May 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

May was a pretty good month for both reading and acquiring reading material. A brief illness over the Memorial Day weekend allowed me more quiet time, and I took advantage of it by binge-reading the excellent Kraken Rider Z books. This was the first time I binge-read a series in at least a decade. Highly recommended.

Acquisitions

Books and magazines purchased in the month of May 2025

  1. Jim Harrison, The Theory and Practice of Rivers (Copper Canyon Press) [2025.05.06] – Purchased from the publisher.
  2. Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems (City Lights Books) [2025.05.07] – Purchased from The Book Nook and Java Shop in Montague, Michigan
  3. Jack Hirschman, Front Lines: Selected Poems (City Lights Books) [2025.05.07] – Purchased from The Book Nook and Java Shop in Montague, Michigan
  4. Naomi Klein, Doppelganger [2025.05.09] – Purchased from Books and Mortar in Grand Rapids, Michigan
  5. Soliloquey #2 [2025.05.13] – Purchased from the author at a Grand River Poetry Collective meeting.
  6. Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions and How the World Lost Its Mind (The University of Chicago Press) [2025.05.19] – Purchased from the publisher after reading about it in a comment on a Naked Capitalism post.
  7. Metal Hurlant #1 [2025.05.20] – From a Kickstarter campaign run by the publisher.
  8. SJ Kim, This Part is Silent – A Life Between Cultures (And Other Stories) [2025.05.23] – Received from the publisher.
  9. Heavy Metal #001 [2025.05.27]

Reading List

Books read in the month of May 2025

Books

  1. Robin McLean, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.08]
  2. Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems [2025.05.13]
  3. Soliloquy #2 [2025.05.19]
  4. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes, Kraken Rider Z [2025.05.24]
  5. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes, Kraken Rider Z: Thunder Kraken [2025.05.26]
  6. Jack Hirschman, Front Lines: Selected Poems [2025.05.31]

Short Prose

  1. Kameron Hurley, “When the Stars Fell” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  2. Jim C. Hines, “Launch Day Milkshakes” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  3. Kameron Hurley, “The Wake” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  4. Kameron Hurley, “The Sea of Ruin” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  5. Robin McLean, “Get ’em Young, treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
  6. Robin McLean, “True Carnivores”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
  7. Robin McLean, “Big Black Man”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
  8. Robin McLean, “Judas Cradle”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.03]
  9. Robin McLean, “Cat”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.03]
  10. Robin McLean, “House Full of Feasting”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.04]
  11. Robin McLean, “Cliff Ordeal”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.06]
  12. Robin McLean, “Alpha”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.08]
  13. Jim C. Hines, “The Haunting of Jig’s Ear” (Patreon post) [2025.05.19]
  14. Frey Lylark, “Changeling” (Patreon post by Apex Book Company) [2025.05.20]

 

Weekly Round-up, May 31, 2025

John Winkelman

Baby House Finches in a nest in the middle of a dense fern plant in a hanging basket.

[Baby House Finches in a nest in the middle of a dense fern plant in a hanging basket.]

I was sick over the Memorial Day weekend, so didn’t get out and about as much as I usually do when I have an extra day. Instead, I took care of projects around the homestead, including rearranging the basement to clear the mess created when we had to move everything to install a sump pump and drain tile. I also made progress on the big water runoff remediation project outside, which I hope will eventually make the sump pump redundant.

Zyra and I also planted more vegetables in the garden, which is about a quarter larger than it was last year, thanks to a day of lifting and moving heavy things.

Now that I think about it, much of this spring has involved lifting and moving heavy things.

Reading

While crashed out on the couch this weekend I finished Kraken Rider Z and read all of its sequel Kraken Rider Z: Thunder Kraken. One of the authors, Dyrk Ashton, is a friend I met at ConFusion back in 2015 or 2016. The Kraken Rider books are of the Progression Fantasy subgenre, and are the first of the kind I have read. I liked them! Dyrk and his co-author David Estes are excellent writers and I got the sense that writing the books was a lot of fun. And given the nature of progression fantasy, reading them and experiencing the characters as they levelled up, was quite satisfying.

Writing

My writing is still in a sort of lull, though I did jot down a couple of small piles of words which, when assembled in the right order, might become poem fragments.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Music, Fae
Setting: Small Town
Genre: Science Fiction

Listening

Prince, The Loring Park Sessions 77.

Interesting Links

 

Weekly Round-up, May 24, 2025

John Winkelman

A large hawk, perched on a power line, holding a robin fledgling in its talons.

[A hawk, having just caught one of the robin fledglings from our back yard.]

Not much to say the week. I was crazy-busy and also got sick, so there wasn’t much to do other than try to stay awake and watch the country continue its rapid slide into fascism.

