Shine by Lauren Myracle

Set in a small, rural poor Southern town, Shine tells the story of Cat.  After her best friend from childhood is the victim of a horrific crime because of his sexuality, Cat decides to come out of her shell and find out who would harm her friend.

This was a beautiful and heart-wrenching book.  Cat's voice comes through loud and clear though she is a introverted character.  It is interesting to watch her progress from self-inflicted outcast to a strong young woman through her investigation of the crime against her friend.  Cat has a good reason for her introversion and that is tragedy itself.  While I wanted more resolution for that, I also feel like sometimes, in real life, there is no resolution when bad things happen to people.  So it was fitting.

As for the mystery aspect of the story, well, we all know I like a good mystery.  Cat does the mystery proper, interviewing people, trying to figure out the timeline and exactly what went down the night that Patrick was attacked.  Through the investigation, we learn a lot about the small town Cat and Patrick have grown up in and to anyone who has experienced tiny rural towns, it felt very real.  It was pretty dead on in its exploration of the mindset and the social structure of a small town. Also through the investigation we see how Cat became current day Cat and what happened to end her friendship with Patrick and all of her childhood friends.  Patrick seems like a great guy and what happened to him was horrifying.  The resolution of the mystery was bittersweet, but the book ended on a good note and I walked away from it glad that I had read it and sorry to see Cat go.  But I think she will be alright.

Provided by NetGalley
Hogwarts: Defence Against the Dark Arts
GLBT Challenge
350 Page

Gigi by Colette

From Goodreads:
Gigi is being educated in the skills of the Courtesan: to choose cigars, to eat lobster, to enter a world where a woman's chief weapon is her body. However, when it comes to the question of Gaston Lachaille, very rich and very bored, Gigi does not want to obey the rules.

"A liaison with a great professional lady is the only suitable way for him to wait for a great marriage, always supposing that some day he does marry."  p.29

I have seen the movie Gigi countless times and consider it one of my favorite movies.  I love Leslie Caron and the music is so wonderful.  It wasn't till I was older that I realized how it verges into creepy especially Gaston's song at the end.  But Leslie Caron does not look 16, as Gigi is suppose to be, so the creep factor is dialed down a bit.  

Recently I discovered that Gigi is based on a novella by Colette and decided to read it. The movie follows along with the story so I recognized most of the dialogue and knew what was going to happen next.  It is, of course, shorter and the movie adds scenes that expand on Gaston falling in love with Gigi, but the gist is here.  Gigi is portrayed as an innocent girl who both understands and doesn't understand her family's "career" choice. Gaston is a rich younger man (33) who is friends with Gigi's grandmother and who Gigi has known a long time.  Gradually he develops feelings for her while her family grooms her to become his mistress.  It's actually pretty shocking for our time, but I guess it was less so then?  But the story has a sweet ending and I'm glad I read it.  Now I feel the urge to rewatch the movie.

Hogwarts: Book in the Day mini-challenge
GLBT
Lazy Girl Mini Challenge

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

Levithan explores a couple's relationship in dictionary entries.

And the thing I hate the most is knowing how much hinges on my reaction, how your unburdening can only lead to me being burdened.
p.60 under composure, n.

This is pure poetry.  So simple and sweet and a little heart-breaking, all in short dictionary like entries.  Not an entire relationship but a snapshot, an idea of one until one pivotal moment.  I really truly love it.  I am going to have to buy this book, just to mark my favorite parts that spoke to my heart.  There is something about watching a love begin and then start to fall apart that most people can identify with.  And while this is not poetry, it is poetic.  And though the entries are mostly very short, it encompasses a couple's beginning and middle, but leaves off open-ended.  I think that it is wonderful how Levithan managed to do that.  How he managed to write a beautiful story in dictionary form is really amazing.  I really cannot say enough good things about this book.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
GLBT

GLBT Reading Challenge 2011 - COMPLETE

Hosted by Amanda at its own dedicated blog, the GLBT Reading Challenge is to read books about GLBT topics and/or by GLBT authors.  This year is set-your-own-limits so I'm going to say 10 books and I'll see how that goes.  I'll list as I go, but it's possible I'll choose from the list below.

