Tag: Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet

February 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

Now that I am no longer trapped under a volume of Dostoevsky I can resume my normal reading pace. In February I completed 16 books and journals. Sure, that sounds like a lot, but I purposefully picked the shorted unread books on my bookshelves. The combined word-count of these 16 books is probably less than a third of what I read in Dostoevsky’s Demons, which took almost two months to finish. And a lot of that was not because of the length of the book, but because it was Dostoevsky, and 1,000 words of Dostoevsky is, like, at least 1,500 words of anyone else.

A lot of these shorter works are graphic novels, or works in translations from works-in-translation publishers like Deep Vellum, And Other Stories, Open Letter Books, and Two Lines Press.

Acquisitions

Reading material acquired in the month of February 2024

  1. Andrzej Tichý (Nichola Smalley, translator), Purity (And Other Stories) [2024.02.24] – The newest arrival from my subscription to And Other Stories.

Reading List

The books I read in February 2024

Books

  1. Wolfgang Hilbig (Isabel Fargo Cole, translator), The Tidings of the Trees [2024.02.01] – Well written and well-translated, but just couldn’t get into this one. Fortunately I have more Hilbig in my library so I can give him another chance.
  2. Saladin Ahmed and Dave Acosta, Dragon [2024.02.01] – Fantastically written and beautifully-illustrated graphic novel. I will now need to seek out more of Ahmed’s comic writings.
  3. Elizabeth A. Trembley, Look Again: A Memoir [2024.02.01] – An amazing memoir about how the stories we tell ourselves (and about ourselves) change over time, and with the telling.
  4. Duanwad Pimwana (Mui Poopoksakul, translator), Bright [2024.02.05]
  5. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.08]
  6. Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages, Wakulla Springs [2024.02.10]
  7. Chris Abani, The Face: Cartography of the Void [2024.02.10]
  8. Ruth Ozeki, The Face: A Time Code [2024.02.11]
  9. Tash Aw, The Face: Strangers on a Pier [2024.02.11]
  10. Oleg Sentsov (Uilleam Blacker, translator), Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  11. Maurice Broaddus, Buffalo Soldiers [2024.02.15] – Excellent novella in the steampunk tradition. Truly enjoyable reading experience. My only complaint is that this wasn’t a full-size novel.
  12. Anne Garréta (Emma Ramadan, translator), Not One Day [2024.02.17]
  13. Kim Sagwa (Sunhee Jeong, translator), b, Book, and Me [2024.02.21]
  14. Fouad Laroui (Emma Ramadan, translator), The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  15. Carmen Boullosa (Peter Bush, translator), Before [2024.02.26]
  16. Valérie Mréjen (Katie Shireen Assef, translator), Black Forest [2024.02.27]

Short Prose

  1. Rachel Ayers, “Magicians & Grotesques”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.07]
  2. Nicole Kimberling, “Quarantine Pantry Challenge”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.07]
  3. Holly Tamsin, “Fogdog Films”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.08]
  4. David Fawkes, “Letterghost”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.08]
  5. Oleg Sentsov, “Autobiography (In Literary Form)”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.11]
  6. Oleg Sentsov, “Dog”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.11]
  7. Oleg Sentsov, “Childhood”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.11]
  8. Oleg Sentsov, “Hospital”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  9. Oleg Sentsov, “School”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  10. Oleg Sentsov, “Testament”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  11. Oleg Sentsov, “Grandma”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  12. Oleg Sentsov, “The Makars”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  13. Jim C. Hines, “The Blue Corpse Corps” (Patreon subscriber story) [2024.12.15]
  14. Fouad Laroui, “The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.21]
  15. Fouad Laroui, “Dislocation”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.22]
  16. Fouad Laroui, “Born Nowhere”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.22]
  17. Fouad Laroui, “Khouribga, or the Laws of the Universe”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  18. Fouad Laroui, “What’s Not Said in Brussels”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  19. Fouad Laroui, “Bennani’s Bodyguard”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  20. Fouad Laroui, “The Invention of Dry Swimming”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  21. Fouad Laroui, “Fifteen Minutes as Philosophers”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  22. Fouad Laroui, “The Night Before”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]

January 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

After almost two months, I finally finished Demons, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Wow, was that a slog. A good slog, but a slog nonetheless. Now on to fifteen or twenty shorter, easier reads before attempting something arduous.

Almost all of the books I acquired in January were purchased at, or in anticipation of, ConFusion 2024.

Acquisitions

new Books and Reading Material in the Month of January, 2024

  1. David Estes and Dyrk Ashton, Kraken Rider Z (Wraithmarked Creative) [2024.01.03] – I have been a fan of Dyrk Ashton’s work for several years. We are Convention friends, and he is a Righteous Dude.
  2. Jean Davis, Frayed (self-published) [2024.01.19] – purchased from Davis at ConFusion 2024.
  3. Michael J. DeLuca, Night Roll (Stelliform Press) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  4. Reckoning: Creativity and Coronavirus (Reckoning Press) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  5. Reckoning #6 [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  6. Reckoning #7 [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  7. Zack Be (editor), Inner Workings: A Calendar of Fools Anthology (Calendar of Fools, LLC) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Storm Humbert during a group signing at ConFusion 2024.
  8. Tamsyn Muir, Nona the Ninth [2024.01.21] – Purchased at ConFusion 2024.
  9. Lesley Connor and Jason Sizemore (editors), Robotic Ambitions (Apex Book Company) [2024.01.21] – Reward for a Kickstarter campaign run by Apex.

Reading List

Books I read in January 2024

Books

  1. Fyodor Dostoevsky (Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear, translators), Demons [2024.01.26]
  2. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2023.01.29]
  3. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2023.01.30]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “The Girls From the Hood” (Patreon post) [2024.01.15]
  2. Rosamund Lannin, “The Lake House”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.26]
  3. Jim C. Hines, “Coyote Cave” (Patreon post) [2024.01.28]
  4. Eliza Langhans, “A Giants’ Heart”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  5. D. A. Xiaolin Spires, “Fresh and Imminent Taste of Cucumbers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  6. Anthony Ha, “Late Train”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  7. Chloe N. Clark, “Jumpers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  8. Nicole Kimberling, “Sugar-Salt Time: A Love Story”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  9. Felix Kent, “Dynastic Arrangements of the Habsburgs, Washakie Branch”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  10. Eric Darby, “The Parking Witch”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  11. Gavin J. Grant, “Possum, Not Playing”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  12. Jordan Taylor, “Strange Engines”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  13. Audrey R. Hollis, “How to Be Afraid”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  14. Frances Rowat, “Ink, and Breath, and Spring”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  15. Fred Nadis, “The Giant Jew”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  16. Amber Burke, “In Pictures”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  17. T.S. McAdams, “Duck Circles”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  18. Margo Lanagan, “More Information to Help You Get to Rookwood”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  19. Mary Cool, “The Fruit That Bears the Flowers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  20. Lisa Martin, “Seat Belt On, Falling”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  21. Jeff Benz, “The Stone People”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  22. Nicole Kimberling, “We Should See Less of Each Other”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  23. Michael Byers, “Sibling Rivalry”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]

Weekly Round-up, January 27, 2024

John Winkelman

After the chaotic beginning to 2024, this past week felt like the real start to the new year.

Reading

I finally, after 57 days, finished Dostoevsky’s Demons. It was a bit of a slog for the first half but I powered through. For reference, I read The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment each in less than 30 days, and they are both longer than Demons. I think Dostoevsky’s craft was more polished with the latter two, and the stories more focused.

Also, Demons leaned more into the lives of the Russian gentry and social climbers, whose lives revolve around giving the best impressions at social gatherings. In other words, wankers. And wankers, in any culture, in any time period, don’t always make for the most entertaining subjects.

With Demons complete I am looking for a “cool down” novel. Something more current, faster paced, and, well shorter. At the moment I am reading one of my old issues of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, published by Small Beer Press. It’s good to read something which can be completed in a couple of hours, rather than a couple of months.

Writing

Not a lot, though I am in the process of indexing (and re-indexing) my unpublished short stories, so I can set up a schedule of editing to try to knock some of them in shape for submission by the end of the year. To that end, I have signed up for the Critique Circle, on the advice of my friend the author Jean Davis.

Writing Prompt

Subject: Revenge, Reincarnation
Setting: Boardroom
Genre: Dystopian

Interesting Links

March 2023 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

March was a quieter month than usual, as winter dragged on and on and on, sucking the energy out of the world and making it difficult to stay awake during my usual reading times.

Point of interest: This is the first month, since I started tracking things back in 2015, in which I have only acquired one book or book-like object. The previous record for smallest monthly haul was 3.

Acquisitions

The Boston Review #2023.1: Speculation

  1. Boston Review #2023.1: Speculation [2023.03.04]

Reading List

Books I read to completion in March 2023.

Books and Journals

  1. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Writing Across the Landscape [2023.03.13] – This was an interesting read. Ferlinghetti wrote beautifully about the many places he visited, and I enjoyed seeing how his artistic eye evolved over the five decades captured in this book. Highly recommended. May cause wanderlust.
  2. E. Catherine Tobler, The Kraken Sea [2023.03.15] –
  3. Jordan Kurella, I Never Liked You Anyway [2023.03.18] – A modern-day re-imagining of the story of Eurydice and Orpheus. I loved it!
  4. Shenaz Patel (Jeffrey Zuckerman, translator), Silence of the Chagos [2023.03.19]
  5. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #38 [2023.03.21] – As always, this was an excellent issue. I think my favorite story was A.B. Young’s “Vain Beasts.”
  6. David Albahari (Ellen Elias-Bursać, translator), Checkpoint [2023.03.23] – This was a weird, brilliant, discomforting read. The cover blurbs are right: Definite hints of Catch 22, Waiting for Godot, and (in my opinion) a little bit of Blood Meridian. Checkpoint is absurd and weird and ultimately futile.
  7. Neon Yang, The Ascent to Godhood [2023.03.26] – This was pretty good. Not quite as good as the first two novellas in the series, but I have yet to be disappointed by any of Yang’s work.
  8. Xu Zechen (Eric Abrahamsen, translator), Running Through Beijing [2023.03.28]

Short Prose

  1. Ellen Rhudy, “The Remaining”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #38 [2023.03.08]
  2. James L. Cambias, “René Descartes and the Cross of Blood”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #38 [2023.03.19]
  3. Nicole Kimberling, “Comfort Food”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #38 [2023.03.19]
  4. Emily B. Cataneo, “Bears at Parties”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #38 [2023.03.20]
  5. A.B. Young, “Vain Beasts”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #38 [2023.03.20]
  6. Sarah Monette, “The Oracle of Abbey Road (Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night), Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #38 [2023.03.20]
  7. Joanna Ruocco, “Stone, Paper, Stone”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #38 [2023.03.20]
  8. S. Woodson, “Lime and the One Human”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #38 [2023.03.21]

October 2022 Reading List

John Winkelman

What I read in October 2022

This was the month I finally made it to the bottom of my stack of back issues of The Paris Review. It was a wondrous, wild ride full of some of the best writing I have experienced in my adult life, but I feel a sense of relief now that I am done.

This was also the month in which I passed 200 pieces of short prose read, which means 2022, for all its chaos and uncertainty, was a stellar year for reading.

Books and Journals

  1. The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  2. The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.04]
  3. The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.06]
  4. The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  5. The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.12]
  6. The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.13]
  7. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #31 [2022.10.15]
  8. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #32 [2022.10.18]
  9. Lady Churchiill’s Rosebud Wristlet #33 [2022.10.22]
  10. Marissa Lingen, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  11. Jim Harrison, The Search for the Genuine [2022.10.28]
  12. Poetry #221.2 {2022.10.30}

