Tag: family
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Ernesto by Umberto Saba
From the publisher: Ernesto is a classic of gay literature, a tender and complex tale of sexual awakening by one of Italy’s most admired poets. Ernesto is a sixteen-year-old boy from an educated family who lives with his mother in Trieste. His mother is eager for him to get ahead and has asked a local…
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The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer
I was blown away by Victor Heringer’s The Love of Singular Men, a hypnotizing story about a young boy and his teen love — a relationship cut short — and that same boy, now an aging man, as he returns to his childhood suburb of Quiem. [Spoiler]: The story moves easily between the landscape and…
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Helen DeWitt and Jac Jemc
Sick as a dog, reading instead of thinking/leaving my house. The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt: I really liked this, and it reflects the reality of publishing — well, many fields, really — and trust/ignorance. From the publisher: Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above…
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Yara by Tamara Faith Berger
Tamara Faith Berger always does a great job of blurring lines regarding sexuality, consent, age difference, class, and identity. Her Jewish-North American characters are so splendidly complicated and horny always!!! I do think I prefer Maidenhead and Queen Solomon to Yara, but ultimately had a great time reading this one. I look forward to going…
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The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
This was sweet and cozy. A gay Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children or Mysterious Benedict Society. A quick and ultimately happy read with heartwarming characters. From the publisher: Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case…
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Just Finished: Silver Repetition
After an extremely tough start with terrible metaphors and aggravating characters, this became a sparse, sad exploration of an immigrant family. What happened with that first 40 pages!? I do not recommend simply on the basis of that lopsided introductory section. From the publisher: In Silver Repetition, Lily Wang’s endless, perfect loops of memory and dream,…
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Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
From the publisher, awkward and incomplete descriptions that make me wonder if anyone read the book. VERSION ONE: England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young alike. The end of days is near, but life always goes on. A young Latin…
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Slow River by Nicola Griffith
After a dud attempt with John Darnielle’s newest (sadly), and waaaaaay too much reading on the internet, I figured the best way to break my reading slump was with a tried and true favorite. Nicola Griffith is currently touring for her newest book in the Hild sequence, and I just read Spear, so why not…
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Family After Capitalism and Death
I just read a couple more books — one through BookRiot’s marvelous Daily Deals aggregator, one (finally!) that I bought from a used bookstore on my trip this summer. L’Esprit de L’Escalier by Catherynne M. Valente (Tor.com) follows the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice — Eurydice, who’s suffered an untimely death, and Orpheus, her…
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Bonjour Tristesse and Charmed Life
I’ve been seeing Francoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse everywhere, and in my deep desire to read seasonal books, I finally picked it up (alongside her other book, A Certain Smile, thanks to Penguin’s two-in-ones). The main character is a teen girl who leaves boarding school to live with her father, a suave widower with commitment problems.…