ARC, Books

Book 658: The Children of Harvey Milk – Andrew Reynolds

I’m not sure how I stumbled across this one, but when I did back in May I requested a copy from the publisher and they kindly obliged.* I was interested because of the subject matter, but also because Reynolds is based at UNC Chapel Hill (my undergrad) and his name rang a bell because he’d chaired the Sexuality Studies program there at some point in the recent past. And then with my master’s degree focusing on the Civil Partnership Act (2014) in the UK, of course I was going to want to read this book and see what he had to say.

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ARC, Books

Book 654: Law and Addiction – Mike Papantonio

Unlike, Off the Grid, this book was worth saying yes to the publicist.* This book was engaging, a fast read, and had characters that were written well and believably realistic from the newly minted idealist lawyer Jake Rutledge to the West Virginia county chief prosecutor Eva Whistler, all of these characters felt real.

Law and Addiction is the story of Jake Rutledge and his battle against the opioid epidemic and big pharma after his twin brother dies of an opioid overdose. And, honestly, you couldn’t get more timely with a book release with all of the news stories about Purdue Pharma (Google News search) and the crackdowns in Boston after a corrections officer was attacked via Boston 25 News.

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Updates

March Recap 2019

March was incredibly busy, mostly thanks to a week-long cruise to the Caribbean. So it was relaxing busy—that’s a thing right?

The best part though, was when we got on our plane to Florida it was snowing and then we were in the Caribbean for a week. FANTASTIC. In addition the annual video game exposition, PAX East, came to Boston and we went this past Sunday.

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Books

Book 580: Freak Show – James St. James

Wow – there’s a lot to take in from this book and I’m glad I read it even though it definitely took me for a bit of a spin. And even though it took a while for me to get used to the writing, the characters, and the flamboyancy, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Unlike other young adult LGBT+ novels—emphasis on “G” (Out of the Pocket, Autoboyography, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Geography Club, Boy Meets Boy, Two Boys Kissing, etc.), this book has a character who doesn’t happen to be gay, who isn’t some jock that likes guys. Billy Boyd is loud and proud, even if he doesn’t quite know how to define himself just yet.

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Books

Book 543: The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton

We moved last month and I had to shuffle books around and needed to pull one of a certain size off my shelf and this one was it so I figured might as well read it and I’m glad I did! I honestly thought this was on my Classics Club list, but apparently it wasn’t when I went to document it on my lists.

Apparently, I picked it up as part of my re-read books from high school that you didn’t like to see how they/I have changed after attending a panel at the 2012 Boston Book Festival. Although I didn’t read this one in high school, I read Ethan Frome, which of course I was disgruntled about because it wasn’t Star Wars or fantasy. Now I am again interested in the retelling that I mention, so who knows I might revisit this sooner than I think. Continue reading “Book 543: The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton”