Tag: books

Blog, Book Reviews

Tessara’s 2016 Top Ten Recommended Reads

I like books. If you follow this blog, you know that. (Also, if you follow me on Tumblr or Instagram, or if you spend any amount of time with me in person.) Since the holidays are coming up, I wanted to share a list of 10 books (okay, 11) I read this year that I recommend. Many of them are poetry books, but there’s memoir, fiction, and history in here, too.

Do yourself a favor and pick these up. If you’ll be travelling to visit folks, these would make great plane, bus, or train reading. Is there a reader in your life that you’re shopping for? These would also make great gifts. I’m just saying you should buy, beg, or borrow these books. You won’t regret it.

Disclosure: I participate in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program, and I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

 

1. March Book 1 & Book 2 by John Lewis

These are scary, comforting, thrilling, painful, and so much. John Lewis’s graphic memoir trilogy is a love letter to the Civil Rights Movement, a reflection on the youth of a lifelong activist and advocate. Though I haven’t read the 3rd one yet, I am fully confident that it would also belong on this list. Recommended for organizers, graphic art fans, students of history, memoir lovers, and people who need a little strength in their lives today. Get them at Amazon: March: Book One & March: Book Two

2. The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat

This novel in stories circles around the titular character, each chapter told by a different character in his community. This book encompasses the terror of Haiti under Papa Doc Duvalier and the uncertainty of a New York Haitian neighborhood. The threads of shared experience bind the characters together: 1960s Haiti echoes in their lives, even (perhaps especially) those who seek to escape it the most. A brilliant read. Recommended for immigrants, the children of immigrants, diasporan people, and anyone looking for a deep read. Buy the book here: The Dew Breaker

3. After by Fatimah Asghar

My GoodReads Review: Asghar plays with space and form in ways that challenge the reader. Some pieces are physically difficult to decipher, structure lending itself to complex meanings and resisting the simple. Many of the poems are hard to read in content rather than form, and the combination of pieces works well. The occasional levity, such as that created by “Medusa Apologizes” rounds out this thoughtful, lovingly produced collection. Definitely recommended! Recommended for survivors, victims, heartbroken lovers, and resilient women.

4. to love as aswang by Barbara Jane Reyes

This collection of poems is beautiful and painful. Drawing on community experiences, cultural history, and myths, Reyes examines and affirms the lives of Filipina Americans, refusing to shy away from the painful even as she embraces the beautiful. Though the foundations are sometimes horrifying, the concept one takes away is resistance, a history of struggle and strength embodied every day. Recommended for Pinay, feminists, new Americans, survivors, and defiantly monstrous women.

5. The Gunnywolf by Megan Snyder-Camp

I reviewed this, along with Snyder-Camp’s other 2016 release, Wintering, for Mom Egg Review—click here to read that review. The Gunnywolf uses the mythical figure of the gunnywolf to reflect on race in the United States, and the author’s own place in racial justice movements of today. Recommended for poets, fans of folk tales, white allies, and anyone feeling out a new existence in a post-Ferguson world. Snag a copy: The Gunnywolf

6. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire

Beyonce loves Warsan Shire, and you should too. This is an amazing and heartfelt collection of poems, definitely among the best I’ve read this year. Recommended for poets, immigrants, the children of immigrants, and lovers of beautiful difficult things. Buy a copy here: Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (Mouthmark)

7. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This was a hard read, but a very important one. HeLa cells have been at the heart of much scientific progress, but this book tells the little-known story of the woman behind the cells. The author takes us through the struggles of a family and the medical community that has so often failed them, managing nevertheless to highlight the humanity of both. Recommended for scientists, activists, fans of memoir and history, and anyone willing to look unflinchingly at the legacy of scientific racism. Get a copy: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

8. My People Are Rising: Memoir of a Black Panther Party Captain by Aaron Dixon

This was a really interesting read. I met Aaron Dixon in 2013 when he came to speak at my university about his time organizing with the Panthers. He was a really calm presence, and a sweet and humble guy. His memoir is a great read, and really gives insight to the history of the Party. Recommended for revolutionaries, memoir fans, BPP fans, and readers interested in US organizing history. Pick up a copy here: My People Are Rising: Memoir of a Black Panther Party Captain

9. [insert] boy by Danez Smith

My GoodReads Review: Dang. DANG. Recommended for Black folks, poets, poetry fans, QTPOC. Get it at Amazon: [insert] boy (Kate Tufts Discovery Award)

10. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

I’m actually still reading this one, but it’s been great so far. I’m about 2/3 of the way through it. It’s fun and funny, while also being very informative—I’m not really a scholar of European history, and reading this has actually filled in some gaps for me regarding French history. Recommended for the lay historian, Francophiles, literature nerds, and anyone who loves adventure stories. Pick it up here: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo

Advertisement
Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie June 2016 Readathon Day 5

Day Five, Wednesday, June 29:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

This is the Day 5 Update post for the June 2016 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon.

My To-Be-Read List:

  1. Wintering by Megan Snyder-Camp — FINISHED! 72 pages, 4 stars
  2. The Gunnywolf by Megan Snyder-Camp — FINISHED! 76 pages, 4 stars — ran through this one in an hour or two; the initial response is positive, but more detail will have to wait for a second read-through of both books and writing the review for publication.
  3. [insert] boy by Danez Smith — FINISHED! 116 pages, 5 Stars
  4. Time on Two Crosses: the Collected Writing of Bayard Rustin by Don Wiese [ed.] (Current page: 47 of 365; change: 28 pages)
  5. UNeducation, Vol 1: A Residential School Graphic Novel by Jason EagleSpeaker (Current page: 28 of 99)
  6. Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
  7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Current page: 68 of 391)
  8. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
  9. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Current page: 391 of 1225; change: 36 pages)

Sped through The Gunnywolf. Planning to go back for a second, closer read of this one and Wintering, since I need to write a review of them together. Read some of Time on Two Crosses, between packing boxes and running errands. Really feeling the time crunch to July 1st, but reading is a good relaxation, and I think I need that.

 

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie June 2016 Readathon Days 3 and 4: Spine Poem and Quotes

Day Three, Monday, June 27 & Day Four, Tuesday, June 28:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

This is the Day 3 and Day 4 Challenges post for the June 2016 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon.

 

Day 3: Spine poem! This is always my favorite challenge, basically.

She flees Wildwood
Little Red in the City
Half Magic
among The Oathbound
seeking Asylum

A Reckless Beauty
she Sees the Water Rise
The Sparkle in the Grit
The Secret School

Of Two Minds
calls Necessary Fire
against The Witches and wolves
A Monstrous Regiment
their Blood and Chocolate
The Silver Kiss
The “Comforts” of Home

“I Feel This
Truth
by Shackle and Sword
by Lion’s Blood
by That Hideous Strength
I will build Brave
a New World”

2016-06-27 21.22.32 HDR

Here’s audio of me reading this poem.

 

Day 4: Quotes

This is possibly my favorite set of lines in Hamilton, sung by Aaron Burr: “I am the one thing in life I can control / I am inimitable / I am an original / I’m not falling behind or running late / I’m not standing still / I am lying in wait!”

I love this, and have considered getting some kind of tattoo related to it. I even made a gif of the lines.

I love Hamilton, but sometimes Burr just gives me all of the feelings.

 

My To-Be-Read List:

  1. Wintering by Megan Snyder-Camp — FINISHED! 72 pages, 4 stars — Liked it. Still have to read the second book, and then I can start on the review, but that means I probably won’t share much detail here or on Goodreads, until that review is published.
  2. The Gunnywolf by Megan Snyder-Camp
  3. [insert] boy by Danez Smith — FINISHED! 116 pages, 5 Stars
  4. Time on Two Crosses: the Collected Writing of Bayard Rustin by Don Wiese [ed.] (Current page: 27 of 365; change: 8 pages)
  5. UNeducation, Vol 1: A Residential School Graphic Novel by Jason EagleSpeaker (Current page: 28 of 99)
  6. Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
  7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Current page: 68 of 391)
  8. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
  9. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Current page: 391 of 1225; change: 36 pages)

Spent a lot of Day 3 cleaning and sorting things and getting ready to move out of my apartment, but I took a lunch break to make a yummy smoothie and read the rest of Wintering, which I finished. Then went back to sorting, and put on the Alexander Hamilton audiobook, which I have been listening to while doing work that requires my hands. It’s pretty funny, and I spend a lot of time saying things like “well, of course he did,” and “Alexander, no!” and “seriously?! wow, okay…” (Which is how I read books, so at least I’m consistent.) Read a bit of Time on Two Crosses during my dinner break, and got through the section about the Freedom Rides, thankfully. Day 4 was about running errands, making calls, and providing emotional support, and I didn’t get much time to sit down and read. But I’m about to start The Gunnywolf, and (based on her other book) I’m looking forward to reading it.

 

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie June 2016 Readathon Day 2: Recommendation

Day Two, Sunday, June 26:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

This is the Day 2 Challenge post for the June 2016 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon.

 

Book Rec ToR Readathon June 2016 Day 2

If you liked… Jericho Brown’s The New Testament, consider… Danez Smith’s Black Movie. Both books reflect on Black boyhood and queer Black manhood, what it is to exist as a queer Black man in the US. Where Jericho Brown riffs on the Christian Bible and religion, Danez Smith uses the lens of films and popular media. There’s tribute, joy, pain, elegy, honor, and celebration. These books are hard and present and also alive and wondering, hoping and imagining. These books are wishes and dreams and tears and so much more, and if you enjoyed Jericho Brown, he wrote a glowing endorsement on Danez Smith’s newest book, [insert] boy, so you better pick up some Danez Smith and read.

For a preview, here’s a video of them performing “Dear White America,” one of the poems in Black Movie.

 

My To-Be-Read List:

  1. Wintering by Megan Snyder-Camp (Current page: 20 of 72) — Reading this and the next book in order to write a review for publication. Interesting read, so far…
  2. The Gunnywolf by Megan Snyder-Camp
  3. [insert] boy by Danez Smith — FINISHED! 116 pages, 5 Stars — Will hopefully post a longer review than what I currently have on Goodreads, which just reads “Dang. DANG.” Need to sit with this one a little longer before I have fleshed out comments.
  4. Time on Two Crosses: the Collected Writing of Bayard Rustin by Don Wiese [ed.] (Current page: 19 of 365)
  5. UNeducation, Vol 1: A Residential School Graphic Novel by Jason EagleSpeaker (Current page: 28 of 99)
  6. Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
  7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Current page: 68 of 391)
  8. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
  9. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Current page: 355 of 1225)

Didn’t do much reading today, since I spent most of the day running errands. I’m about to be homeless on July 1st, so that took priority, and then I spent a few hours announcing during a live broadcast for a Black community celebration here in town, which was loads of fun! About to settle in to read before bed

 

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Save

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie June 2016 Readathon Day 1: TBR List

Day One, Saturday, June 25:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

It’s that time again! I am participating in the June 2016 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon. This is the Day 1 Challenge post.

Goals:

  • I want to write a brief review for each book I read and post it (likely on Goodreads)
  • I want to complete each of the daily updates and challenges

My To-Be-Read List (in order):

  1. Wintering by Megan Snyder-Camp (Current page: 20 of 72) — Reading this and the next book in order to write a review for publication. Interesting read, so far…
  2. The Gunnywolf by Megan Snyder-Camp
  3. [insert] boy by Danez Smith — Met Danez recently, and got this and another of their books. They’re a sweetheart, and they signed it and took a selfie with me, and I can’t wait to read it!
  4. Time on Two Crosses: the Collected Writing of Bayard Rustin by Don Wiese [ed.] (Current page: 19 of 365) — Important read for me. Paused because of anxiety; currently reading about the Freedom Rides, and it stressed me out.
  5. UNeducation, Vol 1: A Residential School Graphic Novel by Jason EagleSpeaker (Current page: 28 of 99) — Recommended by a cousin of the author. Paused because it’s a pretty hard read.
  6. Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs — have really been enjoying this series so far, and I’m excited to read this one!
  7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Current page: 68 of 391) — Fun read, so far. Paused due to school reading taking priority.
  8. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss — I bought this one ages ago, after learning about it’s existence, and it’s been sitting in my too-read pile ever since.
  9. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Current page: 355 of 1225) — Super excited to get back to this one. I credit it with helping me realize how much I wanted to go into studying history, and setting me on my current path, which includes studying at the University of Ghana, applying to the McNair Fellowship, and preparing for a PhD program in History.

My aspirations are always so much more than I can actually complete in the given span of time, but we’ll see how much I can get through between now and July 3rd!

 

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Blog, Book Reviews, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie Readathon: Dec15-Jan16, Challenge 1

Hi, hi!

