Category: Book List

Lists of books and reading material

April 2022 Reading List

John Winkelman

What I Read in April of 2022

For National Poetry Month this year, I decided to work my way through my pile of unread issues of Poetry Magazine. It was quite an experience. Last time I read this much poetry, in this much variety, was in the heyday of The 3288 Review when we were getting over a hundred submissions a month, each with as many as ten poems.

Though sidelined for a few days by a touch of the flu, as well as some crazy work hours, I did manage to complete seventeen issues of Poetry, two poetry books by local writers, and the latest issue of Peninsula Poets.

The density of reading has put my mind in a very good space and I may continue this habit well into May in order to get caught up to present.

Books and Journals

  1. Poetry Magazine #209.2 (November 2016) [2022.04.01]
  2. Poetry Magazine #210.1 (April 2017) [2022.04.04]
  3. Poetry Magazine #213.1 (October 2018) [2022.04.05]
  4. Poetry Magazine #213.3 (December 2018) [2022.04.06]
  5. Poetry Magazine #213.6 (March 2019) [2022.04.07]
  6. Poetry Magazine #214.1 (April 2019) [2022.04.07]
  7. Poetry Magazine #213.4 (January 2019) [2022.04.08]
  8. Poetry Magazine #213.5 (February 2019) [2022.04.11]
  9. Poetry Magazine #214.2 (May 2019) [2022.04.12]
  10. Poetry Magazine #214.3 (June 2019) [2022.04.14]
  11. Poetry Magazine #214.4 (July/August 2019) [2022.04.17]
  12. Alles, Colleen, After the 8-Ball [2022.04.18]
  13. Poetry Magazine #214.5 (September 2019) [2022.04.19]
  14. Poetry Magazine #215.1 (October 2019) [2022.04.20]
  15. Poetry Magazine #215.2 (November 2019) [2022.04.24]
  16. Poetry Magazine #215.3 (December 2019) [2022.04.26]
  17. Poetry Magazine #215.4 (January 2020) [2022.04.27]
  18. Poetry Magazine #215.5 (February 2020) [2022.04.28]
  19. Renee, Anna, Patina [2022.04.29]
  20. Peninsula Poets #79.1 (Spring 2022) [2022.04.30]

March 2022 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I reds in the Month of March 2022

Not a bad month for reading, was March. The first book, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant, took the first half of the month to read, and the remaining six flew by, relatively speaking. This was a good mix of fiction and poetry, with a surprise nonfiction in They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, Hanif Abdurrraqib’s collection of music reviews and criticism which I picked up at City Lights Bookstore back in the summer of 2019.

Books

  1. Dickinson, Seth, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant (2022.03.15)
  2. Poetry Magazine #207.1, October 2015 (2022.03.15)
  3. Abdurraqib, Hanif, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (2022.03.20)
  4. Tomlinson, Patrick S., Gate Crashers (2022.03.24)
  5. Jaeggy, Fleur (Alhadeff, Gini, translator), I am the Brother of XX (2022.03.28)
  6. Coolidge, Sarah (editor), This Is Us Losing Count (2022.03.29)
  7. Poetry Magazine #208.4, July/August 2016 (2022.03.31)

 

February 2022 Reading List

John Winkelman

Bools I read in February 2022

February was a good reading month. I made it through five books – one genre fiction, one nonfiction sociological text, and three books in translation – one poetry and two fiction. Like in January, I didn’t read any short prose. I guess that’s just not where my mind is right now. Maybe in March.

Books

  1. Chakraborty, S.A., The Empire of Gold (2022.02.04)
  2. Du Mez, Kristin Kobes, Jesus and John Wayne (2022.02.14)
  3. Brandt, Per Aage, If I Were a Suicide Bomber (2022.02.14)
  4. Karastoyanov, Hristo, The Same Night Awaits Us All (2022.02.20)
  5. Torres, Fernanda, Glory and its Litany of Horrors (2022.02.26)

Short Prose

January 2022 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I read in January 2022

January was a pretty good month for reading. I finished three genre novels, following the three I read at the end of 2021. Having my head in this space feels really good, and I find that my own writing is easier, and occasionally improved, by focusing on genre works for extended periods of time.

The down-side is that I spent so much time reading these books (and the ones which I did not finish by the end of the month) that I completely neglected to read any short prose other than news articles and blog posts.

Books

  1. Roanhorse, Rebecca, Black Sun (2022.01.06) – I really liked this book. Until now I had not read a fantasy story – or indeed any fiction at all, that I recall, that was centered in pre-colonial America. The characters are vivid and immediately interesting, the descriptions are both grand and intimate. Roanhorse writes very well and I look forward to reading the sequel, Fevered Star.
  2. Muir, Tamsyn, Harrow the Ninth (2022.01.18) – I loved this book! Harrow was as good a read as its predecessor Gideon the Ninth. It was a little slower-paced, but this was mostly due to the density of the world building and depth of characterizations. Muir is very good at exploring the mental and emotional states of her characters, and shows distinct empathy toward even the least sympathetic of the necromancers in this story. I definitely would not want to live in the universe of the Locked Tomb, but it is a fun place to visit on occasion.
  3. Mandel, Emily St. John, Station Eleven (2022.01.20) – I finished the Subterranean Press edition of Station Eleven while camped out in a hotel room the night before the 2022 ConFusion Science Fiction Convention. To read a story of the survivors of a pandemic touring the Great Lakes, while waiting for the start of a conference taking place in Michigan the middle of a pandemic, put my mind in an interesting place. Mandel writes beautifully. Her characters are well-defined and consistent, and the story immediately pulled me in. Moments of sharp clarity are mixed with hints of the state of the larger world, and the pages are full of the wonder and terror of living in a time when over 99% of humanity has suddenly died. Highly recommended.

ConFusion 2022 – Notes for If You Liked That, Read This!

John Winkelman

These are my notes from the panel “If You Like That, Read This!” which took place at 7:00 pm on Saturday, January 22, 2022 at ConFusion 2022: Rising ConFusion in Novi, Michigan.

I moderated this panel, which was a somewhat superfluous role as the panel included only myself and Anton Cancre, filling in for Sarah Hans, who was unable to attend the panel. Since there were only half a dozen attendees, we decided to keep things informal. We pulled some chairs into a circle and went around and the room, discussing books we had read recently, and books we particularly liked and recommended to the other attendees.

The first list includes recent reads and books which came up in the conversation.

This next list is the reading recommendations, subtitled “Read this now!!!”

All in all, it was a fun panel, and I have added a few of these titles to my ever-growing TBR pile.

The Books of ConFusion 2022

John Winkelman

Though ConFusion 2022 was much smaller than previous ConFusions, many authors still attended so I arrived with high hopes, a pocketful of money, and some bags. I brought a stack of books to get signed, and returned home with those and a dozen more, with the majority of the new books signed as well. Truly, this was a glorious weekend for my collection!

Books signed at ConFusion 2022

The first photo is the books I brought to ConFusion 2022 which were signed by the authors.

The top row is Jim C. Hines‘ Magic Ex Libris series, including Libriomancer, Codex Born, Unbound and Revisionary.

The second row starts Terminal Uprising, the second book in Hines’ Janitors of the Post Apocalypse series. Jason Sanford‘s new novel Plague Birds is next, followed by Pimp My Airship by Maurice Broaddus, and Patrick S. Tomlinson‘s Gate Crashers.

Books purchased and signed at ConFusion 2022

This photo includes the books I acquired at ConFusion 2022 and which were signed by the authors.

First up is The Banished Craft by E.D.E. Bell. Next are Starship Repo and In the Black by Patrick S. Tomlinson. Then comes Hidden Menagerie, an anthology edited by Michael Cieslak.

Next are two books by Jen Haeger, Whispers of a Killer and Moonlight Medicine: Onset. Next is Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison, a collection of poetry by Anton Cancre. Cancre was at the signing table filling in for author Sarah Hans, who was unable to attend the signing session. As thanks for buying two of Hans’ books, Anton gave me his book for free (!) and was gracious enough to sign it. Later that day Anton again filled in for Hans in a panel I moderated, “If You Liked That, Read This!” which was loads of fun. I will discuss it more in my ConFusion 2022 wrap-up post.

And finally we have Jason Sanford‘s collection Never Never Stories which upon returning home I found is a duplicate. Oh, well. Now I have two copies of this book, in case I want to read it more than once.

Books purchased at ConFusion 2022

And these are the books I acquired at ConFusion 2022 which were not signed. For the first two, Dead Girls Don’t Love and An Ideal Vessel, author Sarah Hans was indisposed during the signing. The other two, Yoon Ha Lee‘s The Fox Tower and Other Tales, and Damian Duffy and John Jennings‘ graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler‘s Parable of the Sower, my partner and I picked up at the bookstore in the dealer room on our way out of the convention to return home.

A dozen new books is actually a fairly small haul for me at a ConFusion, but again, this was a much smaller than usual version of the event. I should just have time to read these before the next ConFusion in 2023.

