Book Recommendation of the Week IV: My Most Excellent Year

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

A fellow Bostonian, Kluger loves to set his stories in known territory (Boston), so the landscape should be familiar for locals. The charm of the book, though, is not in the location but in the characters: T.C. Augie, Ale, Andy, T.C.'s Dad, Lori, and of course, Hucky. T.C., Augie and Ale narrate the novel in turns, but letters from T.C.'s dad and Lori appear sometimes as well. Though focusing mainly on the romance between T.C. and Ale and between Augie and Andy, it manages to cover many other heart-warming story-lines. This book is a feel-good book, especially perfect for days when a little cheer is in order.

The novel takes place in Freshman year for T.C., Augie and Ale. Ale is the daughter of a diplomat who has been trained to follow her family, even though she dreams of pursuing dance. T.C. ( short for Anthony Conigliaro) loves baseball, particularly the Red Sox, loves his mother, who died when he was six, and loves his best friend Augie; he must mature quite a bit before reaching his full potential, though. Augie is T.C.'s best friend, newly discovering his sexuality while continuing his passionate love affair with the theater. Most adorable, though, is Hucky, the boy T.C. befriends after a baseball game. Hucky is deaf, so T.C. must learn sign language to communicate with him, and the friendship between the two is both sweet and humorous in turn.

In the midst of all of their character development, T.C. wants Hucky to meet Mary Poppins, Ale is starring in Kiss Me, Kate and all three are working through the government to restore the baseball diamond at Manzanar, an internment camp where Japanese-Americans were held during World War II. Sometimes the characters are a little too good to be true, but that fact can be easily looked over.

There's a lot to read and a lot to love in this book. From the GLBT perspective, there are GLBT characters, but the characters don't struggle with their identities as much as similar characters might in other books. There are some problems, but they're all addressed relatively easily and quickly. This isn't a book about exploring the main issues of sexuality, but it does a wonderful job showing two people in love regardless of age or gender. My Most Excellent Year is definitely worth the read, and if you enjoy it, Kluger has written three more fictional novels and one nonfiction book as well.

Book Recommendation of the Week III: Eon by Alison Goodman

Eon (Two Pearls of Wisdom) by Alison Goodman

Eon, unlike the other two books recommended before, is not as directly related to the LGB part of LGBT. It deals more with gender identity and the duality (or lack thereof) between male and female.
Eona is in training to be a Dragoneye in a world where there are twelve dragons, each bonded to an Eye and his apprentice (It is he since all of the Dragoneyes are male). At the start of the novel, Eona is just days away from the ceremony where the Rat Dragon will appear and pick the next Dragoneye. Eona is not known to the public as Eona, though, but as Eon. Only males are allowed to become Dragoneyes, so she and her master conceal her sex from everyone. Making matters worse, she was also partially crippled by an accident. During the ceremony, though, the Mirror Dragon, lost for centuries, reappears and chooses Eona to be its Dragoneye. Eona balances her training, despite some serious setbacks, with her new life at court and the politicians who inhabit it, such as the Emperor and Prince Kyo.

Eona struggles with trying to be male while reconciling herself with her female side throughout the book. However, she is not the only one in an atypical situation. There is a courtier, Lady Dela, who is a Contraire, or a man with a woman's spirit. Her tribe considers her fortunate to have both male and female spirits within her, but Lady Dela is subject to some discrimination at court. In the modern world, she would probably be considered transgender, but such terms do not exist in the setting of the novel. Lady Dela is an excellent character, and her role is crucial to the plot. Also present is Ryko, Lady Dela's bodyguard whose feelings are not exactly platonic.

While the book is certainly not perfect, it is a captivating read, and Goodman's interpretation of the Chinese Zodiac makes for an interesting concept. Eon is followed by Eona, also an excellent novel. This is a young adult novel, but it can certainly be enjoyed by someone of any age.

Book Recommendation of the Week II: The Stone Gods

The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson

For this book, I'm going to have to talk as Hannah, not as Spectrum, simply because it is my favorite book ever written (that I've read so far, although it would be quite hard to surpass it). Jeanette Winterson is such a fantastic author that I would really recommend any book she's written, particularly Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and The Passion.

In the start of the novel, we are introduced to Billy Crusoe (a woman, by the way) and a robot, Spike, who has actually evolved and developed emotions. Spike (also a female) is about to be deprogrammed, or essentially erased. Billy and a few others accompany a mission to see Planet Blue, a possible replacement for Orbus, their dying world. On the way over, Billy and Spike fall in love, which might be the end of many books, but not of this one.

Winterson's style is fluid, mosaic and lyrical. Thus, the story continues in different time periods where the characters, though essentially possessing the same personalities, live under different identities and names. They start over each time, not because Winterson has created a sort of samsara where life is a infinite game, but because the force of their love transcends time and identity.

Reading this book was, for me, like being immersed in a strange sort of pool. It took me several minutes to regain my bearings and catch my breath after I finished.

How does this relate to LGBT issues? Well, for one, Billy and Spike are (originally) both female, though the sex of the characters changed once or twice throughout the novel. The overpowering message, besides a rather forceful environmental warning which I have not discussed here, is that love exists regardless of sex, physicality or even time. Winterson herself is gay, so she might be speaking from personal experience. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit was her first novel, and is perhaps still the most well known, and it directly covers the challenges faced by a young woman discovering her sexuality in a religious family. I chose The Stone Gods simply because I prefer it to Oranges, and also because I read it first. However, both are wonderful books.

I am now reverting to Spectrum.

Have a wonderful week!

CCHS Spectrum

Book Recommendation of the Week: Annie on My Mind

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden


Summary:
Written in 1982, this wonderful novel details the friendship and relationship between Liza Winthrop and Annie Kenyon. Liza goes to a private school in Brooklyn, and Annie goes to a shabby public school, yet when the two meet in the Met, they become friends. Their feelings move beyond friendship, and when their relationship is discovered by Liza's school, it has consequences. Annie on My Mind is a classic book in young adult literature, and it is engaging, well written, and poignant.


Controversy:
The book holds the #48 spot on the list of books most frequently challenged from 1990 to 2000. Copies of the book were burned by high schools in Kansas City in 1993. When the superintendent tried to remove the book from the library, a court case ensued, resulting in the verdict that a school cannot remove a book from library shelves unless it has been deemed "educationally unsuitable." It was added in that statement that Annie on My Mind was not educationally unsuitable.


Awards: 
Nancy Garden was awarded the Margaret A. Edwards for Lifetime Achievement in 2003 for Annie on My Mind. The book itself has received glowing reviews from literary magazines, journals, and book reviewers.