Friday, March 29, 2013

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

If You Give a Moose a Muffin  by Laura Joffe Numeroff
1991
Weight: 9.9 oz
Method of Disposal: Giving to Tracy


Tracy missed out on the whole If You Give a Mouse a Cookie craze, but I quote it to her when it seems applicable.  Hearing a story about someone at school.  Telling a story about trying to help someone at work. 

One day I was riding back from a long, painful trip to animal control.  Trace was having a rough day too and she sent me a text, in all seriousness, that asked me what was that saying.  "If you give a pig a pancake..."  I cannot remember exactly what she wrote, but it was something along the lines of "he will throw it in your face."  Had me laughing the rest of the way.

I have been hanging out around the house today, trying to get all of her birthday goodies together and ready for her this weekend, and I was very excited to find this book on my shelves.  She will finally get to see it live and in person.  I imagine after flipping through it, it will be donated, but I think she should own it once, if only for a moment.  Happy Easter Sunday Birthday, Bestie!




 

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Second City

The Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Theater  by Sheldon Patinkin
2000
Weight: 3.4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating


In high school I was smitten with the theater teacher.  Its true.  I never had a class with her, though I had one with her brother years before (does that count?!).  I really have no idea how it started or where/when I first saw her.  It was kinda a joke and kinda serious.  Sometimes, I would skip class and go to hers.  I do not think she ever noticed that I was not suppose to be there and, if she did, she never said anything. 

At one point, I did semi-date-ish someone in her class, and I would watch them acting on stage, as I hid in the shadows of the back row of the theater.  I would have been all over the place then, hormones raging, I am sure. 

I would vie to be the one to give her a back rub some days and, other days, I would just go to french class.  Obviously, I never convinced her, and I mostly hid from her when I was not rubbing her shoulders.  I do not think we were ever properly introduced, and I sure as hell never told her my name.  Thinking back on it, I feel sorry for her.  How disturbing to have someone so young intrested in you and, believe me, I was not the only one, haha.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

SUPERFUDGE

Superfudge Judy Blume
1980
Weight: 10 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving in Joe's in EAV

I loved Superfudge growing up!  I was so excited when I found this edition.  It is the one at the top, third from the left, in the image above.  It smells and looks like a book from the eighties.  How exciting.  It also came from the library of Becci Curry who, acoording to a Google search, might be a doctor, might do real estate, might have been married for 19 years.  How exciting. 

The Rover

The Rover Aphra Behn
1997
Weight: 5.8 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV

 
I went to an all-women's school and Aphra Behn was on several of my syllabi.  I could never get into reading her work, but I could respect her immensely for doing it in a time when it would be difficult to get paid for being a writer, much less for being a woman writer.  As Virginia Woolf stated, Woolf wrote, "All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."  Okay, I may not feel that strongly, but I imagine I have a lot of women's graves I need to be throwing flowers on.  So many before me.   

Mommy Knows Worst

Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice  James Lileks
2005
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV

This book is pretty hilarious.  When I was growing up, my own mother was collecting snippets from various old magazines and books to make something very similar to this about the treatment of women.  You would not believe some of the stuff she uncovered!

In this book, there are ads encouraging women to wash their nipples with boric acid before nursing, to use laxatives with the whole family to give them more energy, and to keep their baby's bowels warm.  It is worth a looksee. 

Shelter Dogs

Shelter Dogs: Amazing Stories of Adopted Strays  by Peg Kehret
2005
Weight: 4 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV


What is second best to a young adult book with LGBTQI characters?!  A young adult book (really more of a "chapter book") about shelter dogs!  I loved animals as a child, so many of us do and so many of us lose that passion and emapthy as we grow up.  It is encouraged when we are young, but it is something you grow out of.  You may still love cats and dogs, wax poetic about dolphins, but it is not as awe-inducing as it was and it should not effect your life dramatically.  If your canine companion is not allowed at the new apartment you are dying to move into get rid of him.  You can't let a mangy mutt get in the way of your happiness!  So what if the burger you are eating is actually a cow that suffered tremendous cruelty in a factory farm?  Nothing you can do about it.  One person cannot change the world!

I say, get em started early and then encourage them to be repsonsible/respectful in adulthood.  There is no need for breeding and animal homelessness.  There are millions of wonderful, loving pets out there looking for permanent homes, and they have some really increbible stories.  I can tell you hundreds just from the one shelter I work at.

Here is one of the best:


Turner is a handsome pit bull that was rescued from a life of dog fighting.  He came to PAWS Atlanta covered in scars, emotionally and physically.  Despite the fact that he was saved from a terrible, unthinkable situation, his troubles were not over.  Due to fear of the breed and his past, he sat at the shelter for years.  We began to wonder if he would ever find a home, but one day his hero (and ours) walked through our gates and took Turner home.

Turner is now an ambassador for his breed.  He has helped raise an infant to toddler-hood.  He lives with other rescued dogs and helps comfort pups that need a place to stay until they can be transported to other places where they can be adopted.  He has been in his loving home for many years, and he still regularly visits us with donations and supplies for the shelter.  You can see him, as he makes regular appearances on Facebook, cuddling with his kid and sleeping soundly under the covers in bed.

