Unabridged: A Mid-Year Check-In with Sara Hildreth and Cree Myles

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Stacks – Unabridged: A Mid-Year Check-In with Sara Hildreth and Cree Myles

Release Date: June 20, 2025
Host: Traci Thomas
Guests: Sarah Hildreth and Cree Miles

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Introduction

In this special mid-year episode of The Stacks Unabridged, host Traci Thomas reconnects with her cherished guests, Sarah Hildreth of Fiction Matters and Cree Miles of Always Black. Aimed exclusively at Patreon and Substack subscribers, this episode delves into the literary landscape of 2025, reflecting on the books that have resonated so far and anticipating the upcoming releases from July to December.

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Mid-Year Reading Overview

Traci Thomas opens the discussion by expressing her mixed feelings about the year's readings:

"I've been struggling a little bit... Trying to read more classics this year as my big goal... It's been less fulfilling because there's less stuff." ([06:18])

In contrast, both Cree Miles and Sarah Hildreth share their enthusiasm for the current year's literary offerings. Cree highlights the abundance of quality books:

"I have way more books that I've really, really enjoyed. So I think my reading's been good this year." ([04:24])

Sarah Hildreth echoes this sentiment, optimistic about the year's contributions to the literary canon:

"I do think that we are getting solid contributions to the literary canon this year." ([04:57])

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Favorite Reads of 2025

Sarah Hildreth: "Disappoint Me" by Nicola Denon

Sarah praises Disappoint Me for its deep exploration of language commodification and the complexities of forgiveness:

"The themes around how we commodify language... and how much are you supposed to forgive someone... are the questions that keep me up at night." ([08:07])

She emphasizes the book's emotional resonance and intellectual stimulation, noting its profound impact on her daily thoughts.

Cree Miles: "Audition" by Katie Kamara

Cree names Audition as her standout read, applauding its provocative narrative and structural brilliance:

"It's so good... Clearly driven by the structure and themes. Some people hate it because it feels constructed, but I loved it." ([10:14])

She draws parallels to Trust Exercise, highlighting the book's ability to engage readers through its layered storytelling and thematic depth.

Traci Thomas: "One Day" by Omar El Akad

Traci singles out Omar El Akad's One Day as her top pick, commending its timely and thoughtful discourse on global issues:

"It's vulnerable, thoughtful... a book about a much bigger thing... something you could revisit in five or ten years and still be relevant." ([12:11])

She appreciates El Akad's ability to pose significant questions without offering definitive answers, making the book both challenging and enduring.

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Upcoming Releases (July - December 2025)

While the transcript does not detail specific upcoming titles, the hosts express excitement about future releases, anticipating a mix of innovative narratives and compelling thematic explorations that will continue to shape the literary conversation.

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Challenges and Reflections

Traci shares her personal struggles with finding books that leave a lasting impression compared to the previous year's standout titles:

"I'm having a tough time... Trying to read more classics this year... Less stuff to talk about." ([06:18])

This introspection highlights the challenges readers face in balancing timeless classics with contemporary works, especially when aiming to deepen their literary appreciation.

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Community and Engagement

Beyond book discussions, the episode underscores the importance of community for subscribers, offering perks like virtual book clubs, access to Discord, and exclusive content. Traci encourages listeners to join Patreon or Substack to fully engage with the Stacks community and continue supporting the podcast.

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Conclusion

The Stacks Unabridged mid-year check-in provides an insightful snapshot of the 2025 literary scene through the lenses of passionate readers Sarah Hildreth and Cree Miles. Despite varying personal experiences, the conversation celebrates the diverse and impactful books of the year, setting the stage for an exciting second half of 2025. Subscribers are left with thoughtful recommendations and a sense of anticipation for the literary journeys ahead.

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For the full episode and more exclusive content, visit Patreon or Traci Thomas's Substack.

Transcript

[Tracy Thomas]

Hi everybody, it's me, Tracy, here to tell you about a book that I think you're gonna love. It is called the Great Man. It's a novel by Keira Davis Lurie. It is a diverse retelling of the Great Gatsby, set among the black elite of post war Los Angeles, and is inspired by real life historic events. Pause for a moment. Does that not sound like me? Real life Historic Events, a retelling of a classic and set in Los Angeles. It follows Charlie Tramell, a young veteran who is lured by his cousin Marguerite to the esteemed West Adams Heights, aka LA's newly rechristened Sugar Hill. There is black opulence, there is success, there is old money intertwined with white privilege, and Charlie finds himself drawn into this tantalizing world of possibilities where he meets James Reaper Mann. As Charlie navigates a landscape rife with ambition, betrayal and societal turmoil, he soon finds himself beside Reaper, facing a PIV little decision that could end in tragedy. Hello. This is giving amazing coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the Great Gatsby, Davis Lurie's book masterfully reimagines the opulence and social dynamics of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel within the real world backdrop of LA's Sugar Hill, offering a compelling exploration of wealth and class. The Great Man, a novel by Kira Davis Lurie, is available now wherever books are sold. Welcome back to another episode of the Stacks Unabridged, our bonus episodes exclusive to paid Patreon and Substack subscribers this month. It's June, the middle of the year, so I'm checking in with two of my favorite readers about the books we've loved so far in 2025 and the books coming out between July and December we are most excited about. I am joined of course again by the great Cree Miles, the reader behind Always Black and a great literary voice and talent. And I'm joined by Sarah Hildreth, the reader behind Fiction Matters. If you're listening to this episode and it cuts out about 15 minutes in, that means you're not a paid subscriber on Patreon or Substack, and you should join those amazing platforms. By joining you get perks like attendance at our virtual book club, access to the Discord, my non fiction reading guide that I just put out in May. Plus, you get to know that by joining these communities you make it possible for me to make the podcast every single week and make that podcast free to all. So if you're interested in joining, you want to hear the whole episode, go to patreon.com thestacks and join the stacks pack or go to Tracy Thomas substack.com and join as a paid subscriber to my newsletter. Okay, I should say this before we dive in. I have linked to everything we mentioned in today's episode in the show notes so you can find it all there. But if you need to also get your pencils ready, you should. We're giving you all sorts of bookish recommendations. Enjoy. All right, everybody, our friends are back. It is our mid year book preview books coming out July through December of 2025. I am joined by my two books book pals, Sarah Hildreth, the icon behind Fiction Matters, the substack, the Instagram, the Patreon, the universe the world and CRE Miles, the other icon behind Always Black Cree Miles in general also has a substack. Also a universe, also a legend. I only am part of the bookish multiverse. Ladies, welcome to the stacks Unabridged.

[Cree Miles]

Thanks for having us back.

[Sarah Hildreth]

Very excited, Very excited.

[Tracy Thomas]

You were invited back because the people love you. I don't know that I would have invited you back. I might have gotten new friends.

[Cree Miles]

All right, well, thank you people.

[Tracy Thomas]

Yeah. So thank the people. Here's the plan. We're gonna start with a little bit about this year so far. Then we're gonna talk about the books we're excited about. Then we're gonna wrap it up with some dumb probably first and foremost, top level overview thoughts about book books reading so far this year. How's it going?

[Cree Miles]

I'm really liking the books this year. I am.

[Tracy Thomas]

You are?

[Cree Miles]

I am.

[Sarah Hildreth]

I.

[Cree Miles]

It feels so different from last year because at this point last year, we've said this a million times, but it's worth reiterating. James and Martyr were just like the books of the year. I was in love with them. We all were. So it feels different this year because I don't have necessarily like one or two books like that. I'm just like, oh my God, this is the best thing I've read in ages. But I have way more books that I've really, really enjoyed. So I think my reading's been good this year. I think the books are good.

[Tracy Thomas]

Okay.

[Sarah Hildreth]

Cree, I. Yes, we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times. James and Martyr just dominated last year. I so I have been reading things this year, curious about how they're going to age considering that nothing is like, nothing's affecting me. How like the end of Martyr affected me. But I am like, this will age beautifully. In 20 years, people will be talking about this book. I do think that we are getting solid contributions to the literary canon this year. And I'm just. I'm just gonna wait and see how they end up.

[Tracy Thomas]

I was thinking sort of the opposite cree of like, we're getting a fine year of books, but this is gonna be one of those year in books where when they do the list of the best books of the last 25 years, there's just like, not a book from this year. You know how there's some years there's just like, not a book like 1935, there's just not a book that came out that year.

[Sarah Hildreth]

Well, I'm really hoping that it's like, like the Woke Deep readers will be like, well, yeah, in 2025. Did you know? And then it'll be like a culture grab. Like, that's what I'm thinking. Yeah.

[Tracy Thomas]

Yeah. Okay. But not necessarily like a big no.

[Sarah Hildreth]

It'll be like, why is it more. Why aren't more people talking about this book? Because everyone's already talked about James for the last 100 years ad nauseam.

