Ecce Sigum

Immanentize the Empathy

Category: Book List

December 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Reading-wise, this month started out slowly. Between the mental fatigue of finishing NaNoWriMo and the emotional fatigue of GODDAMN EVERYTHING, I didn’t have much brain power left to work my way through the two books I started reading back in October (Graeber) and December (Dostoevsky). Dostoevsky and Graeber are brilliant and rewarding writers, but wow, do they require a lot of focus and mental energy to read attentively.

As a counterbalance, as soon as I finished the Graeber I picked up a few books from my embarrassingly large pile of unread genre fiction. These books were much easier to read. This is not to say that genre fiction is on its face light or inconsequential. The Scalzi, Hines, and El-Mohtar/Gladstone volumes were much easier to read simply because they were (a) not Dostoevsky, and (b) not an economic treatise which covers the previous five millennia of world history.

Jim Harrison’s book sneaked in at the top of the list because I picked it up after the arrival of his Collected Poems at the beginning of the month, and essays about food make for comforting reading.

All of the short prose I read this month was contained in the Dostoevsky. Six birds with one stone. Or maybe one bird with five pebbles, depending on how one splits that particular hair.

Books

  1. Harrison, Jim, The Raw and the Cooked (reread, 2021.12.14)
  2. Dostoevsky, Fyodor (Volokhonsky, Larissa, and Pevear, Richard, translators), The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)
  3. Graeber, David, Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2021.12.28)
  4. Scalzi, John, The Collapsing Empire (2021.12.29)
  5. Hines, Jim C, Terminal Uprising (2021.12.30)
  6. El-Mohtar, Amal and Gladstone, Max – This Is How You Lose the Time War (2021.12.31)

Short Prose

  1. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “A Nasty Anecdote”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.05)
  2. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “The Eternal Husband”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.26)
  3. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “Bobok”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)
  4. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “The Meek One”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)
  5. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)

November 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

This month was almost wholly devoted to writing for NaNoWriMo, so I only read a few short stories, all of them in the single book which I completed for the month: Dreams of Stars and Lies, a collection of short fiction written by West Michigan author Jean Davis. I made more progress on David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years, but I think it will be a few more weeks before I am finished with that one.

Books

  1. Davis, Jean, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.26)

Short Prose

  1. Davis, Jean, “Battery”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  2. Davis, Jean, “Devolution”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  3. Davis, Jean, “Legacy”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  4. Davis, Jean, “Mrs. Gilroy”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  5. Davis, Jean, “Sipper”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.26)

October 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

This month I completed four books and four short stories. The stories were part of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, which is the first Saunders I have read, and the first time I had read three of the four stories, the fourth being the Chekhov, either ten or 25 years ago. I don’t quite remember which.

So the tally for the month stands at two fiction and two non-fiction. Not bad for a month as chaotic as was October, in a year as chaotic as is 2021.

Books

  1. Chakraborty, S.A., The Kingdom of Copper (2021.10.04)
  2. Saunders, George, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.15)
  3. Wiesenthal, Simon, The Sunflower (2021.10.15)
  4. Sanford, Jason, Plague Birds (2021.10.19)

Short Prose

  1. Tolstoy, Leo (Maude, Louise and Aylmer, translators), “Master and Man”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.06)
  2. Gogol, Nikolai (Struve, Mary, translator), “The Nose”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.10)
  3. Chekhov, Anton (Yarmolinsky, Avrahm, translator), “Gooseberries”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.13)
  4. Tolstoy, Leo (Brown, Clarence, translator), “Alyosha the Pot”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.14)

September 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

I hit the ground running this month with a pile of unread anthologies, which I tend to collect more of than any other type of book. The only books  I read to completion this month were the two anthologies listed below, which contained almost all of the short prose which is listed after. Despite some significant chaos in my personal life, it was a good month for reading, with 37 short stories, which brought me into the triple digits for the year. Still less than half of what I had hoped at this point, but many more than I completed last year.

The last three, in the short prose list are from George Saunders’ magnificent A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. I am less than halfway through, and already it is one of my top five writing advice books.

Books

  1. Smith, Angela Yuriko and Noel, Scot (editors) – Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.08)
  2. Coe, David B. and Palmatier, Joshua (editors) – Derelict (2021.09.15)

Short Prose

  1. Ulibarri, Sarena, “The Spiral Ranch”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.01)
  2. Amburgey, David, “An Infinite Number”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.01)
  3. Teffeau, Lauren C., “Sing! & Remember”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.02)
  4. Bondoni, Gustavo, “A Sip of Pombé”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.04)
  5. Linskold, Jane, “Born from Memory”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.04)
  6. Tork, Tyler, “Tea With Gibbons”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.05)
  7. Colter, L. Deni, “The Weight of Mountains”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.05)
  8. Mana, Davide, “Sapiens”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.06)
  9. Linzner, Gordon, “The Dead Don’t Dream”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.06)
  10. Gragg, Austin, “Collection Violet”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.06)
  11. Palisano, John, “Humani”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.06)
  12. Manzetti, Alessandro, “Joy of Life”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.06)
  13. Maberry, Jonathan, “Artifact”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.06)
  14. Shelby, Jennifer, “The Feline, The Witch, and the Universe”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.07)
  15. Del Carlo, Eric, “Hands of a Toolmaker”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.07)
  16. Grant, John Linwood, A Farewell to Worms”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.07)
  17. Rogers, Ian, “A Glass Darkly”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.09.08)
  18. Smith, Kristine, “Symbiote”, Derelict (2021.09.08)
  19. Jackson, D.B., “The Wreck of the Sarah Mohr“, Derelict (2021.09.09)
  20. Tyree, Griffin Ayaz, “The Tempest in Space”, Derelict (2021.09.09)
  21. Popovic, Andrija, “Playing Possum”, Derelict (2021.09.10)
  22. Lee, Sharon & Miller, Steve, ” Standing Orders”, Derelict (2021.09.10)
  23. Brandt, Gerald, “Time, Yet”, Derelict (2021.09.11)
  24. Harding, Kit, ” Flight Plans Through the Dust of Dreams”, Derelict (2021.09.12)
  25. Koch, Gini (writing as Ensal, Anita), “Saving Sallie Ruth”, Derelict (2021.09.12)
  26. Bedford, Jacey, “Methuselah”, Derelict (2021.09.13)
  27. Jacobsen, Mark D., “Celestial Object 143205”, Derelict (2021.09.13)
  28. Bledsoe, Alex, “When the Stars Fell and the Levee Broke”, Derelict (2021.09.13)
  29. Brenchley, Chaz, “Derelict of Duty”, Derelict (2021.09.14)
  30. Held, R.Z., “Two Ruins Make a Beginning”, Derelict (2021.09.14)
  31. Campbell, Jack, “Orpheus”, Derelict (2021.09.14)
  32. Czerneda, Julie E., “Decay in Five Stages”, Derelict (2021.09.15)
  33. Farrenkopf, Corey, “Birdwatching During the End Times“, Coffin Bell #4.3 (2021.09.15)
  34. Squirrel, William, “In the Armies of Hell All the Soldiers Are Kings“, Coffin Bell #4.3 (2021.09.15)
  35. Chekhov, Anton (Yarmolinsky, Avrahm, translator), “In the Cart”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.09.20)
  36. Turgenev, Ivan (Magarshack, David, translator), “The Singers”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.09.21)
  37. Chekhov, Anton (Yarmolinsky, Avrahm, translator), “The Darling”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.09.28)

August 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

I finally dove back into short fiction this month, mostly thanks to three anthologies: Portals, Skull & Pestle, and Worlds of Light and Darkness. All three Are good reads and contain some hits and some misses, but overall the anthologies are well above average, so time spent reading through them was time well spent.

The Berardi was dense and complex, being critical theory, and seemed to lose focus at the end, though overall it had very important things to say and the knowledge contained therein will likely affect my world view in unexpected ways for some time to come.

Michael Sullivan’s Theft of Swords was a rollicking good read, and I look forward to reading more of his work. Fortunately I have at least three other books by him on my TBR shelves.

Two of the short fiction authors in this list – Szmerelda Shanel and Jessamy Corob Cook – have no personal web presence that I could find, so I included links to their entries at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database instead.

Books

  1. Berardi, Franco, The Uprising: On Poetry and Finance (2021.08.08)
  2. Sullivan, Michael J., Theft of Swords (2021.08.12)
  3. Bray, Patricia and Butler, S.C. (editors), Portals (2021.08.26)
  4. Wolford, Kate (editor), Skull & Pestle: New Tales of Baba Yaga (2021.08.29)

Short Prose

  1. Goder, Beth, “Candide; Life-“, Clarkesworld #179 (2021.08.02)
  2. Case, Stephen, “The God Skrae Eats Death“, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #335 (2021.08.11)
  3. Lambert, Brent, “Faithful Delirium“, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #335 (2021.08.11)
  4. Holzner, Nancy, “What Time is It”, Portals (2021.08.14)
  5. Friesner, Esther M., “This Way Out”, Portals (2021.08.14)
  6. Brett, Evey, “What the Wind Saw“, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #336 (2021.08.16)
  7. Tregillis, Ian, “Deus Ex Machina”, Portals (2021.08.18)
  8. Bedford, Jacey, “A Land Fit for Heroes”, Portals (2021.08.19)
  9. Grant, John Linwood, “Iron and Anthracite”, Portals (2021.08.19)
  10. Hall, Kate, “The Namesake”, Portals (2021.08.20)
  11. Koch, Gini (as Ensal, Anita), “Portal Pirates”, Portals (2021.08.21)
  12. Malan, Violette, “Doorways in the Sand”, Portals (2021.08.22)
  13. Kemp, Juliet, “Somewhere Else, Nowhere Else”, Portals (2021.08.22)
  14. Enge, James, “A Stranger Comes to Town”, Portals (2021.08.23)
  15. Harper, Steven, “Brick and Mirror”, Portals (2021.08.24)
  16. Cox, F. Brett, “A Bend in the Air”, Portals (2021.08.24)
  17. Moyer, Jaime Lee, “All the Lost Places”, Portals (2021.08.25)
  18. Palmatier, Joshua, “Onward to Glory!”, Portals (2021.08.26)
  19. Popovic, Andrija, “Hard Times in the Vancouver Continuum”, Portals (2021.08.26)
  20. Hurley, Patrick, “The Cracks in the Road”, Portals (2021.08.26)
  21. Forsyth, Kate, “Vasilisa the Wise”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.27)
  22. Sloan, Lissa, “A Tale Soon Told”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.27)
  23. Ross, Jill Marie, “Baba Yaga: Her Story”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.28)
  24. Honigman, Charlotte, “The Partisan and the Witch”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.28)
  25. Shanel, Szmerelda, “The Swamp Hag’s Apprentice”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.28)
  26. Coates, Rebecca A., “Boy Meets Witch”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.29)
  27. Cook, Jessamy Corob, “Teeth”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.29)
  28. Edelman, Scott, “Answered Prayers”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.08.29)
  29. Gallacher, Mark, “Pioneer”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.08.29)
  30. Miller, John Jos., “The Ghost of a Smile”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.08.29)
  31. Hurley, Kameron, “Judged”, Patreon (2021.08.31)
  32. Buckell, Tobias S., “Crypto Draconis”, Patreon (2021.08.31)

July 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

I didn’t do a lot of reading this month. Family obligations, the disruption of vacation (stay-cation, which was not at all different from my normal days, except for a little less time in front of the computer), and the overall ennui of mid-2021 conspired to keep me from being able to immerse myself in books like I was as recently as March of this year. I could blame the COVID vaccine, but really it’s the weight of the last eighteen months, making itself felt.

Books

  1. Verso, Francesco – Nexhuman (2021.07.04)
  2. Harrison, Jim – The Road Home (2021.07.25)
  3. Eubanks, Virginia – Automating Inequality (2021.07.26)

June 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Considering how busy I was in June, this is not a bad reading list. I had a good mix of genres, with fantasy, poetry, critical theory, and literary fiction in the mix. I could have maybe snuck in one more book, but the mix of work scheduler and stress, life stress, family stress, and general burnout kept me from enjoying my free moments as well as I could have.

If you look closely, you will see that my copy of Dalva is quite worn. Both front and back covers are attached by the tiniest remnant of the original adhesive, and the pages within are quite yellowed. I purchased this copy when I worked at Schuler Books and Music, sometime around 1996 or 1997, I think. So it’s at least 20 years old. I have read it at least half a dozen times, and loaned it out twice. All the damage to the book was done by me, hauling the book on vacation and to various cafes and offices over the years. I love this book unreservedly, and will likely pick up a replacement copy sometime this year.

As with last month, I didn’t read any short fiction. This is beginning to bother me, and as I have a two-week vacation coming up, I will do my best to set aside time to correct this omission.

Books

  1. Harrow, Alix – The Ten Thousand Door of January (2021.06.12)
  2. Liem, Tess – Obits. (2021.06.15)
  3. Pike, J. Zachary – Son of a Liche (2021.06.24)
  4. Tiqqun, The Cybernetic Hypothesis (2021.06.24)
  5. Harrison, Jim – Dalva (2021.06.28)

May 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

May was a slow month for reading. I received my second COVID shot on April 30, and with that, the emotional hangover of the past year hit me hard and took all the energy and motivation right out of me.

What this list lacks in breadth it makes up in depth. Each of the above books is 400+ pages, and even with my unusually slow reading pace I made it through the lot with time to spare. Each of them was a really good read, and I had not noticed until writing this post that they are each in a different genre. The Winter is fantasy, the Martine science fiction, and the Anderson is creative nonfiction. I recommend each of the books, and can say that I have not previously read anything like any of them. Of the three, I will be re-reading Imaginary Cities at some point, notebook in hand, as the text therein could easily present over a hundred writing prompts. It is that kind of book.

Like last month, I didn’t read any short fiction, and I feel kind of bad about that, as short fiction is primarily what I write. But with the changing of the seasons, and the COVID vaccinations behind me, I am ready to re-start my morning reading, writing and exercise routine which fell by the wayside precisely on May 1.

Books

  1. Winter, Evan, The Rage of Dragons (2021.05.09)
  2. Martine, Arkady, A Memory Called Empire (2021.05.25)
  3. Anderson, Darran – Imaginary Cities (2021.05.27)

April 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

April was National Poetry Month so this month’s list skews heavily in that direction. I included two issues of Poetry magazine, as an issue of a journal is just as much reading as a book. In fact, most lit journals could be considered anthologies with (mostly) no particular theme.

The combination of poetry and nonfiction (Kendi, Lazzarato, Dunker) – as well as my self-directed project to write a poem a day for the month of April – left my head in an interesting place. I haven’t written poems this consistently in years. It feels good.

Also, for reasons of attention, work, and general malaise, I didn’t read any short stories. Not a single one.

I think for May I will dive into my every-growing pile of genre fiction.

Books

  1. Red Pine and O’Connor, Mike ( editors) – The Clouds Should Know Me by Now (2021.04.01)
  2. Chabitnoy, Abigail – How to Dress a Fish (2021.04.04)
  3. Kendi, Ibram X. – How To Be An Antiracist (2021.04.08)
  4. Poetry, April 2021 (2021.04.10)
  5. Poetry, October 2013 (2021.04.13)
  6. Lazzarato, Maurizio – The Making of the Indebted Man (2021.04.15)
  7. Carroll, Jim – Living at the Movies (2021.04.20)
  8. Dunker, Anders (editor) – Rediscovering Earth (2021.04.28)
  9. Meltzer, David – No Eyes: Lester Young (2021.04.30)

 

March 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

This month was bookended with genre fiction, with the middle a delicious mix of fiction in translation as I slowly work through my backlog of such titles. I realize that I started this project out with more ambition than is sustainable in the long term, and so I am scaling back the digging through translated works to about three a month, rather than half a dozen. This leaves more room for nonfiction, poetry and works not specifically from the translated fiction/subscription backlog. And that relieves the pressure on my reading habits and thus makes for a more pleasurable pastime.

And at the last minute I got a jump start on National Poetry Month with Taha Muhammad Ali’s So What, from Copper Canyon Press. Expect to see a lot more poetry show up here in the next reading update.

In short fiction I have fallen significantly behind my original goal. In order to hit an average of one piece of short fiction a day for the year at this point I would need to read four a day for the next month in order to catch up, and in order to free up that time I would need to neglect my girlfriend, our cats, or what little sleep I currently manage.

Books

  1. Stewart, Glynn, Starship’s Mage (2021.03.01)
  2. Unnikrishnan, Deepak, Temporary People (2021.03.10)
  3. Geiger, Arno (Tobler, Stefan, translator), The Old King In His Exile (2021.03.14)
  4. Fellous, Colette (Lewis, Sophie, translator), This Tilting World (2021.03.17)
  5. Jiménez, Claudia Salazar (Bryer, Elizabeth, translator), Blood of the Dawn (2021.03.18)
  6. Saer, Juan José (Kantor, Roanne, translator), The One Before (2021.03.23)
  7. Muir, Tamsyn, Gideon the Ninth (2021.03.28)
  8. Muhammad Ali, Taha, So What (2020.03.29)

Short Prose

  1. Monette, Sarah, “A Light in Troy“, Clarkesworld #1 (2021.03.02)
  2. Larson, Rich, “Meshed“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.03.10)
  3. van Eekhout, Greg, “The Osteomancer’s Son“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.03.12)
  4. Griffith, Nicola, “It Takes Two“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.03.18)
  5. Muhammad Ali, Taha, “So What” (2020.03.29)