What I Read in 2013
I haven't posted here since last year's list (oops). Here it is (with notes):
The Lotus Flowers- Ellen Bryant Voigt
The Glimmering Room- Cynthia Cruz
Partyknife- Dan Magers
Butcher’s Tree- Feng Sun Chen
The Flame Alphabet- Ben Marcus
Blackbird and Wolf- Henri Cole
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running- Haruki Murakami
Immigrant- Marcella Sulak
Gold Cell- Sharon Olds
All American Poem- Matthew Dickman
Inferno- Eileen Myles
Pierce the Skin- Selected poems of Henri Cole
Bone Black- bell hooks
The Improbable Swerving of Atoms- Christopher Bursk
Life on Mars- Tracy K. Smith
American Dust Revisited- Brian S. Ellis
Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz- Cynthia Carr
The Reenactments- Nick Flynn
Boneshepherds- Patrick Rosal
If One of Us Should Fall- Nicole Terez Dutton
The Book of Questions- Neruda, trans. William O’Daly
The Mercy Seat- John LaBute
Madness, Rack, and Honey- Mary Ruefle
Flies- Michael Dickman
Diary of Anne Frank
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank- Nathan Englander
Sixty Poems- Charles Simic
Dark Elderberry Branch: Poems of Marina Tsvetaena- Trans. Ilya Kaminsky and Jean Valentine
The White Album- Joan Didion
Reluctant Mistress- Anne Champion
This Lamentable City- Polina Barskova, Trans. Ilya Kaminsky
Actual Air- David Berman
I Cut My Finger- Stuart Ross (some of it)
Hider Roser- Ben Mirov
Birds of America- Lorrie Moore
Asylum- Quan Barry
Borderlands/La Frontera- Gloria Anzaldua (most of the essay section)
The Master Letters- Lucie Brock-Broido
Wine for a Shotgun- Marty McConnell
Dark Matter- Aase Berg
Homeward Bound: American Families During the Cold War Era- Elaine Tyler May (Ch. 5 was the most valuable for me)
The Hiroshima Maidens- Rodney Barker (this was problematic)
Blue Nights- Joan Didion
Selected Poems- Mary Ruefle
Edinburgh- Alexander Chee
The Colossus of New York- Colson Whitehead
Motherless Brooklyn- Jonathan Lethem
Blindness- Jose Saramago
How to Get into Twin Palms- Karolina Waclawiak
Who was Changed and Who Was Dead- Barbara Comyns
Open City- Teju Cole
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao- Junot Diaz
Unterzakhn- Leela Corman
Love Goes to Buildings on Fire- Will Hermes
Stolen Air: The Selected Poems of Osip Mandelstam- Trans. Cristian Wiman
The Age of Men- Dorianne Laux
Leaf Storm- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ashes- Philip Levine
American Pastoral- Mary Oliver
Norwegian Wood- Haruki Murakami
Divan and Other Writings- Federico Garcia Lorca (Trans. Edwin Honig)
The Culture of Fear- Barry Glassner
Into the Dark and Emptying Field- Rachel McKibbens
I Was Told There Would Be Cake- Sloane Crosley
The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People- Susan Orlean
Head Off and Split- Nikky Finney
Don’t Get Too Comfortable- David Rakoff
My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere- Susan Orlean
Rose- Li-Young Lee
Fraud- David Rakoff
Half Empty- David Rakoff
BlackGirl Mansion- Angel Nafis
Slavs!- Tony Kushner
In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
A Bright Room Called Day- Tony Kushner
Sweet Machine- Mark Doty
Diaries of Vatslav Nijinsky (only Joan Acocella introduction)
A Queer History of the United States- Michael Bronski
Filibuster for a Kiss- Courtney Queeney
The Great Fires- Jack Gilbert
City of Many Days- Shulamith Hareven, Trans. by Hilel Halkin and the author (this was probably one of the best things I read this year)
Love, An Index- Rebecca Lindenberg (so was this)
Moon Palace- Paul Auster
Cold Pluto- Mary Ruefle
Sharks in the Rivers- Ada Limon
Hotel Insomnia- Charles Simic
The Color Master- Aimee Bender
NW- Zadie Smith
This is How You Lose Her- Junot Diaz
How to Survive a Hotel Fire- Angela Michelle Wong
Pastoralia- George Saunders
The Whispering Muse- Sjon
Threats- Amelia Gray
A Guide to Being Born- Ramona Ausubel
The Blue Fox- Sjon
Poetic Scientifica- Leah Noble Davidson
If on a winter’s night a traveler- Italo Calvino
State of Wonder- Ann Patchett
Facts About the Moon- Dorianne Laux
Tell Me- Kim Addonizio
