Ep. 259 How Innocent Are They with Joseph Earl Thomas

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.

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

Connect with Joseph: Instagram | Twitter | Website Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

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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.

The Stacks Book Club – October 2022

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.


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. 228 Grief is Love with Marisa Renee Lee

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.

Connect with Marisa: Instagram | Twitter | Website
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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 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. 226 A Literal Relationship with the Past with Ingrid Rojas Contreras

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.

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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.

Connect with Ingrid: Instagram | Twitter | Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

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 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 Book Club – August 2022

Our Book Club pick for August is How to Write An Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee, an award-winning essay collection named a Best Book of 2018 by publications including New York Magazine, the Washington Post, NPR, and Time. The first nonfiction collection from Korean-American novelist Chee features his lessons on life, politics and the personal and cultural history which shaped his worldview as an artist, activist and tarot-reading lit lover. It has been described as “refreshingly open” with an “unguarded sincerity and curiosity” by The New York Times.

We will discuss How to Write An Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee on Wednesday, August 31st. You can find out who our guest will be by listening to the podcast on August 3rd. 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 August book on Bookshop.org and Amazon, or listen to the audiobook through Libro.FM.


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. 223 Our Existence as Protest with Caleb Gayle

Today we speak with journalist and professor Caleb Gayle about his new book We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power. In our discussion of his career and American history, we cover Black people in the Creek Nation, forty acres and a mule, and what it means to be a citizen. We also ask why we are so consistently taught not to remember, and who benefits from our forgetting?

The Stacks Book Club selection for July is Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. We will discuss the book on July 27th with Elamin Abdelmahmoud.

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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.

Connect with Caleb: Twitter | Instagram
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

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 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. 214 How You Look and How You Feel Have to Meet with Van Lathan Jr.

This week, we speak with Van Lathan Jr., prolific podcaster, Oscar winning producer, and author of the new memoir Fat, Crazy, and Tired: Tales from the Trenches of Transformation. Our conversation covers vulnerability, feeling [un]comfortable in our own skin, and the struggle of loving our bodies. We also get into mourning the future, and the journey of becoming who we think we need to be.

The Stacks Book Club selection for May is Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith. We will discuss the book on May 25th with Novena Carmel.

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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.

Connect with Van: Twitter | Instagram
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

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 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.

Unabridged: A Book Should Be More Like an Orgasm with Hunter McLendon

For this Unabridged discussion, we’re joined by Hunter McLendon, the reader behind @shelfbyshelf on bookstagram. Together, we unpack what makes fiction or nonfiction good, and the practice of writing for other writers versus writing for readers. We also get into the legitimacy of star rating systems when everyone has a different idea of what five stars means. Listen out for our Pulitzer predictions!

*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.

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Connect with Hunter: Instagram | Twitter | Newsletter
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.

Ep. 204 A Journey South with Imani Perry

Imani Perry is the author of seven books including her latest, the New York Times bestselling, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon Line to Understand the Soul of a Nation. She is an American interdisciplinary scholar of race, law, literature, and African-American culture, and the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. Imani shares with us today about her writing process, inspirations, and sweet tooth.

The Stacks Book Club selection for March is A Mercy by Toni Morrison. e will discuss the book on March 30th with Imani Perry.

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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

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Everything Else

Connect with Imani: Twitter | Instagram
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

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 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. 196 A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib — The Stacks Book Club (Andrew Ti)

It’s time for our final episode of The Stacks Book Club of the year, and we’re taking on a favorite book of the year, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib. We are joined again by podcaster and TV writer Andrew Ti for this conversation which touches on cancel culture, Black cultural stereotypes, the skillful writing of the book, and so much more.

Stay tuned to the end of the episode to find out what our January 2022 Book Club pick will be.

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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.

Connect with Andrew: Twitter | Instagram | Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

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 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.