The 2015 reading list was so much fun that I have decided to do it again! I am making a couple of minor changes to the criteria here. First, this list will include books I have read, books I have purchased but not read, and literary journals which I purchase and/or read, all in the 2016 calendar year. With any luck I will have an even dozen from Caffeinated Press at the end of the year. Since 2016 is a leap year this may give me just enough time to reach that goal. Why not only list books I actually read? Because feck is over-rated.
Helping to fill this list are the subscriptions I have to the catalogs of independent publishers Open Letter Books, Restless Books, And Other Stories, Deep Vellum and Horse Less Press, as well as subscriptions to The Paris Review, Granta and Zyzzyva. These should get me, at minimum, 35 things to read this year. Just shy of three a month. So without further ado, here is the list.
January (65)
- Zyzzyva, issue 31.3
- The Paris Review, issue 215
- Rodoreda, Mercè – War, So Much War (Open Letter Books)
- Anderson, Benedict – Imagined Communities
- Rattle, issue 50
- Piketty, Thomas – Capital in the Twenty-First Century
- Clark, Patricia – Sunday Rising
- Harrison, Jim – Dead Man’s Float
- Mecklenburg, Virginia – Modern Masters: American Abstraction at Midcentury
- n+1, issue 24
- Labbé, Carlos – Loquela (Open Letter Books)
- Comola, Jessica – Everything We Met Changed Form & Followed the Rest (Horse Less Press)
- Bettis, Christine – Burnout Paradise (Horse Less Press)
- Burns, Megan – Sleepwalk With Me (Horse Less Press)
- Midwestern Gothic, issue 20
- Dunes Review, issue 19.2
- Mieville, China – Three Moments of an Explosion (Subterranean Press, signed, number 268/400)
- Michigan’s Voices, issue 3.2, Spring 1963
- The Noble Savage, issue 1, February 1960
- Gulf Coast, issue 20.2, Fall 2008
- Bamber, Linda – Metropolitan Tang
- Wakoski, Diane – Argonaut Rose (Black Sparrow Press)
- Meltzer, David – No Eyes: Lester Young (Black Sparrow Press)
- Kashin, Oleg – Fardwor, Russia! (Restless Books)
- Velázquez, Carlos – The Cowboy Bible and Other Stories (Restless Books)
- Clark, Anna (ed) – A Detroit Anthology (Rust Belt Chic Press)
- The Tishman Review, issue 1.4
- Michigan Quarterly Review, issue 54.4
- Taylor, Jonathan Jay and Neill, Foster – The Michigan Poet
- O’Brien, Colleen – Spool in the Maze (New Michigan Press)
- Krieg, Brandon – Invasives (New Rivers Press)
- El-Mohtar, Amal – The Honey Month (Papaveria Press, signed)
- Klaver, Christian – The Adventure of the Lustrous Pearl (signed)
- Klaver, Christian – The Adventure of the Innsmouth Whaler (signed)
- Kalver, Christian – The Adventure of the Solitary Grave (signed)
- Klaver, Christian – Shadows Over London (signed)
- McClellan, Brian – Servant of the Crown (signed)
- McClellan, Brian – Forsworn (signed)
- McClellan, Brian – Murder a the Kinnen Hotel (signed)
- McClellan, Brian – In the Field Marshal’s Shadow (signed)
- Steinmetz, Ferret – Flex (signed)
- Steinmets, Ferret – The Flux (signed)
- O’Keefe, Megan – Steal the Sky (signed)
- Underwood, Michael R. – Genrenauts: The Shootout Solution (signed)
- Underwood, Michael R. – Genrenauts: The Absconded Ambassador (signed)
- Collins, Brigid – The Southern Dragon (signed)
- Bennett, Robert Jackson – City of Blades (signed)
- Olson, Melissa – Boundary Crossed (signed)
- Toyama, Kentaro – Geek Heresy (signed)
- Duncan, Andy and Klages, Ellen – Wakulla Springs
