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Book Review: In the Houses of Their Dead, by Terry Alford
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
In the Houses of Their Dead” by Terry Alford
c.2022, Liveright
$27.95 320 pagesYou’re talking to yourself again.
That’s okay: it helps sort your thoughts, calm your brain, and settle your mind. But you’re not just talking to yourself: it may sound funny but it’s comforting to have one-sided conversations with people who would’ve shared their valuable wisdom, if they were still alive. You talk to those who gone sometimes, and in “In the Houses of Their Dead” by Terry Alford, you’ll see how that’s a habit that’s been around awhile.
Even for the early 1800s, Edwin Booth grew up in an unconventional household.
His father was an alcoholic actor who was prone to eccentricity, and he forced young Edwin to become his traveling companion and handler when the boy was just twelve years old. Edwin’s mother had lost a number of her children to nineteenth-century diseases. His younger siblings – especially Asia and John Wilkes – were as melodramatic as their father. As you might expect, the family was drawn toward the new mania for spiritualism.
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Book Review: Dot & Ralfie: A Novel, by Amy Hoffman
By Terri Schlihenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
Dorothy “Dot” Greenbaum and Rafaela “Ralfie” Santopietro have been together for thirty years, but as they age, their stable lives begin to show cracks. Rife with Hoffman’s characteristic wit, Dot & Ralfie takes a hard, sometimes painful look at LGBTQ+ elder care and the unique struggles that come with aging outside of heteronormative structures. Can they get through it all and stay together? (Amazon)
“Dot & Ralfie: A Novel” by Amy Hoffman
c.2022, University of Wisconsin Press $16.95 147 pagesThere is one alternative to growing older.
Never mind, though, it’s not on your radar. You’re more focused these days on not groaning when you get up each morning, and keeping your joints oiled enough to work. Years don’t really mean much when you’ve got places to go and people to see before that alternative happens but in the new novel “Dot & Ralfie” by Amy Hoffman, keep one eye on that calendar…
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Book Review: Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff, by Matt Paxton with Jordan Michael Smith
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff” by Matt Paxton with Jordan Michael Smith
c.2022, Penguin Portfolio $24.00 310 pagesThe carpet in your living room is brown.
At least that’s the way you remember it. You haven’t actually seen it in a few years because you’ve got stuff from corner to corner, held down by furniture you don’t sit on, anchored by things you don’t use. Time for a major clean-up, and it can start with “Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff” by Matt Paxton with Jordan Michael Smith.
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Book Review: Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me about Caring for the Living, by Robert A. Jensen
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me about Caring for the Living, by Robert A. Jensen
c.2021, St. Martin’s Press $28.99 / $38.50 Canada
294 pagesPick up eggs. Milk. Macaroni. Bread.
If you don’t jot down a list of things you need to find, you’ll forget something. Apples. Light bulbs. Flour. Putting things on paper helps you to remember what you need and what’s missing. But in the new book, “Personal Effects” by Robert A. Jensen, the pick-up is more personal; the items, more heart-wrenching…
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Terri Schlichenmeyer’s Bookworm Sez: Best Books of 2021 (Fiction and Non-Fiction)
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
There’s still a lot of winter left.
That’s the fact staring you in the face. Once the holiday decorations are down, the toys are all put away, and you’ve rediscovered your gift certificates… what do you do with them?
You buy books, of course. And to get you started, here are a few sure-fire picks for the Best of 2021:
FICTION
What would you do if life throws you a curve-ball? In “The Guncle” by Steven Rowley (Putnam, $27.00), gay man, former TV star, Palm Springs fixture, no-responsibilities Patrick is asked to take care of his niece and nephew for the long-term. He never wanted kids at all. He never wanted to fall in love with them, either. Cute, sweet, funny, heartfelt – what more could you want?
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Book Review: Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for An Era, by Laurence Leamer
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for An Era by, Laurence Leamer
c.2021, Putnam $28.00 / $37.00 Canada 356 pages,Her lips are locked tight.
Your best friend knows all your secrets, and she’s keeping them; you told her things you had to tell somebody, and she’s telling nobody. You always knew you could trust her; if you couldn’t, she wouldn’t be your BFF. But as in the new book “Capote’s Women” by Laurence Leamer, what kind of a friend are you?
