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

Today the gals are joined by fellow TPL staffer, Hannah, for a discussion of every high school's favorite assigned book, The Great Gatsby. O

Looking for some great gift ideas? You've come to the right place! The girls share ideas for all ages, babies to adults. In case you were walking/driving/jogging and couldn't write down the titles, the gals discussed:

• When Pigs Fly: a song for dreamers, Sandra Boynton
• The Book of Candles: eight poems for Hanukkah Laurel Snyder, illus. by Leanne Hatch
• The 13th Day of Christmas, Adam Rex
• Once Upon a Kwanzaa, Nyasha Williams
• The Amazing Generation, Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price
• The Stolen Songbird Judith Eagle
• Brownstone, Samuel Teer and Mar Julia
• This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir, Zarna Garg
• The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, Emma Knight
• Turning to Birds: the power and beauty of noticing, Lili Taylor
• Lifeform, Jenny Slate
• The Third Gilmore Girl: a memoir, Kelly Bishop

Today the gals dig into Agatha Christie's novel, The Body in the Library--the second book to feature beloved sleuth extraordinaire, Ms. Marple!

Today's quick episode is in response to a request from our listener, Eliza. Don't forget, if you would like us to give you recommendations, shoot us an email at: podcast@troypl.org

• If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving, by Chris Newell, illustrated by Winona Nelson
• Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story, written by indigenous authors: Danielle Greendeer (Mashpee Wampanoag), Anthony Perry (Chickasaw), Alexis Bunten (Unangan/Yup'ik), and illustrated by Garry Meeches Sr. (Anishinaabe)
• Thank You, Sarah: the woman who saved Thanksgiving, by Laurie Halse Anderson, illustrated by Matt Faulkner
• Balloons over Broadway: the inspiring true story of the puppeteer of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, written and illustrated by Melissa Stewart
• Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist, by Jess Keating, illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens
• Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions, by Chris Barton, illustrated by Don Tate
• Dancing Through Space: Dr. Mae Jemison soars to new heights, by Lydia Lukidis, illustrated by Sawyer Cloud
• Saving American Beach: the biography of African American environmentalist MaVynee Betsch, by Heidi Tyline King, illustrated by Ekua Holmes
• A Line Can Go Anywhere: The Brilliant, Resilient Life of Artist Ruth Asawa, by Caroline McAllister illustrated by Jamie Green
• Kahoʻolawe : the true story of an island and her people, by Kamalani Hurley, illustrated by Harinani Orme
• Fairytales/Folktales native to a culture!

Fellow TPL staffer, Kit, will be joining the girls today to discuss Alison Bechdel's, Fun Home: a family tragicomic, a graphic memoir.