Books

Book 680: The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower #7) – Stephen King

Cover art for "The Dark Tower" and Amazon AffiliateTalk about a gut punch of an ending.

The Dark Tower picks up immediately where Song of Susannah ends and not only does it punch you in the gut in chapter one, but it continues to pummel you for the next 700+ pages! And honestly, I wouldn’t have expected less from something of such epic proportions. I can’t talk about this without spoiling it so don’t read any more if you haven’t read it and have any intention of reading it. (You can read the recommendation if you want though.)

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Books

Book 669: Are You Listening? – Tillie Walden

cover art for "are you listening" and amazon affiliate linkWhen I picked this up from the library, I had some preconceived notion that it would be more along the lines of Bloom than what it ended up being. I’m not sure why I thought this. They did often appear on Best (LGBT+) Graphic Novels of 2019 lists together, but that shouldn’t really have made me think they’d be as similar as I thought they would be.

I was drawn to the illustration style on the cover as the limited use of colors reminded me of Bloom and the illustration style reminded me of Alison Bechdel’s style in Fun Home (or maybe it’s just the glasses on Lou?). Walden’s story follows Bea as she’s running away from home, we’re not told why at the beginning and Lou, a distant family friend doesn’t ask any questions. A random cat shows up (Diamond) and then the story gets really weird, like magical realism weird. [SPOILERS after the link, including the recommendation.]

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Books

Book 645: The Porcupine of Truth – Bill Konigsberg

The Porcupine of Truth book coverAnd, I’m back to playing catch up. The downside of all these teen/young adult rom-com books is that I read them so fast and I just want more that I end up going from being ahead on blogging to being two-to-three books behind in just days!

I got this this on Kindle download after reading The Music of What Happens and realizing I was only two books from finishing Konigsberg’s current works. It so happens I downloaded this the same day I went to the library too pick up two books and came back with six books, including the final Konigsberg I haven’t read, Honestly Ben, which I’ll get to probably in two-to-three days at the rate I’m reading these!

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Books

Book 632: My Brother’s Husband, Volume 2 – Gengoroh Tagame

My Brother’s Husband, Volume 2, if possible, is even more perfect than Volume 1. We pick up with the story where Yatchi is continuing to digest what it must be like for LGBTQ+ individuals to come out and not be accepted. He’s internalizing everything and applying it to his own relationship with his daughter.

As Yatchi is doing he comes to the realization that he may not have fully accepted his twin’s sexuality. He finally acknowledges that they grew apart and that it wasn’t Ryoji’s growing distant and physically moving to Canada, but that he became distant with his twin as soon as he came out.

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Books

Book 631: My Brother’s Husband, Volume 1 – Gengoroh Tagame

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one with my only previous interaction with Gengoroh Tagame being through the book Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It. Was this going to be a super hot and heavy x-rated story? Was it going to be all about bulges and beefcakes? I mean look at the cover Yaichi and Mike are stacked.

I would’ve read it either way after some of the other super intense definitely x-rated manga I’ve read over the past few years. I was pleasantly surprised that this story is designed less for the erotica fans of Gengoroh Tagame, than for the general population that might like manga but might not understand LGBTQ+ individuals or even be homophobic (which I would’ve known if I read the blurb).

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