Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuongģ. What is This Thing Called Love by Kim AddonizioĨ4. The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison by Maggie SmithĨ2. Silence in the Snowy Fields by Robert BlyĨ0. Waterloo: The History of Four Days by Bernard Cornwellħ7. Application for Release from the Dream by Tony Hoaglandħ5. The Royal Wulff Murders by Keith McCaffertyħ4. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia SorensonĦ8. The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne RichĦ7. Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel SavitĦ5. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'NanĦ3. Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan DoigĦ2. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead GeorgeĦ0. Poems from the Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregsonĥ6. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithiĥ5. The Island of Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dellĥ3. The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonsonĥ1. In a Different Key: The Story of Autism by John Donvanĥ0. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Inga Moore (re-read)Ĥ3. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker BradleyĤ2. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia BerlinĤ0. At The Threshold of Memory by Marjorie Agosinģ8. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerrģ7. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambersģ3. Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste LewisĢ3. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster BujoldĢ2. The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcherġ2. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tylerġ1. Bryant & May and the Burning Man by Christopher Fowlerħ. Waiting at the door, he takes her hand, helps her down the stairs.Ī small joke, some encouragement, light and easy in his walk.įorgiveness spreads from all he is and does. Something she remembers later, when lighting the candles.Ībove the skyscrapers, a ring-shaped rainbow glows,Įach remembers the first sighting of the other.Īn old woman watches from above, hand hesitatingĪ sip of water opens brightly in her mouth. On the crowded train, he graciously gives someone his seat. Seemed appropriate for now.Īt the grocery store he speaks kind words. Only my throat betrays me, filling with bitterness as with a flock of crows.Īll right, another Joe poem. I stand with closed eyes, shivering as if to shed a skin.įields of sensation bloom between feet and shoulder. The mist has begun to bead up on my skin.Īs I raise the bundle of sticks to my shoulder More unbroken branches lie piled to the right. The bundle is tied loosely with strips of damp cloth I am searching for a heavy bundle to shoulder,

I look as easily to the left as to my right. It's a sestina - a form that reorders the last words in each line in a set formula. Paul mentioned Ted Hughes' excellent Crow collection, and it made me think of this Joe poem from a ways back.

The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer