Category: Book List

Lists of books and reading material

August 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I read in August 2021

I finally dove back into short fiction this month, mostly thanks to three anthologies: Portals, Skull & Pestle, and Worlds of Light and Darkness. All three Are good reads and contain some hits and some misses, but overall the anthologies are well above average, so time spent reading through them was time well spent.

The Berardi was dense and complex, being critical theory, and seemed to lose focus at the end, though overall it had very important things to say and the knowledge contained therein will likely affect my world view in unexpected ways for some time to come.

Michael Sullivan’s Theft of Swords was a rollicking good read, and I look forward to reading more of his work. Fortunately I have at least three other books by him on my TBR shelves.

Two of the short fiction authors in this list – Szmerelda Shanel and Jessamy Corob Cook – have no personal web presence that I could find, so I included links to their entries at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database instead.

Books

  1. Berardi, Franco, The Uprising: On Poetry and Finance (2021.08.08)
  2. Sullivan, Michael J., Theft of Swords (2021.08.12)
  3. Bray, Patricia and Butler, S.C. (editors), Portals (2021.08.26)
  4. Wolford, Kate (editor), Skull & Pestle: New Tales of Baba Yaga (2021.08.29)

Short Prose

  1. Goder, Beth, “Candide; Life-“, Clarkesworld #179 (2021.08.02)
  2. Case, Stephen, “The God Skrae Eats Death“, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #335 (2021.08.11)
  3. Lambert, Brent, “Faithful Delirium“, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #335 (2021.08.11)
  4. Holzner, Nancy, “What Time is It”, Portals (2021.08.14)
  5. Friesner, Esther M., “This Way Out”, Portals (2021.08.14)
  6. Brett, Evey, “What the Wind Saw“, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #336 (2021.08.16)
  7. Tregillis, Ian, “Deus Ex Machina”, Portals (2021.08.18)
  8. Bedford, Jacey, “A Land Fit for Heroes”, Portals (2021.08.19)
  9. Grant, John Linwood, “Iron and Anthracite”, Portals (2021.08.19)
  10. Hall, Kate, “The Namesake”, Portals (2021.08.20)
  11. Koch, Gini (as Ensal, Anita), “Portal Pirates”, Portals (2021.08.21)
  12. Malan, Violette, “Doorways in the Sand”, Portals (2021.08.22)
  13. Kemp, Juliet, “Somewhere Else, Nowhere Else”, Portals (2021.08.22)
  14. Enge, James, “A Stranger Comes to Town”, Portals (2021.08.23)
  15. Harper, Steven, “Brick and Mirror”, Portals (2021.08.24)
  16. Cox, F. Brett, “A Bend in the Air”, Portals (2021.08.24)
  17. Moyer, Jaime Lee, “All the Lost Places”, Portals (2021.08.25)
  18. Palmatier, Joshua, “Onward to Glory!”, Portals (2021.08.26)
  19. Popovic, Andrija, “Hard Times in the Vancouver Continuum”, Portals (2021.08.26)
  20. Hurley, Patrick, “The Cracks in the Road”, Portals (2021.08.26)
  21. Forsyth, Kate, “Vasilisa the Wise”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.27)
  22. Sloan, Lissa, “A Tale Soon Told”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.27)
  23. Ross, Jill Marie, “Baba Yaga: Her Story”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.28)
  24. Honigman, Charlotte, “The Partisan and the Witch”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.28)
  25. Shanel, Szmerelda, “The Swamp Hag’s Apprentice”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.28)
  26. Coates, Rebecca A., “Boy Meets Witch”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.29)
  27. Cook, Jessamy Corob, “Teeth”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.29)
  28. Edelman, Scott, “Answered Prayers”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.08.29)
  29. Gallacher, Mark, “Pioneer”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.08.29)
  30. Miller, John Jos., “The Ghost of a Smile”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.08.29)
  31. Hurley, Kameron, “Judged”, Patreon (2021.08.31)
  32. Buckell, Tobias S., “Crypto Draconis”, Patreon (2021.08.31)

July 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

I didn’t do a lot of reading this month. Family obligations, the disruption of vacation (stay-cation, which was not at all different from my normal days, except for a little less time in front of the computer), and the overall ennui of mid-2021 conspired to keep me from being able to immerse myself in books like I was as recently as March of this year. I could blame the COVID vaccine, but really it’s the weight of the last eighteen months, making itself felt.

