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.

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.

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.

Julia and Victoria are joined this week by women’s health advocate Elizabeth Endara to dive into the bestselling second novel by Madeline Miller, Circe, about an often-misunderstood figure from Greek Mythology and her experience of being a woman on the margins. They discuss the ways Miller plays with tradition, Circe’s complicated relationships with men, and the surprising experience of relating to a woman stranded alone for years with no contact with the chaotic outside world who starts teaching herself magic and talking to plants to pass the time. It’s time to get witchy!

Romance may be struggling to break the six-foot barriers that divide us out in the world, but on Book Club with Julia & Victoria, romance is not yet dead. This week we’re trying out something new, reading international bestselling romance novel The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory. We’re joined by our recently-engaged friend from high school Bethany to discuss the relatable characters, important themes, and sweet moments that make this book special.

No matter how highly we anticipated reading Friday Black, the debut short story collection by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, there was nothing that could have prepared us for range of genres, disturbing imagery, and thought-provoking fantasy that we found in this book — everything from consumerism zombies to post-apocalyptic knife queens. Join us as we barely scratch the surface on the brilliance of this collection and explore how distancing ourselves from reality helps us see the world how it truly is.

Julia and Victoria should have read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe in high school or college, and yet here they are in their twenties, with little to no knowledge of one of the most important figures in African literature. Listen in as we learn new things and attempt to use a podcast platform to remedy one of the failings of the American education system.

Julia and Victoria spend most of the episode discussing how problematic Rowling’s representation is of the House Elf justice movement, so it is a prime example of “the Harry Potter generation” becoming disillusioned with its author. This will be the last of the Harry Potter series for us as we move onto more worthy subjects.

What are the physical and emotional costs of time travel? Why is Crookshanks literally the smartest cat who has ever lived? What are the magical properties of chocolate? How much does Dumbledore really know? And when did Hermione become an animal rights activist? All this and more as Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban takes us to darker, more thoughtful places, and leads us to discussions about mental health, trauma, and what it means to actually be a good adult human.

This episode we follow the journey of two half sisters and their descendants through more than 300 years of Ghanaian and United States history in Yaa Gyasi’s novel Homegoing. From Cape Coast Castle and the slave plantations of Alabama to Jazz Age Harlem and the African independence movements, Gyasi examines the generational trauma caused by colonialism and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We’re joined by guest Hayley Schueneman, a Chicago-based writer, and together we explore Gyasi’s brilliant debut novel.

Julia and Victoria embark on an important investigation to answer one simple question: Why is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets most likely to be readers’ least favorite book in the series? Plus, in the process, we solve other mysteries, such as “Why is Professor Lockhart so annoying?” and “What happens when Hermione isn’t around to keep Ron and Harry from doing something stupid?”

Ah, yes, the classic tale of a young boy who is trapped in a cupboard by his evil step family, and then rescued by a group of wizards who run a school in Scotland and send children into the woods to fight an immortal supervillain. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J K Rowling sounds strange and unsuitable for young people when we summarize it, and yet it is by far one of the most incredible children’s books ever written.

One girl dead. Another girl missing. A reporter returns home to cover the story, and is forced to confront her past in Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. This gripping fiction thriller had Victoria sucked in, Julia pretty disturbed, and both feeling a bit let down by the HBO series based on the novel. While we didn’t spoil the ending in this intro, we will in the episode — so speed through the book now and join us for discussion of this female-forward mystery.

This episode we are finally discussing Julia’s favorite book of all time: I Am The Messenger (known as The Messenger internationally) by Markus Zusak! Escape from social isolation and join us for our discussion of this cheeky, thrilling, relatable, and mind-blowing YA novel about the value of beauty of the stories that are happening all around us, if only we pay attention.

One of the best books about shoes ever written. A female-centric bildungsroman for the ages. “If Jane Austen got angry.” Whatever you want to call My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan epic narrative about two young women struggling to find power and agency in post-war Italy is a stunning work of art, and we can’t wait to talk about it with our special guest, Jessica. Plus there’s an incredible Italian miniseries that airs on HBO: As Bong Joon Ho said, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

Now that the gender-bending adaptation of High Fidelity with Zoe Kravitz is out on Hulu, we had to dust off this classic about music, heartbreak, and the art of the listicle (long before Buzzfeed made it cool). Join us as we list off our favorite music and discuss how the show updated the music references for the millennial generation.

If, like Julia, you are obsessed with books about deeply meaningful coincidences, then you’ll love this multi-generational book of stories by Anthony Marra about every human’s fight to not be erased. The Tsar of Love and Techno spans 60 years, 3 Russian cities, 3 regime changes, 9 major characters, and even multiple planets in the solar system, all centered around a very well-traveled painting of the countryside. Join us as we try to untangle this very elaborate, expertly-crafted plot and recount the many times we unexpectedly laughed or cried, or both at once.

J&V have a lot of questions about daemons: How do they bathe? How are they born? Do they need to eat? What if a person’s daemon turns into an elephant and they can never go inside again? This week we’re having a blast talking about the incredible world of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass and wishing we were witches. Join us for a wild ride as we journey to the far North with the iconic heroine Lyra Silvertongue, and then dive deep into the logistics of having a physical daemon.

Julia and her brother Michael would have spent their Christmas holiday reading Little Women, re-watching the 1994 classic with Winona Ryder, getting up to see Greta Gerwig’s remake in theaters Christmas Day, and discussing all three at length at 2am anyway. So we thought, why not record their conversation for the podcast? Join us for something a little different as we spend time with our families and sing the praises for Florence Pugh’s Amy March. Happy New Year Everyone!

We thought we understood what this book is about, and then we really, really didn’t. There are apocalyptic viruses and sci-fi-esque body-altering surgeries; people turning invisible and reading minds. There’s even SVU fan fiction. Prepare to be shook as we get into this truly remarkable, genre-bending, heart-wrenching book of short stories by rising author Carmen Maria Machado.