I found the time and energy at the end of the week to work in our backyard garden. That was when I heard a sudden commotion from the local robins, and looked up to see a large hawk had just caught one of the local fledglings. Better luck next incarnation, little fella.

Reading

Jack Hirschman. William Gibson. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes.

Writing

Nup’m.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Robots, Super Powers
Setting: Ocean
Genre: Literary Fiction

Listening

Robert Plant, “In the Mood”, from his album The Principle of Moments.

Interesting Links

  • “Debating Trump “Ambush” of South African President With “White Genocide’ Lies” (Naked Capitalism) – Emasculated, senile, and impotent white nationalist (but I repeat myself) Donald J. Trump failed to intimidate and humiliate the South African president, and was called out on the absolute lie that is the cowardly false narrative of “white genocide”. Basically, everyone who believes that “white genocide” or “the great replacement” are real needs to be purged from the human race. And the sooner, the better. The world is better off without those racist white trash morons.

Weekly Round-up, May 17, 2025

John Winkelman

A Robin fledgling perched on an unused tomato cage in the middle of a patch of weeds next to the foundation of a small garage.

[A Robin fledgling perched on an unused tomato cage in the middle of a patch of weeds next to the foundation of a small garage.]

Spring has definitely sprung here in West Michigan. After a week off from work I am re-acclimating myself to the daily grind. Work was busy, as was life, and everything was made busier by the schedule disruptions of a new crown on one of my teeth, a meeting of the Grand River Poetry Collective, a meeting of the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Convention, and a severe thunderstorm which blew through Thursday evening, which brought almost four inches of rain in an hour as well as several tornadoes.

But other than that, everything was business as usual.

Reading

I read Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, and am now going through Jack Hirschman’s Front Lines, which I am quite enjoying. This is me making up for not having the mental capacity to enjoy poetry during National Poetry Month.

I just started reading Kraken Rider Z by David Estes and Dyrk Ashton. I know Dyrk from ConFusion, and have previously read his excellent Paternus Trilogy, so I have high hopes for this one. A hundred pages in, and it is pretty good!

Writing

Along with a return to reading poetry, I am writing a little more than usual, which is not difficult because anything more than “none” is more than usual.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Spiritual Beings, Kaiju
Setting: Small Town
Genre: Technothriller

Listening

Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, from the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club. This was the #1 song in the USA this week in 1985.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, May 10, 2025

John Winkelman

A partly-cloudy sky, reflected in the water of a bog at the edge of Loda Lake.

[A partly-cloudy sky, reflected in the water of a bog at the edge of Loda Lake at the Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary.]

I was on vacation last week. I worked on projects around the house. I read a lot. I took some naps. I walked in the woods. It was a good, quiet time.

Reading

I picked up Jack Hirschman’s Front Lines and Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems from The Book Nook in Montague. They are my current porch-sitting reads, and they are most excellent.

Writing

I didn’t accomplish much other than a single poem to close out my most recently-filled journal. It has promise.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Portals, Empire
Setting: Ruins
Genre: Horror

Listening

Ringo Starr, “It Don’t Come Easy.”

Please, remember peace is how we make it
Here within your reach if you’re big enough to take it

Interesting Links

IWSG, May 2025: Fear, Hope, Whatever

John Winkelman

A closeup of a small morel mushroom among blades of grass in an unkempt lawn.

[A closeup of a small morel mushroom among blades of grass in an unkempt lawn.]

Oh, what a month it has been. Last week was the first week since early March in which I did not have to work at least one 10, 11, 12, 14, etc. – hour day. This week I am on vacation, working through my vast backlog of tasks, chores, and errands. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

April was National Poetry Month, and I made a better showing that in the past few years, with about a dozen first-drafts of poems added to my journal. One or two of them even show promise, which is statistically pretty good.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for May 2025 is:

Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?

My greatest fear is a writer is that, despite all the drafts of books, short stories, essays, and poems which fill my hard drive and countless old journals, I will never actually complete any of them to the point where they can be considered for publication.

While it is true that if I have time to write a new story I have time to edit an existing story, I easily and repeatedly fall into the trap of believing that I need a guaranteed minimum of X consecutive, uninterrupted hours to even attempt an edit of even the shortest of short stories. I can mull over new work in my head when I am e.g. walking to work or driving to the store for groceries. The new stuff doesn’t need to be written down write away, and much of the creative process is subconscious.

But editing is not the same. To edit requires singular focus.

I am aware that there is no such thing as a perfect moment for specific work; or at least such moments are rare enough that they might as well be snipe hunts. Adequate time is good enough. I understand that in my head, but I don’t yet understand it in my heart.

So there it is: For want of an hour, the manuscript was lost.

