Books Acquired Recently: Hobart Book Village Edition

This past weekend I went to the Hobart Book Village in Hobart, New York, for the first time. Hobart is a tiny village in the Catskills, but it has five independent bookstores within two blocks of each other. They all have slightly different specialties and cooperate with each other rather than being competitors. I only purchased books from three of the stores because one focuses on books about arts and crafts and one is an antiquarian bookstore for serious book collectors (i.e., those interested in first editions and the like). Somehow I only spent about $100.00. I recommend that all book lovers visit!

From Blenheim Hill Books:

Algarín, Miguel, and Miguel Piñero, eds. Nuyorican Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings. New York: William Morrow, 1975.

As a Nuyorican myself, I have been wanting to read this anthology for quite some time. Copies of it are expensive (it is sadly out of print), but when I found a copy in good condition for $40.00 I immediately decided I had to buy it.

Berrigan, Ted. The Sonnets. 1964. New York: Penguin Books, 2000.

I’ve read lots about Berrigan regarding his connection to the New York School of poets, whom I love, but I have not read his work before.

Vuong, Ocean. Night Sky with Exit Wounds. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2016.

I’ve heard great things about Vuong’s poetry but have not yet encountered it. I look forward to checking it out!

Blenheim Hill has the best poetry section I’ve ever encountered at a used bookstore, which is why poetry is all I purchased there.

From Butternut Valley Books:

March, Lisa. Her and She and Him…. New York: Audubon Books, 1970.

Butternut Valley had several shelves of old pornographic paperbacks that I enjoyed browsing through. This was the only one I found that was queer, which is why I bought it.

From Liberty Rock Books:

Van Vogt, A.E. The Book of Van Vogt. New York: DAW Books, 1972.

A.E. Van Vogt was an important science fiction writer from the tail end of SF’s Golden Age, but I am interested in him because he was raised Mennonite. I’ve never read any of his work so I was pleased to find this anthology of some of his short stories.

Books Acquired Recently

Clay, Steven, and Rodney Phillips, eds. A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing, 1960-1980. New York: New York Public Library/Granary Books, 1998.

This is a book about the various mimeographed literary publications (periodicals and chapbooks) published in New York during the 1960s and 1970s. It is a mix of cover reproductions, excerpts, and reminisces by those involved in the production and writing of the publications. I have been fascinated by this era since I was in college so I am keen to read it! Both it and Sato’s book were bought from amazon.com’s network of independent booksellers.

Sato, Hiroaki, ed. Erotic Haiku. Japan: IBC, 2004.

I enjoy haiku anthologies and am especially fond of haiku about everyday physical experience, so when I heard about this anthology I thought it would be right down my alley. It has both Japanese and English versions of the poems. The publication information is in Japanese, which is why I am not sure about the city of publication.

Books Acquired Recently: Gay Nostalgia Edition

Delany, Samuel R. Letters from Amherst: Five Narrative Letters. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2019.

I am a Delany fanatic so I buy all of his books. I had pre-ordered this book from amazon.com and it came this week.

Vidal, Gore. Myra Breckinridge. 1968. New York: Vintage International, 2019.

I’ve only read one of Vidal’s novels (The City and the Pillar) and have been wanting to read more, but his historical novels do not interest me. I got a promotional email from the publisher that Myra Breckinridge is now back in print, so I ordered an examination copy.

Books Acquired Recently: Desk Copy Edition

Over the past few months publishers have sent me a number of desk copies for my Fall 2019 courses.

For First-Year Composition:

Blanco, Richard. The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. 2014. New York: Ecco, 2015.

Irby, Samantha. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life: Essays. New York: Vintage Books, 2017.

Knisley, Lucy. Relish: My Life in the Kitchen. New York: First Second, 2013.

Tea, Michelle. How to Grow Up: A Memoir. New York: Plume, 2015.

As is evident from Blanco’s, Irby’s, and Tea’s books, this is sneakily a queer memoir class as well.

For American Literature Before 1865:

Brown, Charles Brockden. Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

This, Irving’s, and Wilson’s books are Penguin Classics, which I love.

Hollander, John, ed. American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Volume One; Philip Freneau to Walt Whitman. New York: Library of America, 1993.

Over the past year I’ve begun the practice of assigning a poetry anthology in all of my literature classes, which has been an excellent decision. We read one or two poems at the beginning of each class and then spend the rest of the class talking about the longer reading for the day.

Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories. New York: Penguin Books, 2014.

Wilson, Harriet E. Our Nig, Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. 1859. New York: Penguin Books, 2009.

For African American Literature:

Delany, Samuel R. Dark Reflections. 2007. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2016.

This is an excellent novel that was out of print for quite a while (an issue that many of Delany’s best novels have, unfortunately). I have been wanting to teach it since I first read it, and am glad that Dover has now made this possible.

Harper, Michael S., and Anthony Walton, eds. The Vintage Book of African American Poetry: 200 Years of Vision, Struggle, Power, Beauty, and Triumph from 50 Outstanding Poets. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.

Lorde, Audre. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, 1982.

This is one of my favorite memoirs ever.

Morrison, Toni. Sula. 1973. New York: Vintage International, 2004.

Walker, Alice. Meridian. 1976. Orlando: Harvest, 2003.

I wrote a dissertation chapter on this novel many years ago, haha.

 

Books Acquired Recently: Ervin Beck Edition

Ervinbooks

The above photograph shows the 51 books that my former professor Ervin Beck gave me when I visited his home in Goshen, Indiana, last week. I took his Mennonite Literature course my junior year of college and have basically been obsessed with the field since then. He generously let me take a selection of his books in the field as part of his retirement downsizing.

Books Acquired Recently

Loewen, Mary Ann, ed. Finding Father: Stories from Mennonite Daughters. Regina, SK: University of Regina Press, 2019.

I pre-ordered this book from amazon.ca as soon as I could because it includes a number of chapters by authors involved with Mennonite literature. It came in the mail earlier this week.

Weinberg, Jonathan. Pier Groups: Art and Sex Along the New York Waterfront. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019.

I got a promotional email about this memoir about gay sex in New York City from the publisher and ordered it immediately. It includes a number of lovely photographs, many of them explicit.

Books Acquired Recently

I received two books in the mail today that I’m quite excited to read. They are both by authors whose previous work I find powerful.

Levins Morales, Aurora. Medicine Stories: Essays for Radicals. Revised and Expanded ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.

I’ve read some of Levins Morales’s poetry but have not previously encountered her essays. I am excited to read more of her work because she occupies a similar intersection as I do as a Puerto Rican from an ethnoreligious tradition.

Lowrey, Sassafras. Healing/Heeling. N.p.: Sassafras Lowrey, 2019.

This is a hybrid memoir that examines Lowrey’s relationships with dogs throughout hir life (ze has been training dogs since ze was a teenager). I am not a dog person but I love Lowrey’s writing and, as I’ve written here before, I’m also currently quite interested in the hybrid memoir genre.

Books Acquired Recently: All Queer Edition

Browne, Kath, Jason Lim, and Gavin Brown, eds. Geographies of Sexualities: Theory, Practices and Politics. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2007.

I am thinking about a project on queer space in fiction and am thus looking for theory on queer geography. This collection looks like it will be a good start. I purchased it from Thriftbooks via amazon.com.

Chen, Ching-In. recombinant. Berkeley, CA: Kelsey Street Press, 2017.

I read Chen’s first book, a novel in poems, last week and loved it, so decided to buy their most recent book. I believe I’ve read a few poems from it in anthologies. I purchased it and Greenwell’s book from amazon.com.

Greenwell, Garth. What Belongs to You. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.

I recently read Greenwell’s novella Mitko and loved it, so decided to buy this novel.

Books Acquired Recently

Jones, Feminista. Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World From the Tweets to the Streets. Boston: Beacon Press, 2019.

I received an email about this book from the publisher and ordered an exam copy because it looks like it might be appropriate for several of my courses.

Snow, Cassandra. Queering the Tarot. Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2019.

I heard about this book several months ago when I was beginning my tarot explorations and pre-ordered it immediately on amazon.com. It came out this week.

Books Acquired Recently: Metonymy Press Edition

Nixon, Lindsay. nîtisânak. Montreal: Metonymy Press, 2018.

I recently read a review of this hybrid memoir and it sounded fascinating so I decided to buy it. I ordered it directly from Metonymy Press, and while I was on their website I discovered several other intriguing items (well, more than several–they are an explicitly queer press, after all–but I try to keep my book-buying addiction to somewhat reasonable limits), hence the other two books in this post.

Pickle, Oliver. She is Sitting in the Night: Re-visioning Thea’s Tarot. Illustrated by Ruth West. Montreal: Metonymy Press, 2015.

I have been exploring tarot over the past five months after a friend gave me a t-shirt with a tarot card (the Devil) on it. I am especially interested in queer explorations of it, and thus was intrigued to find this book, which re-interprets a classic feminist deck (the reprint of which is also available from Metonymy, and which I bought) from the 1980s in queer ways.

Salah, Trish. Lyric Sexology Vol. 1. 2nd ed. Montreal: Metonymy Press, 2017.

I saw Salah give a talk at MLA in January and have encountered her work in several anthologies. I decided it was finally time for me to delve deeper into her writing.