Women

Winging It: A Memoir of Caring for a Vengeful Parrot Who’s Determined to Kill Me

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, From the Stacks Challenge, Non-Fiction, Women /

Several months ago, I went to BlogHer Belmont to have some fun get some work done with my co-workers. When I arrived, Lisa Stone handed me a mailing envelope with a book inside that she thought I should read. I laughed and made sure it made it into my suitcase home. When I got home, I opened it up and as soon as I saw the cover… I laughed too.

Lyra aka Gaknar (The Fear Demon) is famous at BlogHer Belmont for her shrieks during my phone calls. She has always particularly appreciated the voice of Lisa Stone. She’s also famous because I so often rant about her and publicly wish her dead. Which is obviously an exaggeration. If I really wanted her dead, she would be dead.

I finally found some time to read Winging It and it was funny and familiar and frightening, all at the same time.

What in the hell was Jenny Gardiner thinking? What was her family thinking? Why wasn’t someone there who could step in and say ENOUGH – this is not healthy for your, your family or the animals you keep bringing into your lives.

Because it wasn’t just Graycie the African Grey who was a troubled pet, it was more than half of the other pets they brought into their home as well. Not to mention one family disaster after another. Not to mention Pierre the French Exchange Student.

Does Jenny Gardiner have a blog because, dude, hers would be one of those trainwrecky types where you cannot really believe that so much can happen to one family, the type where you’re in the background saying NO, DO NOT DO THAT and judging the blogger for making such horrendous decisions, the type where in the end you keep reading because you recognize yourself and your own bad choices and your own ability to get through it, stick with it, and come out the otherside willing to give a parrot who wants to kill you hydrotherapy three times a day for what seems like the rest of your life while taking care of three children under 5, a dog who is allergic to everything (literally) and your own Lyme disease.

I can’t decide if I wish I’d read this book during the first week Lyra aka Gaknar came to live with us. It certainly would have made us less freaked out the day we found the big feather in the bottom of the cage and SOMEONE was sure it was a blood feather and she would bleed to death. Hah. It also would have been easier when Lyra aka Gaknar lost a bunch of weight and we were sure she was going to die any second.

Then again, if I’d have thought I would wind up with a bird who needed anywhere near as much care as Graycie – or was as messy – or as evil… I think I would have had to move out. Or make the bird move out.

After my family finishes reading this, I’ll be sending it back to BlogHer Belmont for Superwoman aka Miriam – it’s sad just how many of the BlogHer Belmont staff have wished a bird dead….

This is also my first book in this year’s From the Stacks challenge – it’s red (with the jacket on.)

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Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

I’m a Carpenters fan. How can I not be? Even if Richard wasn’t a genius and Karen wasn’t an amazing singer and drummer, I’d still have to be a fan. I grew up with the Carpenters. I liked nothing better than to sit at the kitchen table with my mom playing Kings on the Corners or Canasta while listening to her Carpenters albums. She sometimes made us listen to Barry Manilow which is why I am also a Barry Manilow fan. But mostly, it was the Carpenters. The best part of taking piano lessons was playing Carpenters songs – I think I can still play Close to You (badly.)

I saw Little Girl Blue reviewed somewhere on the internets and decided I’d give it a try. I knew it would be bad, in the not really a good biography way, because I’d seen articles about how close-mouthed people were about Karen. I knew it would be bad, in the really horrible and depressing way, because how could it not?

It was bad. In both ways.

It’s hard to write a really good biography when those involved won’t – or can’t – talk about the person being written about. Still, I think Schmidt did a reasonably well job. As a Carpenters fan it was nice to see the timeline and a little look at what was happening in the background as the years passed. I’d have liked it to have been better – to have answered more questions, but I also know it’s likely that there aren’t any good answers.

They never should have made her step out from behind the drums. And of course there’s some patriarchy-blaming to do, too. None of that changes the fact that it was horrible and still is horrible if you let yourself think about it.

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Radiant Daughter

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

Early in the month, TW read a bunch of depressing books all in a row. I told myself that I was not going to do that. I was going to be smarter. I was going to read a depressing, difficult book – then a light fluffy book – then a depressing difficult book. Hahaha.

I read Radiant Daughter yesterday and talk about a difficult, depressing book. A beautifully written, difficult, depressing book but still – oy.

Mother/Daughter relationships are difficult enough as it is without bipolar with rapid cycling tossed in. It’s hard to call a story like this a “favorite” but I think I have to.

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How to Bake a Perfect Life

2011, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Women /

I don’t normally read two books at once (not counting listening to an audio book in the car while reading other books in print) but when I picked up Girl Wide Web, I just knew I couldn’t read it straight through all by itself. It was too dry and I’ve read an awful lot of non-fiction lately – so, I read a couple of chapters of Girl Wide Web and picked up the fluffy How to Bake a Perfect Life and read a few chapters of that. I alternated between them both and that was a good plan. Nice mix of the real and the not so real.  

