ARC, Books, Reading Events

Book 145: Israel/Palestine and the Queer International – Sarah Schulman

My third book for The Literary Others reading event, and the final ARC of this month was Israel/Palestine and the Queer International. I requested this book via NetGalley and the below response is my honest opinion and I did not receive any compensation. I requested the book as I’m well aware that my knowledge on what is going on and what has happened in the region is woefully lacking and I thought this would be a great perspective for an introduction and boy was I right.

Like most readers, at least on Goodreads it seems, I expected this to be heavier on academics, what with being a publication of Duke University Press (Go Heels! – sorry couldn’t help it 😀 It’s a gut reaction…), but I found it incredibly approachable, well-reasoned and well written. This work clearly shows that Schulman is first and foremost a writer, her eloquent language, pertinent anecdotes and a great mixture of academia and activism really opened this book to a wider audience than I expected it to be able to reach. Previously, I have read two of her novels, After Delores and People in Trouble, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and am definitely interested in reading more of her more recent work, as well as her more biographical works.

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ARC, Books, Reading Events

Book 144: The Paternity Test – Michael Lowenthal

I read this book as a part of The Literary Others October LGBT History event. I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley and the response below is my honest opinion and I received no compensation.

This book did not get off to a good start with me; ending your first chapter referring to the potential birth mother of your child as just ‘the womb’ really bothered me. I felt it was incredibly misogynistic, an accusation two of the main characters made towards each other later in the book, but I also felt it was too jarring in the beginning of the story and put me on edge for the rest of the story.

I do feel that Lowenthal developed the characters further than that first chapter gave them credit, both male and female characters, but that really put me on edge and made it difficult to identify with and feel sympathy for Pat and Stu. But, if there is one thing he did do great it was the personality quirks of all the characters. From describing Deborah’s exotic Brazilian Portuguese accent to the adorable story about Pat and Stu when they moved into their first place together and stacked plates the same way for the same reason.

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Book Group, Books

Book 141: Big Fish – Daniel Wallace

I remember when the film version of Big Fish came out, I’d just started undergrad at UNC Chapel Hill and there was a bit of a to-do because Daniel Wallace lived in Chapel Hill at the time. He must’ve given a talk or something because I have a vague recollection of meeting him or hearing him speak. But the funny thing is, I never read the book or saw the story – I must’ve just been in the right place at the right time. This is the September selection for the Books into Movies book group at my local library. I enjoyed the book and we’ll see about the film.

Overall, the book was a fun read and you can take out of it any number of things, but if there is one thing that I took out of it, it’s that,

“You’re not necessarily supposed to believe it,” he says wearily. “You’re just supposed to believe in it. It’s like—a metaphor.” (112)

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ARC, Books

Book 135: The Art Forger – B.A. Shapiro

My original plan was to go right into reading another book from my Mount TBR challenge list, but as I’m on a stay-cation at Tom’s parents and I didn’t bring the book I had to do some fast thinking on what I could read. I looked through the local library Kindle books and didn’t find anything and remembered I had a NetGalley waiting that would be a light, fun read. I’m definitely glad I decided to read it. It also doesn’t hurt that I feel justified reading a ‘fun’ book as it’s a galley I wanted to review and I’m not just faffing about.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley from the publisher. This response to the novel is my honest opinion and I did not receive any compensation for it. Algonquin Books is releasing The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro on October 23, 2012 of this year.

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2012 Challenges, Books, Quotes, The Classics Club

Book 134: Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

I want to like Dickens—I really do. The only problem is that I’m convinced if he had a better editor these books would have been BEYOND amazing. The same thing happened while reading Great Expectations to me while reading A Tale of Two Cities. There were probably 200(+) pages in the middle of the book that just felt waffly and I could’ve done without. The openings were both great, once I got used to the language, and the endings were PHENOMENAL!

Great Expectaions counts for both my Mount TBR Challenge (20/25) and The Classics Club (11/100)!

I don’t want to boil this down to a love story, because it is so much more, but we all know my responses generally focus on one theme that really strikes me and the love of Pip for Estella definitely overwhelmed everything else (with the exception of his learning to love Magwitch). But seriously, how can you not be bowled over by the following quote? Click here to continue reading