The Stacks’ annual book awards are voted on exclusively by members of The Stacks Pack, so if you want to weigh in on the best of the best, talk books all year long, and meet your new bookish besties, join us! Check out our picks for the best books of 2023 here below.
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.
The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website,
Of all the lists and awards that are reigned down on books at the end of the year, this list is my most favorite. I have reached out to past guests from The Stacks in 2023 and asked them to share with us their favorite book they read this year, and the one book in 2024 they’re looking forward to. I love the list because, as you know, The Stacks’ guests have the best taste in books, and the list is unlike what you get in every other publication. My guests have range.
I hope you enjoy reconnecting with the many voices from our 2023 season.
The best books I read this year were almost entirely recommended by Traci! The Other Side and We Were Once Family are massive highlights for me. But there is one memoir that I found via my podcast which I cannot stop thinking about and that is Joyce Maynard’s 1998 memoir At Home In The World. Joyce is a voracious writer and I almost felt the book had me in an emotional chokehold as I read about her relationship with JD Salinger when he was 53 and she was just eighteen. I would describe the book as haunting, both as a piece of writing, and in the book’s place in culture. In 1998 she was shunned and decried by Marureen Dowd as a ‘leech woman’ by daring to speak against Salinger, and even after such bravery it would be eighteen more years till we saw a movement like ‘me too.’
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: RuPaul’s memoir! This is maybe his 5th book, but my fingers are crossed that this time he will finally give us all the wonderful gnarly details of his life story without a filter.
The best book I read this year was Bushra Rehman’s Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion. It’s a beautiful book about a Pakistani girl coming of age in immigrant New York in the 80s, and weaves queerness, Islam and community into a lush, intimate story about friendship.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: Linda Villarosa’s Under the Skin. I’ve read a lot of her brilliant essays about race and health in the US, blending statistics and personal stories, and am looking forward to reading more of her analysis.
The best book I read in 2023 was Teeth by Aracelis Girmay. Aracelis is one of my favorite poets, so I regularly return to her books. Teeth is her first book of poems, and maybe it’s something about where I am or where the world is, but cracking Teethopen felt revelatory. I love these poems. Go read this poem for a sample.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: Say Hello To My Little Friend by Jennine Capo Crucet. I got to read an ARC of this book and it is even more wild, absurd, and incredible than a book set around a Pitbull impersonator turned Scarface protégé promises to be.
The best book I read this year was Blackouts, by Justin Torres (and that was before it won the National Book Award, thank you very much). It elegantly blurs the lines between fiction and history to excavate queer stories that have been forgotten or buried. The novel is a multimedia experience, and as soon as I finished the book I wanted to return to the beginning and read it again.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: Next year my colleague Sarah McCammon is coming out with her first book, The Exvangelicals. It combines memoir with reportage, tying her own story of leaving the Evangelical church with a larger social trend of others who have done the same.
I loved Bryan Washington’s Family Meal for many reasons, but what made me cry was the book’s exploration of how wrenching and also how bewildering grief can be. We feel Cam’s loss, and we also witness how hard and confusing it is for those who care about him—who don’t always know what to do or how to help, even though they want to—and this felt so resonant for me, especially after the last few years we’ve all experienced. I also appreciate how the novel made me consider what it means to have really important history with someone, and how that can shape what we think of as their “truth” without always being 100% true—we often tell ourselves the same stories about people in our lives, and then find out we have much more to learn.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: I recently received a galley of Crystal Hana Kim’s The Stone Home, a Drop Everything And Read moment for me. She’s a profoundly beautiful writer and I’m loving it so far.
The best thing I read in 2023 was Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I read it during the worst part of a hellish Texas summer, and was swept up and swept into the human-feeling characters and the visceral depictions of the natural world. It’s the perfect read for when you need a good long epic to fall all the way into.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: The book I can’t wait for next year is Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. I loved There, There and I heard this one is about Indian residential schools and intergenerational trauma — touching on some themes that have been part of my work reporting on the child welfare system.
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir shifted something in me when I first read it on assignment to interview author Akwaeke Emezi (for the cover of TIME, shameless plug) back in 2021. “Frank and flat-footed, like a soul singer who commands attention without backup dancers and light shows…. ‘Dear Senthuran’ is a brutally honest and vulnerable testimony of survival, of the rejuvenating variety that inspires and activates; if it had a soundtrack, the timeless Clara Ward gospel hymn ‘How I Got Over’ might be on loop” is how I described it then. It was a further clarifying revisit for me this year — in the midst of the publication of my own book(s) — helping me think differently, more clearly about serving audiences beyond the all-consuming white gaze and centering Blackness and queerness and transness along the way. I think all Black creatives — writers, musicians, artists, balloon animal makers! — especially those of us navigating less Black spaces, should read this book. Hell, any creative from historically excluded communities!
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: I’m looking forward to reading Raquel Willis’ new memoir, The Risk It Takes To Bloom. More Black trans everything, please!
The best thing that I read this year was I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. It is the most beautiful book about how the person that brought you into this world and is supposed to be the person that loves and cares for you most ultimately can be the person that does just the opposite. I read it cover to cover in less than two days, feeling all the feelings, relating to it a little too much but gaining such relief of being understood by a fellow human.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: Tender Heartby Hetty Lui McKinnon. It’s a cookbook not only about vegetables but about the unbreakable family bonds forged through food and how by cooking those foods you can stay connected to loved ones who you might have lost.
The best book I read in 2023 was The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depthsby Brad Fox. This book is such a feat. Fox chronicles the descent of a self-taught scientist and explorer into the oceanic abyss, where he discovers never-before-seen species as well as truths about our senses (“the yellow of the sun can never hereafter be as wonderful as blue can be”), all within a four-and-a-half foot steel sphere, the Bathysphere, a marvel of engineering in 1930. With beautiful prose and a restrained voice – like a whisper heard within the Bathysphere – he complicates the whole white male explorer narrative while immersing us in a Jules Verne-slash-The Origin of Species exploration. Plus the book is gorgeously illustrated with paintings of the species he discovers on his voyage. I’m still thinking about this book.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: I’ve read a ton of nonfiction in 2023, so I’m looking forward to reading fiction in 2024, specifically from some of the masters. I can’t wait to read Zadie Smith’s The Fraud, Cormac McCarthy’s The Passenger and Stella Maris, and I re-read Train Dreams by Denis Johnson every two or three years, so that’s due.
