Book Your Stocking with Regi Claire

Book Your Stocking 2021

Book Your Stocking: Day 13

Thank goodness that a virtual way of travel is possible, for today we are welcoming back Regi Claire, all the way from Scotland, by way of her Swiss upbringing. 

Please welcome Regi Claire to this year's Book Your Stocking where avid readers recommend books every day until Christmas. (Past sessions here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/book-your-stocking.html)

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Recommendation: The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam 

Why: Written with panache and admirable craft, this compulsively readable, witty, intelligent and moving novel set in the legal circles of Hong Kong and England tells the story of a wife’s secret longings and betrayals.

(Note: part of a trilogy but standalone.)

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About today's reader: Swiss-born Regi Claire is a prizewinning poet and fiction writer based in Scotland.  www.regiclaire.com

Regi Claire

Wake to Words and Brew Some Coffee (December 12, 2021)

Please enjoy this week's edition of Wake to Words and Brew Some Coffee, wherein I read good poems by other people while we all drink coffee.

 

Poems read:

• Winter by Billy Collins
• Winter by Marie Ponsot
• Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost
• Foxes in Winter by Mary Oliver
• The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

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🠊 Listen to more poetry sessions here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/wake-to-words-and-brew-some-coffee.html

🠊 Catch the live show on Sunday mornings at some time-ish: https://www.facebook.com/erintpringle

Book Your Stocking with Erin Pringle

Book Your Stocking 2021

Book Your Stocking: Day 12

Welcome back to Book Your Stocking, where every day until Christmas, avid readers recommend the book, story, song, or word-something that you and your friends would love to find in your stocking or sock drawer.

Today, I'm recommending a book because I missed a day in the series and it would seem odd to have nothing happen for Day 12, even though it's Day 13 when I'm writing this (technicality, tho it may be).

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Recommendation: Known by Salt by Tina Mozelle Braziel

Why: Her poetry doesn't give a f*ck that it grew up in a trailer park and understands lakes, lipstick, and low-income living. I feel recognized when I read her work. Real, raw, and what poetry looks like when it's by the people for the people--impossibly gorgeous. 

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About today's reader: I write stories in all sizes and prefer to read poetry.

Book Your Stocking with Ann Tweedy

Book Your Stocking 2021

Book Your Stocking: Day 11

One of my favorite poets whose work often appears in Wake to Words and Brew Some Coffee is here to share today's book recommendation. Take note. Take many notes. Then find the book.

Please welcome back Ann Tweedy to this year's Book Your Stocking.

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Recommendation: This Wound Is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt

Why: These poems' exploration of colonialism and its effects on the speaker, viscerally in his body, are shattering, and yet the poems are filled with tenderness for his kookum (grandmother), his lovers, and himself.

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About today's reader: Ann Tweedy is the author of the award-winning poetry book, The Body's Alphabet (Headmistress), and three chapbooks: A Registry of Survival (Last Word), White Out (Green Fuse Poetic Arts), and Beleaguered Oases (Seven Kitchens). www.anntweedy.com

Ann Tweedy
photo by Karen Wolf

Book Your Stocking with Heather Keast (my partner)

Book Your Stocking 2021

  Book Your Stocking: Day 10

We have arrived at Friday here on Book Your Stocking, where each day (and mostly each year), avid readers suggest good ideas for gifting readers and word-lovers. 

Today is also a good day to write down all the recommendations so far (click here) for your weekend book-browsing jaunts.

 

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Recommendation: The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King

Why: I learned a lot. And it was a hard tone to strike to tell these horrific stories of genocide with just a touch of humor so that you could get through the book. It was just well done. 

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About today's reader: Heather Keast reads books and teaches books. 

Hezada! I Miss You Named Notable in Shelf Unbound's 2021 Best Indie Books

Good news! 

Hezada! I Miss You has received accolades from shelf unbound's annual selection of "Best Indie Books"

View all the winners, finalists, and notables here: https://issuu.com/shelfunbound/docs/2021_awards-issue-2021-december-january

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Purchase Hezada! I Miss You from the awesome Awst Press: https://awst-press.com/shop/hezada

(Feel free to note this on the gift tag when you set the book under your Christmas Tree. Ha!)

Book Your Stocking with Michael Noll

Book Your Stocking 2021

Book Your Stocking: Day 9

Welcome to Thursday and to the day Michael Noll joins us to give his reading recommendation for the year. One of the most avid readers I know, Michael has found the book that, at least by the title, suggests that he has nothing left to read. 

Thanks to Michael for taking part. And to you, fellow reader, come back again for more ideas for your stocking (and the stockings of your friends). Miss a day? Check here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/book-your-stocking.html 

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Recommendation: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow

Why: This book is worth the hype: it re-examines the foundations of so-called Western thought to show that the way our government and society is set up is not the only option and probably not even the best option.

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About today's reader: Michael Noll writes fiction and is the Community Schools Coordinator in Peñasco, NM.

