Show & Tell: Great American Novels and Missing British Royals
Unstacked Digest for the week of March 11-17
I’ll give you a spoiler for today’s Show & Tell, I really only care about two things this week, Kate Middleton and The Atlantic’s list of great American novels. I will of course share other things with you, but honestly, Kate and the books are it for me.
This Week on Unstacked
Last week was the inaugural Show & Tell. I had a blast writing it. So if you haven’t read it, yet. Here you are.
In case you missed it, I pinned an intro post to the main feed. It’s a place for folks to introduce themselves and connect. Turns out a lot of you are from Virginia and/or the DC Metro area. Who knew?
In 2021 I finished my personal challenge to read every single Shakespeare play. To celebrate I talked with Shakespeare and race scholar Ayanna Thompson. It was a delight, and I dropped that convo from the archive for you all.
, author of Acts of Forgiveness and owner of the forthcoming Liz’s Book Bar, answered my questions for this week’s installment of Read to Know Basis.
Books I Read This Week
Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World by Will Cockrell
I was surprised by how much I liked this book. It was very entertaining and clearly well reported. I took issue with some of the ways the Sherpa people were presented. It has a bit of a paternalistic feel. I also think Cockrell is not a fan of my guy, Jon Krakauer, the author of Into Thin Air, and I took that personally. This might be one of those books I like and recommend, but with a giant grain of salt.
No Name in the Street by James Baldwin
James Baldwin has a style all his own, and I have to be up front, I struggle like hell to read his work. This memoir is focused on the 1960’s and 1970’s including Baldwin’s thoughts on his relationships with Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and a friend wrongfully imprisoned for murder. The book has moments of greatness, and also sections I had a hard time making sense of.
Here After by Amy Lin
I love a grief memoir, and this one, about a woman whose husband, suddenly dies at 33, is a solid entry into the field. It’s told in vignettes, the way a lot of grief memoirs are, that move back and forth from before and after the death. I liked it overall, thought it was well done, but I’m not sure how long it will stick with me.
James by Percival Everett
This is the book of the year. 10/10 no notes. This book is a the reason retellings of classics exist, because there is a chance that one of them might do what Percival Everett has done with James. Unreal.
Fave of the week!
Housekeeping
I still can’t believe I got to interview Tommy Orange about his new book, Wandering Stars for The Stacks this week.
For the March bonus episode, exclusive to paid subscribers, I’m doing an ask me anything. Please leave your questions for me here.
The LA Times Book Festival just announced their lineup and I’ll be talking with Hanif Abdurraqib, Morgan Parker, Michael R. Jackson, and Sowmya Krishnamurthy and Black art and culture. I am pumped for this panel. Its on Sunday April 21st at 11:30am. Details for the festival here, I might be a bit of the hometown girl. but it is the best book festival out.
Nine Things I Love…
Book News
The Atlantic released their list of “The Great American Novels” of the last 100 years. It has 136 titles. I like the list, a lot. I like that it is working through the question of what it means to write toward the American experience, but also what makes a novel “American”. I like that the list feels like its asking a bigger question as a whole, and I love that for American readers.
I have read 27 from this list, and 11 have been book club picks for The Stacks. The books I have read are some of my favorites. There are weird books on the list, and powerhouse books. There are books I’ve never even heard of. It is a list that is begging to be read through, which is the mark of a good list.
As much as I like the list, there are, of course, omissions. Another mark of a good list. The most glaring one (that I have no problem with) is To Kill a Mockingbird. I love a snub, so I opened this question up to the Unstacked community chat: Which book is not on the list that should be?
Pop Culture
I am seven episodes into the newest season of Love Is Blind, I know I am late, but all I can think about is when Chelsea told Jimmy she looked like Megan Fox. What an incredible moment of American television. These few seconds likely changed the entire course of the season. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up having implications into the 2024 presidential election and maybe alters the course of the universe as we know it. Girl, what?
