
The Stacks is honored to welcome James McBride, author of National Book Award winning novel The Good Lord Bird, and his critically acclaimed memoir The Color of Water. His newest book, Deacon King Kong, is an Oprah’s Book Club pick. We talk today about how James names his characters, they way he thinks about his success, and the role of art and history in American culture.
The Stacks Book Club selection for July is Breathe by Imani Perry, we will discuss the book with Kiese Laymon on July 29th.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
- The Color of Water by James McBride
- Barbara Streisand
- “A Virtual Evening with James McBride and Jason Reynolds” (Books & Books, Youtube.com)
- Jason Reynolds
- Stephen King

- Jim Harrison
- Rachel Kushner
- The Man Who Cried I Am by John Alfred Williams
- Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
- The Rock Bottom Remainders
- Sonny Rollins
- John Coltrane
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- The Human Comedy by William Saroyan
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Nelson Mandela
- Wayne Barrett
- Thulani Davis
- The Village Voice
- Oberlin College & Conservatory
- Columbia University
- Wilmington News Journal
- The Boston Globe
- People Magazine
- The Washington Post
- New York University
- The Southeastern Conference
- The University of Michigan
- Colin Kaepernick
- LeBron James
- Ed Shockley
- Oliver Nelson
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Virgil Thomson
- Chucho Valdés
- Tito Puente
- Pete Hamill
- Oprah’s Book Club
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