NonFiction November Recap

Tags

abookolive, Aja Raden, Lara Prior-Palmer, Maxwell King, Mr. Rogers, nonfiction november, Rough Magic, Stoned: Jewelry Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World, Sy Montgomery, The Good Good Pig, The Good Neighbor

 

November was a tumultuous month. Thanksgiving and the weeks before and after were spent going back and forth to the veterinary hospital, while my dog recovered from various ear problems that resulted in surgery.  My family was disappointed in missing my gumbo and deep dish apple pie, but I was just too tired to cook. On the actual holiday, I found myself driving with sick doggo to the next town for additional pills and stronger antibiotic cream.  All I wanted was sleep!

Needless to say, my TBR for #NonFictionNovember mostly sat untouched up until this week. It’s only two weeks into December, so that still counts for November reads, right?  Y’all better be nodding your heads.

Anyway, the four books that I picked up were great.  I was highly entertained by the antics of naturalist Sy Montgomery‘s Christopher Hogwood, the Good, Good Pig that started out little and turned into a big pain in the rear.  Well, he was more like the Liz Minelli or pigs–high maintenance in all the right ways. If you are following the four-word challenge, this one falls under ‘voice’.

I was late to the party on Lara Prior-Palmer‘s Rough Magic.  I wasn’t convinced someone so young had anything interesting to say.  A few pages in, I realized that I had grossly underestimated the writer.  Thank you to abookOlive for the recommendation. Category: ‘sport’.

For ‘design’, I chose Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World.  This is an inside look into the machinations of the jewelry world, that left me pretty sour on diamonds, more appreciative of pearls and lustful of emeralds.

And last, but not least is The Good Neighbor.  Reading this book felt like reuniting with a long lost friend.  I absolutely adored Mr. Rogers.  Still adore Mr. Rogers.  He was a unique and greatly missed human.  I did not realize how much the creator of Blues Clues was influenced by him, but appreciate that programming all the more. This one falls under the ‘true’ category.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read This With That

Tags

Adrienne Rich, book pairs, Diving Into the Wreck, Dr. Richard Smith, Joshilyn Jackson, Never Have I Ever, Read This With That, The World Beneath

Last month, I ran across a BookPage blurb about Joshilyn Jackson‘s new novel Never Have I Ever. I was surprised, but happy to see that she had finally jumped into the suspense genre.  I, of course, scooped up a copy and enjoyed it immensely.  Besides the twisty action going on regarding Amy Whey’s mysterious past, diving surfaces as a type of mind-clearing lifeline for the character.

It reminded me so much of poet Adrienne Rich’s collection,  Diving Into the Wreck that I dug out my well-worn copy.  You can read the book’s titular poem over on Poets.org. (I’ll wait for you) .

See what I mean? So gorgeous! Perfect pair.

Then a short while later, I found another fun surprise: Dr. Richard Smith‘s super sleek The World Beneath: The Life and Times of Unknown Sea Creatures and Coral Reefs, which is a frickin’ eye-gasm of deep ocean photography.  Seriously, do yourself a favor and buy this book, or at the very least follow Smith’s Insta like right damn now.

 

Hidden Treasures of Booktube

Tags

#readwomen, abookolive, bookslikewhoa, booktube, Emily Croy Barker, Emily Skaja, Hollow Kingdom, Ink and Paper Blog, Jean BookishThoughts, Karen Walker Thompson, Kira Jane Buxton, Marilou is Everywhere, Martha Wells, Mary Roach, Murder Bot Diaries, Packing for Mars, Ruth Reichl, Save Me the Plums, The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic

Real Talk: Booktube is not my favorite thing. It tends to be overloaded with YA and is lacking in diversity in just about every category. That said, there are four  channels that are pure gold.

1.

 Jean BookishThoughts is produced by a Scottish academic, who reads across genres and always manages to surprise me with her recommendations.  It was because of her that I fell in love with Martha Wells’ Murder Bot Diaries series.

Currently, there are four, killer novellas about a rogue sec unit thrown by its human side. Start reading now because a full- length “sequel” is due out in 2020.

 

 

 

2.

Mara of bookslikewhoa describes her reading tastes as “omnivorous” and it certainly shows. After her mini-review, I devoured Emily Croy Barker’s  The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic. 

It is comparable in size to one of Gabaldon’s Outlander tomes and is about a grad student who walks into an alternate world full of medieval-ish magical beings. Really absorbing and also due for a sequel.

 

 

3.

Ink and Paper Blog (owner of awesome bookshelves) is the place to go for mainstream and indie reads.  Recent favorites from his channel are Karen Walker Thompson’s The Dreamers, Kira Jane Buxton’s  Hollow Kingdom and Sarah Elaine Smith’s Marilou is Everywhere.

 

4.

abookolive has fantastic non-fiction picks and is not too shabby in the other categories either. Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars and Ruth Reichl’s Save Me the Plums were gems I found because of her channel.

Any booktubers you love? Let me know in the comments.

Books, Poems & the Circle of Life

Tags

Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Alexander McCall Smith, Andy Weir, Artemis, Audible, Circle of Life, Connotation Press, Copper Canyon Press, Directions on Dying, Drew Brees, Jessica Chastain, Lion King, Lobison Song, Mardi Gras, Memorials, Molly Bloom, Molly's Game, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Oceanic, Poetry magazine, Richard Blessing, Saints game, The House of Unexpected Sisters, Who Reads Poetry

 

It’s been awhile. I know. And I’m smooshing together several types of posts here:  #2sdayPoems, Odd Bits from a Creative Life, C.A. Explains It All.  You’ll understand why towards the end.

First of all, thank goodness that the stress of the “official” holidays has passed and Mardi Gras is in full swing here in Louisiana. I’ve just had a slice of King Cake with my lunch and my neighbors have all gone off in truckloads, beer in tow, for the parade streets away.

The dog is not fond of the noise this time of year, but his real nemeses are the possums that always seem to congregate under our shed when the temperatures drop. He will brave the weather for a lick at those furballs, but he’s decided snow is better off left to the plants.

That little dusting we had back in December was toed, tasted, christened, and abandoned for a warm bed in a matter of seconds. Here he is trying to get to the space heater.  My cat, a scrappy ten-year-old “runt”, on the other hand, got into her tiny, red sweater as fast as she could and frolicked until she was almost a popsicle.

What can I say, she enjoys the outdoors, especially when she can scoop up stunned, half- frozen lizards at wholesale. This is her pissed-because-you-made-me-come-inside face.

Even arctic foxes aren’t dumb enough to brave the negative temps like some (crazy!) New Orleanians are doing for the Saints game in Minnesota this weekend. Just to be clear: I don’t care that much about football. Okay, I cared that one time when I had chump change on the Denver Broncos back in the nineties. 

I do follow the Saints some, but only because Drew Brees is literally days ( yes, days) younger than me and my twin.

I look at old man Drew and I wonder how long he can keep up the pace. I wonder what the hell he is doing to keep up the pace. I wonder where the hell I can get some of the gris-gris he’s imbibing. Seriously, that can’t all be discipline? Can it?

Anyway, suffice to say, Baby Brees and I had and are having fantastic b-days this year. Had he lived, my father would have been having a good one too. At least, I like to think so. Hard to believe it’s been three years next week since his passing. It was three days before his birthday and very unexpected.

Meanwhile in Florida, my grandfather’s (his father’s) 90th year did not start out so well. A bad fall landed him in rehab, his favorite dog passed away, and the Seminole responsible for his physical therapy was being too rough (according to him). Just when he’d finally started to like the Seminole, was having lunch with him in fact, Grandpa had a sudden, terminal heart attack, the same as my father.

