For Ravelry fans, there's a thread started in the LSG form about disappointing classic books. Wonderful fun.

So ever since I accidentally spilled a bottle of water into my purse, my kindle has been a bit wonky. There are forward and back buttons on each side of it, but only one side works now, and sometimes it just decides I want to go forward like, 30 pages at once. So I gave in and ordered a new one (a paperwhite, because hey, maybe I NEED the glowing screen!).

It arrived today...and Amazon put it (the refurbished version, already cheaper than new) on sale for $20 cheaper than I bought it (but quickly backordered for like, 5 weeks) BOO! Also, I bought a refurbished one, and after I charged it and set it up, it didn't work right. I had to download new software and reset it, and now it seems to be working OK, but I still don't trust it. Which is not good!

BUT, I also have a chance to start over in book bankruptcy! AKA, my previous kindle had like, 100 books on it, half of which I'd only gotten halfway through (most because they weren't great, some because I kinda forgot about them but didn't want to go back and re-read the first half, some because I just wasn't in the mood (those mostly later became the ones I didn't want to re-read to figure out what was going on!)).

I feel I need a better method of organization. I do use Calibre, and can do "collections", but mostly just end up with a list of books not in folders. My Virgo-ness is upset by that.

Jilli - you convinced me.

I had a credit so for my birthday, I purchased the book on Audible.

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but I HAD to share: this review from Smart Bitches. If you have someone watching over your shoulder, don't click.

Well, it's book review. Of course it belongs here. I'll mention it in Bitches because people are looking for distraction there.

So, poetry. I read it pretty intensively back in college (i.e., 2+ decades ago), but not many works past 1930, except Plath and Mary Oliver. I'd like to read more and learn a bit about the mid- and late-20th century writers, especially the women. I suspect I'd enjoy the Beats. Does anyone have any suggestions for good places to start, please?

I'd like to read more and learn a bit about the mid- and late-20th century writers, especially the women. I suspect I'd enjoy the Beats. Does anyone have any suggestions for good places to start, please?

Beats were kind of a boys club so there aren't a lot of women associated with that movement.

Some of the better known women poets from that era that have some connection to the beats: Diane di Prima, Joanne Kyger (married to Gary Snyder at one point, but an excellent writer herself. Came to more prominence later), ruth weiss.

Not a beat but of that generation (slightly later) Denise Levertov.

More contemporary, I love Sharon Olds.

Elizabeth Bishop is - I think - one of the best American poets of the midcentury.

Sylvia Plath of course. Anne Sexton.

Rita Dove (former Poet Laureate, Ohioan, alumna of my college [which helps with the whole Paul Ryan thing]). [link]

Naomi Shihab Nye. [link]

Adrienne Rich. (The poem here [link] I almost used at our wedding, but it's a little *too* intimate to have read in public. Not sexy, just...it kind of guts me. In a good way.)

Maya Angelou.

Oh, Rita Dove has some wonderful stuff.

Lucille Clifton is another good one. And Margaret Atwood wrote some good poetry.