a booklist for the winter season
what we want to read and share and gift and hold
the nights are growing darker and colder in the winter’s seemingly endless march, and this time of year often leaves us longer stretches of evening to fill, gifts to track down and the sometimes feverish desire to escape into a world held on paper. (escape into? find? race through interrogate drag back delve into discover etc. etc. etc.)
not entirely surprisingly, our shelves are full and constantly growing - books spreading across floorboards and over stools, pouring out of corners and piling up below desks. we still seem to find it impossible to pass a bookstore by.
below we’ve listed some of our favourite books to read and to gift, and others that are next on our lists to buy ourselves. we’ve linked them to independent bookstores here in europe, but go and ask your local bookseller if they can order them in for you - they usually can, and buying through them allows small publishers to continue to stock books in those shops for you to find! otherwise, where possible, order through the publisher directly.
mnemotope issues 001 and 002
multiple authors, published by bog bodies press
what a surprise to find this here - but in all seriousness, we love seeing people’s reactions to the poetry, prose, recipes, reviews and all sorts of everything that populate our community magazines, and hope you’d love it too.
kind ground, black butter
concept lucy hodge-sellers, published by bog bodies press
our new book! a conversation on the power of language and poetry as a force for resistance in ireland and beyond. archival photos, dialogue and short texts bookending it all. (the book isn’t officially out until next week, so in the meantime please enjoy this sneak peak image below.)
anam cara
john o’donoghue, published by penguin books
lovely, gentle, poetic wisdom from celtic teachings - so wonderfully and easefully written that this moving piece of writing really wraps itself around you.
the dispossessed
ursula k. le guin, published by harper collins
strikes an unusual balance between escapism and confronting you with the realities of our world. beware that you might end up underlining most of this text; it will make you want to cry and start a revolution.
the decay of lying
oscar wilde, published by penguin books
wilde’s sharp piercing wit is in full play here, and this short essay is one of those that i find myself always coming back to. it’s fun and bright and clever and brilliant.
letters to a young poet
rainer maria rilke, published by penguin books
warm, earnest and insightful correspondence from an established poet to a younger one. makes you want to pick up a pen immediately, and we highly suggest that you do.
drive your plow over the bones of the dead
olga tokarczuk, published by fitzcarraldo editions
atmospheric, crackling writing from an incredible author. dark and humorous and utterly enveloping.
mama phife represents
cheryl boyce taylor, published by haymarket books
a book that feels like it carries your heart for you. her love for her son pours out of the pages and into your hands, and reminds you of the depths of connection.
the whisper
félicia atkinson, published by shelter press
one of the most beautifully made books we’ve found this year. it feels like a portal into the atkinson’s poignant, sensitive work and the world it suggests. you’ll almost want to frame it but then it would be much too far from reach.
assata: an autobiography
assata shakur, published by chicago review press
a powerful autobiography from a courageous, wise and funny woman. shakur was a member of the black panther party and the black liberation army, as well as the fbi’s most wanted woman - she really can do it all.
tenderness record - the life of ilya zdanevich
igor terentiev, published by rab rab press
a short volume holding letters and transcripts of zdanevich’s zaum dramas; a peek into avant-garde poetry and theatre. best read aloud, and approached with curiosity.
lunch poems
frank o’hara, published by city lights books
a poet who writes like it’s breathing, and pulls pulsing, vibrant scenes to life. this collection is a wonderful place to start if you’ve never read o’hara.
the passion according to g.h.
clarice lispector, published by new directions
this book is incredibly simple. a woman enters a room and kills a cockroach. lispectors ability to extrapolate a novel from this one scene and hold you with her the whole time is truly mesmerising.
the sugar and the hunger
robert linhart, published by rab rab press
we haven’t got our hands on this one yet, but are eagerly awaiting its arrival; in the first english translation of this work, linhart explores the stories of working people in sugar regions in north-eastern brazil.
the paper, issue 1
multiple authors, published by the paper
madness, immediacy, warmth, chaos and laughter are plastered all over these a3 (!!!) pages. reading it at this monstrous size feels like some sort of joke, and it only kind of is - one of the most brilliantly fun publications we’ve found this year.
talk soon - until then, happy reading!!!
love, your bog bodies
bisous
