I read just shy of 50 new-to-me books in 2019, not including my class assignments (which included some chapbooks as well as short stories and poems). Of those, there are about a dozen that I am still thinking about, even if it's been months since I read them. I love these books because they are… Continue reading Books I Loved in 2019
Author: Sara Davis
Reading Roundup: December 2019
The Other's Gold by Elizabeth Ames. I started this book last month and almost posted it as a blind item this month, because at first I thought I would have nothing nice to say about it. For the first 150 pages or so, I didn't. I took to reading a chapter each night before bed… Continue reading Reading Roundup: December 2019
Reading Roundup: November 2019
I read the first two-thirds of Inland in fits and starts, which is how I usually read: sitting on the bus, standing outside of my dance studio before it opens, occasionally over lunch if I take one away from my desk. I read the final third in one thirsty gulp like one of the principal… Continue reading Reading Roundup: November 2019
Pandora’s Music Box
In 2015, when my friends were curating Spotify playlists to listen to on their smartphones, I still listened to CDs and the same three Pandora stations I created when I registered in 2009 and could only seed channels with musical concepts. One of my stations was exclusively for classical and modernist instrumentals--study music. One featured… Continue reading Pandora’s Music Box
Reading Roundup: October 2019
The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith. My free First Read of the previous month. This book opens unconventionally in a swamp, with our heroine a literal toad who eats bugs and sheds her skin. I buckled up for a wild ride at that point, but the story settles into a conventional enough historical romance… Continue reading Reading Roundup: October 2019
Failure Landscape
There's a story I sometimes tell about myself (or tell on myself, perhaps). I minored in art as an undergraduate. The long studio hours tried my patience, but I craved the repetitive tactile sensations of building or painting. In my first sculpture class, the instructor provided basic safety instructions for all the tools and machines… Continue reading Failure Landscape