Mad River- Jan Beatty
Trances of the Blast- Mary Ruefle
The Lotus Flowers- Ellen Bryant Voigt
The Glimmering Room- Cynthia Cruz
Partyknife- Dan Magers
Butcher’s Tree- Feng Sun Chen
The Flame Alphabet- Ben Marcus
Blackbird and Wolf- Henri Cole
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running- Haruki Murakami
Immigrant- Marcella Sulak
Gold Cell- Sharon Olds
All American Poem- Matthew Dickman
Inferno- Eileen Myles
Pierce the Skin- Selected poems of Henri Cole
Bone Black- bell hooks
The Improbable Swerving of Atoms- Christopher Bursk
Life on Mars- Tracy K. Smith
American Dust Revisited- Brian S. Ellis
Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz- Cynthia Carr
The Reenactments- Nick Flynn
Boneshepherds- Patrick Rosal
If One of Us Should Fall- Nicole Terez Dutton
The Book of Questions- Neruda, trans. William O’Daly
The Mercy Seat- John LaBute
Madness, Rack, and Honey- Mary Ruefle
Flies- Michael Dickman
Diary of Anne Frank
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank- Nathan Englander
Sixty Poems- Charles Simic
Dark Elderberry Branch: Poems of Marina Tsvetaena- Trans. Ilya Kaminsky and Jean Valentine
The White Album- Joan Didion
Reluctant Mistress- Anne Champion
This Lamentable City- Polina Barskova, Trans. Ilya Kaminsky
Actual Air- David Berman
I Cut My Finger- Stuart Ross (some of it)
Hider Roser- Ben Mirov
Birds of America- Lorrie Moore
Asylum- Quan Barry
Borderlands/La Frontera- Gloria Anzaldua (most of the essay section)
The Master Letters- Lucie Brock-Broido
Wine for a Shotgun- Marty McConnell
Dark Matter- Aase Berg
Homeward Bound: American Families During the Cold War Era- Elaine Tyler May (Ch. 5 was the most valuable for me)
The Hiroshima Maidens- Rodney Barker (this was problematic)
Blue Nights- Joan Didion
Selected Poems- Mary Ruefle
Edinburgh- Alexander Chee
The Colossus of New York- Colson Whitehead
Motherless Brooklyn- Jonathan Lethem
Blindness- Jose Saramago
How to Get into Twin Palms- Karolina Waclawiak
Who was Changed and Who Was Dead- Barbara Comyns
Open City- Teju Cole
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao- Junot Diaz
Unterzakhn- Leela Corman
Love Goes to Buildings on Fire- Will Hermes
Stolen Air: The Selected Poems of Osip Mandelstam- Trans. Cristian Wiman
The Age of Men- Dorianne Laux
Leaf Storm- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ashes- Philip Levine
American Pastoral- Mary Oliver
Norwegian Wood- Haruki Murakami
Divan and Other Writings- Federico Garcia Lorca (Trans. Edwin Honig)
The Culture of Fear- Barry Glassner
Into the Dark and Emptying Field- Rachel McKibbens
I Was Told There Would Be Cake- Sloane Crosley
The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People- Susan Orlean
Head Off and Split- Nikky Finney
Don’t Get Too Comfortable- David Rakoff
My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere- Susan Orlean
Rose- Li-Young Lee
Fraud- David Rakoff
Half Empty- David Rakoff
BlackGirl Mansion- Angel Nafis
Slavs!- Tony Kushner
In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
A Bright Room Called Day- Tony Kushner
Sweet Machine- Mark Doty
Diaries of Vatslav Nijinsky (only Joan Acocella introduction)
A Queer History of the United States- Michael Bronski
Filibuster for a Kiss- Courtney Queeney
The Great Fires- Jack Gilbert
City of Many Days- Shulamith Hareven, Trans. by Hilel Halkin and the author (this was probably one of the best things I read this year)
Love, An Index- Rebecca Lindenberg (so was this)
Moon Palace- Paul Auster
Cold Pluto- Mary Ruefle
Sharks in the Rivers- Ada Limon
Hotel Insomnia- Charles Simic
The Color Master- Aimee Bender
NW- Zadie Smith
This is How You Lose Her- Junot Diaz
How to Survive a Hotel Fire- Angela Michelle Wong
Pastoralia- George Saunders
The Whispering Muse- Sjon
Threats- Amelia Gray
A Guide to Being Born- Ramona Ausubel
The Blue Fox- Sjon
Poetic Scientifica- Leah Noble Davidson
If on a winter’s night a traveler- Italo Calvino
State of Wonder- Ann Patchett
Facts About the Moon- Dorianne Laux
Tell Me- Kim Addonizio
Mad River- Jan Beatty
Trances of the Blast- Mary Ruefle