Summer Reads 2017: Helen
June 11, 2017
After five years of book-nerding it up here at Librairie D+Q, I'm heading out. I'll miss recommending reading materials to all of you, so before I go, here's one last pile of picks! Here's what I'll be taking in this summer, in no particular order:
Fish in Exile (Vi Khi Nao)
A poet's tragedy about exile, loss, and home. Vi Khi Nao learned Latin as a sort of stepping stone from her first language, Korean, to her third language, English, which is perhaps what gives Fish in Exile such a memorable tone, both removed and extremely close.
Such Small Hands (Andrés Barba, translated by Lisa Dillman)
One of the first titles from new translation press Transit Books, Spanish writer Barba's novel has been compared to works by Bruno Schulz and Kafka. The small hands in question belong to a group of girls growing up in an orphanage, who devise a haunting game within the confines of their world.
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (Roxane Gay)
Roxane Gay's long-anticipated memoir is, in her own words, "not a story of triumph, but [...] a story that demands to be told and deserves to be heard." It is a searing book about inhabiting a body after and through rape, trauma, and both internal and external preoccupations with weight and food.
Canadian Art Summer 2017: Kinship (editor: Lindsay Nixon)
This most recent issue of Canadian Art is curated by Lindsay Nixon, Indigenous Editor-at-Large, and is dedicated to Indigenous artists and writers. It showcases works, writing, and interviews with and by Dayna Danger, Chelsea Vowel, Gwen Benaway, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Jarrett Martineau, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and Nixon themselves.
Condo Heartbreak Disco (Eric Kostiuk Williams)
Published by Koyama Press, this new book by Kostiuk Williams (Hungry Bottom Comics) is a devilishly queer, action-packed comic set in a larger-than-life Toronto, that warns about the evils of gentrification and condo development.
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (Nagata Kabi, translated by Jocelyne Allen)
I honestly know nothing about this book or artist, but I did just finish Qiu Miaojin's Notes of a Crocodile, and the dual themes of queerness and loneliness are always of interest, so why not put this in my reading pile?
What is a Glacier? (Sophie Yanow)
This new comic from one of my faves is a little bit about glaciers and Iceland, but also more generally about relationships, anxiety, coming to terms with endings and change (both climate and otherwise).
Uncomfortably Happily (Yeon-Sik Hong, translated by Hellen Jo)
An artist couple leaves the din of the city to try living in solitude in the Korean countryside. Inevitably, the tranquil countryside ends up presenting a different set of anxieties than the ones they are used to!
Literature Class (Julio Cortázar, translated by Katherine Silver)
I so enjoyed the collection of Jorge Luis Borges' lectures on English literature that came out a few years ago (Professor Borges), that I'd be a fool to miss these literary lectures by another of my Argentinian faves, Julio Cortázar. These talks were delivered at UC Berkeley in 1980, and cover Cortázar's own writing, as well as "the writer's path" and the fantastic as a literary concept.
My Mother Was A Freedom Fighter (Aja Monet)
"This stunning volume reminds us that conflict and contradiction can produce hope and that poetry can orient us toward a future we may not yet realize we want." —Angela Y. Davis
Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention (Tings Chak)
An essential study, in comic form, of migrant detention centres in Canada, and the ways in which their architecture represents the multi-layered violences of our incarceration system and our border policies.
Fish in Exile (Vi Khi Nao)
A poet's tragedy about exile, loss, and home. Vi Khi Nao learned Latin as a sort of stepping stone from her first language, Korean, to her third language, English, which is perhaps what gives Fish in Exile such a memorable tone, both removed and extremely close.
Such Small Hands (Andrés Barba, translated by Lisa Dillman)
One of the first titles from new translation press Transit Books, Spanish writer Barba's novel has been compared to works by Bruno Schulz and Kafka. The small hands in question belong to a group of girls growing up in an orphanage, who devise a haunting game within the confines of their world.
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (Roxane Gay)
Roxane Gay's long-anticipated memoir is, in her own words, "not a story of triumph, but [...] a story that demands to be told and deserves to be heard." It is a searing book about inhabiting a body after and through rape, trauma, and both internal and external preoccupations with weight and food.
Canadian Art Summer 2017: Kinship (editor: Lindsay Nixon)
This most recent issue of Canadian Art is curated by Lindsay Nixon, Indigenous Editor-at-Large, and is dedicated to Indigenous artists and writers. It showcases works, writing, and interviews with and by Dayna Danger, Chelsea Vowel, Gwen Benaway, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Jarrett Martineau, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and Nixon themselves.
Condo Heartbreak Disco (Eric Kostiuk Williams)
Published by Koyama Press, this new book by Kostiuk Williams (Hungry Bottom Comics) is a devilishly queer, action-packed comic set in a larger-than-life Toronto, that warns about the evils of gentrification and condo development.
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (Nagata Kabi, translated by Jocelyne Allen)
I honestly know nothing about this book or artist, but I did just finish Qiu Miaojin's Notes of a Crocodile, and the dual themes of queerness and loneliness are always of interest, so why not put this in my reading pile?
What is a Glacier? (Sophie Yanow)
This new comic from one of my faves is a little bit about glaciers and Iceland, but also more generally about relationships, anxiety, coming to terms with endings and change (both climate and otherwise).
Uncomfortably Happily (Yeon-Sik Hong, translated by Hellen Jo)
An artist couple leaves the din of the city to try living in solitude in the Korean countryside. Inevitably, the tranquil countryside ends up presenting a different set of anxieties than the ones they are used to!
Literature Class (Julio Cortázar, translated by Katherine Silver)
I so enjoyed the collection of Jorge Luis Borges' lectures on English literature that came out a few years ago (Professor Borges), that I'd be a fool to miss these literary lectures by another of my Argentinian faves, Julio Cortázar. These talks were delivered at UC Berkeley in 1980, and cover Cortázar's own writing, as well as "the writer's path" and the fantastic as a literary concept.
My Mother Was A Freedom Fighter (Aja Monet)
"This stunning volume reminds us that conflict and contradiction can produce hope and that poetry can orient us toward a future we may not yet realize we want." —Angela Y. Davis
Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention (Tings Chak)
An essential study, in comic form, of migrant detention centres in Canada, and the ways in which their architecture represents the multi-layered violences of our incarceration system and our border policies.