[Tracy Thomas]

That's okay. That's my sense too. But however, I. Of course, the Debbie Downer of the group. I've been having a tough, tough time this year. I'm having a tough time with the books. I've read some things I've liked a lot. I don't know that they feel like books that I loved a lot that I will love that I will think about a lot in the future. Which obviously last year feels like a real anomaly. But this feels even more sparse than 2023 or 2022 for me. So I've been struggling a little bit. I also think part of it is that I've been trying to read more classics this year as my big goal. And so comparing sort of great generational books with brand new things is harder. And when I finish newer books, there's not a lot of content to talk about what I've been reading in the same way that, like, after I finished Invisible Man, I was like, let me. Let me absorb every opinion about this book. And so I think part of it is that there. It has been less fulfilling because there's less stuff. I'm supposed to be the one coming up with things to talk about, not me getting to enjoy other people's brilliance.

[Sarah Hildreth]

Girl. Yeah.

[Tracy Thomas]

List.

[Sarah Hildreth]

Welcome. This is my ongoing issue. Every time, every. I read Dracula last year and I was like, and where on earth would you go after that?

[Cree Miles]

Right.

[Tracy Thomas]

Yeah, Straight to hell. Okay. So since you both are having a good reading year, what are, like, two books you've loved most so far this year?

[Sarah Hildreth]

I can go. I. So I just finished Disappoint Me by Nicola Denon.

[Cree Miles]

Oh, Cree. I was gonna ask if you'd read that yet, because I read it and was like, cree needs to read.

[Sarah Hildreth]

I loved it. Oh, my gosh. Yes. So it. Was it the part about that. I like the themes around, like, how we commodify language in order to, like, align with whatever position we're supposed to be taking, like, politically or socially. And just, like, how much are you supposed to forgive someone that you say that you love or that you're in community with when they do something that feels extremely egregious because that is what humans do? Like, those are. That. Those are the questions that keep me up at night every day anyway. And so to see it explored in this book was fun. I love that. Was. I. I literally was reading it, and out loud, my husband said. I said like six times. Like, this is that good? Like, I cannot. It was everything that I needed. It was so good.

[Cree Miles]

It's so good. The themes are so important. Like, you said Cree. And it's also just though, like, a deeply emotional book. Like, it doesn't feel like it's trying to over intellectualize either. You just get totally caught up in the characters and the story and the way that she uses the, like, dual timelines. You just have to keep turning the pages. I liked this one too.

[Tracy Thomas]

Would I like it?

[Cree Miles]

I think you would like it.

[Sarah Hildreth]

Okay. I'm not sure.

[Tracy Thomas]

Keep it real. Keep it real. If I read it, Sarah, now it's coming back to you.

[Cree Miles]

Okay, that's fine. I. I will. I'll take it.

[Tracy Thomas]

Oh, my gosh. Okay, Sarah, what's something you've loved?

[Cree Miles]

Well, I think my favorite of the year still is Audition by Katie Kamara, which I read at the end of last year, but I just reread it this week, and the reread, I think, sealed its position as my favorite of the year. I know it's divisive, but I'm obsessed with it. It's so good. It's if. If listeners haven't read this one yet. It starts with a woman who. I think she's in her 40s and she's an actress, and she is meeting this younger man for lunch. And through that whole first scene, there's a tension between them and the way she writes it. You keep wondering, even though it's first person, so you're in the. The Woman's head. You're wondering, like, what is going on between these two? Like, was there some sort of affair? Like, something. Something's wrong here. And she just keeps you guessing through that whole scene. And you do finally realize what had happened between them. And then through. In the middle of the book, there's an abrupt shift. And it's one of those books. It's not plot driven, it's not character driven. It's clearly driven by, like, she wanted to write this structure and she wanted to explore these themes. That really works for me. Some people really hate that because it feels constructed.

[Sarah Hildreth]

It.

[Cree Miles]

It doesn't feel like you can get lost in the story. But I loved it.

[Tracy Thomas]

Is it similar to Trust Exercise?

[Cree Miles]

Yes.

[Tracy Thomas]

Okay. And I like that. I'm told there's a theater connection as well.

[Cree Miles]

There. There's a big theater connection, and it's one of those books where, like, Trust Exercise, she's using her commentary on theater to kind of teach you how to read the book. So you have to, like, you have to pay attention to. To this book, which also I think some people don't like.

[Tracy Thomas]

I don't know how to have that in me.