Books

  1. Verso, Francesco – Nexhuman (2021.07.04)
  2. Harrison, Jim – The Road Home (2021.07.25)
  3. Eubanks, Virginia – Automating Inequality (2021.07.26)

June 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Book I Read in June 2021

Considering how busy I was in June, this is not a bad reading list. I had a good mix of genres, with fantasy, poetry, critical theory, and literary fiction in the mix. I could have maybe snuck in one more book, but the mix of work scheduler and stress, life stress, family stress, and general burnout kept me from enjoying my free moments as well as I could have.

If you look closely, you will see that my copy of Dalva is quite worn. Both front and back covers are attached by the tiniest remnant of the original adhesive, and the pages within are quite yellowed. I purchased this copy when I worked at Schuler Books and Music, sometime around 1996 or 1997, I think. So it’s at least 20 years old. I have read it at least half a dozen times, and loaned it out twice. All the damage to the book was done by me, hauling the book on vacation and to various cafes and offices over the years. I love this book unreservedly, and will likely pick up a replacement copy sometime this year.

As with last month, I didn’t read any short fiction. This is beginning to bother me, and as I have a two-week vacation coming up, I will do my best to set aside time to correct this omission.

Books

  1. Harrow, Alix – The Ten Thousand Door of January (2021.06.12)
  2. Liem, Tess – Obits. (2021.06.15)
  3. Pike, J. Zachary – Son of a Liche (2021.06.24)
  4. Tiqqun, The Cybernetic Hypothesis (2021.06.24)
  5. Harrison, Jim – Dalva (2021.06.28)

May 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I completed in May 2021

May was a slow month for reading. I received my second COVID shot on April 30, and with that, the emotional hangover of the past year hit me hard and took all the energy and motivation right out of me.

What this list lacks in breadth it makes up in depth. Each of the above books is 400+ pages, and even with my unusually slow reading pace I made it through the lot with time to spare. Each of them was a really good read, and I had not noticed until writing this post that they are each in a different genre. The Winter is fantasy, the Martine science fiction, and the Anderson is creative nonfiction. I recommend each of the books, and can say that I have not previously read anything like any of them. Of the three, I will be re-reading Imaginary Cities at some point, notebook in hand, as the text therein could easily present over a hundred writing prompts. It is that kind of book.

Like last month, I didn’t read any short fiction, and I feel kind of bad about that, as short fiction is primarily what I write. But with the changing of the seasons, and the COVID vaccinations behind me, I am ready to re-start my morning reading, writing and exercise routine which fell by the wayside precisely on May 1.

Books

  1. Winter, Evan, The Rage of Dragons (2021.05.09)
  2. Martine, Arkady, A Memory Called Empire (2021.05.25)
  3. Anderson, Darran – Imaginary Cities (2021.05.27)

April 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I read in April 2021

April was National Poetry Month so this month’s list skews heavily in that direction. I included two issues of Poetry magazine, as an issue of a journal is just as much reading as a book. In fact, most lit journals could be considered anthologies with (mostly) no particular theme.

The combination of poetry and nonfiction (Kendi, Lazzarato, Dunker) – as well as my self-directed project to write a poem a day for the month of April – left my head in an interesting place. I haven’t written poems this consistently in years. It feels good.

Also, for reasons of attention, work, and general malaise, I didn’t read any short stories. Not a single one.

I think for May I will dive into my every-growing pile of genre fiction.

