Poetry
1. Of the Dark Doves by Federico García Lorca translated by Sarah Arvio
2. Love Song by Dorothy Parker
3. Pound and Brodsky in Venice by Megan Fernandes
4. Like shadows of a musical theme by Tilsa Otta translated by Farid Matuk
5. Cedar Waxwings Unmasked by Jane Yolen
6. The Thing Is by Ellen Bass
7. Self-Portrait by Winniebell Xinyu Zong
8. I, Too by Langston Hughes
9. Found on the Pond Deck by Petra Kuppers
10. Late Ripeness by Czeslaw Milosz translated by Robert Hass & Czeslaw Milosz
Prose
1. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
2. The Age of Skin by Dubravka Ugrešić translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać
3. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
4. Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
We are halfway through the year, can you believe it? I certainly am having a hard time thinking about it, but we can’t stop it so we gotta keep walking. Let’s find out what I thought of my four books in June. Before you ask, the Service95 book club book is not on Libby and it’s also not translated to English yet when I tried to buy it. Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest.
Okay, the ACLU of Texas (just found out its specifically this one) book club chose to read Audre Lorde’s Essays. This was the first book that was on theme for Pride Month as well. Whoop! I found these essays to feel interesting most of the time, but sometimes I did catch myself zoning out. Not what I should have been doing but that’s the case. She sounds like a remarkable woman who was foundational in recognizing the intersectionality of oppression in this country.
I read another book of essays this month as well. This one took me a while to finish, not sure why but I think it was my mood. This is the Croatia entry for my Reads the World challenge. I found myself agreeing with a majority of what Ugrešić had to say, but there was always some little point or take that didn’t quite land in my eyes or was a little sus. I did enjoy learning a little more about what happened after the fall of Yugoslavia, at least from her perspective in Croatia. Although I think she said she lived somewhere else? You can certainly tell this was written in the late 2010s.
You’ll be proud of me. I finally overcame this thing I do where I don’t want to read or consume media that is popular while it’s popular. I think I have a weird need to be both hyper-critical and also don’t want to get sucked into other people’s opinions before I can form my own. This is hard to avoid in our digital age, but I try. I think it’s a fear of being perceived, yet here I am constantly being perceived. Yesteryear was better than I expected, but it was also quite predictable. It had a similar sensation to reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and Katelyn said it seems Gone Girl-esque as well, in the sense that her internal monologue is crucial and utterly unbearable and appalling. I gobbled it up. I think this is a solid book, and will make you think for a while. You really can convince yourself of anything if you aren’t careful.
Lastly, I finished off Pride Month with a heartbreaking queer historical romance for my Genre Challenge. I learned that Hargrave is a talented writer for many reasons. Prose, certainly, but she also made me toss aside my distaste for infidelity. The arguments felt authentic and the things that get in the way (idk what to call them) seemed realistic and there was no forced miscommunication / plot devices. Sometimes the characters are quite unlikable but they were simply flawed humans rather than unbearable people. I teared up multiple times at work while listening to this story. I believe I will be looking at her other works soon.
There’s June for ya. I hope you enjoyed my musings today.
Book Goal Tracker: 27/40
Genre Challenge Tracker: 3/10
Reads the World Tracker: 4/10
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