STACK with Jake and Ella

What puts you off a book and what pulls you towards one? This episode is all about the books we thought we wouldn’t like - whether the cover, the topic, or something else - but we’re happy to tell you these are six books we actually thought were great. We deep dive into our own reading tastes and prejudices and create the Venn Diagram of Jake and Ella’s reading taste.  Warning: there are some hot, and bad, takes in this episode! The books featured in this week’s STACK: 8.20 Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel 12.40 Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellmann 15.22 Yellowface - R. F. Kuang 19.32 The Bee Sting - Paul Murray 22.00 In Memoriam - Alice Winn 27.20 A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas Also featured: One Day - David Nicholls Heated Rivalry - Rachel Reid It Lasts Forever and then It’s Over - Anne de Marcken Second Best - David Foenkinos Blood Over Bright Haven - M.L. Wang A Little Life - Hanya Yanigahara STACK with Jake and Ella is a books podcast helping you cut through the noise to fall in love - and stay in love - with reading. Each fortnight, we’ll be sharing curated lists on a theme of the books that are worth your time. Please follow us on your podcast player or subscribe on YouTube. Do comment and share and if you’d like to support the podcast even further, we’d love it if you could leave us a review - it’s massively helpful.  We are @stackpodcast on socials. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stackpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stackpodcast Please get in touch if you read any of the books from this week’s episode, or have a bookish problem for our Shelf Help section - you can literally ask us anything! STACK with Jake and Ella is an independent podcast production. It is produced by Jake Williams and Ella Horne. Our theme music was created by Thomas Clarke Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

***This episode contains discussion around death and bereavement - we advise listening with caution or skipping this episode if those topics wouldn’t be right for you right now*** It’s a New Year and our first STACK of the year is here. We’re a firm believer in the power of books to change lives, but which ones specifically? We’re also virtual this episode, hot off the back of seeing Hamnet and desperate to talk about it, and we’re sharing life hacks including how to afford a New Year book haul. Plus: bao buns, surprising stats and discussing whether Stephen Sondheim is a household name. Plus - we run through the best upcoming 2026 books to add to your TBR.  The books featured in this week’s STACK: 11.57 Solve For Happy - Mo Gawdat 14.50 Open Up - Alex Holder 18.28 East - Meera Sodha 21.06 A Heart That Works - Rob Delaney 23.56 Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman 28.49 How Sondheim Can Change Your Life - Richard Schoch Also featured: Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell Land - Maggie O’Farrell Hooked - Asako Yusuki What Am I, A Deer? - Polly Barton Vigil - George Saunders The Things We Never Say - Elizabeth Strout People In Love - Claire Daverley STACK with Jake and Ella is a books podcast helping you cut through the noise to fall in love - and stay in love - with reading. Each fortnight, we’ll be sharing curated lists on a theme of the books that are worth your time. Please follow us on your podcast player or subscribe on YouTube. Do comment and share and if you’d like to support the podcast even further, we’d love it if you could leave us a review - it’s massively helpful.  We are @stackpodcast on socials. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stackpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stackpodcast Please get in touch if you read any of the books from this week’s episode, or have a bookish problem for our Shelf Help section - you can literally ask us anything  STACK with Jake and Ella is an independent podcast production. It is produced by Jake Williams and Ella Horne. Our theme music was created by Thomas Clarke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve got our Santa hats on! This episode’s STACK is all cosy vibes for Christmas, New Year and the period in between, whatever that’s called. Jake and Ella create a stack containing crosswords, colours and predicting your own murder. Mysteries that are light on jeopardy, and won’t keep you up at night. And a listener question for the Shelf Help section takes an unexpected turn… The books featured in this week’s STACK: 05.46 The Fellowship of Puzzle Makers - Samuel Burr 07.26 How To Solve Your Own Murder - Kristen Perrin 10.20 Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde 12.30 All The Colours of the Dark - Chris Whitaker 15.30 The Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz 18.35 The Hogfather - Terry Pratchett Also featured: Buckeye - Patrick Ryan Wolf Hall Trilogy - Hilary Mantel The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde STACK is a books podcast helping you cut through the noise to fall in love - and stay in love - with reading. Each fortnight, we’ll be sharing curated lists on a theme of the books that are worth your time. Please follow us on your podcast player or subscribe on YouTube. Do comment and share and if you’d like to support the podcast even further, we’d love it if you could leave us a review - it’s massively helpful.  We are @stackpodcast on socials. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stackpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stackpodcast Please get in touch if you read any of the books from this week’s episode, or have a bookish problem for our Shelf Help section.  STACK with Jake and Ella is an independent podcast production. It is produced by Jake Williams and Ella Horne. Our theme music was created by Thomas Clarke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ella and Jake pick six tiny books that pack a weird punch, and have fun debating whether they could handle the zombie apocalypse, whether they like to know what’s going on in a book, and a man called Bigolas Dickolas. The books featured in this week’s STACK: 3.56 Hard Copy - Fien Veldman 6.31 This Is How You Lose The Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone 11.10 Heatwave - Victor Jestin 14.23 It Lasts Forever And Then It’s Over - Anna de Marcken 19.07 Second Best - David Foenkinos 21.50 Treacle Walker - Alan Garner Also featured: Impossible Creatures - Katherine Rundell Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry George Orwell’s 1984: An Audible Original adaptation STACK is a books podcast helping you cut through the noise to fall in love - and stay in love - with reading. Each fortnight, we’ll be sharing curated lists on a theme of the books that are worth your time. Please follow us on your podcast player or subscribe on YouTube. Do comment and share and if you’d like to support the podcast even further, we’d love it if you could leave us a review - it’s massively helpful.  We are @stackpodcast on socials. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stackpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stackpodcast Please get in touch if you read any of the books from this week’s episode, or have a bookish problem for our Shelf Help section.  STACK with Jake and Ella is an independent podcast production. It is produced by Jake Williams and Ella Horne. Our theme music was created by Thomas Clarke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ready for your Christmas shopping? This week’s Stack covers six crowd-pleasing books to fill anybody’s stocking. Ella and Jake discuss their own Christmas lists, getting your colours done and what on earth to buy for your dad.  The books featured in this week’s Stack: 12.14 The Poetry Pharmacy 14.17 My Friends - Fredrik Backman 16.14 Is A River Alive? - Robert Macfarlane 18.12 Death At The White Hart - Chris Chibnall 19.40 The Little Book Of Miriam - Miriam Margoyles 22.48 The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King - Harry Trevaldwyn Also featured: The Wedding People - Alison Espach Notes On Your Sudden Disappearance - Alison Espach The Christmas Tree That Loved To Dance - Miranda Hart All The Best For The Future - Greg James Buckeye - Patrick Ryan  Alchemised - SenLinYu The Raven Scholar - Antonia Hodgson The Safekeep - Yael van der Wouden The Stack is a books podcast helping you cut through the noise to fall in love - and stay in love - with reading. Each fortnight, we’ll be sharing curated lists on a theme of the books that are worth your time. Please follow us on your podcast player or subscribe on YouTube. Do comment and share and if you’d like to support the podcast even further, we’d love it if you could leave us a review - it’s massively helpful.  We are @stackpodcast on socials. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stackpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stackpodcast Please get in touch if you read any of the books from this week’s episode, or have a bookish problem for our Shelf Help section.  STACK with Jake and Ella is an independent podcast production. It is produced by Jake Williams and Ella Horne. Our theme music was created by Thomas Clarke.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices