2005

Lesbian Pulp Fiction

2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, GLBT /

Doesn’t everyone love pulp fiction now and then? I definitely do. And nothing is better on a stressful day than a wee bit of lesbian pulp fiction.

The Girls in 3-B was just a LITTLE lesbian pulp. Generally this genre focuses on a couple of young women and their sapphic explorations. This one included three 18 year old girls and only one dabbled in lesbianism – the one who had been abused as a child, of course. And not the one I expected at first to be the lesbian. Not the rough girl, not the poet… the beautiful femme instead. Yea!

Other than that little switch, it was typical of lesbian pulp written in the 50’s.

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Fat Girl

2 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Fat Girl by Judith Moore was totally depressing. Thank goodness it was short. It also came close to making me physically ill.

I don’t really like food very much. I don’t really like detailed descriptions of food. Moore is very good at the graphic descriptions I so very much hate. I almost put the book down before the end of the introduction.

I’m glad I stuck it out. As graphic as the food and fat body descriptions were, it was worth reading. As depressing and unappealing as all of the characters were, including Judith herself, it was worth reading.

It was worth reading because I have no idea what it is like to be a fat girl, yet I talk to people everyday who are “fat girls”. I have no idea what it is like to love food the way some people seem to, yet I talk to those types of people everyday. Anytime I find a book that gives me some insight into how some people might feel or behave or react, it’s worth reading. Even if it was disgusting. And depressing.

Thank goodness it was short.

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I Love Nancy Drew

2 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Mystery, Non-Fiction /

When I picked up this book from the shelf, I was afraid I would be disappointed. But I wasn’t. And I knew I wasn’t going to be from the first page of the Introduction. Not only do I love Nancy Drew. I love “Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her.

I mentioned in my Books That Say Something About You post that Nancy Drew says something about me. She does. I started reading Nancy’s in the early 70’s. The books with the yellow spine and interesting covers. (I do have one old one with a paper jacket and another with a solid turquoise binding) I remember when there was some controversy over who wrote the Nancys. And I remember the move from G&D to S&S.

This little book answers all of the questions I had about Nancy Drew and Carolyn Keene, and some I never wondered about. And it did it in a way that left me satisfied and not disillusioned with either Carolyn Keene or Nancy.

If you prefer the Hardy Boys or Bobbsey Twins or Ruth Fielding or Rover Boys was, you might still want to pick up this little book because the world of children’s literature, the 50 cents books, were linked in one way or another.

Whether you loved Nancy or hated her, she still had some kind of an impact on your life – if it wasn’t for Nancy, were would children’s literature be today? Girls’ literature in particular?

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I finished a book! Son of a ….

2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I’m not sure how long it’s been since I finished a book but today I am happy to report I FINISHED! Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire. Yea Me! Even bigger Yea Me ’cause TW didn’t finish it. She said it bored her to death. I don’t know why it bored her, except that she didn’t really like any of Maguire’s books very much. I liked all of them except Lost. This one was long, and rambling and not nearly as compelling as the other Maguire books we’ve read. I didn’t love it but…

Son of Ephaba, dragons, gay boy sex it just doesn’t get better than that, does it? I don’t think it does. I wonder if there will be a sequel to this sequel. Or maybe a prequel?

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No Vindication for Me, Magic Instead

2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, short stories /

You might have noticed a new book, well two actually, appeared on my reading list and that means I’ve given up on Wollstonecroft and Vindication I just couldn’t do it. Maybe another day, another time, but right now I’m having trouble enough reading. So, I gave up. The first part of it wasn’t bad, it was just a little bit too slow for me to stay focused on.

Instead, I turned to Magic for Beginners. A book of “magical” short stories that were, indeed, about magical topics. But like a lot of short stories, I hated the endings of almost all of them. The stories were terrific and then the ending just went really WEIRD in what felt like an attempt to just finish and finish quickly. I’m ok with weirdness in a story about magic, zombies, witches, etc… but the weirdness has to make SOME sense based on what has happened in the first 10-20 pages of the story.

I loved the faery purse story. Loved the canon story. Enjoyed the catskin story. The endings worked for these. Was really enjoying the zombie/painting story when the ending poofed out on me. The stone rabbits story was really terrific but again, what was with that ending????

Now, I’ve picked up Jasper Fforde’s The Big Over Easy, which TW said was good but not up to par with the Thursday Next series, which is too bad…

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Zipporah

2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, Religion /

Zipporah

OK, it’s not The Red Tent. Let’s get that straight right up front. Zipporah is also not as good as whatever the other book I read at some point in the last two years about Moses & Zipporah. (It was really about Moses but the Zipporah character was better written than in this book). Now if I could only remember what the name of that book was… maybe it will come to me at some point in the next few days.

I did enjoy it. TW seems to have liked it more than I did because when I said “It’s ok.” She got sort of bent out of shape and said “I liked it more than just ok.” I also have to say that of all of the Marek Halter books we’ve read, this has been my least favorite. The story of Moses and Zipporah is an interesting one and I found myself skimming an awful lot. That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

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Ghost Town

1 Comment / 2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, short stories /

Somehow I found myself reading three books at once, I never do that and it was pretty troubling to find myself in that position. I settled down and finished About My Sisters and then finished Ghost Town, a book of short stories about NYC.

Three short stories that were just long enough that I couldn’t finish a complete story during a 15 minute work break. HMPH. I prefer my short stories a little shorter. The stories were, uh, weird. To put it mildly. The first set in the revolutionary war period, the second about the time of the civil war and the third – you guessed it, 9/11. Weird stuff.

I thought they were going to be “ghost stories” but they weren’t. They were stories about weirdness, bad things happening, people just a little short of a full deck. Weird stuff, did I mention that? Now, back to Zipporah…no weirdness there at all, lol.

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Sisters

1 Comment / 2005, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I finally finished a book, yea me! About My Sisters by Debra Ginsberg and it was a pleasure to read, as I suspected. What an odd family. I’d like to see them in action at a family gathering.

I only have one sister and when I was a teenager I spent an awful lot of time taking care of her, like Debra and Deja, but we definitely don’t have the type of relationship that the two of them have. Maybe we would have if I hadn’t moved so darn far away and stayed away for all of those years? Who knows but it was interesting to think about.

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The Gilded Chamber

2 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Fiction /

Chamber The Gilded Chamber is NOT The Red Tent, we have to get that point out of the way right now. I’m really tired of seeing “If you liked The Red Tent, you’ll like ______” and that sort of thing used to describe these types of books.

Because The Gilded Chamber is not The Red Tent, it falls short just like all of the Biblical novels about women do. That’s not to say it wasn’t good or worth reading, it was both, it just wasn’t … The Red Tent.

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Towelhead

1 Comment / 2005, Books in Bed, Fiction /

Towel How can one girl be surrounded by so many dysfunctional adults? Good grief! A little too much dysfunction for me – and why I read this in September of all months, I will never know. Oh wait, I read it in September because I fell so far behind over the summer … I just kept renewing it and renewing it and can’t renew it any longer.

I didn’t love this one, didn’t hate it either. Not great, not horrible. Just more dysfunctional abused kid surrounded by dysfunctional abusive adults stuff. Ho hum.

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