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2020 Book Reading Challenge

a book published this year The Network Effect by Martha Wells The first full-length novel in The Murderbot Diaries series. This was my favorite reading find of 2020!

a book you can finish in a day Beach Read by Emily Henry A book about writers falling in love by a beach, titled playfully about beach reads and actually a great and fun one! a book you’ve been meaning to read The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano I haven’t read this book for more than a decade but I kept planning to revisit it to see if I wanted to keep it on my bookshelf. Considering all that happened in 2020, I’m glad I finally did. This is an autobiography by a man taken into slavery from Africa into America, his eventually release and his life as a sailor afterward around the world. What struck me most on this read was how hard it must have been for Olaudah to live within these systems of oppression. His emotional hardships really struck a chord with me.

a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller Bloody Mary Club No. 1 I bought this chapbook from a local bookseller in Mexico City. Fun read!

a book you should have read in school The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle Things I wish we’d learned in school: how to be a conscientious voter, how to understand investing and financing, etc.

a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child or BFF God, the Moon, and Other Megafauna by Kellie Wells Recc’ed by my BFF. A delightful and imaginative collection of short stories that read more like poetry than prose even if they aren’t.

a book published before you were born Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol An important work in Russian literature—I finally read it. It’s very interesting. I don’t know if I liked it, but I’m glad I read it.

a book that was banned at some point Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Read it. Read it. Read it.. a book you abandoned The Seas by Samantha Hunt I just couldn’t get into this book despite the fact that I love this genre. a book you own but have never read The End of the Story by Lydia Davis I did a massive bookshelf cleaning, and this is one of the books I finally admitted I’d never get around to reading. a book that intimidates you Esperanza Renace by Pam Muñoz Ryan I challenged myself to read in Spanish, and I’m so glad I did. This was beautiful. I cried quite a bit at the end. a book you’ve already read at least one. Amanda Quick romance novels Mysteries with some romance. I love those.

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2019 Book Reading Challenge

a book published this year Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid This is my second book by this author, and it does not disappoint. I love how it explores all different kinds of love particularly that between two people creating art.

a book you can finish in a day The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang A lovely graphic novel by a talented artist! I ate it up. a book you’ve been meaning to read Frenchmen’s Creek by Daphne DuMaurier I kept checking this ebook out and not reading it. When I finally did, DuMaurier reasserted herself as a master of tension and suspense and romance! Definitely one of my favorite books of the year! 

a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector An local bookstore owner got me to read my first Lispector title.

a book you should have read in school The Call of the Wild by Jack London While reading it, I kept thinking: Oh! This is why it’s such a classic! It’s so so good!

a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child or BFF Florence by Annapurna Interactive I played a lot of interactive storytelling games last year and this was my favorite. It’s delightful, heartfelt and lots of fun! A great story of change and growing up.

a book published before you were born O Pioneers by Willa Cather When I finished this book, I really wanted to talk to someone about it. I don’t know if I liked it, but I thought about it a lot. I still wish I could talk to someone about it.

a book that was banned at some point Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume I never read this as a youngster, but it’s still a great read. a book you previously abandoned The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino I made it through a third of this book and just didn’t get farther. a book you own but have never read The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams Never opened it. a book that intimidates you The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean It intimidated me when I started, but then I got pulled deeply into the stories about orchid hunters, Florida and all the crazy things that tie them together in history and modern times. a book you’ve already read at least one. The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas I’m pretty sure I reread this immediately upon finishing it. Then I went back and reread all the Lady Sherlock books again.

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Conversa el humo con las nubes?—Pablo Neruda

What do clouds say? In Brooklyn, I finish my avocado toast when Pablo N. puts this thoughtful smokiness in front of my lips. All that my  stomach wants is in and through my throat, so now brain and spirit clamor hungrily for a philosophical nip.

I want to talk to clouds, but I don’t know any. I can’t tilt my chin too far up. Any lyrics would fail to drift that high. Also on trips through the air, I doubt any cloud had longings for my optical, audial or vocal knittings. And I know things can occupy clouds, too. So what position would unknot cloudy intra-absorption? What would pull the sky’s vision to flirt with hills and dust?

I think how clouds don’t think in words so an invitation sparks nothing nor would it to a parsnip in hand. So I look back to Pablo. But I’ll bypass him and not ask. I can study vapor. Mimic shadows and act sibilant. I don’t wish for dark but only to transform. To unmask conversations of rain.

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2016 Reading Challenge Update

I’m going to try to update this tumblr more frequently, so I thought I’d close the circle on this challenge. Here’s what I completed:

a book published this year Firstlife by Gena Showalter A fun YA novel that supposes the after life must recruit you into their team ranks. The special “She” exists, of course, and the two men who love her.

a book you can finish in a day salt. & nejma by Nayyirah Waheed You can read no devour these books in a couple of hours. Waheed’s poetry is magical. If you’ve never read poetry, her work is a great entry point. a book you’ve been meaning to read Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris I’d been meaning to read the last Sookie Stackhouse for awhile, but as the series got closer to an ending, the less I cared. Now I know how it all ends. OK.

a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller Borrowed Bones by Luis J Rodriguez At the Socal Poetry Fest, a local bookseller suggested this title by the poet laureate of Los Angeles. It was divine! a book you should have read in school Helen of Egypt by H.D. I wish I had been in a class while reading this poetry hybrid. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more. a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child or BFF Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert So. SO. GOOD! Gilbert articulates the creative process so clearly! a book published before you were born Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen I never tire of rereading Austen.

a book that was banned at some point Kushiel’s Dart Series by Jacqueline Carey This book isn’t on the banned lists of the ALA, but I can’t imagine someone not challenging it at some point. I love this series! It kicked off 2016 and reminded me of my love for fantasy/scifi epics. a book you previously abandoned A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’engle In high school, I did not get this book. Then I picked it up again and again and loved it more and more. a book you own but have never read The Content Strategy Toolkit a book that intimidates you Three Lives by Gertrude Stein It took me a long time to get through it. a book you’ve already read at least one. The Dressmakers Series by Loretta Chase A very fun romance quartet.

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2016 Reading Challenge

a book published this year a book you can finish in a day a book you’ve been meaning to read a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller a book you should have read in school a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child or BFF a book published before you were born a book that was banned at some point a book you previously abandoned a book you own but have never read a book that intimidates you a book you’ve already read at least one.

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I was learning the craft of poetry, which really was an intensive version of what my mother had taught me all those years ago—the craft of writing as the art of thinking. Poetry aims for an economy of truth—loose and useless words must be discarded, and I found that these loose and useless words were not separate from loose and useless thoughts.

Ta-Nehisi Coates from Between the World and me

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“In the Dream they are Buck Rogers, Prince Aragorn, an entire race of Skywalkers. To awaken them is to reveal that they are an empire of humans and, like all empires of humans, are built on the destruction of the body. It is to stain their nobility, to make them vulnerable, fallible, breakable humans.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

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“I believed, and still do, that our bodies are our selves, that my soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves, and that my spirit is my flesh.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

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“I feel as if it might be the sea, if there were water on it,” said Mary. “It sounds like the sea just now.”

I’m in landlocked Herzegovina. I spent all morning till noon in bed listening to the wind blowing across the grasses.

quote from THE SECRET GARDEN

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Perhaps it’s fitting ...

That my first full conversation in Croatian should be about donuts.

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Mornings at Blackwater by Mary Oliver

For years, every morning, I drank from Blackwater Pond. It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt, the feet of ducks. And always it assuaged me from the dry bowl of the very far past. What I want to say is that the past is the past, and the present is what your life is, and you are capable of choosing what that will be, darling citizen. So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing, and put your lips to the world. And live your life.

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1066 QUIZ

1.  How much Conquering is too much Conquering? - One hundred square miles - Girl please that’s like askin’ how much chocolate is too much chocolate - You can’t contain that stuff man, you gotta roll with it - Trick question!! Now I’ve burnt down your house. 2.  The Battle of Stamford Bridge? - Mel Gibson was terrible as Harald Hardrada and there wasn’t even a bridge in the movie - Historians agree, good use of tanks - Tostig is all like, the pridelands are mine, Mufasa - At least it’s not Sweyn 3.  What was the relic of St Peter that William wore around his neck? - A lock of hair tied in a ribbon inside a valentine - Eyeball of Destiny (disputed) - Genuine fart, captured in a vial, sealed in wax - Geode, from that time the disciples visited Jesus’ bedroom in Nazareth and divided up all his stuff (Gospel of Mark) 4.  When William’s horse died: - All the other horses died too because: science - Everyone was like it’s over but then William was like no way and they were like way but he was like no way and it ruled - He used it as a weapon and slew many a Saxon! - Han Solo had to open it up with a lightsaber to keep William warm and Rob Roy hid in it 5.  How does one remove an arrow from the eye? - Push it out the other side (recommended) - Push it out the other side (not recommended) - Doesn’t matter how you do it to a dead person - Keep it bro! Chicks dig it. 6.  Was William a bastard? - He was once but it was just a phase - Ask the Northern Earls - I see what you did there - Yeah but I doubt he has a complex about it or anything 7.  Is England French now? - I can’t hear you through all these baguettes - Only the parts with money/swords/power - Who do we know that can conduct a census to find out? - Oh Tish I love it when you speak French! *mwah mwah mwah* 8.  What is the better way to die: - Arrow through eye - Horse incident w/ exploding corpse - A combination of the two - Anything but those two things 9.  Was Harold a good king? - He was good at catching sharp things with his face - He was good at LOSING - He was good at having the worst family - He was alright 10.  The Bayeux Tapestry is: - a propaganda machine - too big to hang in the dining room - The worst issue of Batman I’ve ever read - Harold dies?? Um, spoilers

Please circle all your answers and hand in your papers via Harold’s favorite falcon

Website

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When my friend surprises me with a poetry book

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Hymn to the Neck by Amy Gerstler

Tamed by starched collars or looped by the noose, all hail the stem that holds up the frail cranial buttercup. The neck throbs with dread of the guillotine's kiss, while the silly, bracelet-craving wrists chafe in their handcuffs. Your one and only neck, home to glottis, tonsils, and many other highly specialized pieces of meat, is covered with stubble. Three mornings ago, undeserving sinner though she is, yours truly got to watch you shave in the bath. Sap matted your chest hair. A clouded hand mirror reflected a piece of your cheek. Vapor rose all around like spirit-infested mist in some fabled rainforest. The throat is the road. Speech is its pilgrim. Something pulses visibly in your neck as the words hand me a towel flower from your mouth.

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The Politics of Narrative: Why I Am a Poet by Lynn Emanuel

Jill's a good kid who's had some tough luck. But that's another story. It's a day when the smell of fish from Tib's hash house is so strong you could build a garage on it. We are sit- ting in Izzy's where Carl has just built us a couple of solid highballs. He's okay, Carl is, if you don't count his Roamin' Hands and Rushin' Fingers. Then again, that should be the only trouble we have in this life. Anyway, Jill says, "Why don't you tell about it? Nobody ever gets the poet's point of view." I don't know, maybe she's right. Jill's just a kid, but she's been around; she knows what's what. So, I tell Jill, we are at Izzy's just like now when he comes in. And the first thing I notice is his hair, which has been Vitalis-ed into submission. But, honey, it won't work, and it gives him a kind of rumpled your-boudoir-or-mine look. I don't know why I noticed that before I noticed his face. Maybe it was just the highballs doing the looking. Anyway, then I see his face, and I'm telling you—I'm telling Jill—this is a masterpiece of a face. But—and this is the god's own truth—I'm tired of beauty. Really. I know, given all that happened, this must sound kind of funny, but it made me tired just to look at him. That's how beautiful he was, and how much he spelled T-R- O-U-B-L-E. So I threw him back. I mean, I didn't say it, I say to Jill, with my mouth. But I said it with my eyes and my shoulders. I said it with my heart. I said, Honey, I'm throwing you back. And looking back, that was the worst, I mean, the worst thing—bar none—that I could have done, because it drew him like horseshit draws flies. I mean, he didn't walk over and say, "Hello, girls; hey, you with the dark hair, your indifference draws me like horseshit draws flies." But he said it with his eyes. And then he smiled. And that smile was a gas station on a dark night. And as wearying as all the rest of it. I am many things, but dumb isn't one of them. And here is where I say to Jill, "I just can't go on." I mean, how we get from the smile into the bedroom, how it all happens, and what all happens, just bores me. I am a concep- tual storyteller. In fact, I'm a conceptual liver. I prefer the cookbook to the actual meal. Feeling bores me. That's why I write poetry. In poetry you just give the instructions to the reader and say, "Reader, you go on from here." And what I like about poetry is its readers, because those are giving people. I mean, those are people you can trust to get the job done. They pull their own weight. If I had to have someone at my back in a dark alley, I'd want it to be a poetry reader. They're not like some people, who maybe do it right if you tell them, "Put this foot down, and now put that one in front of the other, button your coat, wipe your nose." So, really, I do it for the readers who work hard and, I feel, deserve something better than they're used to getting. I do it for the working stiff. And I write for people, like myself, who are just tired of the trickle-down theory where some- body spends pages and pages on some fat book where every- thing including the draperies, which happen to be burnt orange, are described, and, further, are some metaphor for something. And this whole boggy waste trickles down to the reader in the form of a little burp of feeling. God, I hate prose. I think the average reader likes ideas. "A sentence, unlike a line, is not a station of the cross." I said this to the poet Mark Strand. I said, "I could not stand to write prose; I could not stand to have to write things like 'the draperies were burnt orange and the carpet was brown.'" And he said, "You could do it if that's all you did, if that was the beginning and the end of your novel." So please, don't ask me for a little trail of bread crumbs to get from the smile to the bedroom, and from the bedroom to the death at the end, al- though you can ask me a lot about death. That's all I like, the very beginning and the very end. I haven't got the stomach for the rest of it. I don't think many people do. But, like me, they're either too afraid or too polite to say so. That's why the movies are such a disaster. Now there's a form of popular culture that doesn't have a clue. Movies should be five minutes long. You should go in, see a couple of shots, maybe a room with orange draperies and a rug. A voice-over would say, "I'm having a hard time getting Raoul from the hotel room into the eleva- tor." And, bang, that's the end. The lights come on, everybody walks out full of sympathy because this is a shared experi- ence. Everybody in that theater knows how hard it is to get Raoul from the hotel room into the elevator. Everyone has had to do boring, dogged work. Everyone has lived a life that seems to inflict every vivid moment the smears, finger- ings, and pawings of plot and feeling. Everyone has lived un- der this oppression. In other words, everyone has had to eat shit—day after day, the endless meals they didn't want, those dark, half-gelatinous lakes of gravy that lay on the plate like an ugly rug and that wrinkled clump of reddish-orange roast beef that looks like it was dropped onto your plate from a great height. God what a horror: getting Raoul into the ele- vator. And that's why I write poetry. In poetry, you don't do that kind of work.

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The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

W.B. Yeats

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This never fails to crack me up!