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- [00:01]
A
You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you might not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $900 on average. Pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary Hi everybody, it's
- [00:40]
B
me, Tracy Thomas, host of the Stacks, and you're listening to another episode of the Stacks Unabridged. This is our bonus episode exclusive for paid subscribers on Patreon and Substack. Today is one of my favorite episodes of the year. One of Yalls favorite episodes of the year it is our b Check in with Cree Miles and Sarah Hildreth, two of my favorite readers about forthcoming books from July through December of 2026. The ladies and I talk about the books we're excited for and we also reflect a little bit on what we've noticed so far in 2026 books. If you're listening to today's episode and it cuts out after about 10 or 15 minutes, that means you're not a paid subscriber on Patreon or Substack and you should definitely do that right now. In addition to getting this bonus episode, you would get all all of our bonus episodes. You would get access to my summer non fiction reading guide that is only available between now and September 22, plus a whole bunch of other perks. So if you like the show, if you like what you're hearing, head to patreon.com the stacks to join the Stacks pack and you can subscribe to my newsletter at Tracy Thomas substack.com All right everybody, time to dive into my conversation with Sarah Hildreth and Cre Miles about the forthcoming books for the second half of 2020.
- [02:12]
C
Okay everybody, you asked for it. You always ask for it and you get what you ask for. This is another episode of the Stacks Unabridged. It is our semi annual conversation about forthcoming books. I am joined by our two favorite guests who are already annoying me today, so we'll see how this goes. Cree Miles hi person you guys fudgeing know? It's Cree and Sarah Hildreth. Okay I don't have to introduce them every time. They're amazing. Links to all their stuff are in the show notes. It's like, I do these, like, long intros for you guys, but it's like everybody who's here, this is the Patreon and the substack paid subscribers. If you're here, you, you know, so, Sarah, welcome back.
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D
You know, you know, thank you for having us.
- [02:59]
C
Of course. Of course.
- [03:00]
D
It's a privilege.
- [03:01]
C
It's about to be a punishment. I'm going to be honest. I'm coming in hot. You guys came in. Cree came into this episode of Books you're excited for, and she said, I'm ill prepared. I only have five books. So Sarah and I said we were ill prepared, thinking we had too many books. So between.
- [03:18]
D
We might have pick up the slack.
- [03:20]
E
So.
- [03:21]
C
Yeah, exactly. Between the three of us, we will balance it out as we always do. But before we get to the second half of the year, books, any. Is anybody noticing any trends, anything going on this year? Anything catching your eye about books so far in 2026?
- [03:39]
E
I mean, we watched the Pulitzers together.
- [03:43]
C
We did.
- [03:44]
E
And so I've actually been reflecting on how deeply dark, like the fact that a horror novel won for fiction and then a. All of the reporting was just so dark. Like, it's just like I feel like we're just in a dark time. And in a lot of ways, like, as we're all on social media, so I know that we see like, at least in my feed, when everything was happening in Minnesota, I was just getting that all the time. But it seems like things have quieted down. And I think that the writers and the journalists are not letting it quiet down because they just. They have a craft that is not as present as the rest of the world lives in. So I have just. I've noticed that and just have been wanting to sit in that reality.
- [04:34]
D
Yeah, that's very understandable. Yeah.
- [04:38]
C
Very insightful.
- [04:39]
D
Yeah, I. I feel like my reading has been so weird this year. I mean, on a personal note, my dad passed away and that seriously impacted how I'm reading and what I'm reading. Now that my summer reading guide is out, I'm like, getting back into some of the new releases that I'd kind of put aside for those other reasons. And it's interesting that. That you say Cree, that you're feeling like a lot of darkness in the world and in books. Because my. The most recent new release I finished was the Things We Never say by Elizabeth Strout, who I Feel like she's an author that a lot of people turn to for kind of warmth and, like, the goodness of humanity. And even though hard things happen, like, our connections with each other are beautiful. And this was, like, her darkest book I have read. It was very political, and. And I think it's great that she went there, but it was just. It was fascinating because it's like, even this author who, among, like, literary fiction writers is writing some of the warmest books is, you know, like, being pulled in kind of a different tonal direction because of everything that's. That's going on. So I. I agree with what you're. What you're saying, Cree, both in terms of, like, how it's affecting readers and how it's affecting writers.
