Here by popular demand is our first Unabridged mid-year best of’s (so-far) episode, featuring a trio of our favorite bookish friends – Book Riot’s Liberty Hardy, Lupita Aquino (aka @Lupita.Reads) and Nerdette’s Greta Johnsen. We list and discuss our favorite 2023 releases we’ve read, the backslist we’re obsessed with, and a few picks we’re looking forward to in the back half of the year.

*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.

• Nerdette (WBEZ Chicago)
• “Ep. 195 The Best Books of 2021 with Lupita Aquino and Morgan Hoit” (The Stacks)
• “Ep. 131 The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio — The Stacks Book Club (Lupita Aquino)” (The Stacks)
• “Ep. 127 Crushes and Controversy with Lupita Aquino” (The Stacks)
• @Lupita.Reads (IG)
• All the Books! (Book Riot)
• The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie
• The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie
• National Book Award
• The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
• Kevin Wilson
• Take What You Need by Idra Novi
• “Nerdette Book Club: Idra Novey on ‘Take What You Need’” (Nerdette, WBEZ Chicago)
• Better the Blood by Michael Bennett
• “Nerdette Book Club: Michael Bennett on ‘Better the Blood’” (Nerdette, WBEZ Chicago)
• The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
• The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
• Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H.
• “Reading While Lapsed: A Conversation with BookTok Icon Lupita Aquino” (Lapsed)
• “Ep. 253 I Tend to Write About It with Lamya H.” (The Stacks)
• We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian
• “Child in viral Portland police hug photo missing, 5 family members dead after California cliff crash” (Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, The Oregonian)
• We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian (audiobook)
• Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder
• Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
• Paul Farmer
• Jim O’Connell
• The People Who Report More Stress by Alejandro Varela
• The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela
• Going Zero by Anthony McCarten
• Marin Ireland
• Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs by Kerry Howley
• Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig
• Big Swiss y Jen Beagin
• The Night Flowers by Sara Herchenroether 
• Rivermouth by Alejandra Oliva
• A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung
• Promises of Gold by José Olivarez
• “Ep. 258 Long-Suffering Basketball Fans with José Olivarez” (The Stacks)
• Angie Cruz
• Soledad by Angie Cruz
• Let It Rain Coffee by Angie Cruz
• My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson
• Bayard Rustin
• Fred Trump
• Larry Kramer
• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (The WB)
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
• William Shakespeare
• Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
• The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
• The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel
• “Your summer books preview” (Nerdette)
• Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens
• Flores and Miss Paula by Melissa Rivero
• The Affairs of the Falcons by Melissa Rivero
• “Best books of 2021” (Nerdette)
• MJ Franklin
• Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
• More is More by Molly Baz
• Chicky Chicky Bread Bread (Molly Baz from Instagram)
• Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab
• How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang
• Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang
• Blackouts by Justin Torres
• We the Animals by Justin Torres
• We the Animals (Jeremiah Zagar, 2018)
• Company by Shannon Sanders
• Danielle Evans
• Creep by Myriam Gurba
• The Great White Bard by Farah Karim-Cooper

Connect with Liberty: Instagram | All the Books!
Connect with Lupita: Instagram | Twitter
Connect with Greta: Instagram | Twitter | Nerdette
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

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

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