I finally got around to Ring Shout, a novella by P. Djèlí Clarkthis year. The story is a dark, historical, Southern Gothic fantasy set in 1920s Macon, Georgia, about a band of Black women warriors on a quest to hunt “Ku Kluxes,” and destroy demons summoned by the Ku Klux Klan. It’s a mix of so many things I love—history; fantasy; Black culture, spirituality, and dialect. Plus, it’s short. The perfect read for a long plane ride or an afternoon to yourself.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: James from Percival Everett. It’s a reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of “Nigger Jim,” a runaway enslaved man and Huck’s travel companion. Like many American children, I was forced to read Huckleberry Finn in school. I wanted Jim’s perspective then and I’m happy we’re hearing from him now by way of Everett, one of our most thoughtful and original novelists.
The best book I read in 2023 was When Brooklyn Was Queerby Hugh Ryan, who is a phenomenal historian and storyteller of early queer life in America. The book is fascinating, with so many nuggets of little-known history, but also just a page-turner with beautiful sentences. Hard to get all of that in one book!
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: …on a totally different wavelength, is one of my favorite novelist’s new book, Meet The Benedettosby Katie Cotugno. It just came out and is an Italian-American family retelling of Pride and Prejudice, and looks like a romp!
I read Nathan Thrall’s A Day in the Life of Abed Salamain a concentrated burst in early November, in between hours of news reports from Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza. Thrall’s book focuses on a tragic incident in the West Bank in 2012, where a bus carrying Palestinian schoolchildren flipped onto its side and burned for more than half an hour before authorities arrived to extinguish the blaze. Through his meticulous, relentless reporting, Thrall illuminates not just the details of the crash, but the complex web of historical, political, and social relations that comprised the lives of those it affected, and that created the conditions that caused the rescue’s horrible delay (ambulances detained at checkpoints by the IDF; geographical confusion engendered by the ambiguities of Israeli-controlled roads cutting through Palestinian territory to Jewish settlements). Thrall’s sweeping narrative turns what one might gloss as another depressing headline about a terrible but distant accident into an intimate, infuriating epic.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: One of the first books I plan to read in 2024 is Lauren Markham’s A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging, which blends journalism (Markham is an ace reporter, dogged and precise—her beat is immigration, though she’s written beautifully on disability, too) with the more eccentric terrains of philosophy, literature, and memoir. Markham’s new book is—like Thrall’s—about a tragic fire (in this case, the burning of the Moria refugee camp in Greece) that through her burrowing, expansive engagement, promises to elucidate a much larger socio-political situation. Markham strikes me as the ideal guide for such a journey.
It’s hard to narrow down but one of the best books I read this year, and one I cannot stop talking about, is BIGby Vashti Harrison. This picture book encapsulates so much emotion! The text is sparse while the illustration portrays such a wondrous and deep story, and the use of colors! Watch Vashti discuss a bit of how she came to make her artistic decisions on such a rich book about body consciousness, self-love, and growing up in a Black girl’s body. It’s a book I think everyone of every age group should read, learn from, and will feel so immersed in.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: House Gone Quietby Kelsey Norris and skin & bonesby Renée Watson because the first pages of both these books has me hyped!
The best thing that I read this year was an advanced review copy of Sarah Manguso’s forthcoming novel Liars. It’s a work of very subtle horror about one of our creepiest institutions: marriage. I hope that it is widely enjoyed.
Myriam was our guest for Episode 285, where she discussed her book Creep.
Chain-Gang All-Stars was the best thing I read this year. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah manages to make what is essentially the Mass Incarceration Ultimate Fighting Championship so simultaneously hilarious and thrilling. It is a thoughtful exploration of America’s criminal justice system, and a satire of our insatiable bloodlust.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: On March 19th, you can find me outside of my local bookstore waiting like I’m trying to get Beyoncé tickets. As a childhood fan of Mark Twain’s social satire, I am thirsting to see how Percival Everett’s Jamesreimagines the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved character “N*gger Jim.”
The best thing I read this year was Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slaveryand the Failure of Emancipation, by Kris Manjapra. This book details how the process of emancipation varied throughout the world, how it was never as clean or neat as we think, and how it often was a contentious, adversarial process that failed to recognize true freedom for the enslaved. It was riveting and so finely argued, and it changed how I see the world and how I understand our present moment. I highly recommend it.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: I’m looking forward to reading Come and Get It, by Kiley Reid, and The Book of Love, by Kelly Link, because I adore both writers’ work.
Favorite book I’ve read this year is American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Masterful research and telling of the story behind the bomb and the people who made it possible. The game-changing scientific breakthroughs that bring our existence into question, the politics of fear and vilification, the big moral questions at the center of the book all feel very resonant at this moment.
My favorite book in 2023 was The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells by Sarah Churchwell. I did not know what to expect when I bought the book at the Bath literary festival, but I went to hear the author speak and was spellbound by her talk and her book. Churchwell bravely traces the role that Gone with the Wind played in creating the myth of white victimhood in America and how that still powerfully shapes current politics. It also convincingly traces a through-line from the Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow to the storming of the Capitol building on January 6th, 2021. Engagingly written and powerfully mindblowing!
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: I am looking forward to reading Undying Book 1: The Kinship of Djinns by sisters Ambreen Hameed and Uzma Hameed. I know Uzma really well and am so excited to read a novel that speaks to my own heritage.
The best book I read this year was Stonerby John Williams. A beautifully written story of an entire life and academic career and tragically unhappy marriage, it is also the most convincing depiction I have come across of what it might actually feel like to die.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2024: The book I most look forward to reading next year is one I have just started: Helen Garner’s This House of Grief, the true story of a father accused of murdering his three children by driving his car into a dam. I am only a third of the way through this brilliant and gripping courtroom drama, re-released in a handsome new hardcover edition by Pantheon last fall, and I can say already that the powerfully restrained writing, the keenness of observation, and the intelligence of the narrator call to mind some of the all-time greatest works of narrative nonfiction, including the three modern classics to which it could be most obviously compared: Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Janet Malcolm’s The Journalist and the Murderer, and Emmanuel Carrère’s The Adversary.
