Show & Tell: One Full Year of Unstacked!!!
Unstacked Digest for the week of February 24 - March 2
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.
Today marks one full year of Unstacked. I sort of can’t believe I’ve consistently kept up a newsletter for a whole year, knowing how much I hate to write. But, here we are. Turns out I can still surprise myself. On Friday I have a fun reflection post on the state of Unstacked. So keep an eye out.
This week’s Grown-Up Show & Tell will be free to all. If you like what you read please consider joining as a paid subscriber.
Speaking of which, to celebrate this anniversary, I’m offering 20% off new annual memberships of Unstacked from now through Sunday, March 9th. This will be the only sale of the year until the holiday sale in December. So if you’re thinking about subscribing, now is your time. This offer is good for new subscribers and gift memberships.
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who subscribes to this newsletter. This was not something I had really planned for myself, and if not for your encouragement and excitement around Unstacked I think I would have given up back in June or July. I want to say an extra thank you to anyone who pays for a subscription. That is no small thing. There are countless things you could do with your hard earned money, and that you chose to spend some of it to allow me to talk about books and culture?!?! That is beyond me. I am honored. Thank you.
Onward to year two, and let’s start how we start every week around here, Grown-Up Show & Tell: a few announcements, a few book reviews, a few things I love, and one thing I hate.
This Week in The Stacks
Last week was a bit on the slower side, thank god.
was back on The Stacks for our book club episode on the highly polarizing classic novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.
I shared and ranked all the books I read in February and shared the 15 (too many) books I’m excited about in March.
We reading some serious nonfiction for book club this month, They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers. It feels like the perfect book to read in community this women’s history month. I hope you’ll join us.
Books I Read This Week
Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
A call to renew the “politics of plenty” and admit to the failings of policies from the past and present. I mean, sure. This book is Klein and Thompson lecturing liberals. The gist is here is everything that you’ve done wrong and we should have healthcare and more housing. They are not wrong. But they really ignore the ways systems of oppression play into the policies they hate most. They ignore that some protections are in place for the most vulnerable among us (which Klein and Thompson are not) that might block the most expedient way of doing things, but that part of being a liberal means taking care of people first (allegedly). The writing is fine. I just don’t want to hear a lot of this from these two. I think the authors would say this book does what they want it to do, but the lack of complexity and nuance plus the general finger waving tone is irksome. Could’ve been an essay (and I think much of this book was).
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters
A collection of three short stories and one novella that explore gender and genre. I liked the collection over all. I appreciated what Peters does to explore and expand out notions of gender throughout time and space. Peters is also giving us four very different stories in four very different genres which ended up being what I was most impressed with. She nails the conventions of the genres while bringing her own captivating writing style to each one. The novella is too long and in the weeds of lingo and research (we get it you learned a lot about lumberjacks), and was my least favorite piece of the book. The second story about roommates at a boarding school had me hooked. The final story is a work of social horror that is squirm inducing.
A Better Ending: A Brother's Twenty-Year Quest to Uncover the Truth About His Sister's Death by James Whitfield Thomson
I started this book on audio on a whim after
Fave of the week!
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Animals on a farm overthrow the humans in order to create their own utopia free of cruelty and injustice. I never read Animal Farm in school. I had some idea it was about animals and that it was an allegory of power run amok. I hate to say it, but this novella is good good. Razor sharp. Funny and fucked up. Doing a lot while also going down smooth. I wish I had been taught Animal Farm in school, because I know there is plenty to unpack around mid-century politics, satire, and allegory, and with the right teacher this book must bang hard. I know it wasn’t written for today1, but Trump is trying to make Animal Farm great again.
Housekeeping
I got to disagree with Chelsea Devantez of
about this insane letter to The Ethicist at the New York Times.Kyle of Bookum had me on his show to talk about book predictions for 2025 as well as trends and why I love talking shit about books.
Things I Love…
Book News
The Booker International longlist came out, and that is actual book news, but the Booker (both international and English language) is just not my award. Like, congrats to those people, but I won’t be prioritizing those character driven ass novels.
However, this week there was book news that matters deeply to me. The one and only Lionel Richie announced he will be releasing a memoir called Truly in September. I. CAN’T. WAIT.
The Lionel news led me to watch The Greatest Night in Pop, a documentary about the making of “We Are the World” in 1985. It was so good. I am embarrassed to admit I cried. More than once.
I’ve also spent every day since the announcement listening to Lionel Richie’s catalogue including my absolute favorite album of his (and maybe one of the top 10 most meaningful albums in my life) Back to Front.
Pop Culture
I stayed up late so I could write about the Oscars for you all and they were a giant snooze fest. I know they are always boring but aside from the opening and the (sorta) upset adjacent ending, it was a lot of nothing. Here are my thoughts.
I feel even more vindicated for my Wicked hot takes after watching Cynthia Erivo do “Defying Gravity” for the Oscar’s opening number. She stood there and sang the song and made the whole audience weep. That’s all I was asking form in the film. John Chu chopped up the song so much in the movie, he stripped Erivo of delivering the full emotional resonance you get if you trust the music to do the job. Last night, just singing, she showed what that song can do. And yes, of course, she has to fly during the number, but stretching the song to 30 minutes and making it about everyone else but Elphaba is a huge disservice. The song works on it’s own. Erivo should have been given the respect and opportunity to face out and sing. Chu overshadowed her with his direction. You can be big mad at me2 for saying it. But I stand by this critique all day everyday.
Conan was funny. I had some real full laughs in his opening and throughout.
Paul Tazewell is the first ever Black man to win a best costume Academy Award. Congrats to him. Shame on the Academy and Hollywood. Bootleg retrograde poorly dressed hoes.
