Ep. 290 Tar Baby by Toni Morrison — The Stacks Book Club (Minda Honey)

It’s time for our annual Toni Morrison read for The Stacks Book Club! Author, Minda Honey is back to discuss Tar Baby, a novel about colorism, the class divide and gender roles. We dig into the book’s title, unpack the ending and question who we were rooting for throughout the book.
There are spoilers on today’s episode.

Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our November 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 and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

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

Connect with Minda: Instagram | Twitter | Website
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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. 288 Just Presenting the Facts with Michael Harriot

Columnist and commentator Michael Harriot joins The Stacks to talk about his book Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America. Michael reveals why he wanted to write a book about American history told from the perspective of Black people, how he thinks of connecting to his audience, and what makes this moment different than other moments in American history.

The Stacks Book Club selection for October is Tar Baby by Toni Morrison. We will discuss the book on October 25th with Minda Honey.

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 and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

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

Connect with Michael: Instagram | Twitter | Website
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. 287 Ending Racism with Minda Honey

Political and relationship essayist Minda Honey is here to discuss her new book The Heartbreak Years: A Memoir. We talk about Minda’s experience of being Black and Filipina, colorism and the internet’s lack of nuance, how her exes have taken her writing about them and how she cured racism with this book. Also, we hear about Minda’s reading tracker and annual mega-reading challenge.

The Stacks Book Club selection for October is Tar Baby by Toni Morrison. We will discuss the book on October 25th with Minda Honey.

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 and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

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

Connect with Minda: Instagram | Twitter | Website
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.

The Stacks Book Club – October 2023

It’s that time again for our annual Toni Morrison read, and this year we’ve selected Tar Baby, a beautiful and gutting love story originally published in 1981. It tells the story of Black fashion model Jadine Childs, the protege of a rich, white couple in the Caribbean whose polished veneer is upended one evening by a hungry Black intruder named Son. Jadine and Son are soon drawn together in a whirlwind affair that takes them from Florida to New York and back to the island as they grapple with the cultural differences, fears and prejudices that threaten their bond. The book is a riveting and suspenseful, poetic, tragicomic story about the many complex dynamics across and within racial boundaries.

We will discuss Tar Baby by Toni Morrison on Wednesday, October 25th. You can find out who our guest will be by listening to our October 4th 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 Tar Baby via this link using the code STACKS10 at checkout!
(Or get your copy of our October 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. 238 Fairest by Meredith Talusan — The Stacks Book Club (Anthony Christian Ocampo)

Today professor and author Anthony Christian Ocampo returns to unpack the memoir Fairest by Meredith Talusan. The book is about Talusan’s childhood in the Philippines, immigration to the US, experiences at Harvard, and eventual transition. Traci and Anthony discuss the subjective nature of beauty, and what it means to have an author reckon with their past in a memoir. They differ considerably on their opinions of the book, and lean into a conversation about critique, representation, and responsibility.

Be sure to listen all the way to end of the episode to find out what our November book club pick will be!

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 and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

Connect with Anthony: 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 – 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. 229 Destabilizing Whiteness with Mohsin Hamid

Award-winning novelist Mohsin Hamid joins this episode of The Stacks to talk about his newest book The Last White Man. We discuss what inspired the story, his exploration of how whiteness works through fiction, and the ongoing conversation between a reader and the author. We also get into Mohsin’s monastic writing rituals, his elite professors, and how his writing fills a need in his understanding of life.

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.

Connect with Mohsin: 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.

Ep. 221 White Negroes by Lauren Michele Jackson — The Stacks Book Club (David Dennis Jr.)

Journalist and author, David Dennis Jr. returns to discuss our June Book Club pick White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue… And Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation by Lauren Michele Jackson. Together we unpack writing for the white gaze, our feelings about (anti) racism since 2020, and the long tradition of categorizing Black artists as “urban” and white artists as “mainstream” no matter how similar their work. Plus, a peanut butter and jelly taste test to start things off.

Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our July book club pick will be!

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.

Connect with David: Instagram | Twitter
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: More than Skincare with the Ladies of Forever35

Today’s Unabridged episode is a conversation with the hosts of the self-care podcast Forever35 – LA writers and friends Doree Shafrir and Kate Spencer. They share what it’s like working together as friends, and the boundaries they’ve set around discussing their personal lives on the podcast. We also get into their sense of responsibility being white women in beauty- an overwhelmingly white space. We do not, shockingly, talk at all about their lives as authors or their books.

*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.

Photo: Diana Ragland

Connect with Doree and Kate: Instagram | Twitter | Website
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. 84 We Cast A Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin– The Stacks Book Club (Chris L. Terry)

The Stacks Book Club is tackling a post-post racial satirical novel this week in our reading of We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin. To help us discuss what that even means, and what makes a satire work, and so much more is author Chris L. Terry (Black Card).
There are minor spoilers on this episode.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher

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

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Connect with Chris: Instagram | Twitter
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. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do 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.