the Book Club!

[Mia14]

Ok, this thread has been LONG overdue. It seems some of us are avid readers and reading some wonderful books that are worth talking about.

What good books, GLBT or otherwise, have you read lately?

Daniel mentioned a book called Commitment and Healing: Gay Men and the Need for Romantic Love by Richard A. Isay M.D. in another post.

Another question maybe to explore: What's your favorite book of all time?

[Pablo Rafael]

Mia14,

A couple of great books that I have read lately are:

What's so Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey.
In my opinion it is one of the best, most perceptive books written about Christianity. Philip Yancey is a friend of Mel White's, and thought he isn't very supportive of homosexuality in the church, he isn't down on gays at all. A look at Christianity from the viewpoint of grace. How I think God means it to be.

The Giver by Lois Lowrey A book for young adults that really makes a person think outside the box. It explores societies and how they function, what their prejudices are, what is the value of freedom and self-expression. Even though it is geared for a younger audience, everyone finds it interesting. The following two books in the trilogy I didn't like quite as well: Gathering Blue, The Messsenger. We teachers know that adults miss a lot of great literature when they don't read the childrens and young adult books.

One book that had some of the greatest impact on me was Mel White's Stranger at the Gate. That is one I assume all members of this forum have read.

The Catch Trap by Marion Zimmer Bradley
This one has some good, well written gay characters in it. It is about performers in a circus family of acrobats in about the 1930's. Though the idea of circus performers didn't really sound interesting at first. the story is captivating. The relationships between the characters and their devotion to the sport makes it worth reading.

I could go on for pages if I stopped to think on this subject. So I just mention a few that I have recently read.

Pablo

[Dash]

Just about done with The Marriage of Likeness: Same-sex Unions in Pre-modern Europe by John Boswell.

Just finished... Religion Gone Bad (of course)

Recently... The V for Vendetta graphic novel

The World of Normal Boys by Soehnlein

The Indispensible Calvin & Hobbes by Watterson

A little now and then of... Rumi, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Anne Sexton

Upcoming... Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx

The Boswell Thesis

[Mia14]

I abosultely adored The Giver, too! Wow, Dash, you've got quite a few books on your nightstand.

My favorite authors are Patricia Cornwell (with the Kay Scarpetta novels) and James Patterson, with an occasional Harlan Coben. I guess you can see my genre: detective/murder

As far as great children's books go, I also remember loving the book Hatchet.

[Zerbie]

OOh another book thread!!! :weee: (Great idea Mia, thanks! :)

Just finished:

"Musicology and Difference" editor Ruth Solie (read selected articles for a class I'm taking)

"Religion Gone Bad" (of course ;)

Now in various stages of reading the following:

"Gender and the Musical Canon" Dr. Marcia Citron

"Opera in the Flesh" Sam Abel

"The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality in Modern Culture" Terry Castle

"Mary Garden" Michael T.R.B. Turnbull

"Mary Garden's Story" Mary Garden & Louis Biancolli

"The Sibyl Sanderson Story" Jack Winsor Hanson

"En Travesti: Women, Gender, Subversion, Opera" ed. Patricia Julianna Smith

"The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire" Wayne Koestenbaum

(Can you tell I'm reseaching for a class paper?)

And of course, since it's Hallowe'en Time, it's time to pull out my old standby seasonal favorite since I was 6 or 7 years old: BUNNICULA

[marutidas]

Let me see,

All of the Harry Potter books (not just for kids)


Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West: by Gregory Maguire
Son of a Witch:also by Gregory Maguire

The Books of Blood I,II,IIIby Clive Barker(gay author)

Anything by HP Lovecraft(or in his style)
I.E. the Cthulu Mythos

Any thing by Neil Gaiman
Favorite by him, The Sandman Chonocles
First book is Preludes and Nocturns

Everything written by R.A Salvator
or anything in the Forgotten Realms Series I.E.
The Cleric Quintette
The Dark Elf Triology

The Icewind Dale Triology

Mid world by Allen Dean Foster(Out of Print)

