Another fine example of "pretentious" book porn

Jim Harrison's Songs of Unreason and Dawn Lundy Martin's Discipline

Every now and then, I tend the presumed epithet of "pretentious" lobbed my way.  More often than not, it's because I criticized something that another found to be good or that I happen to also like reading literary fictions, histories, and works in foreign languages.  I usually get a kick out of such accusations, as there certainly are pretensions to improving my literacy and awareness of excellent works of fiction and non-fiction.  With that in mind, enjoy the latest photos.  The first is for two poetry collections by Jim Harrison and Dawn Lundy Martin that are nominees for the 2012 LA Times Book Prize for Poetry.

Gonçalo M. Tavares' Joseph Walser's Machine and Hari Kunzru's Gods Without Men

 The second photo features the just-published Dalkey Archive translation of Portuguese writer Gonçalo M. Tavares (note the blurb on its clover) and the just-released American edition of Hari Kunzru's Gods Without Men, that features a possible surrealist setting yet not marketed to genre audiences.  Or something like that, maybe?

Library of America's second volume on the American Civil War, The Civil War:  The Second Year by Those Who Lived It

Can anything be more "pretentious" than buying not just a history book but a primary source-laden edition devoted solely to the Civil War's 1862 events?

Javier Negrete's El Sueño de los Dioses and El Corazón de Tramórea

And finally, for those wanting to see a new epic fantasy series volume featured here, here are the last two volumes of Spanish classicist/writer Javier Negrete's epic fantasy series.  Oh yeah, they're in Spanish.  I do wonder if they may be translated into English in the near future, though.  I'll read and maybe review in a month or two.