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chickenI'm finally getting into reading again. A few months ago, I read Jamie O'Neill's At Swim, Two Boys, which I really liked. I expected it to be simply an Irish Catholic's book about coming-of-age as a young gay man, but it wasn't just that. It was a history lesson, a cultural lesson, and one of the more lyrical novels I've read.
Around that same time, I also read Sarah Vowell's hilarious The Partly Cloudy Patriot. It was extremely funny, and even had a chapter about Buffy, but was not nearly as funny as her book tour speech about the book, which aired on C-SPAN, a videotape of her appearance for Minnesota Public Radio. In that appearance, she said some really funny things about George Bush. She also said some funny things about Buffy fandom, and made a very, very funny comment about Buffy & Spike's sex scene at the end of "Smashed" being the most pornographic thing she'd every seen on network TV. "In a good way". (In the book, it is revealed that she is a personal friend of Doug Petrie, the Buffy writer.) Also, her speaking voice, her delivery, make her words much, much funnier than they seem when one just reads them off the page.
So anyway, during the last couple of weeks I've read the Weetzie Bat series (thanks to transpotr for pointing out that there were sequels), read some disappointingly badly illustrated Dark Horse comics Buffy stuff, and read an amazing amount of Buffy fanfic.
But now I've finally delved back into non-fiction as well. I've been on the waiting list at the public library for over three months for Dan Savage's Skipping Towards Gomorrah, and it seems I may break down and buy it soon, because the waiting will never end. In the mean time, I read his older book The Kid (What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant): an Adoption Story.
I never expected this book to be funny. I know his columns in queer mags and such are often funny, and his interview on NPR about Skipping Towards Gomorrah was funny, but adoption is a serious issue, especially since the fundies are making it as difficult as possible for gay people to adopt. I pictured this book being a heavy-handed political diatribe, which can be irritating even when one agrees with the writer's point of view. However, it was not heavy-handed at all. It was hilarious, touching, honest, and fascinating. I never expected to laugh so hard. He manages to poke fun at the Christian right, himself, his boyfriend, his friends, his family, and some oblivious straight people, all without sounding mean or vindictive. I also found myself crying more than once while reading it, and it was also extremely informative. And it's just fun to get inside someone else's life a little.
I also realize anew that if my love and I ever decide to have kids, we'll never be able to afford adoption. Expensive! The "find a gay male friend"/dixie cup option seems the easiest, least expensive option. I know that our eggs are probably getting close to their sell-by date, though.
Anyway, this book made me even more eager to get my hands on Skipping Towards Gomorrah. I really like Savage's writing. It's the kind that makes you stay up all night reading, and it's not even fiction!
Oh, if you are reading this, thanks to keever for your links (in your book-related journal entries) to Powell's. I decided to link to their site's books because of your links. This was nice because I'd never visited their site before, and so found it very nice, nicer than Amazon, and because the URLs are less annoying to paste into the editing window, and finally because of the nice coincidence: Dan Savage's books mentions Powell's more than once (they live in Seattle and their birth mother was living in Portland at the time of the adoption).
Around that same time, I also read Sarah Vowell's hilarious The Partly Cloudy Patriot. It was extremely funny, and even had a chapter about Buffy, but was not nearly as funny as her book tour speech about the book, which aired on C-SPAN, a videotape of her appearance for Minnesota Public Radio. In that appearance, she said some really funny things about George Bush. She also said some funny things about Buffy fandom, and made a very, very funny comment about Buffy & Spike's sex scene at the end of "Smashed" being the most pornographic thing she'd every seen on network TV. "In a good way". (In the book, it is revealed that she is a personal friend of Doug Petrie, the Buffy writer.) Also, her speaking voice, her delivery, make her words much, much funnier than they seem when one just reads them off the page.
So anyway, during the last couple of weeks I've read the Weetzie Bat series (thanks to transpotr for pointing out that there were sequels), read some disappointingly badly illustrated Dark Horse comics Buffy stuff, and read an amazing amount of Buffy fanfic.
But now I've finally delved back into non-fiction as well. I've been on the waiting list at the public library for over three months for Dan Savage's Skipping Towards Gomorrah, and it seems I may break down and buy it soon, because the waiting will never end. In the mean time, I read his older book The Kid (What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant): an Adoption Story.
I never expected this book to be funny. I know his columns in queer mags and such are often funny, and his interview on NPR about Skipping Towards Gomorrah was funny, but adoption is a serious issue, especially since the fundies are making it as difficult as possible for gay people to adopt. I pictured this book being a heavy-handed political diatribe, which can be irritating even when one agrees with the writer's point of view. However, it was not heavy-handed at all. It was hilarious, touching, honest, and fascinating. I never expected to laugh so hard. He manages to poke fun at the Christian right, himself, his boyfriend, his friends, his family, and some oblivious straight people, all without sounding mean or vindictive. I also found myself crying more than once while reading it, and it was also extremely informative. And it's just fun to get inside someone else's life a little.
I also realize anew that if my love and I ever decide to have kids, we'll never be able to afford adoption. Expensive! The "find a gay male friend"/dixie cup option seems the easiest, least expensive option. I know that our eggs are probably getting close to their sell-by date, though.
Anyway, this book made me even more eager to get my hands on Skipping Towards Gomorrah. I really like Savage's writing. It's the kind that makes you stay up all night reading, and it's not even fiction!
Oh, if you are reading this, thanks to keever for your links (in your book-related journal entries) to Powell's. I decided to link to their site's books because of your links. This was nice because I'd never visited their site before, and so found it very nice, nicer than Amazon, and because the URLs are less annoying to paste into the editing window, and finally because of the nice coincidence: Dan Savage's books mentions Powell's more than once (they live in Seattle and their birth mother was living in Portland at the time of the adoption).
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-25 10:53 am (UTC)I'm a huge Sarah Vowell fan, and I loved the essay, not to mention the entire book. I laughed at myself when she mentioned "my friend Doug," because I knew immediately that she was talking about Petrie; having listened to his DVD commentary, I can totally see how they'd be friends. I'm still hugely mad that I blinked and wasn't able to get tickets when the This American Life tour came here. She and David Sedaris were both there. Grrrr.
I like Powell's; the URL reason is actually one of the reasons that I link to them. I think I found them through their advertising at Salon. I'm a fan of independent bookstores, but it's somewhat hard to find ones that have good sites.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-25 11:44 am (UTC)About At Swim, Two Boys -- know that the obsessed with Catholicism thing is pretty strong, but also know that it isn't as oppressively omnipresent as it is in James Joyce, for example. It's definitely bearable.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-26 10:25 am (UTC)I'm half Irish, and was raised Catholic, so I'm not put off by that content. If anything, it makes me want to read the book more.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-26 05:52 pm (UTC)I've been thinking about grabbing At Swim, Two Boys for awhile, now. I read a little bit of it while I was sitting around Borders, one day, and it sounds good. David and I recently realized that we missed seeing the author in St. Louis a few weeks ago... he was in town for something or other.
I caught Sarah Vowell on "Fresh Air" on NPR and really enjoyed listening to her. She has a lovely sense of humor that instantly endeared me to her. I've thought about picking up her book, but it's kind of far down my list of things. I was aware, however, that she was friends with Douglas Petrie, who is one of my favorite writers for Buffy. [Along with Joss and Jane Espenson...]
Speaking of Buffy and comic books, I agree that they are, for the most part, poorly written. Have you had the chance to read Tales of the Slayers [an anthology of, well, tales about the past slayers. Each story is written by a writer from the show] or Fray? Fray is still running and rather enjoyable.
I've read both of Dan Savage's books and I thoroughly enjoyed them both. I quickly passed The Kid onto my boyfriend because I knew he'd enjoy it, as well. Skipping Towards Gamorrah [I haven't had the chance to pass that on to David] was also entirely enjoyable, both funny and educational in an off-beat sort of way. I had to sell a bunch of paper back books so I could afford to buy it when it came out, but it was definitely worth it. You probably won't regret it if you make the decision to buy it.
And, that's enough, I gotta bolt.
-Jared
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-27 04:57 am (UTC)One of the Dark Horse ones that I did find kind of interesting was "Spike & Drusilla" -- Christopher Golden, one of the Buffy writers, actually helped write that one (alhough the illustrations, as usual, were horrible). James Marsters also co-wrote one of the stories in this one, which was kinda interesting.
I'm glad to hear Skipping Towards Gomorrah is so good -- after I heard him read some of it aloud on NPR, I was hooked. He even revealed, on that show (Fresh Air, I think) which of the seven deadly sins he could not bring himself to follow through on. Pretty interesting.