I hope y’all are having a great new year. I’ve been keeping busy, trying to get ready for the start of the next term, getting my small press’s books into shops here in Portland, and trying to squeeze in time with friends before classes start. I’ve been writing, drawing, and reading, as well.

I’ve signed up for the December 2015/January 2016 Trees of Reverie Readathon, hoping to finish up some personal reading before I head into the term and only have time for school reading. (Which will be awesome reading, my classes are brilliant, I just also love my personal reading choices.) Unfortunately, my laptop died (on Christmas morning and everything!), so while I’ve been reading, I haven’t been able to participate in the blogging part of it — until now!

Bookish Challenge 1: TBR List & Reading Goals

TBR List

  • To continue:
    • Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
      • This book is brilliant. It’s also really long. (GoodReads says the ebook is 832 pages, though my file shows 1315 pages, so my version may have shorter pages or something.) I have no hopes of finishing this during this readathon, because classes begin Monday, and it’s a very long read. I’m currently just over 1/4 of the way through, and I love it so far. I am interested in history, and this is the kind of book I want to write someday: a funny, interesting, conversational approach to history, that engages the reader and relates facts without bogging down the narrative with strings of dates and incidents just rattled off one after the other. The style is educational, but not entirely impartial. I very much appreciate Chernow’s willingness to question the morality of choices made by the people he writes about. He does not dance around the horror of slavery, nor does he avoid acknowledging that people we consider great owned slaves. While I am a little uncomfortable with his veneration for capitalism, and I am wary of his embrace of empire, overall I think this is a brilliant, well-written book, and I’ll probably come back to it when I begin to research and write history books in the future.
  • To start/finish:
    • Washington’s Spymaster: Memoir of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge by Benjamin Tallmadge
      • I started this because I wanted to squeeze in something short at the end of the year, to boost my number for the 2015 GoodReads Reading Challenge. It ended up, however, being a lot harder to read than expected, because (to be frank) it’s kind of boring. While I love history, I prefer something more like Chernow’s style. This book is very dry, less a memoir than it is a listing of battles and actions of the US Revolutionary War, with special note of where Tallmadge was serving in relation to the main action. It also features very little mention of spying — it comes up for the first time 34% of the way through, and is not dwelt on at length.
    • Scars/Stars by Walidah Imarisha
      • I know Walidah; she teaches in the Black Studies department at my university, and I have had the pleasure of taking her History of the Black Panther Party course. She is a wonderful scholar and a brilliant poet. She co-edited Octavia’s Brood, and her story in that collection is funny and poignant. Recently, I was able to get a copy of her poetry book Scars/Stars, and I’m loving it, though it will definitely warrant a re-read. This one’s been slow going for me, as I read over each poem, annotate it, and digest it one by one.
    • Medicine River by Thomas King
      • This is actually overdue for a prior class — I never finished it during the term, and I feel a little guilty about that. I got about a third of the way through, but just couldn’t get it done then. I’ve since got about another third under my belt, and I’m hoping to power through the rest in the next week. It’s a funny read, but I’m struggling with it for some reason.
    • MARCH Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, & Nate Powell
      • I happened to come across this at Powell’s Books recently, and snatched it up. I read the first volume a couple months back, and loved it, and I can’t wait to settle down with this and get into it. The previous one was well-written and beautifully illustrated, and I don’t doubt that this one will be as well.

Bookish Goals for 2016:

  • My GoodReads 2016 Reading Challenge goal is 60 books. That’s 10 more than last year’s goal, and double my 2014 goal. I think I can make it happen.
  • I would love to write up reviews of 10 books here on the blog, at least a couple hundred words per book. This is a soft goal, though, since I already have a lot on my plate this year, so it would be great to do it, and I’m not going to cry if I can’t get it done.
  • I’m in a ton of GoodReads groups who do group reads, and I haven’t actually participated in any of them, I think, so that’s another thing I’d like to do this year.
Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie Readathon: Bookish Challenge #13

Bookish Challenge 13: Book Playlist!

I love making playlists. In fact, it’s one of my favorite ways to procrastinate, which is what I’m doing right now. (I have two papers to finish for school, and a whole whack of reading to do, but I’m going to make a playlist, because… uh, yolo*, I guess. *cries salty tears into my teacup*)

This time, I’ve made a playlist for The Dragon Can’t Dance by Earl Lovelace, which is a brilliant novel I read for my Caribbean lit class this term. As I’ve previously mentioned, I prefer to make quite long playlists, that I can put on as background noise while doing other things; this playlist clocks in at 2 hours and 42 minutes long, which is actually a bit on the short side for me.

