Unabridged: Hate More with Kiese Laymon

September 30, 2022September 27, 2022 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

To celebrate the one year anniversary of The Stacks Unabridged, brilliant author and friend of the pod Kiese Laymon is back to interview Traci! We debate the merits of talking bad about books, and explain why a little hate is a good thing for books. We also touch on politics, overrated book club picks, and name the Splash Brothers of writing.

*This episode is exclusive to members of The Stacks Pack on patreon. To join this community, get inside access to the show, and listen now, click the link below.

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

“Unabridged: Kiese Laymon Asks the Best Questions (Episode 1)” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 118 Living the Revision with Kiese Laymon” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 122 Breathe by Imani Perry — The Stacks Book Club (Kiese Laymon)” (The Stacks)
Breathe by Imani Perry
Looking for Lorraine by Imani Perry
Vexy Thing by Imani Perry
South to America by Imani Perry
The 2022 Primetime Emmys
Jennifer Coolidge
The White Lotus (HBO)
Dopesick (Hulu)
Beth Macy
Michael Keaton
Rosario Dawson
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
LeBron James
Goodreads
Damon Young
Washington Post Book Review
New York Times Book Review
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Spiegel & Grau
Chris Jackson
Renaissance (Beyoncé, 2022)
Yelp
The Infatuation
The New York Times Restaurant Review
Eater
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
“Ep. 231 At the End of Every Day There’s a Book with Lisa Lucas” (The Stacks)
Long Division by Kiese Laymon
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
The Stacks’ Instagram Post on Book Reviews (October 12, 2021)
The Little Mermaid (2023)
The Starry Night by Van Gogh
Pablo Picasso
Musée d’Orsay
Louvre
Quentin Tarantino
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Pardon the Interruption (ESPN)
At the Movies with Siskel & Ebert (ABC)
The Sopranos (HBO)
Stakes is High by Mychal Denzel Smith
“Ep. 166 Who Do We Want to Be with Mychal Denzel Smith” (The Stacks)
White Negroes by Lauren Michele Jackson
“Ep. 221 White Negroes by Lauren Michele Jackson — The Stacks Book Club (David Dennis Jr.)” (The Stacks)
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
“Ep. 100 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo — The Stacks Book Club (August McLaughlin)” (The Stacks)
Educated by Tara Westover
“Ep. 78 Educated by Tara Westover — The Stacks Book Club (Sarah Enni)” (The Stacks)
The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
“Ep. 72 The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander — The Stacks Book Club (Dani McClain)” (The Stacks)
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018)
Ryan Coogler
Pineapple tidbits
“Ep. 193 Betting on the Kids with Angelina Jolie and Tokata Iron Eyes” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 172 The Art vs. The Artist with Quentin Tarantino” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 176 Leaving a Record of History with Adam Serwer” (The Stacks)
David Dennis Jr.
“Ep. 217 Surviving in the Face of Death with David Dennis Jr.” (The Stacks)
“The Short Stacks 22: Ibram X. Kendi//How to be an Antiracist” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 220 Spread Love It’s the Brooklyn Way with Justin Tinsley” (The Stacks)
Los Angeles Festival of Books
Derecka Purnell
Andscape
It Was All a Dream by Justin Tinsley
Splash Brothers
Steph Curry
Klay Thompson
Around the Horn (ESPN)
“The Mississippi welfare fraud involving Brett Favre, explained” (Jack Meserve, Vox)
“In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale” (Emmanuel Felton, Washington Post)
Check your voter registration status here
Baby Orca: Finger Puppet Book

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 234 The Trees by Percival Everett — The Stacks Book Club (Lisa Lucas)

September 28, 2022March 27, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Today, publisher Lisa Lucas returns to help us break down the 2021 crime novel The Trees by Percival Everett. In discussing the page-turning thriller, we admire the brilliance of the humor and history on every page, and the mastery Percival Everett himself. We also ask questions around the future, past, and present of the United States in the face of palpable political tensions.There are spoilers on this episode.

Be sure to listen all the way to end of the episode to find out what our October book club pick will be!

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

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

The Trees by Percival Everett
Money, Mississippi
Danzy Senna
Erasure by Percival Everett
Percival Everett by Virgil Russell by Percival Everett
I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett
Telephone by Percival Everett

Emmett Till
Carolyn Bryant
“Woman at center of Emmett Till case tells author she fabricated testimony” (Rory Carroll, The Guardian)
Quentin Tarantino
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
“On Percival Everett’s Almost Secret Experiment in a Novel in Threes” (Literary Hub, David Lerner Schwartz)
The Rock Springs, Wyoming lynching
Tulsa race massacre
Chicago race riot
Elaine, AK massacre
Family Matters (ABC)
Los Angeles Chinese Massacre of 1871
Martin Luther King Jr.
“New Rule: A Unified Theory of Wokeness | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)” (Youtube.com)
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Sula by Toni Morrison
Black No More by George S. Schuyler
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
Lovecraft Country (HBO)
Watchmen by Alan Moore
Watchmen (HBO)
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Game of Thrones (HBO)
The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson
“The 1619 Project and the Long Battle Over U.S. History” (New York Times)
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Golden Gulag by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
Banned Books Week
“Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools” (Jonathan Friedman and Nadine Farid Johnson, PEN America)
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
N.W.A
Tipper Gore putting warning labels on music
Moms for Liberty
Graywolf Press
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (Montgomery, Alabama)
Bryan Stevenson
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell
“Ep. 231 At the End of Every Day There’s a Book with Lisa Lucas” (The Stacks)
Fairest by Meredith Talusan

