In this episode, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura discuss The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith. They talk about the novel's themes and the controversy around its translation. Han Kang is a South Korean author. She is the recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize in literature.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.