Monthly Archives: December 2010

December 30, 2010 · 7:30 PM

Books Read In 2010

December

  1. Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
  2. Who Moved My Blackberry? by Lucy Kellaway
  3. Pretty Little Liars (#1) by Sara Shepard
  4. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
  5. Flawless (Pretty Little Liars #2) by Sara Shepard
  6. Perfect (Pretty Little Liars #3) by Sara Shepard
  7. Unbelievable (Pretty Little Liars #4) by Sara Shepard
  8. Wicked (Pretty Little Liars #5) by Sara Shepard
  9. Landing by Emma Donoghue
  10. Killer (Pretty Little Liars #6) by Sara Shepard
  11. Heartless (Pretty Little Liars #7) by Sara Shepard
  12. Wanted (Pretty Little Liars #8) by Sara Shepard
  13. Powder Necklace by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
  14. Mr. Toppit by Charles Elton
  15. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
  16. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
  17. Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
  18. Travels In a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans by Philip Gambone
  19. The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest if Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Race, Class, and Crime in America by Charles Ogletree
  20. More Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
  21. Love Is the Higher Law by David Levithan
  22. What Would Jane Austen Do? by Laurie Brown
  23. Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro

November

  1. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
  2. The Lying Game by Sara Shephard
  3. Freak Show by James St. James
  4. Scars by Cheryl Rainfield
  5. Zombies Vs Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier
  6. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
  7. Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists edited by Courtney E. Martin and J. Courtney Sullivan
  8. Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris
  9. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
  10. David Inside Out by Lee Bantle
  11. Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
  12. Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie
  13. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

October

  1. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
  2. Medium Raw by Anthony Boudain
  3. Packing the Court by James MacGregor Burns
  4. Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman
  5. The Final Detail: Myron Bolitar #7 by Harlan Coben
  6. Darkest Fear: Myron Bolitar #8 by Harlan Coben
  7. Wide Awake by David Levithan
  8. Based Upon Availability by Alix Strauss
  9. Running the Books by Avi Steinberg
  10. Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde
  11. Hear Us Out! by Nancy Garden
  12. Big Girls Don’t Cry by Rebecca Traister
  13. The Woods by Harlan Coben
  14. In The President’s Secret Service by Ronald Kessler
  15. Dexter Is Delicious by Jeff Lindsay
  16. Missed Her by Ivan Coyote
  17. Delirium by Lauren Oliver

September

  1. I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman
  2. Fade Away: Myron Bolitar #3 by Harlan Coben
  3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
  4. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
  5. Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller
  6. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
  7. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies by Vito Russo
  8. This Land Is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich
  9. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
  10. The Shadow Factory by James Bamford
  11. Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill
  12. The False Friend by Myla Goldberg
  13. The Beats: A Graphic History by Harvey Pekar
  14. Back Spin: Myron Bolitar #4 by Harlan Coben
  15. One False Move: Myron Bolitar #5 by Harlan Coben
  16. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  17. Half the Sky: Turning Opression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

August

  1. Going Rouge: An American Nightmare edited by Richard Kim and Betsy Reed
  2. Brightsided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich
  3. Gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
  4. In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s Extraordinary Journey Into the Heart of the Evangelical Church by Gina Welch
  5. The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Frank Rich
  6. God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
  7. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
  8. The Humbling by Philip Roth
  9. Freakonomics by Stephen Leavitt and Stephen Dubner
  10. Beastly by Alex Flinn
  11. Deliver Us From Evie by M.E. Kerr
  12. Avalon High by Meg Cabot
  13. Sing Sing: The Inside Story of A Notorious Prison by Brian Denis
  14. Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
  15. Caught by Harlan Coben
  16. A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott
  17. Empress of the World by Sara Ryan
  18. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
  19. Deal Breaker: Myron Bolitar #1 by
  20. Stiff by Mary Roach
  21. The Boy With the Cuckoo Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu
  22. Drop Shot: Myron Bolitar #2 by Harlan Coben

July

  1. This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson
  2. Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days) by Bill Willingham
  3. Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner
  4. It’s a Jungle Out There by Amanda Marcotte
  5. Fables: Wolves by Bill Willingham
  6. Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham
  7. Jack of Fables: The (Nearly) Great Escape by Bill Willingham
  8. Follow Me Down by Shelby Foote
  9. Bellfield Hall: The Observations of Miss Dido Kent by Anna Dean
  10. Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
  11. The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman
  12. Fables: Sons of Empire by Bill Willingham
  13. Fables: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham
  14. All Sleek and Skimming: Stories edited by Lisa Heggum
  15. Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian
  16. Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
  17. Fables: War and Pieces by Bill Willingham
  18. Newjack: Guarding Sing-Sing by Ted Conover
  19. Fables: The Dark Ages by Bill Willingham
  20. Conservatize Me by John Moe
  21. Love Is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield

June

  1. The Magnificent 12: The Call by Michael Grant
  2. Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
  3. The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine
  4. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle
  5. A People’s History of the United States: Highlights From the 20th Century by Howard Zinn
  6. The Breakthrough: Politics and Race In the Age of Obama by Gwen Ifill
  7. Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
  8. Fables: Storybook of Love by Bill Willingham
  9. Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham
  10. The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
  11. Push by Sapphire
  12. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
  13. Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China by Guy Delisle
  14. Fables: The Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham
  15. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  16. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
  17. Fables: Homelands by Bill Willingham

May

  1. Finding George Orwell In Burma by Emma Larkin
  2. Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
  3. Dead In the Family by Charlaine Harris
  4. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven by Sherman Alexie
  5. Charm City by Laura Lippman
  6. Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman
  7. Woman From Shanghai by Xianhui Yang
  8. The Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol
  9. Ordinary Resurrections by Jonathan Kozol
  10. Columbine by Dave Cullen
  11. Bad Marie by Marcy Dermansky

April

  1. Memoir: A History by Ben Yagoda
  2. Dexter In the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
  3. War Dances by Sherman Alexie
  4. Dexter By Design by Jeff Lindsay
  5. In Mike We Trust by P.E. Ryan
  6. Bite Me by Christopher Moore
  7. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
  8. Two or Three Things I Know For Sure by Dorothy Allison
  9. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
  10. Are We There Yet? by David Levithan
  11. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle
  12. If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
  13. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham
  14. Geography Club by Brent Hartinger
  15. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
  16. Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir by Terry Galloway
  17. I Am A Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
  18. Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut
  19. Flight by Sherman Alexie
  20. The Cat Ate My Gym Suit by Paula Danzinger
  21. Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin
  22. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
  23. The Family Man by Elinor Lipman
  24. Holes by Louis Sachar
  25. My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman
  26. My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
  27. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
  28. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
  29. The Book of Everything by Guus Kuijer
  30. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

March

  1. The Last Time I Wore a Dress: A Memoir by Dylan Scholinski
  2. Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore
  3. All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab
  4. Black Hole by Charles Burns
  5. Devilish by Maureen Johnson
  6. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
  7. Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko
  8. Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon
  9. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
  10. Pedro and Me by Judd Winick
  11. Mr. Knightley’s Diary by Amanda Grange
  12. Miracle’s Boys by Jacqueline Woodson
  13. Behind You by Jacuqline Woodson
  14. Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
  15. Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich
  16. You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
  17. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
  18. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
  19. Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger
  20. Hush by Jacqueline Woodson
  21. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
  22. A Clue For the Puzzle Lady by Parnell Hall
  23. Nation by Terry Pratchet
  24. If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko
  25. Nylon Road by Parsua Bashi
  26. Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

February

  1. Black Girl, White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  2. Angel of Death Row: My Life As a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer by Andrea Lyon
  3. Crossing Washington Square by Joanne Rendell
  4. Lena by Jacqueline Woodson
  5. A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
  6. Out of the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
  7. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonneguet
  8. Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations by bell hooks
  9. Pride and Prejudice: A Graphic Novel by Nancy Butler
  10. Scarlett Takes Manhattan by Molly Crabapple
  11. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
  12. The House You Pass On the Way by Jacqueline Woodson
  13. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table: A Graphic Novel by M.C. Hall
  14. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol by Andy Warhol
  15. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
  16. The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
  17. Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
  18. Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford
  19. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
  20. Blankets by Craig Thompson

