#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.

[bearybestfriends]

Mommy purchased new bedlinen, and we of course had to test if it's as comfy as it looks. Well, the verdict is in, and if Mommy thinks she may join us ... NOPE. According to the Beary Best Friends Property Law, this is OUR bed and OUR cushion. Sorry Mommy. ~ Keks, Knopf, Teddy and Benjamin

[techniktagebuch]

25. Februar 2025

Ein neuer Knopf, zwei Minuten Hoffnung

In einem Hotel in Amsterdam finde ich zum ersten Mal innen im Zimmer einen "do not disturb"-Knopf neben der Tür, der außen ein Lichtlein aufleuchten lässt. Normalerweise macht immer, wenn ich in einem Hotel bin, vormittags jemand die Tür auf, egal, ob ich den "do not disturb"-Papieranhänger außen an die Klinke gehängt habe oder nicht. Und es wird auch nicht angeklopft oder so. Plötzlich steht jemand im Zimmer und ich bin nackt und schäme mich, weil ich keinen Beruf habe, bei dem man früh aufstehen und angezogen sein muss.

Ich verstehe das ja. Wenn ich selbst in einem Hotel putzen würde, würde ich auch spätestens um neun alle Türen aufreißen, sicher haben die Gäste beim Auschecken nur den Papieranhänger abzunehmen vergessen, und wenn sie noch da sind, sollen sie jetzt mal aufstehen, andere Leute müssen arbeiten.

Ich habe an diesem Vormittag aber auch Arbeit zu erledigen, deshalb habe ich lange nach einem Hotelzimmer gesucht, das ich erst um 12 verlassen muss. Vielleicht wird der Knopf ja helfen.

Weil das Hotel diese Möglichkeit anbietet, habe ich mich am Vorabend bereits online für 12 Uhr ausgecheckt. Das Hotel als System weiß also im Prinzip sowieso schon, dass ich bis 11:59 anwesend sein werde. Aber es redet wahrscheinlich nicht mit seinen Putzkräften.

Das alles teile ich dem Techniktagebuch-Redaktionschat um 9:30 erwartungsvoll mit.

Um 9:32 reißt jemand die Zimmertür auf und möchte putzen.

(Kathrin Passig)

[deadpresidents]

Review: "Jesus Wept" by Philip Shenon

Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church Philip Shenon Knopf/Hardcover/608 pages/Feb. 11, 2025 BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO

Philip Shenon wrote an excellent book about the assassination of John F. Kennedy that was published right before the 50th anniversary of JFK's death in 2013 -- A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) -- so I was intrigued when I saw that his latest book was going to dive into Papal history.

In Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), Shenon tells the story of the dramatic changes that have taken place within the Catholic Church over the past 75 years, and chronicles those changes through the lives and reigns of the past seven Popes: Pope Pius XII (1939-1958); Pope John XXIII (1958-1963); Pope Paul VI (1963-1978); Pope John Paul I (August-September 1978); Pope John Paul II (1978-2005); Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013); and Pope Francis (2013-present).

Despite a complete absence of religious faith in my own life, I've always been fascinated by the institution of the Papacy, its ancient and immense history, and the personal biographies of the 266 people who have sat on the throne of St. Peter as Bishop of Rome. While understanding its obvious importance to the Pope's entire reason for existing, I don't enjoy getting tangled in the labyrinths of ecclesiastical history or liturgical complexities, so I gravitate to books that reveal the human side of the Pontiffs. And the fact that the institution of the Papacy has played such an important political role in the world for roughly 2,000+ years is a remarkable historical feat.

In the past 75 years, the Papacy and the Catholic Church have undergone radical changes and challenges that Shenon explains with much more detail and understanding than I could ever do. Some of the events that have taken place during that time period covered by Shenon in Jesus Wept would have rocked the Church to its core if they had happened on their own let alone simultaneously or one after another -- from World War II and the Vatican's position, actions, and efforts during the Holocaust to the Second Vatican Council, which was convened by Pope John XXIII and seen through by Pope Paul VI following Pope John's death, and was one of the most transformational ecumenical councils in centuries. 

There was also the rapid growth of the Church in the developing countries of Africa, South America, and Asia while the Church's traditional domain in Europe and North America atrophied. And there was the widespread and systemic abuse of children by trusted leaders of the Church and the decades of cover-ups and absence of accountability by the most powerful people in the Church hierarchy -- an issue that continues to threaten the Church as more and more crimes are uncovered.

