ICYMI Kendra (@kdwinchester) interviewed @kylelucia Wu about her novel WIN ME SOMETHING. In their conversation, Wu discusses how her main character faces microagressions in her everyday life and how that experiences informs the direction of the novel: Kyle: "I wanted to focus on this experience of growing up around microaggressions rather than things that were more explicitly racist because I feel that the confusion of growing up in—or just existing, actually, I shouldn’t just say growing up—I feel that the confusion of existing around this kind of microaggressions is very confusing, especially if you don’t have real context or real information. . . . "And because the book was so much about gray spaces and being in the margins, I felt that it made sense to focus on microaggressions, which are also kind of like in these gray spaces. They’re sometimes committed by people who are really well intentioned. And then that can be a defensive of things like that sometimes. People say, “oh, they didn’t mean it that way.” Or, “that wasn’t intentional.” And, well, is that a defense? And what does it mean? And how does that actually protect the people who are experiencing them? I feel that it just further muddles this field of how Willa knows how to interact with the world, how to engage with people. "How does she know who’s on her side or not on her side when she can’t quite tell what the impact or the intention or if anyone else hears what she’s hearing—because I think one of the things about microaggressions is that they can go really unnoticed by a lot of people. Not you, not whoever is experiencing it, but sometimes you’re the only one who feels that impact, and no one else seems to feel it. It’s very difficult because you’re like, am I the one? Is this in my head? Did that really happen? Is my reaction right? And then it leads to this whole other sense of spiralling. So I was trying to capture just that confusion and the experience of living amongst things like that." Have a listen to the interview wherever you get your podcasts! [Image Description: A photo of the books WIN ME SOMETHING by Kyle Lucia Wu sitting on a stone shelf.]

In one of our last interviews, Kendra (@kdwinchester) interviewed Myriam J.A. Chancy about her novel WHAT STORM WHAT THUNDER. In the interview, Myriam discusses why she writes fiction: Myriam: "I enjoy writing novels because I think it allows you to really center the human experience in history. Right? I mean, we have our historians. We have excellent historians who can do that kind of work. Or we have people who are in some way, not quite journalists, but who are able to do the conversations on the ground and and frame those for a wider readership. "But I think that fiction does something that those works cannot do, which is to allow the reader to enter a world, you know, on its own ground and to really feel what it might be like to have been in that particular historical moment or historical historical experience. So I think, like Ward, my intent was to make you travel with the characters as opposed to feeling like you were outside of it and reading a report about the events—you know, that you would really want to see the outcome for the characters and want to be led by them, whatever those outcomes might be. I think that’s what fiction can do that no other genre can do quite as well. "I mean, certainly, I think memoir can do a great deal of that. But memoir is very particular to usually, you know, one individual’s experience or in the case of the Danticat memoir that I mentioned earlier, you know, it only can cover a few lives. I think with fiction, you can do. . . . It’s much more pliable, right? Because even though memoir utilizes some aspects of fiction to tell the story of a period or of a person, fiction really allows you to go into so many places that . . . that, you know, that you can’t really render with as much flexibility when you’re doing memoir or journalism." You can listen to the entire interview wherever you get your podcasts! [Image Description: A photo of the book WHAT STORM, WHAT THUNDER Myriam J.A. Chancy. The book is sitting a stone shelf.]

ICYMI Joce (@squibblesreads) interviewed Jung Yun about her latest novel O BEAUTIFUL. Joce: "I feel like everything that you said there really plays into this long-running theme in O Beautiful of newcomers versus old timers, or insiders versus outsiders in the stories that they tell in the book. And I’m curious, what ways did you want to explore those themes in O Beautiful?" Jung Yun: "One of the reasons why I think Elinor was the character that I eventually landed on to be the main character in this sort of lens through which the story is taking place is that she grew up in the state to a white father and a Korean American mother. And by virtue of her family background, always felt like she had one foot in and one foot out of different communities—and complicated by the fact that her father was an Air Force officer in a very tightly knit military community. So she has had those experiences of being sort of the “outsider” in her home state in a community that . . . that should have been more accepting of her and her family. And this is one of the reasons why she wanted to leave the state and move to the East Coast as soon as she was able to. The irony is that she gets this plum assignment to write about the oil boom because she’s considered an “insider” by virtue of being from the state and being from this region. "So throughout the novel she is . . . is sort of dealing with those tensions of her history and experiencing them kind of anew as she meets people who are either of the community or from outside of the community coming in. And, you know, all of them making various assumptions about who she is and what she’s doing there and and whether or not she “belongs.” So these were issues that I was thinking about very, very early on when the novel wasn’t even fully formed in my head as a novel yet. So, yeah, these ideas have been circling around for quite some time." Have a listen wherever you get your podcasts! [Image Description: A photo of the book O Beautiful by Jung Yun. The cover features a painting of a landscape with oil rigs in the distance.]

ICYMI, we had not one but TWO episodes this week. This past Sunday, our last interview went live! 🚨 NEW INTERVIEW! I had the honor of talking to Helen Hoang about her latest release, THE HEART PRINCIPLE. We discussed burnout, writing a supportive and collaborative romantic relationship, and the perfect bowl of wonton soup. I am beyond thrilled that I got to talk to Helen for my last interview with Reading Women. Her books made me feel incredibly seen, and they are hilarious and steamy - the perfect combination. Link in bio to listen! ⬆️💜 - Joce @squibblesreads [Image Descriptions: Joce holds a paperback copy of THE HEART PRINCIPLE on her lap, wearing faded black jeans and with a light teal rug in view. The book has a vibrant pink-red background with yellow script and an Asian American woman wearing sunglasses on the cover.] . . . . . . . . #thereadingwomen #readwomen #readingwomen #booklover #bookworm #booknerd #bookstagram #booksofig #booksbooksbooks #literature #amreading #bookstack #currentlyreading #readmorebooks #romancelandia #ireadromance #romancebooks #helenhoang #theheartprinciple

Today is Reading Women’s last podcast episode, and it features a very special team member… my mom! My mom likes to keep a low profile online, but she agreed to come on the show in honor of the occasion. My mom has volunteered for Reading Women almost since the beginning, proofing newsletters, web pages, and blog posts. I have always appreciated her support through the years, and since she’s been here since the beginning, I thought I’d ask her to walk through memory lane with me. So today we talk about RW’s six seasons and what this whole wild journey has been like. You can find the episode via the link in our bio or whoever you get your podcasts! - Kendra [Image Description: A photo of Kendra and her mom, both white women with brunette hair, dressed up for a Christmas service. The photo was taken in 2008. They obviously need to make more photos together because this was one of the only ones Kendra could find of the two of them.]

I had the honor of talking to the lovely Denise Williams about her most recent release, THE FASTEST WAY TO FALL, which features our protagonist Britta, who wants a promotion to being a full time writer at her job and is tasked with writing a piece about a fitness app which focuses on body positivity and joyful movement, as opposed to weight loss. Along the way, she starts to fall for her personal trainer Wes, who I absolutely adored. Denise and I talked about body positivity, seeing folks of different body shapes and sizes, and race, in fitness spaces, and her upcoming releases which are the BEST stories all set in airports ✈️ Link to listen in our bio! ⬆️💜 - Joce @squibblesreads [Image Description: Joce holds a copy of THE FASTEST WAY TO FALL, a paperback book with a forest green background, yellow lettering, and the illustrations of a plus sized Black woman and a White man running, on top of a white fuzzy blanket.] #thereadingwomen #readwomen #readingwomen #booklover #romancelandia #readromance #romancebooks #currentlyreading #bookstagram #booksofig #bookstack #readmorebooks #denisewilliams #thefastestwaytofall