Expanding Love By his Holiness, The Dali Lamma

I read the first five books in the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
Interveiw with a Vampire, a litte boring in places
The Vampire Lastat ,GOOD
The Queen of the Damned, Very good
Tales of the Body Thief, VERY GOOD
Memnoch the Devil, GOOD


Williams Shakespeare's plays
Midsummer Nights Dream
Romeo and Juliet
Much ado about nothing

I read Religion Gone Bad, Could not wade through all of the gory details.(made me sick to my stomach)
I know how bad it could be and it is, I was more interested his solutions.
And My favorite Author of all time is
Edgar Allen Poe

My favortie Genres are Horror, Fantasies and Science Fiction

Who has time for TV when there are so many good books to read

[ro-lin]

Hi dear friends !
As I have just started to move in the right direction ( comming out of my nutshell) I want to read serious book(s) about the issue of human rights, retorics in explaining that homosexual is as right as there is diffrences in the nature all around us.
I am realy fighting with myself, because of conservative christian thoughts and upbringings.....if I agree to be the one I am, than Hell is dangling over my head day and night! But the truth is that I am the one I am...
Please give me som good advice ( books) to read...:eek:

Smile and hug to every one!

Roy in Norway

[Lydia]

What's so Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey.

The Giver by Lois Lowrey

I second these. Both were excellent.

[Lydia]

Read lately:

Marty Klein's "America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust, and Liberty."

"What Did Miss Darrington See? An Anthology of Supernatural Fiction." Edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson.

I've also been reading several trade paperbacks of the comic "Runaways." I want to have the entire series read before Joss Whedon takes over the story early next year.

Favourite books:

Jean M. Auel's "Clan of the Cave Bear." (A historical fiction/fantasy book about what life might have been like for humans in southern Europe 30,000 years ago).

Doris Lessing's "Mara and Dann." (A fantasy book about what life might be like for humans thousands of years in the future when we're in the middle of another ice age.)

Robert Farrar Capon's "Exit 36" (A novel about two Christians who have an affair, although the book can also be read theologically)

Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale (A dystopic novel about a society in which women are only valued for their ability to bear children.)

[Pablo Rafael]

Another book I read this summer came to mind:

Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean
This book deals with sister Helen's ministry to two men on death row. It is one of those "can't put down" books. The feelings of sister Helen, the criminals, and the families of the victims are brought forth vividly in this true story.

If you have seen the play or the movie, you will have met Matthew Poncelet. He is actually a composite character made up of the two men mentioned in sister Helen's book. Having seen the play before I read the book took nothing away from the book.

Pablo

[BruceChris]

O.K., here goes. I just heard about a book called The Sinner's Guide to The Evangelical Right, by Robert Lanham -- Sounds like it ought to be good, and the reviewers loved it.

Also, Anything by Mercedes Lackey.

P&L, BC

[Pablo Rafael]

I remembered posting on this thread a long time ago. I thought it was time to add something new.

Another great book that I just finished reading is Brethren: Raised by Wolves Vol.1 by W.A. Hoffman

There are three books in the Raised By Wolves series: Brethren, Matelots and (yet to be published) Wolves

This is historical fiction with gay main characters. The characters are pirates on a sailing ship that sails from Jamaica in 1666-67. I wanted to hate Gaston and Will, the two main characters, because they are ruthless pirates, but I loved them nontheless. The book is mainly a love story but there is plenty of action.

I've only read #1. This is a series, and I think a person has to read all three. The story sort of stopped in the middle.

Pablo

[BrentRichards]

Hi dear friends !
As I have just started to move in the right direction ( comming out of my nutshell) I want to read serious book(s) about the issue of human rights, retorics in explaining that homosexual is as right as there is diffrences in the nature all around us.
I am realy fighting with myself, because of conservative christian thoughts and upbringings.....if I agree to be the one I am, than Hell is dangling over my head day and night! But the truth is that I am the one I am...
Please give me som good advice ( books) to read...:eek:

Smile and hug to every one!