By telling the story of the Church's past 75 years through the lives of the seven Popes that have reigned during that time, Shenon illustrates how powerful and omnipresent modern Popes have become due to -- at first -- widespread broadcast media, and now social media and the internet. But what really has set the modern Popes apart from their predecessors and even some of their contemporaries who are heads of state or heads of government in other countries is the modern Pope's apostolic journeys all over the world. Modern Popes don't face any sort of jurisdictional limitations, and the Papacy is at the apex of its power or influence when the Pope can bring the Church to marginalized or vulnerable people in remote places.

Following the unification of Italy and the establishment of Rome as the Italian capital -- over one hundred years before the travels of Pope Paul VI or Pope John Paul II -- the Popes never left the Vatican, leading to the Popes of the 19th and early-20th Century to be known as "Prisoners of the Vatican." In 1929's Lateran Treaty, Italy officially recognized Vatican City as a sovereign nation and acknowledged the Pope's temporal power over the Roman enclave, which made the Pontiffs more comfortable with the possibility of traveling outside of the tiny city-state. It was front-page news in the New York Times on July 26, 1929 when Pope Pius XI became the first Pope to leave the Vatican in 59 years -- 300,000 people squeezed into St. Peter's Square and watched as Pius XI was driven around the square and to the edge of the border between Vatican City and Italy, despite the fact that the Pope never actually crossed into Italian territory. 

Even with the Vatican's sovereignty guaranteed, Pius XI and his successors Pius XII and John XXIII never traveled outside of Italy. It wasn't until 1964 that Pope Paul VI became the first Pope to travel outside of Italy since 1809 when Napoleon Bonaparte was still Emperor of France, and the first reigning Pope to ever travel outside of Europe. Paul VI visited every continent besides Antarctica, and made a historic visit to the Holy Land. While Pope Paul's pastoral journeys set a new tone, the travels of Pope John Paul II -- the first non-Italian Pope to be elected in over 450 years -- practically changed the role of the Pope from Bishop of Rome to the entire world's neighborhood pastor. During his nearly 27 years as Pope, John Paul II traveled to 129 different countries and made multiple trips to many of those places. And many of John Paul II's visits weren't simply to preach to the faithful; his trips undoubtedly helped play a part in the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and bring an end to the Cold War. John Paul II's successors, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, also traveled widely (Francis visited many places that had never even seen a Cardinal, let alone a Pope, including an historic trip to Iraq in 2021) but couldn't match the pace of John Paul II's journeys.

Shenon's book describes how those apostolic journeys are critically important for a Pope's leadership and legacy -- politically and ecclesiastically. Jesus Wept also examines the teachings of the modern Popes because they are, after all, religious leaders. Shenon highlights the most impactful encyclicals written by the modern Popes -- the teaching documents that resonated most strongly within the Church -- and how those messages validated or transformed Catholic doctrine.

By using the seven most-recent Popes as the vehicles for defining the history of past 75 years of the Catholic Church, Shenon makes it crystal clear that every Pope shapes the Church in some manner during their time on the throne. Even Pope John Paul I, who died just 33 days after his election in 1978, had a definite impact on the Church after his death. His sudden death practically gave the Cardinals who had just gathered in the Conclave to elect a successor to Pope Paul VI an opportunity to have a "do-over". Instead of another Italian or another frail, sickly, or relatively older Pope, they replaced John Paul I with an energetic, athletic, 58-year-old former theatre actor from Poland. Pope John Paul II's early years on St. Peter's throne were dynamic, but as he led the Church into the 21st Century and aged before the eyes of the world, his health struggles -- which began with an assassination attempt where he was shot and seriously wounded and included a battle with Parkinson's disease -- made him a symbol for suffering. As inspiring as it was to millions of people, it later raised questions about whether his very public physical degeneration may have kept him from addressing widespread sexual abuse by clerics in parishes around the world.

John Paul II's successor, Pope Benedict XVI of Germany, was an influential adviser throughout the reign of the Polish pontiff and closely watched John Paul II's physical deterioration. Lacking the charisma of his popular predecessor and continuing the conservative trajectory of the Church as the demographics of the Catholic faithful was undergoing significant changes, the scholarly Benedict was always going to have a difficult time filling the red shoes of John Paul II. At the age of 78, Benedict was the oldest Pope elected in 275 years and seen as more of a transitional figure than transformational. So it was especially shocking when, in 2013, Pope Benedict XVI told a gathering of Cardinals in the Vatican that due to his advanced age and declining health, he felt he could no longer continue the "adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry." At a time of crisis within the Church, the 85-year-old Benedict became the first Pope to voluntarily resign the Papacy in over 700 years. Benedict became "Pope Emeritus" and moved into a monastery on the grounds of the Vatican where he lived (fairly) quietly until his death in 2022.

