Show & Tell: Pride Means Quitting Your Harry Potter Worship
Unstacked Digest for the week of May 26 - June 1
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.
My love
posted this on their Instagram this weekend and I have watched it too many damn times. So if these speaks to you, Happy Pride.
If this didn’t speak to you, congrats, you’re homophobic! I hope you have an awkward, no good. awful month.
This Week in The Stacks
I made Knicks fans mad again. Oops.
Kara Brown was on the podcast for The Stacks Book Club discussion of Devil in a Blue Dress. We talked about the making of a detective series, what actually happened in the book, and more! If you want to come to our virtual book club chat on Tuesday, join The Stacks Pack!
I wrote about the 12 books I am most excited to read this month. There are so many good titles publishing. Summer book season is upon us.
Our June book club pick has been announced, The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel and let me just say, I started the book this weekend and it is propulsive as hell. I am so excited to talk about it. Read with us and tune in on June 25th for our chat on the podcast.
Books I Read This Week
King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby
Roman Carruthers returns home to his siblings when his father is in a near fatal car accident. He realizes his brother has gotten into some trouble and then a plan for vengeance unfolds. I love how much Cosby leans into the violence in his books, and this one is no exception. There were parts where I was legit holding my breath and squirming as I read. His work is not for the faint of heart. I was mostly locked in while reading, I needed to know what was going to happen and how, but the book was a lot slower paced than I would have liked. Coming in at around 330 pages, there were lulls that held me back from getting fully wrapped up in this thriller.
Fave of the week!
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Mini Stacks and I listened to this classic on audio, and it was lovely. Which, is mostly what I remember from my childhood — though I had completely forgotten the ending. It’s the story of James, an orphan, who lives with his abusive aunts — then there is magic, a giant peach, and a bunch of benevolent human-sized insects. The book is weird as hell, which I don’t remember thinking as a child, but it works. I was genuinely delighted and the Minis were locked in. The ensemble cast is the star of the book. I mean, Miss Spider, a tragic figure who asks so little of others? Compelling! The curmudgeonly earth worm who lays his life out on the line?1 A dour icon! I loved how Dahl made each creature have a reason/purpose/something special about them that is brought forth as the story unfolds. Such a good message for small humans (and adults).
No Holes Barred: A Dual Manifesto of Sexual Exploration and Power by Mandi B & WeezyWTF with Tempest X
The hosts of the Decisions Decisions podcast take their sex forward life experiences to the page with this memoir meets self-help essay collection. I went in with very low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. This isn’t my kind of book, but I thought the authors did a good job mixing erotic writing with memoir and advice, a combination I had never seen before. And let me just say some of the sex scenes they lay out in the book are hot. The early chapters and structure choices felt run-of-the-mill, but as the women get into the more intense and painful life experiences, their vulnerability comes through which endeared me to them. Like it/them or not, they wrote the book they set out to write, and I can’t really knock that.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
A satirical novel staring an unnamed Black narrator who navigates the racial politics of the United States. I had never read this book before2. I loved following our narrator and meeting the cast of characters that crossed his path. There are some really interesting questions about race and power and the tactics Black people use to get what they want. The book itself didn’t do much for me, things happen but just being with the protagonist is really the point of the book. But, as I was reading, and when I finished all I wanted to do was talk about it and read about it and think about it. Which to me feels like the mark of a good book, even if I didn’t think I enjoyed it on a surface level. I can’t help but think about the cultural impact and importance of Invisible Man, which for me is much more interesting than the book itself. That isn’t to say the book isn’t very good, just that it wasn’t as compelling or engaging as I thought based on its reception.
Housekeeping
I got to be on the Petty Crimes podcast this week and it was the time of my life. Getting to talk about pettiness and judge other people’s behavior? Why did I not think of starting this show myself?
Things I Love…
Books
This isn’t a love, this is a public service announcement. Stop loving J. K. Rowling and her characters more than you love trans people. Like babe, I get it, you read and loved Harry Potter as a kid, and it made you feel seen. I am so happy for you. But, now you’re an adult and I need you to be for real for one second. In the year 2025 Rowling is out here using all that money she is making off your love of her books (and movies, and stage plays, and theme parks, and TV shows, and butter beer, etc.) to fund anti-trans legislation and court cases. So like, do you love your nostalgia more than actual trans kids? If so, damn, that is wack as hell. If not, enough with the grifflepuff bullshit.
Sports
First, I gotta get this outta of the way, the Knicks lost. And the truth is I am not a Knicks hater, I actually want to see them win, but the Knicks fans were doing too much this postseason. They needed to lose. They needed this loss to remember themselves. The laws of sports fandom demand that any team that celebrates any non-championship win like a championship win, shall not win the championship3. I am so sorry, but thems the rules.
My actual love this week, is that the French Open is happening right now, and everyday as I work I have it on, on mute, in the background. Thank god for HBO Max4, they offer immediate replays after every match. I am locked in.