Books Acquired Recently: Jane Addams Book Shop Edition

Last week I was in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and I visited the Jane Addams Book Shop. It is a lovely little place, with three floors full of used books. I was good and only bought three things.

Koestenbaum, Wayne. The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire. New York: Poseidon Press, 1993.

I’ve enjoyed the other books by Koestenbaum that I have read, so when I found this hardcover for sale for only $10.00 I decided to buy it. I am not an opera fan but am aware of the gay-opera intersection, which I look forward to learning more about.

Millet, Kate. Flying. 1974. New York: Ballantine Books, 1975.

I am aware of this book because of its inclusion in Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir Fun Home, in which she discusses it with her father. I found a signed copy of it in good condition and decided to buy it.

Oliver, Mary. Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems. 1999. Boston: Mariner Books, 2000.

I have grown more appreciative of Oliver’s work in recent years and decided to buy this miscellaneous collection because it includes an essay about one of my favorite poets, Walt Whitman.

 

Books Acquired Recently: Mostly 2019 Edition

Hemmings, Clare. Bisexual Spaces: A Geography of Sexuality and Gender. New York: Routledge, 2002.

I recently came across a citation of this book and decided to buy it despite its age because I am bisexual and because my research is concerned with space.

With the exception of Moore’s book, which I bought directly from the publisher, I bought all of these books from amazon.com. I bought Hemmings’s book new for $53.95 because there were not any used copies available for a reasonable price. It must be said that it is ridiculous that Routledge has not lowered the price for the book considering that it is seventeen years old (an eternity in academic publishing) and it is also now print-on-demand (I received the book yesterday and it was printed on 14 September), and thus of lower quality than the original paperback printing and also devoid of warehousing costs. I bought it because it feels necessary for me to read (texts on bisexuality are still woefully rare), and I am sympathetic to the struggles that academic publishers face in an increasingly-contracting market, but I haven’t been this annoyed about the price of a book since buying some overpriced textbooks my first semester of college.

Moore, Carley. The Not Wives. New York: Feminist Press, 2019.

I received an email advertisement for this novel and decided to buy it because it is about queer relationship models, something that is treated infrequently in literature.

Shatzkin, Mike, and Robert Paris Riger. The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

As a bibliophile I of course bought this book as soon as I heard about it. I read it the other night and learned from it, though less than I was hoping. It is worth reading for anyone interested in trying to get a book published.

The Book Business provides an illustrative contrast to Hemmings’s book. It is also print-on-demand and is a recently released academic text, and yet it only cost $20.00.

Skeets, Jake. Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2019.

I read about this poetry collection in a recent issue of Poets & Writers and decided to buy it because I am always looking for new queer writers of color.

Zimmerman, Diana R. Certain as Afternoon/ Certa Come il Pomeriggio. Costa Rica: Self-published, 2019.

I enjoy Zimmerman’s memoir Marry a Mennonite Boy and Make Pie, so I decided to buy her new poetry collection about the death of her Italian husband. The poems are printed in both English and Italian.

Books Acquired Recently: Albany Book Festival Edition

Yesterday I attended the second annual Albany Book Festival at SUNY Albany. It was an excellent time, with readings by big-name authors, writing workshops, and a large book fair of local authors and their work. I showed great restraint and only bought four books, all of which I was able to get inscribed.

Bartow, Stuart. quaking marsh. Winchester, VA: Pond Frog Editions, 2018.

Bartow and Ungar ran a haiku workshop that I attended and enjoyed. They had a table together at the book fair and I bought a book from each of them. They had a deal where each book was $15.00 or two for $25.00.

Jimenez, Stephanie. They Could Have Named Her Anything. New York: Little A, 2019.

Jimenez and Moraga spoke on a Latina writers panel. I had not heard of Jimenez before but her novel takes place in New York City, so I look forward to reading it.

Little A is amazon.com’s relatively new publishing arm. I appreciate that despite their evilness they are willing to publish new authors of color.

Moraga, Cherríe. Native Country of the Heart: A Memoir. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.

Moraga is a foundational queer Latinx writer and I was excited to buy her memoir and get to meet her briefly.

Incidentally, it drives me nuts that FSG does not use the Oxford Comma in their name.

Ungar, Barbara Louise. Charlotte Brontë, You Ruined My Life. Washington, D.C.: The Word Works, 2011.

I bought this particular book of Ungar’s because of the title. It is about divorce, a topic I am unfortunately familiar with. I am already more than a third of the way through the collection and enjoying it thus far.

Books Acquired Recently

Collins, Patricia Hill. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.

As per usual with books from Duke University Press, I got a promotional email about this book and decided to order it immediately from them (they always give a 30% discount with the code SAVE30) because it is relevant for my research. They should really just have a subscription service for people like me!

Friend, Malcolm. Our Bruises Kept Singing Purple. Riverside, CA: Inlandia Books, 2018.

I read a friend’s review of this book recently, and as soon as I saw that it was by a fellow boricua I decided to buy it. I purchased it from amazon.com.

Books Acquired Recently

Snaza, Nathan. Animate Literacies: Literature, Affect, and the Politics of Humanism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.

I received a promotional email about this book from the publisher and ordered a copy right away because the book examines several texts that I teach in my courses through the lens of affect theory, an approach that I am working to learn more about.

Warhol, Andy, and Pat Hackett. Popism: The Warhol Sixties. San Diego: Harvest, 1980.

A used bookshop, Lost Hi-Way Records and Books, recently opened up in Clinton, New York, about fifteen minutes from where I live. I visited it for the first time on Friday and decided to buy this book because it was on sale for $1.50!

 

Books Acquired Recently

Loveless, Natalie. How to Make Art at the End of the World: A Manifesto for Research-Creation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.

I received an advertisement about this book from the publisher and ordered it from them immediately because the concept of “research-creation,” a term that I had not encountered before, is similar to the hybrid writing I have been doing over the past several years.

Sánchez Korrol, Virginia E. From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Sánchez Korrol, Virginia E., and Pedro Juan Hernández. Pioneros II: Puerto Ricans in New York City, 1948-1998. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010.

I continue to explore my roots as a Nuyorican, and bought these two books to that end. I purchased them both from abebooks.com.

Books Acquired Recently

Enszer, Julie R., ed. Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker, 1974-1989. Dover, FL: A Midsummer Night’s Press/Sinister Wisdom, 2018.

I deeply appreciate Lorde’s life writing and was thus excited to hear about this collection of her letters.

Espada, Martín, Lauren Marie Schmidt, and J.D. Schraffenberger. The Necessary Poetics of Atheism: Essays and Poems. Sherman, IL: Twelve Winters Press, 2016.

I love Espada’s work and when I heard about this book its title intrigued me, so I decided to buy it.

Both books were acquired from amazon.com.

Books Acquired Recently: 2019 Edition

Bonomo, Joe. No Place I Would Rather Be: Roger Angell and a Life in Baseball Writing. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019.

I’ve loved Roger Angell’s baseball writing since I first encountered it in the New Yorker in the mid-2000s. I am thus excited to read this book about his writing.

Darling, Ron, with Daniel Paisner. 108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2019.

I enjoy Ron Darling’s work as one of the Mets’ broadcasters, and I am obsessed with the 1986 Mets, so of course I bought this book.

Habib, Samra. We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir. Toronto: Viking, 2019.

I bought this book as soon as I heard about it because Samra writes from a similar position as I do (i.e., queer brown religious). I read it yesterday and it is excellent, 5/5.

I purchased all three books from amazon.com with a gift certificate.

Books Acquired Recently

Cruz, Nicky, with Jamie Buckingham. Run Baby Run. 1968. Newberry, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2016.

Wilkerson, David, with John Sherrill and Elizabeth Sherrill. The Cross and the Switchblade. 1962. New York: Jove Books, 1977.

Mennonites like to play what is known as the “Mennonite Game” whenever we meet a Mennonite whom we haven’t met before. We try to figure out how we are connected to them via mutual acquaintances. This often involves hearing their last name and asking, “Oh, are you related to (person with same last name that the person asking the question knows)?” “Cruz” is not an ethnic Mennonite name, but many Mennonites of a certain generation still know it because of Nicky Cruz’s and David Wilkerson’s memoirs about converting gang members from New York City to Christianity. So members of my family used to frequently be asked “Are you related to Nicky Cruz?” The answer is no. Cruz is about as common a name as “Smith” is, but most white Mennonites don’t realize that. I am doing some writing about my family’s Mennonite history, including my father’s experiences as a non-ethnic Mennonite, and decided that I should actually read Cruz’s and Wilkerson’s books to help me understand why they were popular with Mennonites in the 1960s and 1970s.

Miller Shearer, Tobin. Two Weeks Every Summer: Fresh Air Children and the Problem of Race in America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017.

Miller Shearer was one of my youth group advisers in high school before he went back to graduate school to get a Ph.D. in history. The Fresh Air program is one that many rural Mennonites have participated in, hosting children from cities (including some Mennonites) for several weeks in the summer. I heard adults talk about it all the time when I was a kid, so I look forward to reading his history of it.

Witwer, Michael, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer. Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History. Ten Speed Press, 2018.

As a result of my new Dungeons & Dragons obsession, I’ve been trying to read as much as I can about its history. I found this huge book about the game’s visuals on sale for $31.00 (the cover price is $50.00) and decided to buy it.

I purchased all four books from amazon.com because I had a gift card.

Books Acquired Recently: Inscribed Copies Edition

Coffman, Lisa. Less Obvious Gods. Oak Ridge, TN: Iris Press, 2013.

I recently read Coffman’s first poetry collection, Likely, and loved it, so I decided to order her second book. I bought an inscribed copy directly from her website.

Kraybill, Donald B. Eastern Mennonite University: A Century of Countercultural Education. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017.

I am enough of a Mennonite history buff and my mother’s family has enough connections to Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) that I decided to buy this book after it got a good review in the July 2019 Mennonite Quarterly Review even though I am an alumnus of EMU’s rival, Goshen College. I thought about buying it directly from Penn State Press because they are also my publisher but it is $40.00 new, so I found a used copy for $22.00 on abebooks.com. It was inscribed by Kraybill to a Mark Lehman (who is probably a distant cousin of mine because my grandmother was a Lehman, haha) on 14 October 2017. I always wonder about the ownership histories of used books that I buy, and I am especially intrigued by this one. Why did Lehman get rid of the book so quickly (after less than two years!)? Did he die? Did he decide to become a missionary and thus needed to get rid of most of his possessions? Did he just think the book was terrible (for the record, I am already about a third of the way through it and am enjoying it thus far)? I will probably never know the answer, but the mystery makes me like the book more as an object.