Ep. 195 The Best Books of 2021 with Lupita Aquino and Morgan Hoit

Written By Megan Caballero

It's time for The Stacks' annual Best Books of 2021 episode. To help put together this list, we're joined by professional readers Lupita Aquino (@lupita.reads) and Morgan Hoit (@nycbookgirl). In addition to sharing our top 10 books of the year, we also discuss the trends we saw in 2021, reading for work, and the books we're excited about in 2022.

The Stacks Book Club selection for December is A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib. We will discuss the book on December 29th with Andrew Ti.

 
 

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon

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TRANSCRIPT
*Due to the nature of podcast advertising, these timestamps are not 100% accurate and will vary.

Traci Thomas 0:08
Welcome to The Stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them. I’m your host Traci Thomas and it is time for our annual best books of the year episode. I am so excited. I have brought two friends who I know read a lot and read widely to help me compile this list. Lupita Aquino and Morgan Hoit will be our guest today. They are both very active in promoting books on their Instagram pages as well as being reading professionals. I am thrilled with the list we came up with this year. Remember our December book club pick is A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib. We will be discussing the book on Wednesday, December 29. With Andrew Ti. All right, now it’s time to reveal The Stacks Best Books of 2021.

All right, everybody. I’m very excited. It is arguably my favorite episode of the year. We are doing The Stacks Best Books of 2021 I have brought in two superstar professional readers. One is front of the pod who’s already been here before the lovely intelligent super reader Lupita Aquino and the other one is never been here before. Still friend of the show. Professional reader marketer, book loving person deeply associated with the city of New York. It is Morgan Hoit. Morgan, Lupita. Welcome.

Morgan Hoit 2:18
Yay. Thank you. I’m so excited to be here.

Lupita Aquino 2:20
I am too, thank you so much for having me back.

Traci Thomas 2:23
I’m really excited to have you guys. I reached out to the two of you because you probably read more books than almost anyone else I know, especially this year. So just to give people a sense of who each of you are. Will you give like do like a little intro like your relationship to books? Give me a little thing. Morgan, we’ll start with you.

Morgan Hoit 2:40
Yes. Um, so I’m Morgan. I am the bookworm behind the Instagram account, NYC book girl. And I also work in publishing. I’m a Senior Marketing Manager at Random House, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and obviously live in New York City. And read a lot of books set here too.

Traci Thomas 2:59
Fantastic. And Lupita.

Lupita Aquino 3:02
Yes, I am Lupita from Lupita Reads, I started my Instagram, like six something years ago. I am not in publishing, I am not a publishing professional. I just read books for fun. And I’ve turned it into this little hobby that I obsessively do a lot of.

Traci Thomas 3:22
Okay, you’re not a professional reader. However, you did professionally read for an incredible book prize, which I need you to tell us a little bit about because it’s insane.

Lupita Aquino 3:31
I did I actually had the opportunity to read for the Aspen Prize in literary fiction this year. And so it’s awarded every year and they focus on highlighting basically books that illuminate contemporary social justice issues. And it’s all fiction. So I read a ton of fiction this year to the point of I am a fiction lover but to the point of which I was like okay, and no more.

Traci Thomas 3:59
welcome I’ve converted you.

Lupita Aquino 4:01
I know I was like I think I asked you right away I was like give me the must reads of this year of nonfiction because you know, I was like I need I’m craving it so bad.

Traci Thomas 4:13
How did I do? Did I say anything?

Lupita Aquino 4:16
And I think we’re gonna get into it because I- Yeah, we’re gonna get into it.

Traci Thomas 4:19
I know one of the books I recommended you read is on my list today which will be 0% shocker to 100% of the people so we’ll save it but it’s on here. Morgan I want to know about your reading life going from being a reading for hobby NYC book girl to reading for professional marketing purposes.

Morgan Hoit 4:41
So I started NYC book girl while I was working in the theatre industry. I was an assistant to a Broadway producer and reading felt a like a an escape from that like world of entertainment and I was just doing it all the time. So I needed my own like creative outlet as well. And it was through MIT book girl that my first job in publishing came to me. And I worked for an imprint called avid reader press, which is an imprint of Simon and Schuster. And they publish majority nonfiction. So my reading life transformed when I started working at avid because I read fiction like I drink water, and read little to no nonfiction outside of the world of memoirs. And so I really appreciated that about avid it pushed me to read books I never would have read before. Now being at Random House, I work for an imprint called Ballantine. And we mostly published fiction, very commercial fiction. So the switch has kind of flipped on that we’re now my nonfiction reading is mostly for pleasure. And my work reading is back in that world of fiction. But once again, I love it and Ballantine publishes across genre. So I read historical fiction. And I’ve recently really thrown myself into the world of rom coms as we’ve been expanding our list in that space. So every year that I think I kind of understand who I am as a reader, and what it is that I read, publishing throws another curveball in there. I have to readjust. So I’ve read 10 rom coms in the last 30 days, which is crazy. I know. But I got curious. And then I had to know everything. So here I am.

Traci Thomas 6:13
Okay, I’m gonna ask you both a question that everyone asks me, I always roll my eyes. But I am curious what you guys think about it, which is, now that you’ve been reading for work, and you still read for pleasure? Has your relationship to reading change? Do you still love it? Do you ever want to just like, throw all your books away? And how do you keep reading when you’re not in the mood for reading when you have to read for work?

Lupita Aquino 6:38
So this is the first year I’d say I’d actually read for work, you know, for the prize and just having to read, I’m also trying to shift now towards reading, you know, to help promote books and stuff, so that I would consider that work, right. And so I think it has changed a lot in terms of the pressure that it places on reading, when whereas like reading before, used to be something that I did to just kind of like ease and calm myself. And like the opposite is like this year, I was like, oh my god, I gotta get through all of these books, I have to read all these books. So it became almost like an the opposite of that, you know, I was like, anxious. So it was it was tough.

Traci Thomas 7:18
how did you get through the anxiety? Like, how did you push through knowing that you had, you still had to read it, even though you were like, I hate it here.

Lupita Aquino 7:27
I think I just took a lot of breaks, to be honest. And then also, like you like just falling in love with other books that I wasn’t, you know, supposed to be reading. During that time, I would do a lot of audiobooks, especially like, not the some nonfiction not a lot, because I would find myself not being able to focus, but I’m throwing that in the mix helped a lot. So, and you didn’t finish a lot of books, idea and left a lot of books, which is a first for me.

Traci Thomas 7:55
Was it great?

