The Wisdom of Father Brown
G.K. Chesterton knows his way around the English language. He often makes it do silly things, purely for his own amusement. His Father Brown books, especially, have a sense of…
Leslie Feinburg’s Stone Butch Blues
This book was put onto a list given to me by a good friend and then put into my hands by that same friend. Stone Butch Blues is a gut…
On White Guys Talking About Reading Women
http://jezebel.com/damn-youre-not-reading-any-books-by-white-men-this-yea-1751094468 I’m a white guy, and prone to getting unfortunately navel-gazey and introspective. I heard about this piece from Jezebel on the 3% Podcast (books in translation, check it out)…
Reading Animal Farm with eighth-graders
This particular re-reading of Orwell’s classic novel has been brought to you by my eighth grade English class, who picked Animal Farm over two other books, the names of which…
Gateway to Paradise Revisited, and Further Notes
I recently had a conversation with someone more familiar with this book than myself, and it brought up a few things that I didn’t really address -or that I addressed…
Matthew Vollmer’s Gateway to Paradise
This is the third book of Vollmer’s I’ve read, the most recent, and the one I’d be least likely to recommend. I loved “Inscriptions for Headstones” -it was a fantastically…
“Time and Distance Overcome” by Eula Biss
This is easily the best essay collection I’ve read this year. I had previously encountered Biss reading Volume 1 of Best Creative Nonfiction, as well as on the wonderful podcast…
Maggie Nelson’s “Bluets”
Bluets Maggie Nelson “Bluets” is an essay written in short bursts, meditations in miniature on the color blue and all its Western connotations, on depression, on sex, on tranquility and…
Matthew Vollmer’s “Future Missionaries of America”
Future Missionaries of America Matthew Vollmer This was my favorite short story collection of 2016 (of meaning “read during”). Vollmer’s book “Inscriptions for Headstones” was high on my list in…
Reading fees, classism, and literary privilege
http://rhizomaticideas.com/the-fallacy-of-the-serious-writer/ Rhizomaticideas.com recently published a great short essay on the problems with literary magazines charging a reading fee. As someone with a serious Marxist chip on my shoulder, (see attached…