The Conclave in 2013 to choose a successor following Benedict's abdication resulted in the election of another Pope in his late-70s, but Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was not merely a transitional figure. The first Jesuit elected to the Papacy, Bergoglio was also the first Pope from the Southern Hemisphere, first Pope from the Americas, first non-European Pope in nearly 1,300 years, and the first Pope to take the name of Francis. Pope Francis immediately declared that the Church should be devoted to taking care of the poor and the vulnerable. He declined to move into the luxurious apartments of the Papal palace and lived in a simple room in the Vatican guest house for visiting clergy and toned down many of the lavish aspects of the Papacy. He targeted corruption in the Church and amongst the clergy and tried to make the Church more welcoming to everyone, working to open some leadership positions within the Curia to women and not turning away the LGBTQ community. Francis has been a passionate advocate for immigrants and protecting the environment and a vivid critic of economic inequality. The significant differences between the worldview of Pope Francis and his two conservative predecessors has resulted in pushback from some Catholic leaders and political opposition by many right-wing leaders around the world. But Francis has dramatically altered the makeup of the College of Cardinals as he's appointed dozens of Cardinals from remote locations and third-world countries that have never had a Cardinal, particularly in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania -- for the first time in Church history, the majority of the College of Cardinals are non-European.

Whether they are traditionalists or activists, conservative or liberal, transitional or transformational, the seven Popes that Philip Shenon covers in Jesus Wept and their respective Papacies are instruments of their time. They are political and ecclesiastical forces who have a tremendous impact on the world they reign in -- not merely on the tiny Vatican City-state where they have temporal power or the vast Catholic Church where they exercise their spiritual power --  but on conflicts and policies and issues and individual leaders everywhere. Their teachings and their moral leadership can influence elections and inspire peace talks. Their words can activate the Catholic faithful and attract the attention (and the annoyance) of governments. The Papacy is one of history's most unique institutions and at 2,000-years-old, one of its most enduring. But whatever its spiritual inspiration and ecclesiastical function may be, it is an entirely human creation and the 266 men who have occupied the position of Pope over two millennium have all been human beings with the faults and weaknesses and worries that we all have. That is one of the reasons why the institution of the Papacy and the people who have sat on St. Peter's Throne are so fascinating to someone like me -- an agnostic, non-Catholic American. And while I may not share the faith that millions of Catholics have in their Popes, I recognize and appreciate the power and even the importance of the position. Philip Shenon's Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church is a window into that power and how those seven men have impacted, influenced, and changed the world as they've led the Church over the past 75 years. Shenon's research and reporting in Jesus Wept is excellent -- as it was in his 2013 book on the Kennedy Assassination, A Cruel and Shocking Act. Jesus Wept is a must-read history of the modern Papacy and an early front-runner to be high on my year-end list of the best books of 2025.

[booksiverecentlyread]

85: The Living Sea of Waking Dreams [2020]

by: Richard Flanagan

[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

[dynamobooks]

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

[lilibetbombshell]

[bucolicbook]

Three Days in June: A Novel by Anne Tyler 

Pub date - 2/11/25

When I started reading this, I wasn’t sure about it - 

*it took me a while to make sure that it was taking place in current times 

*I didn’t much care for Gail (the MFC) at first 

Despite its shorter length, Ms Tyler packs a lot into her writing and as I read, I wound up really enjoying this slice of life novel. 

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the DRC

[howdidthatbookend]

Alafair Burke | THE NOTE Spoilers

The Book:  The Note by Alafair BurkePublished January 7, 2025 by KnopfDate read: December 1, 2024 Find more January 2025 releases here. The Note spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review. The Characters:  May, Lauren, and Kelsey ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3 out of 5. Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon This page…

[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.

[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

[ihkostwrttemberg]

Die meistverkauften Bücher der Woche, 5. Januar

Gebundene Belletristik 1. Jaime von Percival Everett (Doubleday: 28 $) Eine actiongeladene Neuinterpretation von „Die Abenteuer des Huckleberry Finn“. 41 2. Auf allen Vieren von Miranda July (Riverhead Books: 29 $) In diesem zarten, respektlosen Roman stellt eine Frau ihr häusliches Leben auf den Kopf. 33 3. Kleine Dinge wie diese von Claire Keegan (Grove Press: 20 $) Während der Weihnachtszeit…

[wispythreads]

I haven't posted any of my art for awhile but I saw these doodles I made recently of my OCS again and wanted to share! I just think they look nice.

Bonus Wylex doodle that is a bit scuffed because I was freehanding her and Cecil without sketching with pencil first.

[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.

[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.