The Stacks

Choreographer Sam Pinkleton is back in time for The Stacks Book Club to take on true crime, with Vulgar Favors: The Assassination of Gianni Versace by Maureen Orth. The book examines the serial killer Andrew Cunanan , who murdered 5 men in 1997 culminating in the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace. We discuss Cunanan and his victims, but mostly we focus on the tone of the book. We exam...

This week on the show we are talking all things books with Tony nominated choreographer, Sam Pinkleton, best known for his work on the Broadway show,  Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 . Sam and Traci discuss using books as an entry point to new worlds, the mythology of the present, and a handful of their favorite true crime books. You can find everything we discuss on today'...

On this week of The Stacks, we discuss Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin with our guest, TV writer Chris Maddox. Giovanni's Room is a classic American novel written in 1956, and the topics of masculinity, isolation, and love deferred are as relevant now as they were then. Our conversation traverses these themes from the book and more, like what we think of the title and who we think should star in...

This week I am joined by TV writer and actor, Chris Maddox. Reading is a huge part of Chris' professional life, and creative habit. Chris shares the kind of stories that excite him when he's looking to write new TV shows and books that have helped shape him as a writer. We get to know Chris this week, before The Stacks Book Club conversation about James Baldwin's classic, Giovanni's Room . You can...

On this week of The Stacks, PhD candidate Sarah Fong is back, and we're talking about Jesmyn Ward's memoir, Men We Reaped.  Our conversation dives into the deaths of five Black men in Ward's life, and what these deaths say about the greater experience of Black people in America. We discuss substance abuse, mental health, grief, systemic racism and a lot more. There are spoilers in t...

On this week of The Stacks we are joined by Sarah Fong, a PhD Candidate in American Studies. Sarah is currently writing her dissertation on U.S. practices of social welfare, particularly as they relate to histories of slavery and colonization. This week we talk about the writing process, reading for work vs. reading for pleasure, and the power of books to teach us new things, and allow us to make...

On this week of The Stacks, high school English teacher Dallas Lopez is back, and we're talking about Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. This is our very first The Stacks Book Club (TSBC) episode. Join us as we discuss the fears of leaving your home behind, the power of the human spirit to carry on, who we think should be in the movie, and a lot more. There are spoilers in this episode. You...

On this week of The Stacks we talk with High School English Teacher, Dallas Lopez. He tells us about how he used to hate reading, and how self-help books helped him to find his way into reading. We discuss books that Dallas loves, and books he doesn't, and books that at one point or another fit in both categories. This week you'll get to know Dallas before next week's The Stacks Book Club conversa...

Welcome to The Stacks a brand new podcast all about books, hosted by Traci Thomas. The Stacks is your one stop shop to talk books and reading. Guests will join the host, Traci Thomas for lively discussions about books and the ways they have shaped their lives, and they way we all understand culture, race, politics, and more. The last Wednesday of each month Traci and guest will break down a book i...