Queereaders discussion

Tell us what you are reading this month.

Is it may already? I almost finished Wicked Bugs but it was not as good as I hoped so I left a rather tepid review of it.

I picked up Mad Love Chase Volume 1, Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Volume 1,Silver Diamond Volume 1 (at least the early volumes ) to continue my manga reading.

Still reading Submerged.

I am reading Zero at the Bone by Jane Seville. I'm still in the free sample part on my kindle, and am debating whether to buy it and continue with it. Anyone know if it's good?

I just started reading The Ruins of Gorlan today. It was one of my Easter presents. So far it's pretty bland, but I'm only a couple pages in.

Ralph my friend at work LOVES that series. But, he also thinks he is part Ranger. So I don't know if that helps.

This month I'm reading From This Moment On, Things Fall Apart, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, The God of Small Things, and Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.

All at the same time?

Haha no, one after the other. I have a long train commute to work, so I go through books fast.

I have read Things Fall Apart.. in college. I liked it.

I read some of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Volume 1 and it is interesting but the characters cry an awful lot. But I have to say that it does have fantastic art, I like the characters, and the story line is unusual, so I can put up with some crying. And I started Mad Love Chase Volume 1 and it is a little confusing as there are so many characters and some of them look very similar, and in volume one the plot seemed a little scattered.

I am just finishing Traitor's Knot which just had the most erotic straight 1st coupling scene I've ever read. It emotionally drained me.

Next Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand for our group read and then some simple short SF while I try to ground myself again.

Kernos, I'd like to try Janny Wurts, but all the series and arcs intimidate me. Where would be the best place to start?

Madeline wrote: "Haha no, one after the other. I have a long train commute to work, so I go through books fast."

I have a long drive (30 miles each way) and enjoy audio books. Going to work by train sounds so much more relaxing, especially in the winter months.

I, Lucifer. Interesting so far, started out a little difficult but has taken some humorous turns.

Right now I'm finishing up Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine - amazing! The elegantly understated prose lends everything a really poignant emotional force. Plus, steampunky mythical circus? Hell yeah. (Couple of gay characters in it, too, although their gayness is very incidental.)

Also finishing up Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor - Nigerian fantasy YA - also really good.

Nancy wrote:"Kernos, I'd like to try Janny Wurts, but all the series and arcs intimidate me. Where would be the best place to start?"

Even with all the arcs and such, these books are a continuous story, like LOTR, one novel divided into multiple books. Start at the beginning and read them in this order:


Curse of the Mistwraith
Ships of Merior
Fugitive Prince
Grand Conspiracy
Peril's Gate
Traitor's Knot
Stormed Fortress

The next novel comes out in Nov. and there will be 2 more at about 2 year intervals.

This has become my favorite modern epic fantasy. It has the depth and detail of an ocean, is emotionally draining, and have more layers than Dune. Like some books are poetic, these are musical. I take a break between books to recover and to read easier, escapist or comfort fiction, but after a couple of weeks feel a compulsion to get to the next one.

I just went through a PG-rated, straight, coupling we've been awaiting a long time to consummate and I actually sort of got turned on and this NEVER happens to me with straight romantic scenes.

Did I say I really like these books?

Thanks, Kernos. I usually have a difficult time finishing up series books no matter how good they are. And I rarely ever read them back to back. These look good. I'll definitely check them out.

My Brother and His BrotherI'd read some great reviews of this and picked it up--wow! Really great read. It's not long and I sat down for two hours and boom! Done.

It's by a Swedish author and has a really nice economical style to it. Intriguing premise and kept me guessing the whole way through...

Highly recommend it!

I've been reading Joe Hill's Twentieth Century Ghosts- some of the stories are flat out freakin scary and some are wonderful- I guess it depends on what you think is scary-

I'm about a third of the way into Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, one of our group reads. Typical of Delany, I am feeling like I am missing the point somehow or that this was written for someone a lot more knowledgeable and intelligent than I. I don't think I'm going to get this book with one read. All that said, there are lots of fascinating scenes and intriguing beings and spaces and it defines the concept of gender-bending. I just can't figure out how they fit together—yet

I liked Joe Hill.. I forget the title but it was the one about the ghost that was purchased online. Kind of creepy!

Now I'm reading Camera Obscura. The heroine is terrifying and oh-so-hot.

Just finished Cranberry Rush (awesome), and am still reading "Best Gay Erotica 2011." lol! I try to keep my lit to "lick" ratio at about 1:1.

I enjoyed your glowing review, Anthony, but why not 5 stars?

I am working on my Manga series reviews today. I am just reviewing book one in the series as the series as a whole because I can't review each and every title or it would take all day! I am glad I found this manga as I am reading again, and reading quite a bit... working on Pandora Hearts 1 now and I love it... it is sort of a demented manga spin on ALice in Wonderland.

I like the title Cranberry Rush! I have to look it up to see what it is about!

Thanks Nancy! Four stars is still "really likes it," and that's what it did for me. There are very few books that are perfect - or that are perfect for me - so, it's not the best I've read, but it's very very good.

Matthew wrote: "Also decided to read Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon. I've never read anything by him but I keep hearing rave reviews.
Matt"

I have only read one Josh Lanyon -- Somebody Killed His Editor -- and my review is here. I have a couple more in a growing TBR list.

Currently, I am reading Louis Bayard's delicious 1830s mystery The Pale Blue Eye set at West Point Military Academy and invoking Cadet Edgar Allan Poe as the retired New York detective's helper. The writing is a pleasure, with many humour turns of phrase. Bayard's early novels had explicitly gay characters; perhaps this one will too.

As a sort of palette cleanser, I'm also devouring the first volumes of Rumpole stories by John Mortimer. I've been reading one or two and then reverting back to my main book or start another.

Based on a review in the Globe and Mail this weekend, I picked up Jill Edmondson's Dead Light District which is set in contemporary Toronto featuring female PI Sasha Jackson. So far much of the action takes place in and around my neighbourhood (Toronto's Church and Wellesley traditional gaybourhood) which helps personalise the events for me. It's a soft-boiled tale of a search for a missing person with a light-hearted edge.

I read Pale Blue Eye and loved it.. it has been a long time now, but I remember that I really really enjoyed that one.

Just finished The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones. A lot of fun, as usual.

@Doug - I love Pandora Hearts (and its lovely homoerotic undertones, too). Not so fond of the way Alice's role in everything keeps gradually diminishing, though. I was hardcore into that fandom about a year or so ago - I should catch up again.

Christopher wrote: "I, Lucifer. Interesting so far, started out a little difficult but has taken some humorous turns."

I wanted to like "I, Lucifer"...thought the premise was interesting, but found the writing too precious or something. Ended up putting it down.

I just finished The Black Dahlia which was really good - very noir.

I'm reading Under the Dome. While many people I know sneer at Stephen King, I find him an amazing story-teller. In fact I've been cursing his readability since it's kept me up way past my bed time for the past week or so!!!

I am currently finishing up Anne Moody's . This is a well-told and fascinating story about the author's life growing up in rural Mississippi, her fight against racism and the Civil Rights Movement. If you have read and enjoyed , this is an excellent non-fiction companion piece.

Currently reading The IHOP Papers. So far it feels a lot like a lesbian version of Catcher in the Rye, especially in writing style.

Nancy wrote: "I am currently finishing up Anne Moody's . This is a well-told and fascinating story about the author's life growing up in rural Mississippi, her fight..."

Nancy ... have you read "The Help?" I've been considering getting it ... just haven't yet.

Yes, I enjoyed The Help immensely. After I was through, I wanted to explore more stories about that shameful period in US history. My review is here:

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

Philosophy of Art

branewurms wrote: "Just finished The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones. A lot of fun, as usual.

I just finished "House of Many Ways"! (Also by DWJ) - it was great. Also read "The Thief" - SO good - it's the start of a series that won the LA Times Book Award this year and I saw the author at a panel last week at the book festival.

I'm also starting to read "With or Without You" by Brian Farrey - it's coming out later this month - about two teenage boys, both gay, best friends. Seems like it is a lot about those strong friendships that get you through your teen years and sometimes have to be left behind when you grow up.

sounds like its going to be a great story there

Amy wrote: "branewurms wrote: "Just finished The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones. A lot of fun, as usual.

I just finished "House of Many Ways"! (Also by DWJ) - it was great. Also read "T..."

The Thief and The Queen of Attolia are on my to-read list. I've heard so many good things about that series. :D

My absolute fave DWJ's thus far are The Lives of Christopher Chant and Witch Week. (Witch Week had me in stitches the whole time, and yet appalled at how true all the bullying rang to my own experiences back in the day.) Loved Howl's Moving Castle and House of Many Ways - I need to get around to reading Castle in the Air sometime!

Well I finished our group read Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. This was quite difficult for me, but ultimately worth the effort. I thought it almost as compelling as Dhalgren, but more obscure. I don't really think I was in the mood and will need to re-read this. I kept getting names confused—is that a name of a city, planet, sun or person. Is she a she or is she a he...? It's going to have to marinate before I do a review. There are some very good reviews on GR of this book.

In response I started Supernatural: Nevermore the 1st of the novels based on the TV series Supernatural, that most homoerotic current TV series full of 'do die for' fantasies.

Pure escapism!

I read the queen of Attolia and quite liked it! What is up this month, you guys are all reading things that I have read and enjoyed! And me, not really reading anything... well. Manga. I am working on the series Silver Diamond now. Pretty good, I think.

I just started , a collection of short stories by Melanie Rae Thon. One of my friends recently read it and I was lucky to find a copy at the library.

Georgeous writing, vivid characters, and very, very depressing. Not a book to gobble in one sitting, but one to savor slowly and accompany with a lighter, more uplifting story.

I finished Call Me by Your Name last night.

Making my way through Петр Первый (Peter the First, Tolstoy); slowly - not enchanted yet, but see glimpses of magic on the horizon. Also plan to read Bayard's Черная башня (The Black Tower) and Maitland's The Owl Killers: A Novel. And, thinking about rereading Resurrection.

Earlier this month I began reading Pornography: Men Possessing Women by Andrea Dworkin however I am finding it so awfully intense right now, so I decided to also read In Her Day by Rita Mae Brown. I am really enjoying her wonderfully-uplifting, political, sensual and quotable prose.

I'm reading a tattered first edition of and a previous reader has underlined in pencil some brilliant sentences and paragraphs. But here's one of my own favourites:

"Lying on top of her, she feared their rib cages would lock. Their thigh bones would merge. They'd have to learn to walk all over again."

I too found Andrea Dworkin very intense when I read Intercourse and Pornography: Men Possessing Women years ago. Now I regret donating those and her other non-fiction titles to the library. I would be curious to see if age has changed my perspective.

I did keep Mercy and Ice and Fire.

Nancy wrote: "I too found Andrea Dworkin very intense when I read Intercourse and Pornography: Men Possessing Women years ago..."

Both Mercy: A Novel and Ice and Fire are outstanding pieces, Nancy; I understand why, like me, you hold them close. Each have a place upon my favourites shelf. I just think I need to take my time with her non-fiction, diluting the experience by reading a less-heavy, not-at-all-disturbing novel alongside.

Age and experience can certainly change or modify ones perspectives of reading a particular book. I found that just last week when I re-read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit; twenty years on from my thirteen year old self, I feel that I am now completely in touch with the sheer brilliance of this novel and my appreciation for Jeanette Winterson's fierce wit has significantly increased!

When I finish In Her Day later on today I think I'll reach for or perhaps .

Sergey wrote: "I finished Call Me by Your Name last night..."

Sergey, this was one of our past group reads. I'd be interested to know your thoughts on this book. It has a lot of mixed reviews. I gave it three stars.

See discussion topic:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3...

Fiona wrote: "Both Mercy: A Novel and Ice and Fire are outstanding pieces..."

I'm glad I saved them, then. I'll look forward to reading them soon and maybe we can discuss at some point?

Nancy, I enjoyed it very much. The writing was beautiful, of course. At times I was frustrated for lack of the intimacy between Elio and Oliver; nothing but yearning was suffocating. At times I didn’t wish to know how the two men would fare after parting; wishing to be satisfied with only the end of a summer love; yet at times I was glad to know of the ending. Yet, albeit I loved the piece, it left me melancholy and wistful. It left me with an impression, a memory I put to my review ......

Nancy wrote: "Fiona wrote: "Both Mercy: A Novel and Ice and Fire are outstanding pieces..."

I'm glad I saved them, then. I'll look forward to reading them soon and maybe we can discuss at some point?"

Absolutely we can.

I'm currently reading V.I.T.R.I.O.L. by Anne de Gandt . It's a heavy, serious theme which takes a reader into the dark whirl of rage, anger, guilt, fear and agony which rape victims endure, plus the added burden of those subjected to incest. It is not a work that is directly descriptive, but instead deals with the visions, distractions and emotions that character experiences. This, certainly, as children especially also includes whimsical thoughts and dreams of being rescued from the incomprehensible.

It's convoluted and full of imagery in a way that readers not used to translated works might find off-putting but for me...I understand the author's intentions and needs in this. It very much describes part of the emotions I felt/feel as a multiple survivor.

Anne is a personal acquaintance of mine but also an author I've interviewed and am reviewing. I look forward to reading her other works, which also fall under the GLBT sub-genre.