On Publication Year as Organizational Mode

On my husband’s and my third date—way back in 2015, while we were hanging out in my apartment, drinking mint juleps (my former favorite summer beverage; I’m sober now), I said (out loud, it seems), “Want to help me rearrange my bookshelves by publication date?” Reader, he said YES!

And we lived happily ever after.

LOL!

Here’s what happily ever after looks like at my house: Many moons, homes, and organizational systems have passed, and we’ve settled into roughly alphabetical, loosely genre1 (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, craft books, art books, kids books). (JK—the kids’ books aren’t alphabetical, unless they’ve got some anarchist alphabet I know nothing about.)

I am a prose-prone poet most happy with a book in my hand, a cat on my lap, and a cup of black coffee nearby. I am the author of two indie press books: What Shines from It: Stories and XO.

Since 2010, I’ve reviewed books and profiled authors for Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, Bitch, Bust, Bustle, The Establishment, The Rumpus, WBUR, Los Angeles Review of Books, Full Stop, Tupelo Quarterly, Colorado Review, and The Lives of Writers podcast. Given the state of the reviewing world—and the range of books I want to cover—Sara-Rauch-haus is now my only book review outlet.

I’m not going to say I’ll never cover a mainstream book—I read plenty of them! But mostly I like to read, and write about, books you might not hear much of otherwise. Maybe because they’re old, maybe because they’re published by a small press, maybe because book coverage is (and always has been; at least in major media outlets) a rigged game. There’s no algorithm here. This is a fully human, fully independent operation. So long as a book is smart, interesting, funny, well-written, surprising, informative, entertaining, and in possession of that je ne sais quoi that makes it un-put-down-able, I’m here to talk about it. (And I take all my own pictures to boot.)

Grab a cup of coffee (or tea, if that’s your thing), pull up a chair, and let’s read some books.