Unabridged: The Best Books of 2024…So Far with Cree Myles and Sara Hildreth - Transcript
For today’s Unabridged, book lovers Cree Myles (All Ways Black) and Sara Hildreth (Fiction Matters) are back by popular demand to discuss the best books 2024, so far. We also get into our most disappointing reads, our favorite backlist titles, and what we’re most looking forward to for the rest of the year.
TRANSCRIPT
Traci Thomas 0:00
Hi everybody, it's me Traci Thomas, host of The Stacks and I'm here with another episode of The Stacks Unabridged. On today's episode, I have brought back two friends- Cree Myles, the creator of All Ways Black and Sara Hildreth, the woman behind Fiction Matters. They joined me at the beginning of the year to talk about the books we were most excited about for 2024. And now they're back by popular demand to discuss what we're looking forward to in the second half of the year and also to share what the best things they've read so far this year. Okay, that's enough for me. Now it's time to hear what are the best books so far of 2024 have been and what to keep your eyes open for for the rest of the year.
Alright, everybody, I have been bullied into inviting these people back on my podcast, not by them, but by you listeners who absolutely fell in love with my dear friends. Sara Hildreth, of Fiction Matters and Cree Myles of All Ways Black and also I guess both of them just being Sara and Cree, your audition went so well, ladies, you've been cast in the role of my bookish friends. Welcome back.
Sara Hildreth 1:18
I am so excited to be here. I've been looking forward to this since we recorded the first time.
Traci Thomas 1:23
Well, you're stuck with me. You're stuck with me. You're stuck with us. Okay, so here's the plan for today, folks, we're gonna do so far, like kind of where are we now in the year; we're recording this in May. So we're gonna give you the first half of the year, I guess slightly less. Our favorite books, then we're going to tell you what we're looking forward to for June through the end of the year. And we're also going to tell you maybe like a few backlist books that we've already loved this year for those of you who are like I don't need to read every new book on the face of the earth because you know what? You don't. You really don't. We do. But you don't. Okay, so let's just dive in. I think we all have the same actual favorite book of the year. So let's let's just say it on the count of 3- 1-2-3. James! It's James. Yeah. You both had read it the first time we talked right?
Sara Hildreth 2:16
No, I hadn't.
Cree Myles 2:18
I think you had in between me and Traci reading it. Yeah.
Traci Thomas 2:24
And I think you've read it in between, from when we recorded to when the episode aired. I think you'd like read it right afterwards.
Sara Hildreth 2:32
Cree hyped it up so much. I love it.
Cree Myles 2:35
I love it.
Traci Thomas 2:37
I sort of feel like it's a book you can't overhype. Is that possible?
Cree Myles 2:44
Only like a couple. There's only a couple you can't overhype.
Traci Thomas 2:47
Okay, what else can you not overhype?
Cree Myles 2:53
I mean, obviously, I'm gonna say Beloved.
Traci Thomas 2:56
No, you can overhype Beloved. Because Beloved is so hard that I feel like if you overhype, like if you hype it a lot, people are gonna be like, Oh, it's gonna be like this great, fun book. And then you are like, Oh, actually, this is like one of the most challenging books I've ever read in my life. And like, this is hard work. I will I don't feel like James is like that. I feel like anybody can read James and like it like you can't just wreck a be recommending beloved, just to anybody. I do. How does that go?
Cree Myles 3:28
I think it's worth the listeners knowing that we have a group chat the three of us. Yeah, and I feel like Sara has said something along the lines of like, the challenge is good. It's like it's you know, like, it's not- So you're right. Maybe it's a reach for you. If we have to make everything a track analogy, I'm going to ask you to go sub-12, even if your PR is a 12.2, but I think you can do it.
Sara Hildreth 3:55
I will say too, I think that I guess it depends what you mean by hype. Like, can you recommend it to everyone and everyone's gonna love it? Maybe not. But I will say I used to teach Beloved. And that was the only book I ever taught where every student recognized that it was a masterpiece. They maybe didn't like it. They maybe didn't get it. But it was like they could see that Tony was brilliant. And if they didn't get it, it was on them. It wasn't like, they were thinking, Oh, this book is terrible. It was like this book is a masterpiece. And I need to up my game if I'm going to appreciate it.
Traci Thomas 4:37
Okay, I'll take that I need to reread it to be honest with you. I was really intimidated when I read it. And I think I'm now it was my second Toni Morrison read. Okay, and I think now I'm a much better reader, whatever that means, but like also, I think I understand her writing style better. I feel like I'm more prepared to read it as like a thoughtful person. Any other books that you can't possibly overhype?
Cree Myles 5:04
Well, if I'm talking like in terms of writers, because what Sara said made me think about my relationship with prints. Like I have, like, I think of people who are geniuses. And then I'm like, Do I even have the right to say whether this is good or bad? I just feel like I can say whether or not I understood it. So similarly, is my relationship with Hemingway. So, you know, I don't know.
Traci Thomas 5:33
I feel like that about James Baldwin. Personally, I feel that I feel that James Baldwin, to me is the hardest. He's one of the hardest people to read. It's very not hard, like, like, like, in a bad way, but like, challenging. Yeah, it's a real challenge for me to read his work. And I really, really struggle. I know, I text you guys about when I was reading no name in the street being like, Am I Am I a failure? Am I an idiot? Like, it's hard! It's hard. But, but I but I don't feel like no name in the street is a hype bubble book. Like, I don't know that. I would be like, this is the one. It's good. We're doing it for book clubs. I don't wanna talk too much shit about it. But like, it's not even talking shit. But I'm just saying it's not like the beloved of James Baldwin's capital at all. Yeah, for sure. Another book, we both all three of us actually loved this year that has been perhaps much more reviewed mixedly is Come And Get it. Why do we all love it and other people hate it? I'm so upset by people telling me that nothing happens in that book.
Sara Hildreth 6:39
I don't know the answer. I think people wanted a different book. When they picked up Come and get it. I think that it's not quite as accessible maybe as such a fun age in terms of like, what it's commenting on and what it's doing isn't as readily apparent. And there isn't like the plot unfolds in a, I think, a pretty different narrative style than such a fun age where it doesn't start with this bang. But then you watch the fallout. It's more of a slow build. Yeah, I also think people here campus novel, and they want something. Yeah. ticular. And yeah, this is set on a campus and I would still describe it as a campus novel, but it is not fitting easily within the campus classics that people think about when they think campus novel.
Traci Thomas 7:41
Yeah. Yeah. I think Kylie Reid calls it a dorm novel.
Sara Hildreth 7:45
Perfect. Yeah. I love that.
Traci Thomas 7:49
Um, is there anything else? Cree, did you ever read Martyr?
