2007

Drag King Dreams

2007, Books in Bed, Fiction, Queer /

Drag King Dreams is a pretty decent follow up to the queer classic Stone Butch Blues. Pretty decent is about as good as I can come up with, particularly since Stone Butch Blues is fantastic.

I am a little tired of the post 9/11 NYC thing and this book was just a little too full of that for me. I understand the point – the police harassment of those from Pakistan, India, Iraq, Iran etc… is very similar to the harassment of “gender queers”. It makes sense and it’s a good point but I’d have enjoyed the book more with just a wee bit less politic thrown in.

The end of the book though, fantastic. The calling out of each person’s “name” while in jail – really good ending.

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Anna Casey’s Place in the World

2 Comments / 2007, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction /

Yes, another book blog post. Sorry! Once I made it through Cellophane, the reading has just come so much easier. I don’t expect I’ll slow down since I’ve got two Harper Collins review books to read plus a bunch of A to Z list books due back to the library this month. So you non-readers just hang tight for a bit longer. (What do you want me to blog about that isn’t related to books? I’ll take requests, just this once. Carmen, don’t say ELFF Diet, I’m getting to that – I swear!)

So, about Anna Casey’s Place in the World it’s juvenile fiction (not even young adult fiction) and I have no idea how it landed in my ClubMom library bag. Did it win a Cybil? Did sassymonkey blog it? Did TW pick it up from the shelf while we were wandering around the stacks? Who knows, my library reading list is always a bit of a mystery and that’s ok.

The book was nice. A “problem book” but not an overwhelming problem book. There was a surprise involving Eb at the very end. I did not expect that. If you have a 10 year old reading the book, and your 10 year old is a sensitive being, you might want to read it first (or drop me an email and I’ll tell you what happens).

I love the neighborhood. I want to live in that neighborhood, homeless dudes and all! Does that neighborhood exist in the USA? If it does, are there any really big houses for sale?

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The Broke Diaries!

3 Comments / 2007, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

How did that happen? I almost forgot to blog The Broke Diaries. Crazy since it’s one of the better books I’ve read over the last week or so. In fact, I’m going to toss it into the “favorites” category because I really loved it.

It reads like a blog, or an online journal, which is just how it should read since Nissel is an online kind of woman and started posting her “broke diaries” online. I love a book that reads like a blog rather than one that TRIES to read like a blog.

I’m off to reserve her latest book, Mixed, from the library now. Anyone read it? Is it as good as Broke Diaries? It is, isn’t it?

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Cellophane

2007, Books in Bed, Fiction /

I had a difficult time getting into Cellophane. Maybe it was trying to read it in busy airports when flights were being canceled all around me. Or maybe it just starts really slowly. I was about to give up on it when Don Victor discovered he could make cellophane and things got interesting. Very interesting.

The first 75 pages, boring. The last 75 pages also not great. Everything in the middle, fabulous.

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Survivor

2007, Books in Bed, Fiction /

Survivor by Tabitha King, not Survivor with silly Jeff Probst. Though actually, now that I think about it, I could write a lot more about Survivor the TV show than Survivor the book.

It’s not that the book was bad, it wasn’t. But I had a good bit of deja vu while reading it. It has been a good 15 years, maybe more, since I read a novel by Tabitha King but Kissy felt an awful lot like Deanie to me. Other than that weird character deja vu – I liked it well enough. I even found myself liking Junior, what a surprise that was to me.

I’ve got another Tabitha King novel waiting. I wonder whether I’ll feel that deja vu.

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Magic Study

1 Comment / 2007, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

Sassymonkey said Magic Study was less evil than Poison Study, (evil = caused to stay up late into the night to finish), I disagree. I found Magic Study got off to a much quicker, a quick start and I really wanted to do nothing except keep reading! I took a break to help a friend with her blog template and in the back of my head was “darn, now I’m not going to finish this tonight”. Ha, I should have known I’d just keep reading.

I thought for a minute the author was going to make everything neat and tidy, I’m so glad she didn’t. I liked the interaction between Yalena and Lief and Yalena and her mother. Those had to be tough relationships for the author to create and maintain.

I’m looking forward to Fire Study.

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Poison Study

1 Comment / 2007, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

Well sassymonkey turned out to be right after all. Poison Study was difficult to put down once I got into it. That whole getting into it thing was a problem. It was really slow for the first chapter or two. I thought sassymonkey had lost her mind.

I thought this was a YA book but it isn’t – why isn’t it? Oh more money in adult books, maybe? Maybe it is the transgendered character keeping it from being a YA? Ha. I was surprised at the TG turn, pleasantly surprised actually. F2M TG, awesome – that is just not something you see everyday and certainly not an F2M TG with all of that power. I would love to hear the story of how that all came about. Not that I don’t like Yelena, I do. But I have a lot of questions about Ambrosia….

I’m off to read Magic Study now.

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What the Dead Know

2007, Books in Bed, Fiction /

Oops, I’ve fallen behind in my book blogging. If I don’t watch out, I’ll turn into TW who never blogs her books and then where will I be? I don’t want to be a slacker! Heh.

My pal Katie sent me her copy of What the Dead Know. (She got it from the BlogHer Book Tour.)

How was it? It was good. I was a little worried that I wasn’t going to like it because TW read it first and made all sorts of whimpery homesickness sorts of noises because it is set in Maryland and TW grew up in Maryland. Not being a huge fan of the state of Maryland, I was afraid I was going to be left out. I wasn’t.

The idea of nostalgia and reliving a childhood was enough to hold my attention. Of course having the whole missing children aspect on top of it didn’t hurt.

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