October was an excellent month for books, thanks primarily to me having a couple of weeks off from work to rest and recover and read and visit bookstores. I didn’t read as much as I would have liked, due to overall burnout, but again, what my reading list lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality.

Acquisitions

42. Jean Daive (Rosmarie Waldrop, translator), Under the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan (City Lights Books) [2023.10.03] – Purchased at The Book Nook& Java Shop in Montague, Michigan. This was a spur-of-the-moment purchase. I saw the City Lights logo and pulled the book down, opened it to a random couple of pages, and immediately became obsessed. It’s not often that I read a book in the same month that I purchase it.
43. Elmore Leonard, When the Women Come Out to Dance [2023.10.06] – Purchased at Argos Books and Comics in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I recently read Get Shorty, because the movie version is one of my all-time favorites. This collection contains the short story “Fire in the Hole,” which is the basis for the TV series Justified, which is very good.
44. R.F. Kuang, Babel [2023.10.06] – Purchased at Books & Mortar Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I read Kuang’s Yellowface a few weeks back and quite enjoyed it. This one has been on my TBR list for some time, so I when I saw it at Books & Mortar, I grabbed a copy.
45. Jim C. Hines, Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens (self-published) – This is the reward for Hines’ latest Kickstarter.
46. Antonio Machado (Stanley Appelbaum, translator), Fields of Castile/Campos de Castilla [2023.10.15] – Purchased from Books and Mortar Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A few months ago, after looking up interviews with Cormac McCarthy, YouTube began suggesting clips from a movie called The Counsellor. I had never heard of it, but it looked intriguing. The first clip I watched was from the end of the movie, and consisted of a conversation between Michael Fassbender and Rubén Blades. It was a powerful scene and the poetry of Machado figured prominently. I watched a few more scenes from the movie, enough to realize that (a) I really need to see it, and (b) I need to be in the right frame of mind because it is VERY dark. So I have not yet seen the movie but I do have some Machado to read in the meantime.
47. Paul Celan (John Felstiner, translator), Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan [2023.10.15] – Purchased from Books and Mortar Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I ordered this after reading about fifty pages of Under the Dome. I knew Celan’s name, but nothing more. I am very much looking forward to reading this one.
48. Jean Daive (Norma Cole, translator), A Woman With Several Lives (La Presse) [2023.10.23] – Purchased from Books and Mortar Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Also purchased after reading a few dozen pages of Under the Dome. Also looking forward to reading it.
49. Marosia Castaldi (Jamie Richards, translator), The Hunger of Women (And Other Stories) [2023.10.27] – From my subscription to And Other Stories.
50. Michele Mari (Brian Robert Moore, translator), Verdigris (And Other Stories) [2023.10.27] – From my subscription to And Other Stories.
51. Lutz Seiler (Martyn Crucefix, translator), In Case of Loss (And Other Stories) [2023.10.27] – From my subscription to And Other Stories.

Reading List

Books

49. Shawn Speakman, The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey [2023.10.02]
50. Olga Tokarczuk (Antonia Lloyd-Jones, translator), Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead [2023.10.17]
51. Jean Daive (Rosmarie Waldrop, translator), Under the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan [2023.10.18]
52. Ai Jiang and Christi Nogle (editors), Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia [2023.10.26]

Short Prose

87. Jennifer Fliss, “Ijo de Ken Sos Tu?”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.18]
88. Simo Srinivas, “The Girls of St. X”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.19]
89. Jo Kaplan, “Humanities 215”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.19]
90. Amber Chen, “Hugging the Buddha’s Feet”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.21]
91. Cyrus Amelia Fisher, “In Vast and Fecund Reaches We Will Meet Again”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.21]
92. John Langan, “Applicatio”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.21]
93. Steve Rasnic Tem, “Higher Powers”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.22]
94. Michael A. Reed, “Twisted Tongues”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.22]
95. Brian Evenson, “The Allard Residency”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.23]
96. Hussani Abdulrahim, “The Library Virus”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.23]
97. R.B. Lemberg, “The Occupation of the Migratory Library of Oanno”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.24]
98. Gabino Iglesias, “Tiny Hearts in the Dark”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.24]
99. Ana Hurtado, “Parásito”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.24]
100. Suzan Palumbo, “The Davinci Chip”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
101. Ayida Shonibar, “An Inordinate Amount of Interest”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
102. Premee Mohamed, “Preservation of an Intact Specimen”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
103. Octavia Cade, “Those Shining Things Are Out of Reach”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
104. Marisca Pichette, “Her Finished Wings”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.26]
105. R.J. Joseph, “Those Who Teach Pay Knowledge Forward”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.26]