Julia discusses disability, comedy, creativity, and treating people like people with Steven Verdile, the founder of the disability satire publication The Squeaky Wheel.

Julia and Victoria learn what the word “flannel” means in British English and formulate their own theories about what happened to a stranded deep-sea researcher in the devastatingly beautiful novel Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. Views expressed on Book Club with Julia and Victoria and bookclubwithjv.com are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of their employers, clients, guests, and collaborators.

Julia and Victoria conclude that How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu is a very good book–Julia is just sad.

Julia and Victoria grapple with the grotesque narrative choices in Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan, translated by Chi-young Kim. Julia incorrectly uses the word “epigraph” when she means “epitaph” approximately 25 times.

Julia and Victoria try to decipher the rules of Eight Billion Genies, the newest comic book series from Charles Soule and Ryan Browne, because Julia likes rules. They also learn about how one random French guy playing fast and loose with a One Thousand and One Nights translation made up most of what the “Western” world “knows” about “genies.” Tale as old as time.

Julia and Victoria are surprised to find hope and belonging in a new story of humanity with The Dawn of Everything by “the Davids” (Graeber and Wengrow), the anthropological clapback to Sapiens by Harrari.

Julia is truly bamboozled, Victoria embraces that she is a vampire girlie, and they both dig into the context of Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s Carmilla, edited with commentary by the absolute legend Carmen Maria Machado.

A Suga bias (Julia), a Jungkook bias (special guest RJ), a V bias (special guest Adam), and a person who knows almost nothing about K-pop (Victoria) have a spirited conversation about the style and silences of Beyond the Story: A 10-Year Record of BTS by Kang Myeong-seok and translated by Anton Hur, Clare Richards, and Slin Jung. There are… emotions.

Julia and Victoria get into the weeds of cultivating a creative life while also having to pay bills with Nate Ragolia—writer, podcaster, and publisher at Spaceboy Books. They also decide which zoo animals they would be.

Exploring anarchism, feminism, and the Cold War, Julia and Victoria unpack the context of The Dispossessed by the brilliant and sassy Ursula K. Le Guin. Join for the sci-fi, stay for Barbenheimer, alien Jesus, and a confusion of Ursulas. Also Julia has minor microphone problems. (She sincerely apologizes).

Julia and Victoria wrestle with their frustrations with The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki and try to get to the bottom of important questions like, “What happened?” and “Who is this book for?”

Victoria interviews Julia about her master’s thesis in Anthropology on Autistic social groups, disabled futures, and how to make Autistic friends by exchanging fun facts.

Julia and Victoria apply a postcolonial perspective to Ayana Lloyd Banwo’s When We Were Birds, a novel about death, magical matriarchs, love, and VIBES.

Julia and Victoria talk about the marriage of message and form in the “memoir situation” by one of their favorite human beings: 10 Steps to Nanette by Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby.

Julia and Victoria are joined by their new literary friend Caleb Tankersley to discuss Caleb’s debut story collection Sin Eaters. They enjoy a lovely ramble about the process of creativity and the value of writing what makes you happy. Plus: some important Oreo discourse.

Julia and Victoria make their case as to why Babel by R. F. Kuang should be two (or three?) books. Point #1: It is amazing, and the people want more.

Julia and Victoria have an epiphany, answer their lingering questions, and discuss major series themes of time and the legacy of oppression while discussing The Stone Sky, conclusion of the Broken Earth trilogy, by N. K. Jemisin.

Hold on to your runny sacks. We are wrapping up our discussion of The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin! We’ll be re-releasing episodes on book one and two over the next two weeks. Stay tuned for our concluding discussion of book three, The Stone Sky, coming your way May 2023.

Hold on to your runny sacks. We are wrapping up our discussion of The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin! We’ll be re-releasing episodes on book one and two over the next two weeks. Stay tuned for our concluding discussion of book three, The Stone Sky, coming your way May 2023.

Victoria just got back from AWP where she spent five days geeking out with fellow book nerds. Julia and Victoria talk about networking and finding your people as an adult.

Julia has questions. Victoria does some digging. They both gain context on the voice of author Cho Nam-Joo of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 and the impact the novel had on the life and politics of South Korea in 2016.

Julia has questions. Victoria does some digging. They both gain context on the voice of author Cho Nam-Joo of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 and the impact the novel had on the life and politics of South Korea in 2016.

Julia and Victoria meet up with their internet friend Sofía Syntaxx (of the ANGR podcast) to talk about how much they loved Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, swap stories, compare languages and knowledge systems, and laugh about all the things American scientists “discovered” which indigenous peoples have known for thousands of years. A good deal of swearing is involved, but like, in a fun way.

Julia and Victoria meet up with their internet friend Sofía Syntaxx (of the ANGR podcast) to talk about how much they loved Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, swap stories, compare languages and knowledge systems, and laugh about all the things American scientists “discovered” which indigenous peoples have known for thousands of years. A good deal of swearing is involved, but like, in a fun way.