ETA I'm changing this to 5 books since it is set-your-own-limits.

ETA 2: I'm going to call this complete as of 6/17/2011.

1.  The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
2.  Gigi by Colette
3.  Shine Lauren Myracle
4.  Sister Mischief Laura Goode


-------------------------
Ideas:

Twelve Long Months - Brian Malloy +
Gravel Queen - Tea Benduhn
Of All the Stupid Things  - Alexandra Diaz
Empress of the World -  Sara Ryan
Even Cowgirls get the Blues - Tom Robbins +
The Bermudez Triangle - Maureen Johnson
Belmondo Style - Adam Berlin
Rainbow Boys - Alex Sanchez
Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List - Rachel Cohen and David Leviathan
Down to the Bone - Mayra Lazara Dole
Are We There Yet? - David Levithan
How I Paid for College - Marc Acito
Lulu Dark Can See Through Wall - Bennet Madison

My Invented Life by Lauren Bjorkman

Convinced that her older sister is a lesbian, Roz "comes out" at school to try and force Eva out too.  But her plan backfires and now Roz must deal with the consequences as she tries to figure out what sexuality really is and what it means.

I won this from the GLBT Challenge back in May and finally decided to read it.  I really enjoyed it.  It was a quick read and I liked the questions that Bjorkman brought up regarding the nature and fluidity of sexuality.  That Roz came out on a dare, but learned the hard way that it is ok to be gay or bi-sexual and that you can still identify as a heterosexual and be attracted to another girl or you can just be homosexual and have no feelings about the opposite sex.

I wasn't that fond of Roz.  I found her to be a bit grating, but that was the point of her character.  To be too obtuse to understand about her sister and not understand that is the exact reason why her sister won't open up to her.  I was glad to see her character grow and change.  And, of course, I love the happy ending that everyone gets.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
GLBT

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

What do you do after the loss of your best friend?  It's a hard thing to deal with and Cass is having a difficult time.  Compounding her grief over Julia is having to deal with the grief of her friend's boyfriend and her struggle with her own sexuality.  She embarks on a trip from Illinois to California on her bike with her friend's ashes.  Meanwhile, back home Julia's other drama friends struggle to put on her super secret project she was writing before her death, Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.  And the mean girl who tormented Cass in middle school is back and playing the lead.  She and Cass begin to forgive and become friends and maybe become something more, Cass learns the meaning of friendship and love.

To risk what I'd come all the way here to risk and let things get more complicated, if they had to.  To be able to say, if only to myself, what I really had inside me.  p.128 Uncorrected Galley

This was such a sweet story.  Cass is so sad and just doesn't know what to do with herself.  She feels like she doesn't belong, that her friends are only her friends because of Julia, that she is an outsider.  And it doesn't help that Julia's boyfriend is a jackass to her sometimes as he struggles to deal with his own grief and guilt.  I love how the characters are so real and make mistakes.  They react to situations in a very real way.  And Julia's struggle to understand how she stands sexually is so very touching, but it is friendship with Julia that I found most moving.  Several times I had tears in my eyes.  To lose someone who means that much to you, especially at 16 is a terrible thing.

 The relationship between Heather and Cass progressed at a very nice pace, nothing happened to fast and each girl had reason enough to take it slow.  There was nothing surprising about it though.  There were no twists or anything, but it had enough drama to make it work without being boring.  I expected more of the relationship with Cass and Julia, like there was some twist, but it was a wonderful friendship.

All in all, it was a very sweet and moving book.  I really enjoyed it and found it to be a very easy read.  Oh and the Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad sounds awesome!

ARC from Traveling ARC Tours
Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
GLBT
YA

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (e-book)/Wicked (audio)/The Wizard of Oz (movie)

Amazingly enough this was the first time ever reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  I don't know why.    I found it to be a very sweet, simple story although with more parts than the 1939 movie.  Dorothy lands on the Wicked Witch of the East and collects the Silver Shoes (not ruby) and is off to see the Wizard of Oz.  She meets her iconic friends, The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion along the way.  They see the Wizard who tells them to kill the Witch of the West, Dorothy accidentally melts her (although she throws the water because she is mad) and then they all go back to the Emerald City.  The three companions get what they already had (their wishes) and Dorothy gets to go home with the aid of the shoes.  It's a classic story that I know I would have liked when I was little.  The characters are very simple, Dorothy is about 10, I think, and it has some good adventures.


Hogwarts: History of Magic
e-books
Another Chance

Wicked is the story of Elphaba, the girl with the green skin and how she became the Wicked Witched of the West.  From her birth in Muchinland to her childhood in Qualding country, her education at Shiz University and her rebellion against the Wizard and finally her exile to Winkie country, here is the story of the Wicked Witch of hte West.

I've read Wicked before, a long time ago.  I remember it being very tedious in the beginning and good after Elphaba gets to Shiz University and meets Glinda.  My memory was right for the most part.  I decided to listen to Wicked this time around instead of reading it.  The thing about audio books is that they are not forgiving of tediousness.  And I forgot how many philosophical questions are apart of Wicked.  And how Gregory Maguire will use 50 words when 5 would do.  So frankly what I probably skimmed over when I read it, I was almost forced to blunder though in the audio.

But it really is a good book.  I like Elphaba's story even if she, herself, is a hard character to like and I feel sympathy for her.  Glinda is what you would expect and the entire thing is a surprise and a very grown-up take on the old childrens classic.  It is full of conspiracy and adultery and death, of political intrigue and oppression and dictators.  My big problems is that I'm always waiting for Dorothy.  But she is such a small part of this story, almost not worth mentioning except for that bucket of water.  But I would read it instead of listen to it.  It's not the narrator's fault.  He does a fine job.  This just does not lend itself to the audio format very well, in my opinion.

As far as how it relates to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the events work out closer to the book, with her sending out her familiars, but for different reasons in each book.  There are also a lot of story elements borrowed from the musical too.  The Witch doesn't enter the story until close to the end.  I listened to Wicked before I read Wizard of Oz and kept picturing what I heard in Wicked as I read Wizard.  It's worth it to have both books on hand to do a comparison reading.  It is very interesting how Maguire took a simple children's book and created something as deep as Wicked.

Hogwarts: Charms
Another Chance
Library
GLBT

I decided to round this all by re-watching the 1939 musical with Judy Garland.  I haven't seen this movie in so long.  I remember when it would be an event when TBS would play it and we would make cookies to watch it.  Good times.

The music is so great with almost every song being a classic.  "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is one of my favorites.  Did you know that Shirley Temple was originally offered the role of Dorothy but her studio wouldn't let her go so it went to Judy Garland?  How different this movie would have been.  Temple was actually closer to Dorothy's age, but she wasn't the singer that Garland was. 

It is still a beautiful movie.  Everything is so brightly colored and amazing.  The story is changed from the book to be Dorothy's dream instead of really happened like in the book.  So there is a long introduction before the tornado, all done in sepia.  The Witch is in the story more instead of only appearing at the end and the events of the book are condensed.  Still it follows along with the book fairly well and is a good adaption of it.  Of course, I might be a little biased.

 Read the Book, See the Movie

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Provided by Traveling ARC Tours

Meet Will Grayson.  He's a quiet, introverted guy who has two rules: 1. Don't care too much and 2. Shut up.
Meet Will Grayson.  He's a quiet, introverted guy with chronic depression and a secret.
Soon these two Wills will meet in a very odd place and, as their lives begin to intersect, things will change for both of them.

"i want to tell him i should be out killing some people now, not taking a stroll with him.  but he takes a little of the murder off my mind.  it's not like it won't be there later. p.145 ARC

And the following makes me actually love John Green a little

"You're amazing, and I so want to be your boyfriend, because of what you just said, and also because that shirt makes me want to take you home now and do unspeakable things while we watch live-action Sailor Moon videos." p.257 ARC

I could actually quote the whole book, I think it is that good.  I was enthralled and saddened and overjoyed by this book.  I actually laughed out loud many many times.  The phrasing, the situations, Tiny, all very very good to me.  Tiny, you might be asking, who is that?  Well, Tiny is a 6'6" 300 pound gay football player/musical writer, and it is the main catalyst behind the changes to both Will Graysons.  Tiny was so great, both very real and a caricature of himself at the same time.  I've meet guys like Tiny before.  Not as over the top, but still very big personality, very generous heart, very selfish at times.

The Wills were both a little annoying, especially Levithan's Will (2) who was very moody.  But he was dealing with chronic depression so that was an interesting part of his character.  He was also so real.  They both were.  I found myself hoping that when my son is a teenager, we have a better relationship than the Wills do with their moms.  But it was very realistic.

I was little meh on Will's (1) relationship with Jane and didn't care much for Will's (2) problems with Maura.  They both felt in addition to, not reason why.  But I loved Tiny's role.  And it was nice to see them looked beyond themselves because of him.


Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
GLBT
YA
Take Another Chance

The Blonde of the Joke

Valentina is the ultimate wallflower, afraid of disappearing completely.  But then she meets Francie and everything changes.  Francie is larger-than-life and Valentina falls completely under her spell when she becomes her partner in crime.

But the instant everything changes, you know.  It's just like - one second you are one thing, and then you're something else...A moment of clarity in which, briefly, the entire future of everything is laid out clearly before you and then is gone.  p.13

Let me just say that I've been there.  My best friend is college was a Francie.  No, not a chronic shoplifter, but someone so big that you think they can make everything better and they do.  I was (am) very shy, but when I meet my friend, everything changed.  I was much cooler just being with her than I had ever been.  But people like that always has dark secrets and they will evidently pull you into them.  I tell you this only because I want you to know that I related to Valentina in a very serious way.  Up to a point.  And then I couldn't understand her anymore.  I get the magnetic attraction, but I feel like I am missing something important about this story.

There's no doubt that Bennett Madison is an excellent writer.  Show, don't tell.  What I'm always looking for in a good novel and he has that ability to describe things exactly right; to give details without shoving them down the reader's throat.  Are Francie and Valentina sympathetic characters?  Well, that answer gets complicated.  Yes they are and then no they aren't.  They are very compelling though.  I think they expected too much from each other.  Other people can never really fix you.  You have to fix yourself.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the language.  There was a lot of flack about how the girls talk and the slang they used.  I don't want to criticize in either direction, but I'm sure they was a reason for it.  I'm going to link to an article about it which contains Madison's comments on the subject.  It is very thought-provoking (make sure to read the comments).  Also there was some drinking and smoking which normally doesn't bother me but then I kept reminding myself that they are only suppose to be 14.  They act so much older.

GLBT Challenge
Young Adult
Hogwarts: Transfiguration
Library

(P.S. My friend and I are still friends and she's a police detective of all things.  Life is so crazy sometimes.)

Sailor Love (GLBT March mini-challenge)

For the March mini-challenge of the GLBT Challenge instead of reading and reviewing a manga dealing with that subject I've decided to talk about one of my favorite series of all time, Sailor Moon, and the relationship between Sailor Neptune and Sailor Urnaus.

In both the anime and the manga, as civilians Mirchiru (Michelle US) is a very girly and beautiful musician and Haruka (Amara US) is an androgynous race car driver.  Everyone who meets Haruka thinks she is a boy and it leads to some confusion and hilarity especially when Usagi (Serena) and Minako first meet them.  In the manga and in the Japanese anime, it is established that they are in a relationship with each other.  There are many moments, some funny, some very touching, to establish their relationship.  It is taken as natural and normal.  They obviously love each other and they have the most mature of the relationships shown in Sailor Moon.

