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Books I read in May 2023
Total:
— War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges;
— Doubly Gifted: The Author as Visual Artist by Kathleen G. Hjerter;
— Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak by Jean Hatzfield;
— Lazarus: The Complete Book and Lyrics by David Bowie;
— Yentl the Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis Singer;
— Making Faces, Playing God: Identity and the Art of Transformational Makeup by Thomas Morawetz;
— Thin by Lauren Greenfield;
— Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card;
— The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel;
— T.E. Lawrence: Biography of a Broken Hero by Harold Orlans;
— Mission Child by Maureen McHugh;
— The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov;
— The End of Forgetting: Growing Up With Social Media by Kate Eichhorn.
Books I hope to crack open on vacation:
— Pageboy by Elliot Page;
— Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America by Krista Burton;
— Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer;
— Just Ignore Him by Alan Davies;
— The Planet Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder;
— The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune;
— Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn;
— Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy;
— Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler/
— War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges;
— Doubly Gifted: The Author as Visual Artist by Kathleen G. Hjerter;
— Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak by Jean Hatzfield;
— Lazarus: The Complete Book and Lyrics by David Bowie;
— Yentl the Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis Singer;
— Making Faces, Playing God: Identity and the Art of Transformational Makeup by Thomas Morawetz;
— Thin by Lauren Greenfield;
— Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card;
— The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel;
— T.E. Lawrence: Biography of a Broken Hero by Harold Orlans;
— Mission Child by Maureen McHugh;
— The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov;
— The End of Forgetting: Growing Up With Social Media by Kate Eichhorn.
Books I hope to crack open on vacation:
— Pageboy by Elliot Page;
— Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America by Krista Burton;
— Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer;
— Just Ignore Him by Alan Davies;
— The Planet Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder;
— The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune;
— Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn;
— Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy;
— Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler/
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Recognize a lot in this round, and that "Making Faces" one in particular looks like fun to read during Pride too.
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Recommended by a friend: Machete Season, Mission Child, Constructing a Planet, Dykes to Watch Out For
I frequently google "Best nonfiction books of [year]", and that's how I found "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning" -- Chris Hedges had a similar book in 2022, and I was curious enough to look at his whole bibliography and scout out the one that interested me the most. That's also how I found "The End of Forgetting" I think, but I also think you might have recommended it??
For any and all Lawrence of Arabia books, I just constantly check Thriftbooks for T.E. Lawrence keywords to see if there's anything good. That's also how I found "Doubly Gifted", because Lawrence's sketches were included in that. For the Orson Scott Card book, I remember looking up the best writing guides and feeling really drawn to that series for some reason, so I bought a bunch of them and just occasionally pick one from the stack, although Card's is the first I've liked enough to finish reading.
"Ugly Little Boy", "Thin", "Making Faces," were all random finds while browsing. Yentl and Lazarus are just relevant to my biggest interests so they've been on my list a while and I just got around to them XD
Lately though, yeah, it's just been googling "best nonfiction books of 2023", "lesbian romances with butch characters", "nonfiction books about troubled teen industry", and poring through the results, going down clicky rabbit holes until I find something that looks juicy. I read an article today about conquering your TBR (lol) that said something like, "Every time I read a new book, it makes me want to read 5 other related books" and that's another thing, checking the bibliography of a good book and finding similar variations, maybe on slightly different topics.
(...and admittedly I also get newsletters from Goodreads, BookHub, Hatchett Books, Barnes and Noble, etc., and I always read through them just in case. Usually the recs are not relevant. But that's how I found "Home Field Advantage", which was lovely. The only reason I checked it out is because it had a female football player, and I loved Britta Lundin's lesbian romance about a female football player, from like 2 years ago)
The hardest thing is to find books that fit a specific vibe -- that gritty, queer, problematic, kinky, intellectual, vicious vibe that I love. But you can't boil that down to a neatly-packaged marketable genre and poring through Goodreads lists sometimes makes you feel like nobody else in the world likes that shit but you! XD
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you know, i wonder if marginallia.nu would be a cool way to try that nonfiction books of the year googling -- getting the best of 'not SEO optimized' but also that crowd-funded sort of consensus when something is really really good.
the bibliography trick is SO useful though, agreed. especilly if it's in that odd circle of interests and it's especially cute when you recognize already similar books there XD
your breadth of reading is - i don't want to use inspiring in the lofty, predestal sense, but it's really refreshing to see, and makes me want to pick back up the habit even more strongly. cool shit. <3
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