Lupita Aquino 7:57
It was actually very stressful. Because when you’re reading for for a prize, I mean, you want to feel like you know, you’re giving a book, it’s due diligence and his justice. And but the thing is a lot of books, sometimes from the very beginning, like your gut tells you, you know, immediately like, Okay, this book is working, I see where it’s going, like I’m rooting for it, but at the same time, it’s just I know that it’s not going to be this diamond that we’re looking for. And so that was really hard. It became a little stressful after DNF. But I don’t think I went back to not being DNF thing. I’m reading a book now that I have been reading for guys like weeks. And I have not DNF it because I’m committed and so I think I learned nothing.

Traci Thomas 8:44
Yeah, I would have put that book down weeks ago. I know I actually need you to finish it. I know which one it is I need you to finish it to tell me if I need to read it.

Morgan Hoit 8:51
I 110% agree with Traci also knowing what it is.

Traci Thomas 8:55
I don’t think we can tell you guys what it is. But we can say it’s coming out in 2022. It’s highly anticipated. It’s by an author that has a book that everyone has cried to. And that’s what it will say, Morgan, what about you How is working with books changed, like the stress level of reading.

Morgan Hoit 9:11
I agree with Lupita audiobooks. For me, they’re never work related. And so they’re always an escape. And I I really like listening to ya and to memoirs and to romance and to things that don’t necessarily fit into that, like more information have free space. But I’m a Virgo and I keep lists. So whenever a manuscript comes in, I add it to the list and I really enjoy checking it off. And I try to divide them up based on how much time we have until publication. So if something comes in, that’s not coming out for 10 months, it doesn’t need to be read right away. Whereas sometimes we get manuscripts that are coming out three to four months from the day that it arrives to our marketing side of things. So different levels of priority are assigned based on pub date. And then I just try to let myself breathe from there. And I definitely have guilt when I’m not reading when it’s free time and downtime, and I’m not reading but I mean, this has been one of the more stressful weeks in New York City, and I’ve gotten through it by watching an entire episode of survivors, or, sorry, an entire season of Survivor. It’s gonna say an episode. That’s like an hour. I’m, I’m averaging like four to five episodes a day right now. So I think just like letting go of that, that I’ve got to always be reading because it makes for better content.

Traci Thomas 10:29
Yeah.

Morgan Hoit 10:29
The vision I have of myself.

Traci Thomas 10:31
I’m having a weird moment where I read for work, as you both know, yeah. And I in between, I read for pleasure. And this year, I was really good about like scheduling my life so that I could have the last like, basically all of December to read whatever I wanted to read. And I have been in the worst reading slump of my life, I don’t want to read anything, which is crazy. Because I think for me, when I have work reads, then I have a deadline. And so then I know, okay, if I want to read this other book, that’s not for work, I have three days to do it. So I’m like, let’s go. But now I’m like, I have five weeks to do whatever I want. And you know what, I’ve read three books, two of them on audio. And one of them was a poetry collection. So I’m nailing it. Oh, and one of them was for children as a children’s. So basically, I don’t know anything about myself, and I hate it here. But enough about that, we’re going to talk about the urine books, which was 2021. Just in general, overall, what did you all think of this year in books.

Lupita Aquino 11:32
In terms of fiction, I was, it was really such an eye opening experience to kind of notice themes of writing and like, what people were tackling, and maybe it was because I was reading for, you know, social justice issues that I felt like I was able to pick up on a lot of themes. And that really surprised me, because I feel like in the past, I never could see any similarities or like, you know, same things that these books are kind of all trying to tackle. So that was really surprising. For me.

Morgan Hoit 12:02
I feel like in my reading throughout the year, I if I felt like if a feeling of under underwhelmed some of the time, but then going back and looking at my list, it was so easy for me to pick out my favorites because there were books that I just so adored. So I think it was the stuff in between that was causing that, that feeling. But I also feel like I in the latter half of the year really delve back into reading as fun and as joy. And some of my favorite books of the year had such like humor and light to them. One of them I’ll talk about today, but other ones that come to mind. I love seven days in June, so much oh so much. Yeah. And the character of her daughter just like really brought back that feeling of like making a friend as you read. So I just I feel like I really got back into it. And definitely part of that is the books that I read for work when I transitioned into my new job in the second half of the year, but I’m happy looking back on the year and knowing that that sort of brought me at the end because it was one hell of a year otherwise.

Traci Thomas 13:04
Agreed. First of all, Lupita what were the themes you picked up on?

Lupita Aquino 13:07
So there was a lot of like, books and books like or books and writers like people basically writing about books in a book, which I was like, Okay, wow, that’s that’s a lot. But it’s like reading them back to back like I think hell of a book had that. There was a cuckoo land. That was the same thing. There was a book in the book, there was the book of emptiness. Seven days in June had books and books. And I was just like, What is this? Donnie Walton had books and book? Wasn’t she writing a book about noble enough? She was writing a book about Opal. Yeah, yeah, she was an author. Yeah. So it was a lot of that. I thought that was really interesting. And there was a couple more, I just can’t can’t remember them right now.

Traci Thomas 13:51
That’s fair. I’ll tell you guys what I thought about this year in books. Yeah, I didn’t think it was a great year for books. I gotta be honest, there was a lot of stuff this year that I felt was like, fine. And when I was thinking about like, what were my favorite books of this year, like written in this year, I really hope I can get to five and then for my backup, like my top 10 My other five, I keep oscillating between like six or seven books that would never have made it in another year in my mind. Like I just felt like there was a lot of like, okay, books, but I wasn’t taken but also that could more so be me to like where I am emotionally and with like, the pandemic and everything. Like maybe it’s more just me as a reader. I’m just not like that in to this year. I don’t know. But I definitely there were some books that I think are great, that will stand the test of time, but there are a lot of books that I think got a lot of praise that I don’t know, we’ll be talking about next year or in five years or whatever, but that’s just me being an asshole.

Lupita Aquino 14:47
I mean, I would agree with you though. I think a lot of people have said that and I do even looking at my I think it took me a while to send you guys my top five. But even looking at that, like I was like okay, Some stuff kind of sings. But there wasn’t a lot. It wasn’t extremely hard. I think I did it in like, five minutes. And I was like, I’m not overthinking it. But these were the ones that stuck out to me. So I don’t think you’re wrong.

