FUTURE LALLY’S ALLEY AWARD WINNERS?

Here’s ten books I started reading in 2007, or more recently, and haven’t finished, so weren’t on my list of nominees for my first annual book “awards.”

Five great books published before 2007, that I began reading in 2007 and am almost finished, but already highly recommend:

1. ALPHABETS (LITTORAL BOOKS 1999) poems by PAUL VANGELISTI (as always with L. A. poet Vangelisti, the poetry is unique, not only in form but in content)
2. ELECTRIC CHURCH (BEYOND BAROQUE BOOKS 2003) poems by K. CURTIS LYLE (and the same can be said for this highly original poet as well)
3. GREEN SUEDE SHOES (THUNDER’S MOUTH PRESS 2005) AN IRISH-AMERICAN ODYSSEY by LARRY KIRWAN (the leader of the Irish punk band Black 47 tells his story, using the lyrics he wrote for their tunes as the jumping off point for his memories of growing up in Ireland and his adult life on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, well worth reading if you dig their music and even if you don’t)
4. DOMAIN OF PERFECT AFFECTION (UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH PRESS 2006) poems by ROBIN BECKER (one of the better poets on the academic scene—“Women’s Studies” etc.—these days)
5. AMERICAN BLOOMSBURY (SIMON AND SCHUSTER 2006) LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, RALPH WALDO EMERSON, MARGARET FULLER, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU: THEIR LIVES, THEIR LOVES, THEIR WORK by SUSAN CHEEVER (exactly what it says, and done well)

Four great books published in 2007—and the first great book of 2008—which I’m still reading and digging:

1. ABOUT NOW (NATIONAL POETRY FOUNDATION, U. OF MAINE 2007) COLLECTED POEMS by JOANNE KYGER (one of my all time favorite poets, who was there in the 1950s as part of the West Coast branch of the so-called Beat scene, but is and was always unique, with her own original approach to “the problem of the poem” as they used to say, reading her is for me like a daily meditation, calming, centering, enlightening, and often surprisingly entertaining)
2. “41” POEMS (LULU PRESS 2007) by JOSE R. FUNES (another unique poet whose work is like no one else’s in too many ways to number)
3. IN THE PINES (PENGUIN POETS 2007) poems by ALICE NOTLEY (she’s getting a lot of attention lately, deservedly, and this book shows why, talk about “unique”—a word I seem to be overusing in this list, but nowhere more applicable)
4. THE LATE SHOW (TURTLE POINT PRESS 2007) POEMS by DAVID TRINIDAD (nonetheless, it applies here too, “unique” and “uniquer”—every poem is worth the price of admission)
5. THE RIOT ACT (BOOTSTRAP PRESS 2008) poems by GEOFFREY YOUNG (as you already know if you read this blog, Young is one of my favorite poets, every book of his worth checking out, including this latest)