The Stacks

This week on the podcast, our guest is Renée Hicks, founder of Book Girl Magic , an online book club that centers books by and about Black women. Renée shares with us her journey into reading, how her reading has inspired the reading life of her children, and her love of romance novels, one in particular. You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' Website: https://thestacksp...

When a mother, Amanda Stott-Smith, throws her two young children off of a bridge, one journalist tries to understand why. That is the premise of Nancy Rommelmann's true crime book,  To The Bridge . This week, for The Stacks Book Club , we discuss this haunting book with journalist Heather John Fogarty . While the story of Stott-Smith and her children is true, if you're not familiar with the e...

Our guest this week is journalist Heather John Fogarty , whose work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Marie Claire Magazine, Playboy, and more. Heather previously worked as the wine and spirits editor at Bon Appétit. In today's conversation we talk about Heather's James Beard vote, how finding a editor for a novel is like dating, and a book that made both of us very angry. Get ready, Hea...

This week on The Stacks Book Club, activist and organizer Harris Cohn is back to chat about   How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. This book was recently featured by Barack Obama on his Facebook page , as a book that speaks to the current moment in the United States. President Obama says it "is a useful primer on the importance of norms, institutional restraints and...

This week we are joined by Harris Cohn. Harris' day job is in renewable energy, but his real super power is that he is an activist and organizer in his spare time. We talk this week about how Harris got interested in politics, how you can get involved in your local elections, and what SNL cast member Harris wants to write this life story. You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The S...

This week on The Stacks Book Club , journalist and author Nancy Rommelmann is back to discuss  Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup  by John Carreyrou. We talk about the mind blowing story of biotech startup Theranos, and its founder Elizabeth Holmes. We talk about psychopaths, whistle blowers, and of course, this unbelievable story of abuse and fraud. There are spoile...

This week we are joined by author and journalist, Nancy Rommelmann. Nancy talks to us about her newest book  To The Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder , her process as an investigative journalist, and about the time she traveled to see John Wayne Gacy on death row. You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' Website: https://thestackspodcast.com/2018/10/03/ep-...

We are thrilled to discuss this year's Pulitzer Price winner for fiction,  Less   by Andrew Sean Greer, for The Stacks Book Club this week. We are joined by guest, Zeke Smith . Zeke is known for his time as a contestant on Survivor ( Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X ,  Survivor: Game Changers , CBS), and for his work as a writer and trans activist.  Less   tells the story o...

Today on The Stacks we are joined by Zeke Smith. Zeke is a writer and trans activist who you may know best from his seasons on Survivor ( Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X ,  Survivor: Game Changers ) . This week we talk reality TV fame, self-identification, and Zeke's favorite genre of books (hint: its not wha you think). You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' Websit...

Its time for another episode of The Stacks Book Club , and this week we are discussing  Motherhood   by Sheila Heti. We are joined again by author Jo Piazza ( Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win ,  How to Be Married ) to discuss  Motherhood , a book about one woman's meditation on weather or not to have children. The book is written in a unique style and falls into the genre of&n...

This week on the show, we have author and journalist Jo Piazza as our guest. Jo's most recent release is Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win , a novel about a woman running for senate in the 2018 midterm elections. It is very of the moment, and is the Marie Claire Book Club pick  for September. Jo talks to us about her time as a journalist, challenges women face in running for office, and why she li...

Becca Tobin ( Glee ,  Lady Gang ) is back for The Stacks Book Club , and we're discussing Rachel Kushner's newest book  The Mars Room . This gritty novel tells the story of Romy, a young mother who has been incarcerated for two life sentences. We see Romy in her life leading to prison and the world behind bars with thousands of other women struggling to survive. There are spoilers this w...

Our guest this week is Becca Tobin. Becca is most well known as an actress and a co-host of the podcast, The LadyGang . Today we walk about Becca's podcast becoming a TV show, how reading helped her deal with grief, and her love of fiction that feels a little like a rom-com. You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' Website: https://thestackspodcast.com/2018/08/22/ep-2...

