Today marks one full year of The Stacks, and what an amazing year it has been. The Stacks has every intention of making year two even better. To kick it off we have a real life renaissance man; author, comedian, and podcaster, Ben Blacker. We talk today about the importance of literature as a way to see the humanity in others, the types of anger you can feel toward books, and about Ben's life as a writer of many different mediums, from comic books to teen movies.

Everything we talk about on today's episode can be found below in the show notes. The Stacks participates in affiliate programs, and shopping through the links below helps support the show, at no cost to you.

Books

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Hex Wives by Ben Blacker
Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace From the Sea by Yukio Mishima
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Eloquent Rage by Britney Cooper
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
The Reckonings by Lacy M. Johnson
Shrill by Lindy West
Roxane Gay
No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Feel Free by Zadie Smith
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Your Black Friend and Other Strangers by Ben Passmore
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Straight Man by Richard Russo
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
The Secret History by Donna Tart
The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Raymond Chandler
The Outsider by Stephen King
The Destiny Thief by Richard Russo
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Go Tell it on The Mountain by James Baldwin
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Moo by Jane Smiley
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The World Only Spins Forward by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois
All the Pieces Matter by Jonathan Abrams
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
There There by Tommy Orange
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
Lorrie Moore
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
The Only Rule Is It Has To Work by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller
My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendricks
Just the Funny Parts by Nell Scovell
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
Euphoria by Lily King
Join the Resistance by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker
Undead by Kristy McKay
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Stranded by Jeff Probst
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Everything Else

Ask the Stacks-- AskingTheStacks@gmail.com
The Thrilling Adventure Hour
Paul F Tompkins
Paget Brewster
Josh Malina
Busy Phillips
Marc Evan Jackson
Jon Hamm
J.K. Simmons
Beyond Belief- "Wishing Hell" (The Thrilling Adventure Hour, ForeverDog Podcast Network)
Dead Pilots Society (Ben Blacker and Andrew Reich
Maximum Fun Network
The Writers Panel with Ben Blacker (Forever Dog Podcast Network, ATX Television Festival)
Episode 2 - Only Child written by John Hodgman (Dead...