The Stacks

It's time for a Stacks Unabridged favorite: Our Most Anticipated Books of 2026...at least the first half anyway. I'm once again joined by two of my favorite book people, Cree Myles (All Ways Black) and Sara Hildreth (Fiction Matters), to gush about the books we can't wait to dive into in the first half of the year, sharing our top picks month by month. Plus, we do a little post-mortem on 2025 and set some semi-realistic reading goals for 2026. Get your TBR lists ready—you’ll have a lot of new additions.
*This episode is exclusive to members of The Stacks Pack on Patreon and our Substack subscribers. To join a community, get inside access to the show, and listen now, click the link below.
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Today on The Stacks, we are joined by Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick to discuss her new book Storm at the Capitol: An Oral History of January 6th. In this book, Mary Clare offers a comprehensive retelling of the January 6th insurrection through firsthand accounts from the rioters, police officers, journalists (including herself), and lawmakers who were forced to flee the violence. We talk about why she frames this as an oral history, how she captured the violence of that day, and how the narrative surrounding January 6th has evolved over the past five years.
The Stacks Book Club pick for January is Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, January 28th, with Christiana Mbakwe Medina.
You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2026/1/21/ep-408-mary-clare-jalonick
Connect with Mary Clare: Website
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Today on The Stacks, we’re joined by award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author, Jacob Soboroff, to discuss his newest book, Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster. In this book, Jacob takes us to the frontlines of the January 2025 L.A. Fires to offer a deeply personal, firsthand account of one of the most destructive fires in the city’s history. We discuss why he chose to write about what he calls “the fires of the future,” how his childhood in the Palisades shaped his reporting, and the politics behind this environmental disaster.
The Stacks Book Club pick for January is Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, January 28th, with Christiana Mbakwe Medina returning as our guest.
You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2026/1/14/ep-407-jacob-soboroff
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Today on The Stacks, we are joined by Emmy-nominated TV writer, former co-host of What Now? with Trevor Noah, and creator of the Pop Syllabus newsletter and podcast, Christiana Mbakwe Medina. We talk about how Christiana became a comedy writer and culture critic, the intersections of wealth and access in celebrity culture, and what we can get out of taking pop culture seriously.
The Stacks Book Club pick for January is Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, January 28th, with Christiana Mbakwe Medina returning as our guest.
You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2026/1/7/ep-406-christiana-mbakwe-medina
Connect with Christiana: Instagram | Pop Syllabus Instagram | Substack | Threads
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For the last Stacks Book Club episode of the year, we're diving into Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger with Joel Anderson, senior staff writer at The Ringer and co-host of sports & media podcast The Press Box. This book follows the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers, one of the best high-school football teams in Texas history. We discuss whether this book could exist as is today, how we feel about high school athletes getting special academic treatment, and why Joel wants to untether grades from extracurricular activities.
There are spoilers in this episode.
Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our January book club pick will be.
You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/12/31/ep-405-friday-night-lights
Connect with Joel: Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky
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