Bookish: A Casual Book Club

Bookish: A Casual Book Club

Discover your next literary adventure with HCC English professors Kofi Adisa, Sylvia Lee, and Laura Yoo! Dive into thought-provoking discussions about books and get expert recommendations for your next captivating read. Fuel your imagination and expand your literary horizons with these insightful educators

Episodes

February 17, 2025 29 mins

In this episode, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura discuss Dave Eggers’ novel, The Parade (2019). They dive into the allegorical story about two men, Four and Nine, who are charged with paving a road between two cities in a country that had been ravaged by war.

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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.

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October 28, 2024 26 mins

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.

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September 26, 2024 24 mins

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! 

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June 28, 2024 29 mins

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 Jus...

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April 29, 2024 26 mins

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 ...

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March 27, 2024 27 mins
  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. 
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February 13, 2024 22 mins

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...

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January 17, 2024 24 mins

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. 

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November 27, 2023 25 mins

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.

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October 17, 2023 24 mins

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.

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September 25, 2023 23 mins
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!   
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June 20, 2023 26 mins

Come listen to Sylvia, Laura, and Kofi's chat about their summer reading lists, which consist of a wide range of novels, poetry, and memoir. Listeners are invited to join in and read with the hosts. 

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Listen to Sylvia, Laura, and Kofi's wonderful discussion of Noor Naga's micro-novel If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, which follows the story of two nameless characters---one an "American" girl, the other an Egyptian "boy". Naga situates her story in the aftermath of the Arab Spring in 2010s, using unique storytelling techniques to question the limits of identity, identity politics, and shared humanity. 

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