Traci Thomas 15:12
Thank you. I like to be right. Okay, let’s get into it. We’re gonna get into our best books of 2021. We each have three books. And coincidentally, there was one book that we all sort of had on our list. So we’re going to include that as our 10th book. So we’ll each do three. Morgan, why don’t you start, pick whichever one you wanna start with? Okay, this is not in any order. So just FYI, people don’t think that we’re doing a countdown. We’re just doing 10 books loosely. Truly.

Morgan Hoit 15:40
Yeah, I’m just going in the order in which I wrote my notes about them. So we’re starting with crying and H Mart by Michelle’s honor, which is a memoir from Michelle’s honor as the lead singer of Japanese breakfast, which was a band I wasn’t familiar with, when I started it. And then I went back and listened to some of their songs. And I was like, Oh, I’ve heard a bunch of this before. Ironically, she doesn’t talk about music that much. In this memoir, it’s much more about food, which I love books about food. So we begin. It’s really a true memoir. It begins in her childhood growing up in Oregon. She’s one of the few Asian American children in her neighborhood. And we kind of move with her along through her life, we traveled to Seoul with her and her mother, and visit her family there she goes off to college and goes in and out of this relationship with Korean Ness as part of her identity. And then when she’s 25, her mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And that’s where the like clutch part of the book really kicks into gear. And so it then delves into a story about grief and reclaiming her relationship with her mother and her heritage through food and language and travel. And I found that this book really allowed me to, to go somewhere like you get to go to Korea, and you get to go to Oregon with them, and you get to go to her shitty apartment. And you get to really immerse yourself in all of those, those places and things. And I’m also a huge YouTube food video fan. And so as Michelle and that’s one of the ways that she digs back into this, like, knowledge about Korean food. And it’s such a Ode to how much information there is out there by creators who are just trying to share these parts of themselves. And I just, I loved it so much. And it was one of the first books I read this year, and it stayed with me the whole 12 months.

Traci Thomas 17:24
Lupita, did you read it?

Lupita Aquino 17:26
I loved it. It did. It was not in my top three only because there were a few other memoirs that I felt like I personally really connected to. So I did not include that one in my list.

Traci Thomas 17:38
I didn’t like it you guys. I know.

Lupita Aquino 17:42
You did it. And I was actually very devastated to learn that because it like like Morgan said, it really stuck with me. As someone who has seen and like lost someone to cancer just the way I think that she describes that experience. I just kind of felt so like, like, this is so real, you know, interest.

Traci Thomas 18:05
I love it. I signing I thought the writing was exceptional. The chapters are the stuff in between, I don’t know it just didn’t work for me.

Morgan Hoit 18:14
When I saw Lupita post about it, I was so overjoyed because I’m like finally she’s read it and died. She knows how good it is.

Traci Thomas 18:22
But yeah, okay, well, I’m glad that you picked it because you’re it was on Obama’s list. Like I’m definitely an outlier.

Morgan Hoit 18:30
I was I shared two books with Obama, but I put them on my list first, because I did it before yesterday.

Traci Thomas 18:36
I share two books with Obama as well. And I also was talking about them way before Obama so he can get he can get his own personality and stop trying to take ours. Okay. Lupita What’s your book? First of all?

Lupita Aquino 18:49
So my first book I read for the prize, I would I don’t think I would have read it otherwise, because I didn’t see it on Bookstagram a lot. And it’s the arson a city by Hola, hola, yawn. It’s a fiction novel. I know that she is the writer of another book. That was I think semi books around popular. The salt houses or the houses of salt, salt either of you not?

Morgan Hoit 19:13
I haven’t read it. But I’ve had that one for a while. And then I know that she’s sold another book to avid reader press. So my old team is working on it. And it’s supposed to be incredible.

Lupita Aquino 19:21
Oh my god, I’m so excited. I fell in love with this book. It’s basically just like a family saga. And I felt like it just illuminates the way a family’s history. And like the possible fated Destiny becomes like can become broken and changed because of war. And so I just felt like seeing this family kind of exist and then you know, have possibly have different lives but then those different lives be destroyed by something that’s completely out of their control. And the way that that fractures, families and more, of course, separates and fractures. Families. I just thought that was like, amazing. But one thing I absolutely also loved was just like the messy siblings. Like I have never read about like really good, messy sibling, like stories, I think ever, or maybe I have, but this one was just like, I don’t know. There’s they’re just great. So that one for me was like, it still sticks with me. I still think about it. I read. I’m trying to recommend it all the time to anybody.

Traci Thomas 20:30
I got it because of year. I haven’t finished. I’m like 60 pages in

Morgan Hoit 20:36
when I saw it on your list. I was like, Oh, I really do need to read that one, don’t I?

Lupita Aquino 20:40
I don’t know if I’m allowed to say but I’m rooting I’m written in surprise.

Traci Thomas 20:44
So I know you’ve been talking, you’ve been telling me like read this book, read this book. Okay. My first book that I’m going to talk about today is how the word is passed by Clint Smith. It is so good. It’s on Obama’s list. Obama and I are so smart. It is. So basically, Clint Smith goes back into how we talk about history of the history of slavery in America specifically. And he sort of takes you, the reader to different physical sites connected to the history of slavery in America. So it’s like slave trading in New York City down on like Wall Street, he takes you to Thomas Jefferson’s house, Monticello, he takes you to the Confederate Blanton cemetery in Virginia. And he talks to people there. And he talks about the history. And he sort of is doing like this reckoning of how we understand history, and not necessarily what exactly is the history but how it’s kind of morphed and changed over time. And how history is something that is living and breathing. And that there’s an understanding of history that is different than the facts of history. And I think that that’s a really interesting way to look at slavery and an American history, especially in this moment when there’s so much contention over what is true, and what is fact and what is relevant and what is feeling and like these different complicated things. So the book is great. I highly recommended Clint was on the show. And I just have to say this about that episode. He never referenced a note or a thing, the entire conversation. And if you go back and listen to it, he talks about like 900,000 things, and he references like all these books, and he’s titles and authors and like in 1918 62, and you’re like, and I’m sitting there watching him on our little zoom. And I’m like, holy shit is this guy like, just off the top of his head? So he’s fantastic. The book is fantastic. Did either of you read it? I did. Did you love it?

Lupita Aquino 22:51
I did. And when I saw it on Obama’s list, I was like, yes, yes. Yes.

Traci Thomas 22:56
I think it was on Obama’s summertime list too. Because you know, he does like a middle of the year list. And it made it made it from part one to part two. So I was like, good, good holds up. More than you ever read again.

