Bewildered by All This Broken Sky – Anna Scotti
These poems make evident that this kind of boundless love — love we take care of, love we’re sure to name as such — is the key, the only real salvation available.
This experiential reading of the book is, in parts, created by what the blurb notes as Thúy’s “trademark style” which is “close to prose poetry.” And, like poetry, the book is economical and careful with words. Every sentence is a sensory jolt to the reader — heavy with meaning that must be unpacked and savored.
My Dead Book should be a model for other entertainment, which is often too saturated with denial to be believed, even as a distraction.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built – Becky Chambers
Humanity has built up robots so completely that it has become clear that they are sentient and deserving of legal personhood, and their foundational role in our chain of production is one that robs them of their freedom
Out of Nowhere into Nothing – Caryl Pagel
Pagel’s collection of 10 braided essays tour the personal, the grotesque, the uncanny, and peculiar — a constant reminder of our attachment to the invisible.
Men in My Situation – Per Petterson
The writer returns to the trauma every decade or so to see if this time his stunt man can catapult himself into the twenty-first century.
The Communicating Vessels – Friederike Mayröcker
Ultimately, more than positively being about something, the book hints at eliminating such a possibility altogether.
Another departure in Heaven is the refusal to acknowledge death as the final act of human life.
While the moral of EX LIBRIS may feel a touch on-the-nose, in a time when new forms of media have weaponized our penchant for groupthink, and inherited ways of life are leading us into ecological collapse, I’m not sure it has ever been more important for us to hear it.
Nandana’s translation of Acrobat, then, is a material necessity that achieves her mother’s standards in a compelling and artful way.