Cree Myles 7:53
No, but I bought it this weekend.
Traci Thomas 7:55
Okay, I loved Martyr, too. I had issues with it. But I loved it. I don't care.
Cree Myles 7:59
Everyone has told me it's wonderful. It's wonderful.
Traci Thomas 8:03
Yeah, that's sort of a book that I feel comfortable recommending to most people. And not quite as much as I'm recommending, James, like anybody who asked me I'm like, James, that's it. Yep. But I do feel like between James, come and get it and barter. Those have been the three books I've recommended the most so far this year, because they do feel like the three books that I'm sort of like, even if you don't like come and get it, like, I think you could read you could like okay, let's work through some of the other ones that you individually liked crea Why don't you give us what else you've liked so far.
Cree Myles 8:37
Okay, so I get into these reading ruts, and it's like, should I read like, go back to my core, which is like an Audrey Lorde essay, or should I read a romance novel? So this time I went romance novel, and I actually have a friend at my church named Sarah who loves Emily Henry.
Sara Hildreth 8:59
Sarahs love Emily as a whole I would say.
Traci Thomas 9:05
Do you love her too, Sara?
Sara Hildreth 9:07
No, I'm one of the outliers. I haven't read her newest. I loved her first one. I liked her second and then they've been a steady decline for me from there.
Traci Thomas 9:17
I also love that you just shaded all the Sarahs but also you're a Sarah. I was like Oh she must love it.
Sara Hildreth 9:25
No, not me.
Traci Thomas 9:27
It's about an H. If you have an H you love it. If you don't have an H you don't. But you read the new one, Cree?
Cree Myles 9:37
I read the new one and I love it. So now I'm curious Sara, if I will love love the first one because I really am enjoying romance can just get so sloppy to me sometimes I think I've read some really really, really terrible romance. And I respect her character development.
Sara Hildreth 9:56
Yeah, I think she's really good and she puts a book out every Every year which is I don't know, that always makes me a little bit nervous.
Cree Myles 10:05
That's some Drake energy.
Traci Thomas 10:08
Or some Percival energy.
Sara Hildreth 10:10
True, that's true. So I yeah, I mean, I think she just she, she always seem to be doing like a little bit of like meta commentary on romance and her books too, which I always appreciate. I also think, for me, I tried to listen on audio to the last two. I don't know if you read it in print Cree, or listened on audio. I think I can't really do romance on audio. The banter gets like, too cutesy. And I don't do it.
Cree Myles 10:45
I was listening. I am listening to it on audio and I listened to romance on audio a lot. But I feel you when they go back and forth, and it's like, I do, she quipped. You can't, he said! I'm like, Okay, can we stop - just read the dialogue! I totally know what you mean.
Traci Thomas 11:02
I've never tried a romance on audio.
Cree Myles 11:04
I do it. Romance and self help are my first. Audio is my first choice for both of them.
Traci Thomas 11:09
Okay, really? Wow. Hmm. I've never I guess I have done self help on audio, but I don't read a lot of self help. I don't need advice. I hate it. Don't tell me what to do. Like leave me alone. Um, okay, Sara, what's another of your faves so far this year?
Sara Hildreth 11:28
Okay. I really liked The Alternatives by Kailyn Hughes. Have you heard of this?
Traci Thomas 11:41
Oh yeah, I saw that.
Sara Hildreth 11:42
Yeah. Um, so it's about four Irish sisters. And they, their parents passed away when the oldest one was, I think 17. So they spent like one year in the care of somebody else. And then when she came, became a legal adult, she took care of all of her sister younger sisters. And we meet them as adults, they're all in their mid 30s. None of them are married. One has just had her first kid. They all are not necessarily successful in their fields, but super intellectuals. And then the oldest sister goes off the grid. And she has she's, uh, I think she's a geologist. And she is a climate specialist. And they don't know if she's like, if something's happened to her, or if she's just been like, Screw it. I'm, I'm leaving all of this behind and seeking like my own personal utopia. And so the first part of the book is told in alternating perspectives. And each, I listened to the first part on audio, each of the sister section is like exactly an hour. It's like she carefully like planned it. So they were all all perfectly got the same amount of time. And then the next section, they come together to try and find the oldest sister. And it's written it like a play. So there are stage directions, and then the dialogue. It's really, really fascinating. I think I told you guys when we recorded last that I really like structure-driven books. Yeah, it's very much that.
Traci Thomas 13:26
Is it like a mystery? Like does it feel mystery or like thriller?
Sara Hildreth 13:29
No, it really does not. And I was expecting at like the halfway point for it to feel like that. But I don't know if this was a spoiler, but they like they find or pretty quickly. Then it's more of like a family like coming together. And like figure, you know, all of these Buried Secrets come up. So in that sense, it feels like a little mysterious, like, yeah, how each of them experienced their childhood totally differently. It's also very much like a climate book and the title. Yes, the title I think, refers to-
Traci Thomas 14:01
Cli-Fi! I didn't make that up. That's a thing that people say. I find it embarrassing, but I also love to say it.
Sara Hildreth 14:12
Yeah, this Cli-Fi explores like, alternative ways to be in the world, which I think is really cool. And not all of them are like, you have to live off the grid. It's just, it's exploring, like, I don't know, different types of lives that we typically maybe see in this kind of fiction. So I loved it. I did get very confused in the audio, when it switched to the play format. And I didn't have a physical copy and I was like, what is happening? And then I got a physical copy. And it was great from there, but listening to the first part was super fun because of the Irish accents. So if you can split it between the two, I recommend that.
Cree Myles 14:52
Sold!
Traci Thomas 14:54
Okay, I'm gonna go with a memoir. I love this book. It's called Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace. It is beautiful. The author is a queer black person who was raised as a black boy. And it's a lot about trauma, childhood trauma in the first section. So it's three sections. Part one, the book has like about 300 pages, maybe Part one is like 70 pages. And it's basically like, here's all my trauma, like this happened to me, this happened to me, this happened to me, not good stuff. Part two is super short, maybe like 20 pages. And as like, God, spirituality, maybe, I don't know, something. And then part three is like the remaining 150 pages or whatever, math, not my strong suit. And it's all about how we repair the trauma. So at first you're like, holy shit, this book is like a lot. Like he's, he's giving me like, a lot. But then when you get to the back half, you're like, Oh, my God, and the refrain of that like, and that might just be another word for love, which is the title and it it's like looking at lilacs or like going to the grocery store or whatever. But it's all about like repair. But more than any of that it's just so beautifully written. Like, it is like there are sentences and sections and turns of phrase, and like ways of thinking of things that remind me both of Hanif and Kiese. Like I think this book is the most in conversation with Heavy of anything that I've ever read. It isn't Heavy. But it is doing similar work about black masculinity and trauma. And the writing, like the thinking, it's just like, what is possible, like there's a section about apology, and like how apology like isn't a thing and it's all about like amends. And it's like, the harm is the harm. And you and like the forgiveness is not important, and not none of your business. And it's all about like, how do you keep moving forward knowing that you caused harm to someone- it's just like, so. I just love it. I love it. I think it's gonna be a memoir that people talk about it feels like that. And I just I love it. I hope everybody reads it. I think people I think other people will really like it. So yes, that is mine. Cree. Do you have others from so far this year?
Cree Myles 17:27
So my other one it was hard for me to get through. I think I told you all that. But I think it's important. Like I finished it and I'm like, I learned so much about land. And it was Rooted by Brea Baker.
Traci Thomas 17:42
So you did end up liking it?
Cree Myles 17:43
I mean, I think I am like selfishly, I would like more people to read it so that I can talk about whether or not it like, is it my relationship with nonfiction? Or are there some things that could have been done differently that would have held my attention different, you know what I mean? But I learned, I mean, the I the things that i i the Wilmington massacre, and like the land that HBCUs are sitting on, and how million millions of acres of land was taken from indigenous and black people like now I know because I read the book, you know, so it's worth it to me in that way.
Traci Thomas 18:20
Okay, Sara?
Sara Hildreth 18:22
I really loved Piglet by Lottie Hazel. Which I love the cover. I've seen a lot of hate for it.
Traci Thomas 18:35
I love the cover. Yeah. I love the cover.
Sara Hildreth 18:40
It is about a woman whose nickname is Piglet. Because of her love for food as a child, her family nicknamed her that and it has stuck. And she is about to get married to this guy named Kitt, who is like British aristocracy, basically. And she hit yes. And like, she's, she's very happy in her life. She works as an assistant editor in cookbooks. And she has this there's this tension, of course between like her kind of lower middle class family and kids family. And then I think it's like a week or two before their wedding kit confesses to this betrayal. And I think it is very important for readers to know that you never find out what the betrayal is. I mean, I think it's, I mean, I think it's like pretty obvious, but I think it's also kind of interesting that you almost get to like fill in your own worst but dry. And it also really makes it not at all about him and what he did and more about how this betrayal causes her to spiral and realize that maybe all of these things that she thought she wanted don't actually make sense with who she wants to be and how she wants to live her life. And yeah, she she decides she's gonna go ahead with the wedding. But she's like she's spiraling throughout the entire book. There is amazing food writing, including the scene where she's trying to make a croquembouche. Do you know what that is? It's like a tower of cream puffs.
Traci Thomas 20:27
Oh, when you put the sugar on the outside.
Sara Hildreth 20:30
And it feels like reading a thriller, like watching her try to make this pastry. Lottie Hazel has a PhD in literature, and she studied food writing in fiction. And you can see I know isn't that's cool. You can just see her care for writing about food in this. And even though, like, Piglet has a complicated relationship with food, the food is never described, in a way that's like, I don't know. villainizing or demonizing eating like the food sounds, healing. It's really, really well done. Yeah, I just I really, I really, really liked it. It was very surprising to me. Because I, I mean, there are a lot of books I feel like about, you know, relationships, deconstructing. And it just felt very original in a lot of ways.
Traci Thomas 21:28
That sounds so good. I like food writing. I like to read cookbooks. Yeah, just like food and writing. Two things. I like food and reading. Writing works for me. I can't believe people don't like that cover. I know. I love it. What's not to like? It's a delicious looking cheeseburger. Is there a cheeseburger in the book?
Sara Hildreth 21:52
Oh, is there a cheeseburger? There is.
Traci Thomas 21:57
Sara, I feel like you're in like a really good mood. Or you're really stressed. So you're like in a really loopy mood. But I love it.
Sara Hildreth 22:03
Well, my summer reading guide is coming out on Sunday. I'm like this close to being done. So I'm both in a really good mood and a really overworked loopy mood.
Traci Thomas 22:13
Gotta it. I'm loving this Okay. I want to make sure we record with you when you're always in this mood because you're you're really shining tonight. Cree, step it up!
Cree Myles 22:24
Begins tap dancing!
Traci Thomas 22:28
Is it my turn again? You know what I'm going to, I'm going to do the book. I don't Okay, I'm just gonna do the book that I loved a lot that people have heard me talk about, but I love it. And I feel like I could just push it a little bit harder. It's called Charlie Hustle. And it's the story of Pete Rose. And it's good. I I have to tell you guys, I did not want to like this book. I love baseball. I was curious about Pete Rose. But I also was sort of like, I don't know if I really want to read like a sports biography. Like not really. Pete Rose was such a fucking like, asshole. Anti heroes scammer like piece of shit, dude, that the book is so entertaining. Like, it's so much fun. I don't even think you have to like baseball to read the book. The guy who wrote it Keith O'Brien, he wrote that book Paradise Falls. And he also wrote that book fly girls, I think about like, so he's like an investigative journalist kind of reporter biography sort of writer. He, it's so well paced. The writing is so good. It's such a fun ride. It's just like a messy ass story. Pete Rose, obviously, eventually, bets on baseball gets kicked out of baseball. But the whole like way it unfolds and how the how major league baseball like tries to like work with him because he's also the star of their league. He is still to this day has the most hits of anyone ever in major league baseball history. That record belongs to him. Part of the reason is because he played baseball for like 40 years. I'm not quite sure he played. He played into his 40s though. And then he was a player manager. Basically, they were like, We want you to be a manager. And he was like, No, I'm close to the record. And he was like, you don't believe that I could still play and they were like, Um, no, I guess we do. Yeah, we do. We do. And he was like, well, I'll just do both. And then he started betting on baseball when he became a manager, including betting on his own team. So anyways, it's just like this crazy, juicy story, but he also had all these affairs, all these wives. He's famous for like getting in fights, but he was also famous for talking to the media. So there's all these great quotes from him being like, Yeah, fuck that guy. Or like, yeah, no, I'm the best. It's just like a really chesty jerk. And it's just such a great story. And it only really, truly works because Pete Rose is a white guy. I don't think you could enjoy this kind of story if it was a black athlete, because I think so much of the like, so much of the media still loved Pete Rose in a way that like in the 70s It just wouldn't work. So I love it. I think people should read it. If you like a biography, you'll like it even if you don't like baseball. Okay, what about, let's each do one backlist, unless do any of you have any other books you absolutely have to talk about from this year, or so far?
Cree Myles 25:15
I have DNFed so many books this year, I want to start, but like that, if we could have a whole episode about all the books I tried.
Traci Thomas 25:22
Okay, well, Cree since you're talking about books, you've DNFed, should we talk about our most disappointing read so far of the year before we get to our backless faves? Yes, I can go first. This is a DNF. For me. I got about a third of the way through. So I don't usually talk about books that idea enough, because usually I feel like that's unfair. But because this is my podcast, I can do whatever I want. Um, my biggest disappointment so far this year was Splinters by Leslie Jamison. She is a writer that people like, this is my first time reading her and it is a memoir about the end of her marriage. And also like early stages of motherhood, her kid is like 12 or 14 months when she and her spouse get a divorce. So I got through all the way like up to the divorce. And what I just really didn't like about the book is like, she does the thing that feels very early 2000s motherhood, which is like being a mom is so hard and the baby never wants to latch and my husband never helps me. And every time I say something, he gets mad at me. And it's like this, like weird, like whiny, like martyry sort of like, but I still did it. And there's just no acknowledgement of like any of her privilege. And also, like, she'll say something that she does it sort of fucked up to her husband. And she's like, Yeah, that was sort of fucked up. But I had breast milk on me. And I'm just like, I don't care. I don't care. I know you're not supposed to say that women aren't likable, but she's really unlikable in this book, but I just really didn't like spending time with her. She was in my ears. I was listening on audio. And I was like, I don't I got to the end of part one. It's three parts. And it was like, three hours like I'm like, deep into the book. And I was just like, I don't, I don't want to and someone told me that later in the book, she starts dating again. And I was like, I don't want to go on dates with her. Like, I was like, No, thank you. And people love this book. It's been on so many lists. It's like so well received. I feel like Mary Claire so far best books of the year like books you have to read best book that came out in February. I am like, Oh, no. So that is that's been my biggest disappointment. I don't hate the book. But I'm just like, I don't want to be with you.
Cree Myles 27:44
I mean, it's true. That's real. That's fair. i The one where I was like, ah, was Morgan Parker, You Get What You Pay For. I really, I was. I was like, everything is so high stakes. I told you this I feel like we've like become a caricature of like, what a black woman essayist is allowed to be and like where they're allowed to be in their lives. So I'm always reading about dating woes. I'm always reading about neurodivergency. There feels like there's some type of like gatekeeping around that in some way that I'm just like, Could we get another perspective or is something trying to purposely be monolithic here to set some type of agenda? I don't know. Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, but it felt very much like Minaa B's Owning our Struggle. It was like copy-paste in a lot of ways. And I was just like, and you I knew that it was going to dissect Big Pimpin. So reading the thing, I was just like, I feel like this is an antiquated take on this song. Like, I feel like we've already done this. So let's talk about some other aspects of hip hop. Besides the misogyny, please. So that's it. That's me.
Traci Thomas 29:04
I don't think you're wrong. Like I liked the book. But I don't disagree with anything that you've said about it. But I like that. I don't know why. I'm like thinking like, I read it twice. I read it twice. Well, I read it once on audio really quickly. And then I found out that I had to interview her for the Times Book Festival. So I wanted to listen to it again and think about it a little bit more. There were a few essays I skipped on the second read because I was like, Oh, I didn't like this one the first time. I'm probably not going to ask her about it. And it was a panel with three other people. So it wasn't like I had to be-. I- yeah, I liked it. I agree though. The Big Pimpin essay is the one that I felt a little bit was like stale, but the one about Serena Williams I loved.
Cree Myles 29:53
I forgot.
Traci Thomas 29:54
Serena and Beyonce and like dancing and like white audiences. I liked When she talked about white audiences, whether that was like her white therapist or white readers like coming to her work, because I think that is interesting. But again, I'm obsessed with audience so anything anytime anyone talks about having a relationship to their audience, I'm like, thank you for doing what I like. Okay, noted. Okay, Sara, what about you? What's your most disappointing so far this year?
Sara Hildreth 30:25
I haven't had a ton of DNF this year mostly just because I've mostly been reading backlist, I guess I've had a lot of backlist DNFs. I haven't taken a lot of risks on the new books I'm reading so far. But I was really excited for Mercury by Amy Jo Burns, it came out in January, just because a lot of people that I trust, read it at the very end of last year. And we're like, I already know this is going to be one of my best books of 2024. And then I think the it totally dropped off after that, like I saw it all over at the end of last year. And then in January and then I have not seen anybody talk about it since. But I am bringing it up mostly because this book I think really taught me something about my own reading, which is that I hate similes that I would never have really known before I so I'm always looking for like my next great juicy family saga. And this is a book about like two brothers who are in love with the same woman. And that sounds like something I want to read. But there was like a simile like every other sentence and they were ones that did not make sense. And if I'm stopping to think like is that really like that? Then I can't. So that was my biggest disappointment.
Traci Thomas 31:57
Okay, what about backlist favorites so far that you've read this year backless book that you've read this year that's been a favorite? Sara you probably have a lot.
Sara Hildreth 32:06
One that's not in my summer reading guide. Mostly just because I didn't know it was going to be out in paperback before the summer. Have you guys read The Laughter by Sonora Jha?
Traci Thomas 32:14
No, but I have it.
Sara Hildreth 32:16
It is so good. But also such an uncomfortable book to read. It's a campus novel. Save it for when you can get through it really quickly because you will like want to be out of the narrator's head as soon as possible. It's told through the perspective of this like 60, something white English professor who is lusting over this younger Muslim woman who works on his campus. And he like ingratiate himself into her life, and their lives become really entangled. And you know, at the beginning that something awful has happened. And he's like, trying to tell his side of the story and make you understand. And it is. I mean, I feel like I have worked with that guy in English departments before. And I think she really nails like a certain type of professor who thinks that they're progressive, and is absolutely not and is just disgusting and terrible. And, but she also includes these, like a couple of details here and there, where you like, start to pity him. And then the next page, you're like, Oh my God, why did I even feel bad for him for one second? It's really, really well written. Highly recommend it.
Traci Thomas 33:47
Okay. Okay, what about you, Cree? What's your backless fave so far?
Cree Myles 33:51
I'm really excited about that. Oh, gosh, okay, um, I'm, I'm reading. I was reading The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guinn and I'm rereading it for the first time in like 10 years. To see if I love it as much as I did when I was 24. And I do crazy, like I can't even yeah, I've actually been trying to like pitch stories around like how close have we gotten to Ursula's dystopia that she created so it's. She's so good.
Traci Thomas 34:32
I am going to sort of flub this a little bit I my actual true answer is Erasure because we did it for on the podcast right so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that because we did it for book club. So you guys know I love to write Sure yeah, that's it. The other one that I also love that I'm also not gonna spend a lot of time on is Measure for Measure which I did with Sara on her show, which is one of my favorite plays. So I'm also not gonna spend a lot of time on that. You can listen to us do that. Okay, the one that I haven't really talked about, but I really liked it is not perfect, but I enjoyed it. And I want to talk about it is survival math by Mitchell S. Jackson. It's his memoir. It is so ambitious. He is trying to do the most with this book, I don't think he needs all of it. I love the way he writes, I just love the way he writes, it's about black being black, and man, a man growing up in Portland, during the time of like, the crack epidemic, and like being part of that Mitchell, you know, he does go to jail to prison for a little bit in his life. So like that's sort of in there, though, that part is like not, that's not really a huge part. But he like, has these sections where he talks about like, being a womanizer, and like, has the women that he like, harmed, like, write to him or like respond to him, and some of them are like, he's like, person A said, I'm not going to help you with your little book. And then other people, like wrote these letters being like, this is what happened, I forgiven you, but also like, it's just like, I don't know, it's not the best backless book I've read. But it's probably my favorite one to think of as like a piece of writing. Yeah, I don't know, that's sort of not that good of a pitch. But I liked it. And I want I want other people. It sounds so cringy. It is a little cringy. But he's such a good writer, right. And so he makes it work. He does these little like Survivor files, where he like, has like friends of his and he tells their stories also, because it's sort of trying to paint this picture of like, what does it mean to grow up black and Portland at this age at this time. So it's really hyper specific to that place and time. But I don't know he's, he's just like, a really talented writer. And this book came out maybe five years ago. And I think he's obviously grown as a writer. I mean, he's like, since won a Pulitzer Prize. And he's, like, writes really good profiles, and that kind of comes up throughout the book. It needed it needs help. It's not a perfect memoir by any means. But it is like a worthy read, if that makes sense. Okay, let's look forward. So any book that comes out from June to the end of 2024? What are we most looking forward to? Cree, start. you look like you're ready.
Cree Myles 37:21
No, that was just my anticipation face. So I loved loved loved loved love Catalina. Carla Cornejo Villavicencio. Another campus novel! So I really, um, I, I've been trying to work to describe the way that Carla writes and why it works for me so well, but it sounds just like Undocumented Americans. But still, it's that paired with like her insight. And the way that she can just, she's so Catalina is just so uncomfortable, like in the book, but you can't look away and even at the beginning of the arc, Chris Jackson writes this thing about how you'll be thinking about Catalina forever and blah, blah, blah. And it really was like, once I was done, I was like, I need more of her with me. But it's really she's at Harvard. It's her senior year. Her grandparents raised her there, they everybody came from Ecuador, they are undocumented. And as things unfold, there's tension around like, if people are going to be sent back and like, is she going to be able to graduate there's like a lot of self sabotaging, just as she tries to figure out where her place will be in this world as she realizes adulthood.
Traci Thomas 38:55
Okay, it sounds so good. I'm excited about this. Okay, Sara, what do you have?
Sara Hildreth 39:01
I am really excited about The Coin.
Traci Thomas 39:04
Oh, good. That was on my list! Good. Good. Good. I was hoping we'd have crossover so I could do other ones. Oh my god, I'm so excited.
Sara Hildreth 39:15
Oh, good. Okay. Um, I mean, so I haven't read it yet. I haven't read any second half books yet. So all of these are just exclusively ones I'm excited about. But I mean, this first sentence of the description. The coins narrator is a wealthy Palestinian woman with impeccable style and meticulous hygiene. I just felt like that sets up such a great um-
Cree Myles 39:40
I forgot about that book. And I was excited about it. Thank you for reminding me.
Sara Hildreth 39:46
Good. Yeah. Yeah, she's Uh, she's living in New York. She's a teacher. I really like books, especially ones that are clearly going to be kind of weird and comic that are set in and around. Schools like not University He ever says but like actually like teaching younger kids yeah. Because that I mean, so many crazy things come up when you are a teacher and I, I feel like there aren't enough books that do that well, so I'm hoping this one does. And then apparently she becomes our nameless Narrator becomes involved in an intercontinental scheme reselling Birkin bags.
Traci Thomas 40:23
We love a scammer! Yes, scam it up.
Sara Hildreth 40:30
It sounds like a little bit to me, like maybe like You Exist Too Much. Which I loved a couple of years ago. And it also sounds a little bit like My Year of Rest and Relaxation just in that like kind of weird, weirdness and like character who's floundering just sounds so interesting. Yeah, really excited about it.
Traci Thomas 40:54
I'm excited about that, too. Weirdly, I think, for me, I weirdly get excited about fiction. Like anticipating it even though I don't often end up reading. Fiction is like more exciting to think about. To me anyways.
Sara Hildreth 41:13
Well, because there's so much like possibility sometimes. When you when you hear about great nonfiction, you're like, I know what I haven't a clear idea of what that could be or what I want it to be like.
Traci Thomas 41:23
Or what the best possible version of this could be, I already know. Yes. Yeah. So mine is this is I'm okay. I'm also this year been really into fun fiction. I'm like, Oh, is it fun? Yes. Is it sad? No. So for me, Tehrangeles by Porochista Khakpour, which is a book about basically I think it's like a Kardashian family. It's a group of like, you know, it's a it's a group of sisters. They live in a mansion in Hollywood Hills or in Los Angeles. And there's like an aspiring model, there's an influencer and they're on the brink of landing a reality TV show. Okay. And, and they're, they're Iranian American. Okay, this is giving Kardashian right? But they have they're realizing that like, if they go on this show, all their shits gonna be out in the open. It's giving mess. It's giving chaos and the cover is so fucking good. Yeah, that I am just like, well, I have to read this book because that cat on the cover is telling me a lot of information. Tarantulas like Tehran, okay. So yeah, like Tehran and you're I got an Angeles, okay, Toronto. That's yeah, that's what people call soft parts of La are like certain groups of people in LA who are like Iranian and like, super, like, what's that show? Shahs of Sunset? That kind of thing.
Sara Hildreth 43:01
That cast is amazing.
Traci Thomas 43:05
The flowers, the diagonal, the gold. I hope that the actual physical book like is like gold like shiny. It looks like it will be. I hope so. I hope so. Okay, Cree, what else do you have for us?
Cree Myles 43:17
Um, one that I haven't read that I'm in. I'm super excited about is Entitlement by Rumaan Alam.
Traci Thomas 43:26
September, right? Yeah.
Cree Myles 43:28
It's about a girl like a younger girl who just wants like, she's just ambitious and a lot of it centers around money. And she her job is actually assisting an 80 year old billionaire giveaway his money. So she's trying to like to figure out how she can squeeze in and then it sounds like it gets a little thriller mystery ish. Can't wait.
