What Night Brings

By Carla Trujillo

11 and then 12-year-old Marci Cruz has some major challenges: How to survive an abusive father, thinking she had to become a boy to get the attention of the beautiful teenage girl she likes, and trying to make sense of the world around her: a 1960s barrage of the Catholic Church, Chicano-American culture, and the Vietnam War.

"What Night Brings" won the 2003 Miguel Mármol Prize, the Paterson Fiction Prize and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. (Carla won the Lambda Literary Award in 1991 for her work editing "Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About.")

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Setting Up For Success in 2008

Okay, so it's a New Year, and we each get a chance to set goals for 2008. In conversation with my amazing and super-smart writing friends, Sara Wilson Etienne and Rita Crayon Huang, we came up with some good ideas. I've elaborated on them a bit, and share them here.

GOALS FOR 2008

We all have different areas of our lives, and each area can get its own list.

personal goals - like exercise and time alone and, hey - Reading!

social goals - like making time to be with friends or with your spouse/partner

community goals - how we're involved with others and giving back

professional goals - school or job

Think about your goals, and SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS.

Think about short term (what am I going to accomplish this week) and long term (what am I going to accomplish this year)

If I said, "My personal goal is to reach my perfect state of fitness, so I'm going to not eat any desserts until I'm there." I'd give up on my goal as soon as I eat that next chocolate brownie that I know I'm going to have, err... tonight. So, set short term goals (maybe I'll aim to limit desserts to every other night this week) and long term goals (I'll aim to be working out 4 days a week by March!)

Another note about short term goals: Much of this is the alchemy of feeling good and motivated. Sometimes when I have a whole bunch of things to do, I'll make a gigantic list, and I'll always put something I've already done on the list, so there's at least something crossed off right away. It feels less daunting that way. So look, you've already checked out this blog, so you've got something for today's list you can check off already!

Also, realize that YOU CAN ONLY CONTROL YOURSELF. I'd suggest you don't set a goal like "2008 is the year I'm going to be discovered and published and become a best selling author!" because YOU don't control that. A set-yourself-up-for-success goal would be "I'm going to write and finish that draft. And then I'm going to submit it to my dream editor." That's a goal you can reach, because it's about your actions.

Do you have to share your goals with anyone else? No, only if you want to. But I'd suggest it's important for you to RITUALIZE the setting of goals in some way.

Last year, at the February Asilomar SCBWI (The Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators) conference, they had each participant write down on two 3x5 cards their goals for the upcoming year (the same goals on both cards.) Then we ritualistically took turns putting ONE of the cards into the fire (we were to keep the other card to remind us of our commitment to ourselves.) The idea being the Native American concept of transmuting the written words into smoke which then travels up to the realm of the Gods (or the universe.) Putting it out there.

Another idea that Sara shared is to seal it in an envelope and keep it in a special place, so you can unwrap it in a year.

The concept is to formalize this deal you're making with yourself.

For those for whom a whole list seems too overwhelming, check out this great idea on Christine Kane's blog that the amazing Lynda Sandoval told me about, which is to choose a single word as a sort of slogan for yourself for the year. To focus on the BEING rather than the doing, in terms of motivation. I thought it was really interesting, and maybe it'll be useful for you, too.

A completely different and fascinating approach is what Rita shared about breaking down your time in percentages - how much time (hours, minutes) do you ideally want to spend on the different aspects of your life each day? each week? For those of you mathematically and even Pie (or would it be "Pi"?) inclined, you can even make a chart!

So, grab piece of paper. Have fun with it! How do you want to spend your time? How do you want to BE? What do you want to DO? Think about 2008. We each get the gift of a whole new year to take chances, try new things, and succeed on OWN terms.

With Blessings for an amazing New Year, Namaste.

Lee

I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip.

By John Donovan

When the grandmother raising him dies, 13-year-old Davy is uprooted to Manhattan to live with his alcoholic mother.

In New York, he befriends another boy, Douglas, and the friendship grows into more.

Davy's mother freaks at the discovery, and the boys roam Manhattan - not so much figuring stuff out, but living and talking about "this queer business."

Published in 1969, this was groundbreaking stuff!

I have to admit this "classic" holds a special place for me, because it's the name-inspiration for one of my favorite blogs, super-librarian KT Horning's WORTH THE TRIP (Queer books for Kids and Teens!)

So check out the blog (and of course she has a great in-depth review there of "I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip.")

And, once you've read the book, add your review in "comments!"

Boy Meets Boy

By David Levithan

It's an alternate gay universe, where the high school's star quarterback is also a drag queen named "Infinite Darlene!" Paul is a Sophomore, with a group of friends who are gay and straight - and being gay is no big deal.

Paul crushes on Noah, but then Paul's ex, Kyle, wants to get back together...

In David's words:

This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world.

If only MY high school experience had been like this!

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

SPINSTERS! China's Silk Weavers: Were they Lesbians, Feminists, or both?

Hi! I'm back; rested, better-read, and ALL FIRED UP!

2008 is going to be amazing, and here we go...


Today's Bitchin' Queer Quote shows just how hidden GLBTQ history can be. I traced this fragment back from a line in a footnote in a book about something completely different...

but it's great.

Get this, the word "SPINSTER" - think of our cultural definition. A woman who never married, older, definitely with a negative connotation.

The etymological definition of "Spinster" talks about a female spinner of thread, often an unmarried women. But let's get into that deeper.

Agnes Smedley was this amazing journalist and open-hearted revolutionary who roamed the globe connecting with the struggles of women, the poor and the down-trodden everywhere. Not much appreciated by the U.S. government, she was a champion of India's struggle for Independence and was huge in the western understanding of China's Communist revolution (she traveled to China in the 1930s and 1940s.) Her books were powerful, personal, and widely read.

Agnes Smedley

From "Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution" Agnes writes of how the Spinsters of China, the women silk spinners in the south, were so different from the women in the rest of the country.

These were the only places in the whole country where the birth of a baby girl was an occasion for joy, for here girls were the main support of their families. Consciousness of their worth was reflected in their dignified independent bearing. I began to understand the charges that they were Lesbians. They could not but compare the dignity of their positions with the low position of married women. Their independence seemed a personal affront to officialdom.

She wrote of her young male escort to the southern silk industry region:

"His particular hatred seemed to be the thousands of women spinners, and only with difficulty could I learn why. He told me that the women were notorious throughout China as Lesbians. They refused to marry, and if their families forced them, they merely bribed their husbands with a part of their wages and induced them to take concubines. The most such a married girl would do was bear one son; then she would return to the factory, refusing to live with her husband any longer. The Government had just issued a decree forbidden women to escape marriage by bribery, but the women ignored it.

...They had even dared strike for shorter hours and higher wages. Now and then two or three girls would commit suicide together because their families were forcing them to marry."

Agnes describes the women:

Long lines of them, clad in glossy black jackets and trousers, sat before boiling vats of cocoons, their parboiled fingers twinkling among the spinning filaments. Sometimes a remark passed along their lines set a whole mill laughing.

One evening the two of us sat at the entrance of an old family temple in the empty stone halls of which we had pitched our netted camp cots. On the other side of the canal rose the high walls of a filature, which soon began pouring forth black-clad girl workers, each with her tin dinner pail. All wore wooden sandals which were fastened by a single leather strap across the toes and which clattered as they walked. Their glossy black hair was combed back and hung in a heavy braid to the waist. At the nape of the neck the braid was caught in red yarn, making a band two or three inches wide - a lovely splash of color.

As they streamed in long lines over the bridge arching the canal and past the temple entrance, I felt I had never seen more handsome women.

Is "Spinster" maybe a label needing to be re-claimed, like "Crone," into a proud GLBTQ word? One signifying financial and social independence, bucking the patriarchy, and womyn who claim the freedom to love other womyn?

Once again there is the whole issue of independent women who choose not to marry being perceived as lesbians (and some may well be lesbians, but not every woman who wants to be self-determined is a lesbian.) It's an extension of the whole marginalization of women of power - the attitude that they can't be REAL women (who would happily be powerless and subjugated?)

Anyway, for a new year, here's a new way to think about an old word. "Spinster."

Lesbians? (Yes! Some of them I'm sure were womyn-loving-womyn.)

Feminists? (Yes! A rarity in the China of that time!)

"Spinsters" Lesbians. Feminists. Both!



Now, if you're interested in just HOW you get silk from a silkworm, and what those SPINSTERS in China were doing, here's a link to a video of Michael Cook from Texas - a segment he did on HGTV about how he makes silk bookmarks from scratch - it includes how he boils the cocoons and gets the silk, and watching him, you can imagine what those Chinese women in the factory were doing... Interesting stuff.


