Month: February 2019

Books I Like #4

The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard

Little, Brown, & Co. Boston, New York, Toronto, London 1998

boys-of-my-youth

This was one of the books I was assigned to read in my MFA program, and I wrote a craft annotation of it. It’s a collection of brilliant memoir essays from many different stages of Beard’s life, each one more vivid and intimate than the last. My favorites were the one where she’s watching fireworks with her family as a child, and the one that’s written from the point of view of a coyote.

My own memoir work is similar, though when I go back to it, I will revise it into a single narrative.

Books I Like #3

The Complicated Geography of Alice by Jules Vilmur

Self-Published, 2014

geographyalice

This is my favorite transition memoir. I found parts of it as blog posts at Daily Kos, back when I read that thing, and when I learned that author Jules Vilmer was about to self-publish a book-length version, I was thrilled. The realized object is no disappointment.

It tells the story of Alice, a troubled teen who had been wearing a “boy suit,” and her mother, who accepted her immediately, without a moment’s hesitation, and the story of Alice’s transition and traumas over the next few years. There is humor and sadness, love, joy, and tragedy in this book, and you experience it right along with Jules and Alice.

The aspect of this memoir I find most unusual and compelling is that it’s told through the eyes of someone who loves a trans person, rather than being a first person account. In this case, a first person account wouldn’t be possible, and that is also compelling. This is a story that Vilmer had to tell, and she tells it marvelously.

If you follow the link through from Jules’ site to Amazon, it appears that you can still buy the book in paper. I’m proud to own my copy, and I eagerly point you to your own opportunity to read it.

Books I Like #2

Assassin’s Fate: Book III of the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy by Robin Hobb

Del Rey, New York 2017

Assassinsfate

I am a genre reader and writer, and this is my genre.

This book stands in for the entire 15-book sequence, from Assassin’s Apprentice on, and including the Liveship Traders books. You are not allowed to skip the Liveship books, because you need that part of the story for the huge payoff you get in this book. Part of why this works so well for me may have to do with the fact that I’ve been reading them since the very first one was new, eagerly anticipating each one as it hit the shelves like a total nerd. She also wrote the Soldier’s Son trilogy (which I also love, by the way) in the same period, so that’s 18 books on the highest level of epic fantasy writing, all published within a 15 year span. They range in length from about 500 to over 1000 pages.

They chronicle a time when the world built to tell the story in changes over the space of about 50 to 60 years. 9 of the 15 books focus on a dreamer/clairvoyant who is determined to change the course of history, and who is gender variant, sometimes presenting as male, sometimes as female, and who never reveals a set gender identity at all (the Fool) and their catalyst, the bastard son of a dethroned heir-apparent prince from a large medieval-equivalent kingdom (FitzChivalry Farseer).

Books I Like #1

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline

Candlelick Press, Cambridge MA, 2006

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I was a puddle of goo by the end of this book. It is simply the most beautiful thing I have ever read.

It was recommended to me by Jørn Otte, a friend of mine from my MFA program, who writes YA fiction and nonfiction. He said it was his favorite book, and the passion he obviously felt for it was convincing. As soon as I had headspace to read something on my own recognizance, this was my choice.

It has a Buddhist feel, but it is about as close to atheist a fantasy as one could imagine, and it is a deeply spiritual book. Edward’s journey, and it is a journey in all senses of the word, is as described, and I was gutted at the end of it. If I didn’t have a hundred things in my tbr pile, I’d pick it up and read it again right now. I’m sorely tempted to do that anyway, but I can’t really justify it.

 

Books I Like Meta

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I’m doing a series of Facebook posts that include exclusive content here as an experiment. I’m also trying to use more pictures, going for shorter posts, and seeing how long I can maintain posting every day.

This is one of those challenge meme thingies. I was asked to do this by Valerie Nelson.

Thus we begin Season 3: The Groma Era.