the stacks BOOK CLUB
We’re not only a podcast that talks about bookish behavior and reading recommendations, we also have a regular book club. The last Wednesday of every month we discuss a book with a guest in great detail on the podcast. We dig into the book, its themes, and what it brings up for us readers. Below is a list of all the official picks of The Stacks Book Club.
2024
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler - July 31st
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover with Melissa Mogollon – June 26th (Ep. 325)
No Name in the Street by James Baldwin with Yahdon Israel – May 29th
(Ep. 321)
The January Children by Safia Elhillo with Hala Alyan – April 24th (Ep. 316)
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu with Elise Hu – March 27th (Ep. 312)
Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want by Ruha Benjamin with Uché Blackstock – February 28th (Ep. 308)
Erasure by Percival Everett with Zach Stafford – January 31st (Ep. 304)
2023
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare with Farah Karim-Cooper – December 27th (Ep. 299)
Severance by Ling Ma with Mitchell S. Jackson – November 29th (Ep. 295)
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison with Minda Honey – October 25th (Ep. 290)
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer with Brittany Luse – September 27th (Ep. 286)
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi with Sam Sanders- August 30th (Ep. 282)
Watchmen by Alan Moore, illustrations by Dave Gibbons with Joel Christian Gill- July 26th (Ep. 277)
Oreo by Fran Ross with Hannah Oliver Depp – June 28th (Ep. 273)
This Boy We Made by Taylor Harris with Nicole Chung- May 31st (Ep. 269)
Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay with Clint Smith- April 26th (Ep. 264)
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay with Shanita Hubbard- March 29th (Ep. 260)
The Round House by Louise Erdrich with Mina Kimes- February 22nd (Ep. 255)
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey with Chelsea Devantez- January 25th (Ep. 251)
2022
True Biz by Sara Nović with Greta Johnsen- December 28th (Ep. 247)
Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms by Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law with Mariame Kaba- November 30th (Ep. 243)
Fairest by Meredith Talusan with Anthony Ocampo- October 26th (Ep. 238)
The Trees by Percival Everett with Lisa Lucas- September 28th (Ep. 234)
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee with Ingrid Rojas Contreras - August 31st (Ep. 230)
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih with Elamin Abdelmahmoud - July 27th (Ep. 225)
White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation with David Dennis Jr. - June 29th (Ep. 221)
Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith with Novena Carmel - May 25th
Doppelgangbanger by Cortney Lamar Charleston with Nate Marshall - April 27th (Ep. 212)
A Mercy by Toni Morrison with Imani Perry - March 30th (Ep. 208)
I Live a Life Like Yours: A Memoir by Jan Grue with Tessa Miller - February 23rd (Ep. 203)
Passing by Nella Larsen with Cree Myles - January 26th (Ep. 200)
2021
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib with Andrew Ti - December 29th (Ep. 196)
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison with Dawnie Walton - November 24th (Ep. 191)
Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan with Nichole Perkins - October 27th (Ep. 187)
Blood in the Water: The Attice Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson with Derecka Purnell - September 29th (Ep. 183)
Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi with Juliet Litman - August 25th (Ep. 178)
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui with Mira Jacob - July 28th (Ep. 174 )
The Undying: A Meditation on Modern Illness by Anne Boyer with Mychal Denzel Smith - June 30th (Ep. 170)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy with Jenny Lee - May 26th (Ep. 165)
The Tradition by Jericho Brown with Reginald Dwayne Betts - April 28th (Ep. 161)
Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh with Nic Stone - March 31st (Ep. 157)
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook with Vann Newkirk - February 24th (Ep. 152)
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans with Deesha Philyaw - January 26th (Ep. 148)
2020
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine with Darnell Moore - December 30th (Ep. 144)
The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America by Marcus J. Moore with Cole Cuchna - November 25th (Ep. 139)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley with Marc Lamont Hill- October 28th (Ep. 135)
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio with Lupita Aquino - September 30th (Ep. 131)
Sula by Toni Morrison with Brit Bennett - August 26th (Ep. 126)
Breathe by Imani Perry with Kiese Laymon - July 29th (Ep. 122)
