The Stacks Pairings: November 2024
November was an iconic month in The Stacks, here are some books to pair with our guests and their books.
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! Please know, I have not always read every book suggested here.
Justine Kay on The Stacks
Justine Kay is the co-cohost of the reality TV and pop culture podcast 2 Black Girls 1 Rose came on the show to talk about optimism, and primal play and so much more.
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Justine is a romance girlie and there is no romance novel I love more than Tia Williams’ second chance love story about a couple who had a seven day fling in high school (hence the title) who reconnect as adults.
Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America's Favorite Guilty Pleasure by Amy Kaufman
If you love The Bachelor franchise this book is an inside look at how it all came to be. The only downside here is that Kaufman needs to write a sequel since it was published before Chris Harrison’s ouster.
Jason Reynolds on The Stacks
Good friend of the pod, Jason Reynolds, is back in The Stacks talking about his new book, Twenty-four Seconds from Now…: Love Story. We talk about love stories for Black boys, our thoughts after the election, and the literary cannon.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
One of the things Jason and I talked a lot about on the episode was the idea of “girl” and “boy” books (inspired by this piece from
Long Division by Kiese Laymon
Ok these books are very different in most ways, but at the center of each of these novels is a sweet tender teenaged boy trying to figure things out. The way you fall in the love with the protagonists in both is the same, all things considered.
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on The Stacks
The brilliant
discussed her new book What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures and what we can do to get involved in climate solutions. She is incredible and this episode really offers direction as well as more questions (always more questions) to continue to think about how to get this right.Black Futures by Jenna Wortham and Kimberley Drews
Not only is this the book that first introduced me to Ayana Johnson’s work, it is also one of the books that inspired What If We Get it Right? If you haven’t read it, you must, it is a beautiful and expansive collection of essays, poems, recipes, and more that explore Black culture with an eye toward whatever comes next.
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
This is the first real climate book I read and if you want to know exactly what is at stake, this is what you need to read. Wallace-Wells lays out exactly what a few degrees of warming looks like for all of us here on earth.
The Stacks Book Club on Luster
Messy messy messy. Ravel Leilani did not come to play when she wrote Luster. So many bad choices and people who I would never want to be caught in an elevator with. Justine Kay and I had a great time talking about this one.
New People by Danzy Senna
I have to say sorry in advance here because I know I always recommend Danzy Senna’s books, but truly no one writes women who make unhinged decisions like Danzy Senna. No one does it like Danzy, but Leilani is for sure in that tradition.
More: A Memoir of Open Marriage by Molly Roden Winter
Here is a memoir for you about being in an open marriage from the perspective of the wife who instigates it all. Its an interesting nonfiction companion to Luster.
What books would you pair with this month’s episodes of The Stacks? Tell me in the comments.