her own in a foreign country, particularly one where her race and heritage are viewed as a political statement, and the difficulty of deciding the direction of her future adult life. Satrapi’s story blows open our culture’s generalizations about “The Middle East” with nuance and humor and heartbreak. This book also makes it abundantly clear that no one will ever be as cool as Satrapi - absolutely no competition.

Stuff we talked about:

Persepolis 1 and Book Club Episode 32

ALA Most Challenged Books of 2014

What to read next:

Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi

March by John Lewis

Life Recs:

Palm Springs 2020 film

Unorthodox miniseries on Netflix

Glass Animals new album Dreamland

Amine new album Limbo

Max Richter new album Voices

Hunter x Hunter anime on Netflix

Lord Byron’s Letters of the Future

Julia and Victoria needed to scream about how much they loved crying over the romantic, angsty sci-fi novella This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, so now it is an episode.

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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:

Wingspan Board Game

The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone

The bird meme from Amal’s Twitter: (original comic by @FalseKnees

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Doctor Who

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

“Blue-da-ba-dee” by Eiffel 65

Recommendations:

Good Omens by Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett

Julia’s “Becoming Blue” playlist

Travel Light by Naomi Mitcheson

Currently Obsessed:

League of Their Own on Amazon Prime

Hold the Girl by Rina Sawayama

Welcome to Book Club! The Earth is a Libra, God is a woman, Aziraphale and Crowley are in love, and the world is ending. What a time to be alive! Go read the book and watch the Amazon series and then come back for a chat with us about this quirky tale.

Random tidbits mentioned in this episode:

Ansafone

M25 motorway

“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

Recommendation for further reading:

Anything by Nick Hornby, especially Funny Girl and Juliet, Naked