The Stacks Pairings: May 2024
From James Badlwin to sex robots, 10 books to pair with this month's podcast episodes.
Every month I’m 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 go 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!
Yahdon Israel on The Stacks
Yahdon Israel, Senior editor at Simon & Schuster, founder of the Literary Swag Book Club, and all around stand up literary citizen, joined The Stacks this month to talk about authors embracing their brand, how he thinks about acquiring books, and so much more. This is a can’t miss episode.
Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal
This was Yahdon’s first acquisition as an editor. It ended up being the darling of the 2023 literary season, including being a finalist for the National Book Award. It is a collection of short stories that will give you a better sense of what kind of things, Yahdon is into, and what make his eye as an editor so unique.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
This might seem like an odd pairing, but on the episode we spend a lot of time talking about the career arc of authors in contrast to the success of their first or second books. We specifically talk about the career arc of Toni Morrison, and going back to her debut is a great reminder.
Paula Yoo on The Stacks
Paula Yoo came on the podcast to discuss her latest YA nonfiction book Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire. We covered both the riots themselves and writing nonfiction for young folks.
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith
This is a “documentary” style play and one woman show about the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. A modern classic. Smith interviewed more than 200 people to create this intimate portrait of the events of 1992 while also getting at the much bigger implications of the violence and racial turmoil in LA at the time.
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
This is some of the best YA nonfiction I have read (in addition to Paula Yoo’s previous book, From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry). It is the story about a nonbinary child who is set on fire by another child on a bus in Oakland, CA. It handles these events with compassion while also treating the reader as a mature person who can critically think about these events.
Carvell Wallace on The Stacks
I loved Carvell Wallace’s book Another Word for Love so much, and was thrilled to get to talk with them about storytelling, vulnerability, and also hip-hop and basketball.
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Yes, this is extremely high praise from me, but I could feel so much of Wallace’s work in conversation with Laymon’s. They’re both memoirs about young Black boys trying to survive and also trying to make revision and repair to their own stories.
How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones
The ways that both Jones and Wallace explore sex, sexuality, and discovery are so linked. I find each of these authors, Black queer folks, open to pressing on bruises to uncover something in that tender hurt.
Sierra Greer on The Stacks
When I read Annie Bot, a book about a robot who is created with the goal of being the perfect girlfriend, I knew I had to interview the author about what she was thinking and how this story came to be.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishuguro
This is the story about a robot toy friend who watches the world outside her shop window learning from the humans who pass by, and hoping to be purchased and taken home.
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
Instead of losing custody or getting locked in jail, this specultive fiction novel, explores what might happen if parents who are deemed to be neglectful or at a risk to their children, are sent to a program to practice their parenting on dolls.
The Stacks Book Club on No Name in the Street
To celebrate James Baldwin’s centennial we read No Name in the Street with Yahdon Israel for book club. The book explores life in the 60s and 70s along with Baldwin’s own thoughts about his own power and influence.
Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
In No Name in the Street, Baldwin addresses his public beef with Eldridge Cleaver, much of which is featured in Cleaver’s own memoir about activism and the civil rights era, Soul on Ice. Now you get to read both and take sides.
The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride by David Dennis Jr. with David Dennis Sr.
A look back on the civil rights movement from the perspective of an organizer and activist who survived. The Movement Made Us features many of the same events and figures as No Name in the Street but you get to see it from a deeply “on the ground” point of view and with over 50 years to reflect.
What books would you pair with this month’s episodes of The Stacks? Tell me in the comments.
I learned so much from both your conversations with Yahdon - I'm still making my way through No Name in the Street, and I'll be pairing it with The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which I've been meaning to read for years!