The cover of The Dragon Can't Dance, which reatures white text over a photo of a Black man dressed as a devil with red wings and body paint

Most of the songs are assigned by character, with a few songs being used to express their situation at a few different points in the book, and thereby sketch a kind of arc:

  • Songs 1, 19, and 34 are for Cleothilda
  • Songs 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 17, 18, 35, and 40 are for Sylvia
  • Songs 5, 15, 21, 23, 24, 26, 31, 32, and 33 are for Aldrick
  • Songs 9, 22, 25, and 30 are for Fisheye and the Calvary Hill Nine
  • Song 27 is from Mr Guy to Sylvia
  • Song 16 is from Sylvia to Aldrick
  • Songs 8, 29, 38, and 39 are for Philo
  • Songs 11, 28, and 36 are for Pariag
  • Song 37 is from Dolly to Pariag
  • Songs 12, 13, 14, and 20 are for Carnival season

Here’s the list:

  1. We Are One by Angelique Kidjo
  2. Flora’s Secret by Enya
  3. No Scrubs by TLC
  4. Partition by Beyoncé
  5. Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi
  6. I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) by Whitney Houston
  7. I Think I’m In Love With You by Jessica Simpson
  8. Billionaire/Successful by Ahmir
  9. Pistols at Dawn by Seinabo Sey
  10. Anaconda by Nicki Minaj
  11. Tu Koi Aur Hai by A.R. Rahman, Alma Ferovic, Arjun Chandy
  12. Cheers (Drink to That) by Rihanna
  13. All Night Long by Lionel Richie
  14. Pata Pata by Miriam Makeba
  15. Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle
  16. (소녀시대) – Run Devil Run by Girl’s Generation
  17. Glamorous by Fergie, ft. Ludacris
  18. Flawless Remix by Beyoncé & Nicki Minaj
  19. Criminal by Fiona Apple
  20. Trini Dem Girls by Nicki Minaj, ft. Lunchmoney Lewis
  21. Ribcage by Mary Lambert, ft. Angel Haze & K.Flay
  22. Bad Blood by Bastille
  23. No Air by Rissi Palmer
  24. A La Claire Fontaine by Les Petits Minous
  25. This is War by Thirty Seconds to Mars
  26. Wicked Games by The Weeknd
  27. O.M.G. by Usher, ft. will.i.am
  28. Grand Piano by Nicki Minaj
  29. Wordplay by Jason Mraz
  30. Demons by Imagine Dragons
  31. Happy Ending by MIKA
  32. Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson
  33. Angry by Matchbox Twenty
  34. Younger by Seinabo Sey
  35. The Weakness in Me by Joan Armitrading
  36. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo by Palak Muchhal
  37. Love on Top by Beyoncé
  38. Mad Season by Matchbox Twenty
  39. Marilyn Monroe by Nicki Minaj
  40. Sight of the Sun by Fun.

You can listen to it on Spotify.

 

*yolo, in case you don’t know, stands for You Only Live Once, a mantra adopted by some millenials to express their desire to enjoy life and do things that make them happy, probably in response to how thoroughly screwed we feel as we collapse under the weight of our student loans, trying to live up to the demands of our predecessors in an unstable housing market, racialized unemployment disparities, and a racialized system of gendered wage disparity, where we’re shamed for not being able to be literally in two places at once: to go to school and spend 45 hours a week in class for a degree that we shouldn’t need for the low wage work we can find, while also magically working the 48 hours a week it would cost to pay tuition (which is to say literally nothing about rent, bills, and food), and if we want to sleep 8 hours a night (not something you can really sustainably skimp on) that leaves 8 hours per week for cooking and eating and commuting and literally everything else outside of school and work. What, bitter? not me…

Save

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie July 2015 Readathon: Follow-up

I participated in the July 2015 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon. This post is a collection of reviews I wrote about books completed during the readathon. These reviews were originally shared on Goodreads, which was one of my goals for the readathon, and are quite short.