The original footnote was from pg 311 of "The Spirit And The Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture." Footnote #40

The quotes are from the "Silk Workers" Chapter (pgs. 103-110) of "Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution" by Agnes Smedley (Old Westbury, NY.: Feminist Press, 1976)

While I'm filling the well, take a drink! In 7 different GLBTQ Teen Lit flavors...

For Winter Break, I've decided to take a break. Why?

To pause and reflect on what I've achieved in just over 3 months of blogging. "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" is averaging over 1,100 new visitors a month. People from all over the world are coming to this blogsite (33 countries and counting!)

To plan where I want "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" to go in 2008!

To catch up on some serious reading, and catch up with myself.

There's a great metaphor called filling the well - the idea being that if you've spent all this time dipping into and taking from the creative well, you also need to take the time (and do fun, artistic and inspiring things) to fill it again.

...Count on my being back with 5 posts a week starting Monday January 7, 2008!

So, while I'm filling the well, enjoy a long drink of all the cool stuff that's already here on "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" Here are 7 different brews to quench your thirst!

1. Find and Read a GLBTQ Teen Book. Heck, read Two!
There are 168 books with GLBTQ Teen Characters or Themes listed here on this blogsite. So far 54 of those books have posts up (14 of them with reader reviews!)

2. Learn Some Amazing Things about GLBTQ History and Herstory - and enjoy some great poems, too - There are 15 fabulous and Bitchin' Queer Quotes and Poems to explore on:

Native American Lesbian Marriage Ceremonies, Serpent Mound, and the KOSKALAKA's special powers

"Woman Chief of the Crows," A Famous Lesbian American Indian

Gay Lovers and Adventurers who traveled the world by balloon!

The First Gay Spy

The First Gay Science Fiction Story Ever

An Ancient Gay Love Story Discovered!

A Bisexual Pharaoh Who Ruled 4,300 Years Ago!

Celtic Men and the Origins of the word "Horny!"

"Bulldike," Celtic Lesbian Warriors and Queen Boudica's War

"Winkte" is the Sioux word for a Gay Man

Samurai Love

The Mystical Homoerotic Poetry of Rumi (birthday countdown 3, birthday countdown 2 and birthday countdown 1)

The Amazing Lesbian Poem "Athens"


3. Get inside my mind a bit, with my personal take on things close to my heart, from GLBTQ Teens to Kid Lit. There are 12 mini-essays (Lee's Musings) to peruse:

Three Great Gifts for the Holidays that are FREE!

On Thanksgiving and Families - The Ones You Get and The Ones You Create

On Veterans Day, Gay Soldiers, and the Myth of Gay Sissyhood

It's a Small Queer World After All

On Halloween: Masks and the Space to be Ourselves

Why I write: Pyramids, Stories, Magic and learning how to SPELL

On Where to Buy It/Get It

On Self-Publishing and Graphic Novels

On Banned Books Week and GLBTQ Teen Novels

Parsing the "Q"

The Gay Best Friend: On Secondary Characters

On Labels

4. Check out my essay on Coming Out and all the resource Links under "Coming Out? Check out:" to the right. From inspiration to hope, from "how-to" to scholarship opportunities, there's a world of resources to help you!

5. Check out the blogs of my amazingly talented friends and fellow writers, Links also to the right.

6. Explore "More On Authors" to read about

Alex Sanchez: Notes From a Reading

and

Perry Moore in People magazine - Gay, Proud and a "Hero!"


6. Join In! It's a DIALOG, not a monologue. Add your take to one of the essays. Share a cool related fact in a post on Bitchin' Queer Quotes and Poems. Add a review to a book you've read. This is what the "comments" section of every single post is for! This is my blogsite, but the intent is for it to be a gathering place for OUR community - and for that I hope to have you continue to participate!

7. Celebrate! Take a moment to celebrate how far we've all come... and vision how far we'll go in the next year!

I wish you and yours wonderful happy and healthy holidays - and here's to a fantastic NEW YEAR!

Namaste,

Lee

Busted

By Phil Bildner

Four intertwined novellas about Teens in one high school, with lots of drama - much of it gay.

There are brainy stoners, guys having sex (with each other) on the "Zero Tolerance" Senior Class Ski Trip, and a Bully whose gay victim turns vigilante... and they all get BUSTED!

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

By Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Naomi and Ely are freshmen in college. They both like boys. They're life-long best friends, and to make sure that never changes, they've compiled a "No Kiss List" to make sure they don't mess things up by liking the same boy.

Then Ely kisses Naomi's ex-boyfriend. And while Bruce wasn't technically ON the list, when he decides he wants to be with Ely, too - it's explosive!

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Native American Lesbian Marriage Ceremonies, Serpent Mound, and the KOSKALAKA's special powers

There was SO much more on Native American Lesbian sexuality that I found fascinating, I had to do another post on this!

The dyke (we might also call her a "ceremonial lesbian") was likely to have been a medicine woman in a special sense. She probably was a participant in the Spirit (intelligence, force field) of an Entity or Deity who was particularly close to earth during the Goddess period (though that Deity is still present in the lives of some American Indian women who practice Her ceremonies and participate actively and knowingly in Her reality.)

Signs of this Deity remain scattered all over the continent: Snake Mound in Ohio is probably one.

(It's also called Serpent Mound, and it's the biggest ancient Native American Ceremonial Structure, and the largest effigy mound in the world!)



Here's another view, from a map published in 1890:



And get this: The oval-to-head area of the serpent is aligned to the summer solstice sunset and the snake’s coils align with the winter solstice sunrise, the autumnal and spring equinox sunrises, and the summer solstice sunrise!

Take a close look at the map - see the circle by the Serpent's mouth? No one knows what that is or was - some historians think it might have been a platform for ceremonies to take place.

A dyke's initiation takes the same course as a male's: She is required to pass grueling physical tests, to lose her mundane persona, and to transform her soul and mind into other forms.

The Lakota have a word for some of these women, koskalaka, which is translated as "young man" or "woman who doesn't want to marry," in our terms, "dyke." These women are said to be the daughters (the followers/practitioners) of a Spirit/Divinity who links two women together making them one in Her power.

They do a dance in which a rope is twined between them and coiled to form a "rope baby."

The exact purpose or result of this dance is not mentioned, but its significance is clear. In a culture that values children and women because they bear them, two women who don't want to marry (a man) become united by the power of the Diety and their union is validated by the creation of a rope baby. That is, the rope baby signifies the potency of their union in terms that are comprehensible to their society, which therefore legitimizes it.

It is clear that the koskalaka are perceived as powerful... When this power is used to determine other's actions, it at least borders on black magic or sorcery.

I can imagine such a Lesbian Marriage Ceremony, on a raised platform in front of the gaping jaws of the Serpent Mound. Two koskalaka, proud, beautiful, in love, dancing with their rope and twining and twisting it to form the image of a child. Their chanting tribe surrounding them, the air swirling with embers of fire, the pounding of drums, and magic!


The quotes are from pgs. 114-115 of Paula Gunn Allen's essay "Lesbians in American Indian Cultures" in "Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past" edited by Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, Jr.

Information on the Serpent Mound came from this wikipedia entry.

I also found an interesting article about Native American Lesbians now on Curve magazine's website.

"Woman Chief of the Crows," A Famous Lesbian American Indian

Okay, I knew I wanted Today's Bitchin' Queer Quote to be about Women American Indians - and how they were Spiritual and Queer and Powerful - and in reading a couple of amazing books and essays on the topic, I'm amazed at how, prior to western colonization, there was SO much variety in Native American cultures in terms of gender identity and expression, and in the kind of relationships women had with other women. (And, for that matter, men had with other men - but that's a topic for another day!)

Women were

goddesses,
spirit-women,
mothers,
sisters,
grandmothers,
aunties,
shamans,
healers,
prophets, and
daughters.

and lovers!


The story I'll share today is from the early 1800s. Edward Denig, a white frontiersman who lived with the Crows, knew Woman Chief for 12 years, and wrote about her in 1855.

Born among the Gros Ventre Indians, she was captured at the age of 10 by a raiding party of Crows and adopted by a Crow warrior. She grew to be "a fearless horseback rider and skilled rifle shooter."

When she was still a young woman she "was equal if not superior to any of the men in hunting both on horseback and foot...[She] would spend most of her time in killing deer and bighorn, which she butchered and carried home on her back when hunting on foot. At other times she joined in the surround on horse, could kill four or five buffalo at a race, cut up the animals without assistance, and bring the meat and hides home."

As a successful hunter, she shared her meat freely with others. But it was as a warrior that her fame was made.

She became famous for standing off an attack from Blackfoot Indians, in which she killed three warriors while remaining unharmed herself: "This daring act stamped her character as a brave. It was sung by the rest of the camp, and in time was made known to the whole nation."

