#Knopf

[aaknopf]

Leila Mottley was regularly writing and performing poetry even before she published her novel Nightcrawling at only nineteen, in 2022; today we get an advance peek into her forthcoming first collection, woke up no light. Divided into hoods—sections on Girlhood, Neighborhood, Falsehood, and Womanhood—the poems instruct us, as here, in the art of noticing, speaking boldly, and feeling deeply.

what to do when you see a Black woman cry 

stop. hum a little / just for some sound / just for a way to fill us up it is streetlamp time / all moon-cheeked black girls are mourning / a wailing kind of undoing don’t mistake this as a tragedy / it is sacred don’t mistake this as a glorious pain / we hurt.

don’t tell me it will be alright. make me a gourmet meal and don’t expect me to do the dishes after don’t try to hug me without asking first if i slept last night / if i need some jasmine tea / and a bath in a tub deep enough to fit my grief

and if i say i want a hug don’t touch my hair while you do it / don’t twist my braids around your fingers or tell me my fro is matted in the back from banging my head on the wall of so many askings

you think we are sobbing for the men, but we are praying for the men / their favorite sweat-soaked t-shirts we are screeching for our thighs for our throats / and our teeth-chipping / for the terror and the ceremony / and the unending always of this sky

so if i let you see a tear drip / if i let you see my teeth chatter know you are witnessing a miracle know you are not entitled to my face crack / head shake / sob but i do not cry in front of just anyone so stop. hum a little / just for some sound / just to fill me up

More on this book and author: 

Learn more about woke up no light by Leila Mottley.

Browse other books by Leila Mottley and follow her on Instagram @leilamottley.

Click here to read Leila Mottley's curated list of recommended books about the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Leila Mottley will be in Brooklyn for a Poetry Night reading and conversation with Tatiana Johnson-Boria at Books Are Magic (Montague Street location) on April 24, 2024 at 7:00 PM. The event will also be livestreamed for free on Youtube. 

Visit our Tumblr to peruse poems, audio recordings, and broadsides in the Knopf poem-a-day series.

To share the poem-a-day experience with friends, pass along this link.

[downthetubes]

Devin Elle Kurtz’s “Bakery Dragon” makes a beautiful debut

Just out from Knopf, a division of RH Books, is The Bakery Dragon, a smashing looking picture book, with some comic strip elements, for four to eight-year-olds that marks the writing debut of popular artist Devin Elle Kurtz

[bearybestfriends]

I just thought I'd post a pic of me where I am ready to snuggle with Mommy. I loooooooove snuggling! But which bear doesn't? See ... ~ Knopf

[dynamobooks]

Charles Addams: The World of Charles Addams (1933-1990/1991)

[png-chaotin]

[barbaragenova]

So I had the pleasure of reading Bret Easton Ellis’ The Shards. There you go. 

[nateglogan]

MY FAVORITE POETRY OF 2024 (Prologue) This was a bit of a different reading year for me. There were plenty of new books that I enjoyed, but I was mostly dipping into (not rereading cover to cover) books I've read before. Also, I've been reading a lot for my Jewish studies, which is time I wasn't reading fiction or poetry. So while I did read a fair amount, the total of that isn't reflected in this annual end-of-year book post.

On the ground level, this was another good year for me. My second full-length poetry collection, Wrong Horse, was published by Moria Books in January. In October, a chapbook of "spooky" poems, There's Nothing Out There, was published by above/ground press. I had ten poems published across five magazines and six more poems accepted for publication and appearing next year. My second book hasn't gotten as many reviews as I'd hoped so far, but I think its release did help me be part of more readings this year, which was very fun (special shout out to the folks who came out for the Wrong Tour dates).

Of course, I wasn't able to read all I wanted to this year--a good problem to have for the future. And, as always, these books are just my favorites, not a best of list.

FAVORITE FULL-LENGTH POETRY COLLECTIONS OF 2024 Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions) This is Not a Place of Honor by John Leo (Night Gallery) The Ruins of Nostalgia by Donna Stonecipher (Wesleyan)

FAVORITE CHAPBOOK OF 2024 Swim Lessons by Elizabeth Taddonio (self-released)*

FAVORITE POETRY COLLECTION OF LAST YEAR (2023) I DIDN’T READ UNTIL THIS YEAR (2024) Ablation by Danika Stegeman (11:11 Press)

FAVORITE POEM PUBLISHED IN 2024 "On Love" by Sara Nicholson in Little Mirror

FAVORITE NOVEL PUBLISHED IN 2024 I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger (Grove Atlantic)

DID MY FAVORITE FICTION WRITER PUBLISH A NEW BOOK IN 2024 BECAUSE IF SHE DID I READ IT Concerning the Future of Souls by Joy Williams (Tin House)

BOOK THAT MESSED ME UP IN 2024 Moravagine by Blaise Cendrars tr. Alan Brown (NYRB Classics, 2004)

REMAINING TBR FROM THIS YEAR (2024) James by Percival Everett (Knopf) Falling Fine: Selected and New Poems by Matt Hart (Ledge Mule) You Like It Darker by Stephen King (Scribner)**

CURRENTLY READING Collected Poems by Louis Jenkins (Will O' the Wisp Books)

—

*A collection of nonfiction essays.

**Some of stories in this collection I was able to read via audiobook. I was most interested in the "sequel" to Cujo, "Rattlesnakes," which I did listen to and thought was better than Cujo.

[bucolicbook]

The City and Its Uncertain Walls: A Novel by Haruki Murakami (translated by Philip Gabriel)

US pub date - 11/19/24

I���m not going to rehash the synopsis; I’m simply going to communicate that I enjoyed each and every page of this slow paced, introspective, and gorgeous read. 

Another excellent, excellent novel from Mr Murakami. 

Recommended.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the DRC

[booksiverecentlyread]

85: The Living Sea of Waking Dreams [2020]

by: Richard Flanagan

[darlenefblog]

The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary

by Sarah Ogilvie

Publisher: ‎ Knopf (October 17, 2023)

Publication date: ‎ October 17, 2023

Print length ‏ : ‎ 371 pages

Rating a 5 stars out of 5

"The Oxford English Dictionary is one of mankind’s greatest achievements, and yet, curiously, its creators are almost never considered. Who were the people behind this unprecedented book? As Sarah Ogilvie reveals, they include three murderers, a collector of pornography, the daughter of Karl Marx, a president of Yale, a radical suffragette, a vicar who was later found dead in the cupboard of his chapel, an inventor of the first American subway, a female anti-slavery activist in Philadelphia . . . and thousands of others." 

Geeks, nerds, and lovers of words rejoice. The Dictionary People is an amazing work chocked full of richly detailed biographical backgrounds, tidbits, and juicy gossip about the people who contributed to the epic Oxford English Dictionary. Fair warning that it can also read like a textbook. The setup is a grouping by alphabet letters. A for archaeologist to Z for Zealots, cute play on a dictionary layout.

The author refers to them as unsung heroes and I whole heartedly agree. Learning the dedication, time, energy, and willingness to work (free) for the love of reading and words was an amazing journey. There was a core group of paid administrators, editors and assistants but the majority of references were submitted by readers. I never thought about where a dictionary came from, its origins or how the idea came about. So many people, so many years, so much influence on modern life. Correct spelling, pronouncement, multiple meanings, all come from dictionaries. They've been around in one form or another for centuries although usually regionally orientated or dedicated to one language. There are books solely about pronouncing words. All this knowledge came together to create an amazing work of art.

The Oxford dictionary was in a race to beat others to the finish line, other countries were working on their own versions most notably Noah Webster in America. He decided how Americans would spell and it's sure different from the Brits. He believed that fewer letters were better and more didn't necessarily contribute to the end result. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and had a hard time putting down the book.

[thegirlwiththelantern]

2024 Historical Fiction Books

Historical fiction hasn’t quite come to me as easily this year as it has in previous. I’ve had to seek out most of these though I am very happy with this selection. The Beholders by Hester Musson | 18 / 01 / 24 – Fourth Estate June, 1878. The body of a boy is pulled from the depths of the River Thames, suspected to be the beloved missing child of the widely admired Liberal MP Ralph…

[aaknopf]

A poem of girlhood and after by Indigenous New Zealander Tayi Tibble, whose second collection, Rangikura, comes out in America today. In the dictionary of Māori language, hōmiromiro is defined as “a white-breasted North Island tomtit…a little black-and-white bird with a large head and short tail.” It is often used to refer to someone with a tomtit’s keen vision—that is, a sharp eye for detail.

Hōmiromiro

I used to dream about a two-headed goldfish. I took it for an omen. I smashed a milk bottle open

on a boiling road and watched a three-legged dog lick it up and in the process I became not myself but a single shard of glass and thought finally

I had starved myself skinny enough to slip into the splits of the universe but once I did I realised that the universe was no place for a young thing to be and there is always a lot more starving to be had.

When I was a girl I thought

I was Daisy Buchanan. I read on the train. I made voluminous eyes.

Once I walked in front of a bus and it exploded into a million monarch butterflies then I was ecstatic!

As a girl, I could only fathom

time as rose petals falling down my oesophagus. It tickled and it frightened me. I ran around choking for attention.

I had projections of myself at 100 my neck weathered and adorned like the boards of a home being eaten by the earth.

When I was a girl I would lie

on the side of that road in the last lick of sun and wait for the rabbits to come saluting the sky of orange dust

and then I would shoot them into outer space.

For many years I watched them bouncing on the moon. But then I stopped caring and so I stopped looking.

More on this book and author:

Learn more about Rangikura by Tayi Tibble.

Browse other books by Tayi Tibble and follow her on Instagram @paniaofthekeef.

Hear Tayi Tibble and Harryette Mullen read from their new poetry collections at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles, CA on April 10 at 8:00 PM. Tayi Tibble will be joined by Sasha LaPointe in Washington for a series of readings and conversations at Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle on April 13 at 7:00 PM, at King's Books in Tacoma on April 14 at 1:00 PM, at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in Bainbridge on April 15 at 7:00 PM, and at Third Place Books in Seattle, Lake Forest Park, on April 16 at 7:00 PM. Tayi and Sasha will also be at Broadway Books in Portland, OR, on April 17 at 6:00 PM. Tayi will be at the LA Times Book Festival signing books at the ALTA booth (Booth 111) on April 20 at 11:00 AM.

Visit our Tumblr to peruse poems, audio recordings, and broadsides in the Knopf poem-a-day series.

To share the poem-a-day experience with friends, pass along this link.

[hiphuman2020]

Jane Smiley wrote her alter-ego into Lucky, conjuring up a folk/rock artist whose life runs parallel to Smiley’s and rivals her success.  

A compelling understated novel, in the end Jane Smiley holds nothing back.

Jodie Rattler was born lucky. That’s how she’s seen herself since she was six when she accompanied her Uncle Drew to a race track and randomly chose horses that won him thousands. He gave her forty-two $2 bills to thank her. For the rest of her life, the rolled-up $86 bundle is her good luck charm. Maybe it’s the rubber-banded stash of money. Maybe it’s her clear, cautious approach to life, but…

[bearybestfriends]

Sorry, Mommy, but according to the Beary Best Friends Property Laws, this is MY beanie now. 

- Knopf

[blog-aventin-de]

Feuilleton

Feuilleton · Curt Emmrich · Hosenknopf · Satire

Die Kunst des Feuilletons besteht nicht darin, über ein Thema zu schreiben, sondern über kein Thema zu schreiben. Statt des Themas gibt es einen Anlass. Anlass kann jeder Hosenknopf sein. Wenn man den Knopf als Exempel nimmt, will man damit sagen, dass der Knopf etwas von Natur Unbedeutendes sei. Es kommt also darauf an, dem Unbedeutenden Bedeutung zu geben. Damit nun niemand sage, wir drückten uns vor unseren eigenen Maximen, wollen wir bei diesem Anlass bleiben. Schreiben wir über den Knopf. Sowie wir sein bescheidenes Rund ins Auge fassen, entdecken wir, welch bedeutsame Rolle dieser unbeachtete Gegenstand in unserem Leben spielt. Jeden Morgen durchschneidet prächtig und großartig die Scheibe der Sonne den Horizont. Mit genau derselben Regelmäßigkeit, mit welcher allmorgendlich die erhabene Scheibe der Sonne den Horizont durchschneidet, mit genau derselben Regelmäßigkeit durchschneidet allmorgendlich die bescheidene Scheibe des Hosenknopfs das Knopfloch. Zwischen der Sonne und dem Himmel besteht somit das gleiche Verhältnis der Angemessenheit wie zwischen dem Knopf und seinem Loch. Ja, wenn die Sonne, von Wolken verhangen, nicht in unseren Morgen tritt, so ändert das wenig an unseres Tages Lauf. Wenn aber der Hosenknopf sein Knopfloch verfehlt, ist unsere menschliche Würde in Gefahr. Wie blind waren wir bisher, diesen Gegenstand so gering zu achten, von dessen Wohlverhalten die Würde unserer Person abhängig ist.  Feuilleton · Curt Emmrich · Hosenknopf · Satire Read the full article

[roesolo]

Speck: an epic journey

Speck: An Itty-Bitty Epic, by Margaux Meganck, (March 2024, Knopf), $19.99, ISBN: 9780593301975 Ages 3-6 Go on an epic journey with a tiny speck in this gorgeously illustrated story. A little speck is born in a tide pool and is swept along “past creatures to cling to rocks, / past flickering fins and flashing scales”; separated from their group, each speck is searching for something. Some drift…