Reading in 2018

Well, to start this post--there was not nearly enough reading in 2018. There was a fair amount of reading that doesn't make this type of list--manuscripts for contests, proofreading eBooks, enjoying Dzanc titles. But beyond that, much more reading of short pieces than full titles.

Some names that need mentioning that aren't listed in the top ten below were excellent but it just shows what great works were also read: Elizabeth Schmuhl's Premonitions, an excellent collection of poetry from Wayne State University Press.  Loved Nandi Comer's American Family: A Syndrome from Finishing LIne Press too. There were also a couple of titles from Fish Out of Water Books: Awaiting Identification, a novel from R.J. Fox, and Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of United, a great non-fiction work from Gary B. France. We also got caught up with our Timothy Schaffert reading by finally getting to his latest, The Swan Gondola, which like all of his works, we enjoyed quite a bit.

Which brings us to the drumroll portion of the post............

10. New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Tano) from Akashic Books. While we actually wrote reviews of the first 3 of 11 chapbooks in this box, we did read all 11 and they are fantastic and varied and exciting. This is (we believe) the fourth year that Akashic has published a set like these and they do seem to get better each year--more varied, more styles, etc. We look forward to the 2019 version.

9. Title 13 by Michael A. Ferro from Harvard Square Editions. A true MacGuffin of a novel...look over here, no here, really look here. Sorry, that's not the story you're looking for, it's really over here. What appears to be a conspiracy or mystery novel, or even an odd office-place novel, turns into a close look at addiction, at loneliness, and at various levels of attempting to cope with both, while not coping well at all with either. My reading of this novel went from "Is he going to...?" to "I think he IS trying to..." to "Damn Ferro did that well."

 

8. The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert from Unbridled Books (back in 2011--whoops). This shows just how damn good the next 7 are because this is my favorite Timothy Schaffert novel of all of them and I really like the other 4 quite a bit. This one takes the whimsy a bit further, and the oddity of the characters just a bit stranger (which is tough considering the other novels he's written), and brings family, and small-town, and publishing, and and and. Schaffert really throws a ton of stuff into this novel and it never comes close to feeling like too much.

7. Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones from Soho Press (coming out in January). This follow-up to Jones' award-winning (Hammett Prize, Nero Award) debut finds August Snow, his half-Mexican, half African-American, Detroit (specifically Mexicantown--NOT East Corktown bullshit) former Cop turned multi-millionaire, turned good guy that gets dragged into things dipping his toes into another situation--this time it's young women of not quite legal American status finding themselves disappearing and in some cases killed. It's another snappy dialogue, lots of action that feels believable, also filled with damn good sounding food novel in what we're hoping becomes a series that puts 20-25 titles on our shelves in years to come.

 

6. Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian from Akashic Books. Do you remember when you first became passionate about music? Michael Zadoorian certainly does and he nails that time of life in this novel about the coming-of-age of Danny Yzemski in 1971 Detroit. Only a few years post-riot, Detroit isn't the safest place, especially to Danny's mother. When Danny's father passes away suddenly and unexpectedly, it only furthers his slight rebellion into a delving into music in a way that his mother will never understand. Looking at love, life, death, fears, and race as well as the passion one can get for something, music in particular, Beautiful Music is just that.

5. The Poisoned City by Anna Clark from Metropolitan Books. It states just how much we loved the next four works that this title is fifth on our list of 2018 reads because this is an in-depth look at everything that rolled around into place to allow Flint to get to the point that there was a lead in the water epidemic, and we read it in two very fast sittings. Details galore, but done in a very readable manner, we cannot imagine how many hours Clark spent to get this story right. It's like a horrible mystery, knowing that every negative aspect of the story is real and that people really died because of the multitude of decisions made over many years. It's not a book to be missed.

4. Scribe by Alyson Hagy from Graywolf Press. The only novel we read more than one time in the past few years. Read it when the ARC was sent our way and then immediately again when the final copy arrived a couple of months later. There have been a few more apocalyptic novels in the past few years and this ranks up at the top of them with maybe Emily St. John's Station Eleven and Frank Bill's The Savage. This one does not seem to be from a future too far away, which is more than a little frightening. It gets to the core of storytelling and its importance. Not a word is wasted in this very taut story.

 

3. 2. 1. This trio can be taken in any order depending on what day it is:  Our Sudden Museum by Robert Fanning, The Second O of Sorrow by Sean
Thomas Dougherty, and Adult Night at Skate World (this link will eventually get you the book) by Christina Kallery respectively from Salmon Poetry, BOA Editions, and forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press in 2019.

 

In late 2017 I found a haven in the pages of one of these poetry collections while spending 50 consecutive overnights in an ICU room while my
father was seemingly getting better. I read from the printed out pages I had over and over, finding new things to enjoy or savor each read. When a friend received some bad news, I began to email her different poems each morning--my logic being, I was able to find some hope and enjoyment within poems and believed she might as well. What that turned into is a year of starting each and every day off with some poetry. Either from a collection on my shelves, or searching journals online. I typically read anywhere from 1 to 15 poems each morning until one hits me in a certain way, and then I share that poem. It's become a habit that I don't even think of doing any longer, like taking the pills I need to daily, or showering. Just something that happens upon getting ready for each and every day. It's certainly widened my appreciation for poetry, even though I still feel like a novice reader. And while I wander from poet to poet, I've returned to this trio of books numerous times, reading them all in completion at least 4 or 5 times this past year, and most likely on closer to 15 to 20 times for one of them. They're each powerful in their own ways--Fanning's searching for life through loss, Dougherty's finding glimmers of happiness and hope in the Rust Belt, and Kallery's nostalgia and reaching for things just outside one's grasp--and grab hold of me each time I read them.

All in all, an excellent year of reading, no matter how different it was than years of the past.