I liked it more than I thought I would. I liked Ramona – as pregnant teen and as single mom, small business owner. I liked Sophia. I liked Poppy and Nancy and Lily. I liked Katie a lot. I even liked Jonas, the only guy in the book (besides the dog and the cat) who gets any serious lines or character development.

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Girl Wide Web

2011, Books in Bed, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

The new version of Girl Wide Web is on Michelle’s syllabus so I thought I’d try and reserve it from my library- no luck, they only had the original version. I thought what the hell and reserved it. It was interesting but in a dated sort of way.

Remember when BlueJeanOnline started, and how cool it was to have a magazine written for and BY girls. Yea. The essay focusing on BlueJeanOnline was interesting, in a historical kind of way. BlueJean has been gone for quite some time now. I remember when Gurl was new and interesting – look at it today, not so much new or interesting. And when AboutFace.org started, thankfully it’s still going strong.

The internet moves quickly and these essays are good reflections of how girls were using the internet and are good jumping off points for anyone who wants to dig into how girls use the internet today.

I’ll be interested in hearing what Michelle thinks about Girl Wide Web 2.0. I wonder if she’ll let me borrow it once she finishes with her class.

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A Skating Life

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Women /

It’s been one heck of a non-fictiony year so far, what’s up with that? I’m feeling all non-fictioned out, which is bad since most of what is on my library cart is non-fiction! Oops, time to reserve some Cybils!

TW snagged A Skating Life from the shelf at the library, I think from one of those themed displays – this one touting “winter” or something like that. A display I would never have voluntarily looked at. So I’m glad she did. She might have had the Hamill hair cut but she’s not the only one who loved Dorothy Hamill way back when. Her book is frustrating. Full of angst and depression and dirtbags. That made it a little hard to focus on her talent as a skater sometimes. Which is too bad because… look at her skate.

It’s extra interesting to watch this after just having read the book. To know what she was thinking as the crowd booed the judges as she came out. To see her squint at the scores after she was done.  Now I just want to wander around and watch Dorothy Hamill skate videos all day.

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Wildthorn

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Queer, Women /

This is another one of those books, reserved at my library when I was on a search for lesbian fiction. I was very pleased that my library had Wildthorn – I don’t read much historical romance-y lesbian fiction, which is too bad. I should see if I can scare up some more!

Louisa is her father’s daughter – she’d like to be a boy, because boys have toy trains and get to play marbles and they go to school and learn real things as opposed to the things girls go to school to learn. Her father, a doctor, indulges her and keeps her home, hires a tutor and even takes her on rounds with him after she’s old enough to handle such things. Louisa wants nothing more than to be a doctor. She’s also in love with her cousin – Grace.

Which is all well and good until her father dies, leaving her brother head of the household. And her brother has issues. Issues with Louisa – a young woman who “apes men” – and personal issues that drive him to… well I won’t spoil it for you.

Before she knows it, Louisa is in an asylum and the staff is calling her Lucy. There are some nice twists at the end and an ending that I didn’t love because it was a little big predictable and too close to happily ever after for my tastes. Even though it wasn’t happily ever after in the same way it would have been if Louisa wasn’t a lesbian.

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My Red Blood

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Queer, Women /

At the beginning of the book, Dobkins makes a point of saying that My Red Blood is NOT about her being a lesbian and boy was she right. It’s barely about her being a feminist. I could be disappointed about that but I’m not because what came before was just as interesting as what came after. And for what came after, well that’s pretty easy to put together even if Alix doesn’t write part two of her memoirs.

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The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

I was worried about The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay – too many glowing reviews, too many big authors praising the book, the author died before it was published – I was afraid it wasn’t going to live up to its hype, ya know?

Thank goodness, it wasn’t a letdown. I really liked Idella and Avis. I think I’d have probably liked Emma, too, if I’d gotten to know her. And Maddie, what happened to Maddie? That’s a story all in itself and I’m sad that we’ll not find out what happened.

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The Lonely Hearts Club

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Queer, Women /

Remember awhile back when I was bemoaning the lack of lesbian lit available at the library only to discover several books with serious lesbian themes were already on my library cart? Well one of the books that WAS available at the library was The Lonely Hearts Club and I did reserve it. How could I not – it’s been a long time since I read a steamy lesbian love story, and Radclyffe DOES write a GREAT steamy lesbian love story.

Something interesting to note… back in the day, lesbian lit was all about coming out. Or all about the OUT lesbian falling for the not yet out lesbian. Now, everything I read is about lesbians who are totally OUT and they all seem to be having babies or thinking about having babies.  Interesting, right?

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