Hi LJ! (Wednesday Reading Meme)
Hiiiiii. I miss you all, LJ! I know, no one's even reading anymore (I do! Every day!), and there's little point in posting, but I miss it. :( :( :(
So, have a reading meme!
What I Just Finished Reading
I love summer vacation. Summer is when I can read books! Yay! Many, many books!
So in the last week--
Kay Berrisford's "Greenwood" series. These are m/m Celtic-y fantasy with a lot of kink in them (proportion of sex scenes to plot varies by book). I actually really liked the one about Herne the Hunter (Bound to the Beast). Recommend.
LB Gregg's Romano and Albright series. Oh, this made me mad. They're really cute m/m mysteries about an Italian boy from Brooklyn and his ex-cop PI bf (from Staten Island) and they're funny and the romance is nice and they were ruined -- RUINED -- by the horrible transphobia in the first one (and the second one had some creepy bi erasure). So this author is now on my 'Never Read Again' list and it's so sad.
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I'm teaching a women's lit class in the fall (SO EXCITED) so I've been reading things for that in addition to my (virtual) stacks and stacks of gay boy books. Herland, if you're not familiar with it, is a 1915 1st-wave Feminist no-men utopia novel. It's not the most gripping story (lots more "here is how everything works" than gradual unveiling through plot) and it has some huge gaps in the author's imaginarium because of her race/class/time, but it's still fascinating, and we'll definitely be reading an except from it.
Impractical by Megan Derr. M/M Historical with not one but two arranged marriage plots! It was cute. Should've been more developed, but it was fine. Overall, I prefer slightly more realistic historicals.
Oleander House (Bay City Paranormal Investigations, #1), by Ally Blue. Too much horror for me (I'd been expecting more of a haunted house and got a lot more blood/gore/demon-y thing.)
Bless Us With Content, by Tinnean. M/M historical. I liked this one, but it took too long to move on from the MC's first love to the actual love interest.
The Butcher's Son (A Dick Hardesty Mystery, #1), by Dorien Grey. M/M mystery -- technically a historical because it's set in the early 1970s. It was okay, but sad, involving a series of attacks on gay bars, including a described deadly fire reminiscent of that one in New Orleans (the UpStairs Lounge fire) that killed 32 people in 1973.
Aaron's Wait (Elliott Smith #2), by Dorien Grey. Elliott has a ghost stuck in his head and investigates other ghost mysteries. Cute.
Why Stop at Vengeance (Donald Strachey #14), by Richard Stevenson. I really love Don and Timmy, I do. The books have gotten (or maybe always were) soooo issue-driven and heavy-handed, but I DO NOT CARE because I love them so much. Don and Timmy are like my gay uncles I visit (in Albany) every few years, and I just dread something happening to them (well, the author), because I know he's getting on in years. :( Anyway, this was a thinly-veiled (really thinly) story about bringing down Scott Lively, that anti-gay "minister" who operates out of Springfield MA and is responsible for so much suffering (he had a lot to do with Uganda's anti-gay legislation etc.). It was kind of a sad book, but OF COURSE Don triumphed in his gray-ly ethical typical style (it reminded me of the end of Ice Blues, actually, when he and Timmy drop all those millions off at the GMHC). Did I mention how much I love Don and Timmy?
What I'm Reading Now
Megan Derr's "Dance With the Devil" series. OMG YOU GUYS. It's SOOOOO good. I haven't loved every book equally (my favorite BY FAR was #2, Dance in the Dark, which is about a Vampire princess, who's not actually a vampire, and his mysterious bf), but overall YAY. It's urban fantasy, where all territories (which sort of map onto normal geography) are controlled by different paranormal beings (like vampires, werewolves, demons, dragon people, etc.), and there's mysteries, historicals, cowboys -- it's just SO MUCH FUN. So I'm on book six now and book seven just came out today.
What I'm Reading Next
Going to finish #6 and #7. Then... probably more gay boy books. And I do need to read some things that have more redeeming value.
So, have a reading meme!
What I Just Finished Reading
I love summer vacation. Summer is when I can read books! Yay! Many, many books!
So in the last week--
Kay Berrisford's "Greenwood" series. These are m/m Celtic-y fantasy with a lot of kink in them (proportion of sex scenes to plot varies by book). I actually really liked the one about Herne the Hunter (Bound to the Beast). Recommend.
LB Gregg's Romano and Albright series. Oh, this made me mad. They're really cute m/m mysteries about an Italian boy from Brooklyn and his ex-cop PI bf (from Staten Island) and they're funny and the romance is nice and they were ruined -- RUINED -- by the horrible transphobia in the first one (and the second one had some creepy bi erasure). So this author is now on my 'Never Read Again' list and it's so sad.
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I'm teaching a women's lit class in the fall (SO EXCITED) so I've been reading things for that in addition to my (virtual) stacks and stacks of gay boy books. Herland, if you're not familiar with it, is a 1915 1st-wave Feminist no-men utopia novel. It's not the most gripping story (lots more "here is how everything works" than gradual unveiling through plot) and it has some huge gaps in the author's imaginarium because of her race/class/time, but it's still fascinating, and we'll definitely be reading an except from it.
Impractical by Megan Derr. M/M Historical with not one but two arranged marriage plots! It was cute. Should've been more developed, but it was fine. Overall, I prefer slightly more realistic historicals.
Oleander House (Bay City Paranormal Investigations, #1), by Ally Blue. Too much horror for me (I'd been expecting more of a haunted house and got a lot more blood/gore/demon-y thing.)
Bless Us With Content, by Tinnean. M/M historical. I liked this one, but it took too long to move on from the MC's first love to the actual love interest.
The Butcher's Son (A Dick Hardesty Mystery, #1), by Dorien Grey. M/M mystery -- technically a historical because it's set in the early 1970s. It was okay, but sad, involving a series of attacks on gay bars, including a described deadly fire reminiscent of that one in New Orleans (the UpStairs Lounge fire) that killed 32 people in 1973.
Aaron's Wait (Elliott Smith #2), by Dorien Grey. Elliott has a ghost stuck in his head and investigates other ghost mysteries. Cute.
Why Stop at Vengeance (Donald Strachey #14), by Richard Stevenson. I really love Don and Timmy, I do. The books have gotten (or maybe always were) soooo issue-driven and heavy-handed, but I DO NOT CARE because I love them so much. Don and Timmy are like my gay uncles I visit (in Albany) every few years, and I just dread something happening to them (well, the author), because I know he's getting on in years. :( Anyway, this was a thinly-veiled (really thinly) story about bringing down Scott Lively, that anti-gay "minister" who operates out of Springfield MA and is responsible for so much suffering (he had a lot to do with Uganda's anti-gay legislation etc.). It was kind of a sad book, but OF COURSE Don triumphed in his gray-ly ethical typical style (it reminded me of the end of Ice Blues, actually, when he and Timmy drop all those millions off at the GMHC). Did I mention how much I love Don and Timmy?
What I'm Reading Now
Megan Derr's "Dance With the Devil" series. OMG YOU GUYS. It's SOOOOO good. I haven't loved every book equally (my favorite BY FAR was #2, Dance in the Dark, which is about a Vampire prince
What I'm Reading Next
Going to finish #6 and #7. Then... probably more gay boy books. And I do need to read some things that have more redeeming value.
