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Wendell’s Year In Books

Wendell’s 2025 Year in Books

Take a look at Wendell’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

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Wendell Ricketts

Goodreads Author

Member Since

November 2008

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Wendell Ricketts was born on an atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,and raised in various small towns on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. He holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and has worked professionally as a translator from Italian since 1998. In addition to The Wrong Door: The Complete Plays of Natalia Ginzburg (U. Toronto Press, 2008), an early version of which received the PEN American Center Renato Poggioli Prize for translation, he is the translator of Communicating Success: Public Relations with an Italian Flair; Olive Oil and the Mediterranean; Trilobites: The Back To The Past Museum Guide; Ferrara and its Bread: The History of a Culinary Masterpiece across Seven Centuries, and Twenty Cigarettes in N Wendell Ricketts was born on an atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,and raised in various small towns on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. He holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and has worked professionally as a translator from Italian since 1998. In addition to The Wrong Door: The Complete Plays of Natalia Ginzburg (U. Toronto Press, 2008), an early version of which received the PEN American Center Renato Poggioli Prize for translation, he is the translator of Communicating Success: Public Relations with an Italian Flair; Olive Oil and the Mediterranean; Trilobites: The Back To The Past Museum Guide; Ferrara and its Bread: The History of a Culinary Masterpiece across Seven Centuries, and Twenty Cigarettes in Nasiriyah: A Memoir, among other publications. He has also translated four books as yet unpublished in English, including the novels Generations of Love (Matteo B. Bianchi) and Around Three O’Clock (Andrej Longo); his translations of excerpts from two recent Italian working-class novels appeared in World Literature Today in November 2013. From 1986 to 1996 he was theater and dance critic for the Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco, California, and his writing about literature, travel, politics, the media, and contemporary social issues have appeared in such publications as Contact Quarterly, The Advocate, Dance Ink, Marriage and Family Review, Spin, Silent No More: Voices of Courage in American Schools, and 30 Days in Italy: True Stories of Escape to the Good Life. His fiction and poetry have been published in such journals and anthologies as Mississippi Review, Salt Hill, Blue Mesa Review, modern words, and The Long Story. He is the author of What We Lost in the Fire & Other Stories (FourCats Press, 2022), Cards from the Basket: 307 Imaginative Writing Prompts to Spark the Creativity of Writers, Writing Teachers, Students — and Everyone! and editor of Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men about More-or-Less Gay Life (2005) and of Blue, Too: More Writing by (for or about) Working Class Queers (2014). ...more

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Wendell Ricketts’s books

Average rating: 3.68 · 449 ratings · 62 reviews · 44 distinct works

	Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men About More-or-Less Gay Life 3.72 avg rating — 46 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wrong Door: The Complete Plays of Natalia Ginzburg 4.13 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2008 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blue, Too: More Writing by (for or about) Working-Class Queers by Wendell Ricketts (Goodreads Author) (Editor), L.A. Fields (Goodreads Author) 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What We Lost in the Fire & Other Stories 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2021 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What’s Your Paleo IQ?: The Fossil News Book of Paleo Quizzes, Puzzles & Brain Teasers it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Stone Lake: An Introduction to Fossil Butte, Fossil Lake & the Kemmerer Fish Quarries it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cards from the Basket: 307 Imaginative Writing Prompts to Spark the Creativity of Writers, Writing Teachers, Students — and Everyone! it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Said What I Said: Intemperate Observations about Politics, Pop Culture, AIDS, Art, Sex, the Expat Life in Italy, the Craft of Writing, and the Great ... Queer Collectanea & a Memoir of Four Decades it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Sampler of European Paleontology: The Museums, the Discoveries & the Fossils of the “Old Continent” (Fossil News Books) by Wendell Ricketts (Goodreads Author), Angela Baldanza, Allen A. Debus did not like it 1.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Reptiles (Fossil News Books) by Wendell Ricketts (Goodreads Author), Allen E. Debus, Dean R. Lomax 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Wendell rated a book really liked it Heated Rivalry (Game Changers, #2) by Rachel Reid	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
After watching the series, I read this book mostly so I could hate it for being Harlequin Romance trash. And it sort of is. Well, it’s not trash, but it’s every romance-novel trope plus spurting dicks. And it’s also lovely. Between Heartstopper; Red, ...more
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Wendell rated a book liked it The Fifth Witness (The Lincoln Lawyer, #4; Harry Bosch Universe, #23) by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 07, 2026 07:49PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Wendell rated a book really liked it Mortality by Christopher Hitchens	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Wendell rated a book liked it A Winter Haunting (Seasons of Horror #4) by Dan Simmons	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 27, 2025 06:29PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Wendell rated a book liked it The Kind Worth Saving (Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner, #2) by Peter Swanson (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Wendell rated a book liked it The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Greg Cope White’s motivation for joining the Marines in 1979 was the rehabilitation of his “faulty” masculinity: he was unathletic, unhung, unhandy, skinny — and queer. In his mind, succeeding at becoming a Marine would make him “good enough” as a ma ...more
Nov 30, 2025 04:26PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell rated a book liked it The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Wendell rated a book liked it The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 05, 2025 09:53AM · like

More of Wendell's books…

Polls

Which book would you like to read for our Category 1 read for February/March?

Object of Desire by William J. Mann

11 votes, 34.4%

Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men About More-or-Less Gay Life by Wendell Ricketts

8 votes, 25.0%

Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever by Joel Derfner

7 votes, 21.9%

The Charioteer by Mary Renault

5 votes, 15.6%

The Persian Boy by Mary Renault

1 vote, 3.1%

32 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Queereaders: February - March nominations	18	33	Jan 28, 2010 02:37PM
The Next Best Boo...: Author Alphabet	3700	3101	Mar 14, 2013 03:16PM

Wendell’s Quotes

“It's always wrong of course to say that you can't do this or you can't do that in fiction. You can do anything you can get away with, but nobody has ever gotten away with much.”
― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

tags: fiction-writing, writers-on-writing, writing, writing-fiction, writing-style

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