This year I decided to pick 30 books I read so far this year in the lead up to my 30th birthday. I’ll be posting these on December 2, 10, and 20 in batches of 10 in no particular order other than trying to get a bit of each major genre (poetry, comics, prose) in every post. Along with each book are quotes excerpted from my reading notes, select poems, and other miscellanies. Also, some of the title hyperlinks will take you to neat interviews and other pieces about the work.
I got good this year at dropping books I wasn’t getting much from so I really dug, and in many cases loved, most of what’s listed on my 2019 reading challenge. There are a few more books I hope to get through before the year’s end, including Clarice Lispector’s Complete Short Stories collection, Eleanor Davis’ The Hard Tomorrow and making a dent in Surveillance Capitalism. I’m very happy that so much of my time this year has been spent among books, and thanks for checking out this somewhat arbitrary list.
Part 2 (Holiday Gift Guide Edition)
For Part 2, I’m also tying each book with a wonderful and difficult-to-gift-to person in your life.
Space Struck by Lewis, Paige
poetry
Date Completed: Nov 09, 2019
For the Climate Doomsayer
“That thing about boiling frogs isn’t true—they know what rising heat means and they will jump out”
(The Foxes are Back)
“I admit I often tell you
about the cruelties of others to stifle the growling
in my own troubled core.”
(Pavlov was the Son of a Priest)
Lot by Bryan Washington
short story collection
Date Completed: May 10, 2019
For Your Cousin Who Can’t Still Can’t Shutup About Austin, TX
From my Goodreads review,
“Damn. what an incredible short story collection. All taking place in Houston, these stories squarely focus on working-class people of color, recounting queer narratives reminiscent of Justin Torres with a strong sense of the city. Washington knows Houston in a manner that feels like you’re cruising through the city with his protagonists whenever they get their jalopies going. I love Houston in all its humidity and stink, and Washington does too. As he illustrates though, love of place is complicated and rife with issues.
Highly recommend to anyone wanting to get to know this city more from a perspective still underrepresented in contemporary American short stories.”
Eternity Girl by Magdalene Visaggio, Sonny Liew, and Chris Chuckry
comic Miniseries
Date Completed: Jan 21, 2019
For A Loved One Experiencing Their 1st Existential Crisis
From my Goodreads review,
“Wow. I loved this comic even moreso than I thought I would. Surreal without ever losing heart. The art always work in service of the story, and it’s the rare comic that leaves me feeling empowered to do better in the way Mind MGMT did when I read it. I more often than not feel disappointed by comics that are going for big ideas these days because most big ideas still seem so steeped in the same shit of this world, but here those big ideas are all put to work to clarify one person’s sense of self and their ability to make another choice about how to move through the world. I am moved by that so much. I am gonna reach out and make another attempt to make another choice again tomorrow.”
Severance by Ling Ma
novel
Date Completed: Feb 09, 2019
For The Workaholic in Your Life
From my Goodreads review,
“Don’t read too many dystopian novels anymore because hell, we’re in one, right? This one was worthwhile for me, and I was really into how it explores the ways that even prior to The End, much of how white-collar workers are living is only a few shades away from the soulless rote activity of the fevered. I also really liked the way it examines contemporary global networks of production and the inanity of constant production and consumption without becoming a lecture on economics. It’s all based in character and very interesting overall. Would’ve been down for more, so that’s always a good sign when a novel is about to hit the 300-page mark.”
The Dream of Reason by Jenny George
poetry
Date Completed: Jun 03, 2019
For Your Friend Who Sends You Cute Pig Memes
From my Goodreads review,
“one review said that this book opens with a mindblowing first line, and that’s such a spot an assessment that only misses how it maintains that intensity throughout even as things quiet to a whisper. Loved it, and grateful to my friend for sending me a copy”
‘The Opposite of language is not silence
but space’
(‘The Gesture of Turning a Maste Around’)
Tentacle by Rita Indiana
novel
Date Completed: Jun 18, 2019
For The Aspiring Chef or Time Traveler
From my Goodreads review,
“time travel via sea anemone. multiple narrative cli-fi story that’s a literary sci fi thriller unlike anything else I’ve read so far this year. really dig.”
Some Beheadings by Aditi Machado
poetry
Date Completed: Feb 03, 2019
for the Eccentric Grammarian
From my Goodreads review,
“Read this book in the cemetery mostly in 30-degree weather in four top layers and two bottom ones. I had bought two Marlboros for the walk through the park to a friend’s. One broke in my coat, which I was actually happy about.
This book was something else. A celebration and a eulogy through the language of someone that loves language and makes words go lalalala even when they’re typically bummers. I want to reread this one again soon. It was so good. My brain feels sloshy good after reading it.”
gowanus atropolis by Julian Talamantez Brolaski
for the Decolonizing Linguist
From my Goodreads review,
“loved this book. every poem remakes English. even when silly, it feels like a fist to the jaw.”
Global Warming and the Sweetness of Life: A Tar Sands Tale by Matt Hern
Date Completed: Mar 13, 2019
for the Debilitated Environmentalist
From my Goodreads review,
‘“Ecology cannot speak of humans, other-than-humans, or land as a resource-rich with materials to be extracted; instead, it must articulate an ongoing set of relations where we can find what the sweetness of life might mean. This project cannot be seen as work—by necessity, it must be a love affair.”(175)
This book is easily the most affirming and hopeful book on global warming I’ve read in a long time, maybe ever. Without delving into sentiment, the authors provide a nuanced portrait through the Alberta tar sands of how ecology-centered society might be understood. Written by three settlers, they deftly navigate their positionality and illustrate how indigenous relationality to land may provide paths towards a being in the world that moves out of the anxiety of a debt economy into a sweeter life of inhabiting the land as an extension of self.’
Be Recorder: Poems by Carmen Gimenez Smith 
poetry
Date Completed: Oct 09, 2019
para la Bruja Poderosa
from my Goodreads review,
‘Read this cross 3 days. The titular poem is an epic that moves through scales, forms, and voices to create a piece that polyphonically resonates across space-time. Favorite lines,
“I’ve learned most from the cracked
once I broke into pieces
now I break into wholes.”
(‘Be Recorder’ 3)’
Check back on December 20 for the final installment, and read part one here.
Banshee Boardwalk 
[…] so far this year in the lead up to my 30th birthday. I’ll be posting these on December 2, 10, and 20 in batches of 10 in no particular order other than trying to get a bit of each major genre […]