Books and Boba

Latest Episodes:

#377 - Author Chat w/ Gracie Marsden Nov 10, 2026

Show notes

On this episode we welcome author Gracie Marsden to chat about her debut novel, Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice, a tragic fantasy of love and revenge inspired by Taiwanese myth and folklore, following a powerless woman who makes a deal with a demon for power and agency, in exchange for leaving her home and her love.

Follow Gracie on Instagram at @thegraciemarsden and check out her novel Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts:

Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

The Books & Boba November 2026 Book Club Pick is Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

#376 - Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle Nov 03, 2026

Show notes

On this episode, we discuss our October 2026 Book Club Pick Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle, chosen for us by our Honey Boba patrons. The first book of the Phoenix Hoard trilogy, Ebony Gate follows Emiko Soong, a former assassin/enforcer for her mystical clan, trying to live a quiet life of self exile/retirement after a particularly bloody mission. Unfortunately, she gets dragged back into the game when a god of death calls in a family debt, and is forced back into the spiritual underworld of San Francisco's Chinatown on a quest to retrieve a missing gate to hell.

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts:

Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

The Books & Boba November 2026 Book Club Pick is Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

#375 - Author Chat w/ Sabaa Tahir Oct 28, 2026

Show notes

On this episode we're excited to chat with award winning author Sabaa Tahir, who joins us to chat about her newest YA Fantasy Romance novel Empire, which concludes her Heir duology (the spinoff/sequel series to her much beloved An Ember in the Ashes quadrilogy). We chat with Sabaa about her journey to becoming an author and thoughts on Asian inspired fantasy, before discussing how she approached returning to the world of An Ember in the Ashes for a second go, and some of the central themes of the new series.

-For those worried about spoilers, we try our best to talk around themes of Empire, but we did flag a 5-minute segment at about 34:52 that contains spoilers for one of the twists of the first book Heir that you might want to avoid if you haven't read it yet-

Follow Sabaa on Instagram at @sabaatahir and check out her novel Empire available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts:

Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

The Books & Boba October 2026 pick is Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

#374 - October 2026 Book News Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

On this episode, we catch up on the latest Asian American book news and publishing announcements for our October 2026 mid-month check-in

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

Front Desk by Kelly Yang; ilust. by Fumio Obata
Olivia Harper Is Haunting Me by Zoe Hana Mikuta
The Skull & the Seagull by Lenny Wen
Belly Takes the Bus by Marie Tang; illust. by Tracy Subisak
The Monster Who Almost Stole New Year by Eva Wong Nava; illust. by Lenny Wen
It's Market Day! by Meghana Narayan
Always a Corpse Bride by Kendare Blake
The Escaped Bear by Sheela Chari; illust. by Stephanie Graegin
Appa's Eighteen Wheels by Jessica Yoon; illust. by Cat Min

Book news mentioned on this episode:

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts:

Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

The Books & Boba October 2026 pick is Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

#373 - Author Chat w/ Lynn D. Jung Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

On this episode we sit down with speculative fiction author (and writing Youtuber) Lynn D Jung to chat about her debut novel Mothsblood, A dark academia/fantasy mystery thriller following Larkspur Lee, an ambitions and competitive Korean American woman studying alchemy in modern day Paris, who's life is turned upside down when she finds herself in the middle of an investigation when the immortal headmistress of her school is found inexplicably murdered, and the conspiracy she thought she left behind in the States follows her across the pond.

Follow Lynn on Instagram at @lynndjung and check out her novel Mothsblood available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts:

Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

The Books & Boba October 2026 pick is Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

#372 - Author Chat w/ E. L. Shen Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

On this episode we welcome back author E. L. Shen to chat about her newest novel Foreigners! Loosely based on her own family's history, Foreigners is a compelling take on the multigenerational Asian American story following characters from Qing dynasty China, 1960's New York, and present day New England, and the lies (big and small) we tell to fit in.

Follow E. L. Shen on Instagram at @elshenwrites and check out her novel Foreigners, available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts:

Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

The Books & Boba October 2026 pick is Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

#371 - Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim Oct 01, 2026

Show notes

On this episode, we discuss our September 2026 book club pick, Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim, a classic Asian American multigenerational story, about the tenuous relationship between an immigrant mother and her American daughter, but with a magical realism twist as both mother and daughter also have mysterious powers from a family curse passed down through the generations (the mother can turn invisible and the daughter can feel the history of anything she touches).

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts:

Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

#370 - September 2026 Book News Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

On this episode, we catch up on the latest Asian American book news and the last 2 month of publishing announcements for our September 2026 mid-month check-is

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

For You I Would Forget by Zeyneb Holdridge
We Rose from the Sea by Olivia Sun
Fern and the Fox by Sophie Diao
A Drop of Kindness by Andrea Wang; illust. by Sally Soweol Han
Wings by Susan Tan; illust. by Rowan Kingsbury
Yukiko and the Little Black Cat by Sarah Tsiang; illust. by Joey Ng
Wanbo by Shiho Pate
Incomplete Works by Sarah Chihaya
From the Clear Blue Sky by Jackie Akiko Cloud
Monster Moon Rising edited by Ellen Oh
Meow Meow Magic by Yu Kito Lee
The Boy from Cloud Mountain by B.B. Tan
10 Sleepy Cats by Lili Chin
Z Is for Zoomies by Lili Chin
Dear June, I'm Mad at You by Vivienne Chang & Eugenia Yoh
Super Shy by Vivian Truong
Tapestry of Gold by Tasia M.S
Write Back Soon by Remy Lai

Book news mentioned on this episode:

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts:

Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

The Books & Boba September 2026 pick is Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

#369 - Author Chat w/ Julie Abe Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

On this episode, we welcome author Julie Abe back to the show to talk about her newest middle grade fantasy novel, The Magic Library of Waterfall Way, a story about an unremarkable girl in a magical world of remarkable people, and her one chance at finding a guild to finally belong to in order to avoid exile, but in order to do so, she must fulfill a quest to save a magical library. We're excited to catch up with Julie as she launches her newest MG fantasy series!

Follow Julie on Instagram at @julieabebooks and check out her latest novel The Magic Library of Waterfall Way available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts:

Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)
Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)

The Books & Boba September 2026 pick is Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim

This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

#368 - Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro Aug 31, 2026

Show notes

On this episode,we discuss our August 2026 book club pick, Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, following Klara, an android "artificial friend," and her quest to bring happiness to her teen Josie as she grows up in a dystopic future. Join us as we dive into another masterful Ishiguro tale about the fleeting innocence of children, having conviction in the face of despair, and the complex responsibilities of parenthood (and more specifically, how far should someone go to give their children a better life).

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

Support the Books & Boba Podcast by:

Follow our hosts: