Review - So Much to Be Angry About: Appalachian Movement Press and Radical DIY Publishing, 1969-1979

54965588. sx318

I received an electronic ARC of this book via NetGalley for honest review.

This is a well-written and interesting account of the history of Appalachian Movement Press, which operated in West Virginia during the years stated in the title. The book introduces the general history of movement presses in the United States, but really is focused specifically on this one example--enough overall information to let even a rather uninformed reader (I was almost entirely unfamiliar with movement presses) understand the context, while still having a clear focus on the particular press in question.

Part biography of the variety of people involved with Appalachian Movement Press, part loose overview of the various veins of political and philosophical thought in Appalachia that gave birth to the press, it's both enjoyable and informative. The endnotes are extensive, and Slifer's use of a variety of both printed and oral sources makes for a compelling read.

The latter portion of the book presents some of the publications printed by Appalachian Movement Press, in the form of images of the pages. This made this portion a little harder to read on my e-reader, but I'm sure would be less of a problem in print. The selections are interesting, and the introduction provided for each provides valuable context.

Comments

Reading Challenges for 2021

I usually do set a numerical goal on the Goodreads reading challenges each year, and find them to be a great way to feel some sense of accomplishment in reading [x] number of books in a given year. Since I also started reviewing some digital ARCs through NetGalley last year, I've been writing more reviews in general (though the non-ARC books I read I may or may not review). I've toyed with the idea of doing some additional challenges before, but haven't--so I'm going to try for it this year! Because this is my first time doing this, I tried to choose challenges that mesh pretty well with what I already tend to read. This means, basically, that they're challenges I could have done okay on with books I read naturally over the course of a year. Yeah, that might not quite be in the "move out of your comfort zone" spirit of many challenges, but it seems like a way to ease into it. So, without further ado, I'm going to be trying the following: Rose City R...

Review: Collected Poems of Federico García Lorca, revised bilingual edition

I finished reading this anthology a few weeks ago, and apparently forgot to ever post a review. While García Lorca is one of the best-known Spanish poets, I was actually quite unfamiliar with his work before picking up this collection. Perhaps starting with an anthology of this size was jumping in off the deep end, but it was an enjoyable experience. Because this edition uses several different translators, there's a lot of variation even beyond what's inherent in the poems. Despite a very limited knowledge of Spanish, I found I enjoyed it being a dual language book--especially for sections where I didn't like some of the stylistic choices of the translations much and could then compare with the original. All in all, a very enjoyable collection of poetry.

Review - Mahagony

I received an electronic ARC of this book via NetGalley. This is not an easy book to assign a star rating. It's beautifully written--the language is poetic, and as the story and characters shift through time and perspective, the writing itself reflects this. This is a credit to both Glissant and to translator Betsy Wing. The book itself is not always pleasant--but that is part of the point. The narrative dips back and forth through time, and deals with themes of slavery, colonization, sexual exploitation, etc. in Martinique. The shifting narrators and time periods can become somewhat confusing to the reader, and I think it is this more than anything else that made this relatively short book take me a fairly long time to read--that, along with the extended discussion of narrator vs. author toward the beginning of the novel. It was worth reading. It would be worth reading again, with a little more background on Glissant's other work and the history of Martinique, to...

Undirected Reading

Search This Blog