We're thrilled to have writer and host of The Extraordinary Negroes Podcast , Jay Connor, back with us this week for The Stacks Book Club , discussing  Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This episode is spent talking about the three major themes from the book: race, violence, and the Black body, and how those themes are ever present in American society. There are no spoilers t...

This week our guest is Jay Connor. Jay is a writer, and the creator and co-host of The Extraordinary Negroes podcast . Jay discuss his winding life path through many cities and many careers. We also talk about what books Jay is into and what writers he admires. You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' Website: https://thestackspodcast.com/2018/08/08/ep-19-talking-writing-p...

Stylist and CEO Ashley North is back this week for The Stacks Book Club and our discussion of Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes. The book is Rhimes' memoir on the year she decided to say yes to everything and use the power of yes to change her life. The book brings up topics surrounding the desire to be professionally successful and personally fulfilled. We talk about motherhood as a "job", the myth of...

Our guest this week is celebrity stylist, TV personality, and CEO of her own lifestyle brand, Ashley North . Ashley is most well known for being Kevin Hart's stylist and now she's sitting down with The Stacks to discuss reading. She talks about the not so glamorous parts of being a stylist, her daughters' love of books, and diversity in school reading curriculum. You can find everything we discuss...

This week Lauren Fanella is here for The Stacks Book Club . We're talking about Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore. In the book, Milo, a human who has been reincarnated almost 10,000 times, is on a quest for perfection and everlasting life. The book touches on a lot of social justice issues, Love, and of course Death. We talk about these themes, who we would cast in the TV show, and more. There...

This week our guest is Lauren Fanella, Lauren is a book reader and reviewer on #bookstagram, you might know her as @literarylauren_ . Lauren is a lover of books by and about unconventional women, she reads for joy, and she's not scared of a big sad book. We talk about Lauren's reading habits, what books she's looking forward to reading, and how books help her to see the world differently. You can...

This week, author Ross Asdourian is back to discuss our The Stacks Book Club book  The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business   by Charles Duhigg. We talk about how habits work, the habits we want to change, and we look at two current political movements as habit formers in the community.  While we do discuss many examples from the book in this episode, we don't r...

We’re excited to welcome Ross Asdourian to our show this week. Ross is the debut author of a hilarious memoir,  Broken Bananah: Life, Love, and Sex…Without a Penis ,  the story of that one time he broke his penis. We don’t just talk about Ross’ unmentionables, we also talk about the process of writing your own book, self-publishing, and more. Of course Ross is also answering all of your...

This week Aaron Dolores , founder of Black Arrow FC is back and we're discussing  How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization  by Franklin Foer. This book takes a look at the world's most popular sport, and how changes in the social and political landscapes are mirrored on the pitch. With The World Cup in full swing, we discuss racism in soccer, we hypothesize...

This week we're joined by Aaron Dolores, founder of Black Arrow FC , a lifestyle brand that focuses on the intersection of soccer and Black culture. The World Cup starts tomorrow, so we're talking about Soccer and how it relates to the Black experience. We also discuss story telling in the Black community, when reading doesn't come so easily, and how challenges in your reading life can effect your...

This week, actress Vella Lovell ( Crazy Ex- Girlfriend , The Big Sick ) is back on The Stacks. This week we're talking about New Boy by Tracy Chevalier. New Boy is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, in which modern day authors retell Shakespeare's classic works.  New Boy is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's  Othello , set in a 1970's elementary school in Washington D.C. We talk...

Actress Vella Lovell ( Crazy Ex- Girlfriend , The Big Sick ) joins us this week to nerd out on books. Vella talks about reading as an actor, examining scripts for clues to her character's inner workings, and being a good scene partner. Vella also talks about trusting  Oprah's Book Club  recommendations and her love of self help books, especially as a spiritual guide for working actors. W...