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

36. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told by Alex Haley, with Traci Thomas of The Stacks

Novel Pairings

36. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told by Alex Haley, with Traci Thomas of The Stacks