Ep. 268 Over Burdened and Under Funded by Roxanna Asgarian

May 24, 2023May 22, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Journalist and author Roxanna Asgarian joins The Stacks to talk about her new book, We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America. We find out how Roxanna pushed back against true crime culture in writing about the 2018 Hart family murders. We also discuss how birth families are treated versus adoptive parents, how race and class factor into American child welfare and the financial implications of the system.

The Stacks Book Club selection for May is This Boy We Made by Taylor Harris. We will discuss the book on May 31st with Nicole Chung.

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

We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian
The Texas Tribune
Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
“Child in viral Portland police hug photo missing, 5 family members dead after California cliff crash” (Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, The Oregonian/Oregon Live)
Broken Harts (iHeart True Crime)
“The story behind Devonte Hart’s famous ‘hug’ photo” (Everton Bailey Jr., The Oregonian/Oregon Live)
Atlanta: Three Slaps (FX)
“Devonte Hart’s biological mom: They gave my kids ‘to monsters'” (Roxanna Asgarian, The Oregonian/Oregon Live)
“A mother grapples with an adoption that led to deaths” (Roxanna Asgarian, The Appeal)
“His siblings were killed by their adoptive mother. He was left in foster care to suffer a more common fate.” (Roxanna Asgarian, The Washington Post)
“Ep. 232 What Should the Rules Be with Andrea Elliott” (The Stacks)
Annie (John Huston, 1982)
Oliver! (Carol Reed, 1968)
“Ep. 239 The Purpose of a System Is What It Does with Mariame Kaba” (The Stacks)
Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991)
The New York Times
Yanni
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

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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. 267 The Pull to Make Art with Vashti Harrison

May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Bestselling author and illustrator Vashti Harrison joins us to talk about Big, her new storybook educating children on growth and self-love. We discuss how Vashti explored the adultification of black girls, and how she utilized the color pink throughout the book. She also explains how she thinks about parents and kids as her target audience, and the process of linking an author to an illustrator in the world of children’s books.

The Stacks Book Club selection for May is This Boy We Made by Taylor Harris. We will discuss the book on May 31st with Nicole Chung.

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

Big by Vashti Harrison
Little Leaders by Vashti Harrison
Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
“Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood” (Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake and Thalia Gonzalez, Georgetown University)
Little Legends by Vashti Harrison
Degas Dancers
Little Dreamers by Vashti Harrison
Michelle Obama
Cece Loves Science and Adventure by Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes , illustrated by Vashti Harrison
Hello Stars by Alena Pitts with Wynter Pitts
Harriet the Spy (Bronwen Hughes, 1996)
Michelle Trachtenberg
University of Virginia
Love is Blind (Netflix)
“For Netflix, the Love Is Blind Live Reunion Fiasco Is More Than Just Embarrassing” (Judy Berman, Time)
Succession (HBO)
Hair Love ABCs by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder
I Love My Body Because by Shelly Anand and Nomi Ellenson, illustrated by Erika Rodriguez Medina
Starfish by Lisa Fipps
We Need Diverse Books
Toni Morrison

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. 266 We Are the Ones Who Make the World with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

May 10, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Award-winning author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah joins us for a spoiler-free discussion of his new novel Chain-Gang All Stars. He shares the pressures he’s felt ahead of releasing his second book, and his trepidation around how the book will be received in prison abolition spaces. Plus, we find out what makes revision so important to Nana, and how he thinks about employing violence in the book to help tell this story.

The Stacks Book Club selection for May is This Boy We Made by Taylor Harris. We will discuss the book on May 31st with Nicole Chung.

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

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
“Ep. 48 Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah — The Stacks Book Club (Wade Allain-Marcus)” (The Stacks)
“The Short Stacks 7: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah//Friday Black” (The Stacks)
The Stacks Pack
“Sometimes, Academic Writing Hits Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Emotionally” (Rebecca Clarke, The New York Times)
“Bookseller survey finds debut authors struggle with lack of support” (Editorial Team, The Bookseller)
Matt Bell on Second Book Anxiety (@mdbell79)
Simone Biles
“If You Can’t Beat Them, Change The Rules: “The Biles” And Unfair Barriers For Excellence In America” (Colin Seale, Forbes)
Mariame Kaba
“Ep. 239 The Purpose of a System Is What It Does with Mariame Kaba” (The Stacks)
Angela Davis
Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site (Philadelphia, PA)
Peripheral Neuropathy (NIH)
My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson
Bayard Rustin
Fred Trump
Larry Kramer
Waterstones UK edition of Chain-Gang All-Stars
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Squid Game (Netflix)
Serena Williams
LeBron James
Semicolon Cafe (New York, NY)
Semicolon Bookstore (Chicago, IL)
Delta Air Lines
Pantheon Books
We Do this Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
“Ep. 22 The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner — The Stacks Book Club (Becca Tobin)” (The Stacks)
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (audiobook)
The “Look at Us” meme (Paul Rudd on Hot Ones)

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. 265 Deep Comfort Reads with Nicole Chung

May 3, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Bestselling author Nicole Chung joins The Stacks to discuss her new book A Living Remedy: A Memoir. We talk about her process of writing and talking about grief in the midst and aftermath of COVID, and what it’s like as a memoirist to be publicly known for her family life. We also hear what it’s meant for Nicole to become a full-time writer, and how she uses vibes to organize her books.

The Stacks Book Club selection for May is This Boy We Made: A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown by Taylor Harris. We will discuss the book on May 31st with Nicole Chung.

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

A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
“Ep. 46 All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung — The Stacks Book Club (Vanessa McGrady)” (The Stacks)
“The Short Stacks 6: Nicole Chung//All You Can Ever Know” (The Stacks)
Welcome Home by Eric Smith (ed)
Shannon Gibney
Edinburgh by Alexander Chee
The Stacks review of A Living Remedy (Instagram)
Catapult
Catapult Magazine
Nicole Chung at The Atlantic
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield
The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose
Jon Krakauer
Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
Half American by Matthew F. Delmont
The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
Essays of E. B. White by E. B. White
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
Stuart Little by E. B. White
To Save the Children of Korea by Arissa H. Oh
We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian
The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
A Line in the World by Dorthe Nors
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
Mobility by Lydia Kiesling
White Cat Black Dog by Kelly Link
Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
Ada Limón
Ocean Vuong
Lucille Clifton
Clint Smith
Promises of Gold by José Olivarez
R. O. Kwon
“Ep. 154 Representation in Kink with R.O. Kwon & Garth Greenwell” (The Stacks)
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Manson by Jeff Guinn
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
Bryan Washington
Ted Chiang
Above Ground by Clint Smith
Memorial by Bryan Washington (audiobook)
Libro.FM
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung (audiobook)
Jennifer Kim
A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung (audiobook)
Loyalty Bookstores (Washington D. C.)
Powell’s Books (Portland, OR)
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Orczy
Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle, WA)
Third Place Books (Seattle, WA)
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
Congratulations, The Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas
Breathe by Imani Perry
“Ep. 122 Breathe by Imani Perry — The Stacks Book Club (Kiese Laymon)” (The Stacks)
South to America by Imani Perry
National Book Award
Agatha Christie
This Boy We Made by Taylor Harris
Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 by Lucille Clifton
June Jordan
Langston Hughes
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Viral Justice by Ruha Benjamin

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: Making a Book of Poems with Victoria Adukwei Bulley and Matthew Hollis

April 28, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

On this Unabridged, we hear from poet Victoria Adukwei Bulley (Quiet: Poems) and her editor Matthew Hollis about their process in collaborating on a book of poems. They talk about the secrets shared between editors and authors, how the poems look on the page and the art of punctuation and line endings.

*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.

Quiet by Victoria Adukwei Bulley
The Sovereignty of Quiet by Kevin Quashie
Brown University (Providence, RI)
Faber and Faber
Lavinia Singer
Geoffrey Chaucer
John Keats
Royal Holloway, University of London
Lavinia Greenlaw
Emma Patterson
Samuel Beckett
T. S. Eliot
Ezra Pound
The Waste Land by Matthew Hollis
William Shakespeare
Tim Carroll
Ted Hughes
Premier League
League One
Norwich City F. C.
Ipswich Town F.C.
Arsenal F.C.
Manchester City F.C.
Clint Smith
Sula by Toni Morrison
In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki

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. 263 Revisiting Waco 30 Years Later with Jeff Guinn, Stephan Talty, and Kevin Cook

April 19, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Today marks thirty years since the last day of the FBI siege on the Branch Davidians of Waco, Texas. We hear from three authors who released books on the events this year: Jeff Guinn (Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage), Stephan Talty (Koresh: The True Story of David Koresh and the Tragedy at Waco) and Kevin Cook (Waco Rising: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of America’s Modern Militias) They address why they chose to tell this story now, what exactly happened in Waco (and why), and why this story is still relevant today.

The Stacks Book Club selection for April is Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay. We will discuss the book on April 26th with Clint Smith.

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

JEFF GUINN

Waco by Jeff Guinn
Manson by Jeff Guinn
The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn
Oklahoma City bombing
January 6 United States Capitol attack
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
David Koresh
Branch Davidians
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Coke Zero
The Allure of Immortality by Lyn Millner
John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

STEPHAN TALTY

Koresh by Stephen Talty
The Sopranos finale (HBO)
Marc Breault
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
Gary Gilmore
A Captain’s Duty by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty
Trust the Plan by Will Sommer
Ron DeSantis

KEVIN COOK

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. 262 Joy, Surprise, and Uplift with Ari Shapiro

April 12, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Today, award-winning host of NPR’s All Things Considered, and now New York Times bestselling author, Ari Shapiro joins us to discuss his new book The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening. We discuss how Ari brings his identity to his storytelling, the difference between illuminating and influencing in journalism, and how he approaches writing interview questions.

The Stacks Book Club selection for April is Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay. We will discuss the book on April 26th with Clint Smith.

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

The Best Strangers in the World by Ari Shapiro
All Things Considered (NPR)
Sam Sanders
Susan Stamberg
“Remembering David Reed Gamboa Brandhorst and His Two Dads on 9/11” (Paulo Murillo, Weho Times)
Refugees International
“U.S. envoy John Kerry points to some progress at U.N. climate summit” (Ari Shapiro, NPR)
Vanessa Nakate
Vincint
“VINCINT’s Debut Album Is A Vulnerable Soundtrack For Newly Reopened Dancefloors” (Ari Shapiro, NPR)
The Window Seat by Aminatta Forna
“Ep. 232 What Should the Rules Be with Andrea Elliott” (The Stacks)
Invisible Child By Andrea Elliot
“Transgender Women Of Indonesia Have A Champion In A 26-Year-Old Doctor” (Ari Shapiro, NPR)
Joseph Papa
“Ep. 61 The Publicizing of Books with Joseph Papa” (The Stacks)
“Ari Shapiro Reads Cookbooks for Comfort and Pleasure” (The New York Times)
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Linda Holmes
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
Stabbing of Salman Rushdie
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú
The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme, 1994)
“Undeniably Essential (w/ Ari Shapiro)” (Las Culturistas)
Shoshana Bean
New York University (New York, NY)
Wicked (Stephen Schwartz, 2003)
Hairspray (Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan, 2002)
Whitney Houston
Michael Pollan
Alex Gibney
Alan Cumming
Ari Shapiro and Alan Cumming at Cafe Carlyle
Cabaret (Joe Masteroff, 1966)
Here for It by R. Eric Thomas
“Ep. 112 R. Eric Thomas//Here for It” (The Stacks)
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
Radiolab (WNYC Studios)
Invisibilia (NPR)
David Starr Jordan
The Best Strangers in the World by Ari Shapiro (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. 261 All at Once with Clint Smith

April 5, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Today we welcome author Clint Smith to The Stacks to talk about his new poetry collection Above Ground, a tribute to being a parent amidst the chaos of life. We discuss how he handled the pressure to follow up the bestselling and award-winning How the Word is Passed. We also get into how parenting has animated all facets of life, and how competition has facilitated Clint’s relationship to literature.

The Stacks Book Club selection for April is Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay. We will discuss the book on April 26th with Clint Smith.

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

Above Ground by Clint Smith
How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
Counting Descent by Clint Smith
New York Times 10 best books of 2021
National Book Award finalists in 2021
“Ep. 168 Embodying History with Clint Smith” (The Stacks)
American Whitelash by Wesley Lowry
Vanessa Mobley
Little, Brown and Company
The New York Times
Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay
Ask the Stacks
A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
Grief is Love by Marisa Renee Lee
“Ep. 228 Grief is Love with Marisa Renee Lee” (The Stacks)
The Invisible Kingdom by Meghan O’Rourke
The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams
“Ep. 64 The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams — The Stacks Book Club (Lori Gottlieb)” (The Stacks)
The Undying by Anne Boyer
“Ep. 170 The Undying by Anne Boyer — The Stacks Book Club (Mychal Denzel Smith)” (The Stacks)
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
My Own Country by Abraham Verghese
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Being Mortal by Atul Gwande
Final Gifts by Maggie Callahan and Patricia Kelley
Adele Cries After Former Teacher Surprises Her Onstage
Arsenal F.C.
Manchester City F.C.
Davidson College (Davidson, NC)
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Mahogany L. Browne
John Keats
W.B. Yeats
Walt Whitman
Robert Frost
Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir, 1989)
Peloton
Justin Tinsley
David Dennis Jr.
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
“Ep. 164 Breaking a Story with Patrick Radden Keefe” (The Stacks)
Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Books are Magic (Brooklyn, NY)
“Picador pre-empts Akbar’s ‘transcendental’ début” (Katie Fraser, The Bookseller)
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Imani Perry
Ace Hardware
Loyalty Bookstores (Silver Spring, MD)
Inciting Joy by Ross Gay
Inciting Joy by Ross Gay (audiobook)
An Immense World by Ed Yong
The Movement Made Us by David Dennis Jr. and David Dennis Sr.
Stephen Curry
ESPN
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight

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: One for the Books with Rachel Lindsay and Chelsea Devantez

March 31, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Here is a little abridged version of Traci’s live show “One for the Books” with LAist. This time around, it’s a conversation with friends of the show Chelsea Devantez and Rachel Lindsay. We talk about Rachel’s book, why we should care about celebrity memoirs, the Bachelor franchise and so much more.