Morgan Hoit 23:07
No, but I normally wait to listen to the Stax episodes. If I think I’m going to read the book. And that was when I didn’t wait to listen to because I just wanted to hear him and you and I, I walked away from that episode thinking he’s probably the smartest person I’ve ever heard being a super duper is.

Traci Thomas 23:23
Yeah, book two, Morgan. Go ahead.

Morgan Hoit 23:33
Okay, Book Two, also shared with Obama is intimacies by Katie could Amara, which is a really beautiful, Stark novel. It’s not one that’s super wordy. It’s not overly long. I read a lot of clunkers this year. And I loved those two, but this one really stood out to me as being a nearly perfect work of fiction. And I will say I did not love her last book, a separation. So if you also didn’t love that, don’t let this hold you back. But intimacies is about a translator, a legal translator, who moves from New York City, she’s kind of escaping New York City, to The Hague, and she works in the international court. And it has this bizarre small ensemble of characters. So she’s also dating a man who is estranged from his wife, who goes back to where his wife is separated, living in Portugal to separate from her but doesn’t come back for a very long period of time. And she has this kooky friend who’s one of those friends where you’re like, I don’t think that friend has your best interest at heart. And she’s translating for this former president who has been accused of these heinous war crimes. So she has these like mysterious dark people around her. But it’s so beautifully set in the city that I’ve never been to. And there’s a scene where she goes and looks at a painting and the writing about the way she processes looking at the painting is some of the best descriptive writing I’ve ever read. And it’s like one of those things where you were like, oh, yeah, So that is why people are novelists. And I am not like she does so good in in just capturing that experience that I think people who love going to see art in museums have had but can’t quite put into words. And then it also has loneliness as this like haunting blanket that kind of settles over the whole story of she’s got these people in her life, but none of them are particularly close to her. And there’s this barrier of language in a lot of the story. And I know Tracy, you also really love to seek you. And so I feel like loneliness has been a theme in my reading this year and a theme in our lives this year as we’ve been separated from people we once took for granted. And I just think it’s a really beautiful book and I think it would make a great winter read.

Traci Thomas 25:46
Hmm, love this time of year.

Morgan Hoit 25:49
All Yeah, I read it in July.

Lupita Aquino 25:52
So I’ve had it on my list, so I’m definitely gonna go need to read.

Morgan Hoit 25:57
It’s also you could definitely read it in like a day or two. It’s not a it’s not a long haul.

Traci Thomas 26:04
I have to say I’m probably never gonna read this book.

Morgan Hoit 26:06
Yeah, no, it’s I think you actually read it and dislike it.

Traci Thomas 26:09
I already know. It’s not for me. I’m super excited about it. I’m super excited for her. Also talk about do you know that her husband is also like a super famous writer. And they’re like a writing power couple. Really? Her husband? I’m gonna I don’t know, his last name is Hari Kunzru. I still don’t know how to say his name. But he wrote white tears, which people know. Anyways. It’s like, you know, because Danzy Senna is married to Percival Everett. Did you guys know that?

Yeah. Which I just found that out. Another power couple. I just I live for it. Anyways.

Lupita Aquino 26:38
And the fact that he had two books out this year that were-

Traci Thomas 26:41
Were they both out this year, or was one out late last year I thought?

Lupita Aquino 26:46
I don’t know. I don’t know if they were both out this year.

Traci Thomas 26:48
I just was thinking that one was out last year, because I just didn’t think it was possible to do two in one year. But I just was under estimating.

Lupita Aquino 26:56
Oh, I just plug his book the tree. So it was really good. It’s not one of my top three. But it was really good. It’s worth a read, I think.

Morgan Hoit 27:03
And speaking of Lupita is theme of books and books. There’s an important scene that takes place in a bookstore in this book, so and she buys a book that kind of becomes a symbol throughout the rest of the of the book. So interesting.

Traci Thomas 27:18
Okay, Lupita book two.

Lupita Aquino 27:20
So I know I mentioned that crying on h Mart wasn’t on my list because other memoirs hit a little harder for me. So the kissing bug, a true story of a family and insect in a nation’s neglect of a deadly disease. By Daisy Hernandez was like part memoir part like scientific exploration of this disease that daisies on Taz, who, as she’s describing her relationship with her aunt, it just it’s she’s always in her life, almost kind of like a second mother. And so watching her kind of slowly die of this disease, even though it’s completely preventable if people are not preventable, but what it is completely preventable, but it’s also like treatable and manageable and people can live long lives. Just watching her talk about that was something that I just really connected to. And again, just the way she focuses in on the Latinx population, and the fact that you know, a lot of it is just no access to health care, or limited access to health care or fears of accessing health care, that prevent people from having awareness of this disease that that is very relevant, prevalent in Latin community, Latin American communities. So that’s one of my books that definitely hit for me this year.

Traci Thomas 28:44
I’ve never even heard of that book. Really? Yeah. And also, wouldn’t you put it on your list? Or I thought it was sorry, I didn’t read it. Don’t hate me. When I saw on your list, I thought it was like a romance like a rom com the kissing?

Morgan Hoit 29:00
The cover’s definitely not that I’ve I’ve only heard of it through Lupita but it the cover is straight nonfiction.

Lupita Aquino 29:09
And I, I think that, you know, if you like you’re into clinical trials stuff, and like science, like this is very sad. It’s got a science base to it that I really appreciate it because she goes on a journey to really learn more about this disease. It’s caused by this kissing bug. And basically, she faces this bug that you know, it does terrible things to people and the body once it gets in the body. And she goes through all that. So I if you’re into like that, I would totally check it out.

