Show & Tell: Bookchella, Prom, and Green Beans
Unstacked Digest for the week of April 15-21
This past weekend was the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books or as I like to call it, Bookchella. It is the biggest book festival in the hemisphere with over 600 authors and moderators. I spent the last three days being involved as a presenter at the awards, a moderator of a panel, and most importantly a bookish fan girl ogling all my favorite authors. That being said, this weekend kicked my ass, so this week’s Show & Tell will be more of a sprint than usual.
This Week on Unstacked
Last week I took on Drake and the rap beef, and this week there has been even more (including an entry from Kanye).
This month’s bonus episode features me and five poets giving poetry therapy. Each poet picked a poem for us to read together and discuss. The poet lineup is star-studded. Please check this episode out!
The wonderful Crystal Hana Kim joined me for Read to Know Basis this week to talk about her current reads and the moment she really felt like an author.
Books I Read This Week
Rememberings by Sinead O’Connor
This is a book of two halves. The first being a really devastating story of child abuse and trauma, that is well told and vulnerable, if not a bit hard to follow. The second half is extremely disjointed and feels a lot like someone just trying to fulfill their contractually obligated pages. O’Connor explains why that is, but it doesn’t fix the fact that the book disintegrates as you go.
A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson
This musical is a totally wild ride through reality and meta-theatrics. I love so much of what Jackson does here and am certain I don’t get plenty of it. I have a lot of questions about who the joke is on and why, but I love to think about this musical and haven’t really stopped since I saw it back in 2022.
Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire by Paula Yoo
A YA nonfiction book about the 1992 uprising in LA. I am obsessed with this topic and still found the book to be really engaging and exciting as I think about a new generation being exposed to this event that very much shaped (and shapes) the way I move in the world. There are points in the book where Yoo presents two side of an event (like the murder of Latasha Harlins) through testimony without much commentary. I understand this choice for adults but wonder if younger people might need more context as to why/how such testimony impacted events.
Fave of the week!
You Get What You Pay For by Morgan Parker
I read this essay collection back in February of this year and revisited it again this month. I really appreciate how Parker works through her life as something that is in conversation with American chattel slavery. Sometimes it works really well, sometimes it feels little heavy handed, but it always exhibits sharp and rhythmic writing.
Housekeeping
This week on The Stacks I spoke with Keith O’Brien about his book (that I loved) Charlie Hustle which is about Pete Rose and baseball. Keith is a joy even if you don’t like sports, I promise.
My friends
and let me talk with them about Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. It is one of my favorite of his plays that most people don’t know. I would argue this is the most urgent of his plays in this moment.![Traci Thomas of "The Stacks" podcast reccomends books that put an author on the map, were one and done, or were the start of a successful career. (Getty Images)](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F692e23c8-a575-4927-bd5a-fd5d21a72dc0_1000x750.jpeg "Traci Thomas of "The Stacks" podcast reccomends books that put an author on the map, were one and done, or were the start of a successful career. (Getty Images)")
This month on NPR’s Here and Now I talked about “Debut books that made authors stars — and new releases you shouldn't miss”.
I went on Adultish to talk about banned books. I got fired up.
Angelenos, I’m talking to Leila Mottley about her new poetry collection Woke Up No Light. Get all the details here, and come hang out with us!
My live show, One for the Books is back! May 15th with author Amanda Montell (Cultish, The Age of Magical Overthinking) and actor Vella Lovell (Animal Control, My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) it all goes down.
Nine Things I Love…
Book News
The Los Angeles Time Book Prizes were given out this weekend, and I love the list of winners. I’m especially fond of the current interest winner.
I was there for the prize ceremony and loved how many winners took time from their speeches to call for USC to let the valedictorian Asna Tabassum speak, to call for a free Palestine, and to call on the LA Times to get a fair contract for their journalists.
Pop Culture
Gerry and Theresa are getting a divorce. I do not care about this very much, but I was pleased to know that Theresa did in fact get a prenup, because we know she is loaded and Gerry is a gold digger. So props to her.