11 books I want to read next

And how they came into my life

I acquire books faster than I can find shelves to house them. I don’t so much seek them out as they attach themselves to me. I do like to buy when I can, especially if the author is alive. The books pile up.

The latest addition to my shelves, which is already two rows deep

This is only a problem if you call it that, which I don’t. I’ve been traveling again, and so not much writing or reading happened this week, but the stack of books I plan to read next just keeps growing, so I figured I’d share here what I have my eye on and how it made its way into my life.

These aren’t recommendations, really, since I haven’t read any of these books yet, but I’m excited about them all. Have you read any? Which would you start first?

• Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel by Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky — I bought this at Greenlight Bookstore at their 15th anniversary celebration last weekend

• Ask Me Again by Clare Sestanovich — came with my ticket to Electric Literature’s 15th anniversary celebration last weekend (what was going on in the Brooklyn lit world 15 years ago?! Good things!) (Also, click on that link for the best photo ever of me and Ali Lewis)

• Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began by Leah Hazard — I saw this on my pelvic floor physical therapist’s bookshelf and asked about it and she gave it to me

• Heart Less: Poems by Carley Moore — I backed Carley’s kickstarter and the prize was a copy of her book with the cover of your choice!

• My Lives: A Memoir by Edmund White — Picked this up at One Grand in Narrowsburg, which was also where I bought my first Edmund White (The Beautiful Room is Empty) years ago

• Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man by John Porcellino — Handsold to me by Dave at Maze Books in Rockford

• Women: A Novella by Chloé Caldwell — Could not resist buying this at Lofty Pigeon’s one-year anniversary celebration

• White Houses by Amy Bloom — Wanted to read this when it came out and never got around to it, and then it appeared on the take-a-book-leave-a-book shelf in our building’s laundry room

• Villa E by Jane Alison — I loved Meander, Spiral, Explode and I am fascinated by both Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier, so when I saw this one featured in The Center for Fiction’s weekly newsletter, I clicked immediately

• Imperfect Solidarities by Aruna D’Souza — A second Greenlight purchase (love their indie press section)

• Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror, edited by Carlos Basualdo and Scott Rothkopf — Another take-a-book-leave-a-book shelf situation, but this time it was in the rec room at a friend’s building during their kid’s birthday party (I promise to leave a book next time I visit)

This week in Leave news

The first reviews are coming in! The book now has three reviews on NetGalley and one on Goodreads. (If you are a Goodreads user and you’ve read it, would you mind rating it there?)

I’m doing a little bit of outreach every day. It makes me so happy that people are actually reading it. 🤗 (Obligatory reminder that you can preorder directly through Autofocus, from our distributor Asterism, or from Lofty Pigeon.)

This week in writing

Working through a revision on my Rockford essay, gestating another essay, longing to spend more time in the novel. Soon, soon.

This week in reading

I am listening to Motherhood by Sheila Heti. I have started this book probably half a dozen times and it was never the right time for me, but suddenly it is. Strangely, it’s helping me think through a decision, not the decision of whether or not to have a child that Heti documents so well (obviously I have already made up my mind on that one) but something else entirely. Sometimes you have to put a book down and return to it in a different season.

Speaking of seasons, this election season here in the U.S. is a lot. I hope you’re taking care of yourself. Sending you love.

Shayne