Traci Thomas 29:41
Of course I am. I’m immediately gonna buy it. Don’t worry. Okay. My next book is talking of science and Obama’s list is empire of pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. It is about the Sackler family who’s the family behind the drug Oxycontin, which is the drug that is large Really credited with the opioid epidemic, less so the drug than the practices of prescription that are were pushed by the family who’s a bunch of corrupt assholes. But the book is incredible Patrick Radden. KEEFE is like one of those people who could write about anything. And he’s just like an incredible storyteller. He writes for The New Yorker, and I think that he is very interested in telling stories. And so he finds things to write about where he feels like there’s a story versus finding a story. Like, I think he’s like, Oh, is there a story here? And this one, obviously, there is. It’s so good. It reads, I think for people who like fiction and are apprehensive to read nonfiction, this is a great book, because it really does read, like fiction. Like he sets up all the characters, he sets up the backstory, it’s about a family. It’s three brothers who started the drug company, Purdue pharma, and it’s about them. And like one of the brothers, I don’t wanna give anything away. It’s all real. It’s history. But I didn’t know a lot of it. So I don’t want to give it away to other people who probably don’t know, either. The one little caveat I will give for people who aren’t into nonfiction is that the first section, which was my favorite, is the slowest section. And if you’re reading it, and you’re like, what is he’s talking about, because the book is like propulsive, but the first section is a little bit, not as much. So if you’re a little, you know, if you start it, and you’re like, this is sort of slow, just keep going. Because it get like halfway through the first exit section, and then it just doesn’t stop. But it’s just so interesting and smart. And like, it’s not just about the family, it’s about the way that the US government has failed us and the FDA and the judicial system, and all of these things that sort of like allow big companies to be big companies and to harm people. And there’s no recourse. And even when there are opportunities for recourse. There’s no impetus to do that. The government officials are like, You know what, I’d like a kick back honestly, like, it’s a me thing. So I just think the book is just so smart and interesting. And he’s a genius. So that’s mine. Have you neither of you have read it?

Lupita Aquino 32:09
I have not, but now I need to go and it’s audio.

Traci Thomas 32:14
I’ve heard he reads audio and I’ve heard the audio is very good. I read it off the page. I cannot imagine listening to this book personally. But I a lot of people have and have loved it. So that might just be a me thing. I just I just was like so cuddled up. I read it in like April when it first came out. And I was like huddled up under my blankets being like these fucking pieces of shit. Just like I just have like very tight physical memories of like, being really like angry and snuggled up with it. So anyways, so I read this book back to back with how the word is passed. And then I was like, oh, there’s no other books this year. They’re all horrible. Nothing will ever come out again.

Lupita Aquino 32:56
You sold me on reads like fiction. So I’m totally read like fiction to totally read like fiction. Okay, Morgan. Oh, go ahead.

Morgan Hoit 33:05
Oh I was just gonna say they’ve renamed or they’re renaming the Sackler wings at the Met in response to the reporting that he did so.

Traci Thomas 33:12
And yesterday, a judge. There’s like this whole bankruptcy thing that’s going on with them. And a judge just basically was like, You guys can’t do that, which is huge. So we’ll see what happens. But anyways, it’s still unfolding. He he tweeted the other day, like, I guess I’m gonna have to do some work before the paperback comes out. So we’ll see. Okay, Morgan, Book Three.

Morgan Hoit 33:35
Book Three is one of these books that brought me a lot of joy this year. And it is while justice sleeps by Stacey Abrams. Yes. So I don’t know about y’all. But when I heard Stacey Abrams, I definitely expected nonfiction. And instead it is a political thriller. She also publishes other fiction under a pen name, but this one is under her own name. And I think of this one as Dan Brown if all the people in the book were not white. And so we have a young kick ass heroine. Her name is Avery, and she’s the clerk for a Supreme Court justice one who is frequently a swing vote, and a pretty important one, and he falls into a coma and her life just kind of unravels as this like adventure unfolds. And she finds out how much she’s been woven into the web of things that surround him. And I listened to this one on audio and I listened to it while I was moving, which when you move in New York City, people wish you good luck before you do so which feels horrible and cynical, but it actually is that bad. So it’s like the darkest time of your life. And it was so good. And it totally, totally got me through and it’s an adventure action novel in the way that I just didn’t think I needed to read novels like that anymore, but I did. And I do and I looked it up immediately afterwards and Stacy has sold her next two books to double day in this series. So There are two more coming, though with her thriving political career. I don’t know how quickly they will come. But I wish the best for her and her career and also me as a reader getting to read her political thrillers. So yeah, I just highly recommended. It’s fast paced, it’s long but doesn’t feel long. And I never wanted it to end.

Traci Thomas 35:18
Oh my gosh, I started it and couldn’t put it down. And the funny thing is, you know, when I started it, it was the book I started right after empire of pain, which I finished right after how the word is fast, which is probably part of it. I was like, deep nonfiction land. Yeah.

Morgan Hoit 35:31
But it was ridiculous.

Traci Thomas 35:33
Yeah, I was like, I don’t I don’t have the energy. I got to like two chapters. And and I was like, I this is not happening.

Morgan Hoit 35:39
I mean, they’re racing around DC for most of it. You feel exhausted after on behalf of the characters?

Traci Thomas 35:46
Okay, I have to go back because I really did want to read it. But I think timing. That’s the thing. Timing in reading it is everything for me.

Morgan Hoit 35:54
It’s so significant. Yeah. I feel like I never would have picked this one up. But I just happened to and I’m so glad I did.

Traci Thomas 35:59
I’m so glad you did too. Lupita, what’s yours?

Lupita Aquino 36:04
So, Morgan, when you mentioned like something that brings you joy, and that you couldn’t put down I did a switch up, like I I didn’t include this book, because I’m not done yet with it. But I’m like, 70% 80%, almost done with it. So I’m just gonna, I’m gonna say eff it. And I’m gonna talk about sky falling by me and Mackenzie. I don’t know if you guys have read it. But it’s basically about a queer woman who she’s single, she’s living her life, she doesn’t care about anything, she’s a little bit messy. She ends up donating her eggs to a friend who is having infertility issues. And it’s a big secret. But that friend ends up having a child. I don’t think it’s a spoiler alert to say she later passes away. But the child that she had from the egg tracks down the main character who was Skye, and is basically like, Hey, I’m your egg. And it’s this beautiful story about their relationship and like, you know, what motherhood means to her. And like, what being in a child’s life that is like, biologically yours, but you know, it’s just, there’s so much there. And it’s, it brings me so much joy that I started it before I read. I read it for the prize, and then I had to put it down. But I keep coming back to it. And I just feel like I never I keep coming back to because I never want it to end you know, not because I want to be like, you know, like, I don’t like this book. I need to DNF it. I’ve been sticking with it just because I feel like I don’t want it to end. I love the characters. I love the world building. And it’s just so clear and magical and wonderful.

Traci Thomas 37:44
So I love that. Oh my gosh, I’ve been wanting to read it. So you’re really making me want to go pick it up like right now.

Lupita Aquino 37:51
Me to such a good you will be sucked in immediately. Like that book that we’re going to talk about later that we all loved. It’s like okay, to me.

Traci Thomas 38:01
Okay, wait, but we’re gonna cheat. I want to know what the other book you were gonna say was before you called the audible. This is not part of the official top 10 people. This is an also-ran.

