What I\u2019ve Been Reading Lately: <\/strong><\/p> There was a time where I didn\u2019t have money for books, but there was also a time where I wasn\u2019t making time for books. A lot of this past year or so has been catching up on what my brain refers to as \u201creading debt\u201d\u2014either books I feel I should<\/em> read because I want to\/they fit my projects\/whatever, or books people I care about wrote that I haven\u2019t gotten to yet. Not sure when I\u2019ll feel like that debt is scratched. Maybe that\u2019s what retirement is. <\/p> THE GOOD NEWS is that the homies write some good books. I read two and started another this week, and I\u2019m thrilled about all of them.<\/p> Chokecherry <\/strong><\/em>by Lyd Havens: <\/strong>Man, I read this book with really severe neck pain from sleeping wrong, like heating-pad-on-my-shoulders, not-in-the-mood-for-poems pain. Yet Lyd\u2019s poetry still sung in the harmonies of cicadas! What a collection. There is some much in here about family, place, your place in the world, rage, aching love, grief, various trees\u2014each shorter poem satelliting around a haunting long poem, \u201cBoomtown (all the places I am not).\u201d It\u2019s so very worth your time, and if you\u2019re still not convinced, here\u2019s an episode of The Line Break podcast where we interview Lyd<\/a>. <\/p> Escaping the Body <\/strong><\/em>by Chloe N. Clark:<\/strong> Back in undergrad, when everything you think of is the first time anyone has ever thought of that thing, I decided I wanted to write what I called \u201cpoemstories.\u201d Basically short stories with run-on sentences and line breaks. Then I read, you know, some writers<\/em>, and realized the multimodal was all around me. These poems feel cut out from genre movies, like someone had a searing moment of lyrical brilliance while filming Venomous Velvet Whalefish From The Planet Venus<\/em> for the SyFy channel. There\u2019s horror (particularly body horror, do I need to say that?), there\u2019s mad science experiments, there\u2019s sex, there\u2019s the difference between a bloom and a swarm when describing jellyfish. And yet, as always with Chloe\u2019s work<\/a>, everything is infused with such an honest tenderness. It\u2019s so very worth your time, and if you\u2019re still not convinced, here\u2019s an episode of The Line Break podcast where we interview Chloe<\/a>. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Let\u2019s start with a harrowing tale of picking up pigeon peas, this Camille U. Adams<\/a> CNF in The Forge<\/em> should with a warning to talk to your doctor before reading if you have hypertension. But the real thing is the language\u2014precise, lyrical, wholly inimitable. <\/p><\/li> You want a kick-ass pirate and witch story? One with, like, sooo<\/em> much gore? Of course you do. Linda H. Codega<\/a> over at Uncharted<\/em> has got you covered.<\/p><\/li> This delightful micro from Alyson Mosquera Dutemple<\/a> over in Cincinnati Review<\/em> would pair nicely with Brendan\u2019s album<\/a>.<\/p><\/li> In this Guardian<\/a><\/em> profile of Brandon Taylor<\/a>, the author claims he can type as fast as he can think. Do you know how much I am seething with jealousy? I haven\u2019t picked up Taylor\u2019s work yet, but the way these books are framed in this piece really sets me a-quiver. <\/p><\/li> For no particular reason at all, here\u2019s something in Decider<\/em> about Hollywood\u2019s conscious decision to stop making labor movies<\/a>. As a firm believer in movies\u2019 ability to shape cultural imagination and greatly influence the possibilities people can see for themselves, I think it\u2019s great that On The Waterfront<\/em> came out before either of my parents were born. Someone sneak a villain based on Scabby The Rat into Marvel or something, please. Do I have to be a white person right now? Do I have to roll a The Wire<\/a><\/em> Season 2<\/a> clip? <\/p>![\"Chokecherry](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/e253fead-b063-47d7-9a66-65e11ba0fc82_4032x3024.jpeg\")
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