Oprah and Whoopi spoke about Quincy Jones. Legends on legends on legends. Also, Whoopi called Oprah “Ope” and I will never recover.
Adrian Brody, if you’re going to ask for more time, please actually use it to say something.
The only truly meaningful speech of the night came from the men who created No Other Land. Calling out the US’s foreign policy and interference in the creation of any meaningful peace in Israel and Palestine is ballsy as hell, let alone in Hollywood. Good for them. I will be seeing this movie despite the fact that they can’t get a distribution deal in Hollywood. The movie industry is wack as hell.
It is disappointing that no one who won an award for Emilia Pérez mentioned the trans community.
That being said, 25 years later, Eva Rodriguez has an Oscar. I wonder how Jonathan Reeves feels about that3.
Coleman Domingo and Cynthia Erivo were holding down that front row and cheering and giving standing ovations for winners and performers. Their earnestness was a joy to behold.
Halle Berry was the best dressed of the night. Thanks to everyone else for playing. Better luck next year.
Anora? Wow. Okay. I didn’t see this coming. Going into award season people were very high on Anora but it underperformed at most of the lead up award shows, so I was pretty stunned how well it did in the end. Best Actress? I know Demi mad as hell. But good for Anora and them4.
Emilia Pérez won for best original song and the songwriter Camille did the most in the most uncomfortable of ways. The other songwriter was hot.
Just like Trump’s America, the Oscar’s reverted back to white dude shit.
So yeah. Movie season is over. Thank goodness. It was a long and pretty boring one. Thank you, at least, to Coleman Domingo for always being the best dressed. You are the real MVP.
Normally you’d get a paywall here, but this week we’re going all free for Grown-Up Show & Tell. Now would be a good time to subscribe to Unstacked and get 20% off.
Music & Podcasts
This week Roberta Flack died. Truly a legendary voice. It led me to listening to this version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. This is a song that I think is consistently covered better than the original5. The original is not good to me. IDC. Simon and Garfunkel are not doing what needs to be done on this track.
In addition to the Robert Flack version, I also am deeply in love with the Aretha Franklin version.
And this one from Eva Cassidy.
Internet Things
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I’m still a sucker for Kendrick Super Bowl. That’s a good best man. He said “I will comitt to the bit, my guy”.
Obsession
I started Paradise. I have watched six episodes in two days. I still need to watch episode seven before the finale on Tuesday night. I like the show a lot. I do need people to stop saying it is the best show ever, though. It is a very good political thriller, but it is not the greatest show. Let’s just be realistic. Very watchable. Sterling K. Brown is incredibly talented. James Marsden is charming as hell. Can we just enjoy things for what they are, please!
…and One Thing I Hate
This week there was a 24-hour economic boycott. Folks were asked not to buy anything using credit cards or to shop at all. If absolutely necessary they were told to shop with cash and shop local, avoiding big box stores, gas stations, fast-food, etc.
Then people online decided this was a bad idea and shat on everyone.
I get it, one day of boycotting anything is performative, but sometimes we need a little performance. Sometimes performative is a good thing. Razzle Dazzle, baby.
I think the virtue signal dumping on folks is getting out of hand. Yes, for any real impact to be felt by these big corporations these boycotts need to be sustained and connected to demands. That is all 1000% true.
I also thing for some people this was day one, step one, and this step felt achievable. If you know me, you know I am firm believer in extremely achievable goals6.
Believe it or not, many people in 2025 have never boycotted anything. They are new to this. Getting them to forgo Amazon for one day is something. Getting them to see that there are other roads for their dollars to travel is actually a very big something. We have to meet people where they are. I don’t mean this in the stupid feel good movie way, of helping an elderly woman in a MAGA hat at the store and realizing she’s a person too, even if she is homophonic and racist. I mean this in a we need to give people the space to try some shit out and trust that they might figure out they are welcome to disrupt with us. Or they might not.
And I’m not telling folks who hate on the boycott that they’re wrong. I generally agree with them on all of their points. But sometimes being right is not useful.
I am not a rah rah person, not even close. But I find the constant one-upmanship of political engagement to be exhausting. And I am person who actually likes competition.
But again, it doesn’t feel useful.
I much prefer the examples I see of folks building on each other and encouraging folks to connect dots and go further. To me, that is the only way we get strong enough to build lasting movements that can and do hit companies and politicians where it hurts.
Wooohooo, year two is officially underway. If you made it this far, please subscribe to Unstacked, I think you’ll like it here. If you join me for an annual plan, you get 20% off. Thank you again to everyone who takes the time to read my work.
If you want more of me and my nonsense be sure to listen to The Stacks podcast every Wednesday and follow me over on Instagram for a lot more book content.
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In fact it turns 80 this year.
I’ve seen your little sub-tweets (threads).
If you don’t get this reference please educate yourself.
I truly could not care less about this year’s movies. Can you tell?
If you’ve been around for a long time you know I have the same opinion of The Beatles. Every Beatles song is covered better than the original. I even have a playlist of Black folks covering the Beatles that is proof of this phenomenon.
I write “shower” on my daily to-do list.
“Trump is trying to make Animal Farm great again” … This got me! In almost every Substack there is a little gem like this that makes me spit my tea out. I look forward to year 2 of hilarious hatred of things ⭐️
Happy Birthday to Unstacked! Yours is the only culture(ish) substack I pay money for and it is 100% worth every penny (and not just because I'm a huge fan of footnotes). Your Hate this week really resonates, and this line is my favorite "But sometimes being right is not useful." Looking forward to year two!