Lupita Aquino 38:12
I’m going to talk about With Teeth by Kristen Arnett, which is, which is queer again, queer and magical. But that’s like, well, it’s queer and dark, and messy, which is about two moms. It’s a two mom family. And you don’t often get to see like messy moms at all, but also like queer messy Moms. I’m like, I just loved it. Even though it’s a little dark. So maybe not a seasonal read but warm holiday season.

Traci Thomas 38:42
All right, my last book or my, before we get to the one that we all agreed on, is 0% surprise to 100% of the people listening a little devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib. My favorite book of the year, I think, I think I can say confidently it’s my a one. It is also our book club pick this month right now. So if you haven’t read it yet, next week, we’re gonna be talking about on the show. I totally read it because of you. I hope so. I was it’s the only book this year that I’m like this book. I want this book to be associated with me. I guess that and Empire painters. I’ve been pushing hard, but I feel like I’ve been just out here screaming about this book. Because I think it is so incredible when we talk about themes of the year Lupita you said like books, it books and books. One of the themes that I feel like I’ve seen so much this year I see it in clumps book I saw a little bit in Empire pain, but definitely in this book is like the pooling of a lot of different ideas together in like one cohesive way. And in this book, like Hanif is talking about a subtitle is notes in praise of black performance. So it’s all about black performance, but he’s pulling history, memoir, pop culture, emotions, gender stereotypes, all these things, of course blackness all together in this really complicated way. And I I feel like we’ve seen that a lot when you were talking about intimacy, as I was thinking, Oh, that sounds sort of like that to like a lot of different ideas that are sort of hard to distill down. I mean, what I love about this book, aside from just the fact that Hanif has incredible prose, and I won’t go on too long, because we have a whole episode this next week, but I just love the way that he is pulling, like each essay starts. And it’s like, we’re gonna talk about this thing. And by the time you get to the end of the essay, you’re really talking about something totally different. Like one essay starts with the moonwalk. And then it somehow gets to Trayvon Martin. And then it gets to an astronaut who died and then it gets to Hanif smother, and then it gets to me crying, and then it gets to love Belle, and Afrofuturism. And it’s like these incredible essays were and that’s all just one assay, you know, and so it’s this incredible scope and his knowledge and also just the way he writes about music, like a thing that we understand in a totally different way he’s able to verbalize or like to, I guess it’s not verbalize, but to write it out. And then you’re hearing a song, a new for the first time or you’re watching a video that he talks about in the book that you’ve seen 1000 times and you’re like, oh my god, Whitney Houston can’t dance. Holy shit, like mind blown. So I just, and it also brought me so much idea.

Lupita Aquino 41:16
You didn’t know I knew she had no idea until I read until I read it. And I was like, oh my god.

Traci Thomas 41:22
She doesn’t I didn’t know she couldn’t dance because I’m a dancer. And so these things, these things, you know, but I literally was like, when I read that I read the book twice. When I read that essay for the first time, I was like, fucking finally top. Someone’s talking about this. Okay? She can’t do she’s like Jessica Simpson, your Jessica Simpson, like famously can’t dance. But when she was first on the scene, you didn’t know that because they had her like, bumbling around like pretending. Anyways, I just love this book so much. I think it’s so special. I think it’s unlike anything else I’ve ever read. I think that he is so special. I think that his brain is so spot like, I just he’s one of the people that I think I’m so lucky that I get to be alive while this person is creating work. And I don’t always feel that way. You know, like I don’t, I think some people are really talented, but I’m not so curious about like their career and their future. And his next book is about basketball. And I’m really excited because I love sports. But yeah, just a super fan of Hanif abdurraqib over here. And he was on the podcast. And I love talking to him to actually all three of my people were on the podcast this year, which now has not happened in the past. Normally, I don’t always love the books on the show. But this year, I had some really good, really, really good guests and really good books. Okay, we’re going to talk about our 10th and final book that we all sort of had on Are we all set, or they sent me lists, I asked them to send the list. And they both were like, also this book, but I feel like someone else might have it on their list. And we all sort of had it. So I was like, Let’s just all talk about it. The book is I will say the book title then you guys can start the book is D transition baby by Tori Peters. Lupita why don’t you start talking about it and why you love it.

Lupita Aquino 43:04
I read it really early, like I read it right when it came out, which was in the beginning of the year. And it still just stuck with me. It was just to me, it was so perfect in the sense that, you know, I it just felt so natural, you know, and I felt like this is the type of queer work I wish that we had more of, and that we could elevate more of in the sense that it didn’t feel like it was teaching you anything like it just puts you into a world and hold on, you’re gonna go on a ride. And you know, you’re not thinking about like, what is queerness? And what is trans SNESs? And what is non binary you’re just in the setting with like these characters and I just, I was in love. Yeah, I am in love with Tori, period Peters. I think it might be a crash.

Traci Thomas 43:52
Troy Peters also rides motorcycles, and it’s like really badass. I have like a pink motorcycle or something. And I know it’s overwhelmingly hot. I’m with you a lot. But here’s the thing that I find really interesting. I did not feel like this book was like, I’m going to teach you something. And yet I felt like I learned a lot. Yes. And not like, oh, I learned about trans people. But I learned a lot about myself and how I think of motherhood. And like I learned a lot about myself about the ways that like, I have clear thoughts on motherhood and a lot of the ways that I have like, weird thoughts that I haven’t thought about that are probably like, very patriarchal and like, it made me question myself in interesting ways. And I did I did like learn some things about like, detransitioning but like, that was the least interesting stuff that I felt like it made me think about which I really appreciate it. Because I think so often like editors and people who aren’t of whatever community, the authors and whether it’s trans or black or Korean or whatever they get in the way, and like you have to explain this and I feel like Tori beers was Like, I’m not, I’m not explaining. Thanks so much. And I appreciated that.

Morgan Hoit 45:05
Yeah, I felt like this one reminded me in some ways of a play. I feel like in theater, it’s like what would be a three hander and I felt like it was so unique about it was that I wanted to read each of their perspectives equally when they kept coming back to us. Like, I cared as much about what was going on with Ames as I did about where we were falling race to next. And then the other thing that I think is so unique about this one is it’s written so beautifully within the different new york city neighborhoods that kind of delineate different things about the story and about the characters and about their levels of status. Yeah. That I just thought it was so fun. Like you’re you are moving through Brooklyn and Manhattan, in a way that represents the way the characters are also moving through those spaces. And it just felt so accurate and right. It reminded me of yoke and the way that Mary HK Choi writes New York City and how apt it was for the story that she was telling to

Traci Thomas 46:00
That’s another honorable mention this year for me for sure.

