CHRISTMAS BOOKS, 2015

Dear Son,

You, a college freshman, told us a story of a gentleman who often visits your campus and spreads books on a table to sell. We remember such booksellers, too, from our college days. And we are so moved that you thought to patronize this bookseller for holiday gifts to us this year. We are heartened because you not only chose well but also at the significance of you understanding the import of books. We are delighted at your growth and look forward to watching you continue to grow.  Thank you for your book-gifts this holiday. Mom appreciates the 1881 PIZARRO or the DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF PERU, and Dad the sci-fi fan appreciates his Star Trek novel.

Here is a list below of all the books that came into our house as holiday gifts. They shall join the Family Library which we hope will grace your house someday.

Love,

Mom & Dad

BOOKS FOR EILEEN

Poetry or by Poets

SELECT POEMS by John M. Bennett (Poetry Hotel Press and Luna Bisonte Productions, San Francisco / Columbus, OH, 2016)

SOME NOTES ON MY PROGRAMMING by Anselm Berrigan (Edge, New York, 2005)

ROBERT FROST: A One-Volume Edition of the Authorized Biography by Lawrance Thompson and R.H. Winnick, Edited by Edward Connery Lathem (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1981)

THE ART OF MEMOIR by Mary Karr (Harper Collins, New York, 2015)

VOYAGE OF THE SABLE VENUS AND OTHER POEMS by Robin Coste Lewis (Knopf, New York, 2015)

KANSOZ by Joel Chace (Knives, Forks & Spoons Press, Newton-Le-Willows, U.K., 2015)

I MUST BE LIVING TWICE: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Eileen Myles (ecco/HarperCollins, New York, 2015)

BENEDICTION by Alice Notley (Letter Machine Editions, Tucson, AZ, 2015)

NEGATIVITY’S KISS by Alice  Notley (Presses Universitairies de Rouen et du Havre, 2014)

APOLOGY: a novel by Jon Pineda (Milkweed Editions, 2013)

LITTLE ANODYNES by Jon Pineda (The University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC, 2015)

FOX: Poems 1998-2000 by Adrienne Rich (Norton, New York, 2001)

FLOATING LANTERNS by Mercedes Roffe, Trans. by Anne Deeny (Shearsman Books, Bristol, U.K., 2009)

THE VALISE by Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino (Dead Academics Press, Columbus, GA, 2012)

ORDINARY LIGHT: A MEMOIR by Tracy K. Smith (Knopf, New York, 2015)

Art

WRITINGS INTERVIEWS by Richard Serra (University of Chicago Press, 1994)

RICHARD SERRA DRAWING: A Retrospective (The Menil Collection, Houston)

RICHARD SERRA SCULPTURE 1985-1998 Edited by Russell Ferguson, Anthony McCall and Clara Weyergraf-Serra (The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, exhibition 20 Sept. 1998-3 Jan. 1999)

Sidenote from Mom: Dear Son, Dad thought it would be lovely to get me a signed edition of one of Richard Serra's books. He found on Ebay a signed version of SCULPTURE, which also amused us both as it was signed to an "Elaine." Thus, we could pretend it was signed to me with a name-typo. In all seriousness, your Mom loves to have the presence of artists' hands in the house and so I was delighted to receive this gift:

Others

PIZARRO or the DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF PERU, edited by Fred H. Allen (Cincinnati: Walden and Stowe. New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1881)

THE DECOLONIZED EYE: FILIPINO AMERICAN ART AND PERFORMANCE by Sarita Echavez See (University of Minnesota Press, 2009)

BEYOND THE NATION: DIASPORIC FILIPINO LITERATURE AND QUEER READING by Martin Joseph Ponce (New York University Press, New York / London, 2012)

THE DIARY OF A FORTY-NINER Edited by Chauncey L. Canfield (Turtle Point Press, New York, 1992)

GIRL IN THE GOLD CAMP: A TRUE ACCOUNT OF AN ALASKA ADVENTURE 1909-1910 by Peggy Rouch Dodson (Epicenter Press, Fairbanks / Seattle, 1996)

BOOKS FOR TOM

THE ABODE OF LIFE, a Star Trek novel by Lee Correy (Timescape/Pocket Books, New York, 1982)

THE LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY, Edited with an Introduction by Emily Anderson, Second Edition prepared by A. Hyatt King and Monica Carolan (MacMillan / St. Martin’s Press, 1996)

EURIPIDES: FRAGMENTS AEGEUS-MELEAGER, Edited and Translated by Christopher Collard and Martin Cropp (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 2008)

EURIPIDES: CYCLOPS * ALCESTIS * MEDEA, Edited and Translated by David Kovacs  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1994)

HISTORIA AUGUSTA, Vol. I, Translated by David Magie (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1921)

SCRIPTORES HISTORIAE AUGUSTA II, Translated by David Magie (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1924)

HISTORIA AUGUSTA, Vol. III, Translated by David Magie (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1932)

JOSEPHUS: JEWISH ANTIQUITIES, Book VII-VIII, Translated by Ralph Marcus  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1934)

JOSEPHUS: JEWISH ANTIQUITIES, Book XX, General Index, Translated by L.H. Feldman  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1965)

JOSEPHUS: JEWISH ANTIQUITIES, Books XII-XIII, Translated by Ralph Marcus  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1943)

JOSEPHUS: JEWISH ANTIQUITIES, Books 4-6, Translated by H. ST. J. Thackeray and  Ralph Marcus  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1934)

PROCOPIUS: HISTORY OF THE WARS, Books 5-6, 15, Translated by H.B. Dewing  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1919)

PROCOPIUS: HISTORY OF THE WARS, Books 7, 36-8, Translated by H.B. Dewing  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1928)

SICULUS: THE LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Books 1-2, 19, Translated by H.B. Dewing  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1914)

SICULUS: THE LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Books 1-2, 34, Translated by C.H. Oldfather  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1933)

SICULUS: THE LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Books XIV-XV, 19, Translated by C.H. Oldfather  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 19__)

SICULUS: THE LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Books XIX, 66-XX, Translated by Russel M. Geer  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 19__)

SICULUS: THE LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Books XII, 41-XIII, Translated by C.H. Oldfather  (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1950)

ARISTOPHANES: ACHARNIANBS * KNIGHTS, Edited and Translated by Jeffrey Henderson (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1998)

HERODIAN: HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE, Books 5-8 Translated by C.R. Whittaker (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1970)

ZACHARY TAYLOR: SOLDIER OF THE REPUBLIC by Holman Hamilton (The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn., 1941)

THE COMMAND OF THE AIR by Giulio Douhet (The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn., 1994)

MISSION OF GRAVITY by Hal Clement (The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn., 1987)

DUST by Charles Pellegrino (signed, The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn., 1998)

THE DAY THE MARTIANS CAME (signed, The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn., 1998)

BRIGHTNESS REEF (Book One of the Uplift Trilogy) by David Brin (signed, The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn., 1995)

THE LAST LEGENDS OF EARTH by A.A. Attanabio (signed, The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn., 1989)

THE OUTPOST by Mike Resnick (signed, The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn., 2001)

MOVING MARS by Greg Bear (The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn., 1995)

THE WINEMAKER by Richard G. Peterson (Meadowlark Publishing, California, 2015)

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 100 OBJECTS by Neil MacGregor (Viking, 1996)

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 12 MAPS by Jerry Brotton (Viking, 2012)

CIVIL WAR: DAY BY DAY w/ Introduction by Henry Steele Commager (Bison, 1989)

THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho (HarperOne, New York, 1991)

PUBLICATIONS FOR MICHAEL

ENDERS’ GAME by Orson Welles (signed. The Easton Press, Norwalk, Conn.)

ANALOG, science fiction fantasy journal (August 1977) containing a short story  precursor to the novel ENDERS’ GAME by Orson Welles

[Of related interest, HERE were the Holiday 2014 gift books.] 

Additional Labels: Spain and Latin America; Westerns (U.S.)