Books

  1. Red Pine and O’Connor, Mike ( editors) – The Clouds Should Know Me by Now (2021.04.01)
  2. Chabitnoy, Abigail – How to Dress a Fish (2021.04.04)
  3. Kendi, Ibram X. – How To Be An Antiracist (2021.04.08)
  4. Poetry, April 2021 (2021.04.10)
  5. Poetry, October 2013 (2021.04.13)
  6. Lazzarato, Maurizio – The Making of the Indebted Man (2021.04.15)
  7. Carroll, Jim – Living at the Movies (2021.04.20)
  8. Dunker, Anders (editor) – Rediscovering Earth (2021.04.28)
  9. Meltzer, David – No Eyes: Lester Young (2021.04.30)

 

March 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I read in March 2021

This month was bookended with genre fiction, with the middle a delicious mix of fiction in translation as I slowly work through my backlog of such titles. I realize that I started this project out with more ambition than is sustainable in the long term, and so I am scaling back the digging through translated works to about three a month, rather than half a dozen. This leaves more room for nonfiction, poetry and works not specifically from the translated fiction/subscription backlog. And that relieves the pressure on my reading habits and thus makes for a more pleasurable pastime.

And at the last minute I got a jump start on National Poetry Month with Taha Muhammad Ali’s So What, from Copper Canyon Press. Expect to see a lot more poetry show up here in the next reading update.

In short fiction I have fallen significantly behind my original goal. In order to hit an average of one piece of short fiction a day for the year at this point I would need to read four a day for the next month in order to catch up, and in order to free up that time I would need to neglect my girlfriend, our cats, or what little sleep I currently manage.

Books

  1. Stewart, Glynn, Starship’s Mage (2021.03.01)
  2. Unnikrishnan, Deepak, Temporary People (2021.03.10)
  3. Geiger, Arno (Tobler, Stefan, translator), The Old King In His Exile (2021.03.14)
  4. Fellous, Colette (Lewis, Sophie, translator), This Tilting World (2021.03.17)
  5. Jiménez, Claudia Salazar (Bryer, Elizabeth, translator), Blood of the Dawn (2021.03.18)
  6. Saer, Juan José (Kantor, Roanne, translator), The One Before (2021.03.23)
  7. Muir, Tamsyn, Gideon the Ninth (2021.03.28)
  8. Muhammad Ali, Taha, So What (2020.03.29)

Short Prose

  1. Monette, Sarah, “A Light in Troy“, Clarkesworld #1 (2021.03.02)
  2. Larson, Rich, “Meshed“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.03.10)
  3. van Eekhout, Greg, “The Osteomancer’s Son“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.03.12)
  4. Griffith, Nicola, “It Takes Two“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.03.18)
  5. Muhammad Ali, Taha, “So What” (2020.03.29)

February 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

I have finally done it.

After about 25 years of trying and failing, I have finally completed reading all 364,000+ words of The Brothers Karamazov. It was magnificent, and difficult, and dense and occasionally fragmented, and absolutely worth the time and effort I put into the seven weeks it took to read the book from the beginning to the end.

With Dostoevsky out of the way for the moment, I turned my attention to the embarrassingly large stack of books in translation I have collected over the past half-dozen years, but not read. Items 7 through 12 on the book list below are the results of that first pass. These shorter, non-Dostoevsky books just seem to fly by.

Because I have been reading so many books, my short fiction reading has sort of fallen by the wayside. Still, a dozen or so in a month is pretty good.

Books

  1. Wilkerson, Isabel, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2021.02.03)
  2. Dostoevsky, Fyodor (Pevear, Richard and Volokhonsky, Larissa, translators), The Brothers Karamazov (2021.02.12)
  3. Giorno, John, Great Demon Kings (2021.02.15)
  4. Berti, Eduardo (Coombe, Charlotte, translator), The Imagined Land (2021.02.16)
  5. Tenev, Georgi (Rodel, Angela, translator), Party Headquarters (2021.02.17)
  6. Masatsugu Ono (Turvill, Angus, translator), Lion Cross Point (2021.02.18)
  7. Baltasar, Eva (Sanches, Julia, translator), Permafrost (2021.02.22)
  8. Yoss (Frye, David, translator), Super Extra Grande (2021.02.23)
  9. Bae Suah (Smith, Deborah, translator), A Greater Music (2021.02.24)

