Joe's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 05 Apr 2025 18:53:55 -0700 60 Joe's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Gender Pioneers: A Celebration of Transgender, Non-Binary and Intersex Icons]]> 62571157 'Beautifully illustrated and fascinating' MEG-JOHN BARKER
'Fun and fact-filled' SUSAN STRYKER

This inspiring collection of illustrated portraits celebrates the lives of influential transgender, non-binary and intersex figures throughout history.

Showcasing the diversity of gender identities and expressions that have existed in all cultures alongside developments from recent years, the extraordinary stories in this book highlight the achievements and legacies of those who have fought to be themselves, whatever their gender. From activists, soldiers and historical leaders through to pirates, actors and artists, this book explores the life and times of over fifty trans and intersex trailblazers in their fight for equality, acceptance and change.

Poignant, educational and empowering, these are the gender pioneers everyone needs to know about.]]> 119 Philippa Punchard 1787755142 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.00 Gender Pioneers: A Celebration of Transgender, Non-Binary and Intersex Icons
author: Philippa Punchard
name: Joe
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom (Hardcover Gift Edition): A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness]]> 53722286 362 Rachel Pollack 1633412229 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.47 1980 Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom (Hardcover Gift Edition): A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness
author: Rachel Pollack
name: Joe
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Silent Mountain Man (Movin' to the Mountains #1)]]> 191365545
I'm screwed.

Maybe it's karma for putting this trip off. I haven't been able to bring myself to visit since Pa's funeral.

And then there are the painful memories that still haunt me of my first love…and first heartbreak.

The summer I turned eighteen, I exchanged letters with a free-spirited, long-haired boy who lived down the road from my father. We hung out all day and wrote each other romantic letters all night. It was the best time of my life.

But now they're both gone, and I'm all alone.

Literally. This mountain feels deserted. Like I'm the only living soul on it.

And then, just as I'm about to give up all hope, a pickup truck pulls up. A man steps out.

Not just any man, though� Pure. Mountain man. Perfection.

Big muscles, a thick beard just begging to be touched, and an intense stare that's making me rethink my dislike of the mountains.

Harrick offers me a place to stay, and despite being a total stranger, there's something familiar about him that makes me feel like I can trust him. Also, what other choice have I got?

He takes me back to his cabin. Turns out, he's not much of a talker. I can work with that.

We hook up. I can definitely work with that.

I almost forget that I'm here to sell my father's house and finally move on from the guy who left me brokenhearted all those years ago.

And then I find a letter in Harrick's house—one of the letters I wrote all those years ago � and everything changes.]]> 90 Casey Cox Joe 0 currently-reading 3.88 2023 The Silent Mountain Man (Movin' to the Mountains #1)
author: Casey Cox
name: Joe
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (Modern Library Paperbacks)]]> 8550548 Kurt Vonnegut“‘The cat sat on the mat� is not the beginning of a story, but ‘the cat sat on the dog’s mat� is.� �John Le CarréNothing is more inspiring for a beginning writer than listening to masters of the craft talk about the writing life. But if you can’t get Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf, and Gabriel García Márquez together at the Algonquin, The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop gives you the next best thing. Stephen Koch, former chair of Columbia University’s graduate creative writing program, presents a unique guide to the craft of fiction. Along with his own lucid observations and commonsense techniques, he weaves together wisdom, advice, and inspiring commentary from some of our greatest writers. Taking you from the moment of inspiration (keep a notebook with you at all times), to writing a first draft (do it quickly! you can always revise later), to figuring out a plot (plot always serves the story, not vice versa), Koch is a benevolent mentor, glad to dispense sound advice when you need it most. The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop belongs on every writer’s shelf, to be picked up and pored over for those moments when the muse needs a little help finding her way.]]> 272 Stephen Koch Joe 0 currently-reading 4.43 2003 The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (Modern Library Paperbacks)
author: Stephen Koch
name: Joe
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> <![CDATA[One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This]]> 213871151 From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an Empire which doesn’t consider you fully human.

On Oct 25th, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.� This tweet was viewed over 10 million times.

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse.

This book is a reckoning with what it means to live in the west, and what it means to live in a world run by a small group of countries—America, the UK, France and Germany.� It will be The Fire Next Time for a generation that understands we’re undergoing a shift in the so-called ‘rules-based order,� a generation that understands the west can no longer be trusted to police and guide the world, or its own cities and campuses. It draws on intimate details of Omar’s own story as an emigrant who grew up believing in the western project, who was catapulted into journalism by the rupture of 9/11.

This book is his heartsick breakup letter with the west. It is a breakup we are watching all over the U.S., on college campuses, on city streets, and the consequences of this rupture will be felt by all of us. His book is for all the people who want something better than what the west has served up. This is the book for our time.]]> 188 Omar El Akkad 0593804155 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.76 2025 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
author: Omar El Akkad
name: Joe
average rating: 4.76
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
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]]> Playworld 211026148 A big and big-hearted novel—one enthralling, transformative year in the life of a child actor coming of age in a bygone Manhattan, from the critically acclaimed author of Mr. Peanut (“A brilliant, powerful, and memorable book� —The New York Times)“In the fall of 1980, when I was fourteen, a friend of myparentsnamed Naomi Shah fell in love with me. She was thirty-six, a mother of two, and married to a wealthy man. Like so many things that happened to me that year, itdidn’tseem strange at the time.� Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role asPeter Proton onthe hit TV show The Nuclear Family and the pressure of high schoolat New York's elite Boyd Prep—along withtheincreasingly compromisingdemands of his wrestling coach—he's teetering on the edge ofcollapse.Then comes Naomi Shah, twenty-two yearsGriffin’ssenior.Unwilling to layhisburdenson his shrink—whom he shares withhisfather, mother, and younger brother, Oren—Griffinsoon finds himselfin the back ofNaomi’sMercedessedan,again and again,confessing all tothe oneperson who mightdo him the most harm.Less a bildungsroman than a story of miseducation, Playworld is a novel of epic proportions, bursting with laughter and heartache. Adam Ross immerses us in the life of Griffin and his loving (yet disintegrating) family while seeming to evoke the entirety of Manhattan and the ethos of an era—withJimmy Carter on his way out and a B-list celebrity named Ronald Reagan on his way in. Surrounded by adults who embody theage’sexcesses—andwho seem to care little about what their children are up to—Griffin is left to himself to find theline between youth and maturity,dependenceand love,acting andtrulygrappling with life.]]> 528 Adam Ross 0385351305 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.02 2025 Playworld
author: Adam Ross
name: Joe
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/03
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]]> The Swimming-Pool Library 12982670 354 Alan Hollinghurst 030780660X Joe 0 currently-reading 3.58 1988 The Swimming-Pool Library
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Joe
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Hello Stranger: Musings on Modern Intimacies]]> 211645950 Witty and winkingly playful, Manuel Betancourt’s Hello Stranger explores modern queer romance and the expansive possibilities of ephemeral intimacies

“Hello stranger.� As an opening line, you really can’t ask for better.

Hello Stranger is a book about chance encounters—at a bar, through social media, in a bathhouse—and what a stranger can reveal about who we are and who we could still yet be. A stranger, after all, is a site of endless possibilities.

As Manuel Betancourt looks back on his past relationships, he turns to characters and narratives that helped him question notions of what monogamy and coupledom (and relationships and marriage) can and should look like. From films like Before Sunrise and Cruising to the poetry of Frank O'Hara and the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, Betancourt uses pop culture to make sense of the alluring prospect of forging intimacies with strangers—even, or especially, the strangers within ourselves.

At once a personal excavation and a broad cultural critique, Betancourt grapples with everything from online sexting and real-life cruising to divorces and throuples. Hello Stranger examines the intimacies we crave, value, and oftentimes destroy with rote familiarity.]]> 240 Manuel Betancourt 164622230X Joe 4 4.25 2025 Hello Stranger: Musings on Modern Intimacies
author: Manuel Betancourt
name: Joe
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko (Star Trek Autobiographies Series)]]> 134980700 The fascinating life of Starfleet’s celebrated captain, and Bajor’s Emissary of the Prophets, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Deep Space Nine.

Benjamin Sisko tells the story of his career in Starfleet, and his life as a father and Bajor’s Emissary to the Prophets. Chart his rise through the ranks, his pioneering work designing the Defiant class, his critical role as ambassador and leader during the Dominion War, and his sacred standing as a religious leader of his adopted home.

Explore the hidden history of his childhood and early career in Starfleet, and the innermost thoughts of the man who made first contact with the wormhole aliens and opened safe passage to the Gamma Quadrant, and united Starfleet, Klingon and Romulan forces to defeat the Dominion. Discover Sisko’s personal take on his confidantes Lieutenant Dax and Major Kira Nerys, the enigmatic Garak, and his adversaries, Gul Dukat and Kai Winn, as well as his fatherly advice for his son Jake.

Passing on lessons from father to son, from his experiences with the Prophets to the writings of Benny Russell, Sisko’s story is a unique phenomenon in Starfleet and human history, told in the way only he can.]]> 334 Derek Tyler Attico Joe 0 currently-reading 4.64 2023 The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko (Star Trek Autobiographies Series)
author: Derek Tyler Attico
name: Joe
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark]]> 56339614 The woman behind the icon known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the undisputed Queen of Halloween, reveals her full story, filled with intimate bombshells, told by the bombshell herself.

On Good Friday in 1953, at only 18 months old, 25 miles from the nearest hospital in Manhattan, Kansas, Cassandra Peterson reached for a pot on the stove and doused herself in boiling water. Third-degree burns covered 35% of her body, and the prognosis wasn't good. But she survived. Burned and scarred, the impact stayed with her and became an obstacle she was determined to overcome. Feeling like a misfit led to her love of horror. While her sisters played with Barbie dolls, Cassandra built model kits of Frankenstein and Dracula, and idolized Vincent Price.

Due to a complicated relationship with her mother, Cassandra left home at 14, and by age 17 she was performing at the famed Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. Run-ins with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Tom Jones helped her grow up fast. Then a chance encounter with her idol Elvis Presley, changed the course of her life forever, and led her to Europe where she worked in film and traveled Italy as lead singer of an Italian pop band. She eventually made her way to Los Angeles, where she joined the famed comedy improv group, The Groundlings, and worked alongside Phil Hartman and Paul "Pee-wee" Reubens, honing her comedic skills.

Nearing age 30, a struggling actress considered past her prime, she auditioned at local LA channel KHJ as hostess for the late night vintage horror movies. Cassandra improvised, made the role her own, and got the job on the spot.Yours Cruelly, Elvirais an unforgettably wild memoir. Cassandra doesn't shy away from revealing exactly who she is and how she overcame seemingly insurmountable odds. Always original and sometimes outrageous, her story is loaded with twists, travails, revelry, and downright shocking experiences. It is the candid, often funny, and sometimes heart-breaking tale of a Midwest farm girl's long strange trip to become the world's sexiest, sassiest Halloween icon.]]> 394 Cassandra Peterson 0306874369 Joe 5 4.41 2021 Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark
author: Cassandra Peterson
name: Joe
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[From Here to the Great Unknown]]> 204905217
A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they shared in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.]]> 304 Lisa Marie Presley 0593733878 Joe 4 4.27 2024 From Here to the Great Unknown
author: Lisa Marie Presley
name: Joe
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
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Listened to the book…great with actual audio of Lisa Marie and read by Riley Keogh and Julia Roberts.
]]> American Star 28041557 Jackie Collins' American Star is a love story for the nineties. At

its heart are two extraordinary lovers, separated by tragic circumstances,

yearning for each other, yet seemingly never able to be together again.

Nick and Lauren can never

forget each other. Teenage small-town lovers -- he from the wrong side of the

tracks, she the prettiest girl in town -- their love was the town scandal,

forbidden, sizzling and unforgettable, ending abruptly in a tragedy that sent

them into separate orbits.

Nick pursues his dream of acting, and after a series of

wild adventures begins the slow rise that will make him one of Hollywood's

biggest stars.

Lauren goes to New York and enters the modeling world,

surprising everyone with a career that takes off in a direction she never

expected.

American Star follows them both on their trips to fame, as

Nick and Lauren, haunted by the secret they

share, try to live without each other -- only to find they can't.

American Star is a compelling story of love, sex and murder, set

against the glamorous backgrounds of New York and Hollywood, as only Jackie

Collins can tell it.

]]> 580 Jackie Collins 0989890023 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.07 1993 American Star
author: Jackie Collins
name: Joe
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> The Blind Assassin 57771743 Librarian note: An alternative cover for this ASIN can be found here.

In The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood weaves together strands of gothic suspense, romance, and science fiction into one utterly spellbinding narrative. The novel begins with the mysterious death—a possible suicide—of a young woman named Laura Chase in 1945. Decades later, Laura’s sister Iris recounts her memories of their childhood, and of the dramatic deaths that have punctuated their wealthy, eccentric family’s history. Intertwined with Iris’s account are chapters from the scandalous novel that made Laura famous, in which two illicit lovers amuse each other by spinning a tale of a blind killer on a distant planet. These richly layered stories-within-stories gradually illuminate the secrets that have long haunted the Chase family, coming together in a brilliant and astonishing final twist.]]> 650 Margaret Atwood Joe 0 currently-reading 3.96 2000 The Blind Assassin
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Joe
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)]]> 61209488 An alternative cover for this ASIN can be found here

"Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter 'H'."

Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!]]> 345 J.K. Rowling Joe 0 currently-reading 4.68 1997 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Joe
average rating: 4.68
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare]]> 204600731 A dazzling portrait of Shakespeare as a young artist, revealing how his rich and complex queer life informed the plays and poems we treasure today “Was Shakespeare gay?� For years the question has sent experts and fans into a tailspin of confusion. But as scholar Will Tosh argues, this debate misses the sex, intimacy, and identity in Elizabethan England were infinitely more complex—and queer—than we have been taught. In this incisive biography, Tosh reveals William Shakespeare as a queer artist who drew on his society’s nuanced understanding of gender and sexuality to create some of English literature’s richest works. During Shakespeare’s time, same-sex desire was repressed and punished by the Church and state, but it was also articulated and sustained by institutions across England. Moving through the queer spaces of Shakespeare’s life—his Stratford schoolroom, smoky London taverns and playhouses, the royal court—Tosh shows how strongly Shakespeare’s early work was influenced by the queer culture of the time, much of it totally integrated into mainstream society. He also uncovers the surprising reason why Shakespeare veered away from his early work’s gender-bending homoeroticism. Offering a subversive sketch of Elizabethan England, Straight Acting uncovers Shakespeare as one of history’s great queer artists and completely reshapes the way we understand the Bard’s life and times.]]> 273 Will Tosh 1541602684 Joe 4 4.75 2024 Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare
author: Will Tosh
name: Joe
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
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]]> Metamorphoses 63006790
A Penguin Classic Hardcover

Ovid’s Metamorphoses is an epic poem, but one that upturns almost every convention. There is no main hero, no central conflict, and no sustained objective. What it is about (power, defiance, art, love, abuse, grief, rape, war, beauty, and so on) is as changeable as the beings that inhabit its pages. The sustained thread is power and how it transforms us, both those of us who have it and those of us who do not. For those who are brutalized and traumatized, transformation is often the outward manifestation of their trauma. A beautiful virgin is caught in the gaze of someone more powerful who rapes or tries to rape them, and they ultimately are turned into a tree or a lake or a stone or a bird. The victim’s objectification is They are first a visual object, then a sexual object, and finally simply an object. Around 50 of the epic’s tales involve rape or attempted rape of women. Past translations have obscured or mitigated Ovid’s language so that rape appears to be consensual sex. Through her translation, McCarter considers the responsibility of handling sexual and social dynamics.

Then why continue to read Ovid? McCarter proposes Ovid should be read because he gives us stories through which we can better explore ourselves and our world, and he illuminates problems that humans have been grappling with for millennia. Careful translation of rape and the body allows readers to see Ovid’s nuances clearly and to better appreciate how ideas about sexuality, beauty, and gender are constructed over time. This is especially important since so many of our own ideas about these phenomena are themselves undergoing rapid metamorphosis, and Ovid can help us see and understand this progression. The Metamorphoses holds up a kaleidoscopic lens to the modern world, one that offers us the opportunity to reflect on contemporary discussions about gender, sexuality, race, violence, art, and identity.]]> 607 Ovid 0525506004 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.39 8 Metamorphoses
author: Ovid
name: Joe
average rating: 4.39
book published: 8
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Invention of the White Race, Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control]]> 22587515 The Invention of the White Race, Theodore W. Allen tells the story of how America’s ruling classes created the category of the “white race� as a means of social control. Since that early invention, white privileges have enforced the myth of racial superiority, and that fact has been central to maintaining ruling-class domination over ordinary working people of all colors throughout American history.

Volume I draws lessons from Irish history, comparing British rule in Ireland with the “white� oppression of Native Americans and African Americans. Allen details how Irish immigrants fleeing persecution learned to spread racial oppression in their adoptive country as part of white America.

Since publication in the mid-nineties, The Invention of the White Race has become indispensable in debates on the origins of racial oppression in America. In this updated edition, scholar Jeffrey B. Perry provides a new introduction, a short biography of the author and a study guide.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 372 Theodore W. Allen 1844678431 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.22 1994 The Invention of the White Race, Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control
author: Theodore W. Allen
name: Joe
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience]]> 19669336 Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

]]> 322 Mihály Csíkszentmihályi 0061876720 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.11 1990 Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
author: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
name: Joe
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/22
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]]> The Hours 40212256 The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that became a motion picture starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman, directed by Stephen Daldry from a screenplay by David Hare.

In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf's last days before her suicide early in World War II counterpoints the fictional stories of Samuel, a famous poet whose life has been shadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and his lifelong friend Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding life in spite of the demands of friends, lovers, and family.

Passionate, profound, and deeply moving, this is Cunningham's most remarkable achievement to date.]]> 239 Michael Cunningham Joe 0 currently-reading 4.14 1998 The Hours
author: Michael Cunningham
name: Joe
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/18
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]]> Night Sky with Exit Wounds 30245389 Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a book of poetry unlike any other. Steeped in war and cultural upheaval and wielding a fresh new language, Vuong writes about the most profound subjects � love and loss, conflict, grief, memory and desire � and attends to them all with lines that feel newly-minted, graceful in their cadences, passionate and hungry in their tender, close attention: ‘…the chief of police/facedown in a pool of Coca-Cola./A palm-sized photo of his father soaking/beside his left ear.� This is an unusual, important book: both gentle and visceral, vulnerable and assured, and its blend of humanity and power make it one of the best first collections of poetry to come out of America in years.

‘These are poems of exquisite beauty, unashamed of romance, and undaunted by looking directly into the horrors of war, the silences of history. One of the most important debut collections for a generation.� Andrew McMillan]]> 93 Ocean Vuong Joe 0 currently-reading 4.05 2016 Night Sky with Exit Wounds
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Joe
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/16
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]]> Cosmos 12044809
The book covers a broad range of topics, comprising Sagan's reflections on anthropological, cosmological, biological, historical, and astronomical matters from antiquity to contemporary times. Sagan reiterates his position on extraterrestrial life—that the magnitude of the universe permits the existence of thousands of alien civilizations, but no credible evidence exists to demonstrate that such life has ever visited earth.]]> 439 Carl Sagan 0307800989 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.56 1980 Cosmos
author: Carl Sagan
name: Joe
average rating: 4.56
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/06
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]]> Hollywood: The Oral History 55506526 The real story of Hollywood as told by such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Frank Capra, Katharine Hepburn, Meryl Streep, Harold Lloyd, and nearly four hundred others, assembled from the American Film Institute’s treasure trove of interviews, reveals a fresh history of the American movie industry from its beginnings to today.

From the archives of the American Film Institute comes a unique picture of what it was like to work in Hollywood from its beginnings to its present day. Gleaned from nearly three thousand interviews, involving four hundred voices from the industry, The Oral History, lets a reader “listen in� on candid remarks from the biggest names in front of the camera—Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Harold Lloyd—to the biggest behind it—Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Jordan Peele, as well as the lesser known individuals that shaped what was heard and seen on musicians, costumers, art directors, cinematographers, writers, sound men, editors, make-up artists, and even script timers, messengers, and publicists. The result is like a conversation among the gods and goddesses of lively, funny, insightful, historically accurate and, for the first time, authentically honest in its portrait of Hollywood. It’s the insider’s story.

Legendary film scholar Jeanine Basinger and New York Times bestselling author Sam Wasson, both acclaimed storytellers in their own right, have undertaken the monumental task of digesting these tens of thousands of hours of talk and weaving it into a definitive portrait of workaday Hollywood.]]> 759 Jeanine Basinger 0063056968 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.05 2022 Hollywood: The Oral History
author: Jeanine Basinger
name: Joe
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine]]> 61271901 “Nuila’s storytelling gifts place him alongside colleagues like Atul Gawande.� �Los Angeles Times

This “compelling mixture of health care policy and gripping stories from the frontlines of medicine� (The Guardian) explores the where does an uninsured person go when turned away by hospitals, clinics, and doctors?

Here, we follow the lives of five uninsured Houstonians as their struggle for survival leads them to a hospital that prioritizes people over profit. First, we meet Stephen, the restaurant franchise manager who signed up for his company’s lowest priced plan, only to find himself facing insurmountable costs after a cancer diagnosis. Then Christian—a young college student and retail worker who can’t seem to get an accurate diagnosis, let alone treatment, for his debilitating knee pain. Geronimo, thirty-six years old, has liver failure, but his meager disability check disqualifies him for Medicaid—and puts a life-saving transplant just out of reach. Roxana, who’s lived in the community without a visa for more than two decades, suffers from complications related to her cancer treatment. And finally, there’s Ebonie, a young mother whose high-risk pregnancy endangers her life. Whether due to immigration status, income, or the vagaries of state Medicaid law, all five are denied access to care. For all five, this exclusion could prove life-threatening.

