If Katie Couric asked me,“what do you read?” [on opensalon] I might be tempted to stumble, and say defensively, “all of them.” Although it would not be (quite) true.
I wasn’t going to make a list of “favorites” for the year because I knew I couldn’t include everyone I should, and definitely not everyone I read. But then someone included me on a list that they made and it made me realize I want to give that to others as well. This isn’t close to being a fair list, or a complete one. At first I wanted to include only writers who aren’t on the cover and don’t get EP but then I thought that’s silly. My list is more personal than that. These aren’t the necessarily the least or the most recognized, but rather, these are writing artifacts I’ve appreciated over the past year and remembered. Some are recent, but I’m a person with a good memory who has been here for over a year, so many are not.
I hope my list doesn’t make anyone feel badly or left out. I found something unique and of value in each piece, some humanity, courage, humor, genius, passion, and/or reason to stay on this site and to keep writing. This list may be incomplete, but it’s intended to express gratitude. Writing for me is at bottom a form of giving. And so, too, is reading.
“I want to say, ‘Just let it go. Come up with something more interesting. Try hating bunny rabbits or cute little kittens with big wide eyes, or those women who run over your toes with their double-wide strollers and barely notice that you have started to cry.’”
Why I dropped out of Clown School, Palindrome
“I made it to the fence, which was already covered in crosses. One had been placed especially high and was caught in the barbed-wire.”
Torture Blackmail Executions and the Death of My Father, DeliaBlack
“You know the man. The Jesus who snickers. The Jesus who chortles. The Jesus who throws back his head and guffaws.”
Jesus, That's Funny!, theglasscharacter
“We had brought oranges and bananas on the train from Vienna and the cab driver had not seen either fruit in years. We gave him all of them and he wept openly at his good fortune.”
Surviving a Survivor to Budapest, Cartouche
“I abandoned the shovel and grabbed both dogs to haul them out of the way. The driver rolled his window down and asked if he could ‘push that’ for me.”
The Secret, in Reverse, Mumbletypeg
“Eleven black women. Only nine ten have been identified at this point, but all nine ten had addiction problems and criminal records. Do those facts about them reduce their human value?”
“Fayard was sleeping with his fists curled by his head like a regular baby. His legs however were like frog legs and limp, slightly bluish in color. I couldn't stop looking at him.”
I will never be normal like you, latethink
“I gave a Lauren Bacall-style upward nod at his croissant and asked in the husky voice I keep for special occasions, “Got one of those for me?”
Croissants: a love story, Sirenita Lake
“A Tucson man who volunteers as a humanitarian worker is facing 25 days in jail for leaving jugs of water for undocumented immigrants crossing the desert.”
What’s Christian about this? BehindBlueEyes
“I began writing this blog to give meaning to this experience, but I'm finding that, despite my best hopes and efforts, I'm not going to write my way out of this.”
“From the bleariest, drunkest, shotgun-in-the-pickup-truck redneck Southern white trash to the snobbiest, most coked-up, Armani-only Upper East Side corporate-raider/investment banker dildo, Americans one and all believe in being optimistic.”
“A civic-minded 8-year old named Brandon Willmanson sent me the following short story, "Guarding The Henhouse", a parable about the current health care situation in America. I was initially inspired by this youngster's initiative, although I must confess that I was not prepared for the rather ugly turn his story would ultimately take.”
“Guarding the Hen House,” Mortimer Hayden Smyth
“Ironically, one of the ladybugs that mass bloomed during a warm spell last week, froze to that same window.”
Chamomile Solstice, Fingerlakeswanderer
“The calm glow of the moonlight reflecting off the ripples of an unnamed lake in the cascade mountains, mountains of large black velvet so large they swallow everything, so dark that if I drive hard enough, I know I could disappear forever in between their hills.”
Soaring Glimpses of a Boy in Love, Homer Langley
“These were not people destroying property, they were nonviolent peaceful protestors. I saw others thrown hard onto the ground and screamed at for no reason. They cuffed my right hand to my left ankle and did not remove this when I was finally escorted to the bathroom after much desperate begging and pleading.”
“‘If it weren't for the fear of punishment," said one, "men would rape.’
I was, well, offended.”
Of the Excesses of Feminism Past, Matthew DeCoursey
“We drove home along the lake and I thought about that yellow bathing suit she used to wear, the one that looked like a bikini in back, but the front had a strip of fabric connecting the top and bottom. She was sunny in it.”
nights before, the evening of: love and sleep, consonantsandvowels
“But how do you walk away from a woman who’s only crime is that she has been by my side for so darned long; that all the little things that irritate each other are there every single day; that you look at each other but do not really see each other?”
The Black Abyss of my ‘Happy Marriage,’ JD Smith
“Any gal can stay off the man crack dressed like Sister Virginia.”
Compelled to Confess (Jude turns to Parkdale Laura), Judith Klassen
My First Big Sister, Scoubidou
Happy blue moon. See you in '10.
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Comments
Thanks for it and Happy, Joyous, Merry 2010, dear. xo
You included all the socialist without hurting us.
You included those teething, hurtling rotten eggs,
wild-eyed coo coo, those with fingers poking jabs,
and let's just conclude:`an admixture of joys/sad,
white teeth, yellow teeth, gapped and mixed tooth,
EP's, and wide-eyed politicians who need pacifiers.
Great read.
Happy End.
Happy New.
Thank You.
I am glad you remembered a post that didn't get much attention. It was one of the more personal posts I'd written, and because of a death in the family and finances, I didn't make that protest of the SOA this year.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this list with us.
Judith Klassen, here I come. And Homer Langley's sentence only just struck me as sexy.
Thank you so much for reading my post, let alone quoting it here!
We never know when something we write or share might make a difference in another's life.
You just made a difference in mine. : )
delia I'm glad you're touched. your posts about your father have been incredible. all of them, but I liked that piece for being able to be personal and political too. thank-you!
JD Smith, I agree, we never know which pieces will touch others. I loved that essay for its honesty but also because you could tell that there's potential for things to get better when you reach that point.
so glad this is being well received. celebrating is something you can't do too much of when it comes to art and writing...
Your support for my writing has meant a great deal to me, and it has really encouraged me to keep putting myself out there - which is quite often so difficult as to feel impossible, so 'thank you' seems so paltry in return. I am grateful to know you and honored to receive your support.
Thank you. And thank you for the helpful, constructive, sometimes purely adulatory, sometimes sharply questioning comments that you have left for me to ponder.
You're a treasure.
Thanks for the list!
I am going to have a Happy New Year reading these. Thank you.
I'm gonna figure this formatting shit out.
I love how you've quoted here. You've found me new stuff to read, so extra thanks. Happy New Year.
thank-you! I figure if each person who's on a list at some point also makes a list...more appreciation for one another never hurt anyone.
happy '10 to all and thanks for reading and commenting....
like ten reps beneath a bodyweight barbell; you might die and you're guaranteed stars
Of course, I'm so honored to be included, as well. You've no idea how this made my day.
May this new year be your best one yet, and I mean that!
thanks again.
thanks for this!