BOOKS THAT CAME HOME

Dear Son,

Dad and I just returned from a trip to New York--I think it was our first trip away from you.  Oh yes, we missed you very much!

Son, whenever your Mom travels, she tends to pack a huge load of books with her to read during the airplane ride and at her destination.  She often packs books she's not sure she'd like from her huge To-Read List.  The reason she does so is so that she can just leave those books behind during her trip if she doesn't like them--she leaves them at the airport, in the hotels, in eating areas.... certainly there's the possibility that others might enjoy them and she doesn't mind that.  But she prefers not to return with books she didn't care for.  This strategy also helps lighten the luggage for the return home.

This trip to New York was interesting in that we returned home with every book your Mom packed and read.  So welcome these additions to our library and we hope you will enjoy them, too, in the future:

MAN IS WOLF TO MAN: SURVIVING THE GULAG, memoir by Janusz Bardach and Kathleen Gleeson (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1998) -- among other things, this book shows how much the human being can suffer and how one need not be toppled by suffering.

THE ART FORGER, novel by B.A. Shapiro (Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill, NC, 2012) -- a fictitious story but with interesting details about real life art forgeries

THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY, novel by Gabrielle Zevin (Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill, NC, 2014)-- your Mom is a sucker for fiction revolving around bookstores and this is a charming one

THE DESCARTES HIGHLANDS, novel by Eric Gamalinda (Akashic Books, Brooklyn, 2014) -- your Mom believes Eric Gamalinda is one of the greatest living writers today.  Do follow up on this book and also his poetry.

ANGELICA'S DAUGHTERS, collaborative novel by  Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Erma Cuizon, Susan Evangelista, Veronica Montes and Nadine Sarreal (Anvil Publishing, Pasig City, Philippines, 2010) -- the structure of this novel is interesting, styled a la the Filipino early 20th century "dugtungan" novel where each writer wrote a chapter, passed it on to another writer who'd write the next chapter and so on.  It may be a tad Chick Lit-ish for you but it's interesting to consider the structure: colaboration with others, Son, can be one of life's pleasures.

Love,

Mom and Dad

CHRISTMAS BOOKS, 2014

Dear Son,

As you know, we love to read and to encourage you (and others) to read.  So our typical Christmas is always a bookish one.  Here is the list of books we all received this Christmas, which will become part of the family library as well:

BOOKS FOR MICHAEL, TOM AND EILEEN

SWEET PROMISED LAND by Robert Laxalt (University of Nevada Press, 1959)

HOMAGE TO CATALONIA by George Orwell (Benediction Classics/Oxford, 2010)

BOOKS FOR EILEEN

(Some books are in transit; list will be updated when they arrive)
Poetry:

DISOBEDIENCE by Alice Notley (Penguin, 2001)

RELIQUARIA by R.A. Villanueva (University of Nebraska Press, 2014)

DON’T LET ME BE LONELY: AN AMERICAN LYRIC by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf, 2004)

THE OPEN SECRET by Jennifer Moxley (Flood Editions, Chicago, 2014)

ECODEVIANCE: (SOMA)TICS FOR THE FUTURE WILDERNESS by CAConrad (Wave, Seattle and New York, 2014)

A BEAUTIFUL MARSUPIAL AFTERNOON: NEW (SOMA)TICS by CAConrad (Wave, Seattle and New York, 2012)

THE DAY OF SHELLY’S DEATH by Renato Rosaldo (Duke University Press, 2014)

THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LARRY EIGNER, VOLUMES 1-4, Edited by Curtis Faville and Bob Grenier

GREAT GUNS by Farnoosh Fathi (Canarium Books, Ann Arbor / Stuttgart / Iowa City, 2013)

SPONTANEOUS PARTICULARS: THE TELEPATHY OF ARCHIVES by Susan Howe (Christine Burgin / New Directions, New York, 2014)

DICKINSON UNBOUND: PAPER, PROCESS, POETICS by Alexandra Socarides (Oxford University Press, 2012)

APOPHALLATION SKETCHES: A THEATER OF AFFECTIVE EXTREMES / STRENUOUS ESSAYS FOR THE SENSES by j/j hastain (Nous-zot Press, 2014)

