Now, Less Is More

I am reading a novel right now and it's hitting me straight in the head. I love it when that happens, when you can instantly relate and you feel like someone elses's life and feelings reflect yours. This, as I as I am awake at 2 in the morning, thinking. I wish I thought less, I wish I worried less, I wish things affected me less. But they do, they most certainly do. Susan Miller writes in her August forecast that it will be a quiet month for Virgos, but I will be surrounded by friends for most of it. Those are certainly good news. I crave quiet right now. That is one thing I noticed when I was back East - life there really is much more stressful. Suddenly I was late again for things. Suddenly I was rushing again from one destination to the next.  The pace of life here is certainly slower, for better or worse. And now, I am getting used to that being for the better. 

'Click' is reviewd on Thoughts, BC/22

"These fragments I have shored against my ruins."
— T.S. Eliot

Guesting At Chick Lit Central

It all started when I put in for a giveaway at Chick lit Central, which I consider to be the best chick-lit centric blog out there. I won, and struck a friendship with one of the owners of the site, Melissa Amster. Then out of a random question of "What are you reading right now," (I answered the Tina Fey book) she asked, would you like to write a guest blog review on CLC? I said yes right away, for I think it would be an honor. Then some drama ensued: nieces visited, got sick and had a fever, and last weekend, I just started writing and sent it to her. Voila - here is my review for them, and they made my writing look great! Thank you, Melissa for the opportunity!

On an aside, it looks like I am very far behind on my challenge of 100 books read for the year. This is only my 21st book, and it's the middle of July already. I thought i would be able to catch up during Summertime, but life always gets in the way! I need to rally if I want to meet the challenge (and I do!)

BC/21

Blue Is A Lovely Color

I have been so busy that I haven't had time to read, but I finally finished a book, "Something Blue," by Emily Giffin. This is kind of a sequel to "Something Borrowed," but not really. This one follows the "antagonist" in that story, and at first I thought, why follow up on a character that was unlikeable? But such is the brilliance of Ms. Giffin. Darcy is three-dimensional and real, and like us, makes mistakes, and is confused, and underneath it all, a good person just trying to make sense of the world around us, and how we react to it. She goes through a journey of trying to be a better person, and mostly succeeds. We all aspire to be that which makes this book, and her character, easily relatable. And in the heart of it all, there is even a sweet and believable love story. I loved this book, and Giffin has now shot up as one of my new favorite authors. I can't understand why I never read her before, maybe because I used to see these books everywhere? But now I just want to catch up on everything she has done. I found myself trying to "steal" time so I can finish his book - that's how engrossed I was in reading. I really hope now that they push through with filming this book, even with Kate Hudson (whom I am not a fan of)

BC/20

Hours

I was intrigued about "The Hour Between" because this book was recommended by NPR a while back, and was written by Sebastian Stuart, who is the partner of Stephen Mcauley, one of my favorite writers. Surely, I thought, some of the brilliance may rub off on him.  And this is the kind of book I like: coming-of-age character studies where perhaps nothing much happens, but in the end because of the experience, characters are changed because of how his life is touched by the people he meets, the friends he makes, the life experiences he leads. Set in a Connecticut Boarding School in 1967 (the year I was born) the locale and time frame may not be very close to me, but I could still relate. I had some major problem with the character development, though. Arthur, the narrator, was kicked out of regular school, but we discern that his character is shy, and not really much of a risk taker. So, what gives? The best friend he meets, Katherine Felt, is the daughter of a famous movie star, and you can tell that the author (and the main character) is on love with her: she is vividly portrayed. This was a quick read, and I marginally recommend it, but not to everyone. The quirk of the characters can either be endearing  or annoying. In the beginning, I fell somewhere in the middle, but I found myself missing the characters when I was finishing the book, and after, the book made me think about my life, and the friendships I carried with me. 


(P.S. Isn't the cover beautiful?)

BC/19

Read, Love & Borrow

I have never been the type to read a book after watching  movie based on that book. Usually, it is the other way around for me: I have read the book, watch the movie, and always say that the book was better than the movie. But I guess I like "Something Borrowed," the movie enough to want to read "Something borrowed," the book. I remember saying that this is one of those instances when I thought I had already read the book then I realized...I haven't. Maybe because I saw this cover plenty of times. It was a best seller, after all. Well, after reading this book, I liked it so much that I now want to read not only the sequel to it ("Something Blue") but also everything else that Emily Giffin has written. I loved the storytelling so much - there is so much depth in the characters - they are all flawed, relatable, and real. Even the villain was not as two-dimensional as I thought (though in the movie the shadings of the character was not as pronounced) This book made me think a lot, of the time when I was in New York, and I was young, and I was in love, and I was unsure about my feelings, and I ignored all the warning signs that pointed to the ultimate demise of that love. When you don't know better, you don't act better, but you learn, and you mature, and then you just remember. This is why I like to read what I read. Maybe in a sense, I want to feel old feelings I never thought I would feel again...

