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!

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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.

• @shelfbyshelf (Hunter's Instagram)

• Gaga: Five Foot Two (Netflix)

• Tiffany D. Jackson

• Mary H. K. Choi

• Kings of B'More by R. Eric Thomas

• John Green

• The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

• Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

• How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang

• The Booker Prize

• Real Life by Brandon Taylor

• The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

• Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

• @booksandmargs (Instagram)

• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee, 1962)

• A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib

• The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

• Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor

• "Ep. 212 Doppelgangbanger by Cortney Lamar Charleston — The Stacks Book Club (Nate Marshall)" (The Stacks)

• Nate Marshall

• Kiese Laymon

• "Ep. 118 Living the Revision with Kiese Laymon" (The Stacks)

• Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

• Meghan Markle

• Florida by Lauren Groff

• Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff

• Mr. Bridge by Evan S. Connell

• Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell

• Bart's Books (Ojai, CA)

• Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010)

• Emma Stone

• Brothers & Sisters (ABC)

• Beloved by Toni Morrison

• A Mercy by Toni Morrison

• Sula by Toni Morrison

• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

• "Ep. 60 Beloved by Toni Morrison - The Stacks Book Club (DaMaris B. Hill)" (The Stacks)

• "Ep. 208 A Mercy by Toni Morrison - The Stacks Book Club (Imani Perry)" (The Stacks)

• God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

• The Sixth Man by Andre Iguodala

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

• @rosamondreads (Instagram)

• @booksteahenny (Instagram)

• Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow

• Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)

• Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

• Gossip Girl (The CW)

• Paradise by Lizzie Johnson

• The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

• A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

• Hunter's Shelf by Shelf Newsletter

• National Book Award

• The Pulitzer Prize

• The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.

• The Love Songs of W. E. B. DuBois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

• Matrix by Lauren Groff

• Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

• Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

• How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith

• The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

• Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

• "Ep. 109 Trust Exercise by Susan Choi - The Stacks Book Club (Brandon Taylor)" (The Stacks)

• Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong

• Blood in the Water by Silver Donald Cameron

• The Undying by Anne Boyer

• "Ep. 170 The Undying by Anne Boyer - The Stacks Book Club (Mychal Denzel Smith)" (The Stacks)

• Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

• There There by Tommy Orange

• The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon

• Kink (edited by R. O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell)

• From the Front Porch podcast (The Bookshelf Thomasville)

• The Bookshelf bookstore (Thomasville, GA)

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