January

  1. Lost In a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
  2. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  3. Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards
  4. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
  5. Until It’s Over by Nicci French
  6. American Born Chinese by Luen Gene Yang
  7. A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
  8. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  9. The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
  10. Liar by Justine Larbalestier
  11. Flowers In the Attic by V.C. Andrews
  12. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
  13. The Alchemist: The Immortal Nicholas Flammel by Michael Scott
  14. Not the Only One: Lesbian and Gay Fiction for Teens edited by Tony Grima
  15. Lynnee Breedlove’s One Freak Show by Lynn Breedlove
  16. Confederates In the Attic: Dispatches From the Unfinished Civill War by Tony Horwitz
  17. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
  18. M*A*S*H by Richard Hooker
  19. Arab In America by Toufic El Rassi
  20. Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
  21. Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
  22. Fables: Legends In Exile by Bill Willingham
  23. How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity edited by Michael Cart
  24. Emma by Jane Austen
  25. Kindred by Olivia Butler
  26. Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak
  27. The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

3 Comments

Filed under Lists, Year End

December 24, 2010 · 12:00 AM

A Holiday Update

Greetings all!

Ethan and I have voyaged to the wilderness of Pennsylvania (there are lots of deer! And wild turkeys!) to visit his parents for the holidays. It’s very quiet here, which is a nice change for a short vacation from the city. I mean, I wouldn’t want to actually live here in the boonies, but it’s a nice escape from our busy day to day in Boston.

In other, less happy news, I somehow managed to get a hairline fracture in the wrist of my left hand, and I have to wear an obnoxiously uncomfortable brace until I get to see a hand specialist in January. Now that I’ve been taking some high doses of prescribed Motrin and Percocet, it’s a bit easier to type, but it certainly isn’t an ideal condition for blogging…or, you know, putting on my jacket by myself. So between my little vacation and my awfully painful wrist situation, I will be taking a little break from blogging, but I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas has a very merry one indeed!

Here are some tiny tidbits of blogging news:

  • I have been invited to sit on the Blogging for a Niche Market panel at the Book Blogging Convention held in New York City in May of 2011! I couldn’t be more excited or more pleased to have been asked. I will be representing GLBTQ topics. Here is the rest of the panel:

Florinda [The Three R's Blog] – moderator
Katie [Babbling About Books and More] – Romance
Sarah, Erin & Jenny [Forever Young Adult] – Young Adult
Amy [Passages to the Past] – Historical Fiction
Thea [The Book Smugglers] – Sci Fi/Fantasy
Rebecca [Rebecca Reads] – Classics
Jen [Jen's Book Thoughts] – Mystery/Crime Fiction
Jill [Rhapsody in Books] – Non-Fiction
Jennifer [Reading Rants] – Kidlit/Librarianship
Mitali [Mitali's Fire Escape] – Diversity
Cass [Bonjour Cass] – GLBTQ
Tanya [Dog Eared Copy] – Audiobooks

  • The short lists for the Independent Literary Awards run by Wallace of Unputdownables have been announced! Here are the top five books in the GLBTQ category, for which I am the judge:

Krakow Melt by Daniel Allen Cox
Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Green
Scars by Cheryl Rainfield
Annabel by Kathleen Winter

18 Comments

Filed under GLBTQ, Personal

December 22, 2010 · 11:20 AM

Challenge: Take a Chance 3

Take a Chance Challenge 3
January – December 2011

I will be using this post to link up my reviews/responses/comments to the books.

1: Staff  Member’s Choice: Go to a bookstore or library that has a “Staff Picks” section. Read one of the picks from that section.

