Staying Hungry with Min Jin Lee

Let them eat cake! Or kale. Or cookies. Or whatever women are hungry for. In this episode, Bethanne Patrick sits down with highly educated and highly respected author Min Jin Lee to discuss hunger, most specifically women’s hunger, and how radical it is for women to loudly voice ‘I’M HUNGRY’. Min’s hit novel Pachinko has been turned into a renowned drama series on Apple TV.

We’re back with a Pop! Goes The Culture this week, focusing on The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Bethanne decides to do something different this week and focus not only on the book, but on Alice Walker’s cultural impact as well.

Can Bethanne beat the clock? She gives us 6 Recs for our To Be Read lists, this week focusing on books with phenomenal TV adaptations. Titles include: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman, The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carré, Patrick Melrose (series) by Edward St. Aubyn, and The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis.

Find Bethanne on X, Substack, Instagram, and Threads.

The Book Maven: A Literary Revue is hosted by Bethanne Patrick, produced by Christina McBride, and engineered by Jordan Aaron, with help from Lauren Stack.

All titles mentioned:

Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee,

Authority by Andrea Long Chu,

Towards Zero by Agatha Christie,

The Thinking Heart by David Grossman,

The Color Purple by Alice Walker,

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood,

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn,

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman,

The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carré,

Patrick Melrose (series) by Edward St. Aubyn, and

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis.

Episode Transcript

Welcome to Season Two of The Book Maven: A Literary Revue. This season, we’ll talk to leading authors, dive into the classics to decide which should stay in the literary canon, and I’ll recommend some of my favorite books to you. We’ll have all of that and more in this episode. But first, this week, I talked to Min Jin Lee about hunger. We discuss consuming knowledge, relishing experiences, and the radical nature of a smart and hungry woman. Join us now in conversation as Min talks about the importance of food in her writing.

BP: I know Pachinko, for example, well Free Food for Millionaires as well—there’s so much about food in your writing. So, I wanted to talk about how you learned to write about food. You certainly weren't a food writer or a food journalist when you began writing fiction. Were there challenges in that? Was it something that came very naturally to you?

MJL: That's so interesting. I don’t even think about my food writing at all. I have actually done some food writing. I’ve written for Travel and Leisure and S Traveler and Food and Wine. I’ve written l