The Stacks Pairings: October 2024
Here are book recommendations to pair with all five episodes of The Stacks from October.
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.
Franklin Leonard on The Stacks
Hollywood exec and disruptor Franklin Leonard came on The Stacks to talk about his expansion into literature with The Black List Fiction.
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
This is one of Franklin’s favorite books so if you want to get to know Franklin a little better, this is a great place to start.
Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears by Michael Schulman
Franklin in a Hollywood guy, and this is a Hollywood book. A fun look into the history and politics of The Academy Awards. This one sheds light on the world in which Franklin lives, works, and is disrupting with his platform, The Black List.
Jesselyn Cook The Stacks
I was thrilled to get to talk to author and journalist Jesselyn Cook about her book The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family because I really knew nothing about QAnon and she is a wealth of knowledge.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
I love when books take on topics by embedding with people who are living through the experiences. Desmond does this beautifully in his Pulitzer winner, so if that is a style you like in your nonfiction this would be a perfect pairing.
The Storm Is Upon Us: How Qanon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything by Mike Rothschild
This was one of the books Cook recommend on the episode and it sounds fantastic for a deeper dive into the hows and whys behind QAnon.
Jason De León on The Stacks
On this episode I got to talk with Jason De León about how he thinks about ethics and narrative while writing ethnography, and also about the kinds of stories we are told from the border and how his book, Soldiers and Kings takes a different aim.
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer
This is the most comprehensive history of immigration from Central America to The United States that I have read. The book digs deep into the stories of multiple immigrants from the 1970s to today and tells a much broader story about the policies, people, and events that have shaped the crisis at the border. Where De León goes micro with smugglers, Blitzer goes macro with immigration from Central America as a whole.
The Way That Leads Among the Lost: Life, Death, and Hope in Mexico City's Anexos by Angela Garcia
An intense ethnography that takes the reader into the world of Mexico City’s anexos, which are informal addiction treatment facilities. If you like ethnography this is certainly one worth checking out.
Jessica Valenti on The Stacks
I loved talking with
about her new book Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win. She helped me make sense of a few things around women’s reproductive rights and why it is important to remind folks that abortion is good and popular.The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having--Or Being Denied--An Abortion by Diana Greene Foster
This is a book that Valenti talks about in Abortion and it follows women all over the country who received and were turned away from abortion services to see what kind of impact – physical, emotional, financial, professional, mental – being denied an abortion has. It is a massive undertaking of a book and helps the reader understand what is at stake.
After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate by Mary Ziegler
In After Roe we get a clear and direct view of what has happened since Roe was passed. We get to see how activism, politics, and religion played a key role in turning abortion into one of the most contentious subjects of debate in America. It helps the reader to connect the dots from history to current events.
The Stacks Book Club on The Nickel Boys
You haven’t gotten to hear this month’s book club conversation on The Nickel Boys just yet (it is coming on Wednesday, October 30th) but Franklin and I have a good time discussing the friendship at the center of the book. We also talk a little about the film adaptation.
We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys by Erin Kimmerle
The Nickel Boys is a fictionalization of the events that took place at The Dozier School for boys, We Carry Their Bones is the the nonfiction version. If you want to know more and dig deeper into the horrors of the novel, this would be a perfect place to start.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Hear me out with this pairing, because I know it isn’t what you were expecting, but, Lord of the Flies is for sure in conversation with The Nickel Boys. Both books deal with teenaged boys in less than desirable circumstances. Both have main characters that approach the world in very different ways. Both are searching for order in chaos. And both books look at what happens to young people who are left uncared for.
What books would you pair with this month’s episodes of The Stacks? Tell me in the comments.
I actually love the idea of Lord of the Flies as a pairing to The Nickel Boys. No arguments here.