Traci Thomas 43:53
I really liked his other book that people didn't like.
Cree Myles 43:57
Leave the world behind?
Traci Thomas 43:59
Yeah, I liked that too.
Yeah, I like that one. Okay, Sara. What do you have?
Sara Hildreth 44:04
This one's boring, but I can't help it. I'm very excited about Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. I love her.
Cree Myles 44:17
No I haven't.
Sara Hildreth 44:21
She writes very quiet books about people in Maine usually. But what's very exciting about this for Elizabeth Strout fans is that she kind of has these two. They're not necessarily series like but they're interconnected books and she has her olive books like all of Kittredge and all of again and she has her Lucy Barton books where my name is Lucy Barton and then there are many of them well in this one Olive and Lucy are going to meet.
Traci Thomas 44:53
What is it called? Olive and Lucy?
Sara Hildreth 44:55
No, it's called Tell Me Everything.
Traci Thomas 44:56
Oh, tell me everything.
Sara Hildreth 44:57
It should probably just be called Olive and Lucy.
Traci Thomas 45:01
I think it should be called Olive and Lucy Meet.
Cree Myles 45:03
Oh my god.
Sara Hildreth 45:04
You know what? It's probably not too late if you wanna send an email. Yeah, it's coming out. Let's see, August 13. And it's set in the fall in Maine, which sounds like a lovely little escape this fall. Yeah, I would imagine that you probably have to be familiar with at least the Lucy Barton characters to care at all about this book. But she has written like her last one. Lucy by the sea was maybe one of the only pandemic novels that I've really liked. And I think it was because I already knew that character. Like I knew who Lucy Barton was. And then seeing how she was handling the situation was like very therapeutic and an interesting way. And so I'm excited to see what she's up to now. And if she's gonna like Olive, because I think that they might butt heads.
Traci Thomas 46:02
Okay. Not Lucy and Olive getting in a fight. I'll let you tell me how this is. I don't think this one's for me. I think that's fair.
Sara Hildreth 46:13
You know how you said you don't care if a book is plot driven, but you need things to happen. Yeah, I don't I don't think very many things are gonna happen.
Traci Thomas 46:20
They're gonna meet and that's gonna be it. 300 pages later, the book will end. Great, fantastic. Okay, I will give you guys a nonfiction book that I'm excited about. It is a memoir. In essays it's called Bird milk and Mosquito Bones by Priyanka Mattoo, Priyanka was born in Kashmir, then she goes to England, then she has to go to Saudi Arabia. Then she goes to Michigan, then she goes to Rome. And finally she is in Los Angeles. It's a collection of essays about this, like life and like moving and home and all of those things that I love in a memoir. I also really like a memoir in essays if it's done well. So I don't know. I'm just I'm curious about it. I'm excited about it. The cover is again, sort of enticing to me in a totally different way than to Angeles though. It is similar in color scheme. Slightly. I like pink and yellow together, I guess. I don't know. Um, but yeah, so we get to see her like growing up and getting a boyfriend who becomes her husband, and you know, the whole thing. It's just a memoir in essays. And I just don't think I've ever read a Kashmiri book. Like, I don't think I've ever read a book by someone who's from there. So I'm also sort of just curious about what what that could mean. So yeah, Cree, do want to do one more?
Cree Myles 47:39
Man, I thought you were gonna do it. Colored Television!
Traci Thomas 47:44
So I Okay. Yes. I love Colored Television. I feel like we talked about it last time. But let's do it. Let's let's do it. Give it its moment.
Cree Myles 47:52
Yeah, it comes out in July.
Traci Thomas 47:54
It's now coming out in September, they pushed it back. They push it back to the first week of another month. Anyways, um, it's now I think, September 3rd.
Cree Myles 48:14
Okay. It was excellent. I really feel like I did a lot of ARCs at the beginning of the year. And so as I've been trying to read things as they come out, I think that's also contributed to my DNF thing, because the stuff that I was reading just was the bar was high. It was at Jesus's feet. And so like, this is no exception. It's so excellent. It's so chaotic. It is so hilarious. And Traci, you said, it drives the line between this is completely absurd, but possible, possible.
Traci Thomas 48:47
What I love about Danzy Senna, especially with this book and with New People, Not as much with Caucasia, but a little bit is that she is sort of a thriller writer, she writes these books where the stakes are just so fucking high. But the stakes are high around the most like, mundane, regular as shit. Like in new people. It's like, the stakes are at 11 for like having a crush. You're like, like, essentially, that book is just like, woman has crush on man. But the stakes are like, crazy woman in love with man. And it's just like, holy shit. And also, I love that she has, like a little bit of disgust for her characters. I think that all of her characters are just versions of herself that she's like, disgusted with and she's like, okay, Jane. Here you go, Jane. Good luck in Hollywood, Jane. Yeah. It's like so delusional. And I think also, I think what makes me believe that her and Percival are a good match is he also has disdain for his characters. He always is like this guy, right? Like, like not so much in James. He doesn't hate James so much. But literally everyone around James, you can hear Percival being like this bitch-
What a clown what a clown.
Clown show. And I feel like I just love that. I think that also happens so much in Come and get it right, like Kylie Reid is like-
Cree Myles 50:26
Yes! That made me mad that she won't claim that she will not say that that that makes me itch. But anyway.
Traci Thomas 50:36
It's there whether or not she wants to admit it. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so I love colored television. I actually think for me personally colored television. I liked more than James. But James I recognize is a better book and like a more like, I don't I also am mixed. And, and Danzy Senna is extremely concerned with the plight of the biracial. Okay, she is here for the black white mix, as she likes to call and I'm trying to adopt the mulatos she uses the word a ton in the book. This is not a me thing. This is a hard thing. I'm just quoting the author here. But I also try to use it in regular life every once in a while when I can. Okay, I just love I just, I love that she takes it seriously. I think like so often. It's like, this is black, or this is white, but like that this really specific experience. The black, white mixed, is like the center of her world. I love that. For me. That's like, people always talk about like, the first time I saw myself in a book. I don't know that I'm Jane or Maria. But like, I love thinking about Jane and Maria. I like I love thinking about I just I love it. Justice for Danzy. She I want her to be on all the lists this year, because I think the book is fantastic. I just am worried that it's too much fun. The awards hate fun.
Sara Hildreth 51:57
That is true. I read New People for the first time this year, and I loved it. And it is on my summer reading guide. I think it's an amazing betrayed because like you said, you just cannot stop turning the pages. And if people liked The Guest by Emma Cline last year, which was very polarizing, but if you like that kind of page turner cringy oh my gosh, what is happening in this person's psyche that you have to read new people. It is so good.