Each patient eventually lands at Ben Taub, the county hospital where Dr. Nuila has worked for over a decade. Nuila delves with empathy into the experiences of his patients, braiding their dramas into a singular narrative that contradicts the established idea that the only way to receive good health care is with good insurance. As readers follow the moving twists and turns in each patient’s story, it’s impossible to deny that our system is broken—and that Ben Taub’s innovative model, where patient care is more important than insurance payments, could help light the path forward.]]> 381 Ricardo Nuila 1501198068 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.50 2020 The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine
author: Ricardo Nuila
name: Joe
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Conclave 40009848
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election.

They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.

Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.]]> 305 Robert Harris Joe 0 currently-reading 4.43 2016 Conclave
author: Robert Harris
name: Joe
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People]]> 8198637 The basis for the upcoming HBO miniseries and the "definitive account of the Jonestown massacre" (Rolling Stone) -- now available for the first time in paperback. Tim Reiterman’s Raven provides the seminal history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the murderous ordeal at Jonestown in 1978. This PEN Award–winning work explores the ideals-gone-wrong, the intrigue, and the grim realities behind the Peoples Temple and its implosion in the jungle of South America. Reiterman’s reportage clarifies enduring misperceptions of the character and motives of Jim Jones, the reasons why people followed him, and the important truth that many of those who perished at Jonestown were victims of mass murder rather than suicide.This widely sought work is restored to print after many years with a new preface by the author, as well as the more than sixty-five rare photographs from the original volume.]]> 1097 Tim Reiterman 1440634467 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.25 1982 Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People
author: Tim Reiterman
name: Joe
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1982
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/04
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review:

]]> Mysterious Skin: A Novel 11355859
"As searing and unforgettable as an electric shock."—Kirkus Reviews

At the age of eight Brian Lackey is found bleeding under the crawl space of his house, having endured something so traumatic that he cannot remember an entire five–hour period of time.

During the following years he slowly recalls details from that night, but these fragments are not enough to explain what happened to him, and he begins to believe that he may have been the victim of an alien encounter. Neil McCormick is fully aware of the events from that summer of 1981. Wise beyond his years, curious about his developing sexuality, Neil found what he perceived to be love and guidance from his baseball coach. Now, ten years later, he is a teenage hustler, unaware of the dangerous path his life is taking. His recklessness is governed by idealized memories of his coach, memories that unexpectedly change when Brian comes to Neil for help and, ultimately, the truth.]]> 308 Scott Heim 0061737194 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.13 1995 Mysterious Skin: A Novel
author: Scott Heim
name: Joe
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Luminous Traitor: The Just and Daring Life of Roger Casement, a Biographical Novel]]> 39364825 "Martin Duberman is a national treasure."—Masha Gessen,The New Yorker Roger Casement was an internationally renowned figure at the beginning of the 20th century, famous for exposing the widespread atrocities against the indigenous people in King Leopold's Congo and his subsequent exposure—for which he was knighted in 1911—of the brutal conditions of enslaved labor in Peru. An Irish nationalist of profound conviction, he attempted, at the outbreak of World War I, to obtain German support and weapons for an armed rebellion against British rule. Apprehended and convicted of treason in a notorious trial that captured worldwide attention, Casement was sentenced to die on the gallows. A powerful petition drive for the commutation of his sentence was inaugurated by George Bernard Shaw and a host of other influential figures. A gay man, Casement kept detailed diaries of his sexual escapades, and the British government, upon discovering the diaries, circulated its pages to public figures, thereby crippling what had been a mounting petition for clemency. In 1916, he was hanged. In this gripping reimagining, acclaimed historian Martin Duberman paints a full portrait of the man for the first time. Tracing his evolution from servant of the empire to his work as a humanitarian activist and anti-imperialist, Duberman resurrects and recognizes all facets—from the professional to the personal—of the fantastic life of this pioneer for human rights. ]]> 288 Martin Duberman 0520970853 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.35 2018 Luminous Traitor: The Just and Daring Life of Roger Casement, a Biographical Novel
author: Martin Duberman
name: Joe
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/23
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]]> People Person 61118633 The author of the “brazenly hilarious, tell-it-like-it-is first novel� (Oprah Daily) Queenie returns with another witty and insightful “treat� (Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession) of a novel about the power of family—even when they seem like strangers.

If you could choose your family...you wouldn’t choose the Penningtons.

Dimple Pennington knows of her half-siblings, but she doesn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about.

She’s thirty, and her life isn’t really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a wayward boyfriend, Dimple’s life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she’s never felt more alone in her life. That is, until a dramatic event brings her half-siblings—Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie, and Prynce—crashing back into her life. And when they’re all forced to reconnect with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things get even more complicated.

Vibrant and charming, People Person is “a way-out combination of family drama, madcap plot, and political edge� (Kirkus Reviews).]]> 335 Candice Carty-Williams 1501196065 Joe 0 to-read 3.70 2022 People Person
author: Candice Carty-Williams
name: Joe
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> Spare 63112736
For Harry, this is that story at last.

With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

Prince Harry wishes to support British charities with donations from his proceeds from Spare. The Duke of Sussex has donated $1,500,000 to Sentebale, an organisation he founded with Prince Seeiso in their mothers' legacies, which supports vulnerable children and young people in Lesotho and Botswana affected by HIV/AIDS. Prince Harry will also donate to the non-profit organisation WellChild in the amount of £300,000. WellChild, which he has been Royal patron of for fifteen years, makes it possible for children and young people with complex health needs to be cared for at home instead of hospital, wherever possible.]]> 557 Prince Harry 0593593812 Joe 0 to-read 4.23 2023 Spare
author: Prince Harry
name: Joe
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Herland, The Yellow Wall-Paper, and Selected Writings]]> 8345617 150 Charlotte Perkins Gilman Joe 0 to-read 3.68 1915 Herland, The Yellow Wall-Paper, and Selected Writings
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Joe
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1915
rating: 0
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]]> Reprieve 54540622
On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, “reprieve,� they’ll win a substantial cash prize—a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house’s long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants.

Those who were present on that fateful night lend their points of view: Kendra Brown, a teenager who’s been uprooted from her childhood home after the sudden loss of her father; Leonard Grandton, a desperate and impressionable hotel manager caught in a series of toxic entanglements; and Jaidee Charoensuk, a gay international student who came to the United States in a besotted search for his former English teacher. As each character’s journey unfurls and overlaps, deceit and misunderstandings fueled by obsession and prejudice are revealed, forcing all to reckon with the ways in which their beliefs and actions contributed to a horrifying catastrophe.

An astonishingly soulful exploration of complicity and masquerade, Reprieve combines the psychological tension of classic horror with searing social criticism to present an unsettling portrait of this tangled American life.]]> 412 James Han Mattson 0063079933 Joe 0 to-read 3.46 2021 Reprieve
author: James Han Mattson
name: Joe
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> Poverty, by America 74852010 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a“provocative and compelling� (NPR)argument about why it persists in because the rest of us benefit from it.

A BEST BOOK OF THE The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Oprah Daily, Time, The Star Tribune, Vulture, The Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Public Library, Esquire, California Review of Books, She Reads, Library Journal

“Urgent and accessible . . . Its moral force is a gut punch.”�The New Yorker

Longlisted for the Inc. Non-Obvious Book Award � Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?

In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor.Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.]]> 287 Matthew Desmond 059323992X Joe 0 to-read 4.29 2023 Poverty, by America
author: Matthew Desmond
name: Joe
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Our Hideous Progeny 61150780 For readers of Circe or Ariadne, a brilliant literary revisiting of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein with a fresh, queer, provocative twist.

It's 1853 London. Ex-medical student Victor Frankenstein has been missing for years now. Frankenstein's great niece Mary Sutherland and her husband, Henry, are trying to follow in his scientific footsteps and become renowned paleontologists. They have the brains and the ambition; the only thing they lack is the reputation. Mary is a woman with a sharp mind but a fierce tongue and Henry is an unemployed gambling addict: none of this earning appeal with their peers.

But after finding clues to her great uncle's disappearance, Mary's luck may just change. She constructs a plan that will force the scientific community to take her and her husband seriously; no one will be able to ignore them after they learn to create life. Once they have successfully constructed their Creature, Henry's ambition soars, but Mary finds herself asking deeper, more important questions than she's ever confronted before. As Henry's desire for fame grows, Mary must decide how far she is willing to go to protect the Creature she has grown to love.]]> 400 C.E. McGill 0063256819 Joe 0 to-read 4.01 2023 Our Hideous Progeny
author: C.E. McGill
name: Joe
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> The Round House 37767425
One of the most revered novelists of our time - a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life - Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.

Riveting and suspenseful, arguably the most accessible novel to date from the creator of Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace, Erdrich’s The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece of literary fiction - at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture.]]> 368 Louise Erdrich Joe 0 to-read 4.24 2012 The Round House
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Joe
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> The Frozen River 56699106
Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546882 Joe 0 to-read 4.52 2023 The Frozen River
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Joe
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> <![CDATA[I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself]]> 62687134
Kris is a Shadester and a new mother to a baby born with a second shadow of her own. Grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone, Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world.

With a first-person register reminiscent of the fierce self-disclosure of Sheila Heti and the poetic precision of Ocean Vuong, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is a bold debut novel that examines the long shadow of grief, the hard work of parenting, and the power of queer resistance.]]> 342 Marisa Crane 1646221303 Joe 0 to-read 4.10 2023 I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself
author: Marisa Crane
name: Joe
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> The Nickel Boys 54102531 This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood's only salvation is his friendship with fellow "delinquent" Turner, which deepens despite Turner's conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.]]> 210 Colson Whitehead Joe 5 4.46 2019 The Nickel Boys
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Joe
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/20
date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> The Shards 60880820 A sensational new novel from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms that tracks a group of privileged Los Angeles high school friends as a serial killer strikes across the city.

Bret Easton Ellis's masterful new novel is a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set in a vibrantly fictionalized Los Angeles in 1981 as a serial killer begins targeting teenagers throughout the city.

17-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret's obsession with Mallory is equaled only by his increasingly unsettling pre-occupation with The Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them--and Bret in particular--with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence. The coincidences are uncanny, but they are also filtered through the imagination of a teenager whose gifts for constructing narrative from the filaments of his own life are about to make him one of the most explosive literary sensations of his generation. Can he trust his friends--or his own mind--to make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, he spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between The Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision.

