Quote for the Day: July 16th, 2021

Isn’t that what divinity should be? The embodiment of truth.

The world is never not ready to kick you in the teeth, my friends. Wear your truth like armor and they can never use it against you. You are brave. You are resilient. You are the end result of eons of grand design leading to the person looking back at you in the mirror. Own it. Rise. Roar.

You are the end result of eons of grand design leading to the person looking back at you in the mirror.

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please follow, like, comment, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at thevoraciousbibliophile@yahoo.com or catch me on Twitter @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.

Quote for the Day: July 15th, 2021

There are two reasons I wanted to tell this story, the story of how I learned to surrender. First, because it’s mine. It doesn’t belong to the tabloids or my mom or the men I’ve married or the people who’ve loved or hated my movies or even my children. My story is mine alone; I’m the only one who was there for all of it, and I decided to claim the power to tell it on my own terms. The second reason is that even though it’s mine, maybe some part of this story is yours, too. I’ve had extraordinary luck in this life: both bad and good. Putting it all down in writing makes me realize how crazy a lot of it has been, how improbable. But we all suffer, and we all triumph, and we all get to choose how we hold both.

God, I love Demi Moore. I’m quite the sucker for celebrity memoirs, but Inside Out was so meta. She really guts herself on the page and shows you who she is and what’s she’s been through and how it has all transformed her into the person she’s become. Not the movie star or the tabloid queen or that woman who was married to Bruce Willis and then Ashton Kutcher. No, within the pages of her memoir, you get to see the real Demi, warts and all. It is quite the journey.

Quote for the Day: July 14th, 2021

In this moment, you’re still breathing. In this moment, you’ve survived. In this moment, you’re finding a way to step onto higher ground.

This is a book I find myself re-reading from time to time to give myself a spiritual tune-up. Life is often difficult, messy, and downright disagreeable, but it is important for us to remember this truth: everything we need to keep moving forward is already inside us. We have made it through every single one of our worst days and we are stronger for it. This does not mean that we should ignore our circumstances, or blithely move through our days like a bunch of Live, Laugh, Love simpletons. It simply means that we possess, on a molecular level, the tools for survival. We are not weak beings. By being here in this moment, we have already won.

This does not mean that we should ignore our circumstances, or blithely move through our days like a bunch of Live, Laugh, Love simpletons. It simply means that we possess, on a molecular level, the tools for survival. We are not weak beings.

Just keep breathin’ and breathin’ and breathin’ and breathin’.
Ariana Grande

You cannot earn breath. It is free. So take in a big breath, steel yourself, and know that you are a freaking warrior. Even if you have to stay home today. Even if you don’t get out of bed. Are you alive? Then you’re winning. Until next time, my darlings.

All Aboard the ARC: The Collection Plate: Poems (Audiobook) by Kendra Adams

***Note: I received a digital review copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

I try my best to keep up with fresh new voices in the world of poetry. I like work that sidles up next to you and punches you in the face when you’re least expecting it, and Kendra Allen does exactly that. The Collection Plate covers so much ground in so limited a frame, one could almost call Allen a magician. Herein lies poems (songs? psalms?) exploring Black girlhood/womanhood, religion (its redemption(s) as well as its confines and strictures), sexual politics, family history, the tyranny of memory, and the line(age)s we cross when we decide who we’re going to be.

Herein lies poems (songs? psalms?) exploring Black girlhood/womanhood, religion (its redemption(s) as well as its confines and strictures), sexual politics, family history, the tyranny of memory, and the line(age)s we cross when we decide who we’re going to be.

the pastor is our uncle and our uncle di- / vests me of my volition / back on land / I drip / I dribble, I cough up / who I shoulda been
From “Evening service”

How does one even begin to analyze works this explosive? Poets don’t often compare religious ceremonies, in this case baptism, to a divestiture of one’s own free will, but Allen does so with aplomb and an assuredness that rings true for anyone familiar with charismatic faith traditions.

Poets don’t often compare religious ceremonies, in this case baptism, to a divestiture of one’s own free will, but Allen does so with aplomb and an assuredness that rings true for anyone familiar with charismatic faith traditions.

I don’t want to distract from the beauty of this collection with an overabundance of my own commentary, so I’ll just leave it with you like this: I’ve already bought my own copy so I can read it again and again. And again.

The Collection Plate: Poems is now available to order wherever books are sold. You can follow Kendra Allen on Twitter @kendracanyou.

Backlogged

As many of you know, I get most of my review ARCs as ebook files from NetGalley. Every now and again, I’ll get advance titles directly from the publisher, but I’ve noticed that many publishers are sending out fewer physical ARCs overall. Whether this is due to the high cost of producing them or an attempt at curbing scalpers trying to sell their ARCs online (may they live in shame always), the fact is that it’s easier (for me and many other reviewers, that is) to keep up with physical ARCs than it is digital ones.

Thus the backlog. I have a veritable mountain of ebook ARCs to get through, so I’m going to *attempt* to limit my time online in order to get through a large chunk of these titles. Not to worry, though, I’m not going anywhere. I might not be posting as often as I have been, but you’ll still see fresh content on the regular.

All Aboard the ARC: I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems by Kate Baer

***Note: I received a digital ARC of Kate Baer’s forthcoming collection, I Hope This Finds You Well, from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

There is something profound, one might even say holy, about taking back space from those who would push you to the margins. I Hope This Finds You Well does just that. Kate Baer’s newest collection is a reclamation, a clarion call, and a battle cry all at once. Never one to shrink away from her detractors, Baer takes the vitriol hurled in her direction and turns it into verse. Herein lies not only an alchemical affirmation, but a jagged path home. Please read this book.

I Hope This Finds You Well is due to be released on November 9, 2021 and is now available to preorder wherever books are sold.

From the Archives: Shameless: A Sexual Reformation by Nadia Bolz-Weber (Part 2)

Allow me to first offer my sincere apology to all of you, my devoted readers, for making you wait so long for Part 2. This part is going to be a lot different from the first one because I’ll be sharing and discussing my favorite passages from Nadia’s book. Are you ready for it? Let’s go.

God planted so many of us in the corners, yet the center-pivot irrigation of the church’s teachings about sex and sexuality tends to exclude us.

This is so life-affirming. For all #exvangelicals out there and for people who still have ties to the church, the feelings of exclusion that we experience in relation to our religious upbringings are so strong that they almost manifest in corporeal form whenever we’re exposed to the teachings inculcated in us from when we were congregants.

We were taught that the body is a site of shame. We were taught that we were tainted by Adam’s original sin, that our flesh is something we must overcome in order to become one with God. We were taught that sharing our bodies with others outside the confines of monogamous, heterosexual marriage separates us from the holy.

We were taught that sharing our bodies with others outside the confines of monogamous, heterosexual marriage separates us from the holy.

We were even condemned for finding pleasure(s) on our own. Masturbating was something we all discovered by accident, performed in secret, and never talked about. It was the secret sin that tainted our relationship with God, with our families, with ourselves. The rose is not branded an apostate when it blooms, so why then should we be branded? This is not even mentioning the shame accompanying your masturbatory fantasies if you were anything other than 100% straight.

The rose is not branded an apostate when it blooms, so why then should we be branded?

But our sexual and gender expressions are as integral to who we are as our religious upbringings are. To separate these aspects of ourselves—to separate life as a sexual being from a life with God—is to bifurcate our psyche, like a musical progression that never comes to resolution.

I love the imagery Bolz-Weber (I think from here on out I’m just going to refer to her as Pastor Nadia) uses here. So many of us who were raised in the church had to develop a dichotomy between our spiritual and corporeal identities, thus the bifurcation she’s talking about here. We were all musical progressions never coming to a resolution. If you ask me, we were robbed. That forced separation caused us to become less of ourselves, meaning that in the end we had less to offer God and less to give to others.

That forced separation caused us to become less of ourselves, meaning that in the end we had less to offer God and less to give to others.

What would we be like if this bifurcation had not caused us to tear ourselves asunder? What if instead we read the Scriptures with new eyes?

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have [received as a gift] from God, and that you are not your own [property]? You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honor and glorify God with your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (AMP)

At what point did the church carnalize our bodies? When we are taken in totality, no bifurcation is necessary, and if we are to believe the Scriptures, our bodies house (contain) the Holy Spirit. Now, I am by no stretch of the imagination a Bible scholar or theologian, but there’s nothing wrong with my reading comprehension.

When we are taken in totality, no bifurcation is necessary, and if we are to believe the Scriptures, our bodies house (contain) the Holy Spirit.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’
Genesis 3:6-11 (NIV)

Here we see that shame was a consequence of the first sin—before sin, the first humans were naked, without shame, and free.

So what are the implications for us? Because man fell [from grace or right standing with God], we all have an awareness of our nakedness, of our bodies as a site of inherent shame, and this inherent shame is a direct consequence of the serpent’s temptation. So every time a little effeminate boy is called a faggot and beat up by his classmates, or a transgender Black woman is murdered for having the audacity to exist in public, the serpent wins, and the anti-LGBT people of faith rejoice with him. Is that saying a whole hell of a lot? You bet it is. I said what I said.

So every time a little effeminate boy is called a faggot by his classmates, or a transgender Black woman is murdered for having the audacity to exist in public, the serpent wins, and the anti-LGBT people of faith rejoice with him.

I refuse to accept or participate in a faith tradition that excludes some while exalting others, that prizes some bodies above others, or draws lines of demarcation between who can and who cannot be joint-heirs with Christ. He didn’t just die for them. I don’t know which version of the Bible they’re reading, but in every one of the baker’s dozen I own, Jesus welcomed everyone to his table, and there are no garbage tables in God’s Kingdom.

My Promotion: From AGM to GM

Anyone who knows me or has read my About Me page on the blog knows that I am a bookseller. Well, for the past three years, I’ve been the Assistant General Manager at a chain bookstore.

A couple of months ago, my then-General Manager got an opportunity outside our company that offered more money and also had a tuition assistance program, so naturally she took it. My record as a manager is impeccable. My sales numbers are good, I finish projects ahead of schedule, and (not to brag but) I’m a whiz at analyzing sales reports and identifying trends. My customer service skills are so next-level that some people become irate if I’m not available to help them. I’m the bossest of Boss Monsters. Also, my degree is in marketing so I feel like I have a pretty in-depth understanding of how to sell things.

My customer service skills are so next level that some people become irate if I’m not available to help them. I’m the bossest of Boss Monsters.

I made my pitch for the job immediately. I updated my resume, emailed higher-ups, made a play for the position, etc. Then I waited. And I waited some more. And then I had to wait even longer. And then I had to work 50+ hour weeks doing a quarterly overstock scan. And then I had to prep for a store inventory as the person in charge of it (for the first time). And then I waited some more.

This past Monday, June 28th, was our scheduled inventory day. I arrived at my store at 4:30 AM and made sure everything was ready. For those of you unfamiliar with the retail scene, periodically (usually once per fiscal year) the company you work for will schedule an inventory. On the day of your inventory, a group of people (the number will depend upon the size of your store) will come and scan through each individual item in your store. Some stores that are small enough may have their inventory(ies) performed by in-house associates.

The details of what happens during this process and after this process (auditing counts, preparing post-inventory paperwork, etc.) is irrelevant to my story here, so I’ll move on. By this point I have spoken to my direct supervisor more than six times about the promotion I was gunning for. I was ready to be the General Manager. I knew what I was doing and I was doing great at it. I was like Liam Neeson in Taken kicking loads of Albanian sex-trafficker butt without breaking a sweat.

I was like Liam Neeson in Taken kicking loads of Albanian sex-trafficker butt without breaking a sweat.