When it came time to dub their episodes in the United States in 2000, however, their relationship was changed to "cousins" since it was believed that a lesbian relationship would not be acceptable for a children's cartoon even though there is nothing overt about their relationship other than some hand holding and a little "couple" talk.  This made for some very interesting changes especially in the episode with the love challenge which was changed to the friendship challenge with only male/female couples besides Michelle and Amara.  It also made the animation seem off since they would talk about one thing, but the images invoked a different sort of tone.  There were also many changes of Haruka flirting with Usagi where Amara would say something about flirting with Darien (Mamoru) in order to make her "straight."  It was a ridiculous change.  I doubt that they would include the relationship if they re-dubbed the series, but I would hope they wouldn't make them cousins because it is just creepy.

Bloodchild (GLBT February Mini-Challenge)

On an alien planet there is a colony of humans who have developed an alliance with the insect-like Tlic, the native inhabitants of the planet.  The humans have to give one of their family to the Tlic to carry their young.  Gan is one of the young humans who has been selected and he is honored by this choice.  But after witnessing one of these "births," he is unsure about what he has to do.  He loves T'Gotoi, the one whose eggs he will carry, but he experiences doubt about what must be done.

This was an interesting and creepy short story.  The idea of carrying and hatching insects inside a human grosses me out.  In fact, Butler says in the afterword that she wrote it partly out of fear of the botfly who lays eggs in tissue and her fear of this.  I've read one other book by her, Clay's Ark, which I really enjoyed and when I was searching for an author for this mini-challenge, I found out she was a lesbian.  So knowing that I liked her writing, this was so great.  And this is a disturbing little story, but at the same time, sweet and caring.  T'Gotoi loves Gan and he loves her, but he is unaware of the exact repercussions of is going to happen.  And when he finds out he must decide what to do about it.  The choice he makes is a hard one, but probably the right one.

Octavia Butler is a female African-American science fiction who won numerous awards for her work.  The story "Bloodchild" won the following awards:

• 1985: Hugo Award for Best Novelette - Bloodchild
• 1985: Locus Award for Best Novelette - "Bloodchild"
• 1985: Science Fiction Chronicle Award for Best Novelette - "Bloodchild"
• 1984: Nebula Award for Best Novelette - Bloodchild

Something interesting is the foreword included where Butler talks about writing short stories and getting rejected by publishers.  She says she hates writing short stories because she finds it frustrating to try and contain her ideas in a smaller format.  But the stories included in this book are truly short stories for her.

Very LeFreak (ebook)

Very is just so very.  She is very free, very fun, very irresponsible, very addicted.  She is addicted to all her technological gadgets, but she can't see the danger in allowing herself to become wrapped up in an online world while shutting down any real connections in real life.  After an altercation with one of her so-called friends, Very is sent to technology rehab.  But can Very stop being Very LeFreak and become just Veronica?

Who could sleep when a heart longed so badly and only ABBA understood? p.13 (ish on ebook)

There is a little bit of irony, I think, in reading Very LeFreak on an e-reader.  I realized it when I downloaded it and started reading it.  But anyway, I'm a big fan of Rachel Cohn and so I just had to read her new book.  I liked it a lot.  Like Gingerbread and the like, Cohn doesn't shy away from gritty details so Very LeFreak has a lot of sexual details, nothing pornographic or anything though.  But these details are important as they reflect how Very feels about herself and why she behaves the way she does.  I have had friends similar to Very; ones who want to be protected, want to be the fun ones, and who self-destruct so very fast.  So I identified a lot with her friends and I felt like I knew who Very really was.  I've heard her story before in other different ways.  And sometimes they turn out happy and sometimes not.  Very lives on the surface so she doesn't have to see what is underneath.  But I was pleased by her transition through the book.

I truly believe that there is such a thing as a technology addict.  I've borderlined on it myself until I realized what I was doing.  Compulsively checking Twitter or Facebook or my e-mail,  I've done that before.  But I have things in my life that are worth looking up from a computer screen for and so did Very though she didn't realize it at the time.  And I can believe in her breakdown because what her friend did so intrusive and wrong. I also believed in her rehabilitation.  It was good to have a young adult book about a girl not be so much about a relationship, but about the girl herself.

And for the people who said they would be bothered by her name being Very, you get use to it and it makes sense for the character.

*highlight for spoiler*

I was glad that she got together with Lavinia(Jennifer).  I was afraid that Brian, the boy she sleeps with at the beginning, would turn out to be who she ends up with and after he invaded her privacy like that, I would have been disgusted.  But the relationship between the girls seemed very organic and so surprising while not being shocking since there were a lot of hints thrown around.

*end spoiler*

Nothing Pink

Vincent knows he is gay and as hard as he prays he cannot get God to fix him.  He knows his minister father and his mother would not understand so he trys as hard as possible not to be gay.  But when his father moves to a new church Vincent meets Robert and he begins to think maybe he doesn't need to be fix after all.

It won't be hard for them to see how gay I am.  They'll know right off what my sin is. p.8

This is a very short book, only a little over 100 pages, but the message is amazing.  It is set in the 1970's and so the attitudes and language reflect that. Vincent believes that he is a sinner and is going to Hell because he is gay.  He's never even kissed another boy but he just knows.  His parents believe that homosexuality is a sin and one that cannot be forgiven and so Vincent believes it too.  His parents also ignore the signs that Vincent is gay so he tries to ignore them too.  But one day at the new church Vincent meets Robert and develops a crush on him.  And as their relationship grows Vincent begins to understand that there is nothing wrong with him. 

It was interesting to see the subject of faith and homosexuality explored.  Vincent is bought up to think one way and so cannot fanthom any other ideas about what he is.  He is afraid of what his parents will think and what God thinks and tries over and over to repent but cannot understand why God won't take the gay out of him.  Vincent's faith is a huge part of this book.  And I liked the fact that he never loses that faith even when he accepts his homosexuality is not sinful; that he never feels like God has abandoned him, that He is on his side.  In a way, Vincent's relationship with Robert is almost secondary.  But Robert is a good guy and they are so wonderful together.  It is a very sweet.  And I love the story that goes with the very pretty cover.

GLBT January mini-challenge

So the GLBT Challenge has issued its first mini-challenge which is to write a paragraph or two on why this challenge and/or this issue is important to you.  Honestly, I'm not sure what to say.  I originally signed up for last year's challenge to learn something new and I enjoyed what I read so much that I wanted to do it again.  I read some fluffy books (The Straight Road to Kylie) and some books that touched on serious issues, like parental rights over a child of a lesbian couple (Between Mom and Jo).  And I thought that the exploration of the different aspects of a gay person's life were interesting.  There are so many facets and consequences of coming out and some books handle it so well.  So as I'm trying to move out of my reading niches and explore more genres, I found that GLBT books were so varied and yet so much like "straight" reading, but touched on issues that those books can't. And there are so many great GLBT books that I haven't read yet so I guess that's what this is important to me.

GLBT Challenge 2010 - COMPLETE

I'm joining the GLBT Challenge again for 2010.  I had such a great experience the last time.  I don't know what I'm going to read yet, but I'm joining at the Pink Triangle Level: Read 8 books with the possibility of moving up to the Rainbow Level: Read 12 or more books.


COMPLETED 9/23/2010




My list:


1.  Nothing Pink - Mark Hardy
2. Very LeFreak - Rachel Cohn
3. The Blonde of the Joke - Bennett Madison
4. Frost Moon - Anthony Francis
5. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - David Levithan and John Green
6. Wicked - Gregory Maguire
7. A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend - Emily Horner
8. My Invented Life - Lauren Bjorkman


From this list:
Twelve Long Months - Brian Malloy +
Will Grayson, Will Grayson - David Levithan/John Green
Gravel Queen - Tea Benduhn
Of All the Stupid Things  - Alexandra Diaz
The Blonde of the Joke - Bennett Madison
Empress of the World -  Sara Ryan

Wicked - Gregory Maguire
Even Cowgirls get the Blues - Tom Robbins +

The Bermudez Triangle - Maureen Johnson

Belmondo Style - Adam Berlin

Rainbow Boys - Alex Sanchez

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List - Rachel Cohen and David Leviathan

Down to the Bone - Mayra Lazara Dole

The Straight Road to Kylie - Nico Medina

Hero - Perry Moore (I've read this before and it was very good. It's about a gay superhero.)