- Wilson, Kai Ashante –The Devil in America
- Smale, Alan – Clash of Eagles
- Swanson, Jay – Into the Nanten (signed)
- Kloos, Marko – Terms of Enlistment (signed)
- Brown, Pierce – Red Rising
- Hurley, Kameron – Mirror Empire (signed)
- Hurley, Kameron – God’s War (signed)
- Gnarr, Jon – The Pirate (Deep Vellum Publishing)
- The Gateway Review Issue 2.1
- Eastern Iowa Review, Spring/Summer 2015
- Tenev, Georgi – Party Headquarters (Open Letters Books)
- Rajaniemi, Hannu – Collected Fiction
- Dickinson, Seth – The Traitor Baru Cormorant
- Wojtaszek, Kristina – Opal (World Weaver Press, signed)
- Parrish, Rhonda (ed) – Scarecrow (World Weaver Press, signed)
February (30)
- River Styx issue 95
- Granta issue 132
- Farooqi, Musharraf Ali – Between Clay and Dust (Restless Books)
- Harrison, Jim – The Ancient Minstrel (signed)
- How Do I Begin? A Hmong-American Literary Anthology (Heyday Books)
- Barr, Terry – Don’t Date Baptists: and Other Warnings from My Alabama Mother (Red Dirt Press)
- Sternin, Grigori and Kirillina, Jelena – Ilya Repin
- Rucker, Rudy and Sterling, Bruce – Transreal Cyberpunk (Transreal Books)
- Bell, Cristalyne (ed.) Rebel Reporting: John Ross Speaks to Independent Journalists
- Meruane, Lina – Seeing Red (Deep Vellum)
- Eco, Umberto – Six Walks in the Fictional Woods
- Granta issue 134
- Estes, Phil – High Life (Horse Less Press)
- Olszewska, Daniela – Answering Machine (Horse Less Press)
- Eco, Umberto – How to Travel with a Salmon
- Eco, Umberto – Travels in Hyperreality
- Eco, Umberto – Kant and the Platypus
- Eco, Umberto – Misreadings
- Eco, Umberto – Serendipities
- Eco, Umberto – The Search for the Perfect Language
- Leckie, Ann – Ancillary Justice
- Tomaszewski, Z.G. – All Things Dusk
- Dillard, Annie – The Annie Dillard Reader
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel – Short Stories
- Melville, Herman – Great Short Works of Herman Melville
- Tolstoy, Leo – The Death of Ivan Illych & Other Stories
- Campbell, James – The Ghost Mountain Boys
- Least Heat-Moon, William – PrairyErth
- Eco, Umberto – The Prague Cemetery
- Eco, Umberto – Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages
March (27)
- Abani, Chris – The Face: Cartography of the Void (Restless Books)
- Aw, Tash – The Face: Strangers on a a Pier (Restless Books)
- Ozeki, Ruth – The Face: A Time Code (Restless Books)
- Lynch, Sean – The City of Your Mind (Whirlwind Press)
- Whirlwind, issue 5
- Whirlwind, issue 6
- Whirlwind, issue 7
- Sinister, Bucky – Black Hole: A Novel (Soft Skull Press)
- Ali, Taha Muhammad – So What (Copper Canyon Press)
- Hô Xuân Huong – Spring Essence: The Poetry of Hô Xuân Huong (Copper Canyon Press)
- The Paris Review #216
- Pfeijffer, Ilja Leonard – La Superba (Deep Vellum)
- VanderMeer, Ann (ed.) The Bestiary (Centipede Press)
- Chambers, James – The Engines of Sacrifice (Dark Regions Press)
- Meikle, William – The Plasm (Dark Regions Press)
- Pugmire, W.H. & Thomas, Jeffrey – Encounters with Enoch Coffin (Dark Regions Press)
- Sammons, Brian M & Barrass, Glynn Owen (eds.) – World War Cthulhu (Dark Regions Press)
- Jamneck, Lynne (ed.) – Dreams from the Witch House (Dark Regions Press)
- Accola, Rosie – So That Tonight I Might See (chapbook)
- Lake, Brandon – Something Lacking, vol. 1 (Split Filter Press, chapbook)
- Brace, Kristen – The Farthest Dreaming Hill (chapbook)
- Austin, Melissa B. – Keys (chapbook)
- The Bandit Zine – Issue 3, Alt Fashion and D.I.Y.
- The Bandit Zine – Love + Heart Break issue
- de Alba, Cassanda – Habitats (Horse Less Press)
- Schapira, Kate – Handbook for Hands That Alter as We Hold Them Out (Horse Less Press)
- Porter, Bill (Red Pine) – Finding Them Gone (Copper Canyon Press)
April (36)
- Fanning, Robert – Sheet Music (Three Bee Press, chapbook)
- Fanning, Robert – American Prophet (Marick Press)
- Zyzzyva 32.1
- Volodine, Antoine – Bardo or Not Bardo (Open Letter Books)
- Hirsch, Edward – A Poet’s Glossary
- Rich, Adrienne – Later Poems
- Pederson, Miriam – This Brief Light (Finishing Line Press, chapbook)
- Ferlinghetti, Lawrence – Writing Across the Landscape
- Custer, Nic (La©luster) – Nothing Works, Everyone Labors
- Secret Bully, issue 1 (chapbook)
- Stairs in the Middle of the Street – Creative Youth Center of Grand Rapids
- Under the Sun – Creative Youth Center of Grand Rapids
- Green a Table, Green an Elephant – Grand Rapids Creative Youth Center
- Pratchett, Terry and Baxter, Stephen – The Long Utopia
- Bat-Ami, Miriam – Two Suns in the Sky
- Pushcart Prize VIII (1983-1984)
- Stoppard, Tom – The Invention of Love
- Startling Sci-Fi (New Lit Salon Press)
- Haight, Ian – Magnolia and Lotus (White Pine Press)
- Best of Vine Leaves Literary Journal 2015 (Vine Leaves Press)
- Topology Magazine (Spring 2016 issue)
- Hariharan, Githa – Almost Home (Restless Books)
- Tin House issue 61
- Rastall, Janeen, et al – Heart Radicals (ELJ Publications)
- Magoon, Mark – The Upper Peninsula Misses You (ELJ Publications)
- Hamilton, Carol – Umberto Eco Lost His Gun (Pudding House Publications)
- Winn, Howard – Four-Picture Sequence of Desire and Love (Front Street Publishers)
- Bridges: Poets of Dutchess and Ulster Counties (Springtown Press)
- Hamilton, Carol – Such Deaths (Purple Flag)
- Cope, David – Turn the Wheel (The Humana Press)
- Big Scream, issue 51
- Big Scream, issue 54
- Hinrichsen, Dennis – Skin Music (Southern Indiana Review Press)
- Rappleye, Greg – Figured Dark (University of Arkansas Press)
- Atkins, Priscilla – The Cafe of Our Departure (Sibling Rivalry Press)
- Granta issue 135
May (10)
- Villoro, Juan – God is Round (Restless Books)
- Zhadan, Serhiy – Voroshilovgrad (Deep Vellum Publishing)
- Audin, Michèle – One Hundred Twenty-one Days (Deep Vellum Publishing)
- Neruda, Pablo – Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems (Copper Canyon Press)
- Gross, Terry – All I Did Was Ask
- Marquez, Gabriel Garcia – Collected Novellas
- Barker, Clive – The Scarlet Gospels
- Martin, George R.R. and Dozois, Gardner – Rogues
- Pratchett, Terry – Raising Steam
- Saer, Juan Jose – The Clouds (Open Letter Books)
June (20)
- Gablik, Suzi – Conversations Before the End of Time
- Pavlov, Konstantin – Cry of a Former Dog
- Burrows, E.G. – Man Fishing
- Kooser, Ted – Local Wonders
- Tvedten, Brother Benet – The View From a Monastery
- Duras, Marguerite – Abahn Sabana David (Open Letter Books)
- Beneath a Single Moon: Buddhism in Contemporary American Poetry (Shambhala Press)
- Conversations with Henry Miller (University Press of Mississippi)
- Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges (University Press of Mississippi)
- The Paris Review, issue 217
- Jodorowsky, Alejandro – Albina and the Dog-Men (Restless Books)
- Enjoy! (826michigan)
- Vigus, Rebecka – Rivers Edge (Lilac Publishing)
- Edwards, Zev Lawson – The New Punk
- Glaysher, Frederick – The Parliament of Poets (Earthrise Press)
- Clay, Anissa – The God Conception (Red Engine Press)
- Third Wednesday, Vol. IX, No. 2
- Reynolds, Alastair – Beyond the Aquila Rift (Subterranean Press)
- Moon, Jung Young – Vaseline Buddha (Deep Vellum)
- Laroui, Fouad – The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers (Deep Vellum)
July (12)
- Klougart, Josefine – One of Us Is Sleeping (Open Letter Books)
- Chu, Wesley – Time Siege
- Yoss (Gomez, Jose Miguel Sanchez) – Super Extra Grande (Restless Books)
- Colasacco, John – Two Teenagers (Horse Less Press)
- Jordan, Ahmunet Jessica – Black and Blue Prints
- Granta 136
- Boullosa, Carmen – Before (Open Letter Books)
- Devi, Ananda – Eve Out of Her Ruins (Deep Vellum)
- Lawrence, Stephon – Nervs (Horse Less Press)
- Miller, Frank – 300
- McGuane, Thomas – Gallatin Canyon
- Salter, James – All That Is
August (17)
- Saccomanno, Guillermo – Gesell Dome (Open Letter Books)
- Poetry (July/August 2016)
- Gaiman, Neil – The View From the Cheap Seats
- Year’s Best Science Fiction #32
- New American Writing #34
- Amezcua, Eloisa – On Not Screaming (Horse Less Press)
- De Rojas, Agustin – The Year 200 (Restless Books)
- Volksmode 2014 (Issue Press)
- Campbell, Anna – Ever Your Friend (Issue Press)
- Curry, Erin – Poems to the Sea (Issue Press)
- Johnson, Cathy G – Thank God, I Am In Love (Issue Press)
- Wietor, George – Past Lives (Issue Press)
- Batt, J. Daniel – Keaghan in the Tales of Dreamside (Story Jitsu)
- Genius Loci – Tales of the Spirit of Place (Ragnarok Publications)
- Eastern Iowa Review issue 2
- Vuong, Ocean – Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press)
- Zyzzyva #107
September (21)
- Neuman, Andres – How to Travel Without Seeing (Restless Books)
- Stephenson, Neal – The Diamond Age (Subterranean Press; signed – 292 of 500)
- Benford, Gregory – The Best of Gregory Benford (Subterranean Press)
- McCammon, Robert – Blue World (Subterranean Press)
- Chu, Wesley – The Days of Tao (Subterranean Press; signed – 321 of 1000)
- Kuznia, Yanni (ed.) – A Fantasy Medley II (Subterranean Press)
- Powers, Tim – Down and Out In Purgatory (Subterranean Press)
- Lansdale, Joe and Lansdale, Kasey – The Case of the Bleeding Wall (Subterranean Press; signed – 278 of 500)
- Armstrong, Kelley – Driven (Subterranean Press; signed – 502 of 1000)
- Armstrong, Kelley – Forsaken (Subterranean Press; signed – 372 of 1000)
- Achebe, Chinua – Things Fall Apart
- Levy, Ariel (ed.) – The Best American Essays 2015
- N+1 #26
- Pagano, Emmanuelle – Trysting (& Other Stories)
- Raud, Rein – The Brother (Open Letter Books)
- The Paris Review #218
- Browne, Colin – I Had an Interesting French Artist to Visit Me This Summer (Figure 1 Publishing)
- Yahgulanaas, Michael Nicoll – Red – A Haida Manga
- Scott, Walter – Wendy (Koyama Press)
- Bell, Marc – Stroppy (Drawn & Quarterly Press)
- Bernard, Bruce (ed.) – Vincent by Himself
October (9)
- Hines, Jim – Libriomancer
- Allfrey, Ellah Wakatama – Africa 39: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara
- Passages: Africa (PEN America)
- Glossolalia Issue 2 (PEN America)
- Suah, Bae – A Greater Music (Open Letter Books)
- Montes, Lara Mimosa – The Somnambulist (Horse Less Press)
- Powell, AJ – Grayson Rising (Caffeinated Press)
- Brewed Awakenings II (Caffeinated Press)
- Joshi, S.T. (ed) – Black Wings V (PS Publishing)
November (24)