BC/18

Addicting Yawn

Reading memoirs - they can be really rewarding, or they an seem so self-indulgent that you really are left wondering - why the hell did he think his life was so interesting he had to write one? When Bill Clegg's memoir "Portrait Of An Addict As A Young Man" (talk about a self-indulgent title) came out, it got a lot of attention. And I must admit that it caught mine on a very shallow level - the author was/is veyr good-looking. Though the Times panned it, there were enough good reviews to make me want to read it. But the Kindle price was so high. At $14.99, there was no way I was going to purchase it. I kept on checking and waiting for the price to go down but it never did. Last week, I saw a cheap hardcover copy (for a penny!) and grabbed. I was so excited to read it, and sunk my teeth into the thing instantly. Yawn. What a snooze. The story is familiar. Believe me, it's nothing you have not seen before. A yuppy gets addicted to crack, and blows (literally) $70,000 worth of cash. Are we supposed to feel sympathy? Empathy? . There is nothing about Mr. Clegg that made me care for him. He had everything and foolishly threw it all away. It was like watching a train wreck that wasn't really an interesting one. Everyone came out alive. Rich folks lost their car, and then they buy another one. I wonder if this book would have been sold to a publisher had Mr. Clegg not been in the Publishing business. Thank God it was a thin book that I didn't feel like I invested a lot of time in it. My time would have been better off sleeping. 

BC/17

Homme Improvement

I won this book from Chick Lit Central and was excited to read it. I had heard and read about Matt Dunn - who writes chick lit from a male point of view - but had never had the opportunity to read anything by him. "The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook" reads quick - it's hilarious and engrossing. It doesn't have  complicated plot - the narrator, Edward, is left by his girlfriend because he has let himself go. So, he goes through a physical "makeover" in the hopes of winning her back. Of course, he (and we) learns that when things change in you, they also do within you. It was fun embarking on his journey, and his self-deprecating tone was very endearing. Mr. Dunn has a great flair for dialogue, each character's voice rings authentic. I honestly think he could be write a great script if he wanted to. I left the book wanting to stay with the characters. It's great to know, then, that Mr. Dunn has written a sequel to the novel. I can't wait to read that, too.

BC/16

Stories High And Lowe

I remember when I was in college, I had an assignment for English class. The professor gave us free reign to write on anything we wanted. I remember not liking it because...I didn't know what to write about. At least if we were given a topic, I could at least do some research, or contemplate on a topic. I remember it was a Sunday night and the assignment was due the next day. So out of desperation, I wrote a review of a movie I saw that weekend, "St. Elmo's Fire." I remember raving especially about the acting of the cast, especially Mare Winningham. I also remember that Rob Lowe looked so handsome in the movie. Flash forward to 2011, and Mr. Lowe writes his anecdote about making that movie in his memoir, "Stories I Only Tell My Friends," about how he thinks Joel Schumacher was forced into casting him for his part. There are hundreds of such anecdotes in the book, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading every single one of them. I think it helps that I know (and enjoy) a lot of the actors of his generation: Tom Cruise, Daryl Hannah, Demi Moore, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen. He writes about encounters with a lot of his peers, probably because they all used to hang out in the same circles. And, a lot of them are quite interesting and gives us a glimpse on the real personality of these people: Tom Cruise has always been driven, Charlie Sheen has always been a party animal. Rob Lowe is also a gentleman, and that kind of tempers the "hot" factor of his stories. He writes in the dust jacket of the book that his stories will not be salacious. Those looking for specific dirt on these people need look elsewhere. He is quite generous to all these people, with only good things to say about them. I find it interesting that he skims through major stories of his life: his 6 year relationship with Melissa Gilbert, for example. Even his chapters on his sex tape don't get as much print. His spiral towards addiction is not as dramatic, in print anyway, so you don't get the true range of his highs and lows. Still, I hope this not deter anyone from reading the book. If you are from his generation (like I am) there is plenty to enjoy. 


