Allyson Whipple

Category: reading

  • May Reading Report

    Despite being quite busy, I was a very productive reader in May. And most of what I read was brilliant and inspiring.

    Borderlands 37. I was excited to find a number of Round Top poets in here. This is one of the best issues I have read so far, and it reminds me that I need to submit to this journal in the future.

    Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. No, vampires aren’t my traditional reading fare. In fact, anyone who knows me well is probably wondering what inspired me to pick this up in the first place. That would be sheer curiosity. Most of my friends love these books. It spawned an HBO series. I had to see what the fuss was about. Ultimately, I can understand why this was a huge cultural hit. And despite the fact that I wasn’t captivated by the book, Harris did keep me interested in reading until the end, and the big reveal managed to surprise me. I enjoyed it well enough, but I wasn’t enthralled to the point where I plan to read the rest of the series.

    The Narrow Road to the Interior by Kimiko Hahn. I love this book. I love this book. I love this book. It’s one of my two favorites from May. Although it borrows on a text by Basho, it’s undeniably contemporary, and resonates well in the twenty-first century. My only lament is that I read a library copy, so I couldn’t highlight and underline important passages to my heart’s content.

    Toxic Flora by Kimiko Hahn. This is the sort of book where I could understand it intellectually, but it didn’t have the emotional punch of Narrow Road to the Interior. However, poetry is subjective. This collection is well-crafted, and I understand why it’s gotten so much attention. I certainly admire Hahn’s work here.

    Leap by Elizabeth Haukaas. This is a fine first book, though like Toxic Flora, I engaged with it more on an intellectual rather than emotional level. Still, just because it didn’t change my life doesn’t mean it won’t change yours.

    I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde. This collection, edited by Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnetta Betsch Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, is a volume of Lorde’s prose pieces. It draws from speeches, introductions to works, lectures, and includes the full text of A Burst of Light: Living With Cancer, which was eye-opening to me on a number of levels. A must-read for anyone invested in Lorde’s work. (Side note: Maxwell, who has never before showed an interest in chewing books, for some reason decided to make a snack out of this one, much to my dismay.)

    Spinning Goldfish by Karla K. Morton. This chapbook is based on the Sufi principle that to know the love of God, one must first experience secular love. This is everything that a chapbook should be. The theme is carried well throughout, and Morton’s writing is as strong as ever.

    This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley. A quick read that ultimately didn’t tell me much that I didn’t already know. I am sure there are plenty of people who would get something out of this book, but it wasn’t quite for me. Although the section on why fiction writers should study poetry did make me smile.

    Transfer by Naomi Shihab Nye. This is my other favorite from my May reading list. I was actually reading this while at the Round Top festival, so hearing Nye read poems from this book at the same time was extra thrilling. This collection deals with Nye’s loss of her father, but given that grief is universal, it was particularly resonant in light of my own loss this year (which was almost six months ago, which I cannot believe). “Cinco de Mayo” and “Chico Brothers #2” were especially important to me, but the entire book shines

    Poets & Writers May/June 2012. A strong issue all around, and the feature on writing contests was great. It helped down just exactly where those contest fees go.

  • April Reading Report

    I didn’t quite meet my reading goals for April — fiction was not a feature on my reading list. But I still read some amazing books.

    Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt, et. al., Republic of Barbecue (My good friend, the brilliant Carly Kocurek, was a contributor to this delicious book that will seriously leave you hungry.)

    Audre Lorde, The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (I only read two poetry collections in April, but since this one is over 500 pages long and encompasses Lorde’s entire career, I don’t really think I fell down on my goal of reading a poetry collection a week.)

    Poetry, April 2012 (A delightful mix of poets old and new. Congratulations to the journal for a century of great poems!)

    ire’ne lara silva, furia (silva is an incredible local poet, and I couldn’t resist this collection when I saw it at BookWoman)

    Dean Young, The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction (Perhaps the best treatise on poetry I have ever read. It shook me when I read it, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it.)