Traci Thomas 52:28
I want to also say I did not read the guest. But I know many of the stacks pack who hated the guest who loved New people. So even if you didn't like the guests, you still might like new people just throwing that out there.
Sara Hildreth 52:38
Absolutely. Because I think that like part of the problem with the guest is like, why is this girl behaving like this? And I think danzi Cena answers that question much better and new people than Emma Klein even like dares to broach and it's not in a way where she's telling you like, let me psychoanalyze this character. So you understand all of her decisions, but just contextually it. It works a lot better than the guest.
Traci Thomas 53:06
Yeah, I feel like that. I feel like what you're saying I haven't read the guest again. But that I think is what makes Danzy Senna's chaotic characters work so well is like you're never like, why are you doing this? You're always just like, don't do Yeah, like, I see where you're, I see what you're doing. And like, it's wrong, but it's never like, Oh, no one would ever do that. You're just like, Oh, you're my worst friend. Like you're my friend that I'm always worried about because you make the worst decisions. Always, like any decision you're gonna make Jane just fucking do the opposite. The opposite?
Cree Myles 53:39
Yes. She's literally my brother in law. Like I told my husband, he has to read the book. This is Kevin verbatim. Like, it's Kevin verbatim. So yeah, I would love to one day unpack why the awards don't like fun when it's masterfully done. But now's not the time.
Traci Thomas 53:57
We can do that in award season when you all have to come back again. When we all come back to burn down the National Book Award list in November because I'm sure it'll be horrible. However, if it has James and color television, I honestly don't care what else is on it. I don't have centers for all I care. I don't care. I can have any any horrible book you want. Put it on. Sir, I think you have one more and then I have one more and then we'll be done with this.
Sara Hildreth 54:21
Okay. I am very excited about the Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis.
Traci Thomas 54:27
Oh, I have that on my list! But I didn't recognize the title until you said the author's name.
Sara Hildreth 54:32
Yeah. Well, I love the book Gods of Tango, which is on this year's summer reading guide and what is the other one called? Cantoras. Traci, did you read that one?
Traci Thomas 54:44
No. But I've heard it's great.
Sara Hildreth 54:47
Yeah, those are both pretty like slow and literary but also very luscious. This one. The cover looks like it's a little bit more fun. Maybe a little bit more genre. You It's a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth, but a queer retelling of it. And I think the Cupid and Psyche myth is so interesting, that's the one where Cupid like kidnaps this beautiful mortal and, and takes her to this gorgeous palace where she has everything she ever wants. And, and at night they have amazing sex, but she never sees him during the day. And then this like seed gets planted in her head where she's like, is this like some monster that I'm sleeping with? Who is my husband? And curiosity? It's not a good trait to have in Greek mythology. So things go south, but I am so interested in what cara de Roberto is going to do with this with arrows cubed character being a non binary deity of desire. Yeah, I think it's gonna be really fun.
Traci Thomas 56:02
Okay, I'm going to do something that I have never done before in any of my books. I'm excited about thing. I'm going to tell you that I'm excited about a poetry collection. Forest of Noise by Palestinian poet, who is like, pretty young, like in his 30s, or just 30. And during this current like siege in Gaza, his home was destroyed. His library was destroyed. And like somehow, during all of that, what's been going on? He's been writing these poems, and it's coming out at the end of October. And I just, I feel like, I've gotten more and more into poetry this year. And I'm just I'm really excited when I saw this announcement. I was like, Holy shit, like, I cannot wait to read that book. I don't I don't know. I've seen some of his poems, like sort of go viral, like Poem of the day kind of thing. Yeah. But like, I don't I'm not familiar with his work. I don't know much about him. Besides that he's Palestinian, and that he's been riding through the last 200 plus days, and I just am really, really curious about that. So yeah, very unlike me to be like, I'm hyped about a poetry collection, but like I'm legit hyped about a poetry collection. And I just want to say, Sara, I'm sort of shocked that you did not say the Louise Erdrich book that's coming out in October.
Sara Hildreth 57:25
There's a Louise Erdrich book?
Traci Thomas 57:30
Yes. It's called the Mighty Red. It comes out on October 1. I just knew you were gonna say that. So I just assumed that you weren't gonna say it, but. So I had taken it off my list. But yeah, there's so many other books. I'm excited about that. I'm like, Oh, my God, I can't believe I didn't get to talk about any of them.
Cree Myles 57:48
I read the first 10 pages of The Great Hemisphere, and I like it so far.
Traci Thomas 57:52
Okay. Okay. I'm excited. You know, Matteo likes to write a long book. So I'm just always very nervous. And also there's a new Jessica Valenti book about abortion called Abortion that I'm excited about. I mean, there's just like a lot of books that I'm excited about. And then can I just say one more. There's a book called Bringing Ben Home by Barbara Bradley Haggerty, she's sort of like a well known journalist, the kind of like NPR person actually don't know she works at NPR. But she's got that voice. And it's about like a band who was wrongfully convicted and served like 25 plus years in prison for like a murder. And the person who was murdered was like the son of like, one of Reagan's who, whatever, whatever. And she like goes in and investigates. And I'm assuming they get bent out because it's called bringing that home. But that comes out in August from Riverhead. So I'm sort of like curious about that because Riverhead doesn't really do books like that ever? Yeah, ever. Like their nonfiction is usually more like rigid like reported nonfiction on like a super hyper topic like range was there as are like losing hearing or whatever had those kinds of books. So this I'm sort of curious about anything else. We didn't say that. You just want to quickly shout out. Little Rot we didn't mention. Akwaeke Emezi.
Sara Hildreth 59:15
The new Elif Shafaq. There are Rivers-
Traci Thomas 59:20
Wait, what? Typing it up now!
Sara Hildreth 59:25
And then both of the Rachels- Rachel Kushner and Rachel Cusk have a new books coming out this fall.
She's The Mars Room?
Yeah.
Cree Myles 59:39
I gotta look up the Elif book.
Traci Thomas 59:43
This is the people person who did The Idiot?
Cree Myles 59:46
No, she did The Gaze and the-
Sara Hildreth 59:50
Oh, the 10 and a half minutes something something Yeah.
Traci Thomas 59:57
Oh, the the Island of Missing Trees.
Sara Hildreth 1:00:00
Yeah.
Traci Thomas 1:00:01
Oh I'm thinking of Elif Batuman. Okay. Anything else we have to say about books so far this year that we just feel like we have to say, how do you feel? Generally the books have been this year, just generally.
Cree Myles 1:00:16
I really I am nervous that it's a top heavy year. Like, I'm hopeful. But I don't know where we could go from where we started.
