The Stacks Pairings: March 2024
From beauty standards to the unclaimed dead, what to read after you listen to The Stacks this month.
Every month I’m be sharing book pairings for The Stacks episodes. It will feature the books we covered on the podcast for the month matched to two books I think pair nicely with them. So if you loved the episode, loved the author, or loved the book, you will have a few more books to add to your TBR!
Elise Hu on The Stacks
To kick off the month I talked with
, author of Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital, about the fliterfication of beauty standards, Korean soft power, and taking her eight week old in for a facial.Korea: A New History of South and North by Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo
This history of Korea, both North and South, from the late nineteenth century to present day. The book is deeply researched and covers the Japanese occupation, the Cold War, and more. Plus, the ways Korea’s own fate is tied to other global super powers that have jockeyed for influence in the region.
Plucked: A History of Hair Removal by Rebecca M. Herzig
Full transparency, I have not read this book, but it comes highly recommended by Elise Hu, herself. She praises the book in the episode as a micro-history about the world of hair removal. In the book Herzig “describes the surprising histories of race, science, industry, and medicine behind today's hair-removing tools.”
Tommy Orange on The Stacks
To say it was a dream come true to have Tommy Orange on The Stacks is the understatement of the year, I have been patiently waiting since 2018, and Tommy did not disappoint. We talked about his new novel, Wandering Stars, and the ways addiction and faith are tied together, writing about Oakland, and the pressures of following up his Pulitzer finalist debut.
There There by Tommy Orange
Yes, this is a cheat, but hear me out. There There is the perfect pairing for Wandering Stars since the later is a prequel/sequel to the former. There are a handful of characters that are present in both books, but don’t worry they both stand alone, too.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh and Tommy are friends and creative collaborators, for the years they were writing these novels they exchanged pages every week. The result is two novels that are in conversation with each other over obvious things like addiction and faith, but also about family history, commemoration, and what living a a life worth living looks like.
Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans on The Stacks
I spoke with sociologists, Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans who wrote The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels. It is a haunting examination of what happens to the people whose bodies go unclaimed in Los Angeles County.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
A book about our bodies after we die. Roach looks into the ways human cadavers have been used as research for NASA and medical schools, they’ve helped develop surgeries and investigate plane crashes. Entertainment Weekly called the book "Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting."
Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar
No, I do not think dead people and parking lots are the same, but I do think we don’t think nearly enough about death or parking. Paved Paradise is the deep dive into parking, city planning, and politics you did not know you needed. If you love a micro-history like I do, you’ll appreciate this book.
The Stacks Book Club on Interior Chinatown
When Elise Hu came back to talk about our book club pick Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, we talked a lot about assimilation, the performance of race, and the model minority myth.
You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation by Julissa Arce
Interior Chinatown spends a lot of time thinking about assimilation and whether or not it serves Asian immigrants. Julissa Arce reckons with that same question from her perspective as a Latina. She outlines all the reasons why it is time for people of color to give up the white supremacist myth of assimilating into acceptance.
Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America by Julia Lee
I loved this memoir in essays that grapples with what it means to be Asian in America. Totally different in tone (not fiction, not satire) but directly in conversation in spirit with Interior Chinatown.
What books would you pair with this month’s episodes of The Stacks? Tell me in the comments.
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Really enjoyed your discussion with the authors of The Unclaimed. What a fascinating topic that I had never really considered in depth. Amazing, too, that they wrote the book together while living in different continents 🤯
Such great pairings! Would absolutely recommend either K-Ming Chang's Organ Meats or Gods of Want with the episode on Interior Chinatown!