changes

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Blackouts

Fipps has mastered the novel as an empathy-building machine, for sure.

Characters young and old who exemplify how to be a friend and helper as well as how not to be. Her free verse makes for an easy entry-point to an undaunting read. Serious subjects but so accessible; hard things not played for melodrama or exploitation.

Makes me want to be a better community member and friend to people. First thing I looked up this morning after finishing the book late last was discovering if there are little free pantries already in my community I could donate to - I love the idea of a place for sharing and taking with no intermediary, no questions asked, no “accountability” or “relationship” required to get the help that you need.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: And Then, BOOM!

Read the first half of this in one day about a month ago - not sure why I let it slip, but now I’m back to it and finishing it. Need to buy a copy of it.

Past Log Updates

2024-05-10 :

It was on the April Poetry Month display at the Holladay Library and I’d heard of it and decided to grab it. Took me a while to open it up (obviously, since it’s not April anymore) but I’m very glad I did.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

(I guess I put everything in the genre tag now, feels less auspicious.)

Should write a real review for granitemedia.org, but until then I’ll just say I quite enjoyed this, a really strong book. Highly recommended for readers of Kwame Alexander and Jason Reynolds, and it holds its own among their work.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Mid-Air

Orlando vibes, Kafka vibes, fun weirdness vibes. I will likely be reading more of Oyeyemi, and the other writers she mentions in interviews (linked after the “more” jump.)

Past Log Updates

2024-06-18

Threatened at knifepoint: “Write your Prague novel this year!”

Write or die: Is that the kind of pressure I need to write something? Would it work for me?

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Interviews I read:

• Helen Oyeyemi: ‘I like other humans mediated through art’ | Helen Oyeyemi | The Guardian
• Helen Oyeyemi Thinks We Should Read More and Stay in Touch Less | The New Yorker (behind paywall, but I have Apple News+ for some reason)

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Parasol Against the Axe

Fun, adventurous story, art is excellent, themes and message are amazing.

Need to write a real review soon. I’m always saying that.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Plain Jane and the Mermaid

It was tense and musical and I liked it.

Had no knowledge or expectations going into this one, just wanting to read more recently released verse novels and it came up in the trusty library catalog subject heading browse: Novels in verse

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams

Read aloud with my son at bedtime some nights. We both really enjoyed it; hope for more with these characters and/or in this world.

Previously read this myself a couple years ago - one of my favorites of recent years. Disappointed that I never actually wrote a review of this back then.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: A Snake Falls to Earth

Read this back to front, basically two times, then started looking up the websites and other poems and writings of many of the poets here.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: booktitle

Stopped after the 1912 stories and “The Stoker” because I meant to jump over to Amerika next, but then I read other things and continue to want to read other things. I do intend to still come back to this, though. I should put entries for the individual first edition published pieces I did read so at least it they come up on my reading log gallery…

Past Log Updates

2024-07-04 :

Finally starting a deep dive back into Kafka. Intend to read most of his works in roughly the order they were written, so I’m reading the 1912-1913 works in this anthology and then I will jump out of this to read Amerika, then probably jump back into this, then read The Trial, possibly unpublished stuff like Investigations of a Dog, and so forth. Kafka stories blew my mind when I was in high school; we’ll see what happens as a 44 year old.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Metamorphosis and Other Stories