  • Congrats to the Big Poetry Giveaway Winners!

    With the help of this random number generator, I’ve selected the winners for my Big Poetry Giveaway 2012. Congratulations to Shawnte, who won the copy of Susan Wheeler’s Ledger, and Ronald Lewis, who won the copy of Allison Benis White’s Self-Portrait with Crayon. I’ll have the books out on Monday, after I get back from Poetry at Round Top.

  • March Reading Report

    Despite March being a very busy month, I got some great reading done. Here’s what made my list for the month:

    Kelli Russell Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy, eds. – Fire on Her Tongue: An eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry

    Ardent! 6.2, December 2011 (Yes, I am perpetually behind on literary journals.)

    Sandra Cisneros – Loose Woman

    Bret Easton Ellis – American Psycho (Note: I’m glad I don’t judge books by their covers, because it’s a brilliant novel with some of the worst cover design I’ve ever seen.)

    Mary Oliver – Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse

    Poets and Writers, March/April 2012 (finished from last month)

    Arthur Rimbaud – A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat

    Kelsey Erin Shipman – I See The Stars

    Patti Smith – Woolgathering

     

    All in all, I was blown away by pretty much everything I read this month. Rimbaud wasn’t quite my cup of tea, but everything else was inspiring. Here’s hoping my reading in April is just as enlightening.

  • Big Poetry Giveaway 2012!

    It’s time for National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, I’m participating in the 3rd Annual Big Poetry Giveaway!

    For any new visitors the giveaway has brought to this blog, welcome! Allow me to introduce myself (readers who know me might want to skip down a few lines): I’m an Ohio native now making my home in Austin, Texas. I adore my adopted state (well, not the politics of it…), and constantly drawn on the landscape as fodder for my poetry. Although I have been writing since I was twelve, I only became truly serious about poetry in 2009. Since then, my poems have appeared in a variety of places (click here for the full list), and I now have a chapbook manuscript out for submission. In addition to poetry and a day job, I love to dance, and compete in west coast swing. Finally, I have an obsession with avocados.

    I’ve been reading Kelli Russell Agodon’s blog for years, which is how I came to learn about the Big Poetry Giveaway. The other writers who inspire me are Drew Myron (a recent addition to my blogroll, but nonetheless important to me),  Christine Hennessey (she’s been on my blog radar the longest — since 2006, I think), Shanna Germain, Chuck Wendig, and Bon Steele.

    Although I don’t have a book of my own to give away this year (here’s hoping for 2013!), I’m offering up two excellent collections.

    First up is Susan Wheeler‘s Ledger. Structured around the concept of finance, Wheeler’s text is no dull accounting textbook. It draws on history and art in its discussions of money and consumerism, spanning hilarity and sorrow. And it’s also the kind of collection that doesn’t feel constrained by theme. It’s not rigidly tied to it; none of the poems here feels forced.It has a concept, but is free to move around as necessary.

    I’m also giving away Allison Benis White‘s Self-Portrait with Crayon. This book uses Degas paintings as a frame for the theme of loss that runs through these pieces. It’s a collection of prose poems rather than verse, and I have a particular fondness for this form, which is another reason I chose it.

    The drawing is open to anyone, anywhere, and will run through the entire month of April. If you’d like to enter, please leave a comment here with your name and email address before 11:59 p.m. on April 30th. I’ll randomly select two winners on May 1st. Good luck!

  • February Reading Report

    Wow. I got a lot of reading done in February.

    Voices by Lucille Clifton

    Blue Nights by Joan Didion

    Babel by Barbara Hamby (re-read)

    Betty Superman by Tiff Holland

    Alms for Oblivion by Bryce Milligan

    The Paris Review Interviews: Women Writers at Work, edited by George Plimpton

    Poets and Writers March/April 2012 (not finished)

    Southern Women’s Review Volume 5 (which, if you’ll remember, includes my work!)

