Restless Books – Ecce Signum

July 2022 Reading List

2022-08-012022-07-31 John Winkelman

What I read in July 2022

July was another excellent month for reading. I finished half a dozen issues of The Paris Review, as well as the some translated prose and the second and third books of John Scalzi’s Interdependency trilogy. And all that without feeling rushed. So even though July was exceptionally busy there were enough quiet moments to sink my teeth into some really good writing.

Books and Journals

Andrés Neuman (Jeffrey Lawrence, translator), How to Travel Without Seeing [2022.07.06]
The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.06]
The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.15]
The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.19]
Ana Simo, Heartland [2022.07.21]
John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire [2022.07.23]
John Scalzi, The Last Emperox [2022.07.26]
The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.29]
The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.31]

Short Prose

Christine Lincoln, “What’s Necessary to Remember When Telling a Story”, The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.02]
Tom Bissell, “Creative Types”, The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.04]
Alexander Kluge (Isabel Fargo Cole, translator, “In Medieval Angelology, There Are Nine Orders of Snow”, The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.06]
Amparo Dávila (Audrey Harris & Matthew Gleeson, translators), “Moses and Gaspar”, The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.06]
Adam O’Fallon Price, “A Natural Man”, The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
Fleur Jaeggy, “Agnes”, The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
Jean-René Étienne and Lola Raban-Oliva, “Formentera Storyline”, The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
Harry Mathews, “Berenice’s Tale”, The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
J.M. Holmes, “What’s Wrong with You? What’s Wrong with Me?”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.09]
Patrick Modiano (Lorin Stein, translator), “The Hat”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.11]
Chris Knapp, “States of Emergency”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.11]
“Laura Francis” & Alexander Masters, “Love, Death & Trousers: Eight Found Stories”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.11]
Anne Carson, “Eddy”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.14]
Julie Orringer, “Neighbors”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.15]
Caleb Crain, “Envoy”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.15]
Ann Beattie, “Ruckersville”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.17]
Isabella Hammad, “Mr. Can’aan”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.17]
Sigrid Nunez, “The Blind”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.17]
Duncan Hannah, “Diaries, 1970-73”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.17]
Antonio Di Benedetto, “Ace”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.19]
David Sedaris, “Letter from Emerald Isle”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.19]
Peter Mountford, “Pay Attention”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.25]
Katharine Kilalea, “OK, Mr. Field (Part 1) Summer”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.26]
J. Jezewska Stevens, “The Party”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.28]
Duncan Hannah, “Diaries, 1973-1974”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.29]
Karl Ove Knausgaard (Damion Searls, translator), “Fate”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.29]
Joy Williams, “Flour”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.29]
Chia-Chia Lin, “Practicing”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.29]
Rachel Cusk, “Justice”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.30]
Joanna Novak, “The Wait”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.30]
Katharine Kilalea, “OK, Mr. Field (Part 2) Autumn”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.31]

No Down In My Down Time

2022-07-172022-07-17 John Winkelman

New books for the week of July 10, 2021

Today is the last day of my two-week break from work, the first break since ConFusion in January, and the first full-on vacation since the Christmas holidays. I enjoyed not having to work for two weeks, but the minutes, hours and days were so quickly filled with tasks, chores, and Things To Do that those two weeks included almost no rest at all. Last Tuesday I managed to get some time to myself, about three hours in which I walked around the neighborhoods, visited a cafe and a couple of bookstores, and wrote for a little while. And that was the only down-time, the only real relaxation, in the entire two weeks.

In other words, I need a vacation.

Earlier this week Zyra and I drove to Detroit, where we stayed in a moderately terrible hotel and ate fantastic food at a variety of excellent restaurants. We also, at the suggestion of one of our friends from the East Side, hit The Book Beat, a fantastic little bookstore in Oak Park, Michigan with an eclectic and surprisingly deep selection of books and magazines. Highly recommended, would visit again. While there, I picked up a couple of books:

First up is Nomadology: The War Machine by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, published by Semiotext(e). I think I owned a copy of this small book once upon a time, back in the 1990s. I am not sure what became of it. Probably lost in one of my many moves over the past quarter-century.

Next up is Black Mountain Poems, an anthology of work from the Black Mountain poets, edited by Jonathan C. Creasy. I picked this up because of my interest in the works of Paul Blackburn, specifically his beautiful “Matchbook Poem” which I return to again and again.

In reading and writing news, not much happening, because too much is happening EVERYWHERE ELSE. I did start Ana Simo‘s wonderfully strange Heartland, which arrived at the house from Restless Books a few years ago. And I’m still working my way slowly through my stack of The Paris Review, which is an absolutely wonderful experience.

I find it depressing to say that, since I head back to work tomorrow, I may finally have time to do some reading and writing. Selah!

So This is What Down Time Looks Like

2022-07-102022-07-09 John Winkelman

New arrivals for the week of July 3, 2022

It looks a lot like work, except without the work. All of the things I hoped to accomplish (reading and writing, mostly) have fallen by the wayside as the hundred other tasks and chores which I have put off for the past six months have reared their ugly, dirty, dusty heads.

I have added several new books to the library over the past week.

First up is volume 7 of The Long List Anthology, which collects the finalists for the Hugo Award for short fiction.

Next up is Ocean Vuong‘s novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which I picked up from the best bookstore in the city, Books and Mortar.

Next is Progeny of Air, Kwame Dawes‘ first book of poetry, which was published in 1994. I grabbed this from Argos Books, which I have not visited in about a year.

I also picked up Listening to the Fire: The Poetry of Fountain Street Church, which was published in 1998. I would have overlooked this one were it not edited by my old friend and co-worker from the bookstore days, Linda Rosenthal. I don’t remember when Linda left the bookstore but I was still there when this collection was published, and I am a little embarrassed that I had not heard of it until now.

In reading news, I finished Andrés Neuman’s brilliant How to Travel Without Seeing, which I first picked up back in 2016, and immediately stuck on a shelf and spent the next five years eyeballing uncomfortably, as if I had committed a small sin by not reading it immediately.

But I have read it now, and my life is much the richer for it. How to Travel Without Seeing is a travelogue of sorts, notes taken by the author on a book tour through nineteen (!) Latin American countries. Neuman is a brilliant writer and I will likely return to this book more than once over the coming years.

I am still working my way through back issues of The Paris Review, and have reached calendar year 2017, so I am only five years and change behind the present. This is another case where I regret not reading these journals as they came out, because much of the prose and poetry herein is simply remarkable. I have already added some books to my lists for later perusal, and will likely continue to do so throughout the rest of this exercise.

In writing news, I haven’t accomplished much, thanks to the specific mental/emotional hangover of having a break from work for the first time in six months.

The Last Full Week of Winter

2021-03-14 John Winkelman

And what a week this past week was. Due to family emergencies, trips to the vet, favors for friends, and the necessities of a new project, I have had almost no time at all to read, write, relax, sleep, or clear my head. My only quiet time was the drive to Jackson from Grand Rapids, in which a visit was cancelled at the last minute, and so I drove a total of over four hours in order to deliver a sandwich.

At this point, after the last twelve months – and tomorrow it will be exactly twelve months since the quarantine really took hold for me – I can’t even get angry about this kind of thing any more. But it is frustrating to see the days grow longer and the weather grow warmer and not be able to enjoy it as I have in years past.

Two bound collections of words arrived at the Library of Winkelman Abbey this week. On the left is Elemental, a collection of stories in translation from Two Lines Press. This is the third anthology published under their wonderful Calico series, which is one of the reasons I am continuing my subscription to their catalog.

On the right is the March 2021 issue of Poetry Magazine. One day I will sit down and read all of the back issues which I have collected over the years, which are regrettably collecting dust on my shelf.

In reading news, things have been going slow though I did finish Deepak Unnikrishnan‘s weird and wonderful Temporary People (Restless Books), and am now about two-thirds through Arno Geiger‘s beautiful The Old King In His Exile (And Other Stories, translated by Stefan Tobler). Geiger’s book is his memoir of taking care of his father, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, which is a thing which has struck down a few in my immediate and extended family, so it is a…well, I wouldn’t call it a comfort read, exactly, but it is supportive.

In writing news, there is no writing new, other than some journaling. Maybe next week.

So it goes.