A few of these I’ve read recently:

The staff of what used to be the Mississippi Review Online has a new online endeavor, Rick Magazine. This story by Roxane Gay is in it and it is so good, especially the very last line. Ouch.

The whole latest issue of Harp & Altar is solid gold, but this piece from Susan Daitch stands out even among the standouts. Gorgeous and fact-packed and shiny-brassed as a magic lantern, and surprisingly moving, too.

This killer story by Evelyn Hampton is just one of many rusty glimmers in the wonderful new issue of Action Yes.

I love that half these readers sent in Godzilla-flavored mashups. Also love the MST3K reference.

Red, White, Brown by Rothko

Over at The Millions, Dylan Suher lays out a lovely tribute to Xueqin’s A Dream of the Red Chamber–one of the four greatest Chinese epics works. I have to admit that though Chris and I have read parts of all of them, and though we have three of the four works sitting on our bookshelves, we have yet to read them in full. When I say epic work, you probably think of War and Peace, right? Well, these are volumes long and sometimes each volume is War and Peace-sized.  And like Suher admits, Red Chamber is very different than our Western novels. The Chinese classic writers seem to be just as absorbed by ritual and minutae as they were by plot. Sometimes more so. It’s a radically different way of writing, with value placed on stillness rather than motion, and as an impatient, MTV Generation Westerner I find myself often intimidated by it.

But I love what Suher says here about the so-called death of the novel, and why Red Chamber might teach us something very valuable in our fast-moving society:

Myriad and ever-emerging like cockroaches, those essays that would pronounce a final sentence on the novel rely on a gross misperception of how culture works. The logic behind most of these arguments is that readers are only willing to read works that reflect their direct experience; thus, a faster paced world demands shorter stories, or an image-obsessed world eschews text altogether. “Death of the novel” essayists would condemn the art form to the dustbin of history like the telegraph, the typewriter or some other piece of outdated machinery.  Theirs is a brutally determinist view of the world; they seem to believe that culture can only reflect–and never influence–the societies and people that produce it.

However, that’s never been my experience. I have continually been shaped by books. To Kill A Mockingbird taught me what courage is. Beowulf taught me about death. Swann’s Way taught me how to let go of love. And I hope that Dream of the Red Chamber will teach me to pay attention. For as much as life is made out of Joycean epiphanies, it seems that a great deal more of it is composed of lunches and dinners, awful parties, boring family get-togethers, and countless, idly-watched episodes of Law and Order. There seems to be a great deal of value in learning how to find the beauty that lies in this “wasted” time. Not to say that we can’t also have quick beach reads. But we don’t only read to consume; we also read in order to learn and maybe even in order to change and to grow.

Read the rest here.

Sadly, you don’t get a sticker or button for purchasing these books. But you’re not a kid anymore, right? It’s just the sheer, pure joy of reading that motivates you now, yes? So in the spirit of grown-up goodwill and having learned to share, here are the books I am the most excited to purchase very soon:

Pee on Water by Rachel B. Glaser. I have been so excited for this sucker, ever since I started reading the stories online, particularly the title story at We Are Champion. Glaser is one of my favorite newish discoveries (hey, everyone’s a somewhat newish discovery for me, okay?) and she’s writing things that no one else is writing, in slightly twisted-up versions of the English language. Also, video games and flaming sticks. I mean, what more do you need?

Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom by Mel Bosworth. Because Mel is awesome and funny and a fabulous, very human writer. How could I not buy this book, sure to be as good as he always is?

Museum of the Weird by Amelia Gray. I would read the DC phone book if Amelia wrote in the margins of it. No lie. This book is going to be the shit. Also, if you like Amelia Gray you won’t want to miss this bit of awesome. Sadly, I am all the way on the other coast, but I will contribute anyway for the greater good of all West Coast kind.

Unclean Stories of Women and Girls by Alissa Nutting. Alissa Nutting is a powerhouse of a writer. Everything I’ve read of hers I’ve loved. Also, Starcherone is publishing this and Ben Marcus chose it as the winner. ‘Nuff said.

Cloud and Other Stories by Jason Jordan. Listen to this description and tell me you do not want this book:

Organized according to where the stories were written, Jordan’s eclectic compilation traces his path from Louisville, Kentucky, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, through fiction. Though he’s absent from these stories, they’re firmly rooted in the places he’s lived, the places that have influenced him and his work beyond measure.

Yeah. That’s what I thought.

Finally, okay, it’s not a book, but the new issue of New York Tyrant looks incredible. I got all paranoid and pre-ordered two copies, since last time I missed out and couldn’t get one.

This crazy good, original, terrifying, funny, moving story by Greg Gerke in Annalemma.

We always knew it, didn’t we, ladies? Now you can confirm it by reading this piece on the myth of the fairer sex, in the American Prospect.

Can liberalism still win? Jon Chait thinks, yes, we can. (Okay, that was cheap. But read this anyway.)

Read the whole thing here:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/books/24mieville.html?pagewanted=2

Roxane Gay says some really lovely things about me and about some of my favorite writers at She Writes. Roxane is an amazing writer and also one of the most generous human beings ever. And she has excellent taste. She highlighted two of my favorite stories, “A History of Heart Disease” and “The Chemistry of Objects.” Thank you, Roxane! I am blushing but grateful.

I just finished reading The Cave Man by Xiaoda Xiao, which is a quick but remarkable and intense read. The protagonist is imprisoned in Mao’s China for nine months in a tiny cell, and even when he’s released his life is a waking nightmare. It’s a shocking p, brutal, beautifully written book published by Two Dollar Radio. I’ve never read anything else in their catalogue, but after reading this I’m definitely going to pick up more from this fine small press.

Anyone else going? If you are, stop by the UFCW’s booth in the exhibition hall and say hi, or come to the panel we’ve put together on immigration reform, Immigration Reform’s Strange Bedfellow’s. I’ll be cheeping and twittering tweets as well.

What I will not be doing is enjoying the 106 degree temperatures and icky Vegas-ness of Vegas. Sigh. The things we do for the greater good.