From the Stacks Challenge

#readation book #5 – October Obsession

182 pages – another lesbian paranormal fiction from Naiad – October Obsession even weirder than the last one.  Ghost sex – I just don’t get it. I’m going to have to be more choosey about my lesbian fiction from now on. I don’t think I can deal with another one of those. However, great sex scenes… just sayin’.

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Girl Scouts: A Celebration of 100 Trailblazing Years

Michelle came home from a trip to the bookstore in January with a present for me.

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I loved it but decided to wait til GSUSA’s 100th birthday to read it. And that’s what I did yesterday. I took short breaks throughout the work day and finished Girl Scouts: A Celebration of 100 Trailblazing Years late last night. It was fabulous and fun. The photos are terrific and I found myself nodding and smiling my head all the way through.

It was a great gift and it was a real pleasure reading it on the 100th birthday celebration.

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Chasing Lightning

We bought Chasing Lightning during our little adventure day trip a few weeks ago where we went into the city and visited three Indie bookstores that we hadn’t visited before – we always buy at least one book when we visit such stores and when possible we buy queer lit in order to support the cause. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one, except TW read it first and said it had a lot of sex in it. It did, but not graphic sex (at least not graphic sex when you compare it to straight lit of a similar type, lol.)

I liked the book but it covered a lot of ground in a very short amount of time – short chapters, which can be a little disconcerting but also made it an easy read. It almost feels like it was intended for “new” lesbians because of the explanations about what life was like for queers in the 60’s and 70’s took up a lot of room in the book, considering how short the chapters were. Those “non-fictiony” type sections felt off and were a bit of a distraction from Scarlett’s story because some of them didn’t feel like they fit very well into the story.  

It was a nice, easy read during a busy weekend.

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The Apothecary

Sassymonkey sent me an advance uncorrected galley of The Apothecary. She got it at BEA and I was thrilled to get it – even if I didn’t have time to read it when it arrived.

Now, I’m sorry I didn’t make time earlier. It was excellent. I love how awesome Janie and Jin Lo were.  Pip was a great character, too. And I liked the ending a good bit. From truth serums memory loss potions. Brilliant idea.

I can’t wait for the next book about Janie and Benjamin. I sure hope Pip (and Sarah???) are in the next book, too.

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The Night Circus

@sassymonkey went to BEA and all I got was a really awesome, amazing, unforgettable book (an advanced copy.) WIN for me!  (OK I got some other books but this is the first one I’ve read…)

The Night Circus was… Magical. Fabulous. Creepy. Beautiful. Fascinating. Frightening. Overwhelming. Awe-inspiring. A-Freaking-Mazing.

I’m talking about both the book and the Le Cirque des Reves.

This is the kind of book that I want to devour in one sitting. But it’s also the kind of book that I wanted to put down and think about – to really dig into the imagery. I wanted to know how it all ended but I was sorry to see it end. (And it ended so very well, I think.)

This one… might be the best book I read all year.

You should pre-order now.  I’m actually wondering whether I’d like it just as well on audio and am considering buying it on audio. That my friends is how much I like this story.

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The Eve Tree

It’s really hard to talk about The Eve Tree without talking about Journey Mama – even though they are not the same thing.

The book is not the blog. Molly is not Rae. The Eve Tree is not the albino tree, though I have to say when The Eve Tree first appeared in the book, I was confused – I remembered an albino tree from Rae’s blog – an albino redwood, not a black oak and I had to stop what I was doing and go look on the blog to make sure I hadn’t just misremembered.  And then I got distracted by reading some of the old posts on Journey Mama, which is really just what I needed right then because Molly had stressed me out. That wasn’t a bad thing. I think it was a good thing.

I want to read a book where the characters get under my skin – and Molly did. Oh boy, Molly did.

And then there was the fire.

I have fire issues.

I often smell fire just before I fall asleep – which means I have to get up and make sure there is no fire. (There isn’t.)

And I wake in the middle of the night from a dream where the bed is on fire. (It isn’t.)

Even with all of that anxiety, caused by Molly and the fire, underneath it all was that thing that has caused me to read Journey Mama – life, and peace, and spirit and love.

The Eve Tree is exactly the kind of novel you would expect Rae to write. Her characters are exactly right – honest and real but not perfect. They’re struggling with that imperfection and struggling with love and faith.

I breathed a sigh at the end – one of those sighs of relief and happiness and sadness all rolled up into one. You know the kind I mean, right – something like this?

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Sister Outsider

I decided to re-read Sister Outsider during the #Readathon and as part of my From the Stacks (by color) challenge for this year… there’s nobody better than Audre Lorde to get me riled up and pointing out the patriarchy at every turn. There’s also nobody better to read when you’re also reading Joan Walsh and Angry Black Lady… in fact, I’d recommend Joan Walsh spend some time reading Sister Outsider before she opens her mouth or puts her fingers to her keyboard again.

Hell. Maybe if we all read a Lorde essay every day for the rest of our lives, we might just be able to have these discussions and figure out how to work together.

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Five Books Down #Readathon

Ruined By Reading has been on our bookshelves for ages (it’s red… a note to myself for my From the Stacks by Color Challenge) and I decided it might be a nice book to read during the readathon. Since, it’s about books – and more importantly about reading them.

It’s a combination of literary theory and memoir and led me to wonder about my own reading habits – and to think of the books I loved and didn’t love, to remember books fondly or not so fondly.

How do you read? Why do you read? Are you doing it wrong? Are others doing it wrong? Is there a wrong way – or a right way?

Interesting stuff lurking here.

*119 pages*

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Greetings from Jamaica

I bought Greetings from Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer at Women and Children First, last month when we were looking for one of Michelle’s Christmas presents. The title made me laugh and as you may remember, I was looking for more lesbian fiction right about that time.

It can be difficult to find humorous lesbian fiction, which is too bad. Lesbians are funny and someone should spend more time writing funny, light, chick litty lesbian fiction. It’s fun!

The Santori family was a fun one to go on vacation with and I was completely amused  with Maria, Lisa and Vince – what great siblings. I’m equally glad Lisa didn’t get the girl, which is what I was afraid was going to happen there for a minute. Oops, that was a spoiler, wasn’t it? Ack. Sorry!

I’d really like Mari SanGiovanni to write a book about Lisa next. Now that would be funny.

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