The Stacks Book Club – September 2023

September 1, 2023September 1, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

The Stacks’ September book club selection is Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer. Called “part memoir, part treatise, and all treat” by The New York Times, it expands upon the author’s 2017 viral Paris Review essay “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?” The book examines the age-old question of separating the art from the artist and asks us to look at what matters to us and why. It’s a passionate, personal and provocative interrogation of creative genius and its connection to monstrous human behavior, leading us to weigh moral outrage against undeniable cultural icons from Sylvia Plath and Michael Jackson to Picasso and Polanski. This book is sure to spark intense conversation and debate.

We will discuss Monsters by Claire Dederer on Wednesday, September 27th. You can find out who our guest will be by listening to our September 6th episode. If you’d like even more discussion around the book, consider joining The Stacks Pack on Patreon and participating in The Stacks’ monthly virtual book club.

LA’s indie bookstore Reparations Club offers you 10% off your copy of Monsters via this link using the code STACKS10 at checkout!
(Or get your copy of our September book on Bookshop.org or Amazon.)

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, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed. For more information click here.

Ep. 280 Blind Thought with Andrew Leland

August 16, 2023September 12, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

After living with the retinitis pigmentosa for decades, Andrew Leland; writer, audio producer, and teacher, decided to write about blindness in his debut book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. We discuss how he thought about specificity while addressing a broad audience and why writing about ableism felt so risky to him. We also talk about the concept of “blind thought” and the ongoing debate around blindness being a neutral characteristic.

The Stacks Book Club selection for August is You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. We will discuss the book on August 30th with Sam Sanders.

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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 Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP)
Nerdette (WBEZ Chicago)
“Nerdette Book Club: Andrew Leland on ‘The Country of the Blind’” (Nerdette)
The Believer Magazine
Heidi Julavits
Emily Cunningham
Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? by Jesse McCarthy
National Federation of the Blind (NFB)
The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (audiobook)
There Plant Eyes by M Leona Godin
American Council of the Blind (ACB)
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
Kenneth Jernigan
“Blindness – A Dying or a Living?” (Kenneth Jernigan, National Federation of the Blind)
Blindness by Father Thomas J. Carroll
Emilie Gossiaux
Crip Camp (Nicole Newnham and James Lebrecht, 2020)
504 Sit-in
San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired (San Francisco, CA)
Gallaudet University (Washington D.C.)
Pu’er tea
Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neal Simon
Neil Simon
“DeafBlind Communities May be Creating a New Language of Touch” (Andrew Leland, The New Yorker)
Sight Unseen by Georgina Kleege
More Than Meets the Eye by Georgina Kleege
Blind Rage by Georgina Kleege
How to Communicate by John Lee Clark
Touch the Future by John Lee Clark
MacArthur Fellows Program

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. 279 Inaction Is a Form of Police Brutality with Nora Neus

August 9, 2023September 12, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Emmy-nominated journalist Nora Neus is here to discuss her illuminating new book 24 Hours in Charlottesville: An Oral History of the Stand Against White Supremacy. The book chronicles the events of 2017, where armed neo-Nazi demonstrators descended on the University of Virginia campus and downtown Charlottesville. Nora explains why she didn’t interview white nationalists for the book, how she found her subjects and sources, and how she navigated objective versus subjective truth while telling this story.

The Stacks Book Club selection for August is You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. We will discuss the book on August 30th with Sam Sanders.

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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.

24 Hours in Charlottesville
Anderson Cooper 360° (CNN)
CNN
Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff
“The Short Stacks 21: Garrett M. Graff//Only Plane in the Sky” (The Stacks)
“‘We’re the Only Plane in the Sky’” (Garrett M. Graff, Politico)
“Trump says both sides to blame amid Charlottesville backlash” (Dan Merica, CNN)
“Charlottesville: Race and Terror – VICE News Tonight on HBO” (Vice)
Richard Spencer
Jason Kessler
“Biden: Charlottesville Was the ‘Moment I Knew I Had to Run” (NBC Chicago)
Catherine Tung
Beacon Press
Waco by Jeff Guinn
Waco Rising by Kevin Cook
Koresh by Stephan Talty
George Floyd
“Corey Long, the Black Man Wielding a Flamethrower to Protect Another Man in Charlottesville, Va., Is Arrested” (Angela Helm, The Root)
“An Image of Revolutionary Fire at Charlottesville” (Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker)
Assault of DeAndre Harris
“Deandre Harris on Attack by White Supremacists in Charlottesville” (YouTube)
“Jury finds rally organizers liable for the violence that broke out in Charlottesville” (James Doubek and Vanessa Romo, NPR)
“Helicopter pilot in fatal Charlottesville crash lost control and lacked key training from state, NTSB says” (Michael Laris, The Washington Post)
Terry McAuliffe
Thomas Jefferson
University of Virginia
Monticello
Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
“Pulitzer-Winning Photographer [Ryan Kelly] Made Charlottesville Photo On His Last Day On The Job” (Ailsa Chang, NPR)
Muhammad Najem, War Reporter by Muhammad Najem and Nora Neus
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
Making #Charlottesville by Aniko Bodroghkozy

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. 276 How We Keep Each Other Alive with Donovan X. Ramsey

July 19, 2023September 12, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Journalist Donovan X. Ramsey joins us to talk about his illuminating narrative nonfiction book When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era. Donovan explains exactly what crack is, talks about the disparities in crack sentencing, and the ways the media and rap music influenced the era.

The Stacks Book Club selection for July is Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.We will discuss the book on July 26th with Joel Christian Gill.

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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.

When Crack Was King by Donovan X. Ramsey
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Kurt Schmoke
The Pleasures of Cocaine by Adam Gottlieb
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Len Bias
The University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
Boston Celtics
Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA)
Baltimore City College (Baltimore, MD)
Yale University (New Haven, CT)
Rhodes Scholarship
University of Oxford (Oxford, England)
Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
Marion Berry
“How ‘I’m So Excited’ Became the Most Ridiculous—and Iconic—‘Saved by the Bell’ Moment” (Mara Reinstein, The Ringer)
“Nancy Reagan’s cameo on ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ for her ‘Just Say No’ movement” (Tre’vell Anderson, LA Times)
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: “Just Say Yo”
Partnership to End Addiction (FKA Partnership for a Drug-Free America)
“This is your brain on drugs” commercial
“Jimmy’s World” (Janet Cooke, Washington Post)
Janet Cooke
The Washington Post
The Pulitzer Prize
Toledo, Ohio
Bob Woodward
Watergate scandal
Vassar College
48 Hours (CBS)
“48 Hours on Crack Street” (48 Hours)
“Return to Crack Street” (48 Hours)
Crack House (Michael Fischa, 1989)
Jim Brown
Jay-Z
“Dope Man” (NWA, 1988)
“Jane, Stop This Crazy Thing” (Down by Law, 1987)
“Night of the Living Baseheads” (Public Enemy, 1988)
Jungle Fever (Spike Lee, 1991)
Menace II Society (Allen and Albert Hughes, 1993)
The Chronic by Dr. Dre
“Ep. 193 Betting on the Kids with Angelina Jolie and Tokata Iron Eyes” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 172 The Art vs. The Artist with Quentin Tarantino” (The Stacks)
“Ep. 89 Staying True to Yourself with Jason Reynolds” (The Stacks)
Diet Coke
“Ep. 106 Samantha Irby//Wow, No Thank You” (The Stacks)
7-Eleven
The Condemnation of Blackness by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
S Street Rising by Ruben Castaneda
Alta Adams (Los Angeles, CA)
Grape Street Watts Crips
California Soul by Kevin Alexander and Keith Corbin

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. 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

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

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

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. 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.

The Stacks Book Club – October 2022

October 1, 2022September 27, 2022 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Our Stacks Book Club selection for October is Fairest, a memoir by Meredith Talusan. The author’s powerful story spans from her experience of neglect while being raised as a boy with albinism in the Philippines to her transition into womanhood upon immigrating to America. Often passing as white in privileged spaces, Talusan survives the culture shock of racial and sexual politics while adjusting to her newly affirmed identity and the loss of a great love. Her journey challenges our own assumptions about identity, gender and the concept of fairness . Fairest has been likened to a love story in the vein of Austen classics and was a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.

We will discuss Fairest by Meredith Talusan on Wednesday, October 26th. You can find out who our guest will be by listening to the podcast on October 5th. If you’d like even more discussion around the book, consider joining The Stacks Pack on Patreon and participating in The Stacks’ monthly virtual book club.

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

Ep. 228 Grief is Love with Marisa Renee Lee

August 17, 2022May 1, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

Today we’re joined by entrepreneur and author Marisa Renee Lee, whose book Grief is Love: Living with Loss offers a framework for healing after tragedy. We discuss grief’s connection to capitalism and white supremacy, and how our relationship with love is connected to our relationship with loss. We also ask, how can we help people who are grieving, and why are Americans so bad at it?

The Stacks Book Club selection for August is How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee. We will discuss the book on August 31st with Ingrid Rojas Contreras.

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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.

Grief is Love by Marisa Renee Lee
The Pink Agenda
“#PublishingPaidMe puts book publishing’s diversity in the spotlight” (Dessi Gomez and Boris Kachka, LA Times)
Roxane Gay
“Ep. 198 We’ll Be Okay with Jason Reynolds” (The Stacks)
Legacy Lit
Cheez-It Baked Snacks
Welch’s mixed berry fruit snacks
Grief is Love audiobook
Deborah Roberts
Marisa on Good Morning America
Barack Obama’s 2022 Summer Reading List
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
Night by Elie Wiesel

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. 226 A Literal Relationship with the Past with Ingrid Rojas Contreras

August 3, 2022May 2, 2023 ~ TheStacksPodcast ~ Leave a comment

We’re joined today by novelist and essayist Ingrid Rojas Contreras, whose new book The Man Who Could Move Clouds combines memoir with rich storytelling and an excavation of family and Colombian history. We discuss magical realism as a nonfiction genre, why it’s useful to believe in ghosts, and ask the question, what responsibility do we owe to our pasts?

The Stacks Book Club selection for August is How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee. We will discuss the book on August 31st with Ingrid Rojas Contreras.

LISTEN NOW

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

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

The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Juan Carlos Onetti
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Mountains Sing by Mai Phan Que Nguyen
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
My Own Country by Abraham Verghese
New York University (New York, NY)
The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Ask The Stacks
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
Diaries of a Terrorist by Christopher Soto
Undocupoets
Walt Whitman
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
La Croix
Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement
Beloved by Toni Morrison
“Ep. 60 Beloved by Toni Morrison – The Stacks Book Club (DaMaris B. Hill )” (The Stacks)
DaMaris B. Hill
Luster by Raven Leilani
Love by Toni Morrison
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel
The Bitch by Pilar Quintana
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

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.