Are We There Yet? - David Levithan

How I Paid for College - Marc Acito

+ Own

Ash

In a modern telling of Cinderella, Ash is subjected to the humiliations of becoming a servant to her stepmother when her father dies.  In her grief and desolation she wishes to be taken away by the fairies, but when she meets the King's Huntress, her wishes begin to change.

"As the people swayed and stamped and sung their way around the bonfire, Ash knew that this was what the fairies were always hunting for: a circle of joy, hot and brilliant, the scent of love in the deepest winter...How it must disappoint them; that they would never be human." p.247

Honestly, you know, the Cinderella tale has never been one of my favorites¹.  She is usually so weak and pathetic, very accepting and tra la la about her situation, just putting up with her stepfamily's abuse.  But Ash gave me a different insight.  It is about an abused girl who can't just walk away.  She has no one else and is usually young when her father dies so there is no where to go.  Abused children are helpless because they have no idea how to save themselves.   While Ash is not physically abused (well, not really) she is definitely mentally abused by her stepmother once her father dies.  Made to work in the kitchens and become their servant to pay off her father's debts, Ash has no way to escape this situation.  So she wishes and prays for the fairies in the forest to take her away where it would be better to serve them for many lifetimes than to serve her stepmother for one human lifetime.  So she actively seeks out the fairies, when conventional wisdom tell her that it is a dangerous thing to do and meets Sidhean, a beautiful fairy who befriends but does not take her into his world.  It is when she meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, that she begins to change her world for herself. 

The Straight Road to Kylie

Jonathan is living the good life.  He's out and proud with three of the best girlfriends and having a fine time.  But during a drunken night, he accidentally has sex with a girl and now everyone is after him for something and wondering if he is actually straight.  When one of the popular girls in school offers him a bargain: act like her boyfriend and she'll take him to see his favorite pop star, Kylie Minogue.  But the straight road to Kylie leads to much drama.

Favorite quote: "She's even turning her back on me via Chick-fil-A! I'm gonna de-friend her on MySpace."  Carrie and Juan gasped.


I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into before I picked up this book.  The description sounded fun.  And this was, hands-down, a fun book.  It was very pink and frilly and frantic.  It was also just a tad too long.  I really felt sorry for Jonathan.  He just starts digging a hole after he sleeps with this girl and just digs and digs and digs.  And every time he tries to get out, he falls right back in.  All he wants to do is go see Kylie Minogue, his pop hero, but he makes a deal with the devil and drags all his friends along with him.  I saw a couple of his problems coming before he did with a couple of his friends.  Also he yells a lot.  I knew that is strange, but he was yelling or screaming on like every page.  I don't think the author knew how to convey excitement without making someone yell.  So that was weird.

Jonathan's friends were pretty awesome too and very well defined.  I've had friends like these in the my life especially the Carrie character.  They were well written and the drama was so very high school.  I will mention that there is a lot of cursing, sex (nothing explicit though), talk about sex, drinking and drugs.  Normally I don't mention stuff like that, but I feel like I have to on this one.  It's not quite adult, but it's a little more than YA.  I would say about on par with the Gossip Girl series.  So if you don't want your kid reading those, then this isn't going to work for them either.

Something that wasn't really touched on or said explicitly, but I think Jonathan had to use his "straight" self to figure out his gay self.  He knew he was gay, but had never kissed a boy or dated one really.  So in the course of pretending to be straight, he found what he was looking for, the life he was looking for as a gay male.  I don't really recommend this route, but it made for an good book.

Between Mom and Jo

Nicholas has two moms, his biological mother and his other mom, Jo. He is happy having two mothers although he has to put up with teasing and bullying at school. But while his Mom is strict and high-strung, Jo is fun and willing to teach him all the life skills he needs. Then one day the unthinkable happens and his Mom and Jo break up. With his Mom angry at Jo, she won't let Nicholas see her. What happens to the child when a relationship goes sour and the other parent has no legal rights? Nicholas finds out with sad results.

THIS right here is how a book is written. I'm not kidding. This was one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I need to thank Amanda for the GLBT Challenge just so I could find and read this book. The characters were amazingly written and so three-dimensional. They were so real and Nick's sorrow and confusion were exactly right. I wanted to shake his Mom because she refused to see that Jo was important to him. They decided to have a baby together and went to a sperm bank. So Mom was legally tied to him but Jo never adopted him assuming that they would always be together. But when they broke up, his bio mom wouldn't let him see his other mom which is completely insane. If you raise a kid as your own then he is yours which is one of the topics that this book addresses. It's told in "highlights" of moments that explain Nick's life with his mothers so it addresses other issues that would come from a lesbian couple raising a child together.

Another Kind of Cowboy

Alex is gay and he knows this but no one else does. Alex loves horses and he is good with them and has a lot of natural talent. He rides Western-style to please his father but really wants to ride dressage, loving the precision and style of it. Alex is afraid to tell his father about both his sexuality and the dressage. He is a very introverted boy, afraid of doing the wrong thing, that people will think the wrong thing about him. His family is very dysfunctional. His mother left their family and his father lives in an RV in the driveway and is drunk about 95% of the time. His aunt lives in the house with him and his twin ninja-wannabe sisters. Finally when Alex meet Cleo O'Shea he is able to come out of his shell (pun intended) and realize that life is not about hiding what you are.

Cleo O'Shea accidentally let her parent's house get robbed. Since they are never around, they send to an equestrienne boarding school. She is a spoiled rich girl who is one of those girls that just assumes people like her or want to hang out with her. She has no concept of earning anything. But she has parents that don't pay any attention to her unless she is doing something negative. Without any direction in life, she falls easilty into the party girl mode. But when she meets Alex Ford, she realizes that sometimes you have to work for the good things in life.

I've had this book for a long time. I just had it. I didn't really know what it was about. It was by Susan Juby and so I figured it had to be good. (Read Alice, I Think) But when I was looking up books for the GLBT Challenge, this one was recommended and I was like Hey I own that, etc.

It was really good. So good that I wished I had read it earlier good but then I couldn't have used it for this challenge good. So good that I was a little teary (in a good way) at the end good. It was told from first person perspective on Cleo's part and third person on Alex's part. I'm not sure why. But it worked. Alex and Cleo are an odd pairing but in the end they help each other realize what is missing from their lives. There's a lot of horse talk but it's not overwhelming. If nothing else, it makes you want to look up dressage. That is some amazing stuff.

Boy Meets Boy

Paul lives in a town where being gay or a drag-queen quarterback is not given a second thought. He has a core group of friends some of whom are really outrageous (see aforementioned drag-queen quarterback). One night he meets Noah and he just knows that this is the right boy for him. But ex-boyfriends and best friends get in his way and Paul has to figure out how to make all his relationships work.

This is one of those books I've meaning to read for a long time, but the GLBT challenge made it the perfect time to pick it up. In a way this book reads like wish fulfillment. It is a simplified world that Paul lives in. He announced when he was 5 that he was gay after seeing it on his kindergarten teacher's report and he knew it to be true. His parents seem to have adjusted to it well and his life is not challenged in anyway. His whole town is accepting of the GLBT lifestyle. The school quarterback is a drag-queen. On the other hand, Paul's friend Tony lives in a different town with very religious families who don't approve of his lifestyle and won't let him hang out unless there are girls there. It's an interesting contrast between the two guys and provides Paul with some insight later in the book.

I liked the relationship between Noah and Paul. It was sweet and a typical "chic lit" plot except with two boys. Boy finds boy, boy likes boy, something comes between boys, well you know the rest. But the relationship I liked best was Paul and Tony's. It was so real and so right. That is probably what I'll remember most. Well, that and Infinite Darlene cause who can forget her.