Books finished:

  1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (FINISHED; net change: 115 pages)
  2. Supernatural: John Winchester’s Journal by Alex Irvine (FINISHED; net change: 59 pages)
  3. The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (FINISHED; net change: 121 pages)
  4. Lady of the Moon by Amy Lowell, Mary Meriam, and Lillian Faderman (FINISHED; net change: 98 pages)
  5. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (FINISHED; net change: 76 pages)

Reviews:

1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

This book was… interesting. I blazed through it in four days. As a memoir of grieving, it invoked memories of my own grieving process and connected with me emotionally, but the author and I have very different life experiences, and this was almost enough to pull me out of the experience. Didion moves in wealthy, well-connected television and literary circles, and while I’d love some day to be as published and celebrated and connected as she is, that experience is currently very remote to me.

When mentioning her famous friends, she cites the fact they are famous, which is very distancing, and feels a bit like name-dropping. Other reviewers here are quick to remind us that this is a hallmark of her style, this coolness and emotional distance, but I think the critique is still valid: for a memoir about grief, such distance seems a little bewildering. However, it is still well-written and emotionally stirring, even if my own grief memoir would (will) look nothing like it.

2. Supernatural: John Winchester’s Journal by Alex Irvine

I blazed through a good chunk of this last year and then put it down for several months. The last 1/4 or so seemed to lag a bit — not sure precisely how it was different than the start, but my interest waned.

This book is absolutely only for Supernatural fans — it fills in a bit of backstory, as well as giving a greater sense of John, who we know comparatively little about. Written as a journal, it includes a mix of personal musings, notes about anniversaries and birthdays, and the kind of esoterica you’d expect to find in a hunter’s notebook. I gave it four stars because it lost me for a bit, but it’s still an interesting and enjoyable read.

3. The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld

This book was hard, but also amazing. The narrator’s unique voice obscures and reveals, and the revelations are perfectly timed and wondrous. Though the reader does not learn the precise nature of the narrator’s crime, it doesn’t truly matter, in the end. Masterfully crafted, and well-worth the read.

4. Lady of the Moon by Amy Lowell, Mary Meriam, and Lillian Faderman

The construction of this book is interesting, featuring a selection of Lowell’s poems, followed by a critical essay examining the Sapphic imagery of her work in the context of her relationship with Ada Russell, and ending with a sequence of poems that reimagine the courtship and relationship between Lowell and Russell.

Of this, I very much enjoyed the essay, and the context it gave allowed me to better appreciate Lowell’s poetry. By comparison, the poems at the end, the work of Mary Meriam, seem a bit childish. Lowell’s work involves lush description, vivid detail, and sly eroticism. Meriam’s work, particularly the sonnets that begin the sequence, is flat. The rhyming in the sonnets is a trifle unimaginative, and the diction is oddly inconsistent; overall, Meriam’s work is a bit of a let-down, when compared to the clever writing of Lillian Faderman’s essay and Lowell’s own vibrant poetry.

5. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis

I’ve been meaning to read this one for a while, and it was referenced in The Year of Magical Thinking, so I decided to finally dust it off and read it.

This book is very intense. The introduction by Lewis’s stepson gives further insight to the creation of the book, but even without this context, the reader is drawn in. Lewis’s grief is raw and near, and it makes even this dedicated apologist question everything he knows and feels. He grappled with feelings of guilt and sorrow and anger in personal journals following his wife’s death. Later, upon reading them again, he decided to publish them, in the hopes they might help others facing loss heal a little more.

Here, Lewis is not the eloquent and impassioned writer of Christian apologetics, but merely a man of deep faith struggling to get through the loss of the woman he loved. He looked unflinchingly at his own crisis of faith and then shared it with the world, an act of courage. He survived, got himself through one of the hardest times in any person’s life; this book might help anyone else do the same.

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie July 2015 Readathon: Final Update

(All times are Brisbane local time)

I participated in the July 2015 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon. This is my final update post.

Readathon update:

I miscalculated, out of exhaustion, and didn’t realize that I wouldn’t wake up until just before the readathon’s end. That means that these numbers are the same as the Day 9 update post. And now it’s done!

Thanks for following my updates and folks who encouraged me. It was good to “meet” the other readathon participants, and I’m following some of y’all. Take care until next time!

 

  1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (FINISHED; current page: 227 of 227; net change: 115 pages)
  2. Supernatural: John Winchester’s Journal by Alex Irvine (FINISHED; current page: 217 of 217; net change: 59 pages)
  3. The Jewish Study Bible by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Eds.) (Current page: 343 of 2181; net change: 9 pages) Note: not originally listed, not technically being read for the challenge, but the challenge dates encompass two weeks of parshot (readings), and so those will be included in my page count.
  4. The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (FINISHED; current page: 233 of 233; net change: 121 pages)
  5. Lady of the Moon by Amy Lowell, Mary Meriam, and Lillian Faderman (FINISHED; current page: 98 of 98; net change: 98 pages)
  6. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (FINISHED; current page: 76 of 76; net change: 76 pages)
  7. Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction by Dominica Malcolm [Ed.] (Current page: 55 of 252; net change: 35 pages)
  8. Octavia’s Brood by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha [Eds.] (Current page: 152 of 296; net change: 152 pages)

Net change for all books read: 665 pages
Books finished: 5

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie July 2015 Readathon Day 9

Day Nine, Saturday, July 19:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

I am participating in the July 2015 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon. This is my day 9 update post.

Readathon update:

Long day at the conference, so I didn’t get much more reading done, and the readathon ends in 9 hours. I’ll try to get some more reading in before the end, and I’ll make a final update post after midnight on the 19th, Brisbane time.

 

  1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (FINISHED; current page: 227 of 227; net change: 115 pages)
  2. Supernatural: John Winchester’s Journal by Alex Irvine (FINISHED; current page: 217 of 217; net change: 59 pages)
  3. The Jewish Study Bible by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Eds.) (Current page: 343 of 2181; net change: 9 pages) Note: not originally listed, not technically being read for the challenge, but the challenge dates encompass two weeks of parshot (readings), and so those will be included in my page count.
  4. The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (FINISHED; current page: 233 of 233; net change: 121 pages)
  5. Lady of the Moon by Amy Lowell, Mary Meriam, and Lillian Faderman (FINISHED; current page: 98 of 98; net change: 98 pages)
  6. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (FINISHED; current page: 76 of 76; net change: 76 pages)
  7. Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction by Dominica Malcolm [Ed.] (Current page: 55 of 252; net change: 35 pages)
  8. Octavia’s Brood by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha [Eds.] (Current page: 152 of 296; net change: 152 pages)

Net change for all books read so far: 665 pages

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie July 2015 Readathon Day 8

Day Eight, Saturday, July 18:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

I am participating in the July 2015 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon. This is my day 8 update post

Readathon update:

I’m volunteering at a local activist conference this weekend, so my reading is gonna slow down, especially since I was silly and didn’t sleep enough last night, leaving me too exhausted to catch up on my desired reading pace. But I did manage some transit reading to and from the conference, and that’ll have to do.

There’s still about a day and a half left, so I may be able to get another couple hundred pages in before the challenge ends. But I’m going to bed early tonight, so it’ll have to wait for tomorrow.

  1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (FINISHED; current page: 227 of 227; net change: 115 pages)
  2. Supernatural: John Winchester’s Journal by Alex Irvine (FINISHED; current page: 217 of 217; net change: 59 pages)
  3. The Jewish Study Bible by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Eds.) (Current page: 343 of 2181; net change: 9 pages) Note: not originally listed, not technically being read for the challenge, but the challenge dates encompass two weeks of parshot (readings), and so those will be included in my page count.
  4. The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (FINISHED; current page: 233 of 233; net change: 121 pages)
  5. Lady of the Moon by Amy Lowell, Mary Meriam, and Lillian Faderman (FINISHED; current page: 98 of 98; net change: 98 pages)
  6. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (FINISHED; current page: 76 of 76; net change: 76 pages)
  7. Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction by Dominica Malcolm [Ed.] (Current page: 55 of 252; net change: 35 pages)
  8. Octavia’s Brood by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha [Eds.] (Current page: 134 of 296; net change: 134 pages)

Net change for all books read so far: 647 pages

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie July 2015 Readathon Day 7

Day Seven, Friday, July 17:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

I am participating in the July 2015 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon. This is my day 7 update post

Readathon update:

