On this episode, we welcome Kelly Yang to the podcast to chat about her adult novel debut, The Take, a story about a young Chinese American woman who aspires to become a novelist, and a veteran Hollywood producer who offers to help her break into the industry… in return for a bit of her youth. We’re so excited to finally have the chance to chat with Kelly about her adult debut after a prolific career writing books for middle grade and young adult readers, including past Books & Boba book club pick Front Desk!

Follow Lisa on Instagram at @kellyyanghk and check out her new novel The Take available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!

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

For our mid-month book news check in for April 2026, we catch up on the latest Asian American publishing announcements as well as check in on some distressing news for our legacy Kindles.

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

• The Library of Lost Time by Vaishnavi Patel
• BoxBoxBoxBox by Wan Sakamoto
• Mama’s Magical Hands by Yu An Xie
• The Kids Came Back Wrong edited by Wen-yi Lee
• Crush by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• It Was an Ordinary Name by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• The Golden Shoes by Jocelyn Cho
• The Summer I Turned Pretty Graphic Novel by Cynthia Yuan Cheng and Arielle Jovellanos; illust by Sara Faber
• Before & Now by Balsam El-bayya
• Goat for Dinner by Tao Nyeu
• Curiosities by Robert Kondo and Megan Bartel
• Sarah in Charge by Ellen Oh
• This Is Our Diwali by Jyoti Rajan Gopal; illust by Michelle Pereira
• The Book Witch by Nora Elghazzawi
• Magic Shoyu Shop by Debbi Michiko Florence; illust. by Minako Tomigahara

Book news mentioned on this episode:

• Amazon pulls support from Kindles pre-2013

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

On this episode, we discuss our March 2026 Book Club Pick, Butter by Asako Yuzuki, a story of food and murder following a Japanese journalist who begins a professional relationship with a convicted serial killer, charged with the murders of three domestic partners, in hopes of getting an exclusive interview. However, she ends up getting more than she bargained for as she gets sucked into the killer’s philosophy and worldview that leads her to question amd she knows about the pleasures of food, the importance of friendships, as well as how traditional gender roles makes fools of us all.

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

For our mid-month book news check in for March 2026, we catch up on the latest Asian American publishing announcements as well as check in on the ongoing fight against book bans:

• The Carlton Girls: Casey and the Cruel Thief by Julie Abe
• The Goodfolke Family by Roshani Chokshi
• P.S. Are We Friends Now? by John Schu and Jasmine Warga
• My Neighbor Yokai by noho
• Fall, in Love by Mia Kayla
• The Gravedigger’s Apprentice by Linda Cheng
• Seeking Wonderful by Susan Yoon; illust. Veronica Mang
• We Are the Light: A Story of Diwali by Rajani LaRocca; illust. Sayan Mukherjee
• Home Is Waiting to Be Found by Tina Athaide; ilust. Vũ Thủy Ngọc Hà
• Matcha & Matches by Cara Tanamachi
• Tea Leaves and Fate Strings by C.B. Lee
• The Red Thread by Laura G. Lee
• Scream, Queen! by Sujin Witherspoon

Book news mentioned on this episode:

• Lee & Low postpones their quadrennial Diversity Baseline Survey in order to concentrate on fighting book bans

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

On this episode, we discuss our February 2026 book club pick, Behind Frenemy Lines by Zen Cho, a romantic comedy about two Asian lawyers in London who share an (kinda?) adversarial relationship who end up sharing an office and perhaps become something more as they find themselves in a pseudo fake relationship to help with each other’s personal troubles. We read Zen Cho’s Regency era fantasy romance Sorcerer to the Crown almost a decade ago and were very excited to see what a contemporary Zen Cho romance looks like.

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

On our final mid-month book news episode in 2025, we review some of the latest Asian American publishing announcements, and weigh in on some recent book tea for December 2025!

Upcoming books mentioned in our publishing news:

1. Light and Thread by Han Kang
2. When We Swallowed the Sea by Janet Hong
3. Limitlessly, Mina by Gianna Lakenauth
4. Take to the Sky by Christina Soontornvat
5. Not Again, Dragon Chen! by Amanda Adams; illust. Wazza Pink
6. Jin Young, In Between by Ellen Oh
7. Don’t Print This by Monica Chin
8. A Super Definitely True Story of the Great Animal Race by Dane Liu; illust. Aki
9. Foreigners by E.L. Shen

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