2022 Books and Reading Material Acquisitions List

John Winkelman

This is the list of books and other reading material which I acquired in calendar year 2022. This is the eighth iteration of this list. The seven previous lists are available from the Index of Indexes.

This year I am slightly changing the format of this page to include the date each publication on this list was acquired. Titles in bold text are books and journals which I have read.

January (17)

  1. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #15 [2022.01.02]
  2. Tucker, Phil – Bastion (self published) [2022.01.05]
  3. Greylock, TL and O’Connor, Bryce – Shadows of Ivory (self published) [2022.01.05]
  4. Poetry #219.4 [2022.01.18]
  5. Fateforge 4, Encyclopedia (Studio Agate) [2022.01.19]
  6. Bell, E.D.E. – The Banished Craft (Atthis Arts LLC, inscribed) [2022.01.20]
  7. Cieslak, Michael (editor) – Hidden Menagerie, vol. 1 (Dragon’s Roost Press, inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  8. Tomlinson, Patrick S. – Starship Repo (inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  9. Tomlinson, Patrick S. – In the Black (inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  10. Haeger, Jen – Moonlight Medicine: Onset (Dragon’s Roost Press, inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  11. Haeger, Jen – Whispers of a Killer (Scarsdale Publishing, inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  12. Hans, Sarah – An Ideal Vessel (Dragon’s Roost Press) [2022.01.21]
  13. Hans, Sarah – Dead Girls Don’t Love (Dragon’s Roost Press) [2022.01.21]
  14. Cancre, Anton – Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison (Dragon’s Roost Press) [2022.01.21]
  15. Lee, Yoon Ha – The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales [2022.01.22]
  16. Duffy, Damien, Jennings, John, and Butler, Octavia E. – Parable of the Sower [2022.01.22]
  17. Harrison, Jim – Complete Poems, limited edition boxed set (Copper Canyon Press) [2022.01.27]

February (4)

  1. Poetry #219.5 [2022.02.01]
  2. Tales from the Magician’s Skull #7 [2022.02.16]
  3. Aquilone, James (editor) – Classic Monsters Unleashed (Black Spot Books, Crystal Lake Publishing) [2022.02.19]
  4. James, Marlon – Moon Witch, Spider King [2022.02.27]

March (8)

  1. Poetry #219.6 [2022.03.04]
  2. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #16 [2022.03.08]
  3. Ashton, Dyrk – War of Gods (self published) [2022.03.11]
  4. Alexander, Connor – Coyote & Crow: Core Rulebook [2022.03.14]
  5. Coolidge, Sarah (editor) – This Is Us Losing Count (Two Lines Press) [2022.03.17]
  6. Barakat, Najwa (Leafgren, Luke, translator) – Mister N (And Other Stories) [2022.03.19]
  7. The Paris Review #239 [2022.03.23]
  8. Poetry #220.1 [2022.03.29]

April (12)

  1. Lawson, Len, Manick, Cynthia, and Jackson, Gary (editors) – The Future of Black (Blair) [2022.04.01]
  2. Ono, Masatsugu (Carpenter, Juliet Winters, translator) – At the Edge of the Woods (Two Lines Press) [2022.04.05]
  3. Hilbig, Wolfgang (Cole, Isabel Fargo, translator) – The Interim (Two Lines Press) [2002.04.05]
  4. Zerán, Alia Trabucco (Hughes, Sophie, translator) – When Women Kill (And Other Stories) [2022.04.06]
  5. Salvage #11 [2022.04.08]
  6. Alles, Colleen – After the 8-Ball (Cornerstone Press, inscribed) [2022.04.14]
  7. Peninsula Poets #79.1 (Spring 2022) [2022.04.22]
  8. Barrera, Jazmina (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – On Lighthouses (Two Lines Press) [2022.04.23]
  9. Barrera, Jazmina (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – Linea Nigra (Two Lines Press) [2022.04.23]
  10. Renee, Anna – Patina (self-published) [2022.04.26]
  11. Monae, Janelle – The Memory Librarian [2022.04.30]
  12. Gramsci, Antonio – The Antonio Gramsci Reader (New York University Press) [2022.04.30]

May (6)

  1. Poetry #220.2 (May 2022) [2022.05.03]
  2. Ahmed, Saladin and Acosta, Dave – Dragon (Copper Bottle) [2022.05.05]
  3. Girl Genius Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game (Steve Jackson Games) [2022.05.14]
  4. Hurley, Kameron – Future Artifacts: Stories (Apex Book Company) [2022.05.22]
  5. Boston Review #22 [2022.05.26]
  6. Greer, James – Bad Eminence (And Other Stories) [2022.05.28]

June (5)

  1. Voices 2022 [2022.06.04]
  2. Poetry #220.3, June 2022 [2022.06.06]
  3. Barrera, Jazmina (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – Linea Nigra (special edition chapbook) (Two Lines Press, printed at Impronta Casa Editora) [2022.06.21]
  4. The Paris Review #240 [2022.06.22]
  5. Poetry #220.4, July/August 2022 [2022.06.27]

July (9)

  1. Steffen, David (editor) – The Long List Anthology, Vol. 7 (Diabolical Plots, LLC) [2022.07.03]
  2. Vuong, Ocean – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous [2022.07.05]
  3. Dawes, Kwame – Progeny of Air (Peepal Tree Press) [2022.07.05]
  4. Rosenthal, Linda (editor) – Listening at the Fire: The Poetry of Fountain Street Church (chapbook) [2022.07.05]
  5. Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix – Nomadology: The War Machine (Semiotext(e)) [2022.07.13]
  6. Creasy, Jonathan C. (editor) – Black Mountain Poems: An Anthology (New Directions) [2022.07.13]
  7. McLean, Robin – Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Rough, Tell ’em Nothing (And Other Stories) [2022.07.23]
  8. Xu Zechen (Abrahamsen, Eric, translator) – Running Through Beijing (Two Lines Press) [2022.07.27]
  9. Villoso, K.S. – The Wolf of Oren-Yaro [2022.07.27]

August (8)

  1. Michael Marder, Political Categories: Thinking Beyond Concepts (Columbia University Press) [2022.08.01]
  2. Sarah Chorn & Virginia McClain (editors) – The Alchemy of Sorrow (Crimson Fox Publishing) [2022.08.03]
  3. Crystal Sarakas and Rhondi Salsitz (editors) – Shattering the Glass Slipper (Zombies Need Brains) [2022.08.06]
  4. S.C. Butler and Joshua Palmatier (editors) – Brave New Worlds (Zombies Need Brains) [2022.08.06]
  5. David B. Coe and John Zakour (editors) – Noir (Zombies Need Brains) [2022.08.06]
  6. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #45
  7. Age of Antiquity: Adventure and Intrigue in the Ancient World (Azurian Publishing) [2022.08.18]
  8. Poetry #220.5, September 2022 [2022.08.27]

September (6)

  1. E.D.E. Bell – Night Ivy (Atthis Arts LLC, inscribed) [2022.09.03]
  2. The Paris Review #241 [2022.09.13]
  3. Hemly Boum (Nchanji Njamnsi, translator) – Days Come and Go (Two Lines Press) [2022.09.14]
  4. Visible (Two Lines Press, Calico Imprint) [2022.09.14]
  5. The Politics of Pleasure: Boston Review Fourm #43 [2022.09.19]
  6. Poetry #221.1, October 2022

October (21)

  1. Jim Harrison, The Search for the Genuine [2022.10.01]
  2. Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings [2022.10.01]
  3. João Gilberto Noll (Edgar Garbelotto, translator), Hugs and Cuddles (Two Lines Press) [2022.10.06]
  4. Marissa Lingen, Monstrous Bonds, #93/100 [2022.10.07]
  5. Duncan Hannah, 20th Century Boy [2022.10.07]
  6. Jim C. Hines, Terminal Peace [2022.10.07]
  7. Michael J. Sullivan, Fairlane (Riyria Enterprises) [2022.10.08]
  8. Elizabeth A. Trembley, Look Again: A Memoir (Street Noise Books) [2022.10.11]
  9. Ryan Lee, Planet On3 (self-published) [2022.10.11]
  10. Salvage #12 [2022.10.13]
  11. Jess Landry (editor), That Which Cannot Be Undone: An Ohio Horror Anthology (Cracked Skull Press) [2022.10.13]
  12. Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow, Chokepoint Capitalism (Beacon Press) [2022.10.21]
  13. Poetry #221.2 [2022.10.21]
  14. T.L. Greylock and Bryce O’Connor, Legacy of Bronze (self-published) [2022.10.22]
  15. Anna Urbanek, Herbalist’s Primer (Exalted Funeral Press) [2022.10.22]
  16. Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger [2022.10.26]
  17. Jason Gillikin (editor), Surface Reflections [2022.10.26]
  18. The Lakeshore Review #1 [2022.10.26]
  19. The Lakeshore Review #2 [2022.10.26]
  20. Peninsula Poets, Fall 2022 [2022.10.28]
  21. Xia Jia, A Summer Beyond Your Reach (Clarkesworld Books) [2022.10.28]