The best thing I read this year was We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian. I was so impressed by the storytelling, the research, and the sheer force of this book. The story of the Hart Family Murders isn’t an easy one to tell, but Asgarian did it with such a devotion to the humanity of the children and their families. The book evoked so many emotions in me, mostly rage at the system and a sense of sorrow for what could and should have been. Asgarian did right by those children when so many people did not.
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.
It’s year six of The Stacks Battle of the Books. I can always tell what kind of year we had for book club when I see the matchups, and judging from these rankings and head to heads, 2023 might be our best book club year yet!
To refresh your memory, The Battle of The Books is a March Madness style bracket where you vote to pick the book club book of the year. You also get a chance to win one of TSBC books by predicting the most accurate bracket over on https://challonge.com/thestacks2023 or click here. You create your account put your predictions in for who you think will win. Then on The Stacks Instagram Stories, you’ll vote (starting 12/22) for your favorite books in head to head battles, until we crown one winner, The Stacks Book Club Book of the Year. The results of each round will be updated over on Challonge (our bracket site) and on our Instagram @thestackspod.
You have until Friday, December 22st at 6:00am PST to put in your predictions. The winner will be whoever has the most accurate bracket, and they will win one of our TSBC books from 2023 (winner’s choice). Be sure your bracket name is your IG handle, email, or name, so you are easy to find upon completion of the tournament. We will announce the winner of the tournament and the winner of the giveaway on Friday, December 30th once all the results are in.
Here is the important stuff.
Make sure you’re following The Stacks on Instagram @thestackspod.
Register for the bracket if you want to be part of the giveaway CLICK HERE. Be sure to pick a winner at the bottom of the page.
Vote in each round on our Insta Stories, starting Friday December 22st . All voting on Instagram!
Spread the word!
If you want all the nerdy details of how the seeding was figure out, you’ve come to the right place. Mostly I created a bunch of my own calculations to rank the books based on many factors. The rankings are full of biases and assumptions, and honestly, thats what makes this fun. Here is how I ranked these books, and below find a more detailed description of what that means.
Podcast Downloads– Raw number of downloads that an episode received according to my data (I know older episodes will be at a disadvantage as the podcast grew over time, but also newer episodes suffer because they haven’t been up as long, I’m hoping it all evens out). It is worth noting that I excludedRomeo and Juliet from this calculation since that episode is not out yet.
iTunes Episode Popularity– iTunes lets me see how popular each episode is. It is slight different than raw downloads, because they take into account listeners at the time of recording, but they also only include people listening through iTunes. Again, Romeo and Juliet was excluded from this category, see above.
Goodreads Scores– I looked up each book on Goodreads and took that score.
Goodreads Ratings– I took the raw number of Goodreads ratings for each book.
Test of Time– The older a book is, the more credit it got, because it has withstood the test of time.
Social Media Input– I’ve asked The Stacks Instagram followers to tell me their favorite book we read this year, and those responses are incorporated.
Traci’s Personal Ranking– Thats right, I’m influencing this competition a little. Its my podcast, so why not?
There are 12 books in the competition, so in each of those categories the books are rated on a scale of 1-12. Each book received a score from each category, 1 being the best, 12 the worst. I then tallied all the scores and divided by 7 (except in the case of Romeo and Juliet which was divided by 5).
I know that sounds like a lot, but just trust me, it makes sense. Here are the rankings based on these calculations, and their total overall raw scores, remember lower is better. Where there was a tie, I broke the tie based on my preferences.
Voting begins Friday December 22nd, shortly after 7:00am PST for the first round, and will follow the schedule below. Remember you vote on The Stacks Instagram stories. You just click your favorite book in each round’s head to head matchup. Once the results are in, I’ll share the winners with you and we get ready for the next round. The schedule is below.
Round 1 – December 22st – Play in Games
Round 2 – December 24rd – Elite 8
Round 3 – December 26th – Final 4
Round 4 – December 28th – Championship
That feels like a lot, trust me, it’ll be fun and worth it. Here is the important stuff.
Make sure you’re following The Stacks on Instagram @thestackspod.
Register for the bracket (with a recognizable name) if you want to be part of the giveaway CLICK HERE
Vote in each round on our Insta Stories, starting Friday December 22.
Spread the word!
For those of you curious who won in previous years, 2018 was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, 2019 was Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson, 2020 was The Undocumented Americansby Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, 2021 was Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and 2022 was Passingby Nella Larsen. Who will win in 2023?
To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do 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.
The Stacks Pack is The Stacks community on Patreon. They are the most ardent fans of the show, and they believe in putting their money behind this little indie book podcast. I am forever grateful for this generous community. This year, as all the book awards and best of lists were coming out, The Stacks Pack was not into what they were seeing. There were lively debates happening on The Stacks discord channel, and one TSP member decided we should have our own awards. And thus, The Stackies were born.
Before I get to the awards themselves I have to say thank you to Elisah who put together the form and ran ran all the rounds of voting. She is a rock star and I am so grateful she took the reins when I simply could not.
The nominations and voting was open only to members of The Stacks Pack. There was one round of nominations, one round of general voting, and one round for finalists. Then we arrived at the below winners. I have included the winners and the finalists in each category. The winners are in bold. They are also all hyperlinked to bookshop.org so you can shop while you read.
If you want to join all the fun of The Stacks Pack please head to patreon.com/thestacksto join in. You earn awesome perks (bonus episodes, the aforementioned discord, virtual book club, reading tracker, and more) and you get to know your money (only $5 a month) is going toward a Black woman run independent book podcast. C’mon, that’s five dollars well spent.
Without further ado, here are the winners of the first ever The Stackies.
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.
Of all the lists and awards that are reigned down on books at the end of the year, this list is my most favorite. I have reached out to past guests from The Stacks in 2022 and asked them to share with us their favorite book they read this year, and the one book in 2023 they’re looking forward to. I love the list because, as you know, The Stacks’ guests have the best taste in books, and the list is unlike what you get in every other publication. My guests have range.
I hope you enjoy reconnecting with the many voices from our 2022 season.
Cree Myles Curator behind Penguin Random House’sAll Ways Black
The best book I read in 2022 was Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin. As a lover of Jordan Peele I wanted to make sure I spent some time with the OG and Levin didn’t disappoint. A masterclass in social commentary, Levin uses the genre of horror to explore how little control women had over their bodies in the 1960s.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor
As a composition professor, the best thing I read in 2022 was Other People’s English by Vershawn Ashanti Young. It’s a strong rebuke of code-switching ideology and an endorsement of code-meshing, which encourages speakers and writers to draw on their entire linguistic repertoires (even, and especially, in academic settings where language standards are steeped in racism).
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: Year of the Tiger by Alice Wong.
I had the pleasure of reading the Graphic Adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower this year. This book holds special distinction for me because the artist of this fantastic adaptation is John Jennings, who grew up not far from where I live in Mississippi. This novel is a Hugo Award Winner for Best Graphic Story. Octavia Butler’s novel is one of the most realistic and believable works of dystopian fiction I’ve ever read. It’s compelling and detailed, with exceptional character and plot development. It pulls you so far into the story that you can’t stop turning the pages until you’ve reached the end. I highly recommend it!
Katrina was our guest for Day 1 of Banned Books Week, where she talked about curating a collection and the process of banning a book in public libraries.
I read a lot of great books this year, but perhaps the most worldview-altering was Disability Visibility, edited by Alice Wong, which provided such a nuanced and diverse understanding of what it means to be disabled today. It was by turns enraging, optimistic and empowering, and even convinced me to self-identify as disabled, a terminology I had previously rejected because of its stigma.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: I have bell hooks’ All About Loveon my shelf and I haven’t started it yet, but am very excited to finally get to a timeless classic.
My favorite read of 2022 was Delia Ephron’s Left on Tenth. It’s such a beautiful story about finding love and strength later in life.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: I have a pile of frothy, unread rom-coms on my nightstand waiting to be read on holiday, and I’m especially excited to sip some bed-wine and tackle The Rewind during the first few days of the new year before work starts up again.
Best book I read in 2022 is a re-read. 1992’s The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes from the late Janet Malcolm. I’m writing a lot right now, and Malcolm, who was deeply cognizant of biography as a “flawed genre,” inspires me with her ability to investigate, to tell a person’s story, tell her story, and tell the big story— all at once. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: Well, I’m hearing Bernice McFadden is releasing a memoir next autumn called First Born Girls. As a first born girl myself, I will be first in line.
The best book of non-fiction I read in 2022 was How To Read Now by Elaine Castillo. A trenchant and sly and super-readable, super-smart collection of essays that lays bare how much white supremacy fucks up all aspects of literature, from the reader’s experience with language and story and the page to the limits of the captalist publishing imagination. I will read anything that Castillo writes, and this book is no exception. The best book of fiction was Mecca by Susan Straight. I absolutely love everything about this sprawling, ambitious novel set in California’s Inland Empire, and I can’t think of another white author I would trust to explore the experiences and identities of a multiethnic cast of characters than Straight. She writes with respect, compassion, clarity, and depth, especially when she goes in on the twin traumas of police violence and COVID on Black, Latinx, and undocumented folks. The best book of poetry was Time is a Motherby Ocean Vuong because, seriously, everything that Ocean writes and says is just beyond brilliant and gorgeous. I can go into these poems again and again and always find something new. And I’m really not an avid reader of cookbooks or food writing but special shoutout to Simply Julia by Julia Turshen. Sure, the recipes are really fantastic, but what got me is how quietly radical the book is: sandwiched between a chicken cutlet recipe and one for a baked spinach and artichoke dip is a short essay titled “On the Worthiness Of Our Bodies.” It’s a deeply personal and powerful rejection of diet culture, internalized fatphobia and how the culture of “healthy eating” culture too often functions as a front for disordered eating. I can’t think of any other cookbook that includes lines like “There is nothing wrong with being fat. The only thing wrong is thinking that any person, living in any type of body, is less valuable than someone else.”
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden by Camille Dungy. I’ve had the honor of reading this in ARC form and cannot wait for the final, glorious book. To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness by Robin Coste Lewis. I bought this “film for the hands,” as Lewis describes it, for my wife for Christmas, but really I got it so we can read it together.
The best book I read in 2022 was Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe [by Benjamin Alire Sáenz], a YA novel about two Mexican-American teenagers coming into their queerness in the late 1980s. I love this book because I get to vicariously experience the queer adolescence I should’ve been able to have, but never did.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: Chasing Pacquiao by Rod Pulido.
So many great books I read this year, but my favorite was Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parentsby Lindsay C. Gibson PsyD. As jarring as that title can be, it actually helped me develop even more empathy for the adults that raised me, seeing more of their humanity in the decisions they made. The book does a great job of helping readers hold accountability and create steps to move forward without blame or shame. I highly recommend it for anyone who is on the journey of healing their childhood wounds, especially anyone who has or is interested in having kids of their own one day.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: I’m truly most looking forward to reading South to America by Imani Perry.
The best book I read in 2022 is Leila Mottley’s Nightcrawling. I am floored and inspired by her tremendous talent. She wrote a raw, honest, emotional fiction novel that is a heartfelt coming of age story that’s based in Oakland. She’s a rare talent and it’s impossible not to be shifted by this book in some way.
Jemele was our guest on Episode 240, where she discussed her book Uphill.
My favorite book in 2022 is His Name Is George Floyd by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. I love books that explain the whys of situations. It is a gripping look at the macro issues of the racial and systematic mechanisms that shaped George Floyd’s life and death. (Dan Charnas’ memoir on J Dilla and Howard Bryant’s book on Rickey Henderson were close runner-ups among my favs of the the year.) Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: Questlove’s Music is History. It’s been on my list for a little while.
The book I thought with the most this year was Victor Ray’s On Critical Race Theory: Why It Matters & Why You Should Care. The point of theory is to help us think about things, and Dr. Ray gives us a bountiful gift by sharing his own story and breaking down philosophy in a way that helps us to think about the most pressing issues of race and class in our time. This slim volume is also a masterclass in craft, as every sentence is composed in a way that is elegant, compact, illuminating and inviting. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: The New American Homeless by Brian Goldstone. Dr. Goldstone writes about housing and houselessness with such compassion, rigor and pathos, presenting the moral case for housing as a human right with the urgency it deserves. His writings on Twitter and in The New Republic have deeply informed my own politics and ethics, and his book is going to be a game-changer in American society confronting the scourge of homelessness.
The best book I read in 2022 was Where the Children Take Us by Zain Asher. What a loving and elegantly written tribute to a mother’s determination to put her children on her back and carry them through the most devastating of storms. It’s a story of tragic loss, triumphant love, extraordinary perseverance and odds-shattering achievement delivered in beautiful prose. The tough-love parenting strategies, the immigrant come-up, the Nigerian “no carry last” mandate for excellence – it all hit home for me in such a searing, affirming way. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: A Coastline is an Immeasurable Thing: A Memoir Across Three Continentsby Mary-Alice Daniel
Easily the best book I read in 2022 was Kate Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. It’s a graphic novel memoir about Beaton’s time digging for oil in northern Canada. It’s a tough and crappy job in a tough and awful environment. She doesn’t sugarcoat it, but she doesn’t condescend to the (mostly) men who have little choice but to work there. It’s an empathetic, complicated, and beautifully drawn look at labor, class, and the choices we make.
Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023: Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Abraham Riesman. I’m not even one of those wrestling nerds, but even I can appreciate how uniquely of-the-moment professional wrestling is right now – with its reliance on blending “truth” and “performance.” And what better way to understand all that than an exploration of the guy behind it all.
Andrew was our guest on Episode 246, where he discussed his favorite books of 2022
The best thing I read this year was South to Americaby Imani Perry. Perry does an extraordinary job of making the argument for The American South as the center of The United States .The book is captivating and wide ranging and full of complexities. It is a challenge to read and that is precisely what makes it feel like such an enjoyable read. The writing is unreal. The storytelling is dynamic. This book is easily one of the best things I’ve read in the last five years. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2023:Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Raw Dogby Jamie Loftus, because ya’ll know I love any excuse to talk about glizzies.
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.
We’re back for the fifth year of The Stacks Battle of the Books. I can confidently say this year, might be our best ever. That matchups are wild!
We did it in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 and honestly, its the best tradition and I hope you’re all as thrilled for round four as I am.
To refresh your memory, The Battle of The Books is a March Madness style bracket where you vote to pick the book club book of the year. You also get a chance to win one of TSBC books by predicting the most accurate bracket over on https://challonge.com/thestacks2022 or click here. You create your account put your predictions in for who you think will win. Then on The Stacks Instagram Stories, you’ll vote (starting 12/23) for your favorite books in head to head battles, until we crown one winner, The Stacks Book Club Book of the Year. The results of each round will be updated over on Challonge (our bracket site) and on our Instagram @thestackspod.
You have until Wednesday, December 21st at 8:00am PST to put in your predictions. The winner will be whoever has the most accurate bracket, and they will win one of our TSBC books from 2022 (winner’s choice). Be sure your bracket name is your IG handle, email, or name, so you are easy to find upon completion of the tournament. We will announce the winner of the tournament and the winner of the giveaway on Friday, December 30th once all the results are in.
Here is the important stuff.
Make sure you’re following The Stacks on Instagram @thestackspod.
Register for the bracket if you want to be part of the giveaway CLICK HERE. Be sure to pick a winner at the bottom of the page.
Vote in each round on our Insta Stories, starting Wednesday December 21st . All voting on Instagram!
Spread the word!
If you want all the nerdy details of how the seeding was figure out, you’ve come to the right place. Mostly I created a bunch of my own calculations to rank the books based on many factors. The rankings are full of biases and assumptions, and honestly, thats what makes this fun. Here is how I ranked these books, and below find a more detailed description of what that means.
Podcast Downloads– Raw number of downloads that an episode received according to my data (I know older episodes will be at a disadvantage as the podcast grew over time, but also newer episodes suffer because they haven’t been up as long, I’m hoping it all evens out). It is worth noting that I excluded True Biz from this calculation since that episode is not out yet.
iTunes Episode Popularity– iTunes lets me see how popular each episode is. Its slight different than raw downloads, because they take into account listeners at the time of recording, but they also only include people listening through iTunes. Again,True Biz was excluded from this category, see above.
Goodreads Scores– I looked up each book on Goodreads and took that score.
Goodreads Ratings– I took the raw number of Goodreads ratings for each book.
Test of Time– The older a book is, the more credit it got, because it has withstood the test of time.
Social Media Input– I’ve asked The Stacks Instagram followers to tell me their favorite book we read this year, and those responses are incorporated.
Traci’s Personal Ranking– Thats right, I’m influencing this competition a little. Its my podcast, so why not?
There are 12 books in the competition, so in each of those categories the books are rated on a scale of 1-12. Each book received a score from each category, 1 being the best, 12 the worst. I then tallied all the scores and divided by 7 (except in the case of True Biz which was divided by 5).
I know that sounds like a lot, but just trust me, it makes sense. Here are the rankings based on these calculations, and their total overall raw scores, remember lower is better. Where there was a tie, I broke the tie based on my preferences.
Voting begins Wednesday December 21st, shortly after 8:00am PST for the first round, and will follow the schedule below. Remember you vote on The Stacks Instagram stories. You just click your favorite book in each round’s head to head matchup. Once the results are in, I’ll share the winners with you and we get ready for the next round. The schedule is below.
Round 1 – December 21st – Play in Games
Round 2 – December 23rd – Elite 8
Round 3 – December 26th – Final 4
Round 4 – December 29th – Championship
That feels like a lot, trust me, it’ll be fun and worth it. Here is the important stuff.
Make sure you’re following The Stacks on Instagram @thestackspod.
Register for the bracket (with a recognizable name) if you want to be part of the giveaway CLICK HERE
Vote in each round on our Insta Stories, starting Wednesday December 21.
Spread the word!
For those of you curious who won in previous years, 2018 was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, 2019 was Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson, 2020 was The Undocumented Americansby Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, and 2021 was Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Who will ascend the throne in 2022?
To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do 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.
Of all the lists and awards that are reigned down on bookss at the end of the year, this list is my most favrote. I have reached out to past guests from The Stacks in 2021 and asked them to share with us their favorite book they read this year, and the one book in 2022 they’re looking forward to. I love the list because, guests from The Stacks have the best taste in books, and the list is never what you’d expect to see in any other publication. My guests have range.
I hope you enjoy reconnecting with the many voices from our 2021 season.
The best book I read in 2021… I could not break a tie between my Duval homegirls’ books, Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz and The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton! Milk Blood Heat is a brilliant short story collection that left me breathless, made me laugh, and made me feel. Dantiel writes with such wisdom and care, on a craft level and on a narrative level. And I love that many of these exquisite stories are set in our hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. The Final Revival of Opal and Nev is a faux oral history about a ’70s interracial rock n’ roll duo, and even though it’s fictional, the chorus of voices are so damn real and unforgettable! I just marveled at how Dawnie created this masterpiece, a sprawling epic full of secrets, pain, grief, and music. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022:Post-Traumatic by Chantal V. Johnson
My top read this year was Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford. In the memoir Ashley so beautifully shines and opens a window into her life, while holding each reader so tenderly. I am grateful for her generosity. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022: Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez. I was fortunate to get an advanced copy and loved pouring through the rich pages.
Kimberly was our guest on Episode 146 where she discusses her book Black Futures with her co-author Jenna Wortham.
Vann Newkirk Senior editor at The Atlantic
I fell in love with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois.It was everything I needed in a pandemic book: it was compelling, beautiful, challenging, and for me it was so vivid and showed so much care for Black life in the South that it eased my homesickness and grief in a year of loss. I’ve never met a book quite like this one, and even now, months after I’ve finished, I keep it on my nightstand to flip through when inspired. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022: Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò’s Reconsidering Reparations. I’m fascinated by his arguments situating the idea of reparations in a forward-looking environmental context, and I’m excited to dig in.
The best book I read in 2021? Traci, how could you! It’s tough to narrow it down to one, so I’ll opt to mention a book that I loved and want to get even more shine: Give My Love to the Savages, by Chris Stuck. I read Give My Love to the Savages for a New York Times review of three short story collections, and while I went into the project ready to love all collections equally, man, Stuck’s is the one that blew me away (of course, the others were also powerful).
With his debut collection, Stuck had me laughing one minute, cringing the next, and deep in thought the entire time. Each of his stories––all with their own original conceits––strike my favorite balancing act of incorporating humor while also having enough courage to not shy away from the truth. I could go on and on, and tell you about the character who wakes up as a six-foot penis, another who gets vitiligo and goes on a cruise, or the young man who’s offered a beautiful home on a lake, if he only has sex with a white man’s white wife, but I’ll stop here and leave it to you to read the rest. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022: I have a whole shelf full of unread books that need some love, and I’ll probably start with A Drop of Patience, by William Melvin Kelley, before making my way to some nonfiction. Right now, Gordon Parks’s A Hungry Heart, 50 Cent’s Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter, and Will, by Will Smith, are all in the running.
A book I’ve especially appreciated this past year is Korean Art from 1953, a Phaidon survey of Korean contemporary art. It’s a gorgeous book full of art, thought, and history, truly a gift during this time of still limited museum-going. It came as a present from my friend Alex Chee when I was having a hard time, and I keep it on my desk so that I can look through it while I write. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022: I’m looking forward to so many books that will publish next year, but the only one I’ve already had the luck of reading a couple of times is Ingrid Rojas Contreras’s The Man Who Could Move Clouds, a memoir that could change your life. I don’t say this lightly; it has shifted my thinking on ghosts, power, and afterlives. I’ll say it again: it could change your life.
R. O. was our guest on Episode 154 to discuss her collection Kinkwhich she co-edited with Garth Greenwell.
My personal favorite book of 2021 was The Turnout by Megan Abbott. I can’t help it, unhinged, female ambition is so soothing for the way my operating system is set up. First of all, hi, it’s about ballet. Not only ballet but ballet-teacher sisters who grew up in total dysfunction in the long shadow of their ballet-teacher mother. It has basically all the things I think about this time of year—pain, sex, mental health issues, betrayal and The Nutcracker! Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022: I Guess I Live Here Now by Claire Ahn. It’s about immigrant parents who make good on the threat of: “If you don’t shape up you’re getting shipped back to TKCOUNTRYOFORIGIN.”
One of the best books I read in 2021 was Elissa Washuta’s White Magic: Essays. There’s a lot that could be said about the content: a reading of pop culture — from the Oregon Trail to Twin Peaks — through the lens of a Cowlitz woman who is in search of love and a sense of self. And I learned a lot. But there is another layer of brilliance to this book: Washuta is a goddess of lyrical essay, and much as I was caught up in what she said about how she sees the world, I also found myself wanting to study how she said it. Plus, White Magic is a beautiful book, not just as a text but also physically. I loved the use of white text against black pages, and the gold-embossed cover. I cannot more highly recommend this book. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022: I’m super excited about Jean Chen Ho’s work of fiction Fiona and Jane.
It’s impossible to pick one but one of the best books I read this year was Reuben Jonathan Miller’s Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration. Miller is a professor of social work at the University of Chicago and his book is written like a sociological memoir. Grounded in qualitative research on people coming home from prison, the book also weaves in deeply personal reflections about Miller’s relationship with his brother, who for years was in and out of prison. Miller’s proximity to the subject matter adds an invaluable layer of human texture to the story. It’s excellent. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022: I hear Patrick Radden Keefe has a new book coming out which means it’s immediately going to the top of my list.
The best book I read in 2021 was Kaitlyn Greenidge’s Libertie, which shows the inner life of a free-born black woman in the Reconstruction Era who isn’t trying to be anyone’s role model–a premise so loving and revolutionary that it has changed the way I read and write. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022: Okay, I am cheating with two. In my defense, I am looking forward to reading about 49 books in 2022. Alison B. Hart’s The Work Wife, which pulls apart female complicity in the cesspool that is Hollywood, and Sarah Thankam Matthews’ All This Could Be Different, which looks to be all the things I love–a running-off-the-rails queer immigrant love story.
The best book I read in 2021 was My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson. It’s a riveting debut collection that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat, leaning into each story. Book I’m looking forward to in 2022: Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
Between distressing news headlines and the rollercoaster of emotions that is publishing a debut novel, I frequently felt scrambled throughout this year. Brilliant new story and essay collections were my cure for getting over reading slumps (shout out to Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, and A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib). But the book that is currently pushing me out of a writing slump is Toni Morrison’s classic Song of Solomon, which I read for the first time last month (coincidentally, for The Stacks Book Club — thank you for the nudge, Traci!). Within this story Morrison leaps over years in the span of a sentence, experiments with a blend of seemingly disparate genres, and digs into the legends of several characters at once…and yet, the center always holds. As a reader I was enthralled by its wildness, and as a writer I am inspired to be braver, to roam in fresh and unexpected directions. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022:Finding Me, Viola Davis’ memoir, and The School for Good Mothersby Jessamine Chan.
The book that resonated with me most in 2021 was probably Milk Fed by the singular voice that is Melissa Broder. I don’t read a ton of fiction, so this was a wild card, but I think it’s just one of those books that arrived in my life right when I needed it. I’d describe it as a creamy, steamy, devourable novel about deprivation and desire in which a 20-something woman trapped in the prison of her own self-loathing learns to set herself free through sex, food, and spirituality. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022:My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety by Georgia Pritchett
Wow, do I feel uncomfortable saying “best” here, but the book I enjoyed the most was probably There There, by Tommy Orange. It’s a cool Native thriller that’s both literary and cinematic, and it just fucking dope. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022: A comic book series, The Good Asian by Pornsak Pichetshote.
Lupita Aquino Reader behind @lupita.reads on Instagram
The best book I read in 2021 was…..how dare you make me pick just one?!….The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan! It’s a book I think about often even though I finished it months ago. Traversing from the US, Lebanon and Syria to Palestine this novel at its core is a family saga that illuminates the way a family’s history/possible fated destiny becomes broken and changed by war. Captivating and beautifully written Alyan captures the realities of family dynamics through such a raw perspective which will leave you thinking the ways displacement ripples through every relationship we build. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022:Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos!
Lupita was our guest on Episode 195, discussing the best books of 2021.
The best book I read in 2021 wasA Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib. The book is a nuanced and layered analysis of Black performance in America. I was taken with Abdurraqib’s ability to weave history, pop culture, and personal experiences into each essay, and to complicate my understanding of what it means to “perform”. This is one of those books that I just want to gush over to everyone I meet. A really special read. Book I’m looking forward to reading in 2022:South to Americaby Imani Perry, and I’m very intrigued by Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley.
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.
Its back! The 4th Annual The Stacks Book Club Battle of the Books!
We did it in 2018, 2019, and 2020 and honestly, its the best tradition and I hope you’re all as thrilled for round four as I am.
To refresh your memory, The Battle of The Books is a March Madness style bracket where you vote to pick the book club book of the year. You also get a chance to win one of TSBC books by predicting the most accurate bracket over on https://challonge.com/thestacks2021 or click here. You create your account put your predictions in for who you think will win. Then on The Stacks Instagram Stories, you’ll vote (starting 12/23) for your favorite books in head to head battles, until we crown one winner, The Stacks Book Club Book of the Year. The results of each round will be updated over on Challonge (our bracket site) and on our Instagram @thestackspod.
You have until Thursday, December 23nd at 8:00am PST to put in your predictions. The winner will be whoever has the most accurate bracket, and they will win one of our TSBC books from 2021 (winner’s choice). Be sure your bracket name is your IG handle, email, or name, so you are easy to find upon completion of the tournament. We will announce the winner of the tournament and the winner of the giveaway on Friday, December 31st once all the results are in.
Here is the important stuff.
Make sure you’re following The Stacks on Instagram @thestackspod.
Register for the bracket if you want to be part of the giveaway CLICK HERE
Vote in each round on our Insta Stories, starting Thursday December 23rd . All voting on Instagram!
Spread the word!
If you want all the nerdy details of how the seeding was figure out, you’ve come to the right place. Mostly I created a bunch of my own calculations to rank the books based on many factors. The rankings are full of biases and assumptions, and honestly, thats what makes this fun. You all ultimately get to vote, which means you get to decide. Here is how I ranked these books, and below find a more detailed description of what that means.
Podcast Downloads– Raw number of downloads that episode received according to my data (I know older episodes will be at a disadvantage as the podcast grew over time, but also newer episodes suffer because they haven’t been up as long, I’m hoping it all evens out). It is worth noting that I excludedA Little Devil in America from this calculation since that episode is not out yet.
iTunes Episode Popularity– iTunes lets me see how popular each episode is. Its slight different than raw downloads, because they take into account listeners at the time of recording, but they also only include people listening through iTunes. Again,A Little Devil in Americawas excluded from this category, see above.
Goodreads Scores– I looked up each book on Goodreads and took that score.
Goodreads Ratings– I took the raw number of Goodreads ratings for each book.
Test of Time– The older a book is, the more credit it got, because it has withstood the test of time.
Social Media Input– I’ve asked The Stacks Instagram followers to tell me their favorite book we read this year, and those responses are incorporated.
Traci’s Personal Ranking– Thats right, I’m influencing this competition a little. Its my podcast, so why not?
There are 12 books in the competition, so in each of those categories the books are rated on a scale of 1-12. Each book received a score from each category, 1 being the best, 12 the worst. I then tallied all the scores and divided by 7.
I know that sounds like a lot, but just trust me, it makes sense. Here are the rankings based on these calculations, and their total overall raw scores, remember lower is better. Where there was a tie, I broke the tie.
Blood in the Water – 4
Song of Solomon – 4.42
The Best We Could Do – 4.57
The Office of Historical Corrections – 4.85
Anna Karenina – 4.85
A Little Devil in America – 6
Emergency Contact – 6.42
Waiting to Exhale – 6.85
The New Wilderness – 7.14
The Undying – 8
The Tradition – 8.42
Every Body Looking – 10
Voting begins Thursday December 23rd, shortly after 8:00am PST for the first round, and will follow the schedule below. Remember you vote on The Stacks Instagram stories. You just click your favorite book in each round’s head to head matchup. Once the results are in, I’ll share the winners with you and we get ready for the next round. The schedule is below.
Round 1 – December 23nd – Play in Games
Round 2 – December 26th – Elite 8
Round 3 – December 28th – Final 4
Round 4 – December 30th – Championship
That feels like a lot, trust me, it’ll be fun and worth it. Here is the important stuff.
Make sure you’re following The Stacks on Instagram @thestackspod.
Register for the bracket (with a recognizable name) if you want to be part of the giveaway CLICK HERE
Vote in each round on our Insta Stories, starting Thursday December 23.
Spread the word!
For those of you curious who won in previous years, 2018 was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, 2019 was Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson, 2020 was The Undocumented Americansby Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. Who will ascend the throne in 2021?
To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do 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.
This is a rereleased and updated list, it was originally published in December 1, 2020.
Today is Giving Tuesday where folks turn their holiday spending toward nonprofit organizations. I’ve compiled this list of some of my favorite organizations that promote and foster literacy in our communities. I have also included organizations submitted by The Stacks followers on Instagram. I encourage you to use this as a jumping off point and do your own research to find nonprofits that are doing work you wish to support and promote. This list is by no means comprehensive, but its a great place to start if you’re in a place to give! This list is presented in alphabetical order.
Athens Books to Prisoners – a volunteer run organization that sends free books to prisoners in Ohio upon request.
Behind the Book – inspire New York City public school students to love reading by bringing accomplished authors and their books into classrooms.
Blue Stoop – a home for literary Philly, Blue Stoop’s mission is to support writers, foster creativity, and build inclusive literary community.
BookGive – We distribute new and gently used books from our service station to individuals, schools, and nonprofits throughout metro Denver.
Books to Prisoners – a Seattle-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to foster a love of reading behind bars, encourage the pursuit of knowledge and self-empowerment, and break the cycle of recidivism.
Coaching for Literacy – sports teams, athletes, and businesses take part in the #Fight4Literacy promoting childhood reading in their communities.
Ferst Readers – children in their literacy program receive a bookstore-quality, age-specific book and resources mailed to their home every month until their fifth birthday.
First Book – matches nonprofit organizations with local classrooms and programs serving children in need.
Free Minds Book Club – uses the literary arts, workforce development, and violence prevention to connect incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youths and adults to their voices, their purpose, and the wider community.
Freedom Reads – This is the organization formerly known as Million Book Project (where The Stacks community donated close to $100,000 in 2021). Founded by friend of The Stacks, poet, and MacArthur genius, Reginald Dwayne Betts. Their mission is to bring books into prisons to combat what incarceration does to the spirit.
Imagination Library – Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth until they begin school, no matter their family’s income.
Indigenous Literacy Foundation – Australia based organization that aims to make a difference in the lives of Indigenous families by gifting thousands of new culturally appropriate books – with a focus on early literacy and first language.
Inside Books Project – inside Books Project is an Austin-based community service volunteer organization that sends free books and educational materials to prisoners in Texas.
Kid’s Book Bank Cleveland – foster improved literacy and a love of reading by providing free books to children in need through collaboration with community partners.
Lambda Literary – nurtures and advocates for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve our legacies, and affirm the value of our stories and our lives.
Liberation Library – provides books to youth in prison to encourage imagination, self-determination and connection to outside worlds of their choosing.
Literacy First – makes sure that children in Central Texas develop the reading skills that allow them to realize their full potential with regard to education, economic opportunity, civic engagement, and personal development
Make Way for Books – an early literacy nonprofit that provides proven programs, services, and resources to 30,000 young children, parents, and educators throughout southern Arizona each year
More Than Words – is a nonprofit social enterprise that empowers youth who are in the foster care system, court involved, homeless, or out of school to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business in Boston, MA.
National Book Foundation – to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.
Open Books Chicago – Open Books is a nonprofit that provides literacy experiences for tens of thousands of readers each year through inspiring programs and the creative capitalization of books.
Prisoners Lit Project – An all-volunteer grassroots group that sends hundreds of free book packages to needy prisoners in the United States every month.
Read to a Child – foster a love of reading, improve literacy skills, and empower underserved children by inspiring adults to read to them regularly.
Reading is Fundamental – inspiring a passion for reading among all children, providing quality content to make an impact and engaging communities in the solution to give every child the fundamentals for success
Ready Readers – prepares preschool-age children living in low-income communities to become readers by reading aloud to them, providing high quality books, and offering literacy-related experiences.
Room to Read – seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in low-income communities by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education.
Rx for Reading – expand access to high-quality children’s books and support families in reading with their children in Detroit, MI.
Smart Reading – literacy nonprofit that serves kids in Oregon’s with two ingredients critical for literacy and learning success: one-on-one reading time and access to books.
The Conscious Kid – an education, research, and policy organization dedicated to equity and promoting healthy racial identity development in youth.
The Book Truck – give thousands of free books to foster care, homeless, and low-income teens throughout Los Angeles County
The Bronx is Reading – promote literacy and foster a love of reading among children, teens, and adults. They are currently doing a drive to bring a Children’s and general interest bookstore to The Bronx. You can support that drive here.
The Maryland Book Bank – The Maryland Book Bank is a nonprofit organization committed to cultivating literacy in children from under-resourced neighborhoods.
Traveling Stories – empowering kids to outsmart poverty by helpinng them fall in love with reading.
We Need Diverse Books – non-profit and a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.
Women’s Prison Book Project – providing women and transgender persons in prison with free reading materials covering a wide range of topics, all-volunteer, grassroots organization.
Note: The language for each nonprofit was taken directly for the organization’s website.
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.
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We’re doing something big to celebrate three years of The Stacks! Our annual fundraiser is back!
For the next 30 days, The Stacks will be raising money for The Million Book Project to support their mission of bringing books and authors into prisons to facilitate meaningful conversations that break down barriers. The Million Book Project is an initiative that harnesses the power of literature to counter what prison does to the spirit. It was founded by author, poet, attorney, and activist Reginald Dwayne Betts. The Project’s work is to build a 500-book Freedom Library and place it in prisons in every state in this country, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. These curated libraries promise to build community among and between those incarcerated, prison staff, and friends and family back home.
The goal for The Stacks community is to raise $50,000 which will help to build ten new 500-book Freedom Libraries.
I know this is a whole lot of money, but I truly believe in the power of this community to do incredible and unbelievable things motivated by our love of books. Why should this be any different? If possible, I am asking folks to forgo buying a book this month, and instead to make a $25 donation for this incredible organization.
Take a look at what your donations will support:
$5 – Gifts in the single digits say solidarity & help nurture The Million Book Project.
$25 – Put a book or two in the hands of a reader in prison.
$150 – Provide a book club in a prison with a set of a next book to digest & discuss.
$500 – Supply the latest book of the month to book club participants in multiple prisons across a state.
Above & Beyond – Help to fill the shelves of a Freedom Library with books that open worlds and feed dreams.
Due to strict prison regulations we can only accept monetary donations through the link below, please do not send any physical books.
Please note: The Million Book Project has its institutional home within the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. Click the button above to donate online or send checks to: Yale Law School Fund ATTN: The Million Book Project, 127 Wall Street. New Haven, CT 06511 (Please include in your memo line: Designation Number 38701)
