Show & Tell: Great Hoops, Book Awards, and a Whole Lotta Voter Guides
Unstacked Digest for the week of October 14-20
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.
I went back to The Bay this weekend for an event with LitQuake (a fantastic Bay Area literary festival) and it was so much fun. The panel was top tier author excellence; Carvell Wallace, Morgan Parker, and Sam Sax. That’t not the best part though, the best part is that I got to see so many of my loved ones who came to the panel at night at this dope venue, 111 Minna. It was such a treat to be home and have my people come out.
I also hosted my 4th Prop Party. I invite my friends to gather (this year on Google Meet) and each person presents a prop on the CA ballot. We talk them over, ask questions, and ultimately vote on what we think. Its a really great way to work through the ballot with people I love, trust, and respect. It’s not too late to host your own prop party, or if your state doesn’t have props, you can just do your ballot with candidates. Civic engagement, baby!
This Week on Unstacked
A small (actually huge) update from last week, Robert Roberson’s execution was halted by the Texas Supreme Court. Thankfully.
This month’s bonus episode is audio from my live show, One for the Books, with Danzy Senna and Zach Stafford.
Books I Read This Week
Yr Dead by Sam Sax
A fragmentary novel about Ezra, who self-immolate at a 2016 protest. The novel plays with linear time by moving back and forth through Ezra’s life and family history to bring us to this present moment of death by fire. This is a weird little book and the early sections work really well. I was touched by Ezra’s gentle spirit, and I loved how Ezra was slowly unveiled to the reader. Sax explores trauma and depression in a way that feels recognizable without feeling too bleak or cliched. There is subtle and compelling argument around Judaism and anti-Zionism that plays out for Ezra that I appreciated. There are parts in the last quarter that made no sense to me but honestly I just rode it out, and ended up feeling mostly positive about this weird little book.
Fave of the week!
Elysium: A Black Diamond Vacation Romance by DL White
A romance novel between two 40-somethings who meet on social media and eventually meet in person, and really hit it off. Really. Ok, the sex in this book is top notch. White is giving us steamy (as you romance peeps like to say). They dialogue rings true and now at all cloying. I loved the portrayal of older protagonists in romance who are mature and have real life problems they talk about and work through. White doesn’t give us a third act breakup that is basically just a miscommunication. The book does go on a touch long, because we really do know where this one is headed from the first page. If you want mature sex with a lot of lovey dovey stuff, this is your book.
Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America by Paola Ramos
I was super interested in this book that deeply explores the way race, culture, and trauma have impacted Latine people and led some to support conservative politics in the US. The book starts off super strong, and the early chapters as so illuminating, especially the ones on anti-Blackness and illegal immigration. As the book goes on Ramos loses her footing a bit, and connects dots that don’t feel as imperative to her argument. However, the end of the book, where she profiles two Latino men who were deeply entrenched in conservatism and have since left/been forced out, is an extremely effective way to end the book. So, like this review, the book is a bit all over the place, but mostly it works and the reporting is interesting.
Housekeeping
This week on the podcast I spoke with Jason De León, whose book, Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling is all about the people who bring migrants across the US/Mexico border.
I was featured in
’s Stay Brave newsletter. I answered questions about bravery, a thing a feel I have very little of. Check it out.
I’m still waiting on the Texas Book Festival to release the official schedule, but I will be in Austin on November 16 and 17. If you’re in the area, mark your calendar and come through!
Things I Love…
Book News
Award season came in with a bang! This week Kirkus awarded their literary prize. The winners included two of my favorite books of the year, James by Percival Everett for fiction, and Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham1, and a YA book called Gather I know nothing about.
Politics
A lot of voters guides dropped this week. In Los Angeles, I am huge fan of the progressive voter guides from The Knock LA and LA Forward.
A great resource I found this year is @51voterguides on IG, created by Katie Grossbard, an attorney, activist and content creator. Katie created 51 (D.C. she didn’t forget you) voter guide infographics that are easy to read and share on IG. I obviously can’t possibly vet all the guides, but from what I can tell with her picks for California, her guides are fairly progressive. This is such a fabulous resource and a really easy to way to help less politically motivated friends and family who may live outside your state.