Morgan Hoit 46:02
Yes, definitely. Which I read because of Traci’s.

Traci Thomas 46:05
Oh, that’s a book I don’t mind being associated with at all.

Morgan Hoit 46:09
But yeah, I’ve never read anything like this story before. But I have to agree. It’s just about the story. I feel like it becomes so much about the story just because it takes place over such a short period of time.

Traci Thomas 46:19
I love when books can do that when they can bring everything in really tight and small like that, like a few months. I also thought this book was funny. It was so funny. And the writing is so good. Like the sentence like on a sentence level. This book really surprised me. We didn’t even say what it was about. And I don’t know that I can really explain it. But I’ll try. Loosely. Basically, Reese an Ames used to be a couple aims was Amy at the time that they were together, Amy D transitioned to Ames and started dating a woman from his work, and that woman got pregnant. And it’s the relationship between those three people and this unborn potential baby and who gets to be whose parent and what that parent potentially is called. It’s way more than that. It’s really that was that. So yeah, it’s great. It’s fantastic. Those are our 10 books. I really liked this list. It’s a lot of women on this list. I’m which I’m happy about since I didn’t pick any books by women like a real asshole. But I’m proud of the list. I feel like the list encompasses a lot of different trends in reading this year. And that makes me happy. And I like that there’s so many joyful books this year. Okay, before we get out of here, I want to talk a little bit about anything, people aren’t anything people you two are anticipating in 2022 Any predictions, any trends you’re seeing that you think might carry into 2022, anything’s you things you hope might not carry into 2020 do. I can start because I have something that I’m fear is going to be in 2022. I fear that towards the end, middle end of 2022, we’re going to start getting a lot of COVID books like the novel COVID coming.

Morgan Hoit 48:10
It’s going to start at the top of the year. It’s not even going to be the end of the year. I can think of two big books coming out in January.

Lupita Aquino 48:18
Yeah it’s so hard. I don’t know if you guys have seen like the morning show and like, you know, series are now starting to tackle that. And it’s just it’s like we’re not even done processing it yet. It’s still happening. In the show. It’s still happening. It’s just it’s tough to read.

Traci Thomas 48:34
I don’t need it. Like I’m so grateful succession was like we’re not gonna try.

Morgan Hoit 48:40
Insecure has the one like 15 Second montage of like working from home and then they’re like, Okay, it’s over.

Traci Thomas 48:45
Grey’s Anatomy last year, last season did a whole COVID season, which sort of made sense because they are a medical show. And they were filming during COVID And so they had all the protective gear. So it worked. But this season they were like we’ve decided we’re going to imagine a world after COVID and we’re just going to imagine this for our characters because we deserve nice things which I appreciate it so I just I don’t want to read I don’t mind reading COVID nonfiction. I don’t want to read COVID novels or short stories like I’m just not interested I don’t care.

Morgan Hoit 49:18
Okay I’ll tell you some to avoid.

Traci Thomas 49:20
And I feel like next year we’re gonna get to this episode like best books the earning can be like oh through my books or COVID novels there’s so that’s the one that I prediction that I see coming that I’m not excited about. I also fear Another thing I’m not excited about that. I think is also coming is more books by two authors of different ethnicities talking about race. i We don’t need it. It’s a no for me.

Morgan Hoit 49:45
I’ll never be on my TBR. that doesn’t interest me in the slightest.

Traci Thomas 49:49
Anything you guys are excited about or think that is coming?

Lupita Aquino 49:52
I’m excited about more queer box always. And I’m hopeful that you know, thinking about the profits by Rob or Jones Jr. and then you know, transition baby with teeth. Like I’m just thinking like, hopefully there are more queer writers out there that are getting the ability to make these deals and have these books published because I think the need is there. And like the want is there and I want more queer books.

Traci Thomas 50:18
Have you heard of a book called yonder by jabariya seem yonder? I think that it’s been described as the Prophet’s meets the water dancer. And it’s coming out in January or February and I’m excited about it. De Shafilea is the one who told me to keep an eye out for it. And I think it’s gonna be a queer. I think it’s less specific. I don’t I don’t know. But I think there’s some queer elements. And they’re also connected to slavery. So I’m sort of excited about that.

Lupita Aquino 50:47
And I think that we’re going to see more of that to write or there are like queer characters and like, queer like themes and books, and they’re not necessarily labeled queer, right. And so I on that, what I don’t want to see is like, I want to see a limited amount of like, cisgendered women writing about like queer communities that don’t identify as queer. And I know that’s tough because it gets really dicey. You know, and people are not unusually out. But it’s just, you can tell when, when, you know, the queer community is being stereotyped. And unfortunately, there is a 2022 book that I read that I was really excited about, but it just felt like it just felt like a stereotype of, of the queer community.

Traci Thomas 51:38
I also am excited, sort of in that same vein of like more queer characters from history and queer characters in the future. I just always, I’m like, it doesn’t have to be contemporary, like queer folks exist existed, will continue to exist. Get over it. Okay, let’s talk about just a few 2022 titles specifically that you all are looking forward to anything popping out in your mind. Lupita just made a face of like, II, I know you’d like me go first. Okay, Morgan goes first. She’s a professional I can.

Morgan Hoit 52:13
Okay, so two, this is cheating. But two, I’ve been reading 2020 titles for work pretty much exclusively for the last few months. And two I’m really excited about one is what my bones know by Stephanie foo, which I know Tracy’s excited about also I know, it’s a memoir that comes out in February, and it’s Stephanie’s debut written work, but she comes from the podcasting and PR world. And it’s about her diagnosis of complex PTSD, which she received at age 30, I believe, and her tracing back of the trauma in her life, and then moving, moving forward knowing that diagnosis, and it’s beautiful, and I think that the listenership of the Stax will love it. And then I the effect that Tiktok has had on the rom com and romance space in publishing has been absolutely wild. But it’s really introduced me to this whole new genre of books that I didn’t know I loved this much. And one coming out in April that I really, really adore is called funny, you should ask by Elisa Sussman. And it’s set in LA. And it explores Jewishness and celebrity and just really beautiful themes. And it’s got two timelines, and it has a second chance romance trope to it. And then one that I haven’t read yet that I’m really excited to read that I have on my neck Alley is women of light by Califa, Harto and Steena when he does, waving me either on or off. I don’t know. But I love Yes. Yeah. And so she’s the author of Sabrina and Karina, and I, just the blurbs coming in for this one have been insane. And the cover is beautiful. And I feel like it’s going to be a top book of 2022. So calling it now.

