Sunday, January 29, 2012

This 'n That: Blogger Friend & LGBT News + Reading Update!

What has everyone been up to this past week? I've had one of my disabling migraines, believe it or not, and have been bedridden for most of the week. I guess stress and everything else got to me, finally! Thankfully, I'm up and running again.

A few things happened this past week that made me happy though, and I'd like to share them with you.


Did you all know that our old blogger friend and all around great reviewer Brie dusted off Musings of a Bibliophile and she's back after a long hiatus? If you didn't know, well... now you do! Go on over and give her a big welcome back! I know we all missed her insightful and thorough reviews. From me to you:

Welcome back, Brie! 

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Then there's the release of the 2012 Over the Rainbow List. This is a list of 74 books chosen by the GLBT round table of the American Library Association. Here's a quote on their mission:
"The committee's mission is to create a bibliography of books that exhibit a commendable literary quality and significant authentic lgbt content and are recommended for adults over the age 18."
Now, I love this list because I can gather titles that I missed reading last year -- I'm always gathering titles. However, I was also rather happy that I not only recognized a few of the titles in that list as books read, but three of those titles made it to my top 10 LGBT books of 2011: The Abode of Bliss by Alex Jeffers, The German by Lee Thomas, and Wilde Stories 2011 edited by Steve Berman.

There are two other books in that list that I read. The young adult graphic novel a+e 4Ever by Ilike Merey was honored as one of the ALA's top ten favorite LGBT books. I read and chose to highlight instead of reviewing this graphic novel about young adults dealing with gender identity and sexuality issues. However if you check out this book, I'm sure you'll find that it has been garnering excellent reviews. And for those of you, who like me, loved A Companion to Wolves, its sequel The Tempering of Men by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear was also chosen under Speculative Fiction! So if you're interested, take a look at the whole list. I've already made my list. :)

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I'm also happy to report that January has been a great reading month so far. Even with last week's bout with migraines. I read three science fiction novels and four science fiction novellas! With one exception, the rest of them were by John Scalzi, an author that I've been putting off reading for quite some time. So now that I've cleaned out some of his books from my TBR, I'm ready to begin reading the very popular Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. I'll be concentrating on that series in February. So bear with me and my science fiction obsession for one more month.... *g*

What am I reading at the moment? Right now I'm reading a book for the Internet Book Club I joined with Mariana and a few others, The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic... remember that movie?). So far so good! I have a few books by Hoffman in my TBR, but decided to recommend one of her 2011 releases.

7 comments:

  1. Wow, thank you for the mention! How lovely of you! It is good to be back. :)

    I love Bujold but haven't read Vorkosigan's yet. I still have one book left in her Sharing Knife series to finish. Anyway, I look forward to hearing what you think about this series.

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  2. Glad you're feeling better!

    Thanks for the 2012 Over the Rainbow list - will have to check it out.

    I've a couple more Scalzi OMW books to read - they're sitting in my TBR pile, I may have to get to them soon after reading your reviews. And yay for Vorkosigan reading!

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  3. Whee! Shards of Honor is an awesome SF novel and an awesome romance; I can't wait to hear what you think. :)

    Angie

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  4. Hey Brie! It's great to have you back. :)

    I still remember your wonderful review of the Sharing Knife by Bujold. I'm looking forward to reading all about Miles. I've put it off enough already. :D

    Li, thank you. I hope you find some great LGBT titles in that list too. Ohhh, and I do hope you enjoy Scalzi, I still have a few titles left in my TBR, but I'm giving him a rest until after I begin Bujold. I'm really looking forward to that. :)

    Angie! Now seee, you know how to get me all hyped up about a book. *g* SF AND romance. Can't wait to get started.

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  5. So sorry to hear about the migraine. Hope ou're feeling better now?

    And YAH for a great reading month in January!

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  6. Hope you're feeling better Hils!! And it's awesome that Brie is back right? :)

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  7. Orannia, thanks! I'm on my way to full recovery, it takes me a little while. And yes... January has been good to me reading-wise. :)

    Nath, I am feeling better. Thank you. And yay! Brie's back!

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