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Book Review: Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence, by Anita Hill
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence, by Anita Hill
c.2021, Viking $30.00 / $40.00 Canada 352 pagesThe grab was savage.
You yelped because you weren’t expecting it. Because it shouldn’t have happened. It was rough enough to leave marks on your skin, little round marks like fingertips; for sure, it left marks on your self-confidence but complain, and it’ll all be denied. You know the truth, though, and when you read “Believing” by Anita Hill, you’ll know someone else does, too.
Twenty-five percent of American women today “experience intimate partner violence…” Thirty-three percent say they’ve endured harassment at work. The rate’s higher for women of color, highest in the LGBTQ community. Similar statistics were available in 1991 when Anita Hill testified before Congress about the harassment she’d said she’d experienced from then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, testimony that later contributed to Hill’s becoming one of the country’s leaders in the fight against sexual harassment and gender violence.
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Book Review: How We Do Family: From Adoption to Trans Pregnancy, What We Learned About Love and LGBTQ Parenthood, by Trystan Reese
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
How We Do Family: From Adoption to Trans Pregnancy, What We Learned About Love and LGBTQ Parenthood, by Trystan Reese
c.2021, The Experiment
$24.95 / $32.95 Canada 216 pagesThere is no picket fence in front of your house.
There’s no singing milkman to bring your breakfast and the next door neighbor doesn’t coffee-klatsch with you every morning after your two-point-five kids go to school. There’s not, in fact, one 1962-normal thing about your home or your family but as in the new memoir, “How We Do Family” by Trystan Reese, what you’ve got is better.
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3 Book Reviews from Sue Katz: The Vanishing Self, Notes on a Scandal, and The Dream Lover
The following is reprinted with permission from Sue Katz: Consenting Adult.
By Sue Katz
3 Book Reviews
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
This recent novel became an instant best-seller and it is a compelling read indeed. Twin sisters grow up in a small Louisiana town predominated by light-skinned Black people. When the sisters strike out on their own to New Orleans, one sister “accidentally” passes for white and marries her white boss and has a blond daughter, while the other weds an abusive dark-skinned man and births a very dark girl. The divergence in their lives, in their fates, deprived of contact with each other, motors this story.
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Book Review: The Guncle, by Steven Rowley
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“The Guncle” by Steven Rowley
c.2021, Putnam $27.00 / $36.00 Canada 326 pagesWhat does a gay man who never wanted kids do when he suddenly has two of them?
The situation you’re facing isn’t one you wanted.
You had no wish for it; in fact, it’s a hundred percent the opposite. Not your circus, not your monkeys, as they say. So usually, you’d follow your instincts and run but this time, you surprise yourself by stepping up and taking ownership. Now it is your problem but, as in the new novel, “The Guncle” by Steven Rowley, that’s more than okay.
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Book Review: ¡Hola Papi! How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons, by John Paul Brammer
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
¡Hola Papi! How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons, by John Paul Brammer
c.2021, Simon & Schuster $26.00 / $35.00 Canada
224 pagesYour best friend definitely has an opinion.
You need advice and she offers an answer, though it might not be the one you seek. You may get sound counsel but at the wrong time, with sentiments directly opposing what you were thinking. And yet, you have to be grateful. As in the new book ¡Hola Papi!, by John Paul Brammer, the words come from the heart.
Growing up in a small Oklahoma town of Cache, John Paul Brammer knew nothing about being gay. He had little relationship experience, in fact, and he didn’t learn about hookup apps until he was a junior in college.
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Book Review: Two Dog Books for Summer Reading
Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sex“A Dog’s Courage” by W. Bruce Cameron
c.2021, Forge Books $26.99 / $36.50 Canada 288 pages“Dogwinks” by SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt
c.2020, Howard Books / Atria $19.99 / $26.99 Canada 285 pagesYour pooch is a first-class mess maker.
But what are you gonna do? A clean house won’t love you, play ball, snuggle on the sofa, or take you for a walk. You can’t teach a clean house cool new tricks and it can’t teach you, either. So this summer, ignore the mess, and grab one of these great books about dogs…
If you’ve ever loved a pup who had an unknown past, you know how much she appreciates her new home. When Bella becomes lost in the wilderness and is rescued and adopted by Lucas and Olivia, she’s very relieved and happy. But in “A Dog’s Courage” by W. Bruce Cameron, a dog like Bella never forgets her past.