Books Acquired Recently

Barker, Elizabeth Jackson. Poems in Passage. Utica: North Country, 1988.

There was a stack of new copies of this book on the free table at school earlier this week. Apparently someone had them stashed in their office and was doing some cleaning. I’m always excited to encounter new poets, so I look forward to checking Barker’s work out.

Hogan, Kristen. The Feminist Bookstore Movement: Lesbian Antiracism and Feminist Accountability. Durham: Duke UP, 2016.

I got an exam copy of this book from the publisher. It looks quite fascinating, as I love bookstores and enjoyed my visit to the one feminist bookstore I’ve been to, Bluestockings in Manhattan. Of course when most people  think of feminist bookstores now they think of the Women and Women First Bookstore from Portlandia, but they have had real social significance, and I am eager to learn more about their history.

Books Acquired Recently

Funk, Wes. Baggage. Regina: Benchmark, 2010.

I was very excited to be able to track down a copy of this rare book, which I found for sale on the Read Saskatchewan website. While all of Funk’s books are now technically out of print, his others are available as ebooks (which of course I eschew), so in a sense they are much less rare. I am happy to now have a complete set of Funk’s works.

Renker, Elizabeth. Poems: A Concise Anthology. Peterborough: Broadview, 2016.

I received an exam copy of this book from the publisher today. It looks like a very good teaching anthology because it includes poems from different time periods and cultures, and while nearly all of the poets included are canonical, some of the selections of individual poems are not. The book holds more than one could ever teach in a semester (it’s 789 pages, which believe it or not is actually fairly “concise” for a teaching anthology), but it is the kind of book that would be lovely for a student to keep on their shelf and dip into over the years. I hope I get a chance to teach a course where it would be appropriate to use sometime.

 

Books Acquired Recently: Mennonites Plus One Edition

My recent book-buying binge has included a number of Mennonite authors. Aside from the Wes Funk books, which I ordered from Laird Books in Regina, Saskatchewan (and who provided excellent customer service), I acquired all of the Mennonite-related books from amazon.com’s network of independent sellers.

Birdsell, Sandra. Agassiz: A Novel in Stories. Minneapolis: Milkweed, 1991.

I haven’t read much of Birdsell’s work though she was one of the influential Mennonite writers at the beginning of the “Mennonite miracle” in Canadian writing during the 1980s. I decided that this summer would be a good time to remedy this lack.

Funk, Wes. Cherry Blossoms. Regina: Your Nickel’s Worth, 2012.

—. Dead Rock Stars. Illus. Kevin Hastings. Regina: Your Nickel’s Worth, 2015.

—. Wes Side Story: A Memoir. Regina: Your Nickel’s Worth, 2014.

I recently heard about Funk’s work. It is apparently explicitly queer, which is exciting because queer Mennonite literature is a major research interest of mine. I bought copies of all of his books that I could find (there’s one more that I haven’t been able to find anywhere).

Janzen, Jean. Elements of Faithful Writing. Kitchener: Pandora, 2004.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I haven’t read much of Janzen’s work, but am trying to remedy that. This book is one that gets cited often in metacritical discussions of Mennonite literature, and thus feels essential for me to read.

Waltner-Toews, David. One Foot in Heaven. Regina: Couteau, 2005.

I love Waltner-Toews’s poetry and am excited to read some of his fiction.

Yaguchi, Yorifumi. The Wing-Beaten Air: My Life and My Writing. Intercourse: Good, 2008.

I also really enjoy Yaguchi’s poetry, and look forward to reading this memoir.

The “plus one” referred to in the title of this post is the new Modern Language Association style manual, which I received free because I am an  MLA member:

MLA Handbook. 8th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2016.

Once I get a chance to read this I will have to write a post about how I feel about the changes, but just flipping through it and seeing some of the different formatting I am flipping out, and not in a good way. Double-plus ungood. I will have to decide whether or not to use the new formatting for my citations in future posts.

Books Acquired Recently

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve gone a little wild buying books lately. Here’s what’s come in over the past week or so.

Campbell, W. Joseph. 1995: The Year the Future Began. Oakland: U of California P, 2015.

I received this book as a birthday gift. I am excited to read it because I remember 1995 quite clearly, and it’s weird to me that I am old enough now to be having history written about times when I was alive. I look forward to seeing why Campbell argues that it was 1995 specifically that began a new era in America rather than, say, 2001.

Frank, Arthur W. Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-Narratology. 2010. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2012.

I have been interested in the theory of narrative since taking a course on narrative theology my last year of college nearly fifteen years ago. I’ve been looking to incorporate more of this theory into my own scholarship, and in doing some research on the subject came across this book, which sounds intriguing. I purchased it from one of amazon.com’s network of independent booksellers.

Loeppky, Lynette. Cease: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Desire. Fernie: Oolichan, 2014.

I read a review of this book in Rhubarb magazine, and decided to buy it because it is in a genre, queer Mennonite writing, that is a primary focus of my scholarship. I bought it from one of abebooks.com’s network of booksellers, which is where I end up buying a lot of books that have been published in Canada, but not the U.S. Sadly, this is often the case for Canadian Mennonite writing.

Plimpton, George. One More July: A Football Dialogue with Bill Curry. New York: Harper, 1977.

I read about this book a few months ago in Nelson Aldrich’s oral history of Plimpton’s life, George, Being George. There was an interesting story told by Curry about how he made Plimpton take out the story of Curry learning about how to use the word “motherfucker” from Bubba Smith. Last weekend I was browsing at the Rose and Laurel Bookshop in Oneonta, New York, and found this copy in good condition for just a dollar, so I decided to buy it. I’m really sad that it does not have the motherfucker chapter, though.

Books Acquired Recently

I’ve been letting my book-buying addiction get the best of me lately, as I’ve ordered about ten books in last week or so. Here is what has come in thus far:

Clare, Eli. Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. 1999. Durham: Duke UP, 2015.

Halberstam, Judith. The Queer Art of Failure. Durham: Duke UP, 2011.

I have been wanting to read more queer theory lately, and then I received an email from Duke University Press (the premier academic publisher of queer texts) that they were have a 30% off sale. Both of these books sounded interesting and relevant to some projects that I’m working on, so I decided to buy them.

Mukherjee, Neel. A Life Apart. 2008. New York: Norton, 2016.

I read a review of this novel in the New Yorker last week and it sounded quite fascinating (apparently much of it takes place in men’s restrooms as the narrator tries to find partners for sex). A few days ago a friend took me book shopping for my birthday, and this is what I chose.

Samatar, Sofia. The Winged Histories. Easthampton: Small Beer, 2016.

Samatar is one of the few Mennonite writers writing speculative fiction. Her new novel just came out and I can’t wait to read it!

Books Acquired Recently: Mostly Mennonites Edition

I’ve gone a little crazy (even for me) buying books the past few weeks. The primary reason for this is that I’ve been reading a lot of literary criticism (primarily from the Journal of the Center of Mennonite Writing), and whenever I do this I find out about books (both primary sources and other works of criticism or theory) that sound fascinating and that I have to buy. All of the Jean Janzen books, the Dallas Wiebe collection of stories, the Thomas King novel, and the Dominique Chew and Kolton Nay chapbooks were purchases stemming from this recent reading. The other two purchases were helped by the fact that I was in book-buying mode, which is a dangerous state!  Unless otherwise noted, all of these books were purchased from amazon.com’s network of independent sellers.

Chaudhuri, Amit. Odysseus Abroad. 2014. New York: Knopf, 2015.

I have not read any of Chaudhuri’s work before, but was intrigued by a review I read of this novel because it takes place in London and involves wandering around the city, a topic that I find fascinating in general. I decided to buy it now (and will read it over Spring Break a week from now) because I am going to London for the first time this coming summer and thought it would be helpful to read a story about it.

Chew, Dominique. The Meaning of Grace. Goshen: Pinchpenny, 2015.

I read about this and Kolton Nay’s book in Ann Hostetler’s recent article about teaching Mennonite literature (which, incidentally, references my 2001 edited collection [that was also published by Pinchpenny], How Julia Kasdorf Changed My Life: Reflections on Mennonite Identity). Both sound interesting because they deal with issues of Mennonite identity, an issue that I think and write about frequently, and Chew’s book is especially intriguing because she, like me, has one ethnic Mennonite parent and one non-Mennonite, person of  color parent. I bought both books directly from Pinchpenny Press, which is a chapbook publisher run by the Goshen College English Department.

Erdrich, Louise. The Master Butchers Singing Club. 2004. New York: Harper, 2005.

I love Erdrich’s novels about the Ojibwe community, and recently watched an interview with her where she talked about this novel, which is about the German-American community that her father was from. It sounds fascinating, and since I am also German-American on my mother’s side (though I usually speak of her heritage as Mennonite, which in our case is a very specific kind of German-American) it seems like a book I should read.

Janzen, Jean. Paper House. Intercourse: Good, 2008.

—. Piano in the Vineyard. Intercourse: Good, 2004.

—. Snake in the Parsonage. Intercourse: Good, 1995.

—. The Upside-Down Tree. Winnipeg: Henderson, 1992.

—. What the Body Knows. Telford: DreamSeeker, 2015.

Along with Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Jeff Gundy, Janzen is one of the Big Three of Mennonite poets, but I’ve only ever read one of her poetry collections. I’ve decided that it is necessary to remedy this situation.

King, Thomas. Truth & Bright Water. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1999.

I loved the other book of King’s that I read (Green Grass, Running Water), and Truth & Bright Water sounds interesting because it is about the U.S.-Canada border, which is something I think about a lot now that I live relatively close to it.

Nay, Kolton. Imbalance. Goshen: Pinchpenny, 2015.

Hostetler’s article notes that Nay read part of this memoir at the 2015 Mennonite/s Writing Conference, which I also attended, but he and I did not get to meet. I look forward to encountering him on the page instead.

Wiebe, Dallas. The Transparent Eye-Ball and Other Stories. Providence: Burning Deck, 1982.

I really enjoyed Wiebe’s novel Our Asian Journey and have plans to eventually write about his work because he was an important early voice in  Mennonite fiction, but I had not realized that he also published this collection of stories (he also published some poetry that I have not read yet). I look forward to reading it. Despite being over thirty years old the volume is in excellent condition; the pages haven’t even begun to yellow.

 

Book Acquired Recently: Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable Venus

Lewis, Robin Coste. Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems. New York: Knopf, 2015.

I received this book as a Valentine’s Day present. It is Lewis’s first poetry collection, and it won the National Book Award, an impressive feat. It is also a lovely physical object, with a dark maroon cover and an intriguing cover photograph on the dustjacket.

Books Acquired Recently: Haiku Edition

As I continue to indulge my newfound passion for haiku (incidentally, February is National Haiku Writing Month, which you can read more about here), I have continued to purchase books in and about the genre.

Gurga, Lee. Haiku: A Poet’s Guide. Rev. Ed. Lincoln: Modern Haiku, 2013.

As I have begun writing haiku I have been feeling the need for more formal instruction aside from what I can glean from simply reading a lot of them. From what I’ve read of Gurga’s work in journals and anthologies his innovative aesthetic is similar to mine, thus I think reading his guide will be helpful. I bought the book directly from Modern Haiku Press, and I am impressed with their customer service because it took less than a week for the book to get to me.

Janeczko, Paul B., ed. Stone Bench in an Empty Park. New York: Orchard, 2000.