Savage Appetites by Rachel Monroe with Emma Copley Eisenberg - June 24th (Ep. 117)
The Giver by Lois Lowry - May 27th with Sue Thomas (Ep. 113)
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi - April 29th with Brandon Taylor (Ep. 109)
So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson - March 25th with Gigi Levangie (Ep. 104)
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde - March 11th with Asha Grant (Ep. 102)
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo - February 26th with August McLaughlin (Ep. 100)
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne - February 12th with Leah Koch (Ep. 98)
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino - January 29th with Jordan Moblo (Ep. 96)
Cribsheet by Emily Oster - January 15th with Jenna Parris (Ep. 94)
Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li - January 1st with Vanessa Hua (Ep. 92)
2019
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson - December 18th with Jason Reynolds (Ep. 90)
Tell Me How It Ends by Valeira Luiselli - December 4th with Ayser Salman (Ep. 88)
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat - November 20th with Hugh Garvey (Ep. 86)
We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin - November 6th with Chris L. Terry (Ep. 84)
Chase Darkness with Me by Billy Jensen - October 23rd with Jac Vanek (Ep. 82)
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin - October 9th with Jenna Ushkowitz (Ep. 80)
Educated by Tara Westover - September 25th with Sarah Enni (Ep. 78)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - September 11th with Clark Moore (Ep. 76)
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington - August 28th with Allison Punch (Ep. 74)
The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander - August 14th with Dani McClain (Ep. 72)
Work Party by Jaclyn Johnson - July 31st with Calli Cholodenko (Ep. 70)
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim - July 17th with Rachel Overvoll (Ep. 68)
Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson - July 3rd with Dave Cullen (Ep. 66)
The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams - June 19th with Lori Gottlieb (Ep. 64)
Tinderbox by Robert W. Fieseler - June 5th with Joseph Papa (Ep. 62)
Beloved by Toni Morrison - May 22nd with DaMaris B. Hill (Ep. 60)
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed - May 8th with Keltie Knight (Ep. 58)
Wild Beauty by Ntozake Shange - April 24th with Gabrielle Civil (Ep. 56)
The World Only Spins Forward by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois - April 10th with Ben Blacker (Ep. 54)
I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid - March 27th with Niccole Thurman (Ep. 52)
Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister - March 13th with James J. Sexton (Ep. 50)
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - February 27th with Wade Allain-Marcus (Ep. 48)
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung - February 13th with Vanessa McGrady (Ep. 46)
Rap Dad by Juan Vidal - January 30th with Josh Segarra (Ep. 44)
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie - January 16th with Tawny Newsome (Ep. 42)
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz - January 2nd with Alec Penix (Ep. 40)
2018
Open City by Teju Cole - December 19th with Behzad Dabu (Ep. 38)
If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim - December 5 with Aja Gabel (Ep.36)
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison - November 21 with Renée Hicks (Ep.34)
To the Bridge by Nancy Rommelmann - November 7 with Heather John Fogarty (Ep. 32)
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt - October 24 with Harris Cohn (Ep. 30)
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou - October 10 with Nancy Rommelmann (Ep. 28)
Less by Andrew Sean Greer - September 26 with Zeke Smith (Ep. 26)
Motherhood by Sheila Heti - September 12 with Jo Piazza (Ep. 24)
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner - August 29 with Becca Tobin (Ep. 22)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - August 15 with Jay Connor (Ep. 20)
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhymes - August 1 with Ashley North (Ep. 18)
Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore - July 18 with Lauren Fanella (Ep. 16)
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - July 4 with Ross Asdourian (Ep. 14)
How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer - June 20 with Aaron Dolores (Ep. 12)
New Boy by Tracy Chevalier - June 6 with Vella Lovell (Ep. 10)
Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth - May 23 with Sam Pinkleton (Ep. 8)
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin - May 9 with Chris Maddox (Ep. 6)
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward - April 25 with Sarah Fong (Ep. 4)
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid - April 11 with Dallas Lopez (Ep. 2)