Short Prose

  1. Buckell, Tobias S., “The Bars at the End of the World”, Patreon (2021.02.01)
  2. Goder, Beth, “History in Pieces“, Clarkesworld #173 (2021.02.02)
  3. Laban, Monique, “The Failed Dianas“, Clarkesworld #173 (2021.02.02)
  4. Bookreyeva, Anastasia (Nayler, Ray, translator), “Terra Rasa“, Clarkesworld #173 (2021.02.02)
  5. Ulmer, James, “Gardenia”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.02.03)
  6. Rodgers, Craig, “Return Policy”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.02.03)
  7. Bernardo, Troy, “Smoky”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.03.02)
  8. Woolf, James, “Mackenzie’s Leap”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.03.02)
  9. Punzo, Andrew, “Hair and Nail and Blood and Bone (You’re Beautiful)”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.02.03)
  10. Rusch, Kristine Kathryn, “The Last Surviving Gondola Widow“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.02.14)
  11. Clare, Gwendolyn, “Indelible“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.02.20)
  12. Robson, Kelly, “The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.02.24)

January 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

In January 2021 I completed three books and 21 short stories. Not bad for such a chaotic month. I had hoped to average a short story a day, but life and world events intervened and significantly cut short my quiet time. Perhaps February will be better.

In the short stories, Coffin Bell is the online journal which recently published my short story “Occupied Space.” I recommend them highly.

Books (3)

  1. Tidhar, Lavie (ed.) – The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.05)
  2. Robinson, Kim Stanley – The Ministry for the Future (2021.01.11)
  3. Wolin, Sheldon – Democracy, Incorporated (2021.01.25)

Short Prose (21)

  1. Tobias Buckell, “The Inheritance”, Patreon (2021.01.01)
  2. Kaaron Warren, “Ghost Jail”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol.1 (2021.01.01)
  3. Yang Ping, “Wizard World”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.02)
  4. Alfar, Dean Francis, “The Kite of Stars”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.02)
  5. Yaniv, Nir, “Cinderers”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.02)
  6. Nasir, Jamil, “The Allah Stairs”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.03)
  7. Halim, Tunku, “Biggest Baddest Bomoh”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.03)
  8. de Bodard, Aliette, “The Lost Xuyan Bride”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.03)
  9. Mandigma, Kristin, “Excerpt from a Letter by a Socialist-Realist Aswang”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.04)
  10. Glines, Larry, “Old Bones”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.01.04)
  11. Žiljak, Aleksandar – “An Evening in the City Coffeehouse, With Lydia on my Mind”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.04)
  12. Menon, Anil, “Into the Night”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.04)
  13. Fazi, Mélanie, “Elegy”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.05)
  14. Živković, Zoran, “Compartments”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1 (2021.01.05)
  15. Wolfe, Viktor, “The Tower”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.01.05)
  16. Tucker, Neal, “My Alexandria”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.01.26)
  17. Fellinger, Noah, “The Desolation Hour”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.01.26)
  18. Cap, M.K., “The Museum of Doubt”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.01.26)
  19. Harper, Elliot, “A Tale From the Terraced Ocean”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.01.26)
  20. Kepfer, Joshua, “The Wolf and the Sheep”, Coffin Bell #4.1 (2021.01.26)
  21. Sanford, Jason, “The Eight Thousanders”, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Sept/Oct 2020 (2020.01.31)

2021 Books and Reading Material Acquisitions List

John Winkelman

Welcome to the list of books and other reading materials which arrived in calendar year 2021.

This is the seventh year I have made a list like this. The previous six are here:

I keep the complete list of books I own over at LibraryThing, and the terribly incomplete list of books I have read over at GoodReads. This list will be updated frequently.