*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.

LAist
Celebrity Book Club with Chelsea Devantez
Spare by Prince Harry
J. R. Moehringer
Open by Andre Agassi
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
My Life So Far by Jane Fonda
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy
Will by Will Smith
Mark Manson
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Becoming by Michelle Obama
“Obama is reportedly feeling competitive after Michelle’s smash-hit memoir and sometimes says she used a ghostwriter” (Alex Lockie, Insider)
Miss Me with That by Rachel Lindsay
Real Love by Rachel Lindsay
The Salt Eaters Bookshop (Inglewood, CA)
Extra TV
Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay (The Ringer)
Morally Corrupt (The Ringer)
The Bachelorette (ABC)
Jonathan Franzen
Sliding Doors (Peter Howitt, 1998)
Bryan Abasolo
‘”The Bachelorette’: Racist, Sexist Tweets Surface From Contestant on ABC Show” (Elizabeth Wagmeister, Variety)
“‘The Bachelorette’: “Whaboom” Guy Admits He Went on the Show for Fame” (Christina Schoellkopf, Hollywood Reporter)
Zach Shallcross
Emily Maynard
Tayshia Adams
Matt James
“Rachael Kirkconnell Realized ‘Racist’ Fraternity Party Was Wrong Before ‘Bachelor’ Scandal: ‘I’m So Ashamed’” (Erin Crabtree, US Magazine)
Beverly Hills Disc and Laser Therapy Center (Beverly Hills, CA)
Fame (Alan Parker, 1980)
Sofia Quintero
Alexa Martin
Not Dead Yet (ABC)
The Problem with Jon Stewart (AppleTV+)
MILF Manor (TLC)
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Delta Style by Delta Burke
Designing Women (CBS)
Open Book by Jessica Simpson
Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi
True Love by Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez: Halftime (Netflix)
Tommy Mottola
Mariah Carey
“Jessica Simpson Opened Up About “Feeling Like A Failure” For Years After Being Body-Shamed By The World In 2009” (Natasha Jokic, Buzzfeed News)
John Mayer
Tony Romo
Dallas Cowboys
Rihanna
Rihanna’s Superbowl Halftime Show
Rihanna 2023 Performance
Beyoncé
Seth and Rihanna Go Day Drinking
Sandra Bullock
Jesse James
Kat Von D
Kanye West
North West
Meghan Markle
“Jada Pinkett Smith writing book covering ‘complicated marriage to Will Smith’” (Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly)
“Kerry Washington Is Set to Release New Memoir: ‘I Hope Readers Will Receive It with Open Hearts'” (Julie Jordan, People)
Unprisoned
Rue McClanahan
“Barbra Streisand’s First Memoir, ‘My Name Is Barbra’, Set For Fall Release” (Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline)
“Prince Harry’s Memoir The Spare” (Celebrity Book Club)
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
“Matthew Perry’s Memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing” (Celebrity Book Club)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Goosebumps by R. L. Stine
Scandal (ABC)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Toni Morrison
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
You Deserve Better by Tyler Cameron
Paris by Paris Hilton
The Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph

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. 259 How Innocent Are They with Joseph Earl Thomas

March 22, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Writer and Philadelphia native Joseph Earl Thomas joins the show to discuss his new book Sink: A Memoir, about coming of age amid chaos and finding a way through. He talks about why he wanted to write a memoir that centers childhood without growing into adulthood, the challenge of writing his story in the face of respectability politics and the push to write about “Black joy.”

The Stacks Book Club selection for March is Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. We will discuss the book on March 29th with Shanita Hubbard..

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

Sink by Joseph Earl Thomas
“Ep. 254 Heartbreak is Pivotal to Romance with Camonghne Felix” (The Stacks)
Dyscalculia by Camonghne Felix
Easy Bake Oven
Steve Irwin
Aisha Lockridge
St. Joseph’s University (Philadelphia, PA)
Grand Central Publishing
Kiese Laymon
Potted Meat by Steven Dunn
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
Dragon Ball Z (Cartoon Network)
Sink by Joseph Earl Thomas (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.