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

Ep. 233 A Grieving Apocalyptic Historian with Saeed Jones

September 21, 2022April 3, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Today we speak with Saeed Jones – award-winning author of the new poetry collection Alive at the End of the World. Our conversation covers the art of embracing chaos and finding humor, and how Saeed considers his poems in relation to the reading and the performance of poetry. Saeed also explains why he thinks of all his poems as traps.

The Stacks Book Club selection for September is The Trees by Percival Everett. We will discuss the book on September 28th with Lisa Lucas.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

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

Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones
Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones
How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones
“Ep. 228 Grief is Love with Marisa Renee Lee” (The Stacks)
Paul Mooney
Aretha Franklin
Little Richard
Luther Vandross
Shine Bright by Danyel Smith
White Negroes by Lauren Michele Jackson
“Ep. 221 White Negroes by Lauren Michele Jackson — The Stacks Book Club (David Dennis Jr.)” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 198 We’ll Be Okay with Jason Reynolds” (The Stacks)
Black Girl Song Book (The Ringer)
“Natalie Cole, More Than ‘This Will Be'” (Black Girl Song Book, The Ringer)
“This Will Be” (Natalie Cole, 1975)
Vibe Check (Stitcher)
Sam Sanders
Zach Stafford
Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones (audiobook)
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Whitney Houston
Frank B. Wilderson III
Alexander Chee
“Ep. 230 How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee — The Stacks Book Club (Ingrid Rojas Contreras)” (The Stacks)
Finna by Nate Marshall
Luther by Craig Seymour
The Reckonings by Lacy M. Johnson
Robin Crawford
Lola Flash
ACT UP
D. A. Powell
George Foreman Grill
Throat Coat Tea
“Ep. 193 Betting on the Kids with Angelina Jolie and Tokata Iron Eye” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 172 The Art vs. The Artist with Quentin Tarantino” (The Stacks)
AM to DM (Buzzfeed)
Magical Negro by Morgan Parker
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
Afropessimism by Frank B. Wilderson III
“Ep. 209 A Poem is About Wonder with Nate Marshall” (The Stacks)
Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY)
Kiese Laymon
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

Ep. 232 What Should the Rules Be with Andrea Elliott

September 14, 2022April 3, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Andrea Elliott joins us to discuss her investigative reporting career and her Pulitzer Prize winning book Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City. We go over how this remarkable story came to be, and how it shifted from what Andrea first anticipated. We also get into what can and should change about the ethics of journalism, and the challenge of protecting children from themselves in the media.

The Stacks Book Club selection for September is The Trees by Percival Everett. We will discuss the book on September 28th with Lisa Lucas.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

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

Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott

Pulitzer Prize
Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson
Invisible Child – Girl in the Shadows: Dasani’s Homeless Life (Andrea Elliott, The New York Times)
“Ep. 180 Fifty Years After Attica with Heather Ann Thompson” (The Stacks)
“Here are Barack Obama’s top 13 book recommendations of 2021” (Megan Sauer, CNBC)
“An Imam in America: A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds” (Andrea Elliott, The New York Times)

Ruth Fremson
Doritos
Oreos
All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz
Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Jon Krakauer
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
Invisible Child audiobook

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

Ep. 231 At the End of Every Day There’s a Book with Lisa Lucas

September 7, 2022April 3, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Lisa Lucas, Senior Vice President at Pantheon and Schocken, is our first ever book publisher to join the podcast. We discuss the path that led Lisa to her current role and how she sees book purchasing as integral to the push for diversity in publishing. We also talk about what inclusivity does and should mean in the world of books.

The Stacks Book Club selection for September is The Trees by Percival Everett. We will discuss the book on September 28th with Lisa Lucas.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

