Recently read, May 22 2025
Recently read: poetry and nonfiction
by Carl Bettis
A couple of books of poetry and one non-fiction book I've read lately. (For my responses to horror books, see tiny frights.)
We Remember Ourselves, by Mary Silwance
Disclosure: I'm personally acquainted with the author. Topics in these poems include motherhood, daughterhood, nature, passion, and social constraints. Silwance's poetic universe is large and varied, informed by a familiarity with nature. The poet plays with form without ever letting technique overwhelm content. Sometimes wry, sometimes tender, sometimes angry, sometimes all at once.
Mary Silwance, published works
Utopians in Love, by Bob Sykora
Disclosure: I'm personally acquainted with the author. I really enjoyed this book. Partly that's because the author and I seem to share some interests (American Transcendentalism, surrealism, utopian thought), but mostly because these are good poems, with heart and wit and lines I wish I had written. The theme is the human longing for the perfect world (society, relationship, self) we never manage to find or make.
Utopians in Love, by Bob Sykora
The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin' Sad, by Adam Gnade
A quick read, 60 small pages with plentiful white space. Some useful ideas, but you have to decide what's applicable to your own life. Quitting your job because the boss doesn't respect you is easier if you're a US-born, non-disabled, white cis man with no dependents than if you're not all of those things. (I don't know how many of those things are true of Gnade. He looks like a white guy in the author photo.) But Gnade doesn't claim to bring universal truth. This book is very much "Here's what works for me, maybe it can help you."
The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin' Sad, by Adam Gnade
