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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.
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Book Review: Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore, by Patric Richardson with Karin B. Miller
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
“Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore” by Patric Richardson with Karin B. Miller
c.2021, Flatiron Books 25.99 / $34.99 Canada 185 pagesTomorrow’s outfit is on a chair over there.
That’s where it’s been since you last washed it. What you wore today came from a basket and off a hanger, the shirt needed ironing, there was a tiny stain on the pants but who noticed? and you just bought new socks, so there’s that. Time to do the wash? Yeah, but get a load of this: “Laundry Love” by Patric Richardson (with Karin B. Miller).
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Book Review: The Son of Mr. Suleman, by Eric Jerome Dickey
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“The Son of Mr. Suleman” by Eric Jerome Dickey
c.2021, Dutton $27.00 / $36.00 Canada 560 pagesThe sins of the father shall be visited upon the son.
That’s what’s said, that a son pay for his father’s misdeeds, but maybe the old man didn’t intend to leave a negative legacy. Maybe he tried his best, but something went wrong. Maybe, as in the new novel “The Son of Mr. Suleman” by Eric Jerome Dickey, Pops meant well.
Adjunct Professor Pi Suleman didn’t want to be at his employer’s event. He had better things to do, better places to be than a room at UAN, but his boss, the white woman who hired him, the wife of a powerful judge, demanded that he be there or else.
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Book Review: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, by Mary L. Trump, Ph.D.
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookwork
“Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” by Mary L. Trump, Ph.D.
c.2020, Simon and Schuster
$28.00 / $37.00 Canada 227 pagesYou hadn’t seen that container in ages.
You really can’t remember when you put it on the shelf. Sometime this year, six years ago, when you moved last? What’s in it must be worth something, though, or you wouldn’t’ve saved it. Now, as in the new book “Too Much and Never Enough” by Mary L. Trump, PhD, digging may yield answers.
No one has to explain to you who Donald Trump is but, for anyone who’s been completely out of the loop, Mary Trump is Donald’s niece (she uses his first name, always, and to avoid confusion, so will we). Trump has a PhD in psychology, worked at Manhattan Psychiatric Center while in school, was once a therapist, and taught graduate psychology. The point is, she’s got chops and it shows, especially when this book – a look at her family and, specifically, her Uncle Donald – reads like something from the True Medicine genre. Indeed, medically-based passages are nearly emotionless in their clinicality.
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Book Review: 55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal: Your Guide to a Better Life, by Elizabeth White
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm
55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal: Your Guide to a Better Life, by Elizabeth White
c.2020 in paperback, Simon & Schuster
$17.00 / $23.00 Canada 272 pagesYour last regular paycheck has come and gone.
That was awhile ago, back before you were downsized / laid off / reassigned right out of a job and you’re not sure what to do. Your savings are nearly gone, your retirement funds are next, and you’re too young to get Social Security. In 55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal” by Elizabeth White, you’ll see how to make this new life work.
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Book Review: Confessions of a Gay Priest, by Tom Rastrelli
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm
“Confessions of a Gay Priest” is a hard, hard book to read – it’ll make you squirm, it’ll make your eyebrows raise, you’ll want to toss it on the street and let semis run it over and yet, it’s stay-up-all-night compelling.
“Confessions of a Gay Priest” by Tom Rastrelli
c.2020, University of Iowa Press $19.95 / higher in Canada 328 pagesYou spent days examining your life.
Sins: that’s what you were looking for How had you displeased God? How many lies, covets, dishonors? What have you done since – oh, when was your last confession, anyhow? They say the sacrament is good for your soul, and in “Confessions of a Gay Priest” by Tom Rastrelli, there’s a lot to tell.
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Book Review: Half Broke: A Memoir, by Ginger Gaffney
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm“Half Broke: A Memoir” by Ginger Gaffney
c.2020, Norton $25.95 / $34.95 Canada 272 pagesThe last time you went riding, the weather was perfect.
Did you notice that? Or were you thinking about something, some niggling issue, a thorny problem that needed to be solved from the back of a saddle? They say that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man. In “Half Broke” by Ginger Gaffney, the same goes for the inside of a woman.
She knew she wasn’t going to get paid for the job.