-
Featured Book: Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future, by Pete Buttigieg
Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future
Pete Buttigieg
347 pages (hardcover edition)
$16.77 harcover, $14.87 Kindle
Publisher: LiverightI first noticed “Mayor Pete” a few years ago because he was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. I grew up two cities over, in Elkhart, and my father had a music store for many years in South Bend. I knew the town well, and seeing them elect an out gay mayor was something I took great pleasure in (and no small surprise).
Now Pete Buttigieg is running for the Democratic presidential nomination and he’s turning a lot of heads: the man is smart, extremely well-informed, erudite (does anyone say that anymore?), a policy wonk who doesn’t sound like one, and a man with exceptionally wide appeal on the issues: just ask nervous Republicans.
-
Book Review: Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes), by Lorna Landvik
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes)” by Lorna Landvik
c.2019, University of Minnesota Press
$25.95 / higher in Canada 306 pagesThey say you can’t take it with you.
The money you’ve amassed, the property you own, jewelry, art, and fancy cars won’t mean a thing once you’re dead and gone. No, you can’t take it with you, but in the new novel “Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes)” by Lorna Landvik, what’s been left behind?
If you asked Haze Evans how old she felt, she’d probably never say the truth (81), but not because of vanity. No, despite creaky knees and her status as the oldest employee at the Granite Creek Gazette, she preferred to focus on staying active, curious, and productive by writing a feature column several days a week.
-
Featured Book: Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future, by Pete Buttigieg
Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future
Pete Buttigieg
347 pages (hardcover edition)
$16.77 harcover, $14.87 Kindle
Publisher: LiverightI first noticed “Mayor Pete” a few years ago because he was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. I grew up two cities over, in Elkhart, and my father had a music store for many years in South Bend. I knew the town well, and seeing them elect an out gay mayor was something I took great pleasure in (and no small surprise).
Now Pete Buttigieg is running for the Democratic presidential nomination and he’s turning a lot of heads: the man is smart, extremely well-informed, erudite (does anyone say that anymore?), a policy wonk who doesn’t sound like one, and a man with exceptionally wide appeal on the issues: just ask nervous Republicans.
-
Book Review: When Brooklyn Was Queer, by Hugh Ryan
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“When Brooklyn Was Queer” by Hugh Ryan
c.2019, St. Martin’s Press
$29.99 / $38.99 Canada 308 pagesYour city sure has changed.
Landmarks were destroyed, the skyline is different, and streets are shifted in a way that feels same-not-same. It’s like having dinner with a relative you met once, when you were nine: as in “When Brooklyn Was Queer” by Hugh Ryan, everything and nothing is familiar.
Once upon a time, Brooklyn was little more than farms and fields.
-
Book Review: Whiskey When We’re Dry, by John Larison
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“Whiskey When We’re Dry” by John Larison
c.2018, Viking $28.00 / $35.00 CanadaIt was right here a minute ago.
You saw it, but now it’s gone and you have to find it. Beneath a newspaper, atop a shelf, under a blanket, wherever it is, it was just right here – and as in the new book “Whiskey When We’re Dry” by John Larison, you’d search years to have it back.
Jessilyn Harney never knew her mother.
She died in childbirth, leaving Jessilyn’s father to raise Jessilyn and her brother, Noah, who was five years older. Noah took care of Jessilyn when their father drank too much syrup. He was a good brother, making sure she was warm, dressed, and protected – until the year she turned thirteen and, as young men are wont to do, Noah had a fight with his father and he rode away.
-
Book Review: The Royal Art of Poison, by Eleanor Herman
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“The Royal Art of Poison” by Eleanor Herman
c.2018, St. Martin’s Press $27.99 / $36.50 CanadaIt must’ve been the salad.
You had three helpings of Aunt Rudy’s famous family reunion contribution and it sure tasted good. Until later that night and then… not so good for the rest of the weekend and into Monday. It must’ve been the salad because, as in The Royal Art of Poison, by Eleanor Herman, you spent awhile on the throne.
-
Book Review: The Boys of Fairy Town, by Jim Elledge
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“The Boys of Fairy Town” by Jim Elledge
c.2018, Chicago Review Press $29.99 / $39.99 Canada
290 pagesDates, times, and old dead guys.
When you were in school, that’s all history was to you: a list of years and names to memorize and then forget, twenty minutes after Finals Week. So maybe now it’s time to find a history book that’s relevant to you – a book like “The Boys of Fairy Town” by Jim Elledge.
-
Book Review: Tin Man: A Novel, by Sarah Winman
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm SezTin Man: A Novel, by Sarah Winman
c.2018, Putnam
$23.00 hardcover / $22.95 paperback CanadaThe picture reminds you of a thousand things.
You recall the day it was taken: the smell of the air, the background sounds, food and drink, laughter and the sense that this was forever. You’ve seen that photo many times throughout the years, but it never fails to remind you of the best of times. Or, as in the new book “Tin Man” by Sarah Winman, it may represent the worst.
-
Book Review: Beowulf for Cretins by Ann McMan, Reviewed by Velvet Lounger
The following review first appeared at the Lesbian Reading Room
Beowulf for Cretins, by Ann McMan
Print Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Bywater Books (June 26, 2018)Take one rather lost and lonely English professor and sit her next to a gorgeous, intellectual and amusing woman on a flight to San Francisco. Bring them back together for a madcap costume party that evening, and make both of them brave enough to step out of their comfort zones and “go there.” That’s the basic plot of Ann McMan’s wonderful short story “Falling from Grace” in her anthology “Sidecar,” which led to the idea of “Beowulf for Cretins.”
Don’t worry if you haven’t read “Sidecar” (although if not, why not?) as the slightly amended story is repeated as chapter one of the full-length version. And once Grace and Abbie go their separate ways the morning after the party, with no contact details, not even last names shared, then surely it will take an act of fate, or possibly an act of God, to make their paths cross a second time.
-
Book Review: Shapeshifters: A Journey Through the Changing Human Body, by Gavin Francis
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm SezShapeshifters: A Journey Through the Changing Human Body, by Gavin Francis
c.2018, Basic Books $27.00 / $35.50 Canada
283 pagesChange, they say, is good.
It’s the opportunity for growth. It’s a chance to take a breath, reassess, reconfigure. It makes the landscape look fresh; it also muddies the waters. And yet, you bounce back and, as you’ll see in “Shapeshifters” by Gavin Francis, so does your body.
-
New Book ‘Gay & Bisexual Men Living with Prostate Cancer’ Explores Issue from Diagnosis to Recovery
VIA PRESS RELEASE
(New York, NY) June 12, 2018 – On June 19, LGBTQ scholarly publisher Harrington Park Press will release their latest book, “Gay & Bisexual Men Living with Prostate Cancer (from Diagnosis to Recovery).”
Like previous titles from the imprint, such as “Transgender Sex Work and Society” and “LGBTQ Hospice and Palliative Care,” the book is not only the first of its kind, but also necessary and timely.
Medical science has conspicuously–and shamefully–been complicit in valuing straight white men above all others. Women, racial minorities, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning/queer (LGBTQ) communities are underrepresented in clinical trials, which limits our ability to identify their needs and to respond to them thoughtfully.
The LGBTQ community has been described as experiencing an “ignored epidemic” and characterized as a “growing and medically underserved population” in the area of cancer care.
-
Book Review: Hype: A Doctor’s Guide to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims and Bad Advice, by Nina Shapiro, MD with Kristin Loberg
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“Hype: A Doctor’s Guide to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims and Bad Advice –
How to Tell What’s Real and What’s Not” by Nina Shapiro, MD with Kristin Loberg
c.2018, St. Martin’s Press $26.99 / $34.99 Canada 304 pagesFor the last few days, you’ve had a tickle in your throat.
It’s not much, just a hrrumph that’s gone from occasional to annoying. You’ve looked it up online and, well, it’s either allergies, a cold, or you’re going to die. But, as author Nina Shapiro, MD says in her new book, “Hype” (with Kristin Loberg), be careful what you think you know.
-
Book Review: Tough Mothers: Amazing Stories of History’s Mightiest Matriarchs, by Jason Porath
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“Tough Mothers: Amazing Stories of History’s Mightiest Matriarchs” by Jason Porath
c.2018, Dey Street $24.99 / $31.00 Canada
244 pagesYour mom is tough as nails.
The minute you were placed in her arms, she became your personal warrior, cheerleader, and banker. She remembers the good things you did and (sigh) the dumb things you tried. She pretends to forget why she ever gave you That Look. And in the new book “Tough Mothers” by Jason Porath, you’ll meet other women just like her.