Recent reads from #NonfictionNovember! . RuthAnn (@definitelyra) here! In this week's newsletter, I'm recapping recent nonfiction reads, including this fantastic essay collection by @margaret.renkl, GRACELAND, AT LAST. I loved her debut, LATE MIGRATIONS, and it was a joy to read her words again. Head to our bio to subscribe to the newsletter and hear why I liked this book so much! In the meantime, here's a quote that really rang true for me: . “Maybe being a Southern writer has always been more than stereotypes of ceiling fans and panting dogs in dirt yards. Maybe being a Southern writer is only a matter of loving a damaged and damaging place, of loving its flawed and beautiful people, so much that you have to stay there, observing and recording and believing, against all odds, that one day it will finally live up to the promise of its own good heart.” (from “What Is a Southern Writer, Anyway?”) . Let me know in the comments - what's a recent nonfiction read that you would recommend? . Photo credit: @definitelyra [Image description: A library copy of the book (light blue cover with white block text) sits on a stone wall. A tree with bright orange-red leaves is visible in the background.]

Do you ever feel like your TBR has gotten so tall and out of hand that it’s looming over you? 🤔 [Image Description: A photo of Gwen, the black and white cardigan Welsh corgi sitting on a giant dog bed. Rows and rows of books are stacked behind the bed.]

In this week’s new episode, I’m talking to @KyleLucia Wu about WIN ME SOMETHING, which out now from @Tin_House. It’s a beautiful, quiet novel with so much heft to it. WIN ME SOMETHING focuses on Willa, who is a biracial Chinese American woman who is a twenty-something nanny for this affluent white family in New York City.Willa grew up in a household where her parents divorced and then remarried, and so they have kind of new families so that she never feels completely part of one or the other. Throughout this novel, she's really looking for a place to call home, a direction to take her life. And she kind of feels stuck in this in-between space. There's a lot of beautiful character dynamics in this book. I really appreciated the way that Kyle is able to evoke these very deep and thought-provoking characters in such a short amount of space. The book is under 300 pages long and has such a deep impact. And I just fell in love with it in so many ways. - Kendra (@kdwinchester) Have a listen to our conversation via the link in our bio or wherever you get your podcasts! [Image Description: A photo of the books WIN ME SOMETHING by Kyle Lucia Wu sitting on a stone shelf.]

Today we’ve partnered with @bookshop_org to promote shopping at your local indie for small business Saturday! And if you can’t get out to a brick-and-mortar store for #SmallBusinessSaturday, Bookshop.org and Libro.fm is here for you! When you buy books online from Bookshop.org and @Librofm, you support your local community and benefit independent bookstores. Plus, bookshop.org is running free shipping all weekend. ✨ Bookshop.org has some merch to celebrate the occasion! You can head over to their website to learn more. Looking for a book rec for this weekend? Check out THE BEADWORKERS: STORIES by Beth Piatote from @CounterpointPress! I picked up this collection for the 2022 @IndigenousReadingCircle. Happy Shopping! [Image Description: A photo of A black t-shirt and a mug that feature a special design for small business Saturday. A copy of the book The Beadworkers sits to the side of the t-shirt and mug.]

Happy U.S. pub day to THE SISTER WHO ATE HER BROTHERS by @jenvcampbell! Jen’s new book features retellings from fairytales from around the the world with gorgeous illustrations from Adam de Souza. A few weeks ago on the podcast, @kdwinchester talked to Jen about THE SISTER WHO ATE HER BROTHERS, and Jen gave listener all sorts of behind-the-scenes info about how the book came to be. Have a listen wherever you get your podcasts! [Image Description: A photo of The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers sitting on a stone shelf. The cover of the book shows a half-human, half-fox wrapped around the title, their eyes shine in the dark, the forest and moon behind them, and vines reaching out from the edge of the page.]

Starting Monday off right. ☕️ What books are you all reading to start off your week? [Image Description: a photo of the book Out of Darkness Shining Light by Petina Gappah. A cup of hot cider sits next to a plate with a bookshelf cookie on it.]