For this little end-of-month recap, I’m here to tell you about the episodes of The Stacks from the last month, share the books coming out in March that I’m excited about, and rank all 11 of the books I read in February. The first two parts are free to all, but the ranking lives behind the paywall, because I say things that are too embarrassing to just be given away for free.
Before I do that though, we have a fun thing coming on April 4. It’s the first-ever The Stacks Meetup Day. We're inviting listeners of The Stacks to gather in cities across the world to build community around our shared love of all things books, reading, and, of course, The Stacks! There are already 19 meetups scheduled and if you don’t see one for your area you can host your own! So many more details on the website.
The Stacks February Recap
Did someone say Romance? I’m talked with Jasmine Guillory, you know best-selling romance author, about her career path from high-powered lawyer to beloved romance novelist.
Heather Ann Thompson, the patron saint of The Stacks, came back on the podcast to talk about her latest book Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage and why she never thinks of history as dry.
We broke down the Bad Bunny Bowl with the women who wrote the book P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance Vanessa Díaz & Petra Rivera-Rideau. They brought their academic background and keen eye for Easter eggs to this conversation.
Talking with the legendary Dorothy Roberts about her memoir The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family is not something I will soon forget.
Jasmine Guillory came back to The Stacks to discuss our book club pick, Indigo by Beverly Jenkins, and we had a good ol’ time.
March Books On Deck
What’s coming in March? A lot of nonfiction. I mean, I’m sure there are also novels coming out in March, but I am mostly not interested in those, because look at all this nonfiction!!!
As is always the case with these lists, this is my shortlist of books I’m prioritizing in March. You can get a buzzy book list just about anywhere these days, but who else is hype for a book about the Mets and a 1943 novel-in-translation about Nazis?
I rest my case.
That being said, if you want to know about all the books I’m looking forward to in March and beyond, check out my #teampreorder list on bookshop.org. It is a running list of forthcoming titles that have sparked my interest.1
The books here are listed in order of pub date, and anything I’ve read (or at least started) appears in bold.
Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution by Anand Gopal (March 3)
This is one of those books that immerses you in a time (2011), place (a Northern Syrian city) and political moment (the recipe of revolution) by following six people and using them to tell a bigger story. I started this, and babe, the prose is prosing.Dream Facades: The Cruel Architecture of Reality TV by Jack Balderrama Morley (March 3)
We talk a lot about reality TV as a media form and what that says about us, and this book is taking that a little further and using the physical settings (the homes and aesthetics) of reality TV to tell us something deeper about the American psyche.El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory by Jazmine Ulloa (March 3)
Another one of those books that uses five families to tell a bigger story.2 In this case, it is the story of El Paso, TX which is a story about colonialism, migration, the border, and racism. Also, can you say “topical”?Good Woman: A Reckoning by Savala Nolan (March 3)
What does it actually mean to be a “good woman”? What do women actually get for being good? Those are the central questions in this book.Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom by Camonghe Felix (March 3)
Camonghe Felix is one of the few writers today who I feel has something really urgent to say. She is always forging her own path and challenging me to go along with her. This book is provocative in all the right ways.3Black. Single. Mother.: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging by Jamilah Lemieux (March 10)
I have been a follower and fan of Lemieux for years and I’m so happy to see she has written a book on Black single motherhood, something that is often denigrated without real consideration. And, as I understand it, the book features interviews and perspectives with multiple Black single mothers.Killers of Roe: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights by Amy Littlefield (March 10)
What the fuck happened to Roe and abortion rights? And when? And how? And whodunnit? This book seeks to explain which people and organizations have had a hand in killing women’s right to abortion.Whidbey by T. Kira Madden (March 10)
Not a novel making my list!?! I’m only a few chapters into this book and have no clue where it is going, but I’m liking it so far. It is vibey and thrillery. It’s about women who are connected through their relationships to one bad, recently murdered man.In the Shadow of the Great House: A History of the Plantation in America by Daniel Rood (March 17)
A work of history that foregrounds the plantation itself as a place of labor, residence, resistance, and oppression worthy of interrogating.Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team by A. M. Gittlitz (March 31)
I am always saying yes to a book about baseball. I am usually saying yes to a book about New York City. And I can not say yes fast enough to a book about an underdog. So, a book about the Mets is screaming my name.Vengeance Is Mine by Friedrich Torberg translated by Stephanie Gorrell Ortega (March 31)
Originally published in 1943, and only now being translated into English for the first time. This novella is touted as “the first work of fiction to predict the Nazis’ final solution, their program to exterminate the Jews”. Based on that line alone, you know I’m reading this book.
What books are on your March list? Which ones are you adding? Which ones did I overlook?
February Reads Ranked
This month I finished 11 books. I ranked them all for you. Some I liked, some I was pretty meh on, and one is a true banger. I don’t have much more to say. Can we just get into the ranking?
