“Bro, you ain’t the only one who picks up the newspaper, knows where the library is, likes the big humbug in Beowulf, moving out on Grendel and whatnot, or fighting orcs and shit.” – Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr., ‘The El’
Making this book lists has been one of the highlights of blogging this year. I shoulda started doing this earlier. You’re going to have to forgive me for not taking pictures with my own books on this one—we’re still picking up pieces from the hospital visit last week, and we’ve still got a not-quite-two-month-old hanging around, wanting stuff from us just because we’re her parents.
Anyway, making book lists rules. If you’re interested in some books, maybe you’ve heard I’m going to be managing a bookstore? That’s right, the good people at Rivers & Roads at opening a new space called Little Wild. Extra seating for the café, fresh hot new books, and a stage for live events. And nearly everything on the shelves is my decision! So you know the taste is impeccable. You read this blog, right? We’re opening at the end of this month. Watch this space for more news, and check out Little Wild on Instagram.
Now! Onto the book list. Again, please forgive the lack of personalized pictures, and anything else that isn’t up to my usual standards. Lot going on in Casa de Corlew. Did I mention my oldest was in the hospital last week, I have a no-longer-newborn, and I’m started a new job? Enough about me. Read some books.
Cloud Missives by Kenzie Allen
You ever read a poetry collection and realize that not only do you have another level you could get to, but you have another three or four levels you could get to? And this unbelievably good collection is this poet’s debut, and that poet is younger than you?
When My Brother Was An Aztec by Natalie Diaz
A word of warning: her brother being an Aztec is not some whimsical flight of fancy. It’s a metaphor for meth addiction. The poems focus on what that does to the family, the pain of watching someone go through that. If you’ve read and loved Postcolonial Love Poem, try this one, too.
Blood Wolf Moon by Elise Paschen
The cheap sell here is Elise Paschen wrote the poem that inspired Killers Of The Flower Moon, and even consulted on the film. There’s so much more here, though. These poems are gorgeous, a master of her craft working at a very high level.
THE EL by Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr.
I talk about this book a lot, and it’s on the list to be re-read next year. Look, Ted’s from my neighborhood. A different era of my neighborhood, sure. The novel’s real good, too! It moves, it walks that horror-and-crime are siblings line, it’s funny, it’s violent, it’s spiritual. And it’s a good reminder that we don’t call it the “levated” train.
Night Of The Living Rez by Morgan Talty
Proof that a collection of interconnected short stories with the same narrator can work! Idk, I heard publishers/agents don’t like those, and I can’t figure out why. Is Jesus’ Son not one of the best works of literature ever written? Don’t people like Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories? Don’t you like how unnamed narrators recur across Aimee Bender collections? Anyway, Morgan’s got a novel and is in the big prize conversations, and he’s super worth reading.
Season Of The Swamp by Yuri Herrera
This one breaks the general “Indigenous writers from what’s at least temporarily known as the United States of America” rule of this column. I also don’t know if Yuri is Indigenous—racial categories are different south of what is for the time being called Texas. This novel, however, about Benito Juárez’s time exiled in New Orleans, is the ultimate in “seeing the world differently than the dominant culture/narrative.” Juárez, in case you like me needed reminding, was the first Indigenous head of state in the post-Columbian Americas. Season Of The Swamp contains one of my favorite passages on indolence and white entitlement. Historical fiction isn’t always my favorite thing. I went into this novel expecting to like it, but wondering how much I’d enjoy it. Y’all, I love this novel.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
I talk about SGJ a lot, and I talk about this book a lot. I’m talking about a different book of us this Friday. Let this serve as yet another reminder that you need to read Stephen Graham Jones, and you should start with The Only Good Indians.
Sisters Of A Lost Nation by Nick Medina
Part crime novel, part missing persons mystery, part horror. This book is a solid TNT/TBS thriller of a novel, without being schlocky thriller, you know? Like how instead of spending his whole career making three-hour-long chasing-the-Goodfellas-dragon movies, Scorsese also made movies like Shutter Island. You ever seen that movie? That movie rips. This book has nothing thematically in common, but it’s in the same tier of art.
Never Whistle At Night, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr.
One of the few anthologies I’ve read front-to-back. Every story is a banger. Seriously. There’s maybe one or two where you can go “okay yeah I liked some others better” but like not really. This anthology is so good. Pick it up, then memorize every author’s name, and read their books.
That’s all for this one. Hey, you catch that a sequel anthology to Never Whistle At Night came out a couple months ago? Yeah, I need to get that one. I bet I read more Indigenous writers than the average person, and still I need to read more. Layli Long Soldier and Tommy Orange are on the short list. There’s always more to read.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris