Books and Boba

On this episode we discuss our November 2025 book club pick, Taiwan Travelogue by Shuang-zi Yang, translated by Lin King, a historical fiction novel (with a meta-fiction twist) about a Japanese travel writer invited to write about the imperial colony of Taiwan by the Japanese government in the 1930's, and follows her budding relationship with her Taiwanese translator as they eat through the island while she pushes on the bound...

On this episode, we chat with bestselling author Lyla Lee to chat about her new YA romance novel, The Cuffing Game, a modern Korean American take on the timeless enemy-to-lovers tale Pride & Prejudice, remixed with the chaotic reality TV energy of Love Island about an aspiring student producer who reluctantly recruits her crush to participate in the college dating show she is producing. Lyla shares with us her journey to b...

On our second to last mid-month book news episode in 2025, we highlight some of the latest Asian American publishing announcements, and catch up on the latest book news for November 2025!

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

• Overrated by Gene Luen Yang & Jacob Perez
• Ink & Blood: Poetry and Power in the Lives of Emperor Li Yu and Chairman Mao by Chun Yu; illust. Sungyoon Choi
• The Peacock Throne by Zeba Shahnaz&nb...

Join us as we discuss our October 2025 book club pick, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker, a Chinese American horror story taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic following Cora Zeng, a crime scene cleaner haunted by the trauma of witnessing her sister's murder in a NYC subway station, as well as what appears to be her sister's actual hungry ghost. We follow Cora and her co-workers on a blood-soaked q...

On this episode, we sit down with author Yume Kitasei to chat about her latest novel, Saltcrop, a science fiction story about three sisters who grew up in a near future Earth after an ecological collapse changed the world. When the eldest sister goes missing while working for a megacorporation (because capitalism persists even after the end of the world), the younger two set off on a dangerous trip across the seas to find her....

For our mid-month book news check in for October 2025, we're catching up on the Asian American publishing news for the past 2 months (since we didn't do a mid-month episode in September) as well as checking in on the news about the latest National Book Award nominations as well as some exciting new listings on the NYT bestsellers list!

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

• The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar
• The Museum of Moder...

On this episode, we are joined by Jade Chang, the author of our August 2025 book club pick The Wangs Vs the World, to chat about her newest novel, What a Time to be Alive, which follows a messy Chinese American girl named Lola Treasure Gold who inadvertently finds internet fame when a tongue in cheek speech she makes at a party honoring her recently deceased best friend goes viral, turning her into an internet self-help influe...

On this episode, we discuss our September 2025 book club pick, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna, a cozy magical story about Sera, who used to be the most powerful witch in the UK until losing all her power casting a forbidden spell to bring her beloved great aunt back from the dead. Now 15 years later, she runs a magical inn in the English countryside after being expelled from magical society, and we fol...

On this episode, we are joined by best selling author Dustin Thao to chat about his newest novel, You've Found Oliver, the follow up to his bittersweet debut You've Reached Sam. Dustin shares with us how a real life glitch in the matrix inspired the supernatural setting of his latest romance as well as his thoughts on time, grief, and magic.

Follow Dustin on Instagram at @thedustinthao and check out his newest novel You've...

On this episode, we are joined from all the way on the other side of the world by Emma Pei Yin to chat about her debut novel When Sleeping Women Wake, a historical fiction novel about three women who each find their individual paths to resistance during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during world war 2. Emma shares with how she was inspired to write the story after hearing about her grandfather's experiences as a resista...

On this episode, we chat with author Amran Gowani about his debut novel Leverage, a financial thriller about a rising star hedge fund analyst who is forced to dive into the seedy underbelly of the financial system when he loses his firm $300 million in a day and has to make everything back in 3 months or face some dire consequences. Amran chats with us about the themes of his novel as well as shares his inspirations for the st...

On this episode we discuss our August 2025 book club pick The Wangs Vs. The World by Jade Chang, about the (formerly) affluent Wang family who embark on a road trip from from LA to NY after losing everything during the 2008 financial crisis. This is a book that is almost as old as our podcast and has been on our TBR for a long time so we're excited to dive in!

TW: One of the storylines involve a character who's fascination...

On this episode, we sit down with author Benedict Nguyễn to chat about her debut novel Hot Girls with Balls, a romantic sports satire about two Asian American trans athletes at the top of their game as stars of the international men’s pro indoor volleyball league (who also happen to be girlfriends)!

Follow Benedict on Instagram at @xbennyboo and check out her debut novel Hot Girls with Balls available now on the&nbs...

Reera is off on family business so it's a solo Marvin mid-month check in this week. On this short but sweet episode, Marvin highlights some of the latest publishing announcements for books by Asian and Asian American authors so that you can have even more books to keep an eye on for your TBR lists!

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

• SLASHER SUMMER By E.L. Chen
• AMBROSIA By Katrina Kwan
• MADDER LAKE By Katie Wu
• TIGER'S MO...

On this episode, we chat with Julia and Brad Riew, the sibling writing duo behind the new Asian-inspired fantasy novel The Last Tiger! Julia and Brad share their experiences writing a novel as a team as well as how they were inspired to write their fantasy epic, which takes place in a world inspired by Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1940's, by the real life star-crossed love story of their grandparents.

Follow Julia and brad on Inst...

On this episode, we discuss our July 2025 pick is Bingsu for Two by Sujin Witherspoon, a coffee house romantic comedy set in Seattle about high school senior River, who is reeling from the consequences of a series of disastrous personal decisions and seeks refuge at a small Korean cafe where he finds a found family and maybe even an enemies-to-lovers romance with the goth Korean girl of his dreams/nightmares, too bad that...

Note: This is a re-upload of episode 321 since we had the wrong audio file uploaded last week, apologies for any confusion!

On our mid-month check in for July 2025, we highlight some of the latest Asian American publishing announcements, and catch up on the latest book news!

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

• Break Room by Miye Lee; translated by Sandy Jooson Lee
• Gods & Comics by Kat Cho 
• Yuki's Special Delive...

On this episode, we sit down with author Allison King to chat about her debut novel The Phoenix Pencil Company, a novel that's part historical fiction, part magical realism, and part sapphic romance about a young woman who discovers her family's secret magical power to reconstruct anything written by a pencil while taking care of her ailing grandmother and learning about her own family's history from Shanghai to Taiwan to the State...

On this episode, we're joined by author Naomi Xu Elegant to chat about her debut novel Gingko Season, a story about a young Chinese American woman finding love, identity, purpose, and political awakening alongside her friends, set in New York City in 2018.

Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors

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