Archive for the 'bookmaggot' Category

sea of tranquility, by emily st. john mandel

There’s a low-level, specific pain in having to accept that putting up with you requires a certain generosity of spirit in your loved ones.

stay true, by hua hsu

“Why do you think it’s your fault?” she finally asked. It had never occurred to me that it was not.

tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, by gabrielle zevin

“There are no ghosts, but up here”—she gestured toward her head—”it’s a haunted house.”

some books i loved this year and why you might want to read them

America is Not the Heart and How to Read Now
Have you ever really thought about Fremont? No? Why not?

An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873
Learn your blood-drenched history and mourn your courageous dead

Another Day in the Colony
Know that history is in no way done with us yet

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
Comics aren’t supposed to make me cry (are they?)

Homage to Catalonia
Reread old novels now that you’re big enough to understand them

Nona the Ninth
Meet the soul of the earth

Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego, and the Twilight Zone Case
Understand how power corrupts

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
Consider alternatives

The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred and The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking)
Drive from San Francisco to Joshua Tree thinking about deep space and social justice

The Years
…so that when Annie Ernaux wins the Nobel Prize you can say “oh yeah Annie, I call her Annie, she’s great”

becoming story, by greg sarris

In that brief moment before the clouds shielded the sun again, I felt what it was like to be held. I was standing in the earth’s enormous hand.

claire dewitt and the bohemian highway, by sara gran

The drive over the Golden Gate Bridge never stops being beautiful. In every kind of weather on every kind of day it’s a different kind of beautiful.

inciting joy, by ross gay

Whoever saved the seed loved us before they knew us. And some of them loved us as their world was ending. Our gardens archive that love.

gold fame citrus, by claire vaye watkins

camel, horse, mammoth, saber-tooth cat, dire wolf, short-faced bear, coyote, flamingo, pelican, eagle, swan, goose, mallard duck, ruddy duck, canvasback duck, double-crested cormorant, grebe, crane, seagull, stork…

a half-built garden, by ruthanna emrys

corporate strength has always come from transmuting the threat of force into softer trade.

what my bones know, by stephanie woo

I wanted to be the kind of woman people didn’t leave.

husbandry, by matthew dickman

my only job now, in all the world, is to not destroy my kids, and in turn, teach them not to destroy others

whale fall, by david baker

I wish I had spoken when it mattered

in the eye of the wild, by nastassja martin

Three years ago Daria described the fall of the Soviet Union to me. She said, Nastya, one day the light went out and the spirits came back. And we returned to the forest.

nona the ninth, by tamsyn muir

She had the terrible sinking feeling that whatever was going wrong right now, it was her fault somehow: that she hadn’t been smart enough or good enough.

america is not the heart, by elaine castillo

Baggage means no matter how far you go, no matter how many times you immigrate, there are countries in you you’ll never leave.

nature poem, by tommy pico

Repeating patterns, the mistakes of yr parents, running but not getting very far. Not as far as you wanted but maybe farther than you think.

a calm & normal heart, by chelsea t. hicks

treaties are for settlers, too.

virology, by joseph osmundson

The nuclear family is a construct that both renders affairs of the family unit private and makes labor forces more “flexible.” Economists say frictionless.

vera kelly: lost and found, by rosalie knecht

I didn’t know how a child was supposed to grieve, and no one told me.

how to read now, by elaine castillo

I’m more interested in solidarity, even if I don’t quite yet know myself what I mean by it, just the feeling I get from it—the startling, quenching relief of it; the force of its surprise, like being loved.