The Book Club takes a big bite of all the genres and references in Casey McQuiston’s fourth romance novel, The Pairing. Julia invents a new branch of theory entirely based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Victoria calculates her Saturn Return.

“Excuse me, sir, there’s some magic in this romance”:  Julia and Victoria unpack Casey McQuiston’s sophomore novel, One Last Stop.

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?”

Julia and Victoria are back to discuss The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion about an undiagnosed autistic man trying to navigate all the weird social rules of dating and relationships with a bunch of people who won’t explain anything. So for Julia, it was a comical reminder of her own journey not knowing how to make friends in college, and for Victoria, the book was a super fun love story and a good reminder on the importance of open and clear communication.

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.