Traci Thomas 53:51
I love it. I love it every year this list of like most imitated anticipated books ends up being like I had a nice book on here. 400 souls, Robert Jones like all the books that ended up being the books that I’m the most excited about in the year are always on in this section. So people take notes we’re giving you gold. Okay. Lupita Do you have any?

Lupita Aquino 54:12
Um, yes, so nted within the park. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s definitely high on my list. It’s through Random House. What else? There’s so many. There’s so many. I’m like, I’m like so unprepared.

Traci Thomas 54:27
I didn’t really prepare you for this. I sort of forgot. I’m sorry. Oh, I can go if you want to keep looking here things that pop.

Lupita Aquino 54:34
Yeah. And I was just going to add women in the light. Of course. Definitely. I feel like I have my architect back there of like my top two reads. Yeah, yeah. So you go ahead and I’ll run back.

Traci Thomas 54:45
South to America by Imani Perry, obviously super excited about that. Kiese Laymon has a new book coming I think it’s called Good God but I always call it Good Grief by accident. So I think it’s good god. There’s a title but I think good grief is also a great title. So kids, they feel free to use it. But my bones No, you said, there’s a book coming out about Sandy Hook called Sandy Hook by Elizabeth Williamson, which is right in my wheelhouse of horrible tragic events that I have to read every detail of. There’s a book by an author named Tanya Ece, I believe, and it’s called insome Storium that I’m really excited about. And then the movement made us by David J. Dennis, Sr. And David J. Dennis, Jr. The father was a civil rights activist. The son is a civil rights activist today, they wrote this book together. It’s a memoir and oral history, I guess. And then my good friend, Brandon Kyle Goodman is writing a book that’s coming out next year. So I’m super excited about that. And then the last one that I’m like, weirdly excited about that. I feel like I discovered and I know that I didn’t, but I haven’t heard anybody talking about it is called Night crawling by Leila Motley. And it’s a fictionalized story about the Oakland police officers who were raping women, young women in like 2015 and 17. And I’m from Oakland. So I’ve been familiar with the story. And I believe Leila lives in Oakland now, or is from Oakland. And it’s this fictionalized novel about these events. So I think it comes out in May and I’m like, really? I’ve been I’ve been aggressively big. Has anybody read this? What does anybody know about this? So I’m super excited. Allegedly, a copy is in the mail headed to me. Now if it gets here before Christmas, I probably will be reading it very soon. So those are the covers. Isn’t the color. It’s like orange with like the braid. It’s perfect. It’s great. It looks fantastic. I’m super excited. This is the book that if it’s any good. Is my like book to be I just I’m so excited about it. But if it sucks, it sucks. Who knows? Okay, Lupita you brought I saw you brought back a stack of bucks. What do you have?

Lupita Aquino 56:51
I did so yet about whatnot. My email a core, I’m being told it’s like a queer story. And so I’m like really excited about that one. And then I have seen a lot of friends have told me actually, how Hi. Oh, hi, we go in the dark. Nana, you know, she recommended it and so did Angela from Glenda district bookshop owner. She’s like, text me she’s like, You have to read this book-

Traci Thomas 57:20
Like Station 11 meets Ted Chang. That’s how it’s-

Lupita Aquino 57:24
No idea, But they were like, read it. Yeah, you’re right. The fans of cloud Atlantis, Atlantis and station 11. Oh, yeah, I’m excited. So So those I’m excited for. And then of course, the new Marlon James. I enjoyed his first one. It was a little hard to get through. But like I love the world building that he does. And these characters that are like super, like extraordinary, extraordinarily queer, too. So Moon, which Spider King, I’m excited about that one, too. Have you?

Traci Thomas 57:54
So I heard about this book. That, while it’s the second one in the series is not actually a series that’s like chronological. So if you didn’t read the first one, you can read the second one. It’s basically a retelling of the first one or something. So it’s a series, but it’s like a totally different version of the first book is how it was sort of explained to me. So I’m really curious. For anybody who hasn’t read the first one who reads the second one to hear like, I want to know people who read them out of order. But I guess it’s like, not, you don’t need to know the first one at all. You can go straight to the second one. So I’m very curious about that. Just a challenge to readers at home. I’m excited. Yeah, the

Morgan Hoit 58:36
Yeah the gauntlet just got thrown down.

Lupita Aquino 58:38
I know. I know. I know. She’s like, Oh, all right. I think that’s everything. Is there any other thing that we just absolutely have to mention before we let this year? Go? Goodbye. I think we did it. I think we nailed it. Just give me give me an opportunity. I do want to say this 22 is my lucky number. So I am predicting we’re going to have a good fucking year round a good year. We’re gonna have good to have a great year. We need a good year. We need a good year. Yeah, we’ve had some time who knew 2019 was gonna be the last like, fine year and like it wasn’t a great year, but compared to 2020 and 2021 2019 feels like the best year ever. So we just we need some good stuff in 2022. So I’m hoping we have great books, great food, great hangs, hopefully Joe Biden gets his shit together. We have great student loan forgiveness. Hopefully we get some great universal pre K. Hopefully we get some great unionizing. Shout out to politics and prose. I just, you know, we need a good year. So with that wish for the future. Thank you both so much for doing this. Thank you for being here.

Morgan Hoit 59:48
Thank you for having us.

Lupita Aquino 59:49
Thank you for having us!

Traci Thomas 59:50
Of course and everyone else. We will see you in the stacks.

Thank you all so much for listening and thank you to Morgan and Lupita for being my guests. Remember the stacks book club pick for December as a little devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib. We will be discussing the book on the show on Wednesday, December 29th with Andrew Ti. If you love the show and want inside access to it, head to patreon.com/thestacks to join The Stacks Pack. Make sure you’re subscribed to The Stacks wherever you listen to your podcasts and if you’re listening through Apple Podcasts or Spotify, be sure to leave us a rating and a review. For more from The Stacks, follow us on social media at thestackspod on Instagram at thestackspod_ on Twitter and check out our website thestackspodcast.com. This episode of The Stacks was edited by Christian Dueñas, with production assistance from Lauren Tyree. Our graphic designer is Robin McCreight and our theme music is from Tagirijus. The Stacks is created and produced by me, Traci Thomas.

Megan Caballero
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Ep. 196 A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib -- The Stacks Book Club (Andrew Ti)
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