SoapZone Community Message Board

Rainbow Black by Maggie Thrash (A): This book reads as Jodi Picoult wrote a lesbian Gone Girl. It was brilliant. It’s 1990, and the 14-year-old protagonist’s parents are accused of child molestation and being Satanists and are arrested. Her sister is murdered. And her trans friend’s guardian may have done it. So the main character decides to take vengeance and then go on the run to Montreal with her trans friend, where in 2006 the past comes back to haunt them. One of the best books I’ve read all year.

Hi Honey, I’m Homo! Sitcoms, Specials and the Queering of American Culture by Matt Baume (A) A look of how queer representation has changed in sitcoms from Bewitched to Modern Family, putting it in context with what was going on in society at the same time. Very informatative while still being entertaining. You can have both!

Contact by Carl Sagan (A). I read this in high school and liked it. I’m glad I re-read it as I got so much more out of it this time around (and need to rewatch the movie with Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey). An astronomer interprets a message received from somewhere in space.

The B-List

Ever By My Side: A Memoir in Eight (Acts) Pets by Nick Trout (B+) Trout, a veterinarian, writes about the pets that helped make him the animal lover that he is.

Cybill Disobedience by Cybill Shepherd with Aimee Lee Ball (B+) One of the more entertaining celeb memoirs I’ve read.

Day by Michael Cunningham (B+). Cunningham follows a family on the same day in April 2019, 2020 and 2021 with how Covid affected and changed them. Definitely not as good as The Hours or A Home At the End of the World, but still worth reading.

Jupiter’s Travels by Ted Simon (B+) Simon went around the world in the 1970s (and this was written and published then) on his motorcycle. It’s a collection of his adventures. The first half is more detailed and interesting than the second. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman were inspired by this book for their Long Way ‘Round sojourns.

One Night in Georgia by Celeste O. Norfleet (B) This book had such promise and fizzled. Three Black college women take a road trip back to their college in Georgia in 1968 and deal with racism and other issues. The ending felt totally rushed, and I wanted more time with the characters.

Wild At Heart by Barry Gifford (B) Lynch’s film was better and much more memorable than the source material. A young couple on the run tale.

Brendan Wolf by Brian Malloy (B): Parts of this felt familiar, parts no. I may have read this around 2008 or so when it was first published. A 30-something old drifter finds himself working for an elderly rich gay man who wants him to be his “kept boy” but Brendan is too old, while his family has him helping fraud a Christian organization. It was all over the place. Which may be why, if I did read it, I only remember half of it?

Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywoood’s First Openly Gay Star by William J. Mann (B-). Haines had an interesting life, but the writing became very repetitive and I found myself skimming a lot. I was really impressed that he was more or less open in Hollywood despite the time period, and he refused an arranged marriage and became a decorator. He was friends with Joan Crawford.

The C-List

Three Keys by Laura Pritchett (C)
It seemed so good on paper, but it fell flat. A woman having a midlife crisis goes back to three places she still has keys to in order to figure her life out. Writing was trite and trying to hard, and it reeked of a fictional Eat, Pray, Love wannabe.

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell (C-). I usually love Mitchell, even if I don’t get half the references to his other books. This one, about a band trying to make it big in the 1960s, was just boring and a chore to read. I ended up having to skim to the end.