His last words to me were scribbled in the Christmas card, a brief note about a $150 book on the Tlingit that he had donated to his local library. It stands to his second wife to sort out his complicated life, starting with getting his ashes into the totem pole as he requested.There will be several memorials along the pow-wow trail, with the big dinner next year. RIP Kashka. And Dad.

Odd Bits from a Creative Life/#2sdayPoems

When the news came, I had just picked up a copy of  Who Reads Poetry: 50 Views from Poetry Magazine. It opened randomly to the essay with lines from Richard Blessings’ poem “Directions on Dying”. Very surreal and a little disconcerting.

Later, I was sorting through poems I’d bookmarked for the next round of #2sdayPoems.  The window with Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s “Lobison Song” froze.  It’s a poem about the birth of one of her sons, who oddly enough had come into the world with the same hairy condition as my little brother. Suddenly, it was like the Lion King’s “Circle of Life” was going off in my head. Another Dali-esque feeling.

But these two poems taken together made me feel…better. Somehow.

[FYI, Aimee’s latest Oceanic is available for pre-order on Amazon.]

Eventually, the aforementioned brother, grown and not so hairy, decided my computer was suffering from failed RAM.  He got it all squared away and here I am writing about…everything.

A few more things to say about books before I close.  The audiobook of Molly’s Game was a wild ride during this time and much deeper insight into the evolution of the real woman. I’d seen the movie earlier in the month. Loved it. Jessica Chastain is phenomenal, btw, like when she channeled that weird final vulnerableness in the lawyer’s office with that carpet wobble on her (faux?) Louis Vuitton’s. The real Molly Bloom, as the book proves,  is a tough frickin’ nut, but totally addictably likable, inspiring even.

I also dug into Andy Weir’s Artemis, which is about another tough, smart woman making it in a man’s world, this time a lunar colony. Weir probed the political, social and economic cycles of such a place in a thought-provoking, yet very grounded way. 

The next book is the latest installment of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The House of Unexpected Sisters. The main character Mma Ramotswe, is dealing with thorny family issues in Botswana, a place that is, putting it lightly, a less than friendly landscape for women in business, or women in general.

I felt very encouraged by the resiliency of the women in each of these books.  So, basically, it’s all going to work out in the end.

 

New&Forthcoming Poetry To Drop UR $$$ On

Tags

Anne Carson, Annemarie Ni Churreain, Argos Books, Barbie Chang, BloodRoot, Copper Canyon Press, David Romtvedt, Dilemnas of the Angels, Doire Press, Educe Press, Ewa Chrusciel, Fanzine, Iron Ardent, Kenyon Review, Kissing Caskets, LSU Press, Mahogany L. Browne, New Releases, Omnidawn, Rain Scald, Rattle, Samantha Zighelboim, Sheila Black, Tacey Atsitty, The Fat Sonnets, University of New Mexico Press, Victoria Chang, Wordgathering, YesYes Books

 

Kissing Caskets by Mahogany L. Browne (coming in Nov. from YesYes Books)

sample poem:

the blk(est) night

 

 

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Rain Scald by Tacey M. Atsitty (forthcoming from Univ. of New Mexico Press)

Two Poems w/ audio at Kenyon Review Online

 

 

 

 

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The Fat Sonnets by Samantha Zighelboim (forthcoming from Argos Books)

Two Poems at Fanzine

 

 

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Dilemnas of the Angels by David Romtvedt (available now from LSU Press)

Sample poem (at Rattle):

Dilemnas of the Angels:Intention

 

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Iron, Ardent by Shelia Black (available now from Educe Press)

Two Poems at Wordgathering

 

 

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BloodRoot by Annemarie Ní Churreáin (available now from Doire Press)

*scroll to bottom of purchase page at Doire for sample poems

 

 

 

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Of Annunciations by Ewa Chrusciel (available now at Omnidawn)

Sample poem:

Migrants’ Annunciation

 

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Barbie Chang by Victoria Chang (available Nov. at Copper Canyon Press)

