There is nothing like reading a novel about the end of the world during a global pandemic. Nora Roberts has penned the Chronicles of One trilogy that starts with a virus that wipes out most of the population leaving the survivors to come to terms with a new world that now includes magical beings, crazy religious zealots called purity warriors, violent crazy gangs called … [Read more...] about Book of the Month: Chronicles of One trilogy by Nora Roberts
Book Review
Book Review: Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health
Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health. Adrian Shanker, Ed. PM Press, 2020. ISBN: 978-1-62963-784-6. 256 pages. $20.00. I hope you never need to read this book. I hope you never get sick and have to navigate the most convoluted healthcare system in the world. But if you do, this collection of short essays might just save your … [Read more...] about Book Review: Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health
Book Review: A Is for Alibi
I love a good murder mystery filled with lots of suspects, red herrings, and satisfying twists. Sue Grafton, who passed away in 2017, is famously known for her novels whose titles each start with a letter of the alphabet. Since the COVID pandemic started, I’ve been checking out new authors and have always wanted to read one of Grafton’s novels. Figuring the best place to … [Read more...] about Book Review: A Is for Alibi
Book Review: Compulsive Haiku
In my long list of reviews, I do not believe I have done one on a book of haikus. There is a first for everything and my book of the month is called Compulsive Haiku by Rocco Talarico. A haiku is a specific type of Japanese poem which has 17 syllables divided into three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Haikus are typically written on the subject of nature and is … [Read more...] about Book Review: Compulsive Haiku
Book of the Month: Who Killed Buster Sparkle?
Reading—the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay.William Styron During these incredibly trying times during quarantine, I find that reading has been my salvation. It is a life preserver I hang onto when I find myself adrift in a raging sea of loneliness. It is calming, transporting me from my current reality, and into another place created by the … [Read more...] about Book of the Month: Who Killed Buster Sparkle?
Tinderbox Author Robert Fieseler Wins Louisiana Literary Award
The Louisiana Library Association has selected Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation as the recipient of its prestigious Louisiana Literary Award. This is the first time an LGBT+ themed book has won the award. Published by Liveright, Tinderbox is the third book written about the tragic arson and positions the fire in … [Read more...] about Tinderbox Author Robert Fieseler Wins Louisiana Literary Award
Book of the Month: Full Wolf Moon
My book for the month of March is a thriller written by Lincoln Child called Full Wolf Moon. Child is an author of techno-thriller and horror novels. Though he is most well-known for his collaborations with Douglas Preston (including the Agent Pendergast series and the Gideon Crew series, among others), he has also written several solo novels. Child and Preston's first … [Read more...] about Book of the Month: Full Wolf Moon
Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement
Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement. David K. Johnson. Columbia University Press, 2019. 320 pages. $32.00. Before Grindr and Growler and the internet, before X-Tube and a thousand other porn sites, before Blue Rays and DVDs and VHS tapes, before roadside adult “bookstores” and before magazines like Obsession and Blueboy, there were the … [Read more...] about Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement
World Citizen: Allen Ginsberg as Traveller
World Citizen: Allen Ginsberg as Traveller. David S. Wills. Beatdom Books, 2019. 169 pages. “Om Shri Maitreya.” “Om Shri Maitreya.” “Om Shri Maitreya.” So chanted Allen Ginsberg at a demonstration to legalize marijuana in New York City in 1965. It wasn’t just weed that expanded Ginsberg’s worldview. In World Citizen: Allen Ginsberg as … [Read more...] about World Citizen: Allen Ginsberg as Traveller
Book Review: Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder
Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder. John Waters. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019. 384 pages. John Waters, filmmaker, actor, writer, & visual artist, is one of those cultural institutions that people either get or don’t get and never the twain shall meet. Or shall they? Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder may … [Read more...] about Book Review: Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder
