
Today we are joined by Tessa Miller, and author and journalist whose work focuses on chronic illness, disability, and health justice. We discuss Tessa’s debut book, What Doesn’t Kill You: A Life with Chronic Illness – Lessons from a Body in Revolt and how publishing a memoir brought on a whole new level of anxiety and insecurities around being a writer and living with chronic illness. We also talk about graphic language, writing for multiple audiences, and prioritizing books by disabled and/or chronically ill authors.
The Stacks Book Club selection for February is I Live a Life Like Yours by Jan Grue, we will discuss the book on February 23rd with Tessa Miller.
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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.
Books
- What Doesn’t Kill You by Tessa Miller
- Cultish by Amanda Montell
- Wordslut by Amanda Montell
- I Live a Life Like Yours by Jan Grue
- The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
- Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

- The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams
- The Undying by Anne Boyer
- The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde
- Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
- The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
- Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- A Face for Picasso by Ariel Henley
- Golem Girl by Riva Lehrer
- Becoming Abolitionists by Derecka Purnell
- Seek You by Kristen Radtke
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
- Other People’s Words by Victoria Purcell-Gates
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
- Health Justice Now by Timothy Faust
- What Doesn’t Kill You by Tessa Miller (audiobook)
Everything Else
- City College of New York
- Carl Bernstein
- MacMillan Publishers
- “Ep. 64 The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams — The Stacks Book Club (Lori Gottlieb)” (The Stacks)
- “Ep. 170 The Undying by Anne Boyer — The Stacks Book Club (Mychal Denzel Smith)” (The Stacks)
- “Ep. 58 Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed — The Stacks Book Club (Keltie Knight)” (The Stacks)
- The Ringer Podcast Network (Spotify)
- Bill Simmons
- Revisionist History (Pushkin Industries)
- Brock Turner
- Chanel Miller
- Sandra Bland
- Oprah Winfrey
- Aaron Rodgers
- The Barbellion Prize
- Gluten Free Oreos
- Honey Nut Cherrios
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch
- Cinnamon Rice Chex
- Magic Spoon
Connect with Tessa: Instagram | Twitter | Website
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