These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit by Hayan Charara (January)
Circe by Madeline Miller (February)
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (February Bonus Round!)
Homie by Danez Smith (March)
Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts (April)
Humane by Samuel Moyns (April Bonus Round!)
Room Where I Get What I Want by S. Whitney Holmes (April Bonus Round!)
Study Break by Aashna Avachat (May)
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (June)
Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith (June Bonus Round!)See also:
- (At Least) 12 Books in 12 Months - 2017
- (At Least) 12 Books in 12 Months - 2018
- (At Least) 12 Books in 12 Months - 2019
- (At Least) 12 Books in 12 Months - 2020
- (At Least) 12 Books in 12 Months - 2021
- (At Least) 12 Books in 12 Months - 2022
Checked this book out from the Cambridge Public Library because I liked the cover, the title, and because it was published by Milkweed (a press I really like that also published Braiding Sweetgrass which I read back in March 2021). I read it mostly over the course of a weekend ski trip with Antony, Angeni, and others. I love the vibe of taking a day off from skiing to read in a cozy cabin instead.
The collection was unexpectedly dark and gloomy. A lot of the poems were about war. For one of the poems, I thought it ended on a happy note, but when I went to recite the poem to others, I realized the ending was actually the exact opposite of what I had originally thought it was. But the collection was also really good.
Some poems I liked from this collection: Older; Some Sentences; All These Questions You Ask; Fugue; Self-Portrait with Woman on the Subway.
I re-read this book, which I had originally read back in June of 2020 when it was given to me as a gift. I'm usually not huge on re-reading books, but my friend was reading it too and I wanted to remind myself of the plot.
This book stood up well to re-reading. I really like it. It insightfully explores themes of solitude, power, and motherhood. And I feel like the main character makes sense -- I understand her motivations and why she does what she does.
This book remains one of my go-to recommendations for light-hearted fiction!
Borrowed this book from my friend Tala Alfoqaha after chatting with her about re-reading Circe (both of which are written by Madeline Miller). Tala prefers The Song of Achilles, but to be honest I quite strongly disagree.
Madeline Miller wrote Song of Achilles first; it is an entertaining and emotional gay love story. And somewhere (I think in the foreward of Circe?) she talks about how, after Song of Achilles was well-received, she took some time to write a book that was more personal. The result was Circe, which I consider her chef d'oeuvre. I think Circe was better written, more memorable, more insightful, and more interesting. For example, consider the difference in the time scale presented in each book: Song of Achilles follows two mortal characters in their love story over the course of a few years. Cool. In contrast, Circe follows the emotional growth of an immortal character over the course of centuries!
Don't get me wrong, Song of Achilles was a quick and entertaining novel. But I don't think I will still be thinking about it three years from now like I did with Circe.
Diana invited me to attend a poetry reading by Danez Smith at the Barker Center with her. It was my first poetry reading ever, and it was i c o n i c.
Danez Smith is so cool. They were an incredibly charismatic but intimate reader and poet. There was an intimidating bust of a historical white man on the wall, and they made a well-received joke about how that man would react to this type of queer Black reading. I cried multiple times in like 45 minutes and I was not alone. The energy at the reading was so great, and I wonder about all the intriguing and beautiful strangers I saw there. I'm so curious about who ends up attending a poetry reading like this, and what path they took to get there? What lives do they lead? Who are they?
I also met Diana's partner for the first time at the poetry reading and he seemed cool!
Some poems I liked from this collection: what was said at the bus stop. There are more I liked, but I just bookmarked my hardcopy and I don't have it on hand right now.
I got this book from another one of the poetry readings like the Danez Smith one from March. It was also really good! Almost all the same thoughts as above. I hope to attend more of these readings and become one of the intriguing, beautiful strangers who frequent them.
Some poems I liked from this collection: Triptych. There are more I liked, but I just bookmarked my hardcopy and I don't have it on hand right now.
I read this book in the process of researching for an independent writing project on prison ablition and prisoners of war supervised by Professor Modirzadeh. The book describes the history of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the branch of law that tries to make the waging of war less despicable. It also describes how pacifists (broadly speaking, those who are opposed to the waging of war itself) lost to the humanitarians. Instead of abolishing war in the 20th century, we merely tried to legitimize it through the law.
One of the interesting things about this book for me was that it also did a deep dive into Leo Tolstoy's perspectives on this matter. That was interesting for me because I really liked reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina back in January 2017 (the first book I ever reflected on in this blog series!). He's a pretty interesting dude, and I respect him for evolving in his perspective over the course of his lifetime as he thought about issues more deeply. For example, he went from being a hunter to becoming vegetarian (I don't mention that because I'm happy with his ultimate decision, I mention it because I think it is hard to remain philosophically flexible like that).
I didn't end up referencing this book much in my paper because I cut out an entire section I wanted to write about the relationship between the history of IHL reforming war in the same way that mass incarceration reformed corporal punishment. Writing the paper, though, gave me a really valuable experience getting to reflect on my personal philosophy with respect to war. I still don't think I have come to satisfying answers for myself.
I checked this book out from the Lamont Library, and learned that we actually get semester long rentals from the Harvard library system (including the summer when renting in the Spring).
I checked this out from the poetry reading room at the Lamont Library. I got a bunch of other collections too, but didn't finish any of the others before I had to leave for the summer. And I had to return this one before I could write down which poems I liked. The collection was an appropriate distance outside of my comfort zone for me to grow as a poetry reader.