Show & Tell: Nominations, Tennis Fits, and Lin Is Back?
Unstacked Digest for the week of January 20-26
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 was a decidedly bad week. Trump is a terror. I am so sorry for all of us. I know that’s not really productive, but it is how I’m feeling. Getting emails from the Mini’s school about protecting kids from ICE, and seeing that DOJ is no longer pursuing civil rights cases, and Hegseth getting confirmed. It is a lot, and in very bad way. How is that for a fun way to start your week? You’re welcome?
I do a have a small glimmer, I have been plotting some new nonfiction content for this space, which I will hopefully share with you all in the coming weeks. I have heard from so many people that reading more nonfiction is one of their reading goals in 2025, and that is sweet sweet music to my tone deaf ears. It brings me joy to think about how best to put my nonfiction love to use. So, at least, I (and hopefully you too) have something to look forward to. If you’re a person who has reading goals around nonfiction, please let me know how best I can help you get there. What are you needing help on? What has held you back with nonfiction in the past?
This Week in The Stacks
I finally went back to regularly scheduled Grown-Up Show & Tells!
We dropped a little inauguration counterprogramming this week with the great
. We talked about Toni Morrison’s lecture “Goodness: Altruism, and the Literary Imagination”1.A conversation with Michael Waters about his fantastic book (one of my faves of 2024) The Other Olympians about the history of trans athletes in the 1920’s and 30’s.
The Stackies have been awarded for 2024. What do you make of the winners? Any upsets?
Books I Read This Week
The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease by Daisy Hernández
A work of narrative nonfiction that investigates the history and impact of Chagas -- The Kissing Bug disease. The book starts with the author’s aunt who died of Chagas and then expands out into the history of the disease as well as the science behind it. As a piece of writing, I liked the style and the way she weaves the elements together. As a narrative, it starts to feel repetitive by the end, the pacing wasn’t there for me. I am certainly glad I read this book, but I was expecting to be wowed and would instead describe my feelings as satisfied. Shout out to
Pure Innocent Fun by Ira Madison III
A humorous essay collection filled with millennial-core pop culture and nostalgia that is mirrored by Madison’s own memoir. I was underwhelmed with this book. I am a big fan of Ira on his podcast Keep It and was excited to get invited in a little deeper. Instead I found most of the book to feel surface. There wasn’t much cultural analysis, or even anything that made this book feel like I knew Ira better. I think the editor bears a lot of blame on this book, because even the structure of the essays was clunky and without a clear narrative arc or style. There are funny bits and some cultural phenomena that I enjoyed revisiting, but overall this fell extremely flat for me.
Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry
Imani Perry is just operating at a totally different frequency than everyone else. This book reinvents what it means to write (and read) history. She is teaching us a new way to connect the dots. Perry uses the color blue — things like the indigo plant, Blues music, The Bluest Eye, the ocean, and so much more — to tell the history of Black people. It sounds a little heady and maybe even silly, but it is Imani Perry so it is in fact gorgeous and heartfelt. It is a book that is hard to explain, and maybe better left to the reader to uncover. I will say, there is a section a on George Washington Carver that is so good it made me want to dedicate my life to studying that man. There are some connections that feel forced and bit superficial, but overall I think this a book that deserves your attention and focus, and for that you will be rewarded with writing that you can melt into and a story that is unlike anything else you’ve ever read.
Fave of the week!
Housekeeping
I was a guest on Reading Glasses and the episode was dedicated to book tracking, so you know I geeked all the way out.
I talked all things books and The Stacks with Michelle from the My Simplified Life podcast.
The lovely humans at the Omaha Library had me on their podcast to talk about discovering your next read. Also they sprung an Omaha pop-quiz on me, and I don’t think I failed.
Things I Love…
Books
The National Book Critics Circle Awards announced their finalists. I always love this prize because the judges have great taste and often recognize my faves and they almost always introduce me to books I wasn’t familiar with. You should peruse their list and see if anything catches your eye. The winners will be announced on March 20th. Last year We Were Once a Family won in nonfiction, so I’m hoping Challenger wins in the category this year for back to back Traci approved winners.
Substack
I know there are a lot of smart and interesting people on Substack, but for me, at this moment,
is on top of the list. I loved her reading list for precedented times and am so curious to read her thoughts and musings as her thinking is deepened and expanded through her reading.