[Cree Miles]

Um, but it is short. It's 200 pages. But yes, the theater stuff I thought was really, really interesting because she doesn't. She's not directly offering commentary on novels, but it feels like she is through the theater stuff, too.

[Tracy Thomas]

Okay. I'm torn on sort of which way to go here with this. I think I'm going to go. I mean, I think the. The best thing I've read still this year is the Omar El Akad, the One Day everyone will have always been against my list.

[Cree Miles]

True. Yeah.

[Tracy Thomas]

I just think. I just think the writing's really good. The arguments are really good. It's vulnerable, it's thoughtful. I think he's really smart. I think he's asking the correct questions to be asking. He doesn't have the answers necessarily, but he's asking the right and proper questions. It's a book that I was worried could feel dated because it feels so timely because it's about Israel and Gaza and obviously, you know, that's still going on, but the way the questions are written, it's really about a much bigger question. It's a book about a much bigger thing. And so I think not only is it excellent now, but I do think it's something that you could revisit in five or 10 years and would still. We're still going to be asking these questions about our own responsibilities, so I hate That I haven't come up with something better yet. Like, I hate that a book I read in January is still one of my favorites, but it is. So Cree. What's your next fave?

[Sarah Hildreth]

I mean, I was coming with new faves because of our previous faves.

[Tracy Thomas]

I know. And I was gonna do or Original Sin, but I'm. I'm gonna not. Even though that is one of my faves.

[Sarah Hildreth]

Oh, it's so good.

[Cree Miles]

So good.

[Tracy Thomas]

Yeah, it's so good. That's good. That's good, that's good. My other one will be new. Newer, I guess.

[Sarah Hildreth]

Okay.

[Cree Miles]

Yeah.

[Sarah Hildreth]

The other one that I have I didn't talk about last time was Leila Motley's new book.

[Tracy Thomas]

You love this.

[Sarah Hildreth]

I really, really enjoyed it. I think that, like, the exploration of shame and of community and mutual aid was really impressive. And I. I just think about her age and this. The beginning of her career and how this is just. It's a. It's a strong contribution to the. To her discography. What is a.

[Tracy Thomas]

Discography?

[Cree Miles]

Okay, Sarah, I. I did really love Flashlight by Susan Choi, but because I think probably most people already know about that book. It's not like this one is super under the radar either. But I'm going to talk about Hunchback by Sao Ishikawa. And I read this in one sitting. It is so tiny, and it's hard to talk about because I think that the way she reveals what she's doing in the book and. And what it's really about is important to just let her handle. But it's about disability and desire and what it means to be a human and what it means to be seen as a human or not. And the opening, you realize you're in for a very provocative book. Like, she's intending to provoke strong, visceral feelings from the reader. And then the ending was haunting. Like, I'm not gonna forget that ending probably ever. It's tiny. It blew me away. I. I think that it's. It's unsettling. It's supposed to be unsettling. Yeah. I'm just. It. It was. It was really a stunner for me.

[Tracy Thomas]

Oh, I'm. Yeah, I. I'm intrigued. It wasn't. It was an international booker.

[Cree Miles]

Yeah, I long. It was definitely on the long list. I don't think it was on the short list. I can. I can double check that. But yes. So it. It was definitely getting a lot of attention on. On Bookstagram, but I think a lot. A lot of people would. A lot of people would not like it for sure. Not because of the writing style or it's not like it's hard to follow or confusing, but it is, it is provocative. I that's all I can say about how kind of in your face it is about certain things, obviously, intentionally and I think very well done.

[Tracy Thomas]

Okay, I'm, I'm really struggling, guys, to pick a second. To pick a second book. I gotta be honest, the only book I personally ranked five stars that came out this year so far that I've read this year was the Omar Ellicott. That's the only one I gave a full five stars to. So everything else that I've read that I've liked has just felt like slightly below, but all on the same level. And so what I'm gonna do is go with a book that I haven't done on the podcast that I've really like. Foreign that is the end of this bonus teaser. If you were liking what you were hearing, you can listen to the entire episode by going to either patreon.com the stacks and joining the Stacks Pack, getting access to the Discord, being able to participate in our virtual book club and or you can go to tracythomas.substack.com and subscribe to Unstacked, where you're going to get my writing about books, pop culture, you're going to get other exclusive author interviews and of course, these bonus episodes. So go to one of those two places, join us, get to hear the rest of this episode, and support the work that I do by being a part of these wonderful communities. Thank you so much and I'll see you in the stack.