A life of books . . .
Adorable.
I could probably leave it at that, but since this is a blog and not just Twitter, I won’t.
Go for it, Nakamura! is a Japanese manga that’s on quite a few Best LGBT+ manga lists, so I thought I’d give it a try. I honestly wasn’t sure if it was going to be closer to My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 and My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 2 or more like Don’t Be Cruel #1 and #2 or #3 and #4. Thankfully, it was more like the latter, with no sex scenes (these are high school kids after all).
Coming hot on the heels of A Weekend with Mr. Darcy, I of course had to read the follow up novel since the library just happened to have a digital download with no wait. What is that you’re whispering, “Self restraint?” Unfortunately, that’s not in my vocabulary—especially when it comes to books and explicitly when it comes to Jane Austen.
Book two of Connelly’s Austen Addicts series focused more on Persuasion than Pride and Prejudice, although there were plenty of Darcy references. This pretty much solidified that I’ll take my copy of Persuasion (where I’ll be when this posts).
Continue reading “Book 671: Dreaming of Mr. Darcy (Austen Addicts #2) – Victoria Connelly”
When I picked this up from the library, I had some preconceived notion that it would be more along the lines of Bloom than what it ended up being. I’m not sure why I thought this. They did often appear on Best (LGBT+) Graphic Novels of 2019 lists together, but that shouldn’t really have made me think they’d be as similar as I thought they would be.
I was drawn to the illustration style on the cover as the limited use of colors reminded me of Bloom and the illustration style reminded me of Alison Bechdel’s style in Fun Home (or maybe it’s just the glasses on Lou?). Walden’s story follows Bea as she’s running away from home, we’re not told why at the beginning and Lou, a distant family friend doesn’t ask any questions. A random cat shows up (Diamond) and then the story gets really weird, like magical realism weird. [SPOILERS after the jump, including the recommendation.]
Continue reading “Book 669: Are You Listening? – Tillie Walden”
I stumbled across this illustrated biography of Charlotte Brontë after one of my google alerts (“Boston” and “Brontë”) alerted me to this article in Seven Days, Vermont’s Independent Voice publication. I’ve been meaning to read an actual Brontë biography forever really, but specifically since the 2017 release of To Walk Invisible on PBS and my visit to the Parsonage in 2018.
I read The Mother of the Brontës last year which covered a good portion of this and some of the inspired works cover similar time periods because they were all so young. The downside of the Brontës and Austen are how short their lives were and we can only glean so much from the few letters and drafts of their works that exist, but there are instances where a little creative license and ingenuity can make these well known facts and situations seem new again. And that is the case with this Fawkes work.
Continue reading “Book 668: Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre – Glynnis Fawkes”
I managed to restrain myself to only reading two squeal-inducing pretty much swoon-worthy MM romances this go around, and it has nothing to do with the library not having #3 available right away, so you’re welcome.
Seriously though, why are these things like some sort of drug? They’re not rocket science, they’re well written but they’re not going to stay with me forever (I’ll forget them within weeks if not days), and they’re definitely not anywhere close to high brow, but they’re SO DAMN GOOD. Now I’m off on a tangential internet search on studies of what romance novels do to people’s brains. [There appear to be plenty of studies but mostly on women and mostly, it seems, derogatory.]
Continue reading “Book 666: Beta Test (#gaymers #2) – Annabeth Albert”