What good book have you read lately? (New or old)

[killersmom]

I hear on the news that author Maeve Binchy, died. She was 72. Bestseller contemporary Irish writer, 16 novels and many short stories. "Circle of Friends" and "Tara Road", two of her better known novels.

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

She has been a favorite of mine, Linda.  I loved those books ^^^^, and "Light a Penny Candle."

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

In order to get through this summer of politics, I have been reading some books that I meant to read over the past four years but didn't get around to.

One was called "Michelle" about Michelle Obama by journalist Liza Mundy.  It looks like there are more in-depth biographies out there but this was short and gave me some background on her story, how her father was a janitor, how he ended up sending both kids to Princeton.


Next I read "A Singular Woman" by Janny Scott, about Obama's mother.  Wow! I found the way she handled her life to be very inspiring.  And her parents were so supportive in the face of the mixed-race pregnancy, which, let's face it, was not an easy thing in the US in the early sixties, even in the diversity of Hawaii.

Also you learn that when some hater says "His name is really Barry Soetero" it's merely a reference to Barry short for Barack (duh) and Soetero is the surname of Obama's stepfather. Big old deal. Obama had to spend part of his childhood going to school in Indonesia, where as a child he endured a lot of prejudice.  This may be why today he is "No drama Obama."


After that I read "The Other Barack" about his father.  A brilliant man but not someone you can admire in the end, mostly because he was a raging alcoholic. But he lived through an outrageous time of political change in Kenya. He was also a polygamist and a chauvenist (based on the way he treated his 2nd white American wife in Kenya -- no African woman would complain) but that was cultural. Our prez has a lot of half-brothers and sisters out there.

[morrobay]

I recently reread Herman Raucher’s “Summer of 42”, and fell in love with it all over again.  It’s not a masterpiece, the movie was not very good……..but there are lines in the book that I remember to this day, from my first read in 1972.  And I understand it better now because at the time, I had few  years on which to look back, and now I have…..quite a few more.

He had always intended to come back, to see the island again.  But the opportunity had never quite presented itself.  This time, however, with a break in his schedule and with events moving remarkably in his favor, he had driven far up the New England coast to see if the magic still prevailed.  Aboard the old ferry his Mercedes convertible earned the icy nonchalance of a half dozen craggy islanders, for very few new cars ever make that crossing.   Cars that come to Packett Island are usually well into the varicose stage of their lives, and as such, they are by time and temperament unconcerned with a return trip to the mainland.  “Cars come to this fuckin island to die.”  Oscy had said that.  Oscy, the big deal philosopher.  And it was as true in 1970 as it had been in 1942.

In 1942 Hermie is a 15 year old in love, from afar, with an older woman of 21.

He watched her walk away, and it hit him like a howitzer.  He didn’t know her name!  What the hell was that!  He was hung up on a woman, and he didn’t even know her name?  He didn’t even know her initials!  If nothing else, it was discourteous never to have even asked.  No wonder she wanted to get away from him.  Imagine a gentleman wanting to screw a lady and never even taking a moment out to ask her name.  Worse, what if her name turned out to be Frenesie or Tallulah or something so equally idiotic that he’d never be able to say aloud, “I love you, LaZonga.”  He called to her.  “Hello?”

She stopped on the first of the fourteen steps and faced him.  And in her too big sweater she looked like the Little Match Girl.  “Excuse me,” Hermie said, “but I don’t even know your name.”  He waited four hundred years for her answer to make its way through the air.

“Dorothy.”

“I had a cat named Dorothy……Got hit by a truck.”

He asks to come to her house one evening and she agrees; when he gets there it’s dark and she doesn’t answer the door.  When he walks into the room he sees the telegram she has received about her husband.

He knew that there were tears on his face, but he also knew that he needn’t be ashamed, for even the best of men were known to cry.  She reached up to his face, catching one of his tears on the point of her finger, and it ran to her because she was then the rightful owner of all the tears on earth.

It's a good read, with wonderful characters...the 3 friends who spend the summer on the island...and this kid's first love...

[gattaca]

Just finished The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work by Amabile and Kramer.  This is a thorough slice of work where the authors studied the work habits at various companies and correlated the effects they describe in the book.   The bottom line is there are critical motivators to work and inner well being but not often what management believes are what really motivates employees.   I can attest that after reading the book, I've had good and bad managers as described and the summary of the book does make a huge difference in the attitudes of the employees and their ultimate productivity.   Nice, easy read.  Highly recommended to adjust your perspective and attitude.   I'd say most of it is common sense but the authors support their conclusions with facts, figures.  

Amazon --> http://www.amazon.com/The-Progress-Principle-Engagement-Creativity/dp/142219857X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344902493&sr=8-1&keywords=progress+principle

Cheers, Vincent

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

^^^ looks interesting, I checked the reviews on Amazon. Thx for the tip.

[gattaca]

Just in case you missed it..

http://nation.time.com/2012/08/15/the-great-book-sale-of-texas-larry-mcmurtry-gives-up-his-collection/

Later, V

[tfferg]

Embrace by Mark Behr

I've been re-reading this big fat novel, which I first read years ago, because I wanted to listen to the music that I now have on CD in conjunction with the passages that feature it.

In the novel, the 10 -14 year old Afrikaner narrator, Karl De Man, tells of his experiences at the elite Drakensberg Boys' Choir School in apartheid South Africa, a RL private boarding school, in the mid 1970s when Black children in Soweto and other Black locations were being massacred for boycotting their schools where they were taught in Afrikaans rather than English. He juxtaposes these with memories of growing up with his family in national parks in KwaZulu-Natal where his father was a ranger.

