December 2016 - What Are You Reading?

[Tim]

I recently finished Briefs by Alan Semrow - an excellent collection of very short stories. Diverse characters and settings, predominantly but not exclusively queer. A great book to read during a busy time of year because you can pick it up and put it down easily.

Now starting on Henry James' The Bostonians which has been on my To Read list for awhile.

[Alexandra]

I'm reading Edmund White's Arts and Letters.

[Julia]

I just finished Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. I enjoyed it!

Now I'm going back to Moonglow by Michael Chabon, which I had started when Born a Crime came in.

Also this month I have read the play Mack & Mabel: A Musical Love Story by Jerry Herman and the YA anthology My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories edited by Stephanie Perkins, with a story by David Levithan.

[Bill, Moderator]

I'm in an escapist phase and am on a reread of book 3 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series The Dragon Reborn

I finally found my copy of Dhalgren, wanting to re-read it when I find the energy.

[Pear]

I finished Never Let Me Go and started Bastard Out of Carolina because I loved Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

[Mickey]

I've been rereading Proust on the side waiting for uni to break. But I'm starting on Objectivity, which traces the history of scientific objectivity (and philosophical [mechanical/anti-positivist] objectivity), and Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-41. I'm waiting for André Aciman's Enigma Variations: A Novel to come out, but that's towards the beginning of January.

Julia wrote: "I just finished Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. I enjoyed it!"

Hey Julia, what would you say was the best part about Trevor Noah's book? Would you strongly recommend it?

[Julia]

Mickey, Trevor Noah's own take on being born biracial in Apartheid South Africa. On how he knew his father, but since he is a white man, in public places he couldn't acknowledge him. His black mother often took him to the park along with a colored woman, a neighbor. His parents could have gone to jail for five years and he could have wound up in an orphanage, even though he had lots of family.

Also, like his mother, Noah is multilingual and that helped him bridge communities, to not be seen as the other, because he could fit into more places, because he spoke the language.

It is a lot about the toxicity of racism in South Africa, but being a comedian, he tells the story with a lot of humor and lightness.

[[deleted user]]

I'm rereading The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America

[Bill, Moderator]

Eileen wrote: "I'm rereading The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America"

This sounds fascinating. I was a kid then and would have been aware this was going on. We got our comics every month. They were mostly superheroes so maybe not involved. A number of these were the superheroes beating up on Hitler in the war years. I still have some of those from my dad. Let me know plz!

[[deleted user]]

Bill wrote: "Eileen wrote: "I'm rereading The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America"

This sounds fascinating. I was a kid then and would have been aware this was..."

The primary targets of the anti-comic movement--which didn't really get off the ground until the early 50s, so after all the Hitler-punching--were crime and horror comics, but superhero comics got their share of flack for showing scantily clad women and violence. Also, some people thought that having an all-powerful (super)man doing whatever he wanted was fascistic--there's at least five quotes in this book from people comparing comic books to Nazi propaganda, proving that hyperbolically comparing everything you don't like to Hitler is not a new trend :P

The book itself is really good (this is my third reading of it), but the author makes some questionable language choices. He keeps calling black people "Negroes" for no reason.

(Which comic books do you have, if I may ask? Just curious :))

[Julia]

I read the first significant chunk of Moonglow by Michael Chabon, but I had to return it unfinished.

I'm trying to finish some challenges for the year so I have borrowed The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Machine Man by Max Barry and The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells on audio from the library.

I've been wanting to read The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America for years. My library system doesn't have it. I should buy a copy, read it and donate it to them.

[Bill, Moderator]

...The book itself is really good (this is my third reading of it), but the author makes some questionable language choices. He keeps calling black people "Negroes" for no reason.

That was the polite term in the 50's and much of the '60's. Was the author trying to be true to the period?

(Which comic books do you have, if I may ask? Just curious :)) "

A lot of Captain Marvel Jr, a few Capt Marvel, Marvel Family and Young Marvelman; some Master Comics and Classics Illustrated. Tom Corbett Space Cadet (I was really into these), Spin and Marty, a Whiz, a Boy Comics, a Wild Boy, a Lone Ranger. I collected a number of these later.

The earliest is Capt Marvel Jr #2, but I have no Nazi/Hitler covers. They are rather dear.

[[deleted user]]

Bill wrote: "...The book itself is really good (this is my third reading of it), but the author makes some questionable language choices. He keeps calling black people "Negroes" for no reason.

That was the pol..."

I know it was polite back then, and I'd understand if he was just quoting other people using it, but the book was written in 2008 and he does use "black" sometimes, so I don't know what the motivation was. Just struck me as a bit odd.

That's a lot of comics :) I haven't read much of the Marvel family, though I always liked the character concept. Also, I'd never heard of Spin and Marty before--looks like fun!

