'Tis the season...

This first pick is especially important to me as we consider "shopping local" during the holidays and throughout the year. Independent bookstores appreciate your business, and so do small presses. Bender is out from Washington's own Copper Canyon Press, a nonprofit publisher with offices in Port Townsend and Seattle. Small presses work hard to put out quality literature, so keep an eye out for their books!

 

Bender: New and Selected Poems by Dean Young

“...Toothpicked samples

at the farmer's market, every melon,

plum, I come undone, undone.”

Unusual, dense, funny and brilliant—these poems are full of surprises. Try one. There is beauty on every page.---Sarina

 

Lost at Sea by Jon Ronson

 

Fascinating essays by a quirky Brit on subjects ranging from the oddball guy next door to Stanley Kubrick, from credit card debt to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Offbeat and entertaining.---Judith

 Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Seraphina is about a young woman caught between two worlds, hiding her true identity and suppressing her amazing talent for music. Delve into this world of court intrigue, family secrets and civil unrest. Seraphina shines!---Morgaine

YA Then and Now

Recently my co-workers were gawking at the illustrations in a young adult novel from the '40s, and we all decided that one in particular was the most young-adult-novel-y page in the history of young adult novels, here it is...

If you can't read that caption, it says: Each day it became more evident that he didn't mean to call.

But then I found out, after we were done giggling at the awesomeness of that poor girl's pained expression, and fondly looking back on those moments in our own lives, that this book was supposed to be really excellent. It's called Seventeenth Summer, it's by Maureen Daly, and it's one of my lovely co-worker Debbie's favorite teen books ever, and it's now being passed around the Kids Desk staff. It's in her original copy that the above illustration is to be found, and here's what the book looks like on the outside (we love old books around here):

Adorable, yes? Then someone said, "Wait, don't we carry that book now, seventy years later? Why, yes, we do:

Cover's changed a bit! I actually don't hate the new one at all, especially compared with the often much more odious photo-of-random-white-teens covers that come out all the time. But compared with the original, it makes for an interesting look at the old and the new of book designing. You wouldn't guess, from looking at the current cover, that the copyright date is 1942. And no, the new one doesn't have any illustrations. Too bad.

-Anna

Past & Present

It can be quite discouraging, reading and recommending GLBT fiction.  The gay audience for fiction seems to be aging, and the younger generation seems not to find short stories and novels as vital to their understanding of themselves and our common gay culture as we did and do.  Perhaps as a symptom of the wider culture's abandonment of print in favor of electronic media, or perhaps as the direct result of publishing's growing reluctance to support gay literary fiction as the primary focus of gay writing as an art form, but for whatever reason, gay fiction seems to have devolved largely into an increasingly genre-driven ghetto of YA, fantasy and porn stories.

A very interesting discussion on the subject has started online at Afterelton.com., featuring two of the more successful gay authors of today, Michael Jensen and Brent Hartinger.  The interviewer and the writers all seem to assume that the great days of gay literary fiction are past.  They may be right.  (I'd prefer to think that they're wrong, and I suspect they would too.)

Meanwhile though, our own Nick DiMartino continues his effort to preserve and promote the best of GLBT fiction in the ongoing Seattle Gay & Lesbian Book Club -- meeting weekly at Dunshee House, every Wednesday at 6PM.  

Our first book, Breakfast With Scot, is proving to be the subject for a fairly wide ranging discussion of issues of gender, class and gay humor, as well as a grand excuse for homemade eatables, chat and good, multi generational gay company.  Author Michael Downing has agreed to answer our questions and has already provided us with a good deal to think about from our very first exchange with him.  (Keep an eye on this blog for more from the author soon.)

Please come by and check it out.

A (Forthcoming) Story for Younger Readers

In, I think, the second grade, already the consummate ham, I organized a "play" to commemorate Lincoln's Birthday at a PTA meeting. Aided by my pals Jeff (as Lincoln) and Joel (as Booth,) we re-enacted the tragedy of Lincoln's assassination. When Booth jumped from the scene of the crime to the stage, he nearly took the bunting and the Presidential Box -- made of cardboard -- with him. Luckily the dying Lincoln thoughtfully grabbed our falling set and held it throughout the rest of the action. Now why we chose the assassination as our tribute on the man's birthday, I do not now recall. I do remember that I was the narrator and Jeff was cast as Lincoln because, unlike me, he must have already been well over three feet tall.

I am not a big fan of assassination histories. Most tend to be written by conspiracy theorists and like minded paranoids. So when a great book does come along dealing with Lincoln's untimely end, it takes me awhile to warm to it.

Well, there is such a book on Lincoln's assassins, and I'm recommending here, a bit late. James L. Swanson has written the definitive history of the flight of John Wilkes Booth, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. Published in 2006, it is in paperback now. Terribly exciting, and full of information previously unknown to me, Swanson's book managed to tell a familiar story in a remarkably fresh way; taking the flight of Booth as an opportunity to detail both the hunt, and the immediate consequences of the assassination.

Come February, Swanson has a new book coming out, for younger readers: Chasing Lincoln's Killer. The author has recast the whole story in language appropriate for this new audience without losing the excitement and serious scholarship of the adult version. The new book is handsomely designed, includes a number of large illustrations, and will sell in hardcover for only $16.95. A perfect gift for a younger history buff. Much better, no doubt, if less hilarious, than my production from the 2nd grade.