Michael Noll

Book Your Stocking with Ben Cartwright

Book Your Stocking 2021

 Book Your Stocking: Day 8

This year, avid readers were asked to recommend a book, story, poem, OR song. Ben Cartwright is both today's word-consultant and the first to rise up and say, Listen to this song, friends.

And so we shall. 

Let's.

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Recommendation: [song] "God Lifts Up the Lowly" by Ezra Furman

Why: Hope requires toughness and resolve for individuals and folks trying to organize, and this song conveys the type of hope that won't lay down or quit.

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About today's reader: Ben Cartwright is a poet and a teacher.

Ben Cartwright

Book Your Stocking with Henry Valentine

Book Your Stocking 2021

 Book Your Stocking: Day 7

A week of recommendations have passed, and I hope you've passed the time writing down the titles for your next trip to the bookstore or library. Check back every day until Christmas for more ideas by avid readers.

I'm pleased to welcome my child Henry Valentine back to the series. A second grader, he's recently become a hands-down, laugh-out-loud, let-me-read-this-part-to-you fan of the Catwad series by Jim Benton. But here, I'll let him tell you about it.

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Recommendation: Catwad: Four Me? by Jim Benton

Why: Because it has camping. It's one of the funniest books because it has one of my favorite comics in it. I like Catwad because it has very funny little stories in it.

Catwad: Four Me? (cover)

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About today's reader: Henry Valentine divvies up his time among reading, ballet, guitar, and getting as close to our dog's and cats' faces as humanly possible without, somehow, losing an eye.

Henry Valentine and hot chocolate

Need more book ideas? See past recommendations at http://www.erinpringle.com/p/book-your-stocking.html

Book Your Stocking with Savannah Johnston

Book Your Stocking: Day 6

Book Your Stocking 2021

Somehow, we've nearly reached a full week of book recommendations. If you're new to the series, Book Your Stocking is a somewhat-annual advent-of-sorts in which avid readers, who are often writers as well, recommend the book that they think you'd love to find in your stocking this year. Or your sock drawer. Or that your favorite reader would like to find on the side of the road like those lone socks you see sometimes. If you've missed a day or two, or a year or two, you can find past recommendations here: 

http://www.erinpringle.com/p/book-your-stocking.html

Today, we're welcoming Savannah Johnston to the series. She herself has a new book out this year, so check for that link in her bio. :)

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Recommendation: LaRose by Louise Erdrich

Why: LaRose is a beautiful story of two families, one Ojibwe, one white, enduring the loss of their sons in two very different ways, and it simply begs to be read again and again.

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About today's reader: Savannah Johnston is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and her debut story collection Rites was recently published by Jaded Ibis Press. 

Savannah Johnston

There's No Place, a Novella by Erin Pringle (Part 1, 2, and 3)

This month, I spent three Sundays reading aloud from my new novella, There's No Place, which I had also printed a limited number of and sold because I love this story, and it will be a long while before it appears in a published story collection (and likely as the last story and, therefore, the least likely to be read by even those who do buy the book it comes in). So, here is the whole novella, read aloud in sections--from beginning to end. Please enjoy. 

It takes place during the first year of the pandemic, on Christmas Eve, in the rural Midwest.

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Part I of There's No Place (hour one) 

Part II of There's No Place (second hour of reading)

Part III. of There's No Place (~45 minutes)

There's No Place, a novella (cover)

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Wake to Words and Brew Some Coffee (December 5, 2021)

Wake to Words and Brew Some Coffee is a weekly series in which I read good poems by other people while we all drink coffee. Enjoy!

Poems read:

• Halfway by Daniel Halpern
• Poem of a Houseboat Stranded in a Field by C.D. Wright
• House Warming by Tina Mozelle Braziel
• Winter Night Poem for Mary by Wendell Berry 
• Intersection—Falcon Heights, Minnesota by Ann Tweedy

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🠊 Listen to more poetry sessions here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/wake-to-words-and-brew-some-coffee.html

🠊 Catch the live show on Sunday mornings at some time-ish: https://www.facebook.com/erintpringle

Book Your Stocking with Sawyer Lovett

Book Your Stocking 2021

Book Your Stocking: December 5

May you find peace and solace in a quiet corner of a bookstore or library this season. To assist you with that, an avid reader gives one very good idea for a title to search for and stuff your stocking with (or the sock of a person you like and whose sock you have access to).

Please welcome today's reader, joining the series for the first time, Sawyer Lovett. 

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Recommendation: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Why: As close to a perfect work of trans lit as I’ve seen yet, Peters hits so many relatable conversational landmarks between trans people (and between women, and between people trying to decide on the shape of family) with stingingly beautiful prose and effortless craft. 

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About today's reader: 

Sawyer Lovett is an adjunct professor at UArts in Philadelphia, a zinester, a dog dad, and a real mess most days.

Sawyer Lovett

Book Your Stocking with Ismael Gómez

Book Your Stocking 2021

Book Your Stocking: December 4

This is the place to be for all ideas book- and stocking-related. See past good ideas here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/book-your-stocking.html

Today's avid reader joins us from Madrid, and it's his first time to join the series. Please give a warm welcome to Ismael.

