Show & Tell: The National Book Awards Are My Personality
Unstacked Digest for the week of November 18 - 24
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 had one hell of a week. I went to New York to attend the National Book Awards a long with an insanely cool offsite party for The Blacklist Fiction. I also got to meet some very cool people in publishing throughout the week. I flew home Thursday and got on another flight Friday, with my family, to go to Oakland for my nephew’s third birthday.
I am exhausted but feeling very full. Lots of good things. That being said, I barely did anything else, like see Wicked, which I had hoped I’d have time for. I also didn’t get to do much of my other work, like you know, read. I’ll gladly take those L’s in exchange for the major wins I’ve had this week.
This Week on Unstacked
The calm before the NBA storm!
If you need every detail from the biggest night in books, I’ve got you.
Books I Read This Week
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan
This book is very much in my wheel house, as I am a fan of the Kennedy’s. Not that I like them per se, but I am fascinated by them and have read a lot about them (mostly pre The Stacks). I also love a book that retells history in any way or recontextualizes it. This book does deliver on all of those things as far as content goes. Good luck reading this book and not coming away with a whole new rage for RFK Jr. There’s lots of sex in the book, lots of drugs, and lots of reckless behavior. Where Ask Not didn’t work for me was in the style. Callahan writes in a way that makes the book feel like gossip instead of history. She editorializes a lot. It minimizes what she has to say. The delivery cheapens the horrors. The book was recommended to me by
Fave of the week!
Housekeeping
was on The Stacks this week helping us think and talk about climate solutions, her new books What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures is a must read.I was a guest on Book Talk, Etc. this week and got to do my thing talking about nonfiction and negative reviews. You know the vibes.
I also went on Write the Damn Book Already to talk to authors about book events and being interesting.
Things I Love…
Book News
Did you know The National Book Award were this week? Did I ever mention that? Percival Everett won for James in fiction! Friend of the pod, Jason De León won in nonfiction! We love to see it. ICYMI here is the episode.
Music & Podcasts
Kendrick loves us this I know, because his new album tells us so.
The way my phone lit up Friday morning with folks from editor Christian to
making sure I knew there was new Kendrick. Honestly, that is love. This album has bops, it has disses, it has tonal range. K Dot is showing up and showing out.I don’t know enough about music, but I do get the sense that this album is his homage to rap music because a lot of the songs feel like they are in the style of other rappers. There is “reincarnated” that sounds dead ass on a 2pac track. “man at the garden” is giving Nas’ “One Mic” (and maybe Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight”, not rap but a banger). I also hear a ton of E-40 and Too $hort on “squabble up” and “hey now” (my two faves, I’m a West Coast girl through and through). I look forward to whatever, friend of the pod, Cole Cuchna has to say about this one.
The Super Bowl is going to be lit as hell.