Apr 3

Apr 3 A Ghost in the Throat

Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s part memoir, part translation A Ghost In the Throat (2020) is, as she states from the beginning, “a female text” (3). In fact, lest her reader fail to absorb this, she titles her first chapter “a female text,” her first line of the first chapter (after the epigraph of a few stanzas of Eiblín Dubh Ní Chonaill’s “Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire” or “Keen for Art ó Laoghaire”) is all in caps (“THIS IS A FEMALE TEXT.”), and then her memoir concludes: “This is a female text” (282). It is clear, she means us all to associate her text, and Eiblín’s as well, with the female. As such, it is both organic and circular, dynamic and complex.

Oct 30

Oct 30 Humankind

Chris Mathers Jackson

Nonfiction

Humankind interweaves anecdotal evidence and extensive research to prove that humans are, in fact, kind, cooperative, and trusting, even if we are doubtful of that fact ourselves.

Nov 5

Nov 5 The Water Dancer

Chris Mathers Jackson

Contemporary Fiction, My List of Required Reads

Book review of Ta-Nahesi Coates’ debut novel The Water Dancer (2019). From its first sentence—the rambling, fluid 100-word sentence/paragraph—Coates establishes The Water Dancer (both in diction and style) as a story about memory and one closely tied to water. This novel eloquently re-frames the Underground Railroad story, placing it in the intimate and profoundly personal experience of his protagonist, Hiram Walker.

Jan 13

Jan 13 Aloha, Hawaii

Chris Mathers Jackson

Travel Reading, The Classics, Nonfiction

While my husband scours the Lonely Planet and Moon guidebooks for the islands and my first grade daughter eagerly listens to geographical and historical information set out in the Hawaii: The Aloha State book (one of a set of the fifty states) she found in the children’s section of our library, I opt for more literary preparation: Sarah Vowell’s Unfamiliar Fishes, The Story of Hawaii by Hawaii’s Queen, Jack London’s Hawaii stories and Mark Twain’s Letters from Hawaii.

Hi.