- [06:09]
C
I.
- [06:09]
B
Okay, so I can't really weigh in
- [06:11]
C
on this because, as you both know, I just read mostly, like, really dark stuff all the time. And so I'm just. I've never read Elizabeth Strout. This is, like, you know, not in my wheelhouse. And because so many of the Pulitzer E books and pieces, like, I had already read, like, that's just where I live. I think that's why I like that award so much.
- [06:33]
B
But one of the things I have
- [06:34]
C
noticed this year is the amount of, like, vitriol around books. Everybody hates everything and hates everyone, and Lena Dunham's the worst. And, like, obviously, I despise yesteryear, but, like, the way that we're talking about these books or, like, the way people want Bell Burden, the author of Strangers to be, like, destitute. Like, all of that I found really interesting this year. Like, it's like a very. Like, even, like, a book like Kin that I think is mostly everybody loves, like, the way people are like Kin. I hated the ending. It's the worst. And I just, like, okay, the book's not the worst. Like, you just didn't like the ending. But I think that's more like, the bigger, buzzier books are just more people are reading them and talking about them online, and the talking about them online is making more people want to read them, which also talking shit about books
- [07:27]
B
is good for books.
- [07:27]
C
But I don't know. I don't know.
- [07:28]
E
I also feel like, like, the commodifying of intellectualism is, like, on the rise. Like, if we're watching, like, the. The luxury brands and Coach has the little trinkets and Dior put out, the whatever. And so people are trying to jump in a conversation as if it doesn't take a certain amount of, like, rigor and previous participation in order to offer anything insightful. So I think a lot of times we're just getting these very vanilla takes because there are new readers or new people who are trying to jump on the intellectual bandwagon as if it's not like a lifelong pursuit that shouldn't actually be aesthetically created and be created in real life life, you know.
- [08:10]
D
Did you, Tracy, did you read the Maris Kreitzman piece in Harper's Bazaar about the. Right. Did you see it floating around? I didn't, yeah. It was called the Rise of Rage Bait lit. And it was about yesteryear strangers, the Lena Dunna memoir, and maybe the Lindy west memoir, because that was a whole thing.
- [08:35]
C
But I also think.
- [08:36]
B
Okay, so I, I haven't read it,
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C
but one of the things that I've
- [08:39]
B
noticed is also it's not just about
- [08:41]
C
like, like the rage made of it all, but it's about like where white women belong in marriage and family. Like all of those books are about where white women belong, whether it's like Lena Dunham being out of place. Yesteryear is about a trad wife, Bell Burden is about a divorce, and Lindy west is about a pretty up marriage. And so I feel like, yes, it's about the rage, but I feel like the rage in these books are all coming from like domestic white women. Okay, does she talk about that part of it?
- [09:17]
D
No, no. Like, but I think you're totally right,
- [09:20]
C
cuz like Patrick, Rad and Keith has a really popular book. And like, it's not Rage Beatty at all. Because it has nothing to do with. I mean, quite frankly, there's only one woman in the whole book. Which was one of my critiques of the book. I love you, Patrick, but we exist. And I know he knows that because like, as, as my boyfriend, like, he's very kind and generous with me, but like, I don't want to shit on my boyfriend. I love him so much.
- [09:50]
E
Public. Not in public.
- [09:51]
C
Not in public. No, no, we keep this in the, in the home. But, but like, even Ken is about black women. And like, it's not this, like, there's something the white woman say.
- [10:02]
E
On a personal note, the white women in my immediate vicinity have been. It's the ability to self manage themselves. They are busting out at the seams. They're giving everybody else their problems and their anger. Like, and it really is just like, what, what does our society suggest that you think that this is okay? And you're the only demographic that I'm getting this from. And it Sounds like that's also what's happening in the books. It's not our job to manage, y'.
- [10:31]
C
All.
- [10:32]
D
Yeah, I think that's right. And I also think that these books are being kind of pitched towards, like, white women reading demographics who tend towards celebrity book clubs chosen by other white women. Not that all of these books were picked for those book clubs, but they're in that same network. And I think, like, they are more provocative than a lot of what that demographic might tend to read. And, I mean, I haven't read all of these books, but I. Yeah, I'm curious about, like, what. Like, you said, Cree, like, what has been the foundation of reading and thinking through these ideas that now, like, these books seem. So whether it's offensive or just, like, poking at people maybe, who aren't used to being poked in this way.
- [11:29]
E
And I feel like, Tracy, you can speak to this because you talked about this on threads, and then Tayari, y', all. You and Tayari talked. But even the fact that Ken and yesteryear are in conversation with each other in any, like, people are trying to do that in any meaningful way is actually blowing me to smithereens. And then people being like, I didn't understand the meaning of Ken. I mean, the ending of Ken. I'm just like. Like, you all don't want to think or feel. You just want to be entertained. I'm sorry.
- [11:55]
B
I'm.
- [11:55]
E
I'm tired.
- [11:56]
C
Yeah.
- [11:57]
D
Yeah.
- [11:58]
C
I feel like it's unfortunate that Kin is even brought into this conversation in a lot of ways, because I feel like that book is so above and beyond, like, what yesteryear has done and is doing. But because they both came out around the same time, both from Knopf, and both had huge marketing pushes, they're sort of being pinned up against each other in a way that I'm. Is, like, it upsets me because I've read both, and, like, one is really good, and one is a fudgeing mess. And, like, you can, like, yesteryear. Like, I'm not saying that you can't like yesteryear, but the idea that yesteryear and kin are in the same orbit is, like, upsetting to me in the same way that, like, you can like, a McDonald's cheeseburger. You can. But, like, you can't tell me that a McDonald's cheeseburger as the same as a cheeseburger from, I don't. I don't know. Some fancy place. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, and a lot of people like McDonald's cheeseburgers and that's fine, but
- [12:58]
D
like, real people eat those every day then. Yeah. Yes.
- [13:02]
C
And like, and I like, I like. I mean, I don't like McDonald's cheeseburgers. Like, I love a chicken nugget from McDonald's. And that's different than a. Like you. You guys know what I'm saying? And like, quality and enjoyment are two separate things. And we have to be okay with saying that without being elitist, you know? Like, I feel like that's the thing is like, people get worried if they say that something like yesteryear is bad, that they're like, be like, well, you're just. You're a book snob. And it's like, well, no, I just know that a McDonald's cheeseburger is not as good as that cheeseburger I had from that steakhouse. Like, I just understand the quality, the thickness. Like the sauce. Like, it's just. It's this. This cheese is real cheddar. This is American. You can like American, but you've got to recognize, you know, like.
- [13:48]
E
Yeah.
- [13:49]
C
How come I have to say this?
- [13:51]
E
How honest are we about to be right now? Because I would also like to dive into the fact that Knopf published both of those in the first place.
- [13:58]
C
Well, we can be honest about that because there's an editor at Knopf that I think is the. Or that I know is the editor of this book who has a history of public putting out books that I hate over there. And she's like their one commercial person. And I think, quite frankly, she pays for a lot of the other books to get done. Like the books that she publishes do. Well, yesteryear is going to pay for a lot of the literary fiction that we end up loving or the non fiction that we end up loving that comes out of Knopf. And almost every publishing imprint has at least one editor if. If they're good, who is publishing the books that make the money.
- [14:40]
B
All right, that's it. If you want more more of this episode of the Stacks Unabridged, you must join the Stacks Pack on Patreon by going to patreon.com the stacks or subscribe to my newsletter unstacked at Tracy Thomas substack.com and remember, by joining either of those places, you make it possible for me to make the Stacks every single week, free to all. Thank you so much for your support and we will see you in the Stacks.
- [15:12]
A
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