Show & Tell: Staley Is a Hero, Acho Is a Loser
Unstacked Digest for the week of April 1-7
This week The Stacks turned six years old, which feels like a big deal, even if it isn’t a “milestone” year. I never dreamed the podcast would become all that is has. I got to sit on a stage and talk to Hanif Abdurraqib this week in front of 300+ book lovers, that would not have been possible if not for The Stacks. So yeah, I’m feeling emotional over here.
This Week on Unstacked
Show & Tell was dedicated to Beyoncé and COWBOY CARTER last week. I regret nothing. Perhaps more of the same to come this week (and by perhaps I mean for sure).
We announced our April book club pick, it is the poetry collection, The January Children by Safia Elhillo. Reparations Club bookstore in LA is giving you 10% off the book if you use the code STACKS10 at checkout.
To celebrate six years of The Stacks, and all 100 of of our book club picks, I ranked them from my least to most favorite. Come fight with me in the comments.
shared some great writing advice and flexed her impeccable taste in books on this week’s Read to Know Basis.
Books I Read This Week
The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell
I listened on audio and devoured this one in about two days. Each essay is smart and easy to follow. The book is about the ways our biases and preconceived notions make our ability to reason less effective and stress us out. I would say the overreaching thesis of the book is still a little murky to me, but I liked the individual essays enough to roll with it.
Fave of the week!
Housekeeping
Hala Alyan, author of The Moon That Turns You Back, joined the podcast this week to talk about poetry and Palestine. She also shared a truly unique reading snack.
I’ll be at the San Antonio Book Festival on Saturday April 13, moderating a panel with the Myriam Gurba and Roger Reeves. The entire festival is free. You can find all the details for my panel here.
The LA Times Festival of Books aka Bookchella, is just around the corner. I’ll be moderating a panel on Sunday April 21st with Hanif Abdurraqib, Morgan Parker, Michael R. Jackson, and Sowmya Krishnamurthy called “Black is Beautiful: The Impact of Black Art and Culture”.
Nine Things I Love…
Book News
I am not sure what exactly is going on over at PEN America, but it is not good. Workers are now saying they are being silenced after PEN has repeatedly dropped the ball when it comes to Israel’s war on Gaza. This comes after they dragged an author out of an event for protesting, which is confusing since PEN wants to be the organization of free speech. They have done so much good work and I wish they could get it together on this.
Pop Culture
I know that last week I dedicated damn near this whole installment to COWBOY CARTER, and I am sorry to say, I will be dedicating three segments this week to the album. I am still mentally very much in the land of murder ballad Beyoncé. The COWBOY CARTER content I can’t stop thinking about is this piece from one of my favorites ever,
. If you’re not familiar with McMillan Cottom’s work, she is brilliant beyond compare. For my money and taste, she is the best we’ve got when it comes to cultural criticism and competency.