November (5)

  1. Sloane Leong and Cassie Hart (editors) – Death in the Mouth [2022.11.07]
  2. Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, H.D. Hunter, and LP Kindred (editors), (Re)Living Mythology (Android Press) [2022.11.23]
  3. Nicole Sealey, Ordinary Beasts [2022.11.25]
  4. N.K. Jemisin, The World We Make [2022.11.25]
  5. Poetry #221.3 [2022.11.30]

December (5)

  1. David Steffen (editor) – The Long List Anthology, vol. 8 (Diabolical Plots, LLC) [2022.12.01]
  2. Boston Review: Imagining Global Futures [2022.12.08]
  3. The Paris Review #242 [2022.12.10]
  4. Kathe Koja, Velocities: Stories (Meerkat Press) [2022.12.21]
  5. Kathe Koja, Dark Factory (Meerkat Press) [2022.12.21]
  6. Poetry #221.4 [2022.12.27]

December 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books read in December 2021

Reading-wise, this month started out slowly. Between the mental fatigue of finishing NaNoWriMo and the emotional fatigue of GODDAMN EVERYTHING, I didn’t have much brain power left to work my way through the two books I started reading back in October (Graeber) and December (Dostoevsky). Dostoevsky and Graeber are brilliant and rewarding writers, but wow, do they require a lot of focus and mental energy to read attentively.

As a counterbalance, as soon as I finished the Graeber I picked up a few books from my embarrassingly large pile of unread genre fiction. These books were much easier to read. This is not to say that genre fiction is on its face light or inconsequential. The Scalzi, Hines, and El-Mohtar/Gladstone volumes were much easier to read simply because they were (a) not Dostoevsky, and (b) not an economic treatise which covers the previous five millennia of world history.

Jim Harrison’s book sneaked in at the top of the list because I picked it up after the arrival of his Collected Poems at the beginning of the month, and essays about food make for comforting reading.

All of the short prose I read this month was contained in the Dostoevsky. Six birds with one stone. Or maybe one bird with five pebbles, depending on how one splits that particular hair.

Books

  1. Harrison, Jim, The Raw and the Cooked (reread, 2021.12.14)
  2. Dostoevsky, Fyodor (Volokhonsky, Larissa, and Pevear, Richard, translators), The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)
  3. Graeber, David, Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2021.12.28)
  4. Scalzi, John, The Collapsing Empire (2021.12.29)
  5. Hines, Jim C, Terminal Uprising (2021.12.30)
  6. El-Mohtar, Amal and Gladstone, Max – This Is How You Lose the Time War (2021.12.31)

Short Prose

  1. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “A Nasty Anecdote”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.05)
  2. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “The Eternal Husband”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.26)
  3. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “Bobok”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)
  4. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “The Meek One”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)
  5. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)

November 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I Read in November 2021

This month was almost wholly devoted to writing for NaNoWriMo, so I only read a few short stories, all of them in the single book which I completed for the month: Dreams of Stars and Lies, a collection of short fiction written by West Michigan author Jean Davis. I made more progress on David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years, but I think it will be a few more weeks before I am finished with that one.

Books

  1. Davis, Jean, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.26)

Short Prose

  1. Davis, Jean, “Battery”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  2. Davis, Jean, “Devolution”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  3. Davis, Jean, “Legacy”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  4. Davis, Jean, “Mrs. Gilroy”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  5. Davis, Jean, “Sipper”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.26)

October 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I read in October 2021

This month I completed four books and four short stories. The stories were part of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, which is the first Saunders I have read, and the first time I had read three of the four stories, the fourth being the Chekhov, either ten or 25 years ago. I don’t quite remember which.

So the tally for the month stands at two fiction and two non-fiction. Not bad for a month as chaotic as was October, in a year as chaotic as is 2021.

Books

  1. Chakraborty, S.A., The Kingdom of Copper (2021.10.04)
  2. Saunders, George, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.15)
  3. Wiesenthal, Simon, The Sunflower (2021.10.15)
  4. Sanford, Jason, Plague Birds (2021.10.19)

Short Prose

  1. Tolstoy, Leo (Maude, Louise and Aylmer, translators), “Master and Man”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.06)
  2. Gogol, Nikolai (Struve, Mary, translator), “The Nose”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.10)
  3. Chekhov, Anton (Yarmolinsky, Avrahm, translator), “Gooseberries”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.13)
  4. Tolstoy, Leo (Brown, Clarence, translator), “Alyosha the Pot”, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021.10.14)