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”
Category Archives: Literature
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”
Book Acquired Recently: Shirley Hershey Showalter’s Blush
Showalter, Shirley Hershey. Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World. Harrisonburg: Herald, 2013. Showalter was the president of my alma mater, Goshen College, when I was a student there, and we have since become friends, in part because we are both interested in Mennonite literature. Her new memoir, Blush, is sure to be anContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Shirley Hershey Showalter’s Blush”
Books Acquired Recently
Doyle, Arthur Conan. A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. 1888 and 1890. Mineola: Dover, 2003. Frederic, Harold. The Damnation of Theron Ware. 1896. Mineola: Dover, 2012. I just recently heard of Harold Frederic (Utica College’s student literary society is named after him), who was from my new town of Utica, New York,Continue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
The New Header Photograph
I decided to update the header photograph of my blog to celebrate my recent transition to Utica, New York. I never feel truly at home in a new place until all of my books are displayed on their shelves, so the new photograph symbolizes my new identity as a Utican. Also, the previous header photographContinue reading “The New Header Photograph”
Daniel Shank Cruz 