Ep. 143 The Best of 2020 with Christine Bollow and Oscar Almonte-Espinal

Today we’re joined by two of The Stacks’ most favorite readers, Christine Bollow (@readingismagical) and Oscar Almonte-Espinal (@booksteahenny) to share the best books of 2020. We also discuss how 2020 impacted our reading and look ahead to the books we’re most excited about in 2021.

The Stacks Book Club selection for December is Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine, we will discuss the book with Darnell Moore on December 30th.

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.

• @ReadingIsMagical
• @BooksTeaHenny
• @LiteraryLauren_
• “The Short Stacks 3: The Best of 2018//Lauren Fanella” (The Stacks)
• “The Short Stacks 29: The Best of 2019//Lauren Fanella “ (The Stacks)
• The Pennsylvania State University
• Loyalty Bookstore
• Hannah Oliver Depp
• James Baldwin

• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
• Begin Again by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• Jamaica Kingcaid
• Toni Morrison
• Displacement by Kiku Hughes
• Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
• Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
• Roberto Bolaño
• Black Futures edited by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham
• Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Kiese Laymon
• Samantha Irby
• Ezra Edelman
• OJ: Made in America(Ezra Edelman, 2016)
• Rembert Browne
• Wesley Morris
• Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
• MCD Books
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
• How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
• Tor
• Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri
• National Book Award Translated Fiction
• The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
• “Ep. 89 Staying True to Yourself with Jason Reynolds” (The Stacks)
• The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
• The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
• “Ep. 129 The Myth of Strength with Karla Cornejo Villavicencio” (The Stacks)
• “Ep. 131 The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio — The Stacks Book Club (Lupita Aquino)” (The Stacks)
• Lupita Aquino (@Lupita.Reads)
• Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor
• Real Life by Brandon Taylor
• The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen 
• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen 
• The Pulitzer Prize
• Four Hundred Souls edited by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Dr. Kiesha N. Blain
• Damaris B. Hill
• Ijeoma Oluo
• My Broken Language by Quiara Alegría Hudes
• In the Heights (2008)
• In the Heights (Jon M. Chu, 2021)
• Love in Color by Bolu Babalola
• Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
• “Episode 378: Ashley C. Ford” (Longform Podcast, Longform)
• While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
• Selena Montgomery
• Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
• Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien
• Bird Uncaged by Marlon Peterson
• How to Slowly Kill Yourself an Others in America by Kiese Laymon
• Darnell Moore
• Kai M. Green
• Mychal Denzel Smith
• Citizen by Claudia Rankine

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