Roy in Norway

Hi Roy! An easy place to start is Mel White's "What The Bible Says and Doesn't Say About Homosexuality" which you can find complete here on this site. My favorites in this category, though, are Jack Rogers "Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality" and Robin Scroggs "The New Testament and Homosexuality." Wish I could recommend some in Norwegian, but you seem to have a handle on English!

[BrentRichards]

I recently finished Boswell's Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, as well as a good read called Departing From Deviance (author?) on the lead-up and results of the APA de-pathologizing of homosexuality.

I need to get back to some more fiction. I love detective novels, especially the classics like Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, and (more recent, but still classic in style) PD James. Haven't read any of these lately.

[u-dog]

I recently finished Boswell's Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, as well as a good read called Departing From Deviance (author?) on the lead-up and results of the APA de-pathologizing of homosexuality.

I need to get back to some more fiction. I love detective novels, especially the classics like Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, and (more recent, but still classic in style) PD James. Haven't read any of these lately.


Have you read any of Steven Saylor's novels? he is a gay historian of the Roman period. He has a series of novels that center on a character named Gordianus the Finder. He is basically a first century BC private I. All the stories are built around some major historic figure and event in Roman history but the plot and main charecters are fictional. They are excellent. The Series title is "Roma sub Rosa" the first book in the series is "Roman Blood". One of the things I like about the series is that the the books are in chronological order and you get to watch Gordianus and his family grow and grow older from book to book. You really get connected to the characters.

[paul]

Recent reads:

Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky

Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Possible Side Effects, Augustin Burroughs

Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis

Dead Sea Scrolls, The Essenes?

Virtually Normal, Andrew Sullivan

I Had to Say Something, Mike Jones

[pnggrad79]

I read anything and everything.

Children's books I love:

1. Fever by Laurie Halse Anderson
2. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
3. Among the Hidden series by Margaret Peterson Haddix
4. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

I love lesbian fiction novels. Radclyffe and Georgia Beers remain my favorites, but I love any lesbian novel I can get my hands on.

Non-fiction:

1. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning (actually anything this man writes I love)
2. What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey
3. Night by Elie Wiesel
4. Mel White's books

I love to read and keep Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon and Half Price Books in business.:D

[paul]

pngrad,

I'm reading Stranger right now, on your recommendation.;)

"Night" is a haunting book, Elie Wiesel can break your heart. You might enjoy Augustin Burroughs. His books are also non-fiction, but you can hardly believe it when reading them. His first, "Running With Scissors," was just made into a movie. It was a pretty good rendering, but as usual, the book is better. His second, "Dry," is also gut wrenching.

[keltic63]

Possible Side Effects, Augustin Burroughs



I finished that within the past 2 weeks; I love his writing.


I also have read a great book Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs. It was all about rhetoric, the art of persuasion, and applying those principles to our own lives to recognize fallacies and argument strategies from others, and to use those strategies to our own advantage. I plan on going back to it, but this time, I'm using a highliter.

[Gennee]

Iam currently reading Love Burning in the Soul by John Harpur. This is the stories of Christians Mystics. I have a fascination with people who are outside the box and many of the men and women saints in this book were. It is a good book for someone who is interested in the church fathers and mothers.

I last read a book called Coming Out In Christianity:Religion, Identity, and Community. Melissa Wilcox writes a nice review of her two year project about what spirituality means to LGBT people. Some of the findings were quite revealing. Ms Wilcox nevere injected her opinion or trepidations; she just told what her findings revealed.

Another book that I love is Vanessa Sheridan's Crossing Over: Liberatiing the Transgendered Christian. This is a good read for those who want to know what the church can and needs to do with inclusion of transgender and gender variant people. Presently, I am pouring over each paragraph because some ideas are floating in my head for future articles, studies, activism, and quite possibly a play.

These are three books I have read in recent months. I will list some of my favorites in my next blog.

Gennee

:):)

[BenL]

Just finished: The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper

Just beginning: Kuraj by Silvia di Natalie (in English translation)