A life of books . . .
So I have talked about gut punches when reading books before, but Silvera took it to a different level with this one—and this was his freakin’ debut novel!
I’ve known about Silvera for some time and even read his co-authored What If It’s Us? with Becky Albertalli, but this is the first time I’ve sought out his work. I came across it on a list of must-reads and so grabbed it when I saw it was available at my library.
Continue reading “Book 901: More Happy Than Not – Adam Silvera”
When I stumbled across this on NetGalley I knew I wanted to read it.* That book cover has Boston (including where I actually live) on it, it’s an own voices LGBTQIA story, and it happens to be released in October and set in Salem, I mean COME ON how could I NOT request it. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to my hopes for it. Maybe they were too high to start because the book started out strong but puttered out by the end.
Just Ash is the story of Ash who has spent their entire life as a boy who happened to have both male and female parts, but in the opening scene gets his period and a series of horrible events follow as he is forced to pretend to be a girl by his parents for some time until he finally sets his foot down.
I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one, I just knew I would absolutely read it as I’ve read everything else by Bechdel.
I knew it was nonfiction and that it more than likely was going to chronicle her life. I mean, that’s her on the cover AND she’s a serial chronicler of her life and what she’s experienced. With Fun Home being about her dad and their relationship, and Are You My Mother? about her mom and their relationship, I honestly wasn’t sure where she’d go next.
Continue reading “Book 865: The Secret to Superhuman Strength – Alison Bechdel”
This was an adorable angsty follow-up to Barakiva’s One Man Guy. I feel like he could choose an emotion and keep going with Alek and Ethan exploring what that emotion means to the two of them and how it changes their relationship.
Hold My Hand picks up roughly five months after the end of One Man Guy, and Alek is facing fears of how and when they’ll take their relationship to the next level physically and honestly, it’s endearing and horrifying and hilarious all at the same time. (Seriously, read the second quote in the more quotes. DIED.) The rest of this will contain spoilers so stay out if you don’t want to know the main plot point and what happens.
Continue reading “Book 864: Hold My Hand (One Man Guy #2) – Michael Barakiva”
UGH. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. I remember the excitement when I stumbled across it seven years ago at PAX East in the LGBT lounge. I guess I either forgot the premise or didn’t really read the full premise of the book so ended up slightly disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong there were definitely a few stories I very much enjoyed (more the redemptive ones) and there was some great writing throughout the novel, but there were some larger issues with the collection that may reflect when it was originally published (2013) and how far we’ve come as a society, and also the background of the editor (cis white gay man).
Continue reading “Book 846: The Lavender Menace – Tom Cardamone (Ed.)”