Traci Thomas 1:00:26
I think that the publishers have basically said as much because of the election. They pushed a lot of stuff earlier. They're trying not to release a lot of stuff at the end of the year, because they don't want it to get lost in a lot of election coverage. Okay, that's, I guess that's fair. It feels like that to me. Like I only have two books on my list that are coming out in September. And usually September is like a huge Yeah. Yeah. Not only two books are coming out in September, but just two books on my personal list of things that you're all interested in. Yeah. I sort of, I sort of feel like this year is like a little a little mid. Am I crazy? It feels a little mid to me.
Sara Hildreth 1:01:05
I feel like I have not read enough new releases to say because I I think that the books that I have been drawn to and picked up have been mostly really good. But I I have not read as many new releases as I usually do. And I it does seem like from the vibes that I'm picking up on Bookstagram and other spaces that that is a general feeling that the books are mid. But the I feel like my highs have been really high. Like, obviously James. Yeah. Martyr. And like you said, like the year just started so strong that maybe that's part of what's happening.
Traci Thomas 1:01:43
I think that's right, because my my year did start off really strong. And it's not been bad. I've just sort of been like, okay, alright.
Sara Hildreth 1:01:55
Not a ton of surprises so far. Right? Like, even like i Wait, you guys I knew I was I really like the new Tommy orange. But I was still like, yeah, I liked that book, you know, just nothing like, kind of grabbing me and being like, oh my gosh, I've never read anything like this.
Traci Thomas 1:02:14
I think that's right. I read that book Annie Bot.
Sara Hildreth 1:02:17
Oh, yeah. Did you like it?
Traci Thomas 1:02:19
So I sort of love- so the first three quarters? Loved. the last quarter. I didn't, I don't agree with the choices the author made. And the book is weird at the start and like very engaging and like almost thriller-y. And then it sort of gets like the safest possible choice. Which I just was like, Oh, I'm disappointed by that. But I still really liked it. And it's such a quick read, and I read it in like two days, and I really enjoyed it. But it was definitely like, oh, shit, she could do anything from here. And she's literally like, here's an apple. I was hoping I was gonna get the Piglet cheeseburger. This is a fucking apple. But I liked it. I would recommend it to people. I think it's still worth reading. I just was like, super geeked I'm like, Where the fuck are we gonna go? I'm like sex doll. Let's go. Yeah, sort of like, Oh, okay. Okay, well, that's enough being downers. anything else positive?
Cree Myles 1:03:20
I can't say like, I'm thinking for like the average person who does not read professionally. They're like, there will be a nominee of good. There's enough fodder for that. You know, like you will stay happy and hot because you could go from James come and get it color television. Catalina, Martyt. What? That's great.
Traci Thomas 1:03:38
Yeah, yeah, it's true. It's true. Don't forget Charlie Hustle, booboo baseball reading people. Oh, I already have one. I have a Pulitzer prediction for next year. That's what I want to leave you with. Give it to us. I have a prediction that the poll I don't know if it will be in general nonfiction. I think that's where it would go possibly history is that book Everyone Who has Gone is Here by Jonathan Blitzer. It's about immigration. From from the El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua into America. And it is a fucking Pulitzer book. It is that deep research storytelling, giving people who do not get it giving them their full presidential treatment. It is so many pages it is so long it's worth it audio book is fantastic. But it is just when I was reading it I was like I will be shocked if this if this is not in the Pulitzer conversation. I don't know that it's going to be national book award. I don't know. I don't know that it will hit other things. But it just like has such a Pulitzer vibe. I'm going on record I might get this wrong but so far, this is the most poetry nonfiction I've read so far this year.
Sara Hildreth 1:04:51
Okay. Do you think James will win for fiction?
Traci Thomas 1:04:55
I don't know that James won for fiction because I don't know the Pulitzer on the fiction side as well. They do love historical. And they do love books that are super concerned with America. Yes. However, the problem with the Pulitzer, the way that it works is that three judges per category three to five judges per category, excuse me three to five, and or three or five, and they read all of the submissions, right? And then they submit their three finalists, to the board, and then the board reads and votes. So like, it's hard to know, because it's a totally different body. And like, the board, I think, has slightly maybe more political agenda, because they're the board and they're there regularly, whereas the judges rotate and change. So I could see a book like James being really exciting to the reader judges. But then when it gets to the board being like, Is this serious enough for the Pulitzer? Does this live up to the light? You know what I mean? Yeah, I think I think it does. I think it's a book about America by American interested in American history, interested in what it means to be American, which is very important to the Pulitzer that like, has to be about America. But I could see, i Don't know-
Cree Myles 1:06:11
I looked at the board this year. And I'm like, well, but then I was I wanted to look and see who was the board that gave Kendrick a Pulitzer? Because is that the type of board we need in order to get James done? You know what I mean?
Traci Thomas 1:06:22
Right? I actually don't know how much the board changes. But like, Dana Canedy or whatever, the woman who was in charge of Simon and Schuster, for so long. She's now over there. She's been there for a few years. I think, she's like in charge of the Pulitzer.
Cree Myles 1:06:41
Like I think the president of Columbia is on the board or something.
Traci Thomas 1:06:45
Yeah okay, so I think there are some people who are on the board who it's not a full time job, but I think some people maybe it is, I don't know the exact details. But I didn't realize that the reading judges were different than the awarding board. So that's why there are finalists. And that's why sometimes they don't award anything because the board decides Oh, we don't think anything is worthy of being a Pulitzer winner this year. So instead, we just I love that. I love that. They've done they've done they did it recently for drama a few years, like maybe in the last 10 or 15 years for drama. And that's when I was like in the theater world. And I was like who? Yikes. So I don't know. We'll see. I hope James wins everything. Me too. It's gonna be tough for those National Book Awards. If they just don't get it right again this year.
Sara Hildreth 1:07:39
I think they've got like one more strike with me. I feel like the last two years-
Traci Thomas 1:07:45
The nonfiction last year was fantastic. The winner was the rediscovery of America but just like the 10 books they had it was just like a real good diversity of books. Like I ended up reading a lot of them because of my judging. So I was familiar with a lot of them and I just thought they did a really good job. I didn't read a lot of the fiction. No fiction award is my fiction award. Do the stackies. The Stackies are the best fiction award in the world. Yeah, okay, we gotta go. We gotta get out of here. Thanks, everybody. You know Sara, you know Cree. They're the best, thank you for being here.
Cree Myles 1:08:31
Oh, for sure.
Sara Hildreth 1:08:32
Thank you for having us.
Traci Thomas 1:08:34
We'll see if you guys get the third call up. If you make it to the major leagues. This is the minors; see if you make it to the majors. And everybody else, will see you in the stacks.
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