Tag: LGBT

Books

Book 549: No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics – Justin Hall (Ed.)

Geoff W

I randomly stumbled across the Kickstarter for the documentary version of No Straight Lines. So of course I had to see if the library had it and it was in the one near me so I walked down and got it at lunch. It was a quick read and covered a wide variety of comics.

I mean 40 years in LGBT/Queer history covers so much from AIDS to decriminalization to marriage to adoption rights to the wonderful coming of age of trans* comics. (For more information on the asterisks in the word “Trans*” check out this graphic (It’s Pronounced Metrosexual link). The anthology did a great job by dividing the comics into three era’s of queer comics:  1) Come Out: Gay Gag Strips, Underground Comix, and Lesbian Literati (1960s-1970s); 2) File Under Queer: Comix to Comics, Punk Zines, and Art During the Plague (1980s-1990s); 3) A New Millennium: Trans Creators, Webcomics, and Stepping Out of the Ghetto (2000s-today?). I listed all of the authors at the end of this post because they all deserve credit in this wonderful anthology.

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ARC, Books

Book 545: You Think It, I’ll Say It – Curtis Sittenfeld

Geoff W

I’m slowly making more progress on my ARC/Galleys. It’s been a while since I last read a collection of short stories, last summer I read a couple of collections, but they’re not something I seek out very often. So when the publisher reached out about this one I figured why not.*

I’ve enjoyed Sittenfeld’s writing, Prep, from way before I started this blog and more recently Eligible, her retelling of Pride and Prejudice as part of the now (seemingly?) defunct The Austen Project. The downside of this collection in particular, is because I enjoy Sittenfeld’s writing, I had already read at least three, if not five of the previously published short stories of the ten, but I’ll talk more about this later.

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Updates

March Recap 2018

Geoff W

That photo to the right pretty much sums up most of March for me.

We had more snow and rain this month than I swear we’ve had in all of last year. The worst part about it was that they were back to back nor’easters with three in three weeks and flooding happened within a mile of our house. If you can’t tell that photo is the ocean high enough up that we can’t make our usual walk around a big loop at Castle Island. There were other parts of the walkway that were flooded but that end bit was the most astounding – usually there’s 5-8 feet from the water to the top of the stone barriers which you can sort of see to the left. This is Head Island on Google Maps – we’re supposed to be able to walk all the way around Pleasure Bay.  Continue reading “March Recap 2018” →

Books

Book 539: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide #1) – Mackenzie Lee

Geoff W

After seeing this over and over being the darling of the book blogosphere and reading the rave reviews of it I figured I should check it out. I read a lot of LGBT literature, a lot of young adult literature, and quite a bit of adventure literature so I thought why not. And although I wasn’t completely disappointed, I was genuinely underwhelmed and for once it wasn’t the mood I was in. I’ll start with the not-so-great and finish with what I enjoyed.

I’m a finicky reader at best and have curated a pretty good system of choosing the books I read, including taking into account books that fellow bloggers who have similar tastes to me read, but this one just didn’t click for me quite like others have. I kept to my usual style of not reading anything about the author or the book after I decided I want to read it. [Generally I get excited about a book/author and purchase/reserve something by them and then I let it sit for a while so that I can clear my palate.]

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Books, Professional Development

Book 535: Nudge – Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

Geoff W

I’m really taking to heart all of the articles I read about the most successful people and I’m trying to read one nonfiction book that will teach me something every month this year. I just looked back on all my stats from the last year and I’ve averaged 16 nonfiction books a year.

I’m still not 100% sure what list I saw this on, but I picked up a copy back in August of 2016. It was probably when I started reading about the importance of mental acuity and keeping your mind sharp and constantly learning how to do new things. That or it was when I was dealing with some craziness at work and needed all the advice I could get! Pick any number of these professional development books and you’ll see what I mean, specifically those dealing with conflict.

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