Bookish: A Casual Book Club

Joyful Readings

In this episode, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura share their thoughts on readings that inspire joy or delight. They mention The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, What Comes Next and How to Like it by Abigail Thomas, One Man’s Meat by EB White, An Alphabet for Gourmets by MFK Fisher, and “Vertigo” by Les Murray.

James by Percival Everett

In this episode, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura report back on their summer reading and dive into a discussion of James by Percival Everett. Spoiler Alert: We do talk about the ending of James! 

Summer Reading Lists

In this episode, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura talk about their summer reading lists. In addition to a variety of books on their individual lists, they will be reading James by Percival Everett. Be sure to read along with them.
Books they mention in this episode: Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown, Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy by April Baker-Bell, Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature by Sarah Hart, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling, These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit: Poems by Hayan Charara. 

The Fantasy Genre

In this episode of Bookish, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura explore the fantasy genre and its many subgenres, such as high fantasy, magical realism, Wuxia fantasy, and sci-fi fantasy. They discuss The Wings of Fire (the graphic novel) by Tui T. Sutherland, Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, and “La Héron” by Charlotte Ashley from Fantasy & Science Fiction Mar/Apr 2015.  Correction: The short story “Axolotl” that Laura mentions is written by Julio Cortazar, not Jorge Luis Borges.

Grocery Store Reads

 
Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura talk about "grocery store reads" or so-called "trashy novels" that range from romances like The Single Dad Project and Fifty Shades of Grey to crime thrillers like Reckoning. 

The novel, Erasure, by Percival Everett

Kofi, Laura and Sylvia discuss the 2001 novel, Erasure, by Percival Everett. They also talk about the film based on the novel, American Fiction. American Fiction is Cord Jefferson's hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. The film has received five Oscar nominations.

Graphic Literature

Kofi, Sylvia and Laura discuss graphic literature. They review "Abina and the Important Men," a compelling and powerfully illustrated "graphic history" based on an 1876 court transcript of a West African woman named Abina, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court. 

Memoirs

In this episode, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura talk about memoirs, including a discussion of Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu, HCC’s Bauder Lecture book for this year.

Halloween & Scary Reads

In this episode, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura talk about scary stories! What is scary? Why do we write and read scary stories? Happy Halloween! The stories discussed: “The October Game” by Ray Bradbury, “Survivor Type” by Stephen King, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, “Free Jim’s Mine” by Tananarive Due, and “Mask of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe.

Summer Reading Recap

In this episode of Bookish, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura share their summer reading adventures. Listen to find out how they fared in their the summer reading challenges!