quinta-feira, 26 de fevereiro de 2015

NEW: The Prince of los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood by Richard Blanco

The Prince of los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood by Richard Blanco
NEW: published September, 2014
TO READ
A poignant, hilarious, and inspiring memoir from the first Latino and openly gay inaugural poet, which explores his coming-of-age as the child of Cuban immigrants and his attempts to understand his place in America while grappling with his burgeoning artistic and sexual identities.
Richard Blanco’s childhood and adolescence were experienced between two imaginary worlds: his parents’ nostalgic world of 1950s Cuba and his imagined America, the country he saw on reruns of The Brady Bunch and Leave it to Beaver—an “exotic” life he yearned for as much as he yearned to see “la patria.”
Navigating these worlds eventually led Blanco to question his cultural identity through words; in turn, his vision as a writer—as an artist—prompted the courage to accept himself as a gay man. In this moving, contemplative memoir, the 2013 inaugural poet traces his poignant, often hilarious, and quintessentially American coming-of-age and the people who influenced him.
A prismatic and lyrical narrative rich with the colors, sounds, smells, and textures of Miami, Richard Blanco’s personal narrative is a resonant account of how he discovered his authentic self and ultimately, a deeper understanding of what it means to be American. His is a singular yet universal story that beautifully illuminates the experience of “becoming;” how we are shaped by experiences, memories, and our complex stories: the humor, love, yearning, and tenderness that define a life.

NEW: Nights at Rizzoli by Felice Picano


Nights at Rizzoli by Felice Picano
Published in January, 2015
TO READ

Salvador Dalí, Jerome Robbins, Jackie Onassis. Gregory Peck, Mick Jagger—S. J. Perelman—I. M. Pei. Philip Johnson, Josephine Baker, John Lennon: they, and so many more who made New York City the center of the universe in the 1970s, all had one thing in common besides their adopted hometown—they shopped at a legendary palace of books, music and art: Rizzoli Books at 712 Fifth Avenue. There, Kennedys and Rockefellers mingled with tourists and “regular” customers under the watchful gaze of sophisticated employees, themselves a multi-talented, international collection of artists, scholars and rogues.
Nights at Rizzoli is the memoir of Felice Picano, an aspiring but near-starving young writer who in 1971 lucked into a part-time job at the stunningly elegant store via a friend. It metamorphosed into a life-changing experience, one that exposed him to some of the brightest lights in the world’s cultural capital. At the store, he himself became a key player on a stage that opened every night to a new drama that often featured romance, at times violence, and of course always the books and their readers. And when his shift was over, in this post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS era, the handsome young bookstore manager stepped from one world into another, prowling the piers, bars and very private clubs of a different New York City.

quarta-feira, 25 de fevereiro de 2015

QUIZ: How much do you know about LGBT literature?

Goodreads Quiz
How much do you know about LGBT literature?

This quizz only has 2 possible answers for each question: you have a 50/50 chance of guessing the correct answer. Simple? Show us... and have fun! :D

taken 18 times
40 questions

segunda-feira, 23 de fevereiro de 2015

terça-feira, 17 de fevereiro de 2015

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Um dos períodos marcantes da história de Inglaterra e da Europa contada pelos olhos de Thomas Cromwel: a queda em desgraça da espanhola Catarina, a primeira mulher de Henrique VIII, em simultâneo com a ascensão de Ana Bolena e com conflito com o Vaticano que levaria à submissão da Igreja, em Inglaterra, ao poder real em primeiro lugar e só depois ao poder divino.
Nem sei bem que tem este livro de Hilary Mantel que faz com que a leitura das suas 658 páginas seja compulsiva, com que desejemos continuar a ler mais, sem coragem para parar, mesmo se o enredo é vago e conhecido da História, se os personagens são apenas delineados e pouco expressivos, e não nos identificamos com nenhum, mesmo se a escrita é peculiar e intrincada, confundindo-nos com os vários "eles", se a autora não mostra qualquer complacência com o leitor, nem facilita em nada a leitura, fazendo-nos perder e ter de voltar constantemente atrás para saber quem é quem, mesmo se temos "n" outros livros para ler? Ou talvez sejam todos estes ingredientes combinados que façam de Wolf Hall uma obra invulgar e premiada (Man Booker et al), e que me façam ter vontade de ler a sequela? Mas não já, já...

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