Show & Tell: Au Revoir Olympics.
Unstacked Digest for the week of August 5-11
Please check on me. The Olympics are over. I am not well. On top of that, this coming week the Mini Stacks have no camp but school doesn’t start until next week. Times is tough.
This is Show & Tell where I tell you some things I loved from the week and the one thing I hated, plus round up everything else going on around these parts. The first half of Show & Tell is free to all. The adoration and hateration are for paid subscribers only.
This Week on Unstacked
Last week’s Show & Tell with lots of Olympics.
A list of the five books I am actually excited to read this month.
The Olympics are over, but we can keep the vibes alive. I wrote about what books to pair with your favorite Olympic sports. Check it out and tell me your own pairings.
Books I Read This Week
The Furies: Women, Vengeance, and Justice by Elizabeth Flock
Flock takes three women from around the world who have committed acts of violence in order to “fight back”. She uses these women’s stories to explore cultural relationships to women and violence. I wanted to like this book, but just didn’t. The first story about Brittany Smith, a woman who shot and killed her rapist, is by far the best section of the book. Flock was involved in a movie about this story and she had the most detail and nuance in this section. From there, the book sort of devolved. Flock didn’t draw clear connections between the stories, or even a strong why she picked who she picked. I wish she had stuck with Smith’s story and had made that extremely strong instead of adding additional women but not doing their stories justice.
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo
This is The Stacks Book Club pick for August, and it is such a rich text. It tells the story of an enslaved couple in 1848 who flee bondage in plain sight by pretending to be a white master and his slave. The depth of research in this book is so impressive. The story of their escape is captivating, the first third of the book reads like a novel. I wished Woo would have given us more context of how certain things would’ve been recieved in the 1840’s and 50’s. But overall I was very impressed by what is in the book, what I learned, and how Woo added a depth to things I thought I understood. She really drives home the inhumanity and interpersonal nature of American chattel slavery.
Fave of the week!
The Rich People Have Gone Away by Regina Porter
A COVID novel set in New York (city and upstate) about a couple who leave town to escape the pandemic and the wife ends up missing. The book alternates perspectives to explore the main couple and their friends, family, and neighbors. I really liked the book overall and think it is the first successful COVID novel I’ve read. There were things I didn’t care for, an entire character’s inclusion for one, but overall I liked the writing and wanted to keep reading to see how it would all play out. Porter’s skill as a playwright is evident in the tension in scenes where multiple characters converge.
Housekeeping
Jay Ellis, yes that Jay Ellis, was on the podcast this week to discuss his memoir Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)?: Adventures in Boyhood. I am really excited because Jay is back later this month for the book club episode on Master Slave Husband Wife.
I talked about my favorite sports books for all your Olympics lovers out there on NPR’s Here & Now this week.
Things I Love…
Pop Culture
I am told that there is a film adaptation to It Ends with Us and that Blake Lively is in it, and that there was drama with the director (who is also in it, but whose name I do not know and do not feel like looking up, photo above). What I love about this is that I truly do not care. I wish I cared, but like honestly, I am not surprised the humans who wanted to make this mid-ass book into a movie are now having drama. Reap what you sow, or whatever.
But, if you do care, let me just say there is great podcast episode about the book. You can listen to it here.