Set against the intensely vivid and nostalgic backdrop of pre-Less Than Zero LA, The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction, the real and the imagined, that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bret's life at 17-sex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage. Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting and often darkly funny, The Shards is Ellis at his inimitable best.
]]> 595 Bret Easton Ellis 059353560X Joe 4 3.98 2023 The Shards
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Joe
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> The Factory 50743103 The English-language debut of Hiroko Oyamada—one of the most powerfully strange young voices in Japan

The Factory follows three workers at a sprawling industrial factory. Each worker focuses intently on the specific task they've been assigned: one shreds paper, one proofreads documents, and another studies the moss growing all over the expansive grounds. But their lives slowly become governed by their work—days take on a strange logic and momentum, and little by little, the margins of reality seem to be dissolving: Where does the factory end and the rest of the world begin? What's going on with the strange animals here? And after a while—it could be weeks or years—the three workers struggle to answer the most basic question: What am I doing here?

With hints of Kafka and unexpected moments of creeping humor, The Factory casts a vivid—and sometimes surreal—portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of the modern workplace.]]> 104 Hiroko Oyamada Joe 0 to-read 3.26 2010 The Factory
author: Hiroko Oyamada
name: Joe
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> Judy at Carnegie Hall 45892308
What the recording highlights, and what's made it an enduring classic in a class of its own, is the palpable connection between the songstress and her fans. "Indeed," The New York Times reported in its review of the evening's proceedings, "what actually was to have been a concert--and was--also turned into something not too remote from a revival meeting." By looking at her song choices, her stage banter, the album's cultural impact, and her place in the gay pantheon, this book argues that Judy's palpable connection with her fans is precisely what her Capitol Records' two-disc album captured.]]> 144 Manuel Betancourt 1501355104 Joe 5 3.94 2020 Judy at Carnegie Hall
author: Manuel Betancourt
name: Joe
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men]]> 74869797 Featuring deep dives into thirst traps, drag queens, Antonio Banderas, and telenovelas—all in the service of helping us reframe how we talk about (desiring) men—this insightful memoir-in-essays is as much a coming of age as a coming out book

Manuel Betancourt has long lustfully coveted masculinity—in part because he so lacked it. As a child in Bogotá, Colombia, he grew up with the social pressure to appear strong, manly, and, ultimately, straight. And yet in the films and television he avidly watched, Betancourt saw glimmers of different possibilities. From the stars of telenovelas and the princes of Disney films to pop sensation Ricky Martin and teen heartthrobs in shows like Saved By the Bell, he continually found himself Do I want him or do I want to be him?

The Male Gazed grapples with the thrall of masculinity, examining its frailty and its attendant anxieties even as it focuses on its erotic potential. Masculinity, Betancourt suggests, isn’t suddenly ripe for deconstruction—or even outright destruction—amid so much talk about its inherent toxicity. Looking back over decades� worth of pop culture’s attempts to codify and reframe what men can be, wear, do, and desire, this book establishes that to gaze at men is still a subversive act.

Written in the spirit of Hanif Abdurraqib and Olivia Laing, The Male Gazed mingles personal anecdotes with cultural criticism to offer an exploration of intimacy, homoeroticism, and the danger of internalizing too many toxic ideas about masculinity as a gay man.]]> 207 Manuel Betancourt 1646221478 Joe 5 3.48 2023 The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men
author: Manuel Betancourt
name: Joe
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/24
date added: 2024/06/24
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]]> Gays on Broadway 133680666 A fascinating look at the gay and lesbian influence on the American stage by an internationally-recognized authority on the topic

From the genteel female impersonators of the 1910s to the raucous drag queens of La Cage Aux Folles, from the men of The Normal Heart to the women of Fun Home, and from Eva Le Gallienne and Tallulah Bankhead to Tennessee Williams and Nathan Lane, Gays On Broadway deftly chronicles the plays and people that brought gay culture to Broadway.

Writing with his customary verve and wit, author Ethan Mordden follows the steady liberation of gay themes on the American stage. The story begins in the early twentieth century, when gay characters were virtually banned from productions. The 1920s saw a flurry of plays closed on moral grounds as well as the Wales Padlock Act, which forbade representation of ?sex degeneracy?. While authorities made consistent attempts to shutter the movement, the public remained curious, and after a few decades of war making, a truce broke out when The Boys In the Band became a national smash hit. From this point on, gay theatre proved simply too popular to abolish.

With this change, theatre was graced with a host of unforgettable characters - from thrill killers to historical figures to drag performers, as well as professional gays (such as the defiantly effeminate window dresser in Kiss of the Spider Woman), closeted gays, and those run-of-the-mill citizens who don't reside entirely within the colorful nonconformist identity (such as the two male lovers in the dinner-theatre comedy Norman, Is That You?).

Spoken plays and musicals, playwrights, directors, and actors all played their part in popularizing the gay movement through art. Gays on Broadway is an essential chronological review of the long journey to bring the culture of gay men and women onto the American stage.]]> 239 Ethan Mordden 0190063122 Joe 4 3.83 Gays on Broadway
author: Ethan Mordden
name: Joe
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/23
date added: 2024/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[A Slender Thread: Rediscovering Hope at the Heart of Crisis]]> 4607755 From the Hardcover edition.

]]> 305 Diane Ackerman 0679448772 Joe 0 to-read 4.29 1996 A Slender Thread: Rediscovering Hope at the Heart of Crisis
author: Diane Ackerman
name: Joe
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Joy Luck Club 563002
With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.]]> 332 Amy Tan 0804106304 Joe 5 The Joy Luck Club, and finally I gave up hope.
As a freshmen, at Linfield College, I was astonished that Amy Tan could have possibly walked the same hallowed halls of Melrose, perhaps sat in the same offices in the English department, or read a book in Northrup's astro-turf room.
My daydreams were filled with her coming over to my dorm room to have tea and "talk literature." She would tell me what truly inspired her, some secrets and a few great jokes.
In reality, I spent a lot of time looking her up in the old yearbooks at the library, Oak Leaves circa 1970 and 1971 (I think). Horribly despicable. I did learn some of her secrets. I learned that she never graduated from Linfield, which pretty much means nothing...but I did discover that she (possibly) met her husband there, Mr. Lou DeMattei. Also during this first year of Linfield, I got one of those jobs at the PHONE-A-THON, calling alumni to "update their information" and beg for donations. I was going to call Amy Tan, and speak with her myself. Thankfully, for my sanity, I quit before that happened.

Amy began to dissolve as an enigma for me, she was just another celebrity, another writer of a book. The book was beautifully written and for obvious reasons made me homesick. It made me feel closer to my mother than ever, and I knew that, like the women in the book, I would have a special bond with her forever.

The sad thing is, after I finished the book, my love affair a la John Hinckley Jr. with Amy Tan ended, and I cannot bear to pick up any of her other books.

Another hilarious thing is I found this on Tan's website:
[]
Please make special note of personal errata #2 and #9.
I rest my case. We were meant to be with each other.]]> 3.88 1989 The Joy Luck Club
author: Amy Tan
name: Joe
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2000/04/01
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves:
review:
Ok, I admit it, I was obsessed with Amy Tan my first year of college. I learned all there was about her, read The Joy Luck Club, and finally I gave up hope.
As a freshmen, at Linfield College, I was astonished that Amy Tan could have possibly walked the same hallowed halls of Melrose, perhaps sat in the same offices in the English department, or read a book in Northrup's astro-turf room.
My daydreams were filled with her coming over to my dorm room to have tea and "talk literature." She would tell me what truly inspired her, some secrets and a few great jokes.
In reality, I spent a lot of time looking her up in the old yearbooks at the library, Oak Leaves circa 1970 and 1971 (I think). Horribly despicable. I did learn some of her secrets. I learned that she never graduated from Linfield, which pretty much means nothing...but I did discover that she (possibly) met her husband there, Mr. Lou DeMattei. Also during this first year of Linfield, I got one of those jobs at the PHONE-A-THON, calling alumni to "update their information" and beg for donations. I was going to call Amy Tan, and speak with her myself. Thankfully, for my sanity, I quit before that happened.

Amy began to dissolve as an enigma for me, she was just another celebrity, another writer of a book. The book was beautifully written and for obvious reasons made me homesick. It made me feel closer to my mother than ever, and I knew that, like the women in the book, I would have a special bond with her forever.

The sad thing is, after I finished the book, my love affair a la John Hinckley Jr. with Amy Tan ended, and I cannot bear to pick up any of her other books.

Another hilarious thing is I found this on Tan's website:
[]
Please make special note of personal errata #2 and #9.
I rest my case. We were meant to be with each other.
]]> My Name Is Barbra 105269213
Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in popular music. She has been nominated for a Grammy 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl (musical and film) to the long string of successes in every medium in the years that followed. The book is, like Barbra herself, frank, funny, opinionated, and charming. She recounts her early struggles to become an actress, eventually turning to singing to earn a living;the recording of some of her acclaimed albums; the years of effort involved in making Yentl; her direction of The Prince of Tides; her friendships with figures ranging from Marlon Brando to Madeleine Albright; her political advocacy; and the fulfillment she’s found in her marriage to James Brolin.

No entertainer’s memoir has been more anticipated than Barbra Streisand’s, and this engrossing and delightful book will be eagerly welcomed by her millions of fans.]]> 989 Barbra Streisand 0698405250 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.38 2023 My Name Is Barbra
author: Barbra Streisand
name: Joe
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/20
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Woman in Me 63133205 The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.]]> 288 Britney Spears 1668009048 Joe 0 to-read 3.83 2023 The Woman in Me
author: Britney Spears
name: Joe
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 (Otouto no Otto, #1-2)]]> 32337897
(Please note: This book is a traditional work of manga, and reads back to front and right to left.)]]> 352 Gengoroh Tagame 1101871512 Joe 0 to-read 4.33 2015 My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 (Otouto no Otto, #1-2)
author: Gengoroh Tagame
name: Joe
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Kill for Love 193438779
Kill for Love is a searing satirical thriller about Tiffany, a privileged Los Angeles sorority sister who is struggling to keep her sadistic impulses—and haunting nightmares of fire and destruction—at bay. After a frat party hookup devolves into a bloody, fatal affair, Tiffany realizes something within her has awoken: the insatiable desire to kill attractive young men.

As Tiffany’s bloodlust deepens and the bodies pile up, she must contend with mounting legal scrutiny, social media-fueled competing murders, and her growing relationship with Weston, who she thinks could be the perfect boyfriend. A female-driven, modern-day American Psycho, Kill for Love exposes modern toxic plasticity with dark comedy and propulsive plot.]]> 279 Laura Picklesimer 1951213866 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.64 2023 Kill for Love
author: Laura Picklesimer
name: Joe
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Dept. of Speculation 19635587
ONE OF THE10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

A Best Book of the The New Yorker , The Boston Globe , Minneapolis Star Tribun e, Vogue .com, Electric Literature , Buzzfeed

In the beginning, it was easy to imagine their future. They were young and giddy, sure of themselves and of their love for each other. “Dept. of Speculation� was their code name for all the thrilling uncertainties that lay ahead. Then they got married, had a child and navigated the familiar calamities of family life—a colicky baby, a faltering relationship, stalled ambitions.

