Show & Tell: A Change, Some Onions, and More Soccer!
Unstacked Digest for the week of June 24-30
Welcome to another edition of Show & Tell where I tell you about a bunch of things I loved from the week and the one thing I hated, plus round up everything I’ve read and whatever else is going on around these parts. The first half of Show & Tell is free to all. The adoration and hateration are for paid subscribers only.
As I mentioned last week, I am working on how I can do all the things I do for work/books and still find more time for myself. One of the tweaks I want to make is to Show & Tell. Instead of giving you nine things I love each week, I am going to give you anywhere between 5-9 things I love based on the week. Some weeks I just do not love that many things, and I was forcing the issue. So, I’m not going to do that any more.
I will always give you a thing I hate. ALWAYS.
This Week on Unstacked
My first Show & Tell back from vacation.
Books to go with every episode of The Stacks from June.
An interview with the author of Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones,
, in which we discuss ideal readers and trends in jeans.
The power rankings of all eight books I read this month in under 15 minutes.
Books I Read This Week
A Day in the Life of America edited by Rick Smolan and David Cohen
A photo book of pictures all taken on the same day, May 2, 1986, by 200 photographers stationed all over the United States. I loved looking through this book and reading the captions. It is a true time capsule. I was delighted by the images captured just a few months before I was born. I read it for The Stacks Mega Challenge, and am so glad I came across this out of print NYT bestseller from the year I was born!
Fave of the week!
Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even by Nicole Treska
This is a pure memoir, in the sense that Treska does not offer us a broader perspective, research, or any cultural reflections. This book is a collection of stories and memories from her Boston working class childhood and her relationship with her father, a former Boston hustler. The book gets into her adulthood too, as an adjunct professor and Air BnB host in NYC. I loved the writing in this book. It is balanced and smooth without sacrificing bite. In the end, I didn’t really care that much about this story. The structure is a little too disjointed for such a short book. It was a good glimpse into someone else’s life, but other than that it left me wanting.
Housekeeping
The Stacks virtual book club discussion of our June pick, It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover is on Tuesday, July 2nd at 5pm PT//8pm ET. It promises to be a good time. If you want in, join The Stacks Pack.
In case you missed the episode, here it is!
Our July book club pick is Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. We picked the book for this month because the book, written in 1993, is set in a future dystopia that just so happens to be July 2024. We will discuss the book on the podcast on July 31st. I hope you’ll read with us.
Nine Things I Love…
Book News
Eric Adams is in the upper echelon of terrible mayors, which is no easy feat considering how many mayors in the US are absolute trash. Less than a year ago Adams slashed $58 million dollars of library funding (and other programs and institutions) which led to the libraries having to be closed on Sundays. But, the good news is, NYC public libraries have had their funding restored and are set to reopen on Sundays. Thats a win. But, lest you forget, Adams is a former cop, and as we say around here ACAB.
Music & Podcasts
This episode of Normal Gossip had me laughing out loud. The story is so random and just chalk full of twists and turns with a perfect (yet, totally unbelievable) denouement. Plus it is has literary bent. Friend of the pod, Brittany Luse is an absolutely delightful guest on this one.