The TBR Stack

I'm so looking forward to jumping into this TBR stack from the library, but first have to finish Mary Gabriel's Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art. It's long, fascinating, and completely absorbing. I'm almost done.

The stack:

Milkweed Smithereens, by Bernadettte Mayer. At Chicago Review of Books, Mandana Chaffa writes, "I cannot overstate how much Bernadette Mayer’s work, and the poetic ethos and play she championed, means to me and to the poetry community at large. She celebrated the ordinary as extraordinary, equal parts funny and revolutionary[...]"

We Are Mermaids, by Stephanie Burt. I'm a big Stephanie Burt fan; an academic who writes in an accessible way, she's so dang smart, and her interests and subjects are wide-ranging. (Readers looking to learn more about contemporary poetry can start with Burt's The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them.) We Are Mermaids is a collection of poems; I heard about it on Han VanderHart's Of Poetry podcast, and knew I wanted to read it.

Space Struck, by Paige Lewis. I've read it before and look forward to reading it again. "Over and over again, the characters in Space Struck seek the natural world but encounter institutions, which in the collection (and, one gets the uncanny sense, in our actual lives) are rapidly becoming one of the last ways to experience nature," says Emily DeMaioNewton at Ploughshares.

Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books, and Questions That Grew Me Up, by Remica Bingham-Risher.  I heard the author on the VS podcast, made a note of the book (a collection of essays and poems), and happily bumped into it at the library. Bingham-Risher, "mines the experiences of Black writers in this jovial mix of memoir, essay, and homage to her literary 'guiding voices,'" according to Publishers Weekly.

Poems Are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres, by Amy VanDerwater. The author (and Poetry Friday regular) mentioned this book just last week on her blog, and the library had it! I know it will help with ideas for reading and talking to my first and second grade friends about poetry. (I'm a volunteer reader in a several public-school classrooms.)

*****

The Poetry Friday roundup is at Tabatha Yeatts' blog today.

Comments

[Tabatha]

Thanks for sharing your TBR stack with us! I am on my way to buy one now...

[Susan T.]

Yay! If only I could speed read…

[Carol J. Labuzzetta]

Ha! This post about your TBR stack made me laugh. I'll have to look for that last book by Amy, sounds like it's up my alley! The reason your post made me laugh is that I'm expecting a box of books to be delivered today from Amazon. I also need to visit the public library to get a bunch of bat books to help me build a resource list for a presentation to first graders that I am working on for April. Soon I'll have more own TBR stack!

[Susan T.]

Ha, Carol, then you know! Another book is always waiting.

I bet the first graders will love hearing & learning about bats.

[tanita]

Milkweed Smithereens sounds like something that is JUST so fun!

[Susan T.]

Tanita, I LOVE Bernadette Mayer's work. She just passed away recently.

[Linda Mitchell]

What a gorgeous stack of books. I have a nice cool and crisp day here--I'm attacking my stack too! Happy reading.

[Susan T.]

Linda, the best sort of day for reading! Enjoy.

[Linda Baie]

I've read & used Amy's book when I taught, Susan, and noted the others. They all sound so good! Yikes, I have too many books in the stack! Thanks!

[Susan T.]

That's a nice recommendation for Amy's book, Linda.

Always too many books in the stack, right?

[Carol Varsalona]

With stacks like yours, I would be in poetry heaven. It's too bad my time is so limited. Thank you for providing little teasers of all, Susan.

[Mary Lee]

What a stack! I'm sure you've probably read it, but if not, add Marilyn Nelson's AUGUSTA SAVAGE to your next stack. It is a biography in verse, but the poetry is strong enough for each one to stand alone.

[Bridget Magee]

Yay for sharing your TBR stack, Susan! I'm bookmarking this post to get ideas for books to put on my US library hold list. ( I use my daughter's library account in California to read books written in English on my kindle here in Switzerland. Not too many English books in my local library...)
Thank you! :)

[Laura Purdie Salas]

What a lovely stack! I adore Amy's Poems Are Teachers. I refer to it frequently for ideas for different approaches and mentor texts in my own writing :>D

[Kay McGriff]

That looks like a fabulous stack of books. Enjoy!

[Susan T.]

Mary Lee, thank you! I just requested AUGUSTA SAVAGE from the library.

Bridget, that's a smart workaround for getting books. I have Hoopla & Libby accounts, too, at a couple of libraries.

Laura, yay, I knew it looked good!

Thank you, Kay. This weekend I finished up the long book and have happily started whittling away at the stack.

[Linda]

So many great books! Happy reading!

[Susan T.]

Thank you, Linda! I love going to the library & finding treasures.

[Denise Krebs]

Susan, thanks for sharing your sweet stack of books. I went to my library app after I read your post to check to see if Amy's book was there. No, but there were two other poetry books by her, so I checked them out. I'll have to buy Amy's Poems Are Teachers because it is not the first time I've wanted to read it. And you've given us so many more options, too!

[Susan T.]

Denise, nice! I'm glad other books of Amy's popped up.

[PATRICIA J FRANZ]

I'm feeling a bit sheepish that my own TBR pile currently is 100% children's picture books... but it is currently where my poetic inspiration comes from, so gotta follow the muse!

[Susan T.]

I ❤️ picture books! I need to spend a morning at the library's kids' section finding more to share with my elementary school friends.

[Karen Edmisten]

What an inviting, tempting TBR stack! I'm with you on the wish for speed reading. :D

[Susan T.]

I've jumped in, Karen, and am enjoying Soul Culture, We Are Mermaids, and Poems as Teachers. Yes, three going at one time!