I stayed up late baking bread, and so I got a hefty chunk of reading done

  1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (FINISHED; current page: 227 of 227; net change: 115 pages)
  2. Supernatural: John Winchester’s Journal by Alex Irvine (FINISHED; current page: 217 of 217; net change: 59 pages)
  3. The Jewish Study Bible by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Eds.) (Current page: 343 of 2181; net change: 9 pages) Note: not originally listed, not technically being read for the challenge, but the challenge dates encompass two weeks of parshot (readings), and so those will be included in my page count.
  4. The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (FINISHED; current page: 233 of 233; net change: 121 pages)
  5. Lady of the Moon by Amy Lowell, Mary Meriam, and Lillian Faderman (FINISHED; current page: 98 of 98; net change: 98 pages)
  6. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (FINISHED; current page: 76 of 76; net change: 76 pages)
  7. Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction by Dominica Malcolm [Ed.] (Current page: 48 of 252; net change: 28 pages)
  8. Octavia’s Brood by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha [Eds.] (Current page: 68 of 296; net change: 68 pages)

Net change for all books read so far: 574 pages

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie July 2015 Readathon Day 6

Day Six, Thursday, July 16:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

I am participating in the July 2015 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon. Due to unforeseen circumstances, there may be no more challenge posts, which is fine. In that case, I will continue to post updates through the end of the readathon.

Readathon update:

I stayed up late baking bread, and so I got a hefty chunk of reading done

  1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (FINISHED; current page: 227 of 227; net change: 115 pages)
  2. Supernatural: John Winchester’s Journal by Alex Irvine (FINISHED; current page: 217 of 217; net change: 59 pages)
  3. The Jewish Study Bible by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Eds.) (Current page: 343 of 2181; net change: 9 pages) Note: not originally listed, not technically being read for the challenge, but the challenge dates encompass two weeks of parshot (readings), and so those will be included in my page count.
  4. The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (FINISHED; current page: 233 of 233; net change: 121 pages)
  5. Lady of the Moon by Amy Lowell, Mary Meriam, and Lillian Faderman (FINISHED; current page: 98 of 98; net change: 98 pages)
  6. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (FINISHED; current page: 76 of 76; net change: 76 pages)

Net change for all books read so far: 478 pages

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie July 2015 Readathon Day 5

Day Five, Wednesday, July 15:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

I am participating in the July 2015 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon. This is the Day 5 update post; the challenge for Days 5 and 6 will be posted on Day 6.

Readathon update:

Not much reading today — had to go run some errands and such. Waiting for the dishwasher so I can start prepping the bread to bake tomorrow morning. Will use this down time to read, and hopefully tomorrow’s number will be higher.

  1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (FINISHED; current page: 227 of 227; net change: 115 pages)
  2. Supernatural: John Winchester’s Journal by Alex Irvine (FINISHED; current page: 217 of 217; net change: 59 pages)
  3. The Jewish Study Bible by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Eds.) (Current page: 343 of 2181; net change: 9 pages) Note: not originally listed, not technically being read for the challenge, but the challenge dates encompass two weeks of parshot (readings), and so those will be included in my page count.
  4. The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (Current page: 122 of 233; net change: 10 pages)
  5. Lady of the Moon by Amy Lowell, Mary Meriam, and Lillian Faderman (FINISHED; current page: 98 of 98; net change: 98 pages)
  6. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (Current page: 32 of 76; net change: 32 pages)

Net change for all books read so far: 323 pages

 

To see all Read-a-thon posts, go here.

Blog, Read-a-thon

Trees of Reverie July 2015 Readathon Day 4: Recommended Read

Day Four, Tuesday, July 14:

(All times are Brisbane local time)

I am participating in the July 2015 Trees of Reverie Read-a-thon. This is the Day 4 Challenge post.

Challenge:

If I could share and recommend only ONE book/series that I’ve read so far in 2015…

Oh, my! Just one? How do I even choose?! This is such a hard question…

Ugh. Okay, If I have to pick just one of the books I’ve read this year, I’m going to have to go with— Wow, this is hard…

Alright, I pick:

Mouthful of Forevers by Clementine Von Radics. I was invited to read my poetry at a reading she was also a part of, and though I got a bit lost and was late, I loved what I heard of hers, and after the event we swapped a copy of our own book for the other’s. I didn’t get to read it until a week later, though, when I devoured this book over the course of a flight from Oregon to Alaska for a debate tournament, and I made my teammates read my favorites, and gesticulated a bunch and was very, very excited.

(Warning for profanity.) Continue reading “Trees of Reverie July 2015 Readathon Day 4: Recommended Read” →