Friday, June 29, 2012

Only Connect

Local author KitKatKid has finished an online novel

about sexual awakenings and innocent love, of cruelty and desperation, of degradation and despair. It’s a gay love story and … political thriller with a controversial message that addresses a number of topics some may find objectionable. The story takes place over a five year period in an America that never was, but an America that may seem all too familiar in many ways.

Of particular interest to readers may be the locale of the second half of the novel: Washington, D.C. To read the entire novel and add your constructive comments, visit Connected.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

new blog

Ernie has come across a blog he's found interesting

    Band of Thebes

and wants me to pass it along. Looks worthwhile
—and is frequently updated. Check it out!

The Ultimate Underground

Anyone remember reading Gad Beck's An Underground Life ? Actually, it's even before my time. But everyone will probably be interested in reading the Post's obituary.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Nominations for September 2012 Reading List

FICTION
The Art of Fielding  by Chad Harbach
Slant  by Timothy Wang
The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov  by Paul Elliott Russell
The Empty Family  by Colm Toíbín
We the Animals  by Justin Torres
By Nightfall  by Michael Cunningham
The Passages of H.M.  by Jay Parini
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You  by Peter Cameron
Dorian  by Will Self
The Farewell Symphony  by Edmund White
Gods and Monsters  by Christopher Bram
The Eye of the Storm  by Patrick White
The Counterfeiters  by André Gide

MEMOIR
The Last Deployment  by Bronson Lemer
Journey to Myrtos  by Robert Mitchell
The Fry Chronicles  by Stephen Fry
Dropping Names  by Daniel Curzon
Christopher and His Kind  by Christopher Isherwood

NON-FICTION
Secret Historian  by Justin Spring
What Do Gay Men Want?  by David M. Halperin
February House  by Sherill Tippins
Proust’s Way  by Roger Shattuck

POETRY
The Best of It  by Kay Ryan
Blackbird and Wolf  by Henri Cole
Sublimation Point  by Jason Schneiderman

DRAMA
The Bereaved and Mary  by Thomas Bradshaw
Cock  by Mike Bartlett
Speech and Debate  by Stephen Karam
The Brother/Sister Plays  by Tarell Alvin McCraney

ANTHOLOGIES
Boys Like Us ed. by Patrick Merla

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Somebody New

An executive summary of "Books We Have Read" below: We've read:

   three books by Edmund White

   two novels by Paul Russell

   two novels by Michael Cunningham

   two books by Colm Toíbín, and

   two books by Christopher Isherwood

I'd like to read somebody new.

Friday, June 1, 2012

“The Song of Achilles"

Here is a book and article that may interest readers:

Madeline Miller has won the Orange Prize for Fiction for “The Song of Achilles,” a novel set during the Trojan War which casts the Homeric hero’s relationship with his friend Patroclus as a love story.

The American writer received 30,000 pounds ($46,600) and a bronze statuette called “the Bessie” at a ceremony last night at London’s Royal Festival Hall. She overcame competition from Cynthia Ozick and four other novelists vying for the U.K. literary award for women.

Joanna Trollope, the head of the judging panel, praised the novel as being “interesting, passionate, uplifting and different.”