“Female characters should be people. Flawed, glorious, interesting, enthralling people. Let them dye their hair and pierce their ears without going “wah wah wah I’m so bad at being a girl wait hey look suddenly I’ve gotten a makeover and I’m gorgeous.” Let them have female friends. Let them fuck up. Let them have bad days, and … Continue reading
Filed under GLBTQ …
It is Not Your Job by Caitlyn Siehl
It is Not Your Job by Caitlyn Siehl when your little girl asks you if she’s pretty your heart will drop like a wineglass on the hardwood floor part of you will want to say of course you are, don’t ever question it and the other part the part that is clawing at you will … Continue reading
The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves
I haven’t actually read this book yet, in fact I only just heard about it today, but the discovery is so exciting I couldn’t resist posting about it. I found out about it here on the Horn Book website. Equivalent to the print version of the It Gets Better campaign, the book is a collection … Continue reading
City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare
After a short break reading other books and spending time in distant literary lands, I’m back in the world of shadowhunters with the 5th installment in Cassandra Clare’s City of Lost Souls. I’ve voraciously devoured Clare’s 7 books over the last 6 months, but I unfortunately just discovered that the next one isn’t due out … Continue reading
On the Importance of Poetry…
“We [poets] may feel bitterly how little our poems can do in the face of seemingly out-of-control technological power and seemingly limitless corporate greed, yet it has always been true that poetry can break isolation, show us to ourselves when we are outlawed or made invisible, remind us of beauty where no beauty seems possible, … Continue reading
City of Glass
After a brief hiatus, upon reentering the world of shadowhunters I expected the story to progress intriguingly, yet rather slowly, around the same pace it had in the previous installments (City of Bones and City of Ashes), lingering on the intimate interactions between the lead characters while building the tension in the secrets of the … Continue reading
City of Ashes
City of Ashes picks up right where City of Bones left off. Clary is reeling from recent revelations and we get a sense that her life is about to get even more complicated. This story fits so seemlessly into City of Bones that it’s difficult to remember where one left off and the other begins. … Continue reading
City of Bones
It’s been intriguing jumping in to City of Bones, the first book in The Mortal Instruments series after reading Clockwork Prince and Clockwork Angel. I was already acquainted with the world of shadowhunters, albeit in another era and place: Victorian England. City of Bones takes place in modern day New York City, and while at … Continue reading
Great Women in History: Selma Lagerlöf
Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909. In 1914 she was the first woman elected to membership in the Swedish Academy. She is most well-known for her children’s book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils), but she also wrote dozens … Continue reading
Swordspoint
Every once in a great while I come across a book that I feel as if I’ve been waiting my whole life to read—Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner is one of those rare delights. I spent the majority of my teenage years searching for well-written novels that featured gay romantic relationships, or at the very least, … Continue reading