POST SUBJECT: A FABLE by Oliver de la Paz (The University of Akron Press, Akron, OH, 2014)

HOURGLASS MUSEUM by Kelli Russell Agodon (White Pine Press, Buffalo, N.Y., 2014)

KULCHUR GIRL: NOTES FROM BERKELEY 1965 by Rachel Loden

ABU GHRAIB ARIAS by Philip Metres

BLUETS by Maggie Nelson (Wave, Seattle and New York, 2009)

ODE TO THE HEART SMALLER THAN A PENCIL by Luisa A. Igloria (Utah State University Press, 2014)

Non-Poetry:

MAN IS WOLF TO MAN: SURVIVING THE GULAG by Janusz Bordach and Kathleen Gleeson (University of California Press, 1999)

GIRL DRIVE: CRISS-CROSSING AMERICA, REDEFINING FEMINISM by Nona Willis Aronowitz & Emma Bee Bernstein

BRAIDING SWEETGRASS: INDIGENOUS WISDOM, SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE TEACHINGS OF PLANTS by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkwood, 2013)

AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ HISTORY OF THE U.S. by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz (Beacon Press, Boston, 2014)

TOMORROW’S MEMORIES: A DIARY 1924-1928 by Angeles Monrayo, Edited by Rizaline R. Raymundo (University of Hawai’i Press, 2003)

THE DESCARTES HIGHLANDS, novel by Eric Gamalinda (Akashic, 2014)

THE ART FORGER, novel by B.A. Shapiro (Algonquin, Chapel Hill, NC, 2012)

PULSE, novel by Robert Cook (Royal Wulff Publishing, 2014)

TEXTS FROM JANE EYRE AND OTHER CONVERSATIONS WITH YOUR FAVORITE LITERARY CHARACTER by Mallory Ortberg (Henry Holt, 2014)

BOOKS FOR MICHAEL 

MARTIAN CHRONICLES by Ray Bradbury (Signed Edition released by Easton Press)

THE WINE REGION OF RIOJA by Ana Fabiano

CULINARIA SPAIN, Ed. Marion Trutter, Potography by Gunter Beer, Art by Peter Feierabend, Coordinator & Layout by Michael Ditter

STRENGTH TRAINING ANATOMY by Frederic Delouier

BOOKS FOR TOM

THE LAST LION: WINSTON SPENCHER CHURCHILL: VISIONS OF GLORY 1874-1932 by William Manchester (Little Brown, 1983)

THE LAST LION: WINSTON SPENCHER CHURCHILL: ALONE 1932-1940 by William Manchester (Little Brown, 1988)

THE LAST LION: WINSTON SPENCHER CHURCHILL: DEFENDER OF THE REALM 1940-1965 by William Manchester and Paul Reid (Little Brown, 2012)

MEMORIES by Fannie A. Beers (Collectors Library of the Civil War / Time Life, Reprinted from Press of J.B. Lipincott Co., Philadelphia, 1888)

CIVIL WAR POETRY: AN ANTHOLOGY, Editor Paul Negri (Dover Thrift Editions, 1997)

MR. LINCOLN GOES TO WAR by William Marvel (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)

LINCOLN’S DARKEST YEAR: THE WAR IN 1862 by William Marvel (Houghton Mifflin, 2008)

THE GREAT TASK REMAINING: THE THIRD YEAR OF LINCOLN’S WAR by William Marvel (Houghton Mifflin, 2010)

ARISTOTLE: PARTS OF ANIMALS, MOVEMENT OF ANIMALS, PROGRESSION OF ANIMALS, Trans. by A.L. Peck & E.S. Forster (Loeb Classical Library / Harvard University Press, 1937-1961)

THUCYDIDES: HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, BOOKS 1-2, Trans. by C.F. Smith (Loeb Classical Library / Harvard University Press, 1919-2003)

HOMER: ILIAD, Books 1-12 (Loeb Classical Library / Harvard University Press, 1999)

CICERO: ORATIONS PRO SESTIO IN VATINIUM, Trans. by R. Gardner (Loeb Classical Library / Harvard University Press, 1958)

BOETHIUS: TRACTATES, DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE, Trans. by H.F. Stewart & E.K. Rand (Loeb Classical Library / Harvard University Press, 1918-1968)

THE NATURAL CUISINE OF GEORGES BLANC, photography by Christopher Baker (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1987)

A CENTURY OF WINE, THE STORY OF THE WINE REVOLUTION, General Editor Stephen Brook with Foreword by Hugh Johnson (Octopus Publishing, London, 2000)

AN IDEAL WINE: ONE GENERATION’S PURSUIT OF PERFECTION—AND PROFIT—IN CALIFORNIA by David Darlington (Harper Collilns, 2011)

THE JUICE: VINUOUS VERITAS by Jay McInerney (Knopf, N.Y., 2012)

GREAT COURSES (Books as DVDs):

36 REVOLUTIONARY FIGURES OF HISTORY

GREECE AND ROME: AN INTEGRATED HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

THE CONSERVATIVE TRADITION

A HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Son, you will rarely be bored if you are a reader.  We hope you will not live a boring life.

Love,

Mom and Dad

P.S.  Trust Mom to sneak poetry into Dad's Civil War Collection:

YOUR ABUELITA'S BOOK(S), INCLUDING THE ILIAD

Dear Son,

Of course you know this book--a book your Abuelita wrote for her family, including you:

     DAWAC and Other Memoir-Narratives by Beatriz Tilan Tabios

I know you will always treasure this book as it includes your grandma's stories of her life as a little girl in World War II.  She did always repeat those same stories over and over, didn't she?  But it's a great story!  Reading Homer's Iliad because there's nothing else to do when, having fled to the mountains, she and the family had to wait out the Japanese invaders of her village in the Philippines...and that while still a young girl she nevertheless chose the Iliad because it was a small book she could carry along with rice and salt in her ready-made evacuation bag... You can now read about it forever in her book.

And, when I begin to repeat myself and my stories, I hope you remember Abuelita and feel compassion for how memory, as it ages, must continually recycle itself in an ultimately failed attempt to preserve itself.

Oh, I can feel you thinking that at the time of this writing, I've already begun to repeat myself...?  Really, Son, I do not know what you are talking about ... and did I ever tell you about ...

Love,

Mom

P.S.  Naturally, you also should read the Iliad someday.  Fortunately, we have five copies in the library for you!  The first copy is actually your father's first copy of the Iliad; he was 16 when he owned this version "Retold" by Barbara Leonie Picard and illustrated by Joan Kiddell-Monroe. It was published by Henry Z. Walck, Inc. (New York)/Oxford in 1960.  Dad got his copy from his high school Buckingham Browne & Nichols (Massachusetts) -- note the penciled scrawl of his name on the first page.

The second copy is translated by Ennis Rees and published by Oxford in 1991.  This would be a good reading copy:

The third copy is "in contemporary verse" by Robert Fitzgerald with illustrations by W.T. Mars.  It's a lovely production of a leather spine albeit a cloth cover, put out by The Franklin Library as chosen by Oxford.  It's not as deluxe as The Easton Press but still pleasing to the eye:

Next, the fourth copy is part of the Loeb Classical Library and is translated by A.T. Murray, as revised by William F. Wyatt:

Lastly, the fifth copy is the most luxe edition we have, part of the Collector's Edition of "The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written" that came out of The Easton Press in 1979.  It presents the English verse translation by Alexander Pope and illustrations with "the classical designs" of John Flaxman.  The cover is leather-bound with gold leaf, while the pages are archival quality paper specially milled for the edition.  (Dad got this single copy inexpensively from Ebay for $30.) Here are images:

Son, while we have five copies for you -- all a far cry from the book your Abuelita once tucked into her pack for mountain travel -- may you also find your way someday to that point where you would acquire your own copies.  Your own acquisition would imply you came to value this book -- something that would cause pride in you to arise within not just me and Dad proud but also your Abuelita....