This is an anthology of city haiku. While I have been enjoying the way that getting into haiku has helped me to think more about nature and my relationship with it, I consider myself a city person at heart, and thus I look forward to learning more about how urban space can be portrayed in the genre. I was able to find a copy of the book in good condition for a penny from one of amazon.com’s network of independent booksellers.

Ketchek, Michael. Who I Am. Ed. Tom Clausen. Rochester: Free Food, 2015.

I read a review of this book, Ketchek’s greatest hits, in Modern Haiku and really liked the sample haiku reproduced there, so decided to buy it. I read through the collection last week and enjoyed it immensely. I especially appreciate the wide-ranging subject matter of Ketchek’s work. There are very traditional haiku about nature as well as more innovative poems about subjects such as baseball, chess, sex, and social activism. I bought the book directly from Free Food Press.

Ketchek, Michael, and David Tilley. Buzzard Haiku. Rochester: Free Food, 2013.

This small chapbook of haiku about vultures was sent to me free along with my order of Ketchek’s collection. I appreciate the slight, ephemeral nature of the volume–I almost threw it out with the large envelope that Who I Am came in, thinking it was a packing slip. The book’s form asserts that no poem is too insignificant to be immortalized in print.

 

 

Books Acquired Recently

Kasdorf, Julia Spicher, and Michael Tyrell, eds. Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn. New York: 2007.

Kasdorf is one of my favorite poets/literary critics, and a friend, and this is the only one of her books that I had not had. Used copies are now available for a reasonable price from amazon.com’s network of independent sellers (which is where I also acquired Rotella’s book). When I received it in the mail I discovered that it is inscribed by Tyrell (I have a fair number of books with inscriptions that I acquired used, and they always make me sad even though I am excited to have the author’s autograph. Why did the person mentioned in the inscription get rid of the book? Did they forget it was inscribed? Did they die? Did they have to cull their library due to financial hardship? None of the possibilities are good.), so I will have to get it inscribed by Kasdorf at some point to complete the set!

Rotella, Alexis. Beards and Wings. Cairnbrook: White Peony, 1985.

I recently read some of Rotella’s haiku in an anthology and really enjoyed them, and thus decided to buy one of her collections. Many of them are out of print, as is this one, but I was able to find a used copy for a little over $2.00.

Vega, Marta Moreno, Marinieves Alba, and Yvette Modestin, eds. Women Warriors of the Afro-Latina Diaspora. Houston: Arte Publico, 2012.

I was given this collection of essays and poetry by a friend. It looks fascinating, and there are several essays about the Puerto Rican experience that I am especially excited to read.

Books Acquired Recently: Holiday Stragglers Edition

I have received a few more books in the last week that I purchased with holiday cash from amazon.com’s network of sellers.

Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. Tr. Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin. Cambridge: Belknap-Harvard, 1999.

I recently read about this work, Benjamin’s notes and clippings for a book about arcades in 1880s Paris that he was never able to write due to his untimely death during World War II, and was immediately intrigued by it because of its obsessive nature. I also love books that somehow stretch the codex form, as this one does as a reproduction of a number of excerpts rather than a longer, single text. It was less than $30.00, which feels like a steal for such a massive (over 1,000 pages) volume.

Gurga, Lee, and Scott Metz, eds. Haiku 21. Lincoln: Modern Haiku, 2011.

Van Den Heuvel, Cor, ed. The Haiku Anthology. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 1999.

As part of my continuing explorations of haiku I have been trying to read lots of anthologies to get a sense of the field. Van Den Heuvel’s is apparently the bastion of traditional haiku, whereas Gurga and Metz both advocate for a more innovative aesthetic. I lean toward the latter, but it is helpful to read examples of both, and Van Den Heuvel’s anthology of baseball haiku is what got me interested in the genre in the first place. From what I know so far, it seems like an essential aspect of the haiku spirit is to keep an open mind.