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43. Nemesis
44. Prater Violet
45. Brand, Hill translation
46. Chekhov's Stories, Volokhonsky/Pevear
47. Nox
48. Fathers and Sons, Garnett/reviser
49. Narrative Poems of Pushkin and Lermontov, Johnston
50. The Unknown Chekhov, P. Constantine
51. Poems of Pushkin, Henry Jones
52. Selected Poems of Ammons, ed. Lehmann
53. Really Short Poems of A.R. Ammons

Mostly itty bitty books and mostly rereads.

Just The Steppe to go in The Complete Short Novels. My Life and Story of an Unknown Man are two of my favorite things in Chekhov so far, but The Duel and Three Years were also quite good. Steppe began beautifully. Seems entirely plotless, though, which has stuck me on it for a while.

Lehmann's selection from Ammons for Library of America was about 1/3 excerpts from long poems, mostly at the expense of his tons of short, perfect '60s & '70s ones. (A few of which are in Really Short but the title means it.) Lehmann did include some really neat late poems.

Long-form Ammons isn't bad, most of his long poems are a kind of casual wandering among surprises. But he's best and most accessible as an atomizer, akin to Calvino but even more atomic, and why a lot of his 1-2 page poems (Really Short = <1) haven't made him as popular as Frost and Dickinson confuses me.

(no subject)

Comment, and I will write a short sketch of you as a Japanese movie monster in the style of your favorite writer.

(meme creator = wolodymyr)

(Identify your favorite writer unless you'd prefer me to guess.)