Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

1. Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling: I’ve come back to these books for the fourth time this year, an impulse I get occasionally when I’ve read too many books that I don’t like. I know what to expect, and I know that the audio versions narrated by Jim Dale will be entertaining and fun.
2. Myron Bolitar series, Harlan Coben: It was a glorious day when I convinced my best friend to read these books, which feature sports agent Myron Bolitar and his best friend Windsor Lock-Horne III. If quoting books about best friends with your best friend isn’t light and fun, I don’t know what is.
3. Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie: Here’s a secret: I really enjoy romance novels. I don’t read many of them because while I’d rather read lesbian romance novels, they are too often, uh, miserable. So occasionally I’ll listen to romance fans and pick up a heterosexual romance. This Crusie novel reads like a smart romantic comedy film and it made me really happy. (Bonus for featuring an old dog who doesn’t die!)
4. Emma by Jane Austen: I didn’t expect Emma to be my favorite Austen novel, so it managed to surprise me when I giggled all through the book and had a really fun time.
5. Fool by Christopher Moore: I really enjoy humorous footnotes and reinterpretations of literary characters, and Fool goes above and beyond in delivering them.
6. The Godfather by Mario Puzo: You should really listen to the full cast audio book version of this. It’s like listening to the movie on the radio.
7. Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson: So. Much. Fun.
8. Land’s End: A Walk In Provincetown by Michael Cunningham: I lived and worked in Provincetown for a summer, and reading Cunningham’s little memoir about the town is almost like being there.

Total Books Read: 20
Audio: 13
Ebook: –
Print: 7

# of pages read: 818
# of hours listened: 140 hours 45 minutes

Fiction–13

1. Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler (audio): Based on the blurb, I didn’t think this book was going to be for me, but I went out on a limb and tried it anyway. I should have listened to my instincts.
   
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (audio): Part of my re-listening/comfort reading adventures.
3. Farewell, Dorothy Parker by Ellen Meister (audio): I didn’t care for this novel, which features the ghost of Dorothy Parker, but I was inspired to add some of Parker’s work to my TBR list.
4. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (audio): I do have a soft spot for Joe Hill. A very strong short story collection, featuring several stories that I found brilliant.
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (audio): I have to say that on my third read of the Harry Potter series, I’ve realized I’m not really a fan of books 1-5. Well, maybe with the exception of the Prisoner of Azkaban.
6. The Body by Stephen King (audio): Glad to finally be able to say I’ve read this novella!
7. Strangers In Paradise (Vol. 1) by Terry Moore: My first read during the read-a-thon. I really, really disliked it.
8. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (audio): I finished the audio book during the read-a-thon and, I’m sorry to say, I may be the only person who didn’t love it.
9. A Jew In Communist Prague: Loss of Innocence by Vittorio Giardino
10. A Jew In Communist Prague: Adolescence by Vittorio Giardino
11. Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King (audio): I really adore Stephen King.
12. The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King (audio)

Non-Fiction–7

1. The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America’s Newfound Sovereignty by William Hogeland (audio): Too frequently I forget that a book isn’t going to be interesting just because it has an interesting title.
   
2. American Honor Killings: Desire and Rage Among Men by David McConnell: It’s kind of sad to realize how many disappointing books I read in April. I had high hopes for American Honor Killings…
3. Prisons Will Not Protect You edited by Ryan Conrad: This is THE book to carry around with you if you want strangers to start weird conversations with you.
4. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright (audio): Woah boy. I’d recommend this to anyone who is even vaguely interested in what Scientology is and how it started.
5. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch (audio): That’s right, I listened to a book about genocide on audio. The writing is “holy smokes this is good” good.
6. Odysseus: A Life by Charles Rowan Beye (audio): Note to self: books that use the word “hilarious” in the verb are to be considered un-hilarious until proven otherwise.
7. Acolytes by Nikki Giovanni: I read poetry now, that’s new.

[image via Boston Magazine]

Queer Library is a new feature on Bonjour, Cass! On Fridays I’ll write about a queer book on my shelves, an upcoming book I’m looking forward to reading, a review, or anything else related to LGBTQ books.

I don’t buy a lot of books anymore; partly because, as you may understand, I have quite the reading habit and buying all the books I want to read would be devastating to my bank account; but mostly because I decided, after moving for the third time in as many years, that maybe now was the time for my personal library to be a bit more selective. The only books I really buy these days (that don’t exclusively come from used bookstores or thrift stores) are LGBTQ books, fiction and non-, because, well, I just can’t help myself. Here are three books I’ve recently added to my library: two new releases and one soon-to-be-rereleased novel.

The End of San Francisco by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

Blurb from Amazon:

The End of San Francisco breaks apart the conventions of memoir to reveal the passions and perils of a life that refuses to conform to the rules of straight or gay normalcy. A budding queer activist escapes to San Francisco, in search of a world more politically charged, sexually saturated, and ethically consistent—this is the person who evolves into Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, infamous radical queer troublemaker, organizer and agitator, community builder, and anti-assimilationist commentator. Here is the tender, provocative, and exuberant story of the formation of one of the contemporary queer movement’s most savvy and outrageous writers and spokespersons.

Using an unrestrained associative style to move kaleidoscopically between past, present, and future, Sycamore conjures the untidy push and pull of memory, exposing the tensions between idealism and critical engagement, trauma and self-actualization, inspiration and loss. Part memoir, part social history, and part elegy, The End of San Francisco explores and explodes the dream of a radical queer community and the mythical city that was supposed to nurture it.

Why I Bought It: How could I resist? I own (and have read almost) all of the anthologies Sycamore edited, so how could I resist this memoir?

The Beautifully Worthless by Ali Liebegott

Blurb from Amazon:

A runaway waitress leaves her lover, grabs her dog, and hits the highway. Ali Liebegott maps her travels in a series of hilarious and heartbreaking letters to the girl she left behind, and some of the most exquisite poetry written about love, heartache, and madness.

Why I Bought It: Liebegott’s previous novel The IHOP Papers still has a special place in my heart because a) I remember where I bought it and where I read it and how it felt and b) I really love the cover.

After Delores by Sarah Schulman

Blurb from Amazon:

[...] A noirish tale about a no-nonsense coffee-shop waitress in New York who is nursing a broken heart after her girlfriend Dolores leaves her; her attempts to find love again are funny, sexy, and ultimately even violent. After Delores is a fast-paced, electrifying chronicle of the Lower East Side’s lesbian subculture in the 1980s.

Why I Bought It: This book is being re-released by Arsenal Pulp Press in September and I didn’t even know it until I started writing this blog post! I bought the 1989 version, used, from the LGBT specialty bookstore Calamus Bookstore here in Boston, a few weeks ago. After I read Schulman’s memoir The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination, I’ve been busily hunting down her previous work. 

Hour 2 Mini-Challenge: Book Spine Poetry

Hour 1 Mini-Challenge

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? I’m proud to be in Boston, MA! The sun is shining and I have a big stack of books–can’t ask for anything more!
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? I’m excited to see where my reading taste leads me today; I have plenty of library books and unread books that I own that I’m equally likely to pick up.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? All I want today are tacos, and I hope they magically appear.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I think my cat gets more excited about readathons than I do. He thinks sitting on books while you’re reading them is the best game ever.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? Usually I prepare snacks before the readathon, but today I’m just going with the flow and hoping I’ll magically find food.

1. S/He by Minnie Bruce Pratt: I remember where I bought it (used bookstore), where I read it for the first time (while “working” in Provincetown on the Cape), and not only is this book a piece of my heart, it inspired the highlight of my book blogging life (an email from Pratt herself in response to a letter posted on this blog).
2. Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg: The novel version of Idgie (as opposed to the movie version which is very different indeed) makes her one of my top five characters of all time. Or maybe just top five fictional crushes, no one can be sure.
3. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: I’m not a religious person, but when I read this book shortly after my mother passed away in 2003, I found true comfort in Sebold’s portrayal of heaven.
4. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson: I read this book in 10th grade, when I was an overly self-conscious teenager who was too afraid to raise my hand in class because it would draw too much attention. It was also the first book I read as a teenager that was about teenagers and felt realistic.
5. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison: Not to date myself or anything, but I got this book through one of those book-a-month book clubs that come via the USPS. I can vividly remember reading the book and closing it frequently to sigh over the beauty of the writing. I ended up writing my senior thesis on three of Toni Morrison’s books. 
6. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison: I don’t remember what inspired me to borrow this book from the library as a high school student, but Allison’s depection of poverty and her over-worked, rural poor mother resonated deeply with me.
   
7. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin: Goodwin’s Pulitzer-Prize wining masterpiece was gifted to me in 2008, and I lugged that huge book around for weeks. It was the gateway book to my future obsession with reading books about presidents.
8. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: The only book I remember reading in high school that featured a gay character. I had the quote “And in that moment, they were infinite” in my AIM profile for months.
9. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: Feminist sci-fi for a budding feminist? I can’t think of a novel that more directly influenced the early stages of my feminism. I went to the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in support of reproductive rights, inspired by Atwood to do my part to keep The Handmaid’s Tale from happening in real life.
   
10. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: I picked this book up as part of my on-again/off-again quest to read “good” literature, and I fell in love with The Count of Monte Cristo. I know I read it in the fall of 2001, because I went to see the movie in the theather when it was released in January 2002. I was incredibly disappointed to find that The Three Musketeers wasn’t nearly as engaging as The Count of Monte Cristo.

Runners-Up: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: I loved it so much I tried to keep the library copy I had borrowed AND I watched the movie version replayed on the Disney channel everytime it was on, which was pretty much four times a day for three months; Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding: I talked in Bridget Jones’ abbreviations for months. I thought I was really cool.

It’s March third and I’ve only been able to finish fourteen books, an absurdly low-number for someone who has read over or nearly 200 books every year since 2008. Every book I read in January was incredibly disappointing. Every book I read in February, all three of them, were “safe” books for me: one re-read, one by an acclaimed historian, and one queer theory book. I can’t bear the idea of picking up yet another book only to be disappointed by its inability to capture my interest or avoid some basic rules of decency or its eagerness to assail my community in the name of “political incorrectness” or “cutting-edge criticism.”

I’m sick of bad or mediocre young adult books getting overwhelming amounts of praise just because they include a trans character, even if they do it in a way that dehumanizes a real group of people, characters who are a lot like my friends, people that I love. I’m sick of not being able to go to the bookstore and easily find a love story that bears any resemblance to either my actual love life or my dreamed of love life. Why is it that even gay or lesbian romance novels are so often tragic? Where’s my escape?

I love books, and I know that there are many books out there that I will love once I find them, but sometimes it’s hard to feel so passionately about something that refuses to acknowledge the existence of people like me.

Total Books Read in 2012: 165

• Fiction read: 107 or 65%
• Non-Fiction read: 58 or 35%
• Total pages read: 17,204
• Total hours listened: 1,410 hours and 30 minutes OR about 59 days

Total number of books read borrowed from the library: 115 or 70%
Total number of books read that were published in 2012: 61

Longest audio book: 54 hours, Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III by Robert A. Caro
Longest print or ebook: 683, The Shining by Stephen King

# of LGBTQ books read: 37 (22%)
Favorite memoir: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
Favorite queer theory: How to Be Gay by David M. Halperin
Favorite accessible queer theory: Gaga Feminism by Jack Halberstam
Favorite young adult novel: The Difference Between You and Me by Madeline George

# of Stephen King novels read: 11
Favorite: 11/22/63
Best on audio: Dolores Claiborne, narrated with a pitch-perfect Maine accent by Frances Sternahagen

# of books featuring Presidents read: 18
Favorite non-fiction books about Presidents: Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson IV by Robert A. Caro; The Presidents’ Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy
Favorite novel featuring a president: 11/22/63

Favorites

• Novel published before 2012: Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall
• Novel published in 2012: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
• Short story collection: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander
• Historical fiction: Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
• Non-political biography: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
• About the Supreme Court: The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
• Classic read in 2012: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

Most disappointing sequel: Wild Thing by Josh Bazell, the follow-up to Beat the Reaper
Most disappointing reread: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Book featuring the most over-the-top hatred for Microsoft: Year Zero by Rob Reid
Book featuring the most over-the-top love for Microsoft: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Novel I should have read sooner: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Novel I should have avoiding longer: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Other Notes

• Best book written by an MSNBC personality: Drift by Rachel Maddow
• Surprisingly fun, out-of-my-comfort-zone read: Always Something There to Remind Me
• Worst Godfather sequel: The Family Corleone
• Most disturbing: American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis
• Should be made into a movie because it would be my favorite rom-com: Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon
• Book that made me the most nostalgic for fifth grade: Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman
• Best classic horror: Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• Author I keep trying even though I haven’t liked one of their books: Val McDermid

1. Drop Shot (Myron Bolitar #2) by Harlan Coben (audio)
2. The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits (audio)
3. Carry the One by Carol Anshaw
4. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan (audio)
5. The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw (audio)
6. The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin (audio)
7. The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George
8. Say Nice Things About Detroit by Scott Lasser (audio)
9. Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (audio)
10. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (audio)

November

1. The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #4) by Robert A. Caro (audio)
2. These Things Happen by Richard Kramer
3. The Heart Has Its Reasons: Young Adult Literature with Gay/Lesbian/Queer Content, 1969-2004 by Michael Cart and Christine Jenkins
4. Master of the Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #3) by Robert A. Caro (audio)
5. Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court by Jeff Sheshol (audio)
6. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie (audio)
7. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein (audio)

October

1. Dancing In the Streets: A Novel of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich (audio)
2. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (audio)
3. Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris by David King (audio)
4. Twilight of the Elites: America after Meritocracy by Christopher Hayes (audio)
5. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (audio)
6. Heart of Darkness by Joesph Conrad (audio)
7. Love, In Theory by E.J. Levy
8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (audio)
9. Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness by Jessica Valenti (ebook)
10. But I Really Wanted to Be an Anthropologist by Margaux Motin
11. Seconds Away (Mickey Bolitar, #2) by Harlan Coben
12. You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon (audio)
13. Diary by Chuck Palahniuk (audio)
14. Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin (audio)
15. Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Life of Bible Belt Gays by Bernadette C. Barton (ebook)
16. The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid (audio)
17. How to Be Gay by David M. Halperin
18. Astray by Emma Donoghue (audio)

September

1. Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America by Jonathan Kozol
2. Prayers for Rain (Kenzie & Gennaro, #5) by Dennis Lehane (audio)
3. The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge by T.J. English (audio)
4. Moonlight Mile (Kenzie & Gennaro, #6) by Dennis Lehane (ebook)
5. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (audio)
6. Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart (audio)
7. Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman (audio)
8. Deal Breaker (Myron Bolitar #1) by Harlan Coben (audio)
9. The Last Nude by Ellis Avery (audio)
10. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (ebook)
11. The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (audio)
12. Before the Rain by Luisita López Torregrosa
13. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn (audio)
14. Criminal by Karin Slaughter
15. Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss (audio)

August

1. The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler (audio)
2. How to Be Good by Nick Hornby (audio)
3. The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman (ebook)
4. Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King (audio)
5. A Place of Execution by Val McDermid (audio)
6. Apt Pupil by Stephen King (audio)
7. Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick (audio)
8. Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (audio)
9. The Shining by Stephen King (ebook)
10. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (audio)
11. The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates (audio)
12. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (audio)
13. A Drink Before the War (Kenzie & Gennaro, #1) by Dennis Lehane (audio)
14. Darkness Take My Hand (Kenzie & Gennaro, #2) by Dennis Lehane (audio)
15. ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (audio)
16. The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman (audio)
17. Dare Me by Megan Abbott (audio)
18. Starting From Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow
19. Sacred (Kenzie & Gennaro, #3) by Dennis Lehane (audio)
20. Year Zero by Rob Reid (audio)
21. Gone Baby Gone (Kenzie & Gennaro, #4) by Dennis Lehane (audio)

July

1. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (audio)
   
2. Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton
3. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (audio)
4. Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon (audio)
5. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (audio)
6. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (ebook)
7. The Stand by Stephen King (audio)
8. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (audio)
9. Drawn With the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War by James M. McPherson (ebook)
10. As Texas Goes…: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda by Gail Collins (audio)
11. Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression by Morris Dickstein (audio)
12. Gaga Feminism by J. Jack Halberstam (ebook)
13. Christine by Stephen King (audio)
14. City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist (audio)
15. The Dark Half by Stephen King (audio)
16. Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (audio)
17. About a Boy by Nick Hornby (audio)
18. The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson (audio)

June

1. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
2. Oklahoma City by Andrew Gumbel and Roger G. Charles (audio)
3. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard (audio)
4. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
5. Angel’s Tip (Ellie Hatcher #2) by Alafair Burke
6. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
7. Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel (audio)
8. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (audio)
9. Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage edited by Ryan Conrad
10. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (ebook)
11. Mind-Blowing Sex: A Woman’s Guide by Diana Cage (ebook)
12. Burglars Can’t Be Choosers by Lawrence Block
13. Britten and Brülightly by Hannah Berry
14. The Rabbi’s Cat by Joann Sfar
15. The Might Have Been by Joesph M. Schuster
16. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (audio)
17. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson (ebook)
18. Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings (audio)
19. The Infernals by John Connolly (audio)
20. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

May

1. Care To Make Love In That Gross Little Space Between Cars?: A Believer Book of Advice edited by Eric Spitznagel (audio)
2. Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
3. Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York by Richard Zacks (audio)
4. The Harder She Comes: Butch Femme Erotica by D.L. King
5. The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith by Matthew Bowman (audio)
6. Dead Connection (Ellie Hatcher #1) by Alafair Burke (audio)
7. Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall
8. The Family Corleone by Edward Falco (audio)
9. The Beginner’s Goodbye by Anne Tyler (audio)
10. The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller (audio)
11. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust (audio)
12. The Forever War by Dexter Filkins (audio)
13. Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho (ebook)
14. It by Stephen King (audio)
15. Taft 2012 by Jason Heller
16. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (ebook)
17. The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy (audio)
18. The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves edited by Sarah Moon
19. Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman (audio)

April

1. Stay Close by  Harlan Coben (audio):
2. The New Topping Book by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy (ebook)
3. I’m Not Crazy, Just Bipolar by Wendy K. Williamson (ebook)
4. Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner by Julie A. Fast, John Preston (ebook)
5. Always Something There to Remind Me by Beth Harbison (audio)
6. Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow (audio)
7. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
8. The Good Father by Noah Hawley (audio)
9. By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho
10. Pity the Billionaire: The Unexpected Resurgence of the American Right by Thomas Frank (audio)

March

–

February

1. Wild Thing by Josh Bazell (ebook)
2. Well With My Soul by Gregory Allen
3. Outdated: Why Dating Is Ruining Your Love Life by Samhita Mukhopadhyay (ebook)
4. Everything I Know About Love I Learned From Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell
5. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
6. Broken (Georgia Series #2) by Karin Slaughter (audio)
7. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories by Nathan Englander (audio)
8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (audio)
9. Out of Sync by Lance Bass
10. Fallen (Georgia Series #3) by Karin Slaughter
11. Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner (audio)
12. Death Comes to Pemberly by PD James (audio)
13. The Comedy Is Finished by Donald E. Westlake (audio)
14. Best Lesbian Erotica 2012 edited by Kathleen Warnock

January

1. Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder (audio)
2. 11/22/63 by Stephen King (ebook)
3. Cover Her Face by PD James
4. The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, etc. by Jonathan Lethen (audio)
5. Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell (audio)
6. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (audio)
7. A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown by Julia Scheeres (audio)
8. The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas (audio)
9. Too Close to Home by Linwood Barclay (audio)
10. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (audio)

Books Read in 2011

Books Read in 2010

Virtual Advent is hosted by Marg and Kelly, and is one of my favorite events in book blogger land.

Here’s the thing: I love Christmas. I love kitchy decorations and hot cocoa and stocking hung by the fireplace and wrapping presents. I love ridiculous Christmas songs and I love Christmas episodes of my favorite TV shows and I absolutely love Christmas movies…just maybe not the most Oscar-worthy ones.

My Christmas celebrations are very secular and focused on friends and family and good cheer. So today I’m going to share a few of my favorite, often silly, Christmas movies.

Cover of Scrooged

Scrooged (1988)
What it is: A retelling of A Christmas Carol and, dare I say it, Billy Murray’s finest work.
Why I love it: There are muppets!
Favorite moment: The sing-a-long at the end. “Put a Little Love In Your Heart” is always (mostly happily) stuck in my head for days everytime I watch Scrooged. It’s so happy.

White Christmas (1954)

Cropped screenshot of Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye from the trailer for the film White Christmas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)What it is:

What it is: A musical of the highest order.

Why I love it: Bing Crosby. Rosemary Clooney. MUSIC! WAR HEROES!
Favorite moment: A tie between the tear-inspiring moment when they honor the General and when I inspired tears among my co-watchers when I inform them that Vera-Ellen was suffering from the late stages of anorexia and wears high-necked clothes throughout the film to cover her neck. You’re welcome.

Bad Santa (2003)
What it is: Ridiculous.
Why I love it: I saw this movie in the theater when it was opened and I absolutely hated it. I thought it was gross and offensive. And then I went and saw it again with a different friend and I finally “got” the humor…and then I went back and saw it in the theater again.
Favorite moment: “Should I fix you some sandwiches?”

Smoky Mountain Christmas (1986)
What it is: So a Dolly Parton-like character who happens to be played by Dolly Parton needs to get out of the spotlight so she goes and finds seven children to adopt. Also she falls in love with a man named Mountain Dan.
Why I love it: Dolly Parton. Lee Majors. Christmas joy.
Favorite moment:

Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992)
What it is:  No one loves Kevin, and he gets to spend Christmas eating pizza in limousines and befriending homeless ladies and torturing thieves.
Why I love it: I had a ritual of watching Home Alone 2 every summer vacation (mostly because it was one of the few VHS tapes I owned) and I kind of know all the words to the whole movie. Also, this (fast-forward to 1:08):
Favorite moment: Home Alone 2 is basically a long ad for the Talkboy, and if you were born in the 1980s in the United States and didn’t ask your parents for one, it’s like I don’t even know you.

Image courtesy of federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Last month I read The Heart Has Its Reasons: Young Adult Literature with Gay/Lesbian/Queer Content, 1969-2004 (Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature) by Michael Cart and Christine Jenkins, a book that, as you may have guessed from its subtitle, examines young adult books with LGBTQ content published between 1969 and 2004. The authors list EVERY YA book published between the years 1969 and 2004, and I decided that I would take it upon myself to read as many books as possible that are listed in its pages.

Although I am not generally an avid reader of young adult books, I’m continuously fascinated by and interested in the portrayal of LGBTQ youth (and adults) within young adult books. And, as a reader who is predisposed to reading entire series of books, the fact that, due to the unfortunately low number of books published, reading every young adult book with LGBTQ content (at least until the 2000s) is actually a goal within my grasp, I am excited by the challenge.

I am using the terms gay and lesbian (as opposed to the more inclusive LGBTQ) for this challenge because these books are very binary and only feature gay or lesbian characters. (Per book. Seriously, the first YA book to feature both gay and lesbian characters was My Life As a Body by Norma Klein in 1987. The first to mention bisexuality was “Hello,” I Lied. by M.E. Kerr in 1998, and the first major transgender character wasn’t featured until 2004 in Julie Ann Peters’ Luna.)

I asked around on Twitter last week if anyone was interested in joining me for this read-a-long, and so far Amy, Jodie, and Carina have signed on to read at least a few with me. I plan on posting about the books sometime during the last week of each month. Some of these books are harder to find than others (especially David Rees’ In the Tent), but I’m hopeful I’ll be able to find them all.

2013 Schedule (all links lead to the book’s Goodreads page)

ETA: This is a complete list of all the YA books with LGBT characters published between 1969-1979. Ten books in eleven years.

January: I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip by John Donovan (1969)
February: The Man Without a Face by Isabelle Holland (1972)
March: Trying Hard to Hear You by Sandra Scoppettone (1974)
April: Ruby by Rosa Guy (1976)
May: What’s This About Pete? by Mary Sullivan (1976)
June: Sticks and Stones by Lynn Hall (1977)
July: I’ll Love You When You’re More Like Me by ME Kerr (1977)
August: Hey, Dollface by Deborah Hautzig (1978)
September: Happy Endings Are All Alike by Sandra Scoppettone (1978)
October: In the Tent by David Rees (1979)