Unabridged: Summer Reading Guide Companion Pod with Sara Hildreth

This month you're getting a bonus bonus episode of The Stacks Unabridged. Because we love summer and books, Sara Hildreth of Fiction Matters is here to talk about summer reading guides. We hand out a few literary superlatives like, best book to read on an airplane and most dramatic. Plus we share some books we've read since the guides were dropped that we think you should at to your reading lists. If you haven't gotten The Stacks’ Nonfiction Reading Guide or Sara's Paperback Summer Reading Guide, be sure to grab those and get to listening.

*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.

JOIN PATREON OR SUBSTACK TO LISTEN

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find what we talked about on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

• Fiction Matters Substack

• Fiction Matters Patreon

• 2025 Paperback Summer Reading Guide (Sara Hildreth, Fiction Matters)

• 2025 Nonfiction Reading Guide (Unstacked)

• Summer Reading Guide Chat with Sara Hildreth (Substack Live)

• Doris Kearns Goodwin

• “My 2024 Summer Reading & Music Lists” (Barack Obama, Medium)

• “Here Are My Favorite Books, Movies, and Music of 2024” (Barack Obama, Medium)

• There Is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone

• Audition by Katie Kitamura

• The Mobius Book by Catherine Lacey

• Flashlight by Susan Choi

• S. A. Cosby

• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

• Mother Emmanuel by Kevin Sack

• 2024 by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf

• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

• Original Sins by Eve L. Ewing

• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

• Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew

• The Wickedest by Caleb Femi

• Penmarric by Susan Howatch

• Kindle Unlimited

• Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

• “Did the Texas Floods Have to Be This Deadly?” (The Daily, The New York Times)

• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

• Here & Now Anytime (WBUR, NPR)

• James by Percival Everett

• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

• The Pasha of Cuisine by Saygin Ersin, translated by Mark Wyers

• Who Is Government? by Michael Lewis

• Moneyball by Michael Lewis

• Who Is Government? by Michael Lewis (audiobook)

• The Pilgrimage by John Broderick

• Bad City by Paul Pringle

• University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)

• The Los Angeles Times

• Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li

• The Pulitzer Prize

• Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

• Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante

• “Unabridged: We’re in a Gender Straitjacket with Emily St. James” (The Stacks)

• Woodworking by Emily St. James

• Oklahoma City by Andrew Gumbel and Roger G. Charles

• Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

• Brandy Sour by Constantia Soteriou translated by Lina Protopapa

• That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye translated by Jordan Stump

• Vengeance Is Mine by Marie NDiaye translated by Jordan Stump

• Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

• Black Hearts by Jim Frederick

• Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates

• Fox by Joyce Carol Oates

• God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

• Just Kids by Patti Smith

• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

• Square Waves by Alexandra Romanoff

• A Flower Traveled in my Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliand

• Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates

• We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

• Ask Not by Maureen Callahan

• Mary Jo Kopechne

• Marilyn Monroe

• Jackie Kennedy Onassis

• Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

• Nazi Billionaires by David De Jong

• Allianz

• BMW

• Mercedes-Benz

• Volkswagon

• Bayer

• Rothschild family

• Joseph Goebbels

• Magda Goebbels

• Harald Quandt

• Porsche

• Ferry Porsche

• Jubilee by Margaret Walker

• Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle

• Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza

• Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe

• Beloved by Toni Morrison

• Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet

• The Manhattan Project

• The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki

• The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

  
  Connect with Sara: Instagram | Fiction Matters | Novel Pairings | Substack
  Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe
  
  To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

---

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.