[Bill, Moderator]

Spin and Marty were a 15 min series as part of the MIckey Mouse Club in the mid '50s that too place at a cowboy-like camp for early adolescents - just my age ;-). I has a crush on spin of course and longed to spend a summer at a similar camp. I guess the comics were the 'expanded universe' of the time. The series is available on DVD.

Are you familiar with the lawsuit of National Comics (also known as Detective Comics and DC Comics) vs the Fawcett Comics division of Fawcett Publications, concerning Fawcett's Captain Marvel character being an infringement on the copyright of National's Superman comic book character. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationa....

[Jessica]

I'm currently reading
Black Girl Dangerous on Race, Queerness, Class and Gender and
Create Rebellion

[Robert]

I just finished Promises . Its a Fantastic read about a man trying to keep his farm going during war time and the relationship that he developes with a POW that was taken on as help on the farm. Loved it so much :)

Currently reading And Another Thing... . After years of looking at this on my bookshelf I've finally decided to give it a go.

:)

[jake]

I finished Bonjour Tristesse about two weeks ago and a few days ago I started Dracula. I had made it through about half of the book a few years ago when I was around 14 or so, but I couldn't quite get into the flow of the novel as I was inexperienced with non-modern English novels. But I've been surprised by how much I was able to comprehend everything. I'm really enjoying it so far, especially the Gothic elements of the book.
I'd love to start Carmilla, the inspiration for Dracula, especially due to it's lesbian undertones.

[[deleted user]]

Are you familiar with the lawsuit of National Comics (also known as Detective Comics and DC Comics) vs the Fawcett Comics division of Fawcett Publications, concerning Fawcett's Captain Marvel character

Yep, they mentioned it in another comic-related book I have, Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Though looking through that article, I never knew the judge in the case was named Billings Learned Hand. That's the best name I've heard, lol.

[Natasha]

Resilient Web Design by Jeremy Keith. Good tech ebook. A welcome relief from the drudgery of reading A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. ...

[Bill, Moderator]

I'm still working my way thru Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, started book 5 last nite.

[[deleted user]]

Death at the Sapphic Ball

[ike]

I just finished At Swim, Two Boys. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Starting Your Heart Is A Muscle The Size of A Fist today.

[Emily]

Just started Talking As Fast As I Can by actress, Lauren Graham. Absolutely love her in everything she's ever been in, someone who I am very passionate about. Can't wait to finish it but right now I have to go to sleep and go work tomorrow! Only 3 days at work though then off until the 3rd so I can read all day for New Years Eve & Day

[jimmy]

Isaac wrote: "I just finished At Swim, Two Boys. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Starting Your Heart Is A Muscle The Size of A Fist today."
How is Your Heart Is A Muscle The Size Of Your Fist? I've been meaning to read it & love the song it's named for.

[Em]

I'm reading anything i can find that is LGBT+. Currently, Under the Lights

[Fr. Andrew]

GoodReads has a place for us to write up a review of our experience of the year 2016 on GoodReads. For me 2016 was a distinctive readerly year. I wrote about that, as well as my thoughts for the year ahead regarding reading and writing, on that page. You can do the same. It's just like writing a review of a book, and you can even give it one to five stars!

Here's mine:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Fr. Andrew]

Isaac wrote: "I just finished At Swim, Two Boys. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Starting Your Heart Is A Muscle The Size of A Fist today."

I have this in my pile of books to try again. When I tried it several years ago, I found the dialect too difficult to penetrate, but I also didn't spend much time trying either. Did you have this experience as well?

[Fr. Andrew]

I'm currently reading these:

Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution by Linda Hirshman - This was published just before the victory of same-sex marriage in the U.S. It's written in a fun way and it's really hitting home for me.

The Riverman by Aaron Starmer - I was in the mood for something in a younger vein, and so far this is pretty darn witty.

I just finished a nice biography from which I learned a ton, Rosa Parks: A Life by Douglas Brinkley

I'm also almost finished watching a British literature survey lecture series from Great Courses called Classics of British Literature.

[Bill, Moderator]

Andrew wrote: "I have this in my pile of books to try again. When I tried it several years ago, I found the dialect too difficult to penetrate, but I also didn't spend much time trying either. Did you have this experience as well? ..."

The first 50 pages or so are rendered in the accent of a drunken Irishman (best to read aloud). The rest of the book is not, except for an odd phrase or sentence. This is one of my favorite novels, literary, historical and GLBT.

[Fr. Andrew]

Thanks Bill! I appreciate that advice. I plan to try it again this year.

[Fr. Andrew]

Yesterday finished Castle Waiting by Linda Medley. Here's my 5-star fan-rave...er, review...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...