BC/15

It Commenced

I can't remember why I picked this book to read next.  I think it was on top of the pile I was tidying up at the time.  And after reading it, all I could say is - Meh. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I don't thoroughly dislike it either. The first part of the book sets up the four main characters, but I thought not enough. Midway through the book, I still got confused as to who was whom, as I thought the character's voices weren't distinctive enough. The second part of the book was more engrossing, if a bit soap-operaish in treatment. But as the conflicts unraveled, the payoff was almost laughably unbelievable. Perhaps this novel was too "feminine" for me? I kept on thinking that while I was reading it, but as I perused through the Goodreads comments after, I was relieved to find out I am not alone in thinking that this was not the most stellar literary experience. So - on to the next!

BC/14

Fifty Sense

THE BIG FIVE-OH was another free Amazon Kindle book, and I frankly wasn't expecting much from it. I was even rolling my eyes in the beginning because the whole set up is such a cliche, and there were very heavy handed Christian overtones in the writing. Plus, the writing isn't sophisticated at all, and at times it felt like I was reading a children's book. But then something happened in the middle of the book - I actually cared for these characters. Although they were drawn like cartoons, they were harmless, and charming enough for me to want to know what would happen to them. Sure, as the novel progressed the born-again tones started becoming more and more obvious, but I think I kind of read that about this book as I downloaded it. I mean, it was free, after all, so I am sure there was some kind of agenda and propaganda behind it. The book did not exactly change my life, but it provided some entertainment for me. In a way, it was like watching a wholesome Lifetime movie. You know exactly how the trip will end, you just have to relax and enjoy the simple pleasure of the journey.

BC/13

Naked, Sacred

Finally, finally, finally. I finished a book. I am now one book closer to my goal, and many many more to go as I play catch up.  This book was one of the ones I packed from my East Coast pile, and I just randomly chose it. I don't even remember now how I got it, but it's definitely not a brand new copy. I wish I could sy that I got into the story right away, but it took me a while. I don't know if it was because I was not comfortable or relaxed yet, but I enjoyed the second half of the book much more than the first half. I remember even almost giving up on it, but the anal retentive in me just kept on persevering. I am glad I did. At first, I wasn't too keen on the main character, Elisabeth Page. She comes from a "buena familia" and they are snobs, the father being a major asshole. The wife and kids mean well, but there's no question that they act "entitled." Elisabeth is a pasty chef at a hot Beverly Hills restaurant, but she feels like she has to start changing her life because she realizes she is unhappy. She then meets a guy from the other side of the tracks, and things start changing. She gets an offer to do a pilot for a cooking show for the Food Network. The wheels start turning and she tried to deal with all the changes happening. Maybe I related to it because I went through a lot of changes as well. The book is well-written, with one of those too-much-analyzing kind of characters that I always gravitate to. The writing can too be cutesy at times, and there are some holes in the plot line, but not too unbelievable. A fun enough read. 




BC/12

The Big Reveal

I got this book, "Almost Perfect," as a free Amazon book for the Kindle, and thought nothing of it after.  I downloaded the Kindle for Blackberry app and wanted to read something there. This book was first to appear on the list - alphabetically, by title, so I downloaded it onto my phone and started reading it. Well, by Golly, I got so hooked, and it was a very interesting premise. A high-school student named Logan starts out heartbroken because he just got dumped by his girlfriend.  He is depressed, and then meets the new girl in school, Sage.  They find that they have chemistry from the beginning, and it seemed like the perfect situation for him - he has found the girl of his dreams. But then there's a catch, a big reveal: Sage is really a man, a "transitional" male to female transsexual.  Just like any straight boy, the thought repulsed him. But then something odd happens. He finds that he has feelings for Sage, and then realizes that real love transcends gender and sexuality. This by no means simplify the situation. Logan questions, compromises, gets angry, sympathizes. He goes through a set of emotions he didn't know he had. The author lays out a fleshed out character that is layered, and normal. And I like the way he "explains" Sage, the transsexual character. She is unapologetic, confident, but deep inside we understand all the complexities of what she feels, and her decisions. This is mostly a story that is quite difficult to read sometimes. As you can probably imagine, these characters are brought into situations that a lot of times they cannot handle. The author mostly succeeds in giving them distinct voices. The writing could be a little more sophisticated, but then I think of the intended audience of this book, teenagers, so I can't really be too critical. I was immersed in this book, and couldn't wait to find out what happened to the characters. 

BC/11

Two Wills Are Better Than One

Didn't I recently just lament how two people can write a novel? Well, I am going to eat my hat because in this novel, "Will Greyson, WIll Grayson," having two points of views worked perfectly to its advantage. It's a story of two teenage boys named Will Grayson, and how they both meet in a very strange circumstance, and how they both grow wiser after they do. I heard about this book because on Band Of Thebes, a lot of gay authors named this among their favorite books of 2011. And they were all right, because I thought this was  a thought provoking book which had me laughing, crying, and contemplating about life. What I loved about this is how two points of view crashed, and that was when I thought having two voices/two authors worked. John Green's Will Grayson is a teenage straight boy who has a gay boy best friend. Weird, but out of the two Wills I preferred him. He had a smart self-deprecating tone that was hilarious and I loved how he was the "straight man" for his gay best friend's dramatic shenanigans. David Levithan's Will is a bit more serious, a gay teenager who is depressed, and trying to figure out his place in the world. It just reinforces how much life is a struggle for everyone, and we have all been through that. Sexual Orientation is sich a non-event the younger generation, and this book shows that. I really recommend this book, especially to younger teenagers. But for older gay men like us, it's as much of a treat!

BC/10

Yield To Narrate

A book about a gay hustler in New York City: a cliche, right? I have probably read hundreds of these types of books.  Yet I am still drawn to the genre. There's something about going into the mind of someone who is providing sexual services to people that just gets to me - intellectually (take your mind off the gutter)  So it is not a big surprise to me how much I enjoyed reading this book. Told in first-person, this is sort of a journal, slice-of-life character driven piece. It takes place in 1999 in New York City, a time and place very familiar to me. I recognize a lot of the environment where all the actions take place in here. It doesn't really tell a story as much as it explores relationships between people: between Simon (the narrator) and his clients, as well as his friends. The characters are vividly drawn, real and not over the top. I love that Mr. Houck shows a lot of restraint in his characterizations, for they seem more real to me that way. I love how he explores the dynamic of gay men having his group of friends as his family - that is certainly true in a lot of gay men I know, including myself. This is a silent introspective book, one that kept me thinking about life. 

2011/9

L Is For Love

"The Lover's Dictionary" by Steven Levitan is certainly a unique book.  It's a love tory told in a first person account under "headings" of dictionary entries. Some are meant to be derivative, others ironic. They range from a word, a one-liner, a paragraph, a memory. They can be cute, serious, funny, touching.  For example:

abstraction, n.

Love is one kind of abstraction. And then there are those nights when I sleep alone, when I curl into a pillow that isn't you, when I hear the tiptoe sounds that aren't yours. It's not as if I can conjure you there completely. I must embrace the idea of you instead. 


or...


antsy, adj.

I swore I would never take you to the opera again.


The heart of the story is simple : boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, girl cheats, boy and girl separate. But the story is told in such a personal manner so raw you really feel the emotions, and in the end even in the banality of it all you are heartbroken. This is a cute little book that will remind you of that feeling you have when you first fell in love and then got hurt. Yes, the form of the novel is gimmicky, but it has enough heart to overcome that.


BC/8

Romance Masala

I hate Indian food, and a lot of Indian culture si i was as surprised as anyone else when I found myself reading "Girl Most Likely To," which has a young Indian woman as the main character. But, I must admit, that the storytelling got me hooked. This is a well-written little book, and I found myself going back to it a couple of times. It's not as shallow and predictable as other chick lit releases (maybe because it's from Red Dress Ink?) and even has depth, exploring issues as diverse as culture barriers, insider trading, and claustrophobia. (Seriously) There is a brief episode in the middle that was a little too new-age spiritual for my taste (and almost a direct ripoff from 'Eat Pray Love') but it's not a deal breaker. On a small level, this book did succeed. 

BC/7

Pink Wolves

I have often wondered how two people can write fiction. I think writing a story is such a personal thing. I mean, I can understand if it's non-fiction or reporting. One person will do research on one side, while the other does the next, but forming a story? Well, I just finished reading "Wolves In Chic Clothing," which was written by two people: Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman, and these two even live in opposite sides of the country, so double my bewilderment. It was a zippy read: I finished in less than a day. However, there isn't much to the story - a young woman is used as a pawn between two egotistical friends who are just bored with their upper-crust life. I thought this was going to be one of those Devil-wears-prada kind of stories, but it's not even that. It's a sort-of Eliza Doolittle inspired story, but not even fully realized. A lot of the characters are half-baked stereotypes, and that includes the main character. You get swept into the fancy backgrounds and trappings, but ultimately it's just not an interesting enough of a story. These two authors never met a cliche they didn't, and it's only a consolation for me that the gay en in this novel are the ones who aren't as shallow as the other characters. Plus, I was amazed by the sheer number of grammatical errors in the book. You would think that with two authors, one of four eyes would catch them. It's a mindless read, wrapped in pink wrapping paper. 


BC/6

Asked And Told

This book is another one from my TBR pile. I have had it for a while, and the pages have even started to yellow. I remember buying this book, too. And what sold me on the book? The salacious title: "Secrets Of A Gay Marine Porn Star." I had visions of this book being so hot hot hot.  But I also remember starting to read it and found it to not hold my attention. So the book just ended up in my ever-growing pile. But as I started to look at that pile and pull out things, I chose this one. I started reading it, and it actually made a lot more sense to me, being that DADT was just revealed and he talks about his experience with that during his tenure. I thought that part was pretty interesting - the struggles for him to hide his sexuality in a DADT environment. It almost came naturally from him - he grew up and struggled in a fundamentalist Christian background, going to school, and later being expelled from the infamous Bob Jones University.  However, when he writes about the rest of his life, his struggles in dealing with the WeHo gay life, the book lost steam for me. We all have our struggles, we all have our issues, but he was getting up there and went from one hot mess experience to another. It became repetitive and he just became a gay cliche. Plus, this book needed some serious editing. Weighing in at almost 500 pages, there are stories upon stories that got in the book just because. At some point, they became minutiae. And I know I would have liked more to read on the "porn star" but it was pretty scant because, well, truthfully he wasn't much of a porn star: he did 4 scenes from semi-obscure studios. And really, for him to pump this up on the title is close to false advertising. That said, the book is pretty well-written. You can really sense that Mr. Merritt has a passion for writing.  I just question whether we really needed to read about every single wedding he ever went to. This book did open my eyes on a lot of things. I know that before, I really wasn't into the political issue of DADT, and now I can understand how very important for that policy be repealed. It's history now, but our history defines us. 

BC/5

From The Outside Looking In

Actresses who write : that's a different subgenre. Joan Collins, Paris Hilton, one of those girls from The Hills. I am sure there are many more. Now you can add Courtney-Thorne Smith to that list. This book was released in 2007, and I have had this ARC since around that time. I remember getting it at the dollar carts in The Strand.  I also remember starting to read this book and here we are, almost four years later and I finally finished it. Believe you me, I have tried numerous times just throwing it away, but the anal retentive in me just wants to finish it. Plus, I always keep on hearing Maya Angelou telling people "just read" when one is tempted to abando a book. "Outside In" is about an actress who is on a nighttime soap. So in my mind this character is Courtney herself, and the show is Melrose Place. I think when she was promoting this book she was talking about how a lot of actresses starve themselves for the camera. That would have been a more interesting topic to read about than this book about an insecure actress. What we get is a badly-written (like grammatically bad)  run-of-the mill chick lit. Kate, the character, is just so pathetic and dumb that you wonder how she became as successful as she was in the book. I can not remember how many times I rolled my eyes, and I just wanted to smack her. This went on and on up to about 80% of the book that I kept on asking myself - is this going to end? Why would you want to spend your time with such a sad sack?  I always say that I always take something, a little something from a book I read and the only thing I could think of here is I wanted to explore more the life of Vivian Leigh because they kept on talking about how she had a dramatic life.  Besides that, there's not much to take from this book. 

Bottoms Up!

I have had this book, "Tush" for a while now, but for some reason or another, I have not read it.  I remember getting it for very cheap, like a dollar or even less. When I was looking for books to read for my book challenge, I pulled this out. It is almost ironic that I finished it today, as I look at out the window and I see snow. Why? Because "Tush" is a summer gay novel, set in one of the gayest of gay summer meccas: Provincetown, Massachusetts. And it started out to be quite fun, too. A gay astrologer uses wit and charm to "lure" guys with nice butts - that's his fetish. It was amusing to see him all kinds of tricks so he could feel the asses of these men. But then at one point, it turned really creepy. He lures a date to Provincetown, and then he gets creepy. He starts stalking a local guy and uses all kinds of maneuvers after he gets rejected by all the men he meets. It was at this point that I started to dislike the character. Maybe when I was younger, I would have tolerated a lot of the crap he was pulling. But as I read it now, I just started to feel angry at him. A lot of his shenanigans were foolish - changing people's pills, drugging his exes, burning a house - that I stopped rooting for him. As a matter of fact, almost all the characters are pretty despicable in character that when good things started happening to them (in spite of their evil deeds) I started to roll my eyes. There are good things about the book - this was written in 1996, so a lto of the P-Town references are familiar, from the bars to the hotels. I discovered that the cemetery on Bradford Street apparently has one of the nicest views in the city, and now I can't wait to check that out when we get back there. The book was not a 100% loss. 


BC/3