And what does the rain do for us as readers? I'll confess that the weather has a tendency to inspire my Netflix queue... but I have been reading a lot, too! My winter has been marked by an appreciation for the lyric essay. Some of the best things I've read lately:
The Reenactments by Nick Flynn
Essays written by the poet/memoirist whose earlier work, Another Bullsh*t Night in Suck City, was turned into a film starring Robert DeNiro. Flynn writes about the strangeness of watching his life turn into film, and blends anecdote with aesthetic musings on replication, detail and "life-like"-ness.
About a Mountain by John D'Agata
This particular book emerged from a controversial essay, whose "truthiness" spawned a vigorous debate between author and fact-checker (that debate is now a book, The Lifespan of a Fact). Regardless, About a Mountain is a wonderfully-constructed book about the city of Las Vegas, a young man's suicide there, and the mislaid plans for nuclear waste storage outside of it.
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
Nelson considers this book a work of poetry, and it certainly is. However, this small book built of short, numbered "propositions" leans on the blurred line of the lyric essay. Simply put, this is a meditation on the color blue. In reality, it is a book on loss, inquiry and desire.
._Sarina, Bookseller
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