January (12)

  1. Pasternak, Boris (Pevear, Richard and Volokhonsky, Larissa, translators), Doctor Zhivago
  2. Jama-Everett, Ayize and Jennings, John – Box of Bones, book 1 (Rosarium Publishing)
  3. Robinson, Kim Stanley – The Ministry for the Future
  4. Dostoevsky, Fyodor – A Writer’s Diary, vol. II
  5. Batyushkov, Konstantin (France, Peter, translator) – Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry (The Russian Library of Columbia University Press)
  6. Khvoshchinskaya, Sofia (Favorov, Nora Seligman, translator) – City Folk and Country Folk (The Russian Library of Columbia University Press)
  7. Sokolov, Sasha (Boguslawski, Alexander, translator) – Between Dog & Wolf (The Russian Library of Columbia University Press)
  8. Martine, Arkady – A Memory Called Empire
  9. Ashton, Dyrk – Paternus: Wrath of Gods, (Kickstarter exclusive HC, signed, # 108/500) (Paternus Books Media)
  10. Liptak, Andrew and Gates, Jaym (eds.) – War Stories (Apex Book Company)
  11. Baltasar, Eva (Sanches, Julia, translator) – Permafrost (And Other Stories)
  12. Dreamforge #7

February (11)

  1. Tiqqun – The Cybernetic Hypothesis (Semiotext(e))
  2. Pike, J. Zachary – Son of a Liche (self published)
  3. Poetry #217.5
  4. Jacobin #40
  5. Graeber, David – Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Melville House Publishing)
  6. Winter, Evan – The Rage of Dragons
  7. Navarro, Elvira (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – Rabbit Island (Two Lines Press)
  8. Poetry #217.4
  9. Cherkovski, Neeli – Ferlinghetti: A Biography
  10. Dunker, Anders – Rediscovering Earth: Ten Dialogues on the Future of Nature (OR Books)
  11. Lazo, Orlando Luis Pardo (ed. Gulley, Hillary, translator) – Cuba in Splinters: Eleven Stories from the New Cuba (OR Books)

March (12)

  1. Lange, Norah (Whittle, Charlotte, translator) – Notes from Childhood (And Other Stories)
  2. Sizemore, Jason and Connor, Lesley (eds.) – Best of Apex Magazine, vol. 1 (Apex Book Company)
  3. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr – The Gulag Archipelago, volume 3
  4. Elemental (Two Lines Press)
  5. Poetry #217.6
  6. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #10
  7. Rain Taxi Review of Books #26.1, Spring 2021
  8. Lloret, Bruno (Jones, Ellen, translator) – Nancy (Two Lines Press)
  9. Harrow, Alix E. – The Ten Thousand Doors of January
  10. Robin, Corey – The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump (Oxford University Press)
  11. Eubanks, Virginia – Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor
  12. Poetry #218.1

April (5)

  1. Pelland, Jennifer – Unwelcome Bodies (Apex Book Company)
  2. Tobler, E. Catherine – The Kraken Sea (Apex Book Company)
  3. Estes, Nick, Yazzie, Melanie K., Denetdale, Jennifer Nez, Correia, David – Red Nation Rising (PM Press)
  4. Uncanny Magazine #24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction
  5. Poetry #218.2

May (20)

  1. Brown, Jericho – The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press)
  2. Jordan, June – The Essential June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press)
  3. VanderMeer, Jeff – Hummingbird Salamander
  4. Jacobin #41
  5. Attlee, James – Under the Rainbow (And Other Stories)
  6. Salvage #9, Autumn/Winter 2020
  7. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #11
  8. Peninsula Poets #78.1 (Spring 2021)
  9. Fantastic Lairs: Boss Battles and Climactic Encounters
  10. Gable, Scott, and Dombrowski, C (editors) – Cooties Shot Required (Broken Eye Books)
  11. Gable, Scott, and Dombrowski, C (editors) – Whether Change: The Revolution Will Be Weird (Broken Eye Books)
  12. Smith, Angela Yuriko and Noel, Scot (editors) – Worlds of Light and Darkness (Uproar Books)
  13. Knabb, Ken (editor and translator) – Situationist International Anthology (Bureau of Public Secrets)
  14. Poetry #218.3
  15. Liem, Tess – Obits (Coach House Books)
  16. Kelly, Robert – A Strange Market (Black Sparrow Press)
  17. McDermott, J.M. – Maze (Apex Book Company)
  18. Kheir, Mohamed (Moger, Robin, translator) – Slipping (Two Lines Press)
  19.  De Boever, Arne and Neidich, Warren (editors) – The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism, Part 1 (Archive Books)
  20. De Boever, Arne and Neidich, Warren (editors) – The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism, Part 2 (Archive Books)

June (11)

  1. Grisanti, Tamara Burross (editor) Coffin Bell One (Coffin Bell)
  2. Grisanti, Tamara Burross (editor) Coffin Bell Two (Coffin Bell)
  3. The Paris Review #237, Summer 2021
  4. Rain Taxi Review of Books #26.1, Summer 2021
  5. Granta #155: The Best of Young Spanish Language Novelists
  6. Moreno-Garcia, Silvia – The Return of the Sorceress (signed, # X of XXX) (Subterranean Press)
  7. Massie, Elizabeth – Desper Hollow (Apex Book Company)
  8. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #43 
  9. Hogan, Ron – Our Endless and Proper Work (Belt Publishing)
  10. Cin, Tice – Keeping the House (And Other Stories)
  11. Poetry #218.4

July (7)

  1. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #12
  2. Palmatier, Joshua and Coe, David B. (editors) – Derelict (Zombies Need Brains)
  3. Bray, Patricia and Palmatier, Joshua (editors) – The Modern Deity’s Guide to Surviving Humanity (Zombies Need Brains)
  4. Butler, S.C. and Palmatier, Joshua (editors) – When Worlds Collide (Zombies Need Brains)
  5. Sullivan, Michael J. – Nolyn (Ryria Enterprises)
  6. Saunders, George – A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
  7. Jacobin #42

August (4)

  1. Anti-Eviction Mapping Project – Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement & Resistance (PM Press)
  2. Straczynski, J. Michael – Together We Will Go
  3. de Souza, Carl (Zuckerman, Jeffrey, translator) – Kaya Days (Two Lines Press)
  4. Poetry #218.5

September (7)

  1. Campbell, Bill, and Khodabandeh, Bizhan – The Day the Klan Came to Town (PM Press)
  2. Wiesenthal, Simon – The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
  3. Coolidge, Sarah (editor) – Cuíer (Two Lines Press)
  4. Victoria, Elisa (Whittle, Charlotte, translator) – Oldladyvoice (And Other Stories)
  5. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #13
  6. Rain Taxi #26.3
  7. Poetry #219.1

October (6)

  1. Rucker, Rudy – Juicy Ghosts (Transreal Books)
  2. de Carvalho, Maria Judite (Costa, Margaret Jull, translator) – Empty Wardrobes (Two Lines Press)
  3. Sanford, Jason – Plague Birds (Apex Book Company)
  4. Stucky, Janaka (editor) – Ekphrastic Beasts (Black Ocean)
  5. Poetry #219.2
  6. Tavenor, C.D. and Trast, Meg (editors) – Gaia Awakens (Two Doctors Media Collaborative)

November (15)

  1. Hilbig, Wolfgang (Cole, Isabel Fargo, translator) – The Interim (Two Lines Press)
  2. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #14
  3. Jacobin #43
  4. Salvage #10
  5. Roanhorse, Rebecca – Black Sun
  6. Peninsula Poets #78.1, Fall 2021
  7. Michigan Roots: A Poetry Society of Michigan Anthology (Poetry Society of Michigan)
  8. Nette, Andrew & McIntyre, Iain (editors) – Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 (PM Press)
  9. Du Mez, Kristin Kobes – Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
  10. Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix – Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
  11. Crenshaw, Kimberle (editor) – Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement
  12. Grassmann, Preston (editor) – Out of the Ruins (Titan Books)
  13. Muir, Tamsyn – Harrow the Ninth
  14. Rios, Joseph – Shadowboxing (Omnidawn Publishing)
  15. Foglio, Kaja and Phil – Girl Genius: Sparks and Monsters (Studio Foglio)

December (13)

  1. Poetry #219.3
  2. The Paris Review #238
  3. Speakman, Shawn – The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey (Grim Oak Press)
  4. Arshi, Mona – Somebody Loves You (limited subscriber edition, And Other Stories)
  5. Scott, Paulo (Hahn, Daniel, translator) – Phenotypes (And Other Stories)
  6. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #44
  7. Hines, Jim C. – Terminal Uprising
  8. Scalzi, John – The Collapsing Empire
  9. Scalzi, John – The Consuming Fire
  10. Scalzi, John – The Last Emperox
  11. Harrison, Jim – Complete Poems (Copper Canyon Press)
  12. Ambrose, RM (editor) – Vital: The Future of Healthcare (Inlandia Institute)
  13. Inque Magazine #1

What I Read In December 2020 – Short Prose

John Winkelman

December started slow and distracted, as I abruptly found myself on a new project at work while simultaneously scrambling to wrap up and hand off the suddenly previous project. This made for a lot of long days and late nights, with little time or brain-space in which to read. Fortunately short fiction can with care be fit in the nooks and crannies of a busy schedule while also allowing enough time to actually, you know, read the works, and not simply scan them so that they ricochet off the contours of my brain and exit through my ears.

All of these stories are from two books – The Long List Anthology, vol. 6, and The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1.

In total, I read 102 short stories in 2020. Not quite the 500 I originally hoped for. Such was 2020.

Starting in 2021 I will break the long-form prose list into monthly installments and combine it with the short prose list. No need to make my reader(s) wait a full year to see what I read in January.

The List

  1. 2020.12.07 – Greenblatt, A.T. – “Give the Family My Love”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  2. 2020.12.08 – Chu, John – “Beyond the El”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  3. 2020.12.10 – Kowall, Mary Robinette, “Articulated Restraint”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  4. 2020.12.10 – Lee, Fonda – “I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we’re getting married”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  5. 2020.12.10 – Bolander, Brooke – “A Bird, a Song, a Revolution”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  6. 2020.12.10 – Osborne, Karen – “The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  7. 2020.12.11 – Kingfisher, T. – “Fisher-Bird”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  8. 2020.12.11 – Wise, A.C. – “How the Trick is Done”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  9. 2020.12.12 – Bear, Elizabeth – “Lest We Forget”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  10. 2020.12.12 – Miller, Sam J. – “Shucked”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  11. 2020.12.15 – Yang, JY Neon – “Circus Girl, the Hunter, and Mirror Boy”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  12. 2020.12.15 – Bear, Elizabeth – “Deriving Life”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  13. 2020.12.15 – Mondal, Mimi – “His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  14. 2020.12.15 – Mac Griogair, M. Evan – “Seonag and the Seawolves”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  15. 2020.12.21 – Palmer, Suzanne – “Dave’s Head”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  16. 2020.12.22 – Klages, Ellen – “Nice Things”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  17. 2020.12.22 – Anderson, G.V. – “A Strange Uncertain Light”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  18. 2020.12.22 – Ogden, Aimee – “Blood, Bone, Seed, Spark”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  19. 2020.12.22 – Bear, Elizabeth – “Erase, Erase, Erase”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  20. 2020.12.25 – Lee, Yoon Ha – “Glass Cannon”, The Long List Anthology, vol. 6
  21. 2020.12.25 – Somtow, S.P. – “The Bird Catcher”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1
  22. 2020.12.29 – de Vries, Jetse – “Transcendence Express”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1
  23. 2020.12.29 – Hasson, Guy – “The Levantine Experiments”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1
  24. 2020.12.29 – Han Song – “The Wheel of Samsara”, The Apex Book of World SF, vol. 1