What’s Jenny Boychuk Reading?

My 2019 resolution was to read more books. While I’ve always been a steady and consistent reader, I had stacks of unread books piling up (I buy them faster than I can read them—hopefully others can relate) and the sight of them was stressing me out. So, I decided to craft a 2019 Reading List, which is comprised of 75 books and spans across several genres. We’ll see how far I make it!

I always like to have a book of prose and a collection of poetry in the queue at the same time. One of the first novels on my list for 2019 was The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh, which was recently released in Canada. The prose is gorgeous—almost ethereal, watery. As a poet, this kind of delicious language makes me swoon. Meanwhile, the story itself is an enthralling gaze at toxic masculinity, as well as our human capacities for violence and desire.

I’m also currently rereading Handwriting by Michael Ondaatje. I found this collection in the stacks of Russell Books in Victoria, B.C., and I’ve returned to it several times over the last five or six years. The poems have a quiet intimacy and mystery to them, like so much of Ondaatje’s work, and the imagery is staggering. It surprises and haunts me every single time.

Photo by Flickr user AUM OER