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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Jim C. Hines, Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens (self-published) – This is the reward for Hines’ latest Kickstarter.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Marosia Castaldi (Jamie Richards, translator), The Hunger of Women (And Other Stories) [2023.10.27] – From my subscription to And Other Stories.
- Michele Mari (Brian Robert Moore, translator), Verdigris (And Other Stories) [2023.10.27] – From my subscription to And Other Stories.
- 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
- Shawn Speakman, The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey [2023.10.02]
- Olga Tokarczuk (Antonia Lloyd-Jones, translator), Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead [2023.10.17]
- Jean Daive (Rosmarie Waldrop, translator), Under the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan [2023.10.18]
- Ai Jiang and Christi Nogle (editors), Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia [2023.10.26]
Short Prose
- Jennifer Fliss, “Ijo de Ken Sos Tu?”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.18]
- Simo Srinivas, “The Girls of St. X”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.19]
- Jo Kaplan, “Humanities 215”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.19]
- Amber Chen, “Hugging the Buddha’s Feet”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.21]
- Cyrus Amelia Fisher, “In Vast and Fecund Reaches We Will Meet Again”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.21]
- John Langan, “Applicatio”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.21]
- Steve Rasnic Tem, “Higher Powers”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.22]
- Michael A. Reed, “Twisted Tongues”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.22]
- Brian Evenson, “The Allard Residency”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.23]
- Hussani Abdulrahim, “The Library Virus”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.23]
- R.B. Lemberg, “The Occupation of the Migratory Library of Oanno”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.24]
- Gabino Iglesias, “Tiny Hearts in the Dark”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.24]
- Ana Hurtado, “Parásito”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.24]
- Suzan Palumbo, “The Davinci Chip”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
- Ayida Shonibar, “An Inordinate Amount of Interest”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
- Premee Mohamed, “Preservation of an Intact Specimen”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
- Octavia Cade, “Those Shining Things Are Out of Reach”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.25]
- Marisca Pichette, “Her Finished Wings”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.26]
- R.J. Joseph, “Those Who Teach Pay Knowledge Forward”, Wilted Pages [2023.10.26]