First, let me say that obviously my blog has been taken over by Books Acquired Recently posts in recent weeks. This is partly a manifestation of my book-acquiring addiction and partly a manifestation of the busyness of my first semester teaching at Utica College: I just haven’t had time to write about other subjects. IContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: R.J. Julia Edition, and Some Thoughts on the Form”
Category Archives: Literature
Books Acquired Recently: Retiring Colleague Edition
One of my colleagues is retiring after this semester, and she gave me some of her books dealing with African American literature because it is one of my research interests. I am happy to preserve some of her library by integrating it into my own. Several of the paperbacks are from the 1970s and haveContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Retiring Colleague Edition”
Book Acquired Recently: Philip Fried’s Early/Late
Fried, Philip. Early/Late: New & Selected Poems. Cliffs of Moher: Salmon, 2011. The New York City-based poet Philip Fried gave a delightful reading at Utica College this afternoon, and I bought his book afterwards. I had only read a few of Fried’s poems in anthologies before, and am very glad to have had this chanceContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Philip Fried’s Early/Late”
Books Acquired Recently
Arenas, Reinaldo. Before Night Falls. Trans. Dolores M. Koch. 1993. New York: Penguin, 1994. I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while, as it combines two interests of mine, queerness and Cuba. I’ve actually hardly read any Cuban literature, which is a problem that I need to remedy. Arenas’s memoir is a start.Continue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Books Acquired Recently: Desk Copies Edition
DeLillo, Don. End Zone. 1972. New York: Penguin, 1986. I’ll be teaching this novel in my Literature in Focus: Teens and Twenty-Somethings course next semester. The course only includes books with youngish protagonists. End Zone is the story of a college football team in Texas, and I am including it in the course with theContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Desk Copies Edition”
Books Acquired Recently: Gary Leising Edition
Leising, Gary. Fastened to a Dying Animal. Columbus: Pudding House, 2010. —. Temple of Bones. Georgetown: Finishing Line, 2013. I bought these two chapbooks at a poetry reading by my colleague Gary Leising last night. I had never read any of his poetry before, and was thus happy to discover that I really enjoy it.Continue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Gary Leising Edition”
Books Acquired Recently
Gundy, Jeff. Songs From an Empty Cage: Poetry, Mystery, Anabaptism, and Peace. Telford: Cascadia, 2013. Jeff Gundy is one of my favorite poets, and he is also a friend of mine, so I buy anything he publishes. But I am especially excited about this book, which investigates the intersection between poetry and the transcendent. GundyContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Thinking About The Mezzanine and Participating in Capitalism
I was re-reading Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine this afternoon because I am teaching it in my American Literature After 1945 class tomorrow, and I was struck by a passage that I hadn’t thought about much before (which is the beautiful thing about the novel: basically every paragraph is thought-provoking if it hits one in theContinue reading “Thinking About The Mezzanine and Participating in Capitalism”
Books Acquired Recently
Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us. 1994. New York: Vintage, 1995. Bornstein, Kate, and S. Bear Bergman, eds. Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. Berkeley: Seal, 2010. I’ve read bits and pieces of Bornstein’s work over the years and enjoyed it, and a colleague recently told me that she usesContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Books Acquired Recently
Deer Cloud, Susan. The Last Ceremony. Kanona: FootHills, 2007. I bought this book today after Deer Cloud’s poetry reading at Utica College. It is always fascinating to hear poets read their work, and it is especially delightful when they read it well and when it is actually worth reading, which was the case in thisContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Daniel Shank Cruz 