Christopher Nolan's Odyssey cast Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, and the internet exploded over "historical accuracy." Nobody said a word when Diane Kruger played the same role in 2004. Sue and Ksenija dig into the double standard, and into what cultural appropriation actually means, using the Nyong'o/Kruger casting controversy and Montenegro's own non-racial experience of cultural erasure to ask what's really being protected when people invoke the term. Is this about race, about power and ownership, or is "appropriation" just doing too much work as a single word for very different problems? Also discussed: the Snow White backlash, Hamilton's colorblind casting, and why our idea of "universal beauty" so often defaults to whiteness.

📚 Books Mentioned
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• The Color of Everything by Cory Richards
• D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

💌 Our Substack & Show Notes:
https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/

📚 Read Ksenija’s Novels:
https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications

📚 Ksenija on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_

🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS

Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines.

New episodes every Saturday.

👉🏻 CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro

00:34 Casting Controversy: Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy

07:28 The casting of Nolan's Odyssey

17:40 The Inaccuracy of Beauty Standards

26:11 Reimagining Historical Figures: Hamilton

30:56 The Snow White Controversy

33:49 Inclusivity in Beauty Standards

40:38 Cultural Appropriation: Definitions and Perspectives

55:23 Book Recommendations and Personal Growth

It starts with a novel about a woman who steals from her employer, marries into money, and eventually disappears on her own kids. It ends with a hard, unresolved argument about loyalty, guilt, and who actually holds women to impossible standards.

Are women each other's worst enemy? Not men, not the patriarchy in the abstract, but women, tearing down other women who speak up, judging mothers who walk away, staying silent when it would cost them something to defend each other.

Also: book recs, the "human doing" trap, a Paraguayan Senator's lame excuse for attacking the great Kylian Mbappe, and why nobody should be tipping 20% in Montenegro.

💌 Our Substack & Show Notes:
https://transatlanticbookmarks.substa...

📚 Read Ksenija’s Novels:
https://transatlanticbookmarks.substa...

📚 Ksenija on Goodreads:
/ 6449766.ksenija_popovi_

🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS

Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines.

New episodes every Saturday.

👉🏻 CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

03:30 Tipping Culture

10:23 Expectations of Loyalty and Compliance

15:02 The Impact of Aging on Women

21:57 Compliance vs. Performance and the Human Doing

29:07 Mothers Abandoning Children

43:20 Class Distinctions, Politics, and Morality

50:03 Living Up to the Public Image on Social Media

53:37 Coopting Feminism to Justify Abhorrent Behavior: the Case of the Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla

59:35 Trump's Intervention in the World Cup

01:03:22 Book Recommendations

Looking for the perfect book this summer?

In this episode of Transatlantic Bookmarks, novelist Ksenija Popović and engineer Sue Graham Johnston share the titles they’re most excited to recommend for the season. Whether you’re heading to the beach, escaping to the mountains, or simply slowing down at home, we’ve put together a list that ranges from light and funny to deeply thought-provoking.

We cover romance, psychological thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, literary fiction, historical fiction, and nonfiction, talking about the novels we couldn’t put down, the authors who surprised us, and the books waiting at the top of our own TBRs.

We also discuss why holidays are the perfect time to discover something different, how our tastes have changed over the years, and why putting your phone away for an hour may be the best gift you give yourself this summer.

💌 Our Substack & Show Notes:
https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/

📚 Read Ksenija’s Novels:
https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications

📚 Ksenija on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_

🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS

Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines.

New episodes every Saturday.

👉🏻 CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction
04:44 Romance
16:36 Thrillers
23:03 Science Fiction and Fantasy
27:07 More Comedy
28:12 YA and Strong Female Heroines
33:06 Diving into European Literary Fiction
39:25 Self-Help
51:46 Our TBR for the Summer