Sample Poem:

Barbie Chang’s Tears

Of Time &Its Fruits: Reflections on Kelly Cherry’s TEMPORIUM: FICTIONS

Tags

#readwomen, hybrid prose, Kelly Cherry, Press53, small press reviews, Temporium, Women writers

 

Kelly Cherry is a prolific writer, one who defies categorization and has so highly tuned her craft that her work manages to exist in perfect beauty wherever it lands, and especially– in this case–the twilight zone of hybrid prose. Her latest collection Temporium: Fictions (Press 53) shines in such a place. Not-quite prose poetry, mini-essays or fiction, Cherry describes “the book as a museum… curat[ed], harbor[ed] or displaying…bits and pieces– moments of time…arranged… more or less chronologically”.

Cleverly stitching together the previously published with new work, she delights us with characters as diverse as first century martyrs, assorted colonists, Einstein, Kafka, a literally vanishing office worker, a Ming Dynasty feminist, undead communists, aliens, and various incarnations of God. We peer in on them at all points along the cosmic ripple from pre-Big Bang darkness to post-Apocalypse reset, and we are at every junction, thoroughly entertained.

At times, I felt like the octopus from one of her six-word stories who is divested of his arm, only to be gifted two legs. The whole experience was fascinating, scary-pleasant and rocket-propelled. Like a magic trick, like a clever sleight of hand, Cherry brought out personal and universal cosmic truth without all of the inflated, academic language. Did I mention I love basically everything she writes?

I am obsessed with “Derek,” an over-loved bat and the woman who just can’t bring herself to let go of him. I am haunted by “Thomas Leigh” and a future where the last humans leave the space ark only to find themselves absorbed into the collective conscientiousness of an indigenous ‘alien’ race.

Ever the professor, the real cherry on top might be the mini-lecture/short “How to Write a Story,” a piece that manages to boil down all human conflict to the fraught interaction of one man and woman.

From any perspective, this book, maybe more so than her others, proves that Cherry is not limited by anything as mundane as region or genre or time. In one fell swoop, she unites continents, makes us believe in 3D printed souls, transcendent love, and life after the universe eats its tail like a snake.

This is a definite must-read. Scoop it up!

ICYMI: My chapbook interview is up at SPEAKING OF MARVELS

Tags

chapbook interviews, Men&Beasts, Speaking of Marvels, William Woolfitt

If you follow me on twitter, you’ve already seen this, but for those who are email subscribers, you might have missed my chapbook interview over on William Woolfitt‘s fantabulous Speaking of Marvels blog. Check it out!

Sunday Sentence 7/9/17

Tags

#readwomen, Ashley Shelby, David Abrams, Picador, South Pole Station, Sunday Sentence, women novelists

 

My weekly contribution to David Abrams’ “Sunday Sentence” project in which participants share the best sentence read during the past week “out of context and without commentary.”

My father’s a frustrated explorer, so I’m on a first-name basis with a lot of dead men.

 
SOURCE: South Pole Station (Picador, 2017), a novel by Ashley Shelby

 

 

 

Fall Surprise!!!!

Tags

craft talks, writers on writing, writing advice, youtube channel

Yes, BoneSparkblog has been sadly neglected this summer, but I have something yummy for all you fiction writers out there…………….

A BRAND NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL

featuring a Craft Talks (Writers on Writing) playlist that will blow your socks off.

But don’t let the genre labels fool you, scribblers, these videos have juicy advice that is applicable across categories.

So dig in!! And look for its poetry cousin in the very near future.

Review of CHEROKEE ICE by John T. Biggs

Tags

book review, Cherokee Ice, John T Biggs, Liffey Press, magical realism, Native American lore, new books, oklahoma author, Oklahoma Book Award, Pen-L Publishing, Sacred Alarm Clocks

ISBN: 978-1-942428-34-3 (272 pgs) from PEN-L Publishing

What do a dwarf, a holy man and a ghost horse all have in common? –Danny Riley, a mixed-up NDN on the wrong nation’s rez, who may or may not be a witch.

Riley is at the center of writer John T. Biggs’s latest magical realist novel CHEROKEE ICE, which I am excited to learn is a fiction finalist for the 2016 Oklahoma Book Award.

On its surface, the novel is about the rise and fall of a designer drug in several Southwestern states, but at its core it is a family saga that is as much about what we would do for family as what family does to us.

With this book, Biggs proves again that he understands how to ground the magical in the real, be it a young man’s first, awkward sexual encounters or his fraught mother-son relationship.

Biggs also understands the beauty of a well-written prologue. In the taut, three-page scene that opens the book, he manages to create sympathy for an otherwise unsympathetic character, thereby steeping us literally (in-utero) in the main character’s same conflicted emotions. Emotions that are later mirrored in other characters, both major and minor.

One such example is supposed tough-guy Tommy Bracken, a drug dealer whose own addiction to the emotional vulnerability of a sexually sadistic relationship (with Danny’s grandmother, no less) and acute fear of spiders is often at odds with the extreme macho-ism needed to maintain his territory.

In this sea of emotion and drama, characters, over time, begin to merge into each other. Whether it be morphs between fathers and sons, brothers and husbands, drug lackeys or cops, the unpredictable shape-shifting heightens the vision-like quality of the storyline.

One of my favorite vision-like scenes comes in the last quarter of the book, when Lil Bits, the aforementioned dwarf, tries to kill Danny for the second time, this time with the help of silver bullets and a few hired goons.  Pardon the long passage (readers and publisher), but the space is needed to see how Danny works his special kind of mojo:

Green goo covers the African American dwarf’s eyes, spoiling his aim as he fires a silver bullet into the wasp nest on Danny Riley’s pickup truck.

Danny feels the burn of the wasp toxin for the time it takes his heart to shift into overdrive. The nausea clears. Poison tumbles through his  drug factory enzymes and winds up in his brain, where it’s a lot different than it started out.  Danny Riley suddenly understands that bullets aren’t nearly as dangerous as wasps.

His wasp-sisters’ poison doesn’t turn into visions inside Little Bits’ hired killers. They have their pistols out, squeezing shots off this way and that, filling the air with projectiles than fly off to lodge in buildings and automobiles and maybe an innocent bystander or two.

Clouds of nitrate-flavored smoke don’t hinder Danny or  his wasp-sisters at all. Gunpowder residue tastes as sweet as nectar on his lips. It doesn’t burn his eyes or dull his vision. Everything is crystal clear, broken into a thousand pieces Washed in rainbows, as if Danny is gazing at the world through a cut diamond lens.

Danny Riley knows he is not a wasp, as much as he knows anything, but he is moving too fast to think about it clearly. Faster than thoughts, faster than all the reasons a man can’t move this fast. Faster than Little Bits can take aim through the haze of smoke and vomit and superstition.

The African American dwarf empties his revolver of silver bullets, tries to make one land on Danny, who is moving around him the way a swam of hornets attacks a marauding bear.

Danny snatches the pistol out of Little Bits’ hand. Throws it at one of the Italian killers. Hits him square in the face. Knocks him out as he fires his pistol one last time and shoots his partner in the knee.

Little Bits takes off running down the center of the street, screaming for one of his two silver Jesuses to save him from witches and wasps.

The situation only gets more complicated after that, and what a wild ride to get to the conclusion!

That said, I felt that the ending, which was satisfying in its own way, needed to go just one step farther with Danny by letting his newfound courage bring him back into his own identity.

All in all, though, another great book from Biggs, who also has a new short story collection out from Liffey Press, called appropriately, SACRED ALARM CLOCKS. The collection made the best selling Oklahoma Writers list in February.

For more news on his writing, check out johnbiggsoklahomawriter.com