Ecce Sigum

Immanentize the Empathy

Tag: Jazmina Barrera

March 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

After reading one gigantic book (Demons, Dostoevsky), and well over a dozen shorter books and journals, I have settled into a more sedate reading pace, with a few novels and nonfiction titles for this month. Feels like I have found my reading groove after a chaotic reading start to the reading year. Also, reading would be a good adjective modifier, like “fucking” or “smurfing.”

Acquisitions

Books acquired in March 2024.

  1. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic [2024.03.13] – Purchased from Books and Mortar bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  2. Jason McBride, Eat Your Mind: The Radical Life and Work of Kathy Acker [2024.03.23] – Ordered and purchased from Books and Mortar bookstore.
  3. Edward W. Said, Orientalism [2024.03.23] – Ordered and purchased from Books and Mortar bookstore.
  4. Nikole Hannah-Jones (creator), The 1619 Project [2024.03.23] – Purchased at Harmony Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Books and Mortar had a popup sale of banned books in the bar, and this one caught my eye. It had been on my radar for a while, and this seemed like a good opportunity to add it to the library.

Reading List

Book Read in March 2024

Books and Journals

  1. R.F. Kuang, Babel [2024.03.11]
  2. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment [2024.03.16]
  3. Kai Ashante Wilson, The Devil in America [2024.03.17]
  4. Jazmina Barrera (Christina MacSweeney, translator), Linea Nigra [2024.03.18]
  5. Bjørn Rasmussen (Martin Aitken, translator), The Skin is the Elastic Covering That Encases the Entire Body [2024.03.20]
  6. Herman Melville, Bartleby [2024.03.23]
  7. William Meikle, The Plasm [2024.03.24]
  8. Wolfgang Hilbig, The Females [2024.03.26]
  9. Jung Young Moon (Jung Yewon, translator), Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River [2024.03.29]

Short Prose

  1. Herman Melville, “Bartleby”, Bartleby [2024.03.23]
  2. Herman Melville, “The Lightning-Rod Man”, Bartleby [2024.03.23]
  3. Jim C. Hines, “In the Line of Duty”, Patreon post [2024.03.31]

Shorter Days Are Also Long Days

John Winkelman

Books which arrived in the week of June 19, 2022

With the summer solstice behind us the days are slowly getting shorter but the work never ends and so I have resigned myself to the sight of the late afternoon shadows lengthening ever so slightly earlier every day. And summer has just begun.

Two new bookish things arrived in the past week. First up, from Two Lines Press, is a special edition bilingual chapbook which contains the first part of Jazmina Barrera‘s Linea Nigra, printed by Impronta Casa Editora. This little book is gorgeous, and has reaffirmed my opinion that chapbooks are absolutely a viable mode of publishing, for prose as well as poetry. The full version of Linea Nigra arrived at the house back in April.

Next is the latest issue of The Paris Review, which will go on the bottom of the stack of my back issues, through which I am steadily reading.

In reading news I am on issue #217 of The Paris Review, with (does the math) [N] more to go until I am caught up to present. The most recent issue came with a note that the Winter 2022 issue will be the last issue of my subscription, and I admit I am conflicted about letting the subscription lapse, if only because, poetry and prose aside, the interviews in The Paris Review are AMAZING!

I am also reading Janelle Monáe’s remarkable The Memory Librarian, and may well have it finished by the time this post goes live. I can’t say enough good things about it. Beautiful queer cyberpunk with a strong helping of bio- and neuro-punk on the side. Highly recommended.

In writing news, nothing to report. Maybe next week.