A year later she organized her first raid and easily attracted a group of warriors to follow her. She stole seventy horses from a Blackfoot camp, and in the ensuing skirmish killed and scalped two enemies. In every engagement with enemy tribes, including raids on enemy camps, she distinguished herself by her bravery. Crows began to believe she had "a charmed life which, with her daring feats, elevated her to a point of honor and respect not often reached by male warriors." The Crows were proud of her, composing special songs to commemorate her gallantry. When the tribal council was held and all the chiefs assembled, she took her place among them, as the third-highest ranked person in the tribe.

She dressed like other women, and was "taller and stronger than most women - her pursuits no doubt tending to develop strength of nerve and muscle."

She also took a wife!

She went through the usual procedure of giving horses to the parents of her intended spouse. A few years later, she took three more wives. This plurality of women added also to her prestige as chief.

Denig called his friend a "singular and resolute woman... She had fame, standing, honor, riches, and as much influence over the band as anyone except two or three leading chiefs... For 20 years she conducted herself well in all things."

In 1854 Woman Chief led a Crow peacekeeping mission to her native Gros Ventre tribe. Resentful because of her previous raids against them, some Gros Ventres trapped her and killed her.

Stories passed down have made her a hero "in the classic Plains mode. Even her death, at enemy hands, was typical of the pattern for the honored male warrior."


An excellent background on the context of the different roles women took on in Native American Cultures is the essay "Lesbians in American Indian Cultures," by Paula Gunn Allen, in "Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past" Edited by Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, Jr. The first quote above is from page 113.

The true story of "Woman Chief of the Crows" came from pgs. 244-246 of "The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Cultures" by Walter L. Williams, much of which was taken from Edwin Thompson Denig's "Five Tribes of the Upper Missouri," ed. John Ewers, pg. 195-200

The image above is from the website on Jim Beckwourth, an African American Explorer whose autobiography told of his time with the Crow and his infatuation with the woman war chief, who he said was first called "Pine Leaf." Interestingly, there's no mention of Pine Leaf's marriage to women in the tribe on this or many of the other sites I browsed.

But there is here at "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?"

Trying Hard To Hear You

By Sandra Scoppettone

It's the 1970s. A bunch of Teens are in a theater program. But the real drama unfolds when two guys in the group are revealed to be gay.

16 year old Camilla narrates about the summer when she and her friends try to deal with it... and it ends badly.

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Three Great Gifts that are FREE for a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Joyous Kwanzaa, and a Fabulous and Queer New Year!

It's already the second day of Hanukkah, and with Thanksgiving's Tofurkey just a memory, I realize that 'Tis the Holiday Season.

And if your December is starting out like mine, the amount of STUFF we're bombarded with, all urging us to buy Buy BUY! so we can get, Get, GET! is overwhelming.

When I was 16, the only money I had to buy gifts for anyone was money I got from my parents, which made me feel really powerless during the holidays, and also put all the focus on what I'd GET.

So, in the spirit of EMPOWERING you...

I propose, instead, let's think about GIVING, which in an amazing way ends up being a gift for us, too. (I once spent an entire semester in a college course on the question "If it feels good when you're helping someone else, is there really such a thing as altruism (where you're giving and it doesn't benefit you at all)?"

The answer, for me, ended up being... Who cares? Maybe we're wired to feel good when giving, and like tax breaks for donating to charity, it's a system that's set up to encourage doing good.

Either way, here are my suggestions of three things to GIVE, perfect for Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, any Pagan Winter ceremonies you might want to fete, and, of course, New Years! And they're all FREE!

SOMETHING FOR THE EARTH

Catalogs

Okay, in the last 7 days, we've gotten almost 100 catalogs in the mail (no joke) for stuff that really, truly, I have no interest in even flipping through. From Fur-appliqued Christmas Tree Ornaments to Wine and Processed-Cheese-Spread Baskets, from expensive folding Victorian-style chairs to eight inch diameter fabric flower brooches, (and these were just the images on four covers!) there's arguably something for everyone...

except I don't want it.

Now, I'm not going all scrooge-y on you, and I do order stuff online and from catalogs, but the excess is... well, excessive.

We recycle the catalogs, but I'd rather not get them in the first place. But I also don't have the time to start calling each company to try to get off their mailing lists. So, check this out:

Catalog Choice lets you enter in the name and customer ID# from the catalog you've got that you don't want to get any more, and you'll stop getting them in the mail!

Ahh, something for the Earth, just like that. And it didn't cost a thing. (And hey, if you're living at home with your parents and not really getting your own 100 catalogs a week that you don't want, doing the catalog thing for THEM - check first on the ones they don't want anymore - would probably be a fantastic gift!)

SOMETHING FOR SOMEONE ELSE

Volunteering is a way to pull out of our own heads and help someone else. It also feels great. There are shelters, food pantries, GLBTQ community centers and organizations with volunteer needs, older people who need a hand, frazzled parents who need someone to play with the baby, friends who need help with a project, cookies to bake, cards to make, dogs to walk, packages to help carry, tourists who need their photo taken, holiday songs to sing...(and really, no one cares if they're sung off-key, it's the joy in doing it that matters!)

the list of ways to volunteer, small and large, goes on and on.

Challenge yourself to do one thing for someone else this week- even if it's something small, like giving someone an I.O.U. note for shoveling their front walk after the next snowstorm - and then doing it when it snows.

You can even ask someone you'd like to help, what you can do...

Giving someone an hour of your time to help them doesn't cost a penny - and it's a way to really FEEL the spirit of the holidays come alive.

SOMETHING FOR YOU

Now I'm not talking about the diamond industry's promotional campaign that your left hand ring finger is for your wedding/engagement diamond, and that your right hand ring finger is for the diamond YOU buy for yourself. (yeah, really - that's what they're pitching.)

What I AM talking about is giving yourself the gift of...

YOU.

Take the time this week to do something for YOU. Again, this doesn't need to cost a cent! Make the time to:

go for winter walk
take yourself ice skating
do a yoga class
dance by yourself to five of your favorite songs
make a list of 50 things you love
read a book with a GLBTQ Teen character

Yeah. Read one of the books on this blogsite - a book that's going to make you feel like the world's at your feet - that the possiblities are endless, and there's a place for you at the amazing buffet of life... Because there is!

Look at the books listed here. Click through. Choose one. Go to the library. Grab it at a bookstore. Borrow one from a friend.

And read....

Most of all, BE the person you ARE - that's the greatest gift you can ever give yourself.

So try out these gift ideas. Take the challenge to do something for the earth, something for someone else, and something for yourself!

All three gifts are free, but (to riff on a credit card ad) they'll make this holiday season PRICELESS!

Happy Holidays!

Namaste,

Lee

ps- If you have any great suggestions or examples of these kinds of gifts, sharing those ideas with others is a gift in itself! Share your gift in "comments!"

Touching Snow

By M. Sindy Felin

13 year old Karina is a first generation American, living with her Haitian family in suburban New York.

Her stepfather is physically abusive, but they can't tell anyone because of the family and friends living with them who are illegal immigrants.

When social services do get involved, Karina meets Rachael, a wealthy white girl. They both like girls, and pretty soon, each other. Their growing relationship helps Karina find some of the strength she'll need to save her family.

There's three things to love about this book before you've even read beyond the first sentence:

#1 That first sentence is:

"The best way to avoid being picked on by high school bullies is to kill someone."

#2 It's the author's DEBUT novel. Go Sindy!

#3 It's a finalist for the 2007 National book Award!

Wow!

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You

By Peter Cameron

James is 18. He's been accepted to Brown (but is more tempted to buy a house in Kansas and live alone in obscurity.) Meanwhile he's working in his mother's art gallery in Manhattan.

It's a summer of Angst, Museums, Therapy, Confusion, Sarcasm, a Crush on the man who runs the gallery, and growing up.

You gotta love the title, and "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You" has gotten great reviews. You can even read the first chapter on Peter's website!

Add your review of this book in "comments!"

Adventurers, Balloonists, and Lovers! Croce-Spinelli and Sivel

Imagine it's the 1870s. A time of adventurers, exploring the world.

Croce-Spinelli and Sivel were two balloonists who died together 26,000 feet over India in 1875.

The huge marble monument over the tomb they share in Pere Lachaise Cemetary portrays the men lying together, side-by-side, hand-in-hand, presumably naked but covered by a sculpted sheet from the waist down. There are flowers in their hands. The tomb, one of the most talked-about monuments in Pere Lachaise, has been called a "tribute to their comradeship in life and death."

The quote is from pg. 197 of "The Gay Book of Lists" by Leigh W. Rutledge, fourth printing.
Also, the top images of the balloonists are NOT renderings of the lovers I spoke about, and they pre-date their ill-fated last adventure, but I thought the art was evocative...