Karl struggles to deal with his developing intellectual and sexual appetite in the context of draconian prohibitions by family, school and religion. The consequences of Karl's sexuality make for some disturbing reading, but he is not represented as an “innocent” child, rather an actively desiring one.

Many passages are very true-to-life depictions of what it was like growing up queer (for me, more so than some other famous novels) and I am sure that they are still much the same for many, many LGBTI young people, even in more liberal societies.

Coincidentally, I saw the film Beauty last weekend. The dinner-table conversation, for example, shows that the attitudes and experiences of some people have not changed from those of a generation ago presented in Embrace.

[tfferg]

The Sex Lives of Australians: A History by Frank Bongiorno

A very readable account that covers the range of sexualities and genders.

[BayCityJohn]

"BREAKING NEWS -- "The Front Runner" is now available
on Kindle. Facebook Friends are the first to know, since so many of you asked for the eBook. It's reasonably priced too! Heartfelt thanks to all the thousands around the world who kept this novel continuously in print since 1974. " - Patricia Nell Warren

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009B119Z4/ref=nosim?tag=davecullencom-20&linkCode=sb1&camp=212353&creative=380549

[Jane-UK]

Not a particularly new one, but one I found by chance (have to admit we have a brilliant library in Norwich so don't have to buy too many), it's by my favourite current living author, Patrick Gale, who lives in Cornwall for those not in the know and has written on many subjects, "Friendly Fire" is set in a public school and is from a female viewpoint.  Superb stuff, with a nasty horrific ending which is not expected.  Even better, I don't like happy endings in books.  Would recommend anything by this author, his best IMO  are Rough Music and Facts of Life.  Both will expose every emotion going.  The writing is superb, to be honest he's seriously ahead of most UK writers at the moment. 

Having read a few other posts, I will NOT be succumbing to a Kindle, I was quick to embrace computers and the internet, but have to say books are a gift from childhood and nothing else will ever replace them.  Can't beat the weight and feel of a good book on a long train or bus journey.    I am the same with cinemas and 3D films!

[september man6]

     "THE RUPERT CHRONICLES" on Amazon kindle is the most HYSTERICAL book on gay life I have ever read!!! This book is drop dead FUNNY!  Tell them about it and make someone happy, they'll never forget it.

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

This is a forum for people in the Brokeback Community to share and discuss recommendations for books.

[Cally]

Not a particularly new one, but one I found by chance (have to admit we have a brilliant library in Norwich so don't have to buy too many), it's by my favourite current living author, Patrick Gale, who lives in Cornwall for those not in the know and has written on many subjects, "Friendly Fire" is set in a public school and is from a female viewpoint.  Superb stuff, with a nasty horrific ending which is not expected.  Even better, I don't like happy endings in books.  Would recommend anything by this author, his best IMO  are Rough Music and Facts of Life.  Both will expose every emotion going.  The writing is superb, to be honest he's seriously ahead of most UK writers at the moment. 

Having read a few other posts, I will NOT be succumbing to a Kindle, I was quick to embrace computers and the internet, but have to say books are a gift from childhood and nothing else will ever replace them.  Can't beat the weight and feel of a good book on a long train or bus journey.    I am the same with cinemas and 3D films!

Jane, I much enjoyed Patrick Gale's Rough Music - don't think I've read anything else by him but will find some more.

But re Kindle: I absolutely love mine - it's a wonderful rich feeling that you can carry a library of books around with you, and it's very comfortable to read.  But that doesn't mean that I love solid books any the less.

One thing though - having moved house recently and already cut down the enormous quantity of books that we own, at my age I've realised that I don't want to add significantly to the physical space that our books take up. I still do buy them of course, and for long or complex material a real book is certainly better, but my Kindle has now become a much-loved part of my life .

[tfferg]

I started re-reading Rough Music last month. I'm enjoying it, having forgotten the plot. I've been reading a couple of other books too.

We went to the Melbourne launch of Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East by Benjamin Law last Wednesday. The young Australian-born Brisbane writer is one of the people in Australia who are gay and of Asian background and call themselves Gaysian. Over the years he noted news stories about LGBTIQ issues in Asian countries and decided to go to a number of countries to interview people and find out how the issues affect individual people's lives and to explore how his life as a gay man would have been different had he lived in an Asian country. (His parents are from Malaysia and China.)

He writes about the people he met and his experiences in Bali, Thailand, China, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar and India and focuses on a particular local issue in each country. The book is easy reading because it is like a series of long newspaper or magazine articles. The interviews highlight the realities which often contrast sharply with appearances. He doesn't spare himself and the journey confronts and changes some of Ben Law's thinking. He doesn't preach or come across as pushing an agenda. Fortunately, he has a good sense of humour and there is comedy as well as heartbreaking material. He is well aware of ironies and complexities.

At the launch, he responded thoughtfully to questions as well as being entertaining. I was talked into lining up to have Ben Law sign our copy and enjoyed a brief conversation with him. He's very friendly. I'd seen him on TV on a panel of people discussing their experiences of being bullied. He told me he'd got off easy compared with Paul Capsis, a singer and actor, who was terribly bullied in his youth and later. Because of the queue behind me, I resisted the temptation to discuss my experiences of three of the countries in the book and some recent developments in Thailand.