Due to the recent success of the film, K-Pop Demon Hunters, the gals thought it was high time to offer our listeners some K-Pop inspired reading recs! Buckle up, buttercups, and be prepared to impress your friends (and, dare we say, kids) with this K-Pop inspired reading list!

Titles discussed today:

• K-pop Confidential, Stephan Lee
• I’ll Be the One, Lyla Lee
• XOXO, Axie Oh
• Somewhere Only We Know, Mauren Goo
• I'll love you forever: notes from a K-pop fan, Giaae Kwon
• Skylar and the K-Pop Principal, Luan Goldie
• Make a Move, Sunny Park!, Jessica Kim
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (trilogy), Grace Lin
• Meesh the Bad Demon, Michelle Lam
• When You Trap a Tiger, Tae Keller
• BTS: K-pop's biggest headliners, Leslie Holleran

The girls round out the year by sharing their personal favorite reads of 2025. See below for the booklist.

Olivia's recs:

• Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Heart the Lover, Lily King
• The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Kiran Desai
• All the Way to the River, Elizabeth Gilbert
• This American Woman, Zarna Garg
• Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor
• Back After This, Linda Holmes
• Swept Away, Beth O’Leary

Manda's recs:

• No More Chairs, Gill
• Everyday Bean (Tiny Bean's Big Adventures, Book #1), Graegin
• Frank’s Red Hat, Avery
• Max in the Land of Spies (book 1); Max in the Land of Lies (book 2), Gidwitz
• We Were Liars (book 1), Family of Liars (book 2), We Fell Apart (book 3), E. Lockhart
• The Only One Left, Sager
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: one woman’s obsessive search for the Golden State Killer, McNamara
• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (book 1), The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse, and the Storm (book 2), Charlie Mackesy

Today Olivia and Manda reflect on the cinematic gifts left to the world by the genius, Rob Reiner. Along with each movie mentioned, the girls offer book recs for your reading delight (list below). Happy Holidays!

When Harry Met Sally:

• Heartburn, Nora Ephron
• The People We Meet on Vacation, Henry (really any Emily Henry book)
• Normal People, Rooney
• Rachel Incident, O’Donoghue
• Eleanor and Park, Rowell
• One Day, Nicholls

Misery

• Dolores Claiborne, Stephen King
• Dream Girl, Laura Lippman
• Notes on a Scandal, Heller
• Tender, McKeon

Stand By Me

• Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury
• The Night Circus, Morgenstern
• The Outsiders, Hinton
• Okay For Now, Gary D. Schmidt
• Pop AND Schooled (both were mentioned, but really any Gordon Korman book)

This is Spinal Tap

• A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap
• Spinal Tap 2: the end continues (movie rec)
• AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll: The Ultimate Story of the World’s Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band, Engelheart
• I am Ozzy, Osbourne
• Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga, Davis
• The Life of Brian (movie rec)
• Monty Python bios/memoirs:
  • Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography, Eric Idle
  • So, anyway…, John Cleese
  • The Pythons Autobiography, The Pythons
• French Exit, deWitt

The Princess Bride

• Tress of the Emerald Seas, Sanderson
• Kill the Farm Boy, Dawson
• As you wish: inconceivable tales from the making of the Princess Bride, Elwes
• Magicians, Grossman