November Wrap Up – The Stacks

I am writing this to you at the end of the month feeling so confused that the month is already over. I feel like I did nothing all month, and yet I went to NYC (where I made my pilgrimage to Books are Magic), was on NPR again, hosted a Thanksgiving, and of course recorded a whole bunch of great episodes. So yeah, what do I know? Anyway, here are a bunch of things I was super into this month.

First off, I dropped a massive gift guide for the book lover in your life. These are all book adjacent gift ideas that are not actual books.

I have been living in this Target bra and legging set. I am obsessed. There is also a bodysuit, that I have, and love.

Today is also Giving Tuesday, so I rereleased this list of literary related nonprofits for you to support.

This endive and blue cheese salad is so good, and I don’t even like salad.

We lost a titan of the theatre this month, Stephen Sondheim, and this obituary was the best I read.

I got invited back to NPR’s It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, except this time Sam was gone and I got to talk to the incredible Ayesha Rascoe about banning books. I loved this conversation.

The movie of Passing is finally out, what did everyone think?

I know we’re over turkey now, but this year I spatchcocked my bird and used this recipe from Sohla El-Waylly and it was per-fec-tion. Now you’ll be ready for next year. Oh, and I had the butcher at the grocery store do the spatchcocking for me, so it was even easier.

I talked Bachelorette Michelle on the Love to See It podcast with Claire and Emma. It was great.

I also bought these leggings this month. I live in leggings.

I got to co-host on one of my favorite shows, Yo, Is This Racist? again. It was a blast. We talked blackface on Halloween.

WHAT I READ IN NOVEMBER

The Case for Rage: Why Anger is Essential to Anti-Racist Struggle by Myisha Cherry
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
You Got Anything Stronger by Gabrielle Union
The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman

THE STACKS NOVEMBER EPISODES

Dawnie Walton joined the show to talk about her debut novel, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, as well as her love of icons and oral histories.
Professor and philosopher Myisha Cherry talked with us about the usefulness of rage and her new book The Case for Rage.
Cults, sexism, and books, oh my! Author and linguist Amanda Montell talked about both of her books, Cultish and Wordslut and the ways language informs so much of American culture.
Every year we dissect one Toni Morrison novel in depth for The Stacks Book Club, and this year it was Song of Solomon and the great Dawnie Walton joined us for the conversation.
This month’s bonus episode of The Stacks: Unabridged , for Patreon only, was all about Shakespeare with scholar of race, performance and Shakespeare, Ayanna Thompson.

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I am over here reeling, because the end of November means we’re almost at the end of the year, where has the time gone? I read seven books this month, and they were, for the most part, pretty good books. Nothing out of this world, but nothing terrible. My standout was my re-read of Tell Me How it Ends by Valeria Luiselli, if you haven’t read this one you should, you really should. Below you can see mini-reviews of everything I read in November.

November by the Numbers

Total Books Read: 7
Audiobooks: 0
Five Star Reads: 1
Unread Shelf: 0
Books Acquired: 15

By Women Authors: 6
By Authors of Color: 3
By Queer Authors: 0
Nonfiction Reads: 5
Published in 2019: 3

Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster

*The Stacks received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. For more information click here.*
(Photo: amazon.com)

A data driven look at the questions of parenting. Emily Oster uses studies to help parents answer questions about breastfedding, day care, screen time, and more. It is a rational way to think about decision making, especially the kind that can feel very emotional.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The first half was particularly interesting as the topics tackled and the data provided really showed clear benefits and risks with certain parenting behavior (co-sleeping, breastfeeding etc). I loved how Oster reminds her reader that they need to look at what works best for their life, and I found that to be applicable even for things outside of parenting. If you are a parent of small children (or expecting), this book might be really helpful to remind you that you’re in control and your happiness matters.

Girl Boner: The Good Girl’s Guide to Sexual Empowerment by August McLaughlin

Girl Boner is a podcast, a book, a general vibe, and a guide to sexual empowerment. McLaughlin uses the pages of this book to talk about all kinds of sex and how people who identify as women can embrace their sexuality without shame or fear.

I found this book to be inclusive in the best possible ways. I loved reading stories of sex workers along side the stories of women unhappy in their marriages next to advice on sex positions. McLaughlin makes a point of embracing the many forms of gender and sexual expression including trauma and mental health. She teaches her readers a lot along the way, though the book feels long winded in some sections. Girl Boner is sex positivity at its most accessible and basic, and that kind of writing around sex is rare, even in 2019. This one is refreshing and worth your time (and all you male identifying folks, there is something in here for you too).

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing is a romantic comedy with a darker side, as most of Shakespeare’s comedies tend to be. It is a fun play if you want it to be, but it can also be troubling. I enjoyed reading this one, though I thought the plot was a little sparse overall.

The idea of female reputation and purity is a huge theme throughout and feels relevant today. The way the women are discussed and shamed throughout the book felt like any given day on twitter. I was also shocked how little the main love interests, Beatrice and Benedick, actually interact with one another. All in all this was a fun little read though I imagine it will also be easily forgotten.

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli

A powerful and emotional look at unaccompanied children coming to America. The book is short and so well crafted you leave it feeling full, if not sliightly devasted for hte plight of these children.

Luiselli is brilliant in how she tells this story, weaving together the children’s experiences with her own as their interpreter. She also layers the policy and politics in The United States that have landed us in this crisis. I can not recommend this book more highly, now more than ever.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

My first experience in romance, aside from Fifty Shades of Grey, and I didn’t hate it. I actually rather enjoyed reading a book that felt like an escape from all the news and terrible things that happen in the world. That is not to say this book didn’t have some pretty toxic masculinity and a glaring lack of diversity. It just didn’t feel like watching an impeachment hearing, so it was a welcome relief.

The book is fun even though the plot is very thin and the characters are tropes. The sex is not gratuitous, its also not that frequent. I enjoyed the book and would consider reading more romance, because the experience of fully checking out while reading was enjoyable, even if the content was just okay.

The Wrong End of the Table: A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit in by Ayser Salman

A comedic memoir about migrating from Iraq as a child and growing up different in America. Salman explores her childhood culture clashes, finding feminism, and eventually her struggles as an adult with love and life. It’s a book about where you fit in.

This is a fun one. The tone is very sarcastic and casual, and the pages are adorned with an abundance of footnotes chiming in with jokes and asides. Though there was some serious stuff in the book as well. Overall, I would’ve liked more reflection on her growth, as the book reads as a bunch of antidotal stories versus a clear narrative of who Salman is now. It felt at times as if she was holding back or worried about saying too much, or disrupting the conventionally accepted idea of a model immigrant.

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

A collection of essays about what its like to be alive, and young, and female, in America in 2019. This book is super specific and in that it feels extremely relevant to this exact moment in time. It is a time capsule of what it feels like to be a millennial.

Tolentino is a great writer, though some of the essays feel can read as slightly over worked and tedious, and her arguments have dexterity. She opens up conversations on difficult women, marriage, optimization, and scammers in a way only a person of this moment could. She understand the levels and layers to these nuanced topics and works her way through, bringing us along with her. I didn’t love all the essays (the first few felt particularly slow to me), but by the end I was all in on Tolentio and Trick Mirror.

Tag: November Wrap Up

Top of The Stacks — November 2021

November Reading Wrap-Up 2019

November by the Numbers