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

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Maya Angelou
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Tribeca Film Institute
Brooklyn Book Festival
Guernica Magazine
National Book Foundation
“Inside the Push to Diversify the Book Business” (Marcela Valdes, The New York Times)
Pantheon
Schocken
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Penguin Random House
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell
BookScan
Netflix
Disney+
Hulu
The Criterion Collection
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
Now is the Time to Open Your Heart by Alice Walker
Luster by Raven Leilani
Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette
Motherhood by Sheila Heti
No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol
Sugar by Bernice McFadden
The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara
The Wall Street Journal
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
My Garden (Book) by Jamaica Kincaid
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
National Book Award
Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes
Pulitzer Prize
Booker Prize
Kirkus Prize
Los Angeles Times Book Prize
National Book Critics Circle Award
The Story Prize
Eso Won Books (Los Angeles, CA)
Chevalier’s Books (Los Angeles, CA)
Skylight Books (Los Angeles, CA)
Reparations Club (Los Angeles, CA)
The Salt Eaters Bookshop (Inglewood, CA)
“Ep. 101 Reading Black Women with Asha Grant” (The Stacks)
Rick Perlstein
Helen Garner
Harriet Lerner
Ben Lerner
The Dance of Intimacy by Harriet Lerner
The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner
All About Love by bell hooks
Uncoupling by Diane Vaughan
Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson
Seek You by Kristen Radtke
“Ep. 194 How We Understand Loneliness with Kristen Radtke” (The Stacks)
Yoga by Emmanuel Carrère
Bloodlands by Kimberly Snyder
Swan’s Way by Marcel Proust
Philip Roth
Joan Didion
Bunnicula by James Howe and Deborah Howe
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead
Long Division by Kiese Laymon
Julian Lucas
Imani Perry
“Ep. 204 A Journey South with Imani Perry” (The Stacks)
Fight Like Hell by Kim Kelly
The Trees by Percival Everett

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

Unabridged: Your Inner Petty Guiding Light with Cree Myles

September 2, 2022September 25, 2022 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

On today’s Unabridged episode, we’re joined by veteran The Stacks guest Cree Myles – bookfluencer, writer and creator of All Ways Black, which celebrates Black lit and creators in every genre. Our conversation covers the perks of being a bully on social media, messy group chats and small wins. We also get into parenting woes, and the TV shows we’re currently into and not into.

*This episode is exclusive to members of The Stacks Pack on patreon. To join this community, get inside access to the show, and listen now, click the link below.

JOIN THE STACKS PACK TO LISTEN

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

“Ep. 197 All Ways Black, Always with Cree Myles” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 200 Passing by Nella Larsen — The Stacks Book Club (Cree Myles)” (The Stacks)
Isabel Wilkerson
Glory by Noviolet Bulawayo
Library of Virginia Literary Awards
Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Hitler’s Last Hostages by Mary M. Lane
Rap on Trial by Erik Nielson and Andrea Dennis
Ends of War by Caroline E. Janney
Booker Prize
Jason Reynolds
Real Life by Brandon Taylor
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
The Viral Underclass by Steven W. Thrasher
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The Stacks’ Controversial IG Reel
Black Like We Never Left Read-a-thon
Toni Morrison
Ta-Nehisi Coates
One World Lit
Chris Jackson
Michelle Obama
Barack Obama
Oprah Winfrey
Steph Curry
Saeed Jones
Roxane Gay
Jon Krakauer
“Ep. 146 Integrity in Collaboration with Kimberly Drew & Jenna Wortham” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 65 Crafting a Compelling Narrative with Dave Cullen” (The Stacks)
“The Short Stacks 27: Shea Serrano//Movies (and Other Things)” (The Stacks)
Kara Brown
“Ep. 180 Fifty Years After Attica with Heather Ann Thompson” (The Stacks)
Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson
“Ep. 172 The Art vs. The Artist with Quentin Tarantino” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 193 Betting on the Kids with Angelina Jolie and Tokata Iron Eyes” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 133 Stacks on Stacks with Desus and Mero” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 202 Even the Bachelorette Gets Insecure with Rachel Lindsay” (The Stacks)
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Drake
Degrassi (CTV)
Mensa International
The 2022 Emmy Awards
The White Lotus (HBO)
Dopesick (Hulu)
Five Days at Memorial (Apple TV+)
Dopesick by Beth Macy
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Bear (FX)
The Bachelorette (ABC)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
The Wire (HBO)
Gilmore Girls (The WB)
Jingle Jangle (David E. Talbert, 2020)
Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
A Different World (NBC)
Lisa Bonet
Martin (Fox)
The Cosby Show (NBC)
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (NBC)
OJ: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, 2016)
The Last Dance (Netflix)
Exterminate All the Brutes (HBO)

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

The Stacks Book Club – September 2022

September 1, 2022September 1, 2022 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

September’s Book Club selection is Percival Everett’s The Trees, a suspenseful novel about a series of murders in small-town Mississippi which confronts the reader with the cultural legacy of lynching and police brutality. A detective thriller chock full of puzzles and twists, it’s also a powerful indictment of racist American institutions, combining elements of horror, satire and pulp noir. A genre and tone-bender that’s as hilarious as it is poignant and infuriating.

We will discuss The Trees by Percival Everett on Wednesday, September 28th. You can find out who our guest will be by listening to the podcast on September 7th. If you’d like even more discussion around the book, consider joining The Stacks Pack on Patreon and participating in The Stacks’ monthly virtual book club.

Order your copy of our September book on Bookshop.org and Amazon, or listen to the audiobook through Libro.FM.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.