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Recommendation: Animal Wife by Lara Ehrlich

Why: I love how Lara Ehrlich uses the resources of the literary tradition of fairy tales to talk about women breaking the spells that pin them down.

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About today's reader:

My name is Ismael Gómez, and I'm the founder of Ferragosto, an independent publishing house located in Spain. https://www.editorialferragosto.com/

Ismael Gómez

Book Your Stocking with Jack Kaulfus

Book Your Stocking 2021

Book Your Stocking: December 3

We're on a roll here. It's Day 3 of recommendations by avid readers. I hope you're writing these titles down so they're handy should you stumble into a bookstore on your way to the grocery or dentist or nowhere near books. Every day will bring another idea for your stocking or the stocking of someone you like quite a lot. See past recommendations here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/book-your-stocking.html 

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Here it is: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Why: This apocalyptic story is beautiful, chilling, and absorbing. 

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About today's reader:

Jack Kaulfus is the trans, nonbinary author of Tomorrow or Forever (Transgress Press, 2018). You can find more of their work at jackskaufus.com

Jack Kaulfus

Book Your Stocking with Mallory Battista

Book Your Stocking 2021

 Book Your Stocking: December 2

Welcome back to Book Your Stocking, a somewhat-annual series in which avid readers recommend stocking stuffers for you and yours. Return each day through Christmas for new ideas. More stocking stuffer ideas here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/book-your-stocking.html

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Recommendation: "Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World" Written and Illustrated by Pénélope Bagieu

Why: This is a wonderful collection of graphic stories about rebel women throughout history and around the world; I love the illustration style and the powerful tales of these inspiring women!

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Mallory Battista

Mallory Battista is a visual artist and book lover in Spokane, and can be found at mallorybattista.com and on Instagram.

Book Your Stocking with Carol Pringle (My Mom)

Book Your Stocking: December 1

Book Your Stocking 2021

I'm happy to announce that Book Your Stocking has returned this year after a two-year hiatus. You'd think there'd been a pandemic or something. Thanks for finding your way back or for the first time. Welcome, welcome! This year, the series will run something like a Readers' Advent. Each day, an avid reader will recommend a book, poem, song, etcetera that they believe you need in your life--or at least your stocking. If you miss a day, you can find them all here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/book-your-stocking.html

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Recommendation: The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

Why: Love the story of redemption of several lives linked-by-beekeeping.

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About Today's Reader: Carol Pringle, retired teacher (and my mom)

Carol Pringle

Wake to Words and Brew Some Coffee (11/28/21)

Welcome to this week's session of Wake to Words and Brew Some Coffee, where I read good poems by other people while we all drink coffee.

 

Poems read:

• Mama Said Nothing Good by Tina Mozelle Braziel 
• Trailer Fish by Tina Mozelle Braziel
• Fiddler’s Song by George Mackay Brown
• Song of the Stone by George Mackay Brown
• Playing House by Jack Gilbert
• My Whole Life I Was Trained to Deny Myself by Eugenia Leigh

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🠊 Listen to more poetry sessions here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/wake-to-words-and-brew-some-coffee.html

🠊 Catch the live show on Sunday mornings at some time-ish: https://www.facebook.com/erintpringle

There's No Place: New Novella by Erin Pringle

 There’s No Place, 

A Pandemic Christmas Story 

There’s No Place is a novella bound for my next collection of stories, but without a press for the collection, I’d rather not wait years for you to read it when it seems important to read now.

So, I printed it up, sewed the cover, and voila! Now you can read it.

The story: Set in the rural Midwest, the story follows a queer daughter visiting her mother for the first time in several years, and the return rises the haunting memories that linger in such places at such times. And then two strangers come knocking on a snowy winter’s night.

• $12 (includes gift-wrap and postage within the U.S.)
• Let me know if you’d like a copy for yourself or a friend, and I’ll reply with details. Message me at erintpringle (at) gmail.com

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Wake to Words and Brew Some Coffee (November 21, 2021)

Welcome to Wake to Words, where I read good poems by other people while we all drink coffee. In this session, all the poems dwell within the human-shaped space of November. Enjoy!

Poems read:

• November by Alice Finnegan
• November by Billy Collins
• November by Maggie Dietz
• November by Jane Shore
• November Leaves by Jack Turner

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🠊 Listen to more poetry sessions here: http://www.erinpringle.com/p/wake-to-words-and-brew-some-coffee.html

🠊 Catch the live show on Sunday mornings at some time-ish: https://www.facebook.com/erintpringle

Wake to Words and Brew Some Coffee (11-14-21)

Here is the most recent session of good poetry by other people. Please enjoy!

 

Poems read:

• a few remaining trees by Ann Tweedy
• Swimming by Polly Buckingham
• On Orchids by Anne Carson
• Sowing by Audre Lorde
• Immortality by Ai
• Poem with a Dozen Cherries on a Ledge by C.D. Wright

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🠊 Listen to more poetry sessions here http://www.erinpringle.com/p/wake-to-words-and-brew-some-coffee.html

🠊 Tune in live every Sunday morning at some time-ish via https://www.facebook.com/erintpringle