Books Acquired Recently

Serano, Julia. 99 Erics: A Kat Cataclysm Faux Novel. Oakland: Switch Hitter Press, 2020.

I enjoy Serano’s nonfiction and decided to buy her new novel about a bisexual protagonist when I heard about it on social media. I was able to order a signed copy directly from her website.

Vatsyayana. Kama Sutra. Translated by A.N.D. Haksar. New York: Penguin Books, 2012.

Someone I know asked for a copy of the Kama Sutra as a holiday gift. While researching different editions to decide which one to buy them, I discovered that there is a Penguin Classics deluxe edition available. I decided to buy a copy for myself because I am a sucker for Penguin paperbacks and because I thought it would be interesting to read the original text (though obviously in translation) rather than the bedside adaptations I am familiar with.

Books Acquired Recently

Elgin, Suzette Haden. Native Tongue. 1984. New York: Feminist Press, 2019.

I recently read about this feminist novel in Amanda Montell’s book Wordslut and it sounded fascinating, so I decided to order it. I read it as soon as it arrived and enjoyed it.

Hernández, Robb. Archiving an Epidemic: Art, AIDS, and the Queer Chicanx Avant-Garde. New York: New York University Press, 2019.

I’ve been meaning to buy this book since it came out last year, and finally got around to it. I am interested in it because of its emphasis on queer archiving.

Books Acquired Recently

Knisley, Lucy. An Age of License: A Travelogue. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2014.

I frequently teach Knisely’s book Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, and decided to check out some of her other work. I settled on An Age of License because I miss traveling.

Pashley, Jennifer. The Watcher. New York: Crooked Lane Books, 2020.

I love Pashley’s fiction and was very excited to hear that she has a new novel out. It takes place in upstate New York near where I live, which makes it even more enticing.

Books Acquired Recently

Renk, Kathleen Williams. Vindicated: A Novel of Mary Shelley. Brooklyn: Cuidono Press, 2020.

Renk was one of my graduate school professors, and Vindicated is her first novel. Frankenstein is one of my favorite novels, so I look forward to reading this work about its creator.

Working Class History, ed. Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance & Rebellion. Oakland: PM Press, 2020.

This book by a group that the back cover describes as “an international collective of worker-activists” is a date-by-date history of various worldwide acts of activist resistance. I think I will begin reading it on New Year’s Day and read it throughout 2021 as a form of inspiration for thinking about how I can live an activist life.

Books Acquired Recently

This is the rare Books Acquired Recently post where none of the books are queer or Mennonite 😮

Laymon, Kiese. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays. Rev. ed. New York: Scribner, 2020.

I love Laymon’s memoir Heavy, and thus have been meaning to get to this collection of essays, which was first published in 2013. When I saw that a revised version with new essays was out, I was like “it’s time,” and bought it immediately.

Londoño, Johana. Abstract Barrios: The Crises of Latinx Visibility in Cities. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020.

I got a promotional email about this book and ordered it a few weeks ago because Duke University Press is having a 50% off sale until next week. By the time the book arrived I forgot that I was waiting for it, so… maybe I buy too many books, haha. But I was very excited when it came and I look forward to reading it.

Rosenthal, Amy Krouse. Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal: Not Exactly a Memoir. 2016. New York: Dutton, 2020.

I recently read Rosenthal’s Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and loved it, so I decided to buy this follow-up to it. One of the reasons I enjoyed Encyclopedia is that it was written when Rosenthal was about the age I am now, so it was interesting to read someone else’s thoughts about the beginning of middle age. I’m interested to see what a memoir dealing with the beginning of one’s fifties looks like so that I can start preparing myself.

Books Acquired Recently: Just in Case Edition, Part Two

As I wrote here a few days ago, “I recently panic-ordered a bunch of books that might get censored if the Orange One stays in power, which thankfully looks like won’t happen!” The last of these books have now come in.

brown, adrienne maree. Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2019.

Smith, Mychal Denzel. Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education. 2016. New York: Nation Books, 2017.

Spivack, Emily. Worn in New York: 68 Sartorial Memoirs of the City. New York: Abrams Image, 2017.

Books Acquired Recently: Just in Case Edition

I recently panic-ordered a bunch of books (several that have recently come out, several that have been on my list for a while) that might get censored if the Orange One stays in power, which thankfully looks like won’t happen! But it’s still necessary to read narratives by marginalized voices as an act of resistance against U.S. oligarchy.

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 2014.

Midori. The Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage. N.p.: Greenery Press, 2001.

Miller, Evie Yoder. Loyalties. Scruples on the Line: A Fictional Series Set During the American Civil War, Book II. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2020.

This is not one of the books I panic-bought, although its subject matter is relevant to the current U.S. political divide. Miller sent me a copy as a thank-you for providing a blurb for it. It’s an excellent book, and I’m excited for the third part of the trilogy to come out next year!

Quesada, Uriel, Letitia Gomez, and Salvador Vidal-Cruz, eds. Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015.

Rosenthal, Amy Krouse. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. 2004. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005.

Sayrafiezadeh, Saïd. When Skateboards Will Be Free: A Memoir. 2009. New York: Dial Press, 2010.

Stiehler, Elena, ed. The Best Small Fictions 2020. New York: Sonder Press, 2020.

My friend and colleague Suzanne Richardson has a fantastic piece in this anthology. Despite the “small” nature of its genre, the book is almost 400 pages long! Lots of good reading inside!

Books Acquired Recently: PM Press Edition

My monthly PM Press subscription box arrived this morning.

Bunnell, Jacinta. A More Graceful Shaboom. Illustrated by Crystal Vielula. Oakland: PM Press, 2020.

This is a children’s book with a nonbinary main character! How awesome!

Johnson, Robb. The People’s Republic of Neverland: The Child Versus the State. Oakland: PM Press, 2020.

Richards, Akilah S. Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work. Oakland: PM Press, 2020.

These two books both deal with the educational system. As a teacher myself, I am always looking for suggestions for how to make my (these days virtual) classroom a liberated space, so I look forward to hearing what Johnson and Richards have to say.

Books Acquired Recently: Queer Writers with Last Names Beginning with “S” Edition

Sajé, Natasha. Terroir: Love, Out of Place. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2020.

Sajé was a colleague of mine when I did my post-doctoral fellowship at Westminster College. She was an important queer role model for me early in my career. I was very excited earlier this year when I heard that her memoir would be coming out, and pre-ordered it immediately. It came in the mail today.

Snow, Cassandra. Queering Your Craft: Witchcraft from the Margins. Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2020.

I love Snow’s book Queering the Tarot. It has put her into the “I will buy any book this person writes” category, so I ordered Queering Your Craft as soon as it was available for pre-order even though I don’t really practice witchcraft. It also came today.

Books Acquired Recently

Halberstam, Jack. Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020.

Halberstam is one of the most important queer theorists working today, so I bought his new book automatically. However, the subject matter also looks really fascinating.

Rickert, Bryan, ed. Bundled Wildflowers: Haiku Society of America 2020 Members’ Anthology. N.p.: Haiku Society of America, 2020.

As a member of the Haiku Society of America, I get a free copy of their yearly anthology. It arrived in the mail today. I have a poem in it: “yellow leaves / a new bank teller / every time” (28).