Our guest today is journalist and editor Dawnie Walton, she is the debut author behind one of this year’s most talked about novels, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev. Dawnie shares her research process, how oral histories can elevate fictional characters, and the rock stars that inspired her own rock icon.

The Stacks Book Club selection for November is Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, we will discuss the book on November 24th with Dawnie Walton.

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

Books

• The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton
• Deesha Philyaw
• Dantiel W. Moniz
• Live from New York by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller
• The Office by Andy Greene
• The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff
• The Battle of Versailles by Robin Givhan
• Season of the Witch by David Talbot
• John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• Heavy by Kiese Laymon
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
• Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
• 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph
• Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan
• The Reckonings by Lacy M. Johnson

• Memorial Drive by Natasha Tretheway
• Brother I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat
• A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib
• Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon
• Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
• Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
• Finding Me by Viola Davis
• To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara 
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
• Black Diamond Queens by Maureen Mahon
• All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Matthews
• Crystal Hana Kim
• How to Wrestle a Girl by Venita Blackburn 
• Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
• Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara
• Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Roots by Alex Haley
• Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan
• Disappearing Acts by Terry McMillan
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Everything Else

• 20 Feet From Stardom (Morgan Neville, 2013)
• Merry Clayton
• Talking Heads
• David Byrne
• Ednah Holt
• Lynn Mabry
• Entertainment Weekly
• Grantland
• “The Malice at the Palace” (Jonathan Abrams, Grantland)
• Untold: Malice at the Palace (Netflix)
• “Rocked” (Bryan Curtis and Patricia Lee, Grantland)
• McDowell
• Life Magazine
• Quentin Tarantino
• Janelle Monáe
• Muhammad Ali
• The Rolling Stories
• Altamont Festival
• Hells Angels
• “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones
• Gimme Shelter (David Maysles, Albert Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)
• Betty Davis
• Betty: They Say I’m Different (Phil Cox, 2020)
• Native Tongues
• Stevie Wonder
• Marvin Gaye
• Opal & Nev Playlist on Spotify (Dawnie Walton)
• Whitney Houston
• Aretha Franklin
• “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones
• “Ep. 160 Black People Doing Spectacular Things with Hanif Abdurraqib” (The Stacks)
• “Shonda Rhimes is taking on the Great Migration for Netflix” (Dan Kopf, Quartz)
• Tina Turner
• LaBelle
• “Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones
• “The Short Stacks 1: Crystal Hana Kim//If You Leave Me” (The Stacks)
• Harriett’s Bookshop (Philadelphia, PA)
• Baldwin & Co. (New Orleans, LA)
• Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn, NY)
• “Ep. 48 Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah — The Stacks Book Club (Wade Allain-Marcus)” (The Stacks)
• Hillary Clinton
• Bill Clinton
• Jerry Brown
• American Idol (ABC)
• The Book Review Turns 125 (The New York Times)
• “Review: ‘Roots’ by Alex Haley” (James Baldwin, The New York Times)
• LeVar Burton
• “Ep. 187 Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan — The Stacks Book Club (Nichole Perkins)” (The Stacks)

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