  • I’m Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy’s Golden Era by William Knoedelseder (local indie)

2: Loved One’s Choice: Ask a loved one to pick a book for you to read. (If you can convince them to buy it for you, that is even better!)

3: Blogger’s Choice: Find a “Best Books Read” post from a favorite blogger. Read a book from their list.

4: Critic’s Choice: Find a “Best of the Year” list from a magazine, newspaper or professional critic. Read a book from their Top 10 list.

  • My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me Edited by Kate Bernheimer (NPR)

5: Blurb Book: Find a book that has a blurb on it from another author. Read a book by the author that wrote the blurb.

6: Book Seer Pick: Go to The Book Seer and follow the instructions there. Read a book from the list it generates for you.

  • The Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson (using Inseparables by Emma Donoghue)

7: What Should I Read Next Pick : Go to What Should I Read Next and follow the instructions there. Read a book from the list it generates for you.

8: Which Book Pick: Go to Which Book and use the software to generate a list of books. Read a book from that list.

  • Crashing America by Katia Noyes

9: LibraryThing Pick: Go to LibraryThing’s Zeitgeist page. Look at the lists for 25 Most Reviewed Books or Top Books and pick a book you’ve never read. Read the book.

  • Wicked by Gregory Maguire

10: Pick A Method: Pick a method for finding a book from the choices listed below (used in previous versions of the challenge).

  • Random Book Selection. Go to the library. Position yourself in a section such as Fiction, Non-Fiction, Mystery, Children (whatever section you want). Then write down random directions for yourself (for example, third row, second shelf, fifth book from right). Follow your directions and see what book you find. Check that book out of the library, read it and then write about it. (If you prefer, you can do the same at a bookstore and buy the book!)
  • Public Spying. Find someone who is reading a book in public. Find out what book they are reading and then read the same book. Write about it.
  • Random Bestseller. Go to Random.org and, using the True Random Number Generator, enter the number 1950 for the min. and 2010 for the max. and then hit generate. Then go to this site and find the year that Random.org generated for you and click on it. Then find the bestseller list for the week that would contain your birthday for that year. Choose one of the bestsellers from the list that comes up, read it and write about it.

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connolly

2 Comments

Filed under 2011 Challenges, Challenges

December 14, 2010 · 11:45 PM

Review: Pretty Little Liars (Series)

The synopsis of the first book, from IndieBound:

Everyone has something to hide—especially high school juniors Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna.

Spencer covets her sister’s boyfriend. Aria’s fantasizing about her English teacher. Emily’s crushing on the new girl at school. Hanna uses some ugly tricks to stay beautiful.

But they’ve all kept an even bigger secret since their friend Alison vanished.

How do I know? Because I know everything about the bad girls they were, the naughty girls they are, and all the dirty secrets they’ve kept. And guess what? I’m telling.

After reading The Lying Game, the first book in Sara Shepard’s new series, I decided to try out her first series, Pretty Little Liars. Sometimes it’s good to read books that are completely ridiculous and entertaining. I requested the e-book for Pretty Little Liars from the library and when it arrived, I quickly fell into an awful trap where I just COULD NOT STOP READING. I purchased some of the e-books, I downloaded some from the library, I even made an emergency trip to the library to get the fifth, sixth, and seventh books. It took me eight days to read the entire series.

I had a bit of an addiction. Reading books from the Pretty Little Liars series is like eating delicious Doritos–you know they aren’t very good and you probably shouldn’t continue with them, but you just can’t stop because that delightful factory made fake cheese is sticking to your fingers and you don’t really feel like washing your hands. Or, uhm, something like that.

 

Instead of giving away all the SECRETS, here are my thoughts on the four main characters.

The Characters

Aria: The liberal hippy of the group. If this were the Baby-sitter’s Club, she would be Dawn. I always hated Dawn.

Spencer: My favorite character for some reason. She’s the only one who actually does homework. (In BSC land, she’d be Stacey.)

Emily: My least favorite character. Oh, Emily, how you failed me. She was just so boring, despite her super-secret-secret crushes on girls. Not enough to scandalize me, I’m afraid. (BSC Connection: Mallory?)

Hanna: I kind of liked her, although she’s the rich Mean Girl of the group and I don’t think readers are supposed to like her very much. (BSC Connection: Claudia? Claudia would totally have had an eating disorder if the Baby-sitters Club books were for the YA market instead of middle grade.)

 

Recommended: For something light to break up all those heavy non-fiction books you’ve been reading; to understand what all the kids are up to nowadays; for simple enjoyment with no nutritionaleducational value.

Best Books: Pretty Little Liars, Perfect, and Wanted

Grade (For Series): B+

Grade (For Guilty Pleasureness): A++

***Breaking News*** I finished reading Wanted, the final book in the series, on Sunday. On MONDAY I saw a post on GalleyCat announcing that because the Pretty Little Liars show is so popular, there will be four more books. FOUR MORE BOOKS. My guiltiest pleasure just got a bit…guiltier.

16 Comments

Filed under 2010 Reviews, B, E-Book, GLBTQ, Print, Young Adult Fiction

December 13, 2010 · 11:46 PM

Review: Landing by Emma Donoghue

Landing
by Emma Donoghue
Published 2007 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Narrated by Laura Hicks
11 Hours, 30 Minutes

What would you do if you fell in love with someone who lived 3000 miles away? Would you be able to change your life in order to be with them? In Landing, airline passenger/country mouse Jude meets flight attendant/city mouse Sile (pronounced, for some unknown reason, like “Sheila”) on a flight to England. An unfortunate (but rather hilarious) tragedy on the plane brings the two women together, and over the next year they send emails and letters, talk on the phone, and spend all-too-short vacations together. Then it all comes down to One Very Big Question: who is willing to change so they can be together?

If the only books featuring gay or lesbian characters you’ve read are young adult coming out stories, you need to read this book. Often, when I contemplate the status of GLBTQ books in the book blogging world (which, duh, I do all the time*), I worry that reviewers who are not familiar with the GLBTQ community think gay folks are just constantly a) coming out/worried about being outed and b) facing violent homophobia at every turn. I’m not saying the books that discuss these events are distorting the truth, they’re more like SCARING THE CRAP OUT OF EVERYONE. “Pity the gays,” they seem to say. “They have it so rough!” Sure, yeah, sometimes. The nice thing about coming out to your family, though, is that usually you only have to do it once–and then you can go on with your life. I’m not saying it’s easy to come out to your family, I’m just saying that after you’ve done it, it’s over! Then you can deal with all the OTHER steps of grief your parents might go through until you reach acceptance. Some families take longer than others. The POINT, however, is that in Landing, both characters are out and comfortable with their sexuality. Jude, who is 25, doesn’t identify as a lesbian (or like labels for sexuality; I offer her ‘queer’) but is vocal about her relationships with both men and women, and Sile, who is 40 and does identify as a lesbian, has been out to her family since she was in her early 20s. Because both women are comfortable with who they are and who they are attracted to, the book is able to go beyond the usual tropes of gay novels and focus on the actual relationship. It’s nice. You’ll like it.

If you like fabulous female characters, you need to read this book. Sile is a dynamite character, witty and smart and extremely fashionable (with fabulous taste in shoes). She really came alive for me while listening to this book, and I found myself wishing, just a little, that she were real so we could be BFFs and she could bring me to bars in Dublin where we’d drink martinis and make fun of other people’s clothes. She is the more interesting character of the couple, that’s for sure, which brings me to the big question I had while reading the book: what the heck does Sile see in Jude? I just didn’t get it. Jude is basically the most boring person on the planet**. She barely knows how to use the internet, she doesn’t read books, and she’s not very funny. Unless she’s really super hot or something, which I didn’t gather from the descriptions of her appearance. Maybe Sile likes Jude because Jude makes her look better? I don’t know. If you read the book, explain it to me. Please.

Grade: B (But a great book to read if you don’t usually read GLBTQ books!)

On the Narrator: Overall Laura Hicks makes a fine narrator. I’m not familiar enough with Dublin or Canadian accents to truly judge the “realness” of the voices she affected for Sile and Jude, but they were both pleasing to the ear. My one real complaint is the voice she uses for Jude, who is described multiple times as having a husky voice, but whom Hicks makes sound like a ten year old. This probably added to my rather strong dislike of Jude, so I would recommend picking up the print copy of the book over the audio.

Bonus info: Emma Donoghue now lives in London, Ontario, in Canada (near where Jude is from), after moving there from Dublin, Ireland (where Sile is from). She lives with her partner. Is Donoghue’s partner as boring as Jude? Is Donoghue as fabulous as Sile? These are very important philosophical questions.

 

*Okay not really ALL THE TIME but you know what, just go with me here.

** Slight exaggeration

23 Comments

Filed under 2010 Reviews, Audio Books, B, Fiction, GLBTQ

December 12, 2010 · 3:37 PM

Challenge: E-Book Reading

E-Book Reading Challenge
January 1, 2011-December 31, 2011

I will be using this post to link up my reviews/responses/comments to the books. I am participating at the Obsessed level, which is to read 20 e-books. I’ll be reading on Alfred Applebee, the (somewhat ridiculous) name of my NOOK.

Completed

  1. Bob the Book by David Pratt
  2. Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren
  3. Tell No One by Harlan Coben
  4. Firestorm by Radclyffe (via Netgalley)
  5. Trust Me On This by Jennifer Crusie
  6. The Queer Art of Failure by J. Halberstam (via Netgalley)
  7. Hysteria by Eva Gale
  8. Women of the Mean Streets: Lesbian Noir edited by J.M. Redmann & Greg Herren (via Netgalley)
  9. Carrie by Stephen King
  10. Mile 81 by Stephen King
  11. All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
  12. Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates from Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain by Jim Lehrer

9 Comments

Filed under 2011 Challenges

· 2:06 PM

Library Loot 12/12 and Blogger Swap Giver REVEALED

Love Is the Higher Law by David Levithan: For some reason, the title of this book, which is about the aftermath of 9/11, confuses me. Levithan also has a book called Wide Awake, which is set in the future and is about the election of the first gay Jewish president, and I continually think the titles should be swapped.

Heartless (Pretty Little Liars #7) by Sara Shepard: I finished the eighth and last book of this series this morning. I was slightly addicted. THEY ARE RIDICULOUS (but awesomely ridiculous?)

The King’s Rifle by Biyi Bandele: Amy reviewed this book earlier this month and since it’s about Burma, one of my favorite countries to read about, I put it on hold.

Bonus Loot! Holiday Swap Edition

 

I received my gift from the Book Blogger Holiday Swap this week. Tara of the Bodacious Pen sent me a nice package of M&Ms, hot cocoa mix, a very lovely holiday card, and a copy of Republican Gomorrah. Many thanks to her for such a thoughtful gift!

I’m waiting anxiously to see a post from my swapee to see if she enjoyed the package I sent her. Fingers crossed!

On Blogging Daily

After completing National Blog Posting Month in November, I continued trying to blog once a day during the first week of December. Then on Wednesday I struggled writing a review of Emma Donoghue’s Landing and decided to give myself a day off…which quickly spiraled into four. How easy it is to not post daily! I think I’ll have to take up the challenge again in order to retain my earlier blogging mojo. After all, what would you all do without pictures of my cats being adorable? (*crickets*)

On Reading Goals

I haven’t settled on my goals for 2011 as of yet, but I do have a little goal of reaching 250 books read by the end of 2010. I am currently at 233, so with 17 books to go in 19 days, I’ll be rushing to the finish line. About 40% of the books I’ve read this year are audio books which I listen to at work, so that number is a bit inflated in terms of actual print-reading time.

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Filed under Blogger Events, Library Loot

December 7, 2010 · 11:42 PM

Weekly Dose of Adorable

Henry and Idgie share some quality time infront of the (in process) book tree.

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Filed under Pictures, Weekly Events

December 6, 2010 · 11:47 PM

A Guide to Reviewing GLBTQ Books: Part I, Definining Terms

Rainbow flag flapping in the wind with blue sk...

Image via Wikipedia

Sex: Biology “The classification of people as male or female. At birth, infants are assigned a sex based on a combination of bodily characteristics including: chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, and genitals.” (Source)
Gender Identity: Mentality This is a person’s internal sense of being a man or woman (or something else).
Gender expression: Visually “External manifestation of one’s gender identity, usually expressed through “masculine,” “feminine” or gender variant behavior, clothing, haircut, voice or body characteristics.” (Source)
Sexual Orientation: “Describes an individual’s enduring physical, romantic, emotional and/or spiritual attraction to another person.” (Source) Therefore, a person who was assigned male at birth but identifies as a woman who is attracted to other women could identify as a lesbian (or bisexual or queer).

GLBTQQIA – The Alphabet Soup

  • Gay
  • Lesbian
  • Bisexual
  • Transgender
  • Queer: “Preferred by those who are activists, by those who strongly reject traditional gender identities, by those who reject distinct sexual identities such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight, and by those who see themselves as oppressed by the heteronormativity of the larger culture. In this usage it retains the historical connotation of “outside the bounds of normal society” and can be construed as “breaking the rules for sex and gender”. It can be preferred because of its ambiguity, which allows “queer”-identifying people to avoid the sometimes strict boundaries that surround other labels. In this context, “queer” is not a synonym for LGBT as it creates a space for “queer” heterosexuals as well as “non-queer” homosexuals.” (Source) [ETA: I will have a seperate post further explaining 'queer' because I have been asked about it the most.]
  • Questioning
  • Intersex
  • Ally

Words to Avoid

  • Transvestite: Outdated. Use cross-dresser.
  • Transgendered (also transgenders, transgendereds): Transgender or trans should be used,  e.g. “She is a transgender woman” or “They are trans women” or “They identify as transgender.”
  • Homosexual: Outdated. Use “gay men and lesbians” or “GLBTQ”

Note: If you are quoting from something or the author writes that the person identifies with one of the words I’ve listed as “to avoid,” you do not have to change it. I.e. If you were quoting from “Sweet Transvestite” from Rocky Horror Picture Show, you would not be expected to change “transvestite” to “cross-dresser.”

Have further questions regarding definitions (or anything else) that you’d rather ask anonymously? Ask me on Formspring.

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December 5, 2010 · 11:52 PM

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Book Apocalypse

The sky is falling! You’ve just gotten notice that Chicken Little WAS right, and now you must seek protection in a bunker*. You, being the important, awesome person you are, have been granted the privilege of bringing ten books with you: the catch (there’s always a catch) is that they must all be from your to-be-read list. No worn copies of Jane Eyre that you’ve read dozens or times or that copy of The Book Thief you’d like to bring along to ensure a lengthy, pleasurable read. Don’t blame me. Blame the Bonjour, Cass! Book Apocalypse Protection Agency (BCBAPA™**).

Guidelines

  • The list of 10 books must already be on your to be read list (and therefore unread)
  • They should be accompanied by an explanation of why you chose each individual book
  • Attaching a picture of your pile of books and/or a picture of you in your bunker-style helmet is encouraged
  • Pick books that you are really excited to read

To Participate

  • Fill out the google form with your list of books
  • You will receive follow-up BONUS questions that will verge on ridiculous. Please answer them to the best of your ability. (Creativity and humor will be rewarded.)

Many thanks to the wonderful Eva for letting me co-opt “book apocalypse” for this feature, and for Amy for suggesting I make it a feature in the first place.


* The bunker is a very important detail. I enjoy bunkers.

** Not trademarked at all, but I thought it could use a couple more letters.


ETA: Please note the unicorn with a book in the button. COULD IT GET ANY BETTER? (Please ignore how the unicorn is like half the size of the book. Perhaps it’s a miniature unicorn?)

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Filed under Book Apocalypse