Books

Book 587: Longbourn – Jo Baker

I can’t believe I’ve had this on my shelf for as long as I have. It’s been almost TWO YEARS since I bought it. TWO YEARS! I’m not sure I would go so far as to say this is THE pinnacle of Jane Austen fan-fiction, but it’s pretty close.

I say this for a couple of reasons the primary being that Baker didn’t deviate too far from Austen’s characters, she stayed true to them and only played with the background characters (they’re less than minor) and filled in their back stories. The secondary reason I say this is because it received reviews in the major publications and was fairly mainstream for Austen fan-fiction/inspired fiction. I mean sure you’ve got the major adaptations like Bridget Jones’s Diary and Clueless, but those are both modern adaptations.

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Books

Book 586: A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo – Jill Twiss and E.G. Keller

This is another great gift from my friends Caroline and Nick! I’d heard about this from people who watch John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. I was vaguely aware of the controversy of it being released around the same time as another book about Pence’s pet, but I hadn’t actually read it or made plans to read it, but since they got us a copy I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Books

Book 582: Boy Meets Hamster – Birdie Milano

I randomly bought this when we were in the UK this past summer. I bought it because of the quirky title, but I was drawn to the display because it was a display of young adult and children’s books with LGBT+ characters.

Now the fact that there are LGBT+ young adult characters isn’t abnormal, I mean just look at the list of books I’ve read recently and you’ll see a half-dozen spanning two decades. What was exciting to me was the fact there was a display in the young adult/children’s section highlighting them! It was magical 😀

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Updates

November and December Recap 2018

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I’m not sure how, but somehow I actually got this scheduled to post New Year’s Day! Sure it’s a (late) recap of November and December 2018 and you’ll have to wait another week or so for my full 2018 look back, but I’m still impressed 😀

I wish I spent New Year’s Even in a hot tub, but alas I did not. I actually spent the first weekend in December in a hot tub, because I quit my job and we spent a long weekend in snow-covered New Hampshire. Have you ever seen a more relaxed faced? Mine hasn’t been that relaxed in a long time! Quitting was the right thing to do and later in December I received a new job offer which I am VERY excited about. But the leaving my job and gearing up for a new one were once again responsible for my slow reading and non responsiveness in November/December, but I’m slowly getting back into things.

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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 ClubBoy 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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