pile of reading

Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
I can only take this in small doses. The voice sounds like a million New York Jewish comedians I’ve heard before. I don’t like the narrator. This is not to say that the book is bad or that I don’t find it funny. I sometimes find it funny.

Gulf Coast: a journal of literature and fine arts vol. 24, issue 1, Winter/Spring 2012
Poems, essays … why is it I always stop dead at short stories?

Disclamor poems by G.C. Waldrep
I worked my way through the anthology representing poets of my generation, Legitimate Dangers, and I mostly didn’t care. It wasn’t that the writing was bad, exactly. No. I just found so little that interested me. Waldrep was an exception. I didn’t copy any of his poems out, but I did make a mental note to look him up. I’m only a few poems in.

A Death in Brazil: a book of omissions by Peter Robb
I bought this one from Robb himself when he read at the travel bookstore near my house (bookstore, sadly, has since closed). I started it a couple weeks ago, got fascinated, got interrupted.

Persistent Voices: poetry by writers lost to AIDS edited by Philip Clark and David Groff
Paul Mariah, poetry mentor to this poet when an acne’d tyro, is included in this anthology. I’m glad it exists.

Push Open the Window: contemporary poetry from China edited by Qingping Wang, Sylvia Li-chun Lin and Howard Goldblatt
I’ve read a lot of poetry in translation from Chinese ancients. They are quite different from the new guys. Fine with me.

Bite by Amy Dentata
This is a chapbook I picked up at SF’s Queer Open Mic last Friday.

March Hares: the best poems from Fine Madness, 1982-2002 edited by Sean Bentley
Over the years I picked up a few issues of Fine Madness, an all-poetry review. When I saw they’d put together an anthology I was delighted.

That’s Disgusting: unraveling the mysteries of repulsion by Rachel Herz
A pop science book. Sometimes in pop science books I feel like I’m reading about the way undergraduates take tests.

Something Good for a Change: random notes on peace thru living by Wavy Gravy
I took Kent to Wavy Gravy’s one-man show at the Marsh in Berkeley for Kent’s birthday. Wavy Gravy is an ex-hippy, comedian & clown, and peace activist. I enjoyed his show so brought this book home from the library.

Secret Lives of Ants by Jae Choe
Choe is a Korean scientist who studies ants. I like ants.

Of Woman Born: motherhood as experience and institution by Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Rich had seriously mixed feelings about being a mother.

Moomin: the complete comic strip by Tove Jansson
Jansson is a Swedish Finn who writes and draws the adventures of the Moomin Troll family. The stories are light and sweet with just enough mishap, jealousy and misunderstanding to keep things moving.