- Fonseca, Carlos – Colonel Lagrimas (Restless Books)
- Sanchez-Andrade, Christina – The Winterlings (Restless Books)
- Spencer, Cynthia – Girl Tramp (Horse Less Press)
- Danos, Stephen – Missing Slides (Horse Less Press)
- Okorafor, Nnedi – The Book of Phoenix
- Geiger, Arno – The Old King In His Exile (& Other Stories)
- Loeb, Paul Rogat – The Impossible Will Take a Little While
- Byatt, A.S. – Babel Tower
- Earley, Tim – Linthead Stomp (Horse Less Press)
- Jimenez, Claudia Salazar – Blood of the Dawn (Deep Vellum Publishing)
- Jaffe, Noemi – What are the Blind Men Dreaming? (Deep Vellum Publishing)
- Rabasa, Eduardo – A Zero-Sum Game (Deep Vellum Publishing)
- Poetry magazine CCIX:2 November 2016
- Lehman, David (ed.) – Best American Poetry 2016
- Burton, Richard Francis (trans.) – Tales from the Arabian Nights
- Millidge, Gary Spencer – Alan Moore: Storyteller
- Campbell, Hayley – The Art of Neil Gaiman
- Zaleski, Philip and Zaleski, Carol – The Fellowship
- Crowley, John – The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencruetz (Small Beer Press)
- Crowley, John – Lord Byron’s Novel
- Mondrup, Iben – Justine (Open Letter Books)
- Davis, Jean – Sahmara
- Kaag, John – American Philosophy
- Pushkin, Alexander – Novels, Tales, Journeys: The Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin
December (41)
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 1: Back on the Street
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 2: Lust for Life
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 3: Year of the Bastard
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 4: The New Scum
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 5: Lonely City
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 6: Gouge Away
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 7: Spider’s Thrash
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 8: Dirge
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 9: The Cure
- Ellis, Warren – Transmetropolitan 10: One More Time
- Pratchett, Terry – Discworld Companion
- Zyzzyva #108
- Tea, Michelle – Black Wave (And Other Stories)
- Calvino, Italo – If On a Winter’s Night A Traveler
- Calvino, Italo – Invisible Cities
- Hines, Jim C. – Codex Born
- Hines, Jim C. – Unbound
- Borges, Jorge Luis – Selected Non-fictions
- Paris Review #219
- Eir, Oddny – Land of Love and Ruins (Restless Books)
- Granta #137
- Shah, Bullhe – Sufi Lyrics
- Cardoso, Lucio – Chronicle of the Murdered House (Open Letter Books)
- Chambers, Robert W. – The King in Yellow (Book Revivals Press)
- Reppion, John (ed.) – Spirits of Place (Daily Grail Publishing)
- Dillard, Annie – The Abundance
- Marshall, Tim – Prisoners of Geography
- Marx, Karl – Das Kapital
- Bakunin, Mikhail – God and the State
- Kropotkin, Peter – Anarchism
- Herman, Edward S. and Chomsky, Noam – Manufacturing Consent
- Hedges, Chris – Wages of Rebellion
- Hedges, Chris – American Fascists
- Hedges, Chris and Sacco, Joe – Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt
- Hedges, Chris – Empire of Illusion
- Ismailov, Hamid – The Underground (Restless Books)
- Goff, Nichole – Aluminum Necropolis (Horse Less Press)
- Gurton-Wachter, Anna – Blank Blank Blues (Horse Less Press)
- Snyder, Gary – The Great Clod
- Coates, Ta-Nehisi – Between the World and Me
- Diaz, Junot – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao