Tag: fiction

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

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)

The Books That Are Not ConFusion Books

John Winkelman

Lest the last few posts give the impression that I only purchase books at conventions, here are some others which arrived in the past week.

On the left is The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark, which has been on my radar for a couple of months now. Next to it is Katherine Arden‘s The Bear and the Nightingale, because Russian folklore. Also about a year ago I wrote most of a Baba Yaga story for an anthology call, and in the research for that story this book came up repeatedly.

The third is The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty, the sequel to her excellent The City of Brass which I read several months ago. Next to it is Friday Black, a collection of short stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah which came to my attention when LitHub posted the story “Zimmer Land“.

The bottom row includes reading material from various subscription. First is Night School by Zsófia Bán, then I Am God by Giacomo Sartori, and finally the latest issue of Poetry.

In reading, I finished Fix by Ferret Steinmetz (which Mr. Steinmetz signed at ConFusion 2019!) and am now bouncing between three of my ConFusion acquisitions: Reckoning #1, Death March by Phil Tucker, and The Blood-Tainted Winter by T L Greylock.

For this year I am keeping a list of the books I read, and I plan to write reviews (GoodReads, Amazon, etc.) both to boost the signal of those authors and to give me practice at writing reviews.

That’s all for now. The books continue to accumulate.

New Reading Material for the Week of October 28, 2018

John Winkelman

Books for the week of 1018-10-28

This past week was an excellent time to be a reader at the Winkelman Abbey. A fantastic variety of books and journals arrived throughout the week. The top row of this photo is ALL FIVE VOLUMES of the Apex Book of World SF, published by the excellent folks at Apex Publications.

The bottom row contains, from left, Resist Fascism from a Kickstarter campaign run by Bart Leib of Crossed Genres Publishing. Next to that is The Way North, an anthology of Upper Peninsula writing which I picked up when I ordered an upcoming volume of poetry by Jack Ridl, which I will undoubtedly post here when it arrives next spring. Third in is the latest issue of Apex Magazine by the same folks who created all of the books in the top row. On the right side of the bottom row is a recent issue of Sugar House, a lit journal which I picked up for research purposes as I plan my next round of poetry submissions.

All in all, excellent additions to my library.