Today, Traci Thomas of The Stacks podcast joins Chelsey and Sara to discuss The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm, X, as told by Alex Haley. We loved diving into this iconic nonfiction classic with our favorite nonfiction expert, and we're so excited to share this conversation with you.

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Our discussion includes:

• What makes this a "life-changing" book?
• Does The Autobiography of Malcolm X belong in the classroom?
• Which parts of the book ring especially true today
• Brilliant storytelling and an incredible use of rhetoric

Plus, as always, we're recommending a bunch of contemporary pairings to read along with this classic.

Shop the pairings: https://bookshop.org/lists/novel-pairings-for-the-autobiography-of-malcolm-x

Traci's Pairings:

• Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
• The Dead are Arising by Malcolm X by Les Payne, Tamara Payne
• Heavy by Kiese Laymon
• Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. by Peniel E. Joseph
• Stokely: A Life by Peniel E. Joseph
• Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson

Sara's Pairings:

• Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo by Zora Neale Hurston
• Pale by Edward A. Farmer

Chelsey's Pairings:

• Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
• Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
• X: A Novel by Ilyasha Shabazz and Kekla Magoon
• How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones

Also mentioned:

The Stacks Ep. 60 Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Stacks Ep. 135 The Autobiography of Malcolm X