    Tin House 12.4 (finished after starting in January)

    Sum of It All by K.B. Whitley

  • January Reading Report

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    I enjoyed everything I read in January, and came close to actually meeting my somewhat intense goal. Here’s a list of what found a place next to my bed (or in my bookbag):

    Kelli Russell Agodon, Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room

    Marian Aitches, Fishing for Light

    Umberto Eco, Confessions of a Young Novelist

    Dave Eggers, ed. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011

    Carolyn Forche, Blue Hour

    Patrick Suskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

    Tin House 12.4 (Started, but not finished. And yes, that is the summer reading issue from 2011. I’m a little behind in my literary journals…)

    Debra L. Winegarten, There’s Jews in Texas?

  • Goals for 2012, Part 1: Reading

    I’m going to start out by saying that the goals I’m setting for myself for 2012 are ambitious. And I’m not going to meet all of them. That will be in part because my goals will change more than once throughout the year. Plus, I simply don’t have time to do every single thing I want to do. That’s life. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to aim high. Life is short, so I’m going to do all I can to make the most of it.

    I’ve always been a reader, though since graduate school, I’ve mostly read for fun, without any specific goal in mind. I found that in 2011, I missed reading with some sort of intention. So I’ve set some reading plans for 2012, with an emphasis on the fact that my writing life is focused on the cultivation of poetry.

    1. Read 52 poetry collections or chapbooks
    2. Read 12 novels or short story collections
    3. Read 12 nonfiction books or essay collections
    4. Read 12 books about writing
    5. Read a year’s worth of the following periodicals: American Short Fiction, Bat City Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, The Kenyon Review, and Poets & Writers magazine

    I’ve never particularly enjoyed writing book reviews, but I will want to share what I read, so I think my plan will be to do a roundup at the end of every month of all the books I read, with some way to note the ones I found particularly worthwhile.

    Coming up next: my (very ambitious) writing plans for 2012…

  • Infinite Summer – Halfway There! (Early!)

    This evening, after work and a haircut and dancing, I sat down to read a bit of Infinite Jest. A few minutes ago, I reached the section break of page 507, which, according to the Index, means I am just over 51% of the way finished with the book. Also according to the Index, I don’t need to be there until August 6th. Meaning that, despite my struggles with the novel, at least I’m still reading! And I’m likely going to finish ahead of schedule – or, at the very least, I have a buffer so if I experience a setback, I can finish on time.

    I love the comics featured at this post from Infinite Summer. Like the character in the first comic, I feel like I’ve been reading this for 100 years. Except I’ve only been reading for a month! I can’t believe how long this month has felt in my reading life. And I imagine I’ll feel the same way at the end of August, too. Even though I’m struggling and I expect I’ll feel lukewarm about the content (though not the style, which I adore), I’m going to finish this thing.

  • Infinite Summer, Day Whatever

    So the whole plan to blog about the entire Infinite Jest reading process clearly fell apart. Blame it on life.

    But just because I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading. In fact, I’m well ahead of schedule. I’m currently on page 434, and I only need to be on page 295 if I want to finish on time. Hooray for that!

    I feel especially accomplished because my initial enjoyment for the novel faded pretty quickly. I adore Wallace as a prose stylist. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to see him deliver the 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College. I think his nonfiction is brilliant. But I’m not particularly enjoying Infinite Jest.

    There are moments of stylistic brilliance, of course, and that’s what keeps me hanging on. Well, that, as well as sheer determination to finish the book, to be able to say that I read it all the way through, from first page to final endnote. And there are plot points I enjoy. Just about everything that has to do with Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House has me hooked. But the plot about the Enfield Tennis Academy bores me. I don’t know if it’s because I generally find high school boys to be uninteresting literary subjects (Lord of the Flies and The Catcher in the Rye both bore me), or because not enough is happening to sustain my interest, but those sections just don’t do it for me. Nor do the bits about international intrigue.

    *shrug* Well, it’s not for everybody. At least I’ll be able to say I gave it a fair shake.