When their marriage reaches a sudden breaking point, the wife tries to retrace the steps that have led them to this place, invoking everything from Kafka to the Stoics to doomed Russian cosmonauts as she analyzes what is lost and what remains. In language that shimmers with rage and longing and wit, Offill has created a brilliantly suspenseful love story—a novel to read in one sitting, even as its piercing meditations linger long after the last page.]]> 178 Jenny Offill Joe 0 3.78 2014 Dept. of Speculation
author: Jenny Offill
name: Joe
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2023/09/26
date added: 2023/09/26
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]]> Flowers for Algernon 18373 Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.

Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence � a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?]]> 311 Daniel Keyes 015603008X Joe 0 4.19 1966 Flowers for Algernon
author: Daniel Keyes
name: Joe
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at: 2020/03/20
date added: 2023/09/16
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]]> Emergent Properties 61172032 Emergent Properties is the touching adventure of an intrepid A.I. reporter hot on the heels of brewing corporate warfare from Nebula Award-nominated author Aimee Ogden.

A state-of-the-art AI with a talent for asking questions and finding answers, Scorn is nevertheless a parental disappointment. Defying the expectations of zir human mothers, CEOs of the world’s most powerful corporations, Scorn has made a life of zir own as an investigative reporter, crisscrossing the globe in pursuit of the truth, no matter the danger.

In the middle of investigating a story on the moon, Scorn comes back online to discover ze has no memory of the past ten days—and no idea what story ze was even chasing. Letting it go is not an option—not if ze wants to prove zirself. Scorn must retrace zir steps in a harrowing journey to uncover an even more explosive truth than ze could have ever imagined.]]> 112 Aimee Ogden Joe 0 3.75 2023 Emergent Properties
author: Aimee Ogden
name: Joe
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/29
date added: 2023/08/29
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]]> Longbourn 18399238 � Pride and Prejudice was only half the story �

If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.

In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants� hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.

Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.]]> 352 Jo Baker 0385351240 Joe 0 3.92 2013 Longbourn
author: Jo Baker
name: Joe
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/22
date added: 2023/08/29
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]]> The Crack in Space 18874047 The New York Times Book Review

When a repairman accidentally discovers a parallel universe, everyone sees it as an opportunity, whether as a way to ease Earth’s overcrowding, set up a personal kingdom, or hide an inconvenient mistress. But when a civilization is found already living there, the people on this side of the crack are sent scrambling to discover their motives. Will these parallel humans come in peace, or are they just as corrupt and ill-intentioned as the people of this world?]]> 223 Philip K. Dick 0547601182 Joe 0 3.55 1966 The Crack in Space
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Joe
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/22
date added: 2023/08/28
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]]> Hidden Pictures 58938609 From Jason Rekulak, Edgar-nominated author of The Impossible Fortress, comes a wildly inventive spin on the classic horror story in Hidden Pictures, a creepy and warm-hearted mystery about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.

Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job in the affluent suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

As the days pass, Teddy’s artwork becomes more and more sinister, and his stick figures steadily evolve into more detailed, complex, and lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to suspect these are glimpses of an unsolved murder from long ago, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force lingering in the forest behind the Maxwell’s house.

With help from a handsome landscaper and an eccentric neighbor, Mallory sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy—while coming to terms with a tragedy in her own past—before it’s too late.]]> 375 Jason Rekulak 1250819369 Joe 0 4.29 2022 Hidden Pictures
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Joe
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/28
date added: 2023/08/28
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]]> Slave Play 52848137 “The single most daring thing I’ve seen in a theater in a long time.� � Wesley Morris, New York Times

The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation—in the breeze, in the cotton fields…and in the crack of the whip. Nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. Slave Play rips apart history to shed new light on the nexus of race, gender, and sexuality in twenty-first-century America.

]]> 186 Jeremy O. Harris 1559369345 Joe 5 4.24 2020 Slave Play
author: Jeremy O. Harris
name: Joe
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/23
date added: 2023/08/23
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]]> Myra Breckinridge 43268846 Finally back in print -- Gore Vidal's outrageous and immortal, gender-bending and polymorphously perverse, over-the-top, and utterly on-target comic masterpiece.

"I am Myra Breckinridge, whom no man will ever possess." So begins the irresistible testimony of the luscious instructor of Empathy and Posture at Buck Loner's Academy of Drama and Modeling. Myra has a secret that only her surgeon shares; a passion for classic Hollywood films, which she regards as the supreme achievements of Western culture; and a sacred mission to bring heteronormative civilization to its knees. Fifty years after its first publication unleashed gales of laughter, delight, and ferocious dissent ("Has literary decency fallen so low?" asked Time), Myra Breckinridge's moment to instruct and delight has once again arrived.]]> 216 Gore Vidal 0525566511 Joe 5 3.90 1968 Myra Breckinridge
author: Gore Vidal
name: Joe
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1968
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/23
date added: 2023/08/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End]]> 61380389 A “humane, thoughtful, and intelligent� (The New York Times Book Review) bestselling Biblical scholar reveals why our popular understanding of the Apocalypse is all wrong—and why that matters.

You’ll find nearly everything the Bible says about the end in the Book of a mystifying prophecy filled with bizarre symbolism, violent imagery, mangled syntax, confounding contradictions, and very firm ideas about the horrors that await us all. But no matter what you think Revelation reveals—whether you read it as a literal description of what will soon come to pass, interpret it as a metaphorical expression of hope for those suffering now, or only recognize its highlights from pop culture—you’re almost certainly wrong.

In Armageddon, acclaimed New Testament authority Bart D. Ehrman delves into the most misunderstood—and possibly most dangerous—book of the Bible, on a “vigilantly persuasive� (The Washington Post) tour through three millennia of Judeo-Christian thinking about how our world will end. With wit and verve, he explores the alarming social and political consequences of expecting an imminent apocalypse, considers whether the message of Revelation may be at odds with the teachings of Jesus, and offers inspiring insight into how to live in the face of an uncertain future.

By turns hilarious, moving, troubling, and provocative, Armageddon is nothing short of revelatory in its account of what the Bible really says about the end.]]> 266 Bart D. Ehrman 1982148012 Joe 4 4.45 2023 Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End
author: Bart D. Ehrman
name: Joe
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/23
date added: 2023/08/23
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]]> Emma 6969 The newest edition is here. Another alternate cover can be found here.

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.]]> 474 Jane Austen 0141439580 Joe 5 4.05 1815 Emma
author: Jane Austen
name: Joe
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1815
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/05
date added: 2023/08/18
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]]> Total Recall 60731745 39 Philip K. Dick Joe 0 4.03 1966 Total Recall
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Joe
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/18
date added: 2023/08/18
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]]> Summer Crossing: A Novel 19210293
Set in New York during the summer of 1945, this is the story of a young carefree socialite, Grady, who must make serious decisions about the romance she is dangerously pursuing and the effect it will have on everyone involved.

Fans of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Capote’s short stories will be thrilled to read Summer Crossing.]]> 157 Truman Capote Joe 0 currently-reading 3.51 2005 Summer Crossing: A Novel
author: Truman Capote
name: Joe
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/24
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Joy Luck Club 7767 120 Amy Tan 0194230899 Joe 5 4.41 1989 The Joy Luck Club
author: Amy Tan
name: Joe
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/05/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family]]> 57481573 A previously published cover edition of this book can be found here.

The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?
What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.
With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.]]> 370 Robert Kolker Joe 0 currently-reading 4.27 2020 Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family
author: Robert Kolker
name: Joe
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/21
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Less Is Lost (Arthur Less #2) 60755034 In the follow-up to the “bedazzling, bewitching, and be-wonderful� (New York Times�)best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning A Novel, the awkward and lovable Arthur Less returns in an unforgettable road trip across America.

“Go get lost somewhere, it always does you good.�

For Arthur Less, life is going surprisingly he is a moderately accomplished novelist in a steady relationship with his partner, Freddy Pelu. But nothing the death of an old lover and a sudden financial crisis has Less running away from his problems yet again as he accepts a series of literary gigs that send him on a zigzagging adventure across the US.

Less roves across the “Mild Mild West,”throughthe South and to his mid-Atlantic birthplace, with an ever-changing posse of writerly characters and his trusty duo � a human-like black pug, Dolly, and a rusty camper van nicknamed Rosina. He grows a handlebar mustache, ditches his signature gray suit, and disguises himself in the bolero-and-cowboy-hatcostume of a true “Unitedstatesian�... with varying levels of success, as he continues to be mistaken for either a Dutchman, the wrong writer, or, worst of all, a “bad gay.�

We cannot, however, escape ourselves—even across deserts,bayous,and coastlines.From his estranged father and strained relationship with Freddy, to the reckoning he experiences in confronting his privilege, Arthur Less must eventually face his personal demons. With all of the irrepressible wit and musicality that made Less a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning, must-read breakout book,Less IsLostis a profound and joyous novel about the enigma of life in America, the riddle of love, and the stories we tell along the way.]]> 272 Andrew Sean Greer 0316267961 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.00 2022 Less Is Lost (Arthur Less #2)
author: Andrew Sean Greer
name: Joe
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/07
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Just a Bit Twisted (Straight Guys, #1)]]> 58341179
Shawn Wyatt is a twenty-year-old struggling to provide for his younger sisters after the death of their parents. On the verge of losing his scholarship, Shawn becomes desperate enough to go to Professor Rutledge.

Everyone says Rutledge doesn't have a heart. Everyone says he's a ruthless bastard. Shawn finds out that everyone is right.

He strikes a deal with Rutledge, but unexpectedly, the deal turns into something so much more.

Something all-consuming and addictive.

Something neither of them wants.]]> 165 Alessandra Hazard Joe 0 currently-reading 3.82 2014 Just a Bit Twisted (Straight Guys, #1)
author: Alessandra Hazard
name: Joe
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/12/22
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America (Queer Ideas/Queer Action Book 12)]]> 60299963 A sweeping history of Indigenous traditions of gender, sexuality, and resistance that reveals how, despite centuries of colonialism, Two-Spirit people are reclaiming their place in Native nations.

Reclaiming Two-Spirits decolonizes the history of gender and sexuality in Native North America. It honors the generations of Indigenous people who had the foresight to take essential aspects of their cultural life and spiritual beliefs underground in order to save them.

Before 1492, hundreds of Indigenous communities across North America included people who identified as neither male nor female, but both. They went by ��'첹, miati, okitcitakwe or one of hundreds of other tribally specific identities. After European colonizers invaded Indian Country, centuries of violence and systematic persecution followed, imperiling the existence of people who today call themselves Two-Spirits, an umbrella term denoting feminine and masculine qualities in one person.

Drawing on written sources, archaeological evidence, art, and oral storytelling, Reclaiming Two-Spirits spans the centuries from Spanish invasion to the present, tracing massacres and inquisitions and revealing how the authors of colonialism's written archives used language to both denigrate and erase Two-Spirit people from history. But as Gregory Smithers shows, the colonizers failed--and Indigenous resistance is core to this story. Reclaiming Two-Spirits amplifies their voices, reconnecting their history to Native nations in the 21st century.]]> 516 Gregory D. Smithers 0807003476 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.46 2022 Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America (Queer Ideas/Queer Action Book 12)
author: Gregory D. Smithers
name: Joe
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/08/31
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> X 61241502 A thrilling portrait of political terror and the violent pleasures found in warehouses, bathrooms, and dungeons across New York City, X is a novel that delves into the psyches of characters on the margins

The world is ending, and down-and-out sadist Lee spends their days working for a big corporation and their nights wandering the streets of Brooklyn listening to true crime podcasts. But everything changes when Lee is dragged to a warehouse party by their best friend, where they find themself in the clutches of the seductive and bloodthirsty X. When Lee seeks her out again, she’s nowhere to be found.

Amid the steady constriction of civil rights and the purging of migrants and refugees, the U.S. government has recently begun encouraging the semi-voluntary “exporting� of undesirable citizens—the radicalized, the dissident, and the ungovernable. Word has it that X may be among those leaving. If Lee doesn’t track her down soon, she may be gone forever.]]> 288 Davey Davis Joe 0 currently-reading 3.06 2022 X
author: Davey Davis
name: Joe
average rating: 3.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/08/31
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films]]> 60424819 Nightmare Fuel by Nina Nesseth is a pop-science look at fear, how and why horror films get under our skin, and why we keep coming back for more.

Do you like scary movies?
Have you ever wondered why?

In Nightmare Fuel, Nina Nesseth uses her background in biomedical science to explain the mechanics of what makes what we see on the screen so terrifying and what goes on behind the scenes to create the horror in the first place.

With spotlight features of some of horror's most popular films—from classics like The Exorcist to modern hits like Get Out—and interviews with producers, film historians, and creature creators, Nightmare Fuel is both an in-depth dive into the science of fear, and a celebration of the genre.]]> 304 Nina Nesseth 1250765226 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.04 2022 Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films
author: Nina Nesseth
name: Joe
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/08/22
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Traveler's Guide to Batuu]]> 53713875 Set your course for the edge of the galaxy to the planet Batuu, where you’ll be immersed in the alluring offerings of a mysterious outpost and thriving port that is a haven for scoundrels, rogues, and smugglers.

Upon arrival, you will have access to an authentic, in-world environment unlike anything you have ever experienced before! This official guide to Batuu is written completely in-world, as if you are a visitor from another part of the galaxy looking for recommendations on where to eat, shop, and sightsee while on your trip to this exciting location.

Highlighted features:
Full-color photos, illustrations, and maps
Original content from Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Imagineering
Backstories to characters and locations found in Black Spire Outpost
Whether living your adventure in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or simply being an armchair traveler, this in-depth literary companionwill delight any fan of Star Wars.]]> 144 Eloc Throno Joe 0 currently-reading 4.22 2020 Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Traveler's Guide to Batuu
author: Eloc Throno
name: Joe
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/08/22
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema]]> 22066638 Gossip meets history—a compulsively readable collection of Hollywood's most notorious clashes and controversies in the spirit of Hollywood Babylon
Believe it or not, America's fascination with celebrity culture was thriving well before the days of TMZ, Perez Hilton, Charlie Sheen's breakdown and allegations against Woody Allen. And the stars of yesteryear? They weren’t always the saints that we make them out to be. BuzzFeed columnist Anne Helen Petersen is here to set the record straight with Scandals of Classic Hollywood. Pulling little-known gems from the archives of film history, Petersen reveals eyebrow-raising information,

The smear campaign against the original It Girl, Clara Bow, started by her best friend
The heartbreaking story of Montgomery Clift’s rapid rise to fame, the car accident that destroyed his face, and the “long suicide� that followed
Fatty Arbuckle's descent from Hollywood royalty, fueled by allegations of a boozy orgy turned violent assault
Why Mae West was arrested and jailed for "indecency charges"
And much more
Part biography, part cultural history, these stories cover the stuff that films are made love, sex, drugs, illegitimate children, illicit affairs, and botched cover-ups. But it's not all just tawdry gossip in the pages of this book. The stories are all contextualized within the boundaries of film, cultural, political, and gender history, making for a read that will inform as it entertains. Based on Petersen's popular column on the Hairpin, but featuring 100% new content, Scandals of Classic Hollywood is sensationalism made smart.]]> 239 Anne Helen Petersen 1101635479 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.58 2014 Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema
author: Anne Helen Petersen
name: Joe
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/25
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Introducing Foucault: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides)]]> 22711850 Michel Foucault's work was described at his death as 'the most important event of thought in our century'. As a philosopher, historian and political activist, he certainly left behind an enduring and influential body of work, but is this acclaim justified? "Introducing Foucault" places his work in its turbulent philosophical and political context, and critically explores his mission to expose the links between knowledge and power in the human sciences, their discourses and institutions. This book explains how Foucault overturned our assumptions about the experience and perception of madness, sexuality and criminality, and the often brutal social practices of confinement, confession and discipline. It also describes Foucault's engagement with psychiatry and clinical medicine, his political activism and the transgressive aspects of pleasure and desire that he promoted in his writing.

]]> 443 Chris Horrocks 1848317697 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.39 1997 Introducing Foucault: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides)
author: Chris Horrocks
name: Joe
average rating: 3.39
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/05
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Sleeping with Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire]]> 43398343 From the celebrated film critic and author of The Biographical Dictionary of Film, an original, seductive account of sexuality in the movies and of how actors and actresses on screen have fed our desire.

Film can make us want things we can not have. But, while sometimes rapturous, the interaction of onscreen beauty and private desire speaks to a crisis in American culture, one that pits delusions of male supremacy against feminist awakening and the spirit of gay resistance. Combining criticism, his encyclopedic knowledge of film history, and memoir, David Thomson examines how film has found the fault lines in traditional masculinity and helped to point the way past it toward a more nuanced understanding of what it means to be a person desiring others. Ranging from advertising to pornography, Rudolph Valentino to Moonlight, Rock Hudson to Call Me By Your Name, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant to Phantom Thread, Thomson shows us the art and the artists we love under a new light. He illuminates the way in which film as art, entertainment, and business has been a polite cover for a kind of erotic séance. And he makes us see how the way we watch our movies is a kind of training for how we try to live.]]> 370 David Thomson 1101947004 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.44 2019 Sleeping with Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire
author: David Thomson
name: Joe
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/05
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Leading Men 40623547 An expansive yet intimate story of desire, artistic ambition, and fidelity, set in the glamorous literary and film circles of 1950s Italy

In July of 1953, at a glittering party thrown by Truman Capote in Portofino, Italy, Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover Frank Merlo meet Anja Blomgren, a mysteriously taciturn young Swedish beauty and aspiring actress. Their encounter will go on to alter all of their lives.

Ten years later, Frank revisits the tempestuous events of that fateful summer from his deathbed in Manhattan, where he waits anxiously for Tennessee to visit him one final time. Anja, now legendary film icon Anja Bloom, lives as a recluse in the present-day U.S., until a young man connected to the events of 1953 lures her reluctantly back into the spotlight after he discovers she possesses the only surviving copy of Williams's final play.

What keeps two people together and what breaks them apart? Can we save someone else if we can't save ourselves? Like The Master and The Hours, Leading Men seamlessly weaves fact and fiction to navigate the tensions between public figures and their private lives. In an ultimately heartbreaking story about the burdens of fame and the complex negotiations of life in the shadows of greatness, Castellani creates an unforgettable leading lady in Anja Bloom and reveals the hidden machinery of one of the great literary love stories of the twentieth-century.]]> 368 Christopher Castellani 052555906X Joe 0 currently-reading 3.72 2019 Leading Men
author: Christopher Castellani
name: Joe
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/05
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]]> <![CDATA[White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide]]> 26073085 From the Civil War to our combustible present, White Rage reframes our continuing conversation about race, chronicling the powerful forces opposed to black progress in America--now in paperback with a new afterword by the author, acclaimed historian Carol Anderson.

As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014, and media commentators across the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as “black rage,� historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in The Washington Post suggesting that this was, instead, "white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames," she argued, "everyone had ignored the kindling."

Since 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains. The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with the Black Codes and Jim Crow; the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South while taxpayer dollars financed segregated white private schools; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 triggered a coded but powerful response, the so-called Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs that disenfranchised millions of African Americans while propelling presidents Nixon and Reagan into the White House, and then the election of America's first black President, led to the expression of white rage that has been as relentless as it has been brutal.

Carefully linking these and other historical flashpoints when social progress for African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition, Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud, rendering visible the long lineage of white rage. Compelling and dramatic in the unimpeachable history it relates, White Rage will add an important new dimension to the national conversation about race in America.]]> 246 Carol Anderson 1632864126 Joe 5 4.46 2016 White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
author: Carol Anderson
name: Joe
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2016
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/06/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Bad Gays: A Homosexual History]]> 59012057
Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, imperialists, G-men and architects.

Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. They show that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century and that its interpretation has been central to major historical moments of conflict from the ruptures of Weimar Republic to red-baiting in Cold War America.

Amusing, disturbing and fascinating, Bad Gays puts centre stage the queer villains and evil twinks in history.]]> 368 Huw Lemmey 1839763272 Joe 5 3.56 2022 Bad Gays: A Homosexual History
author: Huw Lemmey
name: Joe
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/06/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Unhinged (Necessary Evils, #1)]]> 58460336
Noah Holt has spent years dreaming of vengeance for the death of his father, but when faced with his killer, he learns a daunting truth he can’t escape. His father was a monster.

Unable to ignore his own surfacing memories, Noah embarks on a quest to find the truth about his childhood with the help of an unlikely ally: the very person who murdered his father. Since their confrontation, Adam is obsessed with Noah, and he wants to help him uncover the answers he seeks, however dark they may be.

The two share a mutual attraction, but deep down, Noah knows Adam’s not like other boys. Adam can’t love. He wasn’t born that way. But he refuses to let Noah go, and Noah’s not sure he wants him to.

Can Adam prove to Noah that passion, power, and protection are just as good as love?]]> 306 Onley James Joe 0 currently-reading 4.35 2021 Unhinged (Necessary Evils, #1)
author: Onley James
name: Joe
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Hollywood Wives (The Hollywood Series Book 1)]]> 33839392 The iconic “raunchy, brash, and suspenseful� (The New York Times) blockbuster novel that started it all—the ultimate insider’s novel—from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jackie Collins.They’re a privileged breed—glamorous, glossy, and demanding. When life is this fast, there are no guarantees. Status is everything, and you’re only ever as popular as your husband’s latest box-office hit. Elaine Bronx girl turned Hollywood hostess, determined to relaunch her husband’s fading acting career back into orbit. Angel Married to a hot young actor and an innocent beauty prey to Hollywood’s most unscrupulous men. Montana Gorgeous renegade, ambitiously driven to succeed in the male-dominated world on the other side of the camera. Hollywood Wives is a scorching blockbuster that exposes the glittering microcosm that is Beverly Hills before racing to a gripping and unexpected climax. Captivating, fun, and deliciously sexy, this classic is its own version of Hollywood magic.]]> 565 Jackie Collins 150117343X Joe 0 currently-reading 4.07 1983 Hollywood Wives (The Hollywood Series Book 1)
author: Jackie Collins
name: Joe
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1983
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change]]> 60886283 An inspirational memoir-meets-manifesto by Danica Roem, the nation's first openly trans person elected to US state legislature

Danica Roem made national headlines when--as a transgender former frontwoman for a metal band and a political newcomer--she unseated Virginia's most notoriously anti-LGBTQ 26-year incumbent Bob Marshall as state delegate. But before Danica made history, she had to change her vision of what was possible in her own life. Doing so was a matter of during her campaign, Danica hired an opposition researcher to dredge up every story from her past that her opponent might seize on to paint her negatively.

In wildly entertaining prose, Danica dismantles all the stories her opponents tried to hedge against her, showing how through brutal honesty and loving authenticity, it's possible to embrace the low points, and even transform them into her greatest strengths. Burn the Page takes readers from Danica's lonely, closeted, and at times operatically tragic childhood to her position as a rising star in a party she's helped forever change. Burn the Page is so much more than a stump it's an extremely inspiring manifesto about how it's possible to set fire to the stories you don't want to be in anymore, whether written by you or about you by someone else--and rewrite your own future, whether that's running for politics, in your work, or your personal life. This book will not just encourage people who think they have to be spotless to run for office, but inspire all of us to own our personal narratives as Danica does.]]> 320 Danica Roem 0593296567 Joe 0 4.19 2022 Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change
author: Danica Roem
name: Joe
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
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]]> Burr 12510443
Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated—and misunderstood—figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist named Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler. Together, they explore both Burr's past—and the continuing civic drama of their young nation.

Burr is the first novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series, which spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to post-World War II. With their broad canvas and sprawling cast of fictional and historical characters, these novels present a panorama of American politics and imperialism, as interpreted by one of our most incisive and ironic observers.]]> 635 Gore Vidal 0307798410 Joe 0 4.26 1973 Burr
author: Gore Vidal
name: Joe
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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]]> Manhunt 58368353 Manhunt, an explosive post-apocalyptic novel that follows trans women and men on a grotesque journey of survival.

Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they'll never face the same fate.

Robbie lives by his gun and one hard-learned motto: other people aren't safe.

After a brutal accident entwines the three of them, this found family of survivors must navigate murderous TERFs, a sociopathic billionaire bunker brat, and awkward relationship dynamics—all while outrunning packs of feral men, and their own demons.
]]> 293 Gretchen Felker-Martin Joe 0 3.63 2022 Manhunt
author: Gretchen Felker-Martin
name: Joe
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance 59052448 A hilariously filthy tale of sex, crime, and family dysfunction from the brilliantly twisted mind of John Waters, the legendary filmmaker and bestselling author of Mr. Know-It-All.

Marsha Suitcase thief. Scammer. Master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her. Her own family wants her dead. She’s smart, she’s desperate, she’s disturbed, and she’s on the run with a big chip on her shoulder. They call her Liarmouth—until one insane man makes her tell the truth.

Liarmouth, the first novel by John Waters, is a perfectly perverted “feel-bad romance,� and the reader will thrill to hop aboard this delirious road trip of riotous revenge.]]> 258 John Waters 0374715580 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.22 2022 Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance
author: John Waters
name: Joe
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman]]> 59997353 A striking debut novel about a college freshman grappling with the challenges of attending an elite university with a disturbing racist history, which may not be as distant as it seems."A searing debut.� –Entertainment Weekly Savannah Howard thought everyone followed the same checklist to get into Wooddale the hardest classesGet perfect gradesGive up a social life to score a full ride to a top schoolBut now that she’s on campus, it’s clear there’s a different rule book. Take student body president, campus royalty, and racist jerk Lucas Cunningham. It’s no secret money bought his acceptance letter. And he’s not the only one. Savannah tries to keep to head down, but when the statue of the university’s first Black president is vandalized, how can she look away? Someone has to put a stop to the injustice. But will telling the truth about Wooddale’s racist past cost Savannah her own future?First-time novelist Kristen R. Lee delivers a page-turning, thought-provoking story that exposes racism and hypocrisy on college campuses, and champions those who refuse to let it continue.]]> 328 Kristen R. Lee 0593309170 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.80 2022 Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman
author: Kristen R. Lee
name: Joe
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/08
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]]> How High We Go in the Dark 58161113
Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.]]> 290 Sequoia Nagamatsu Joe 0 currently-reading 3.93 2022 How High We Go in the Dark
author: Sequoia Nagamatsu
name: Joe
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/08
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]]> Laziness Does Not Exist 54856662 From social psychologist Dr. Devon Price, a conversational, stirring call to “a better, more human way to live� (Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author) that examines the “laziness lie”—which falsely tells us we are not working or learning hard enough.Extra-curricular activities. Honors classes. 60-hour work weeks. Side hustles. Like many Americans, Dr. Devon Price believed that productivity was the best way to measure self-worth. Price was an overachiever from the start, graduating from both college and graduate school early, but that success came at a cost. After Price was diagnosed with a severe case of anemia and heart complications from overexertion, they were forced to examine the darker side of all this productivity. Laziness Does Not Exist explores the psychological underpinnings of the “laziness lie,� including its origins from the Puritans and how it has continued to proliferate as digital work tools have blurred the boundaries between work and life. Using in-depth research, Price explains that people today do far more work than nearly any other humans in history yet most of us often still feel we are not doing enough. Filled with practical and accessible advice for overcoming society’s pressure to do more, and featuring interviews with researchers, consultants, and experiences from real people drowning in too much work, Laziness Does Not Exist “is the book we all need right now� (Caroline Dooner, author of The F*ck It Diet).]]> 253 Devon Price Joe 0 currently-reading 3.99 2021 Laziness Does Not Exist
author: Devon Price
name: Joe
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/08
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]]> <![CDATA[All That's Left in the World (All That's Left in the World, #1)]]> 58535868
After danger breaches their shelter, they flee south in search of civilization. But something isn’t adding up about Andrew’s story, and it could cost them everything. And Jamie has a secret, too. He’s starting to feel something more than friendship for Andrew, adding another layer of fear and confusion to an already tumultuous journey.

The road ahead of them is long, and to survive, they’ll have to shed their secrets, face the consequences of their actions, and find the courage to fight for the future they desire, together. Only one thing feels certain: all that’s left in their world is the undeniable pull they have toward each other.]]> 368 Erik J. Brown Joe 0 currently-reading 4.38 2022 All That's Left in the World (All That's Left in the World, #1)
author: Erik J. Brown
name: Joe
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Betrayal of Anne Frank: An Investigation]]> 56395314 Using new technology, recently discovered documents and sophisticated investigative techniques, an international team—led by an obsessed former FBI agent—has finally solved the mystery that has haunted generations since World War II: Who betrayed Anne Frank and her family? And why?

More than thirty million people have read The Diary of a Young Girl, the journal teen-aged Anne Frank kept while living in an attic with her family in Amsterdam during World War II, until the Nazis arrested them and sent Anne to her death in a concentration camp. But despite the many works—journalism, books, plays and novels—devoted to Anne’s story, none has ever conclusively explained how the Franks and four other people managed to live in hiding undetected for over two years—and who or what finally brought the Nazis to their door.

With painstaking care, former FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and a team of indefatigable investigators pored over tens of thousands of pages of documents—some never-before-seen—and interviewed scores of descendants of people involved, both Nazi sympathizers and resisters, familiar with the Franks. Utilizing methods developed by the FBI, the Cold Case Team painstakingly pieced together the months leading to the Franks� arrest—and came to a shocking conclusion.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank is their riveting story. Rosemary Sullivan introduces us to the investigators, explains the behavior of both the captives and their captors and profiles a group of suspects. All the while, she vividly brings to life wartime Amsterdam: a place where no matter how wealthy, educated, or careful you were, you never knew whom you could trust.]]> 368 Rosemary Sullivan 0062892371 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.03 2022 The Betrayal of Anne Frank: An Investigation
author: Rosemary Sullivan
name: Joe
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Kingdom of Characters : The Language Revolution That Made China Modern]]> 59744993 336 Jing Tsu 0735214743 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.92 2022 Kingdom of Characters : The Language Revolution That Made China Modern
author: Jing Tsu
name: Joe
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/24
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]]> The Shining (The Shining, #1) 6324651 Alternate cover edition of ASIN: B001BANK32

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.]]> 674 Stephen King Joe 0 currently-reading 4.45 1977 The Shining (The Shining, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Joe
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fine Art of Murder (Murder, She Wrote, #36)]]> 12095194 FRAMED? Jessica’s art-viewing Italian vacation is interrupted by a pair of gunmen who steal a painting and kill a retired police officer in the process. Agreeing to help identify the crooks should they be caught, Jessica returns to Cabot Cove and puts the shocking experience behind her. Months later, Wayne Simsbury, the stepson of an old friend, comes to her for help. Wayne’s father has been shot to death. Not only has Wayne’s stepmother, Marlise, been charged with the murder, but Wayne himself claims to have witnessed the crime. Unsure what to do, he has sought out Jessica—the one person his stepmother had always claimed could help with any problem. Now, on top of a seemingly open-and-shut murder case to crack in Chicago, Jessica finds herself back in Italy helping the police make their case against the art thieves—and she faces a looming danger that may connect the Italian killers to the fate of her old friend....]]> 304 Jessica Fletcher 1101544627 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.30 2011 The Fine Art of Murder (Murder, She Wrote, #36)
author: Jessica Fletcher
name: Joe
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/20
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]]> <![CDATA[You Are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters]]> 32499108 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER•Deepak Chopra joins forces with leading physicist Menas Kafatos to explore some of the most important and baffling questions about our place in the world."A riveting and absolutely fascinating adventure that will blow your mind wide open!" —Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi What happens when modern science reaches a crucial turning point that challenges everything we know about reality? In this brilliant, timely, and practical work, Chopra and Kafatos tell us that we've reached just such a point. In the coming era, the universe will be completely redefined as a "human universe" radically unlike the cold, empty void where human life is barely a speck in the cosmos. You Are the Universeliterally means what it says--each of us is a co-creator of reality extending to the vastest reaches of time and space. This seemingly impossible proposition follows from the current state of science, where outside the public eye, some key mysteries cannot be solved, even though they are the very issues that define reality � What Came Before the Big Bang?� Why Does the Universe Fit Together So Perfectly?� Where Did Time Come From?� What Is the Universe Made Of?� Is the Quantum World Linked to Everyday Life?� Do We Live in a Conscious Universe?� How Did Life First Begin? “The shift into a new paradigm is happening,� the authors write. “The answers offered in this book are not our invention or eccentric flights of fancy. All of us live in a participatory universe. Once you decide that you want to participate fully with mind, body, and soul, the paradigm shift becomes personal. The reality you inhabit will be yours either to embrace or to change.� What these two great minds offer is a bold, new understanding of who we are and how we can transform the world for the better while reaching our greatest potential.]]> 290 Deepak Chopra 0307951855 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.79 2017 You Are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters
author: Deepak Chopra
name: Joe
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/20
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]]> Riot Baby 43719523
Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

Ella and Kev are both shockingly human and immeasurably powerful. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by racism. Their futures might alter the world.]]> 167 Tochi Onyebuchi 1250214769 Joe 0 currently-reading 3.72 2020 Riot Baby
author: Tochi Onyebuchi
name: Joe
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Rosewater (The Wormwood Trilogy, #1)]]> 40088463 Librarian note: an older cover for this edition can be found here.

Tade Thompson’s Rosewater is the start of an award-winning, cutting edge trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction’s most engaging new voices.

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless � people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn’t care to again � but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.]]> 400 Tade Thompson Joe 0 currently-reading 3.93 2017 Rosewater (The Wormwood Trilogy, #1)
author: Tade Thompson
name: Joe
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code]]> 18274789
When famed archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed the ruins of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece’s Classical Age, he discovered a cache of ancient tablets, Europe’s earliest written records. For half a century, the meaning of the inscriptions, and even the language in which they were written, would remain a mystery.

Award-winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox's riveting real-life intellectual detective story travels from the Bronze Age Aegean—the era of Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Helen—to the turn of the 20th century and the work of charismatic English archeologist Arthur Evans, to the colorful personal stories of the decipherers. These include Michael Ventris, the brilliant amateur who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of the deipherment; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.]]> 385 Margalit Fox Joe 5 4.15 2013 The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code
author: Margalit Fox
name: Joe
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/02
date added: 2022/03/02
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]]> <![CDATA[And the Category Is.: Inside New York's Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community]]> 59963118 A 2023 Lambda Literary Award Finalist in NonfictionAn Electric Literature “Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of 2022� SelectionA love letter to the legendary Black and Latinx LGBTQ underground subculture, uncovering its abundant legacy and influence in popular culture.What is Ballroom? Not a song, a documentary, a catchphrase, a TV show, or an individual pop star. It is an underground subculture founded over a century ago by LGBTQ African American and Latino men and women of Harlem. Arts-based and intersectional, it transcends identity, acting as a fearless response to the systemic marginalization of minority populations.Ricky Tucker pulls from his years as a close friend of the community to reveal the complex cultural makeup and ongoing relevance of house and Ballroom, a space where trans lives are respected and applauded, and queer youth are able to find family and acceptance. With each chapter framed as a “category� (Vogue, Realness, Body, et al.), And the Category Is . . . offers an impressionistic point of entry into this subculture, its deeply integrated history, and how it’s been appropriated for mainstream audiences. Each category features an exclusive interview with fierce LGBTQ/POC Ballroom members—Lee Soulja, Benjamin Ninja, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, and more—whose lives, work, and activism drive home that very category.At the height of public intrigue and awareness about Ballroom, thanks to TV shows like FX’s Pose, Tucker’s compelling narratives help us understand its relevance in pop culture, dance, public policy with regard to queer communities, and so much more. Welcome to the norm-defying realness of Ballroom.]]> 246 Ricky Tucker 0807003492 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.19 2022 And the Category Is.: Inside New York's Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community
author: Ricky Tucker
name: Joe
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/01
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]]> <![CDATA[How the Post Office Created America: A History]]> 30731129 330 Winifred Gallagher Joe 4 3.95 2016 How the Post Office Created America: A History
author: Winifred Gallagher
name: Joe
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/28
date added: 2022/02/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World]]> 59339343
Beginning in 1915 with D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation—which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and became Hollywood’s first blockbuster—Wil Haygood gives us an incisive, fascinating, little-known history, spanning more than a century, of Black artists in the film business, on-screen and behind the scenes.

He makes clear the effects of changing social realities and events on the business of making movies and on what was represented on the from Jim Crow and segregation to white flight and interracial relationships, from the assassination of Malcolm X, to the O. J. Simpson trial, to the Black Lives Matter movement. He considers the films themselves—including Imitation of Life, Gone with the Wind, Porgy and Bess, the Blaxploitation films of the seventies, Do The Right Thing, 12 Years a Slave, and Black Panther. And he brings to new light the careers and significance of a wide range of historic and contemporary Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Berry Gordy, Alex Haley, Spike Lee, Billy Dee Willliams, Richard Pryor, Halle Berry, Ava DuVernay, and Jordan Peele, among many others.

An important, timely book, Colorization gives us both an unprecedented history of Black cinema and a groundbreaking perspective on racism in modern America.]]> 606 Wil Haygood 052565688X Joe 0 currently-reading 4.58 2021 Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World
author: Wil Haygood
name: Joe
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/02/27
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]]> You Can’t Be Serious 58833369 The star of the Harold and Kumar franchise, House, and Designated Survivor recounts why he rejected the advice of his aunties and guidance counselors and, instead of becoming a doctor or “something practical,� embarked on a surprising journey that has included confronting racism in Hollywood, meeting his future husband, and working in the Obama administration, in this “incredibly joyful and insightful� (Kiefer Sutherland) memoir.

You Can’t Be Serious is a series of funny, consequential, awkward, and ridiculous stories from Kal Penn’s idiosyncratic life. It’s about being the grandson of Gandhian freedom fighters, and the son of immigrant people who came to this country with very little and went very far—and whose vision of the American dream probably never included their son sliding off an oiled-up naked woman in the raunchy Ryan Reynolds movie Van Wilder…or getting a phone call from Air Force One as Kal flew with the country’s first Black president.

“By turns hilarious, poignant, and inspiring� (David Axelrod, New York Times bestselling author), Kal reflects on the most exasperating and rewarding moments from his journey so far. He pulls back the curtain on the nuances of opportunity and racism in the entertainment industry and recounts how he built allies, found encouragement, and dealt with early reminders that he might never fit in. He describes his initially unpromising first date with his now-fiancé Josh, involving an 18-pack of Coors Light and an afternoon of watching NASCAR. And of course, he reveals how, after a decade and a half of fighting for and enjoying successes in Hollywood, he made the terrifying but rewarding decision to take a sabbatical from a fulfilling acting career for an opportunity to serve his country as an Obama White House aide.

Above all, You Can’t Be Serious shows that everyone can have more than one life story. The book “is insightful, funny, and instructive for anyone who’s ever grappled with how they fit into the American dream� (Ronan Farrow, New York Times bestselling author), and demonstrates that no matter who you are and where you come from, you have many more choices than those presented to you. And okay, yes, it’s also about how Kal accidentally (and very stupidly) accepted an invitation to take the entire White House Office of Public Engagement to a strip club—because, let’s be honest, that’s the kind of stuff you really want to hear about.]]> 383 Kal Penn 1982171405 Joe 0 currently-reading 4.24 2021 You Can’t Be Serious
author: Kal Penn
name: Joe
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/02/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Form and Emptiness]]> 57150885 A boy who hears the voices of objects all around him; a mother drowning in her possessions; and a Book that might hold the secret to saving them both—the brilliantly inventive new novel from the Booker Prize-finalist Ruth Ozeki.

One year after the death of his beloved musician father, thirteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house—a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn't understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous.

At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world. He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many.

And he meets his very own Book—a talking thing—who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter.

With its blend of sympathetic characters, riveting plot, and vibrant engagement with everything from jazz, to climate change, to our attachment to material possessions, The Book of Form and Emptiness is classic Ruth Ozeki—bold, wise, poignant, playful, humane and heartbreaking.]]> 560 Ruth Ozeki 0399563652 Joe 4 4.23 2021 The Book of Form and Emptiness
author: Ruth Ozeki
name: Joe
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/24
date added: 2022/02/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Apparently There Were Complaints: A Memoir]]> 56897472 Emmy Award–winning actress Sharon Gless tells all in this laugh-out-loud, juicy, “unforgettably memorable� (Lily Tomlin) memoir about her five decades in Hollywood, where she took on some of the most groundbreaking roles of her time.Anyone who has seen Sharon Gless act in Cagney & Lacey, Queer as Folk, Burn Notice, and countless other shows and movies, knows that she’s someone who gives every role her all. She holds nothing back in Apparently There Were Complaints, a hilarious, deeply personal memoir that spills all about Gless’s five decades in Hollywood. A fifth-generation Californian, Sharon Gless knew from a young age that she wanted to be an actress. After some rocky teenage years that included Sharon’s parents� divorce and some minor (and not-so-minor) rebellion, Gless landed a coveted spot as an exclusive contract player for Universal Studios. In 1982, she stepped into the role of New York Police Detective Christine Cagney for the series Cagney & Lacey, which eventually reached an audience of 30 million weekly viewers and garnered Gless with two Emmy Awards. The show made history as the first hour-long drama to feature two women in the leading roles. Gless continued to make history long after Cagney & Lacey was over. In 2000, she took on the role of outrageous Debbie Novotny in Queer as Folk. Her portrayal of a devoted mother to a gay son and confidant to his gay friends touched countless hearts and changed the definition of family for millions of viewers. Apparently There Were Complaints delves into Gless’s remarkable career and explores Gless’s complicated family, her struggles with alcoholism, and her fear of romantic commitment as well as her encounters with some of Hollywood’s biggest names. Brutally honest and incredibly relatable, Gless puts it all out on the page in the same way she has lived—never with moderation.]]> 320 Sharon Gless 1501125958 Joe 5 4.10 2021 Apparently There Were Complaints: A Memoir
author: Sharon Gless
name: Joe
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (Aristotle and Dante, #2)]]> 57120895 The highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an achingly romantic, tender tale sure to captivate fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H.K. Choi.

In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two boys in a border town fell in love. Now, they must discover what it means to stay in love and build a relationship in a world that seems to challenge their very existence.

Ari has spent all of high school burying who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can’t go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies of all kinds, and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante, dreamy, witty Dante, who can get on Ari’s nerves and fill him with desire all at once.

The boys are determined to forge a path for themselves in a world that doesn’t understand them. But when Ari is faced with a shocking loss, he’ll have to fight like never before to create a life that is truthfully, joyfully his own.]]> 525 Benjamin Alire Sáenz 1534496211 Joe 0 to-read 4.20 2021 Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (Aristotle and Dante, #2)
author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
name: Joe
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Best Gay Erotica of the Year (Best Gay Erotica Series)]]> 42102351 216 Rob Rosen Joe 0 to-read 2.50 2017 Best Gay Erotica of the Year (Best Gay Erotica Series)
author: Rob Rosen
name: Joe
average rating: 2.50
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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