The Stacks Book Club - November 2025

Before his National Book Award–winning novel, Blackouts, Justin Torres debuted with a semi-autobiographical novel called We the Animals. That slim novel is our November Book Club pick. Set in rural upstate New York in the 1980s, this coming-of-age novel traces the experiences of three mixed-race brothers navigating the chaos of boyhood amid the intensity of their parents’ tumultuous marriage. The narrative is split into a series of vignettes, beautifully capturing the intense familial bonds that can both hold us together and tear us apart. This book was a breakout hit when it was published in 2011—it earned awards and critical acclaim, was adapted into a feature film in 2018, and was featured in the New York Times’ “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.” With all the family drama and dynamics, it feels like the perfect book to read days before the Thanksgiving Holiday.

If you want to read with us this month, here are some key dates to The Stacks Book Club read of Frankenstein.

• November 5th — The Stacks Episode announcing our guest for We the Animals.

• November 26th — The Stacks Book Club episode of We the Animals.

• December 2nd — The Stacks Virtual Book Club meetup to discuss the book. To participate, you will need to join The Stacks Pack on Patreon. There, you’ll get even more perks related to the podcast, access to the Discord community, and more.

LA-based, Black woman-owned indie bookstore Reparations Club is offering you 10% off your copy of We the Animals when you use the code STACKS10 at checkout!

You can support The Stacks by purchasing this month's pick through my Bookshop.org or Amazon page.

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