Short Prose

  1. Yohanca Delgado, “The Little Widow from the Capital”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  2. Peyton Burgess, “A Supernatural Landscape of Love And Grief Not Unlike Your Own”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  3. Maxim Osipov (Boris Dralyuk, translator), “Sventa”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  4. Kenan Orhan, “The Beyoglu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.02]
  5. Joy Katz, “Tennis is the Opposite of Death: A Proof”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  6. Vladimir Nabokov (Tatyana Gershkovich, translator), “A Monologue”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  7. Adania Shibli (Nora Parr, translator), “Mathematics, under Which Is Love, Whose Bed Is Language”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  8. Christina Wood, “A Summer Party”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  9. Lydia Conklin, “Rainbow Rainbow”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  10. Camille Bordas, “The Lottery in Almeria”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.04]
  11. Anuk Arudpragasam, “So Many Different Worlds”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.04]
  12. McKenzie, “We All Fall Down”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.05]
  13. Annie Baker, “Infinite Life (excerpt)”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.05]
  14. Caleb Crain, “Walks”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.06]
  15. Lawrence Jackson, “Letter from Lafayette Square”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.06]
  16. Chetna Maroo, “Brothers and Sisters”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.07]
  17. Emmanuel Carrére, “Exhaling”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.07]
  18. Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, “This Then Is a Song, We Are Singing”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.07]
  19. Lakiesha Carr, “Tomorrows,” The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.07]
  20. Will Arbery, “from Corsicana“, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.08]
  21. Zach Williams, “Trial Run”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.08]
  22. Ishion Hutchinson, “Woman Sweeping”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.08]
  23. Kathran Scanlan, “Backsliders”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  24. Annie Ernaux (Alison L. Strayer, translator), “Diary, 1988”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  25. Paul Dalla Rosa, “I Feel It”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  26. Harriet Clark, “Descent”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  27. Esther Yi, “Moon”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  28. Rachel B. Glaser, “Ira & the Whale”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  29. Leonard Cohen, “Begin Again”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  30. Dan Bevacqua, “Riccardo”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  31. Robert Glück, “About Ed”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  32. Matthew Shen Goodman, “Lording”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.11]
  33. Darryl Pinckney, “For Snow Queens”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.11]
  34. Emma Cline, “Pleasant Glen”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.12]
  35. Nancy Lemann, “Diary of Remorse”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  36. Michelle de Kretser, “Winter Term”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  37. Sam Pink, “The Ceremony”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  38. Maya Binyam, “Do You Belong to Anybody?”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  39. Katherine Dunn, “The Education of Mrs. R.”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  40. Christian Kracht, “The Gold Coast”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.13]
  41. Jessy Randall, “You Don’t Even Have a Rabbit”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #31 [2022.10.13]
  42. Goldie Goldbloom, “Never Eat Crow”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.13]
  43. Kathleen Jennings, “Skull and Hyssop”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.13]
  44. Owen King, “The Curator”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.15]
  45. Sarah Micklem, “The Necromancer of Lynka”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.15]
  46. Henry Wessells, “The Beast Unknown to Heraldry”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.16]
  47. Alyc Helms, “The Blood Carousel”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.16]
  48. Kodiak Julian, “Marrying the Sea”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  49. Joe M. McDermott, “Everything Is Haunted”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  50. Henry Lien, “The Shadow You Cast Is Me”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  51. Joanna Ruocco, “Auburn”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  52. Dylan Horrocks, “The Square of Mirrors”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.18]
  53. Nicole Kimberling, “Sleek Fat Albinos in Spring”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.18]
  54. Jade Sylvan, “Sun Circles”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.18]
  55. Carmen Maria Machado, “I Bury Myself”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  56. Christopher Brown, “Winter in the Feral City”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  57. Alena McNamara, “Starling Road”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  58. Giselle Leeb, “Ape Songs”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  59. Michelle Vider, “For Me, Seek the Sun”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  60. Deborah Walker, “Medea”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.20]
  61. D.K. McCutchen, “Jellyfish Dreaming”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.20]
  62. Sofia Samatar, “Request for an Extension on the Clarity“, LCRW #33 [2022.10.21]
  63. Nicole Kimberling, “Cook Like a Hobo”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.22]
  64. M. E. Garber, “Putting Down Roots”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.22]
  65. Eric Gregory, “The March Wind”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.22]
  66. Marissa Lingen, “Shrapnel From My Cousin’s Kaiju Battle: $229 Plus Shipping”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  67. Marissa Lingen, “Accountable Monsters”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  68. Marissa Lingen, “The River Horse Who Almost Ate Me, And His Lawyer”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  69. Marissa Lingen, “The Swarm of Giant Gnats I Sent After Kent, My Assistant Manager”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  70. Marissa Lingen, “After the Monster”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]

Time to Myself

John Winkelman

New books for the week of October 16, 2022

My partner was out of town for a few days, so I had the house to myself. Well, not entirely to myself. Better to say that Poe and Pepper had the house to themselves, with me furtively creeping around, making sure they stayed fed and feted, so they wouldn’t stage a coup. Not that much would change if they did so successfully.

October continues to be a stellar month for additions to the library, with several new titles arriving in the past week.

First up, fresh from a successful Kickstarter campaign, is Chokepoint Capitalism by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow.

Next is the latest issue of Poetry, probably my second-to-last as my subscription winds down.

Next is Legacy of Bronze by T.L. Greylock and Bryce O’Connor. This is the sequel to Shadows of Ivory, which I picked up at the beginning of the year and read about a month ago.

Next is one I have been awaiting for a very long time. The Herbalist’s Primer, published by Exalted Funeral, was part of a Kickstarter which I backed in September of last year. Thanks to *gestures at everything* printing was delayed many times, but the Kickstarter rewards finally arrived, and the book is beautiful!

In reading news, I am quite enjoying my journey through the pages of my stack of back issues of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. Such good writing in here!

In writing news, I am still plotting out the story I will write for NaNoWriMo which starts in a little over a week (!).

Still Kinda Cold Out

John Winkelman

New books for the week of October 9, 2022

Rumor has it that this winter will be long and cold, thanks to a weaker El Nino system out west. It isn’t apparent at the moment, as this whole week, the middle of October, was in the sixties and seventies during the day, with one night warm enough to sleep with the bedroom window open a crack. Still, even in the sunniest of afternoons, standing in the shadows reminds me that the days are indeed shorter than the nights.

Several new books arrived at the house in the past week.

First up is Planet On3, recently released by superb artist (and my good friend!) Ryan Lee.  He has been working on it for some time, and the character designs go back to doodles he has been working on for many years, so I am overjoyed to see this book in print.

Next is Look Again: A Memoir, by Elizabeth A. Trembley. I met Trembley years ago at at the informal open studio hosted by poet Jack Ridl. When Caffeinated Press was still around, I published some of her artwork in The 3288 Review. I knew she was drawing comics, but we fell out of touch and I didn’t know she was working on a book until Jack announced that Look Again had just been released.

Next is the new issue of Salvage which will join the small stack of unread issues which I will get to probably sometime in the spring of 2023.

Next, fresh from a successful Kickstarter campaign, is That Which Cannot Be Undone: An Ohio Horror Anthology, which arrived just in time for the Halloween season.

In reading news, at long last I have reached the end of my stack of The Paris Review. As I mentioned last week, reading so much literature in a compressed time-span can lead to some interesting coincidences. The most recent instance was with issue #239, which contained an excerpt from the journals of Annie Ernaux, who just won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

I had never before read Ernaux, and indeed was barely aware of her existence before the Nobel, so to read these journal entries (which were exquisite, by the way, and exquisitely translated from the French by Alison L. Strayer) so recently after having heard of her Nobel win, felt kind of like the universe was telling me something; like I was, to crib from John Constantine, riding the synchronicity highway.

Relatedly, Ernaux’s journal excerpts, which I believe were pulled from her book Getting Lost, reminded me of Emmanuelle Pagano‘s beautiful Trysting, which I read several years ago.

Now that I am done with The Paris Review (barring a possible last issue which might appear at the end of the year), I have moved on to my small stack of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, a small magazine of genre fiction published by Small Beer Press. So far, a couple of issues in, the stories and poems are delightful! I might even renew my subscription to LCRW after I clean out my back-log of other unread periodicals.

In writing news, NaNoWriMo looms on the horizon, and I have yet to complete, or even seriously start, my preliminary notes. The next two weeks will pass quickly.