For our final episode of the season, we chose a topic recommended by one of our listeners: interracial romance reads. The Romance genre is a refuge for many readers – it offers lighthearted storylines with plenty of passion and intrigue that are easy to escape into, as we have done countless times. However, the genre can be found lacking in its offer of interracial relationships. We decided to  delve further into the world of interracial romance, and tasked ourselves with finding and...

S5E5: Greek Mythology retellings have always been popular, most memorably during our middle school days, but never have they seemed more widespread than they are right now. Greek retellings fill up the ‘New In’ shelves and people just can’t get enough of them – us included! In this episode we not only talk about the Greek myths and retellings we’ve read and loved (or didn’t love), but we also get into what drew us to Greek myths in the first place, as well as the differences we see among...

Continuing our book club tradition, in this episode we discuss our latest buddy read: Rebecca Kuang’s “Yellow Face,” one of the most popular fiction books from 2023. As usual, we share our ratings and conduct a deep dive into the characters, the writing, and our overall thoughts. “Yellow Face” was an eye-opening, and perhaps controversial, read for two people who are interested in and linked to the world of books, writing, and publishing. Needless to say, we had a lot to say about this...

S5E3: This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about online bookish communities (see Season 2 Episode 4, The One Where We Talk About Booktok Parts 1 & 2), but this time we’re turning our eyes to Bookstagram. From blowing up during the COVID lockdown to now influencing the publishing industry and international book charts, Bookstagram is an ever-growing and powerful community, for better, and sometimes, for worse. Ayesha shares her own experience of building a bookstagram account and then...

S5E2: Why is reading about relatable characters so fun? Why is it so frustrating when a character feels completely unrelatable? Is character relatability actually important to us as readers? Can fantasy characters still be realistic? These are some of the questions we delve into during this episode about unrelatable book characters. To begin, we go down a rabbit hole of discovering the differences between realistic vs. relatable/unrealistic vs. unrelatable when it comes to analyzing book...

S5E1: Kicking off Season 5, we talk about how to get back into reading!  Almost everyone has experienced reading slumps of some sort. Whether you used to love reading when you were younger but can’t find the time or energy these days, are not as consistent a reader as you wish to be, or simply don’t know where to start when it comes to finding a new book, we’ve got you covered! Even as self-proclaimed bookworms, we too have endured our fair share of reading slumps, and in this conversation...

For our final book club read of 2023, we read “Days At the Morisaki Bookshop” by Satoshi Yagisawa, and it was the perfect book to end on. It’s sweet, comforting, and a testament to the power of reading. We loved the book’s setting in the Jimbocho district of Tokyo, a cozy neighborhood known for its multitude of second hand bookshops, the oddball but loveable characters, and the simple yet effective writing that managed to convey so much emotion!  Whilst this book turned out to be different...

In November, we read the shortest book in our podcast history: “Assembly” by Natasha Brown.  This was a controversial read for us, and our lowest rated book club read to date. That said, it definitely made for an interesting conversation to discuss a book that both confused and underwhelmed us. Talking through our own questions about the book led us down a rabbit hole of more questions concerning certain plot points, messages, and characters.  While it’s an odd feeling to disagree with the...

Look no further for our favorite cozy read of the year - Sangu Mandanna’s “The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.” This book was an absolute joy for us to read, and it was equally fun for us to talk about! After sharing our initial ratings, we discussed what made the characters so likable (authentically quirky and kind) and the book itself so enjoyable (diverse cast, and the coziest atmosphere). Talking together about the book made us realize just how much we loved reading it,...

It’s time for our ‘flaming’ hot takes on the most hyped up fantasy book this year! It seems like everyone has been talking about “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros since the start of summer and with the release of the sequel earlier this week, it’s the perfect time for us to share our thoughts. As usual, we did not hold back, and voiced our many thoughts and criticisms concerning the school (was the Gauntlet an original idea or was Yarros watching too much American Ninja Warrior?), the writing...

For our second book of the book club series, we read “Beach Party” by Amy Sheppard. This was a particularly fun buddy read, as we read it whilst on our girls trip in Portugal! The Algarve was a world away from the blustery Cornish coast where the book takes place, which made it all the more fun as a breezy, beachy, murder mystery to dive into. The many red herrings and double twist in the book were no match for Ayesha’s detective skills, but still kept Julia on her toes.  After a quick...

We’re starting a new monthly book club series, and each month the two of us will buddy-read a book and share all of our thoughts. For our first book of the series, we read “Attached” by Amir Levine and Rachel S.F. Heller. We open the episode by sharing our ratings and then delve into the three attachment styles: anxious, avoidant, and secure. We discuss in detail the various examples shared by the authors, and even get into our own experiences with the workbook activities.  Overall,...

E14: The One Where We Re-read ‘Twilight’ For our last episode of the season, we continue our ‘re-read’ series with a special guest, our long-time friend Danielle! We all read ‘Twilight’ back when we were in middle school together in Saudi, so this was the perfect book for us to come back together and chat about. ‘Twilight’ is infamous for its cult following back in the day, but has it aged well? As always with our re-reads, our goal is to see how we react to the same stories we once read as...

S3E13: In celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month, we are discussing romance reads from a pan-Asian perspective. As two Asian women ourselves, we wanted to take time to focus on Asian written romance and how we view the representation we read about. We go into the facets of representation that we love, but also the stereotypes that we don’t, and end with a segment on how the romance we have read throughout the years has influenced our dating lives! Books Mentioned: A...

S3E12: We are back again for another deep dive, and this time we delve into a YA contemporary fiction read by one of our favorite authors - ‘All My Rage’ by Sabaa Tahir. We have both talked a lot about our love for Sabaa Tahir’s ‘An Ember in the Ashes’ series, and we were equally enthralled by ‘All My Rage.’ As usual, there was much to discuss, including the various characters, plot nuances, and of course, our love for Tahir’s writing and ability to make us feel ALL THE FEELS.   Disclaimer:...

S3E11: The two of us often talk about growing up in the Middle East, and it’s time we dedicated an episode to the region we have called home for so long. We start by trying to define the Middle East, but realise that it’s not so simple – which is exactly what makes it such a captivating region to read about! We then share our favourite books that are either written by Middle Eastern authors, set in the region, or concern Middle Eastern characters. Between the two of us, we cover an array of...

In this episode, we are talking poetry! We start the conversation by discussing our relationship to poetry – not only what we enjoy, but what we sometimes struggle with as well. We go on to talk about our first introductions to poetry as kids, to what we read at school, and are now exploring on our own – including writing our own poetry (feel free to follow Julia’s poetry @day.dream.diaries on Instagram). We also share a list of our top poets and poems, including a few of our favourite lines...

We hear a lot about them, but what exactly are book tropes, and what purpose do they serve? In this episode we are diving into the infamous book trope! After first defining what a book trope is, we discuss whether we believe they are being overused, and perhaps even used incorrectly. We then spend the rest of the episode sharing our favourite and least favourite tropes to read about. Stay tuned for our Patreon as we dive deeper into the ‘enemies to lovers’ book trope! Books Mentioned: All...

In this episode, we are not talking about books but magazines!  You may have heard us talk about magazines we’ve been reading during our previous currently reading segments, and these were inspired by this episode. We start the episode talking about the magazines that we’re most familiar with, and those we would consider as current favourites. We then jump into the magazines we used to enjoy as kids which opened up many memories! We also discuss the values of digital versus print magazines,...

We are back again with another genre master list, and this time we’re going through our top historical fiction reads that have left their mark on us! Historical fiction is probably one of our favourite genres, and we start our list off with ancient civilizations and travel through time and across the world as we trade titles. As always, these lists are ever evolving, and we end the episode acknowledging the many gaps we have in our historical fiction repertoire, and how we plan to fill...

In what is probably one of our most wholesome episodes yet, we talk about the very heart of books themselves: friendship! We analyse the in and outs of the friendships within some of our favourite fantasy series, namely Harry Potter, Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City. We talk about what makes them great, why they work, why we love them – and of course, we can’t help but fantasize about which fictional characters and friend groups we would be friends with...

This episode has been a long time coming – we are diving headfirst into our juiciest topic yet: spicy reads! The episode is split into two halves. During the first half, we discuss our experience with a variety of spicy fantasy, and in the latter half, we dig into the two spicy fiction books that we read in preparation for this episode, ‘Dark Russian Angel’, and ‘Praise’. Our spiciest content is NSFS (Not Safe For Spotify) so we will be putting it up on Patreon if you would like to hear the...

S3E4: Are fairytales a bad influence? We are back again with our Taboo Topics series, and this time, we are talking about the controversy over fairytales. Once the golden standard of children’s literature, fairytales – whether in book form or on screen – are now being heralded as a bad influence on children. But are these worries warranted? To get to the bottom of this issue, we dive into a brief history of fairytales, their evolution, and the criticism they face today. We of course dish out...

S3E3: Every booklover knows that reading and wellness go hand in hand. We often joke that the act of reading is our therapy, and in this episode, we dive into the myriad of ways that it really can be! We broach the subject by ruminating on the ways reading itself has supported us in times of need, and how important reading can be for your mental health. We then get into our history of reading wellness focused books specifically, and our thoughts around the ‘self-help’ moniker. We discuss the...