Episode 218 - Book Club Books

It’s episode 218 and time for us to talk about the Book Club Books! We discuss what counts as a book club, religion, food memoirs, historical fiction, girls loving each other in 1954, the prison industrial complex, and more! Plus, we discuss geographic-specific food we miss!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
• Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
  • Dua Lipa In Conversation With Michelle Zauner
  • Service95 Book Club: Michelle Zauner On Writing Crying In H Mart
  • Michelle Zauner’s Writing Soundtrack For Crying in H Mart
  • South Korean Chef Songsoo Kim’s Leek & Daikon Jeon Pancake
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
• Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Other Media We Mentioned

• Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
• Leech by Hiron Ennes
• In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
• Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein
• Nimona by N.D. Stevenson
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
• Dua Lipa - Let's Get Physical Work Out
• Japanese Breakfast - Be Sweet feat. So!YoON! (Korean Version)
• Final Fantasy VII Remake

Links, Articles, and Things

• Marcel Proust
• How women invented book clubs, revolutionizing reading and their own lives 
• Below the Fray: Dua Lipa versus the literary landscape
• Mangasplaining

Foods We Miss

• Del’s lemonade
• Clam cake
• Dunkin’ Donuts
• Stuffies
• Alaska blueberry ice cream (Okay, that’s just a link to the ice cream place in Alaska Anna likes)
• Pickled cheese
• Eggplant parm grinder
• Bánh mì
• Fruiterer
• Buffalo chicken calzone
• Pizza in the United States vs. Pizza in Canada
• Sushi
• Cheese and onion crisps

15 Book Club Books by BIPOC Authors (Being Read This Month)

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

The books below are being read by book clubs in September 2025, so you can read along with them! The group reading the book is included in parentheses.

• Fearless and Free: A Memoir by Josephine Baker (Mocha Girls Read)
• Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley (Good Morning America YA Book Club)
• Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown (Well-Read Black Girl Book Club)
• Resting Bitch Face: Poems by Taylor Byas (The Audacious Book Club)
• The Trees by Percival Everett (Service95 Book Club)
• How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler (Book Club for Masochists)
• The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez (Subtle Asian Book Club)
• Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus is Alive! Stories by Melissa Lozada-Olivia (Weird Girl Lit)
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Las Comrades and Friends National Latino Book Club)
• Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Erin & Dani’s Book Club/The Indigenous Reading Circle)
• The House of Doors by Twan Eng Tan (Bluestockings Queer Book Club)
• Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P Johnson by Tourmaline (Pep & Hughes Queer History 101 Book Club)
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (Read the Rainbow St. Louis)
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Eclectix the Book Club)
• Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon (The Adam Silvera Book Club)

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

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Join us again on Tuesday, October 7th we’ll be discussing the genre of Vampires!

Then on Tuesday, October 21st we’ll be discussing How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures (or whatever the UK title is).