So, around hour twelve on the 28th, I finally get to sit down with Lola*. Lola and I talk about how things have been going, how I’ve been able to keep operations running (relatively) smoothly considering the volatility of the labor and sales markets. I tell her I’m ready. And she tells me the job is mine. I am now officially a General Manager. Plus, I got a nice pay raise as well. I am so thrilled that all of my hard work has been validated. Power tastes really sweet.

Anyway, that’s the news I’ve been waiting to share.

*Not her real name

No One Told Me

I am not emotionally prepared for a new Sally Rooney novel, and shame on everyone who knew and didn’t tell me this was coming.

Beautiful World, Where Are You is set to release on September 7th, and I really don’t know what to do with myself.

My backlog of books I want to read immediately keeps growing, and you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be acquiring this little gem the day it comes out.

For me, Sally Rooney is to literary fiction as Greta Gerwig is to cinema. Lots of pining and complex emotions, with the occasional outburst that’s inserted as much for the plot as for the audience’s (be they biblio- or cinephiles) much-needed catharsis.

For me, Sally Rooney is to literary fiction as Greta Gerwig is to cinema.

I guess I can tell you right now that Normal People did me some kind of way. So much so, in fact, that I immediately bought Conversations with Friends and then proceeded to (A) not pick it up and (B) lose track of its placement. It looks like I’m going to have to find it now because I’ll need the pre-game training to be able to withstand the main event.

All of Sally Rooney’s books are now available wherever books are sold.

Tackling the TBR Pile

To be honest, my to-be-read “pile” is more of a mountain these days. When you’ve spent the better part of a decade working around books, not to mention an entire childhood collecting them, it’s easy to overwhelm yourself under the weight of all those tomes.

How many books do you currently own that you’ve not read yet? 10? 100? 1,000+? I would venture to say that I own more than a thousand books I’ve yet to read. Well over a thousand, actually, especially if I count the ebooks and digital audiobooks I own.

So where does one even begin to tackle so many unread books? This hurts for me to say, but like me, you’re going to have to get rid of some (or even a lot) of your books.

Anyone who’s ever worked in a library is familiar with the concept of weeding, which refers to the process by which librarians and other library workers identity materials in their collections that are either outdated, no longer relevant, or haven’t circulated in a while, and then “purge” these items from their shelves. Some of them end up in library-held book sales and some even get recycled and/or thrown away. And you know what? That’s okay.

By intentionally hanging on to every book you’ve ever bought or acquired, you’re denying yourself the pleasure of a well-curated, and conversely, well-loved collection. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve purchased a book only to discover I already owned it.

By intentionally hanging on to every book you’ve ever bought or acquired, you’re denying yourself the pleasure of a well-curated, and conversely, well-loved collection.

I’m giving you permission to set your shelves free. I’m giving you permission to only hold on to the books which you have read and already love or the books you fully intend on reading. But you have to be honest with yourself. Looking around at my own personal mountain of books, I know there’s no conceivable way I’d ever get around to all of them, even if I quit my day job, stopped caring for my hygiene, and subsisted exclusively on Glucerna shakes. It’s just not possible.

I’m giving you permission to set your shelves free.

The problem is we become too precious with our books. We fetishize them and they become their own dangerous pathology. At what point does collecting become hoarding? That’s a hard question to answer. I know that for me, that level has already been surpassed. I’m currently digging my way out.

Holding onto unneeded relics from your past is indicative of a refusal to grow, and that’s not healthy.

So the first step to tackling your TBR pile is to make the pile smaller. Have honest conversations with yourself. Over time, our priorities and interests shift, and that’s not a bad thing. Change is okay. Holding onto unneeded relics from your past is indicative of a refusal to grow, and that’s not healthy.

Once your pile is smaller, devote yourself to the one-in, one-out rule. This means that you do not allow yourself to bring another book into your living space without getting rid of one to make room for it. But….I….I paid so much….I remember being at the beach…..STOP. You’re rationalizing. You have to learn to let go. Your brain (and your budget) will thank you for it.

How Do I Cull It?

I’m going to be honest with you. Most of what I’ve learned about decluttering I’ve picked up from the A&E show Hoarders and its sister show, Hoarding: Buried Alive. I even recently read a book by one of the therapists on the show, Dr. Robin Zasio, called The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life. It’s a great book, and I especially recommend it to everyone out there who genuinely has a problem with hoarding, as it helped me to map out some of the cognitive distortions that cause me to hoard.

The Four Piles

As you start to cull, you’re going to want to have four piles: Keep, Sell, Donate, and Recycle/Throw Away.

Donating Your Unwanted 📚

Here’s a hard truth for you: NO ONE WANTS YOUR OLD ENCYCLOPEDIAS. Full stop. No one. Especially not the library. I don’t care how “pristine” they are. It probably is a “beautiful set”. But the fact stands: they need to be recycled.

Here’s a hard truth for you: NO ONE WANTS YOUR OLD ENCYCLOPEDIAS. Full stop.

The same is true for old newspapers and magazines. Recycle them. Ratty old paperbacks? Recycle them. Reference books with outdated information? Recycle them. Do not burden a library with your useless 💩. You can thank me later. The librarians can thank me now.

Do not burden a library with your useless 💩. You can thank me later. The librarians can thank me now.

If you’re in the same boat as I am and have hundreds or even thousands of books in your possession, you want to get rid of as many as possible. Now, I’m not recommending you set fire to your collection that you’ve spent years and even decades building, but you’re not loving it by letting it grow. The best gardeners prune on the regular.

The best gardeners prune on the regular.

Your donate pile should only be things another human could possibly use. Recent bestsellers that are in good shape but you’ll never read again? Donate. Children’s books that are newer and undamaged? Donate. You get the picture.

Now, I’m going to be real with you some more: unless you’re buying books straight off the shelf and carting them immediately to your local library, they don’t freaking want your used books. They’re not going in the collection. They might not even make it to the Friends of the Library book sale. You are creating labor for someone who is already overworked, underpaid, and under-appreciated. See below for ways to *actually* support your local library.

Some good places to donate your old books are books-to-prisoners programs, senior centers, or even local community-based book swap programs.

How to Actually Support Your Library In Ways That Don’t Involve Inundating Them With Your Useless 💩

Sign up for a library card for yourself and have other members of your family and circle of friends do the same.
Check out materials regularly. You don’t even have to physically go into the library to check out materials. Nearly all public libraries now have robust digital collections of ebooks, audiobooks, and videos that you can check out from any Internet-enabled device. Circulation statistics help libraries to prove their value and keep their budgets from shrinking.
Become an advocate for your local library. Support politicians that support libraries, and support policies that increase library budgets.
Attend library programs (in-person or virtual). Do you have littles in your life? Take them to Story Time. Does your local library host a book club or craft circle that piques your interest? Join it. Program attendance is also a metric used by libraries to help prove their worth to local and state governments.

Selling Your 📚 for 💵

Do you have a local used and new bookstore that buys books from customers in exchange for cash or store credit? If so, this is the ideal location to sell your unwanted books. Sure, you may be able to get rid of a few copies here and there at yard sales or garage sales, but take it from someone who knows: it’s hard to even give books away at a yard sale!

Resist the temptation to add to your collection by opting for cash instead. You can use it to build a nest egg for something that could really benefit you and your family, or even just to have some extra security.

So, What Can I Keep?

At this point, you may be thinking I’m an insufferable nag. And you know what? That’s okay. My ego can take the hit. I just want you to have a collection of books that brings you the maximum amount of joy.

I just want you to have a collection of books that brings you the maximum amount of joy.

Is there a book you can’t imagine not owning? Keep it. A book you’ve read several times and love it more each time? Keep it. Signed copies? Keep them. Special editions? Keep them (or sell them!). Do you get the picture?

My point in this post is to help you learn from my lived experience. And what I’ve learned above all is this: Curation is an act of self-care. It’s not going to be an easy journey. We get attached to our books in a way that we don’t get attached to other prized possessions. But I know I can do it. I know you can do it. I know we can do it.

Curation is an act of self-care.