One of my goals for my vacation is to print out a large pile of first-drafts which I can carry around and edit by hand in my spare moments at work or sitting around the house. While not ideal, it is much better than staring at the television with a vague feeling of unease as the days turn into seasons and the pile of possibilities turns into compost.

Happy May, everyone. Write well!

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Weekly Round-up, May 3, 2025

John Winkelman

The Sixth Street Dam in Grand Rapids, Michigan, viewed from the east bank, just south of the dam.

[The Sixth Street Dam in Grand Rapids, Michigan, viewed from the east bank, just south of the dam.]

This past week was the first in several months in which I worked less than 45 hours. But I had many other tasks outside of work, which kept me quite busy. I have the next week off from work, and have no plans, other than the plan to not plan anything for the week.

Reading

I am slowly reading through Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing, a collection of short stories by Robin McLean. They’re pretty good.

Writing

Nothing to report on this front.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Aliens, Language
Setting: Border Town
Genre: Solarpunk

Listening

Billy Idol‘s “The Dead Next Door,” from his superb 1983 album Rebel Yell. I have had a snippet of an earworm stuck in my head for a few days, and while it is not this song, “The Dead Next Door” came up while I was searching.

Interesting Links

April 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

April was a good month for acquiring books from independent publishers.

April was an okay month for reading. My work-life balance was, yet again, significantly tipped toward the work side of things, which took from me much of my reading time, and left me unable to focus for what little time remained.

I suspect in the coming months I will be acquiring fewer books, due to supply-chain disruption and the inevitable recession and increased inflation.

Acquisitions

Books which arrived at my house in the month of April 2025.

  1. Our Dust Earth (Air and Nothingness Press)  [2025.04.07] – Acquired through a Kickstarter campaign run by Air and Nothingness Press
  2. Gerald Murnane, Barley Patch (And Other Stories) [2025.04.14] – The latest arrival from my subscription to And Other Stories.
  3. Kateřina Čupová (Julie Nováková, translator), R.U.R.: The Karel Čapek Classic (Rosarium Publishing) [2025.04.14] – Reward for a Kickstarter campaign run by the always-excellent Rosarium Publishing
  4. Lesley Connor and Jason Sizemore (editors), Robotic Ambitions (Apex Book Company) [2024.04.21]

Reading List

Books which I read in the month of April 2025.

Books

  1. China Miéville, The City and the City [2025.04.13]
  2. Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America [2025.04.17]
  3. Richard Brautigan, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster [2025.04.20]
  4. Richard Brautigan, In Watermelon Sugar [2025.04.23]

Short Prose

  1. Robin McLean, “But for Herr Hitler”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.04.24]
  2. Robin McLean, “Pterodactyl”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.04.25]

Weekly Round-up, April 26, 2025

John Winkelman

Lilac blossoms

[Lilac blossoms on a small lilac tree I pass on my morning walks to the office.]

Spring, it appears, has arrived here in West Michigan.

As my workload eases slightly I have been listening to some of the recordings at the Naropa Poetics Audio Archive. In particular, a series of lectures from a 1991 workshop called “Beat and Other Rebel Angels,” run by Joanne Kyger at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.

In the first of eight lectures from the workshop, Kyger talks extensively of Jack Spicer, of whom I recently became aware when reading the Evergreen Review Reader, 1957-1966 earlier this year. Spicer had significant interaction with Richard Brautigan, and now I think I need to seek out more of his work.

Reading

I finished my Brautigan book, which included Trout Fishing In America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar. My brain is now wonderfully twisted.

Writing

I managed another poem or two this week, but most of my creative energy went to writing code.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Reincarnation, Portals
Setting: Wilderness
Genre: Horror

Listening

“Me & You vs. the World” by Space, from their 1996 album Spiders.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, April 19, 2025

John Winkelman

A bumblebee sunning itself on a sandstone block.

[A bumblebee sunning itself on one of our steps, after presumably being drenched in a recent thunderstorm.]

The particular insanity has sublimated into my life and become indistinguishable from the general insanity which permeates society like background radiation or herpes.

Reading

Having finished The City and the City, I am now focused on Frantz Fanon‘s The Wretched of the Earth during the day, and Richard Brautigan‘s Trout Fishing in America in the evening. I finished Trout Fishing in America, which is the first of three volumes in my only book of Brautigan. Next up therein is the poetry collection The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster. After that is his surrealist text In Watermelon Sugar.

The first poem in The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster is “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”. I think we can safely say at this point that the machines watching over us are doing so with neither love nor grace.

Writing

I have so far this month written around seven poems and poem fragments, which is outstanding considering *gestures at the world*.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Dreams, Addiction
Setting: Labyrinth
Genre: Horror

Listening

“Butterfly Wings” by Machines of Loving Grace, from their 1993 album Concentration. Seemed appropriate.

Interesting Links