Picture taken by owners in their home
 

Geography Club

Geography Club by Brent Hartinger
2004
Weight: 6.4 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV


I love young adult fiction, as you may know by now if you have read some of my other posts.  There is something that gets me even more wound up within the genre than your average story.  I get SO EXCITED to see new LGBTQI young adult fiction!  When I worked at the bookstore, I use to LOVE going through and scanning the young adult section to see what should be sent back to the publisher and what should stay.  I would be in a bad mood all week if someone got to it before me.  I liked being in control because I would, shamelessly, leave the gay/lesbian titles on the shelves longer than they were suppose to be and I could see all the new ones that came out.  I was allowed to "check out" the newer titles and would buy the cheap paperbacks.

Today has been a particularly emotional and important day to me and to many of my friends.  It has also been difficult because we know that, while the Supreme Court is finally dealing with same-sex marriage, we will not hear any decisions for some time, and we have no idea what will be decided.  The wait, hearing the anti-gay folks speak out so publically, watching our support groups grow more tight knit---it leaves one with a lot of emotions.  Here's to finding strength in each other!


 

Monday, March 25, 2013

Artllery and Missles

Artillery and Missiles (Armament and Technology Series) and Marines (Special Units) by Octavio Diez
2002 and 2001
Weight: 2.4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donation


Tonight, I watched The Invisible War, a documentary about sexual assault in the United States military.  It was very difficult to watch these women and men tell their stories, particularly about what happened after the rape(s).  The denial, the demotion, the civilian life afterwards.  Seeing the supportive, struggling partners.

There was so much I could relate to as a rape victim, but there was a whole lot that was very different from my experience.  Very different and heartbreaking.  The feeling of comraderie that is broken and inverted/contorted into something so painful.  The strange legal proceedings and reports to superiors.  The violence and the brutality.

I have no feelings about the book I am getting rid of, but I do recommend the documentary.  I just wish I had not watched it alone so I was not crying by myself.  Women still have so far to come in our society.  People have so much more growing they need to do if we will ever overcome our shame. 
 

Their First Time in the Movies (With DVD & VHS)

Their First Time in the Movies (With DVD & VHS)
2001
Weight: 2.9 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating


This includes people from the likes of Marilyn Monroe to Julia Roberts, from Clark Gable to Robert DeNiro.  It came out when we were still in that little transition period between VHS and DVD so you get both!
 

The Prophecies of Nostradamus

The Prophecies of Nostradamus
1973
Weight: 10.4 oz
Method of Disposal: Donation

Good Ol' Nostradamus.  I remember when you woulf hear is name being thrown around all the time.  I just cannot remember why.  Was it one of the many End of The World Scares?  Was it September 11th?  Who knows?  People read his prophecies and make them fit.  I don't even think I wanna know--even if I could find a true psychic. 

Picture Show

Picture Show: Classic Movie Posters from the TCM Archives
2003
Weight: 2.3 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating


How can you not love old movie posters?!  Paintings of Ginger Rogers and Greta Garbo.  This is a nice coffee table book that I am sure someone will love.  It has big, beautiful pictures.  I, clearly, do not need it and it will free up some extra space so I am donating it.  It is so fun to look through but now I think I will give someone else the opportunity.
 

Loving Someone Gay

Loving Someone Gay Revised and Updated  by Don Clark, Ph. D
1997
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating


Apparently, around 300,000 people are protesting gay marriage and adoption in France.  As the demonstration was winding down a number of youths started to amp up the energy and the riot police took action with tear gas.  People of the clergy, teenagers, anti-gay opponents, and CHILDREN (super responsible parents here) were all present. 

From the NBC website:

Polls indicate a shrinking majority of French voters back gay marriage, which is legal in about a dozen mostly European nations and some U.S. states. But polls show French voters are less enthusiastic about adoption by same-sex couples.
Frigide Barjot, the stage name of an activist who has led protests against the bill, insisted the anti-gay marriage movement wasn't a lost cause. "It's the second round, sir. It's not the last battle."

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/24/17444093-clashes-riot-police-at-french-anti-gay-marriage-protest?lite

It hurts that in this day and age people are still filled with such passionate disdain and even hatred.  It is hard to think of that many people demonstrating against me and people like me--particularly french people like me, haha.  I really don't know what else to say.  It is painful.  We will win this fight, slowly, and all over the world, but it still hurts to see all those who would hold us back and even some of those who would hurt us.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

You Can Quit Tobacco

You Can Quit Tobacco  by Vance Ferrell
2007
Weight: 1 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

It has been one week!  This book has nothing to do with it but I, conviently, found it the other day in a pile of other books and put it aside, thinking it might be useful when the cravings get too strong.  Meaning I could look at that silly cover and distract myself by counting the number of ridiculous things I could spot.  This, as it were, is a religious/Christian quitting smoking book.

Last night, I dreamt about smoking.  I smoked four cigarettes and woke up feeling guilty.  When will the serious cravings stop?  It seems to be getting more difficult instead of easier.  I swear today was harder than day 3.  Doing so well though.  Soon, I will be a full-blown non-smoker and then what?  The world will be my oyster.
 

Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Surrendered Wife

The Surrendered Wife  by Laura Doyle
2001
Weight: 9.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Throwing in the trash


Snippets for you!








 

Coke Goes to War

Coke Goes to War
1996
Weight: 9. 6 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV


I love looking at WWII propaganda posters, and these Coke advertisements are very similar in their appeal.  "The rest-pause that refreshes.  Welcome in peace...more welcome in war work." or "Have a 'coke' = Welcome, Friends."The adverts are painted pictures of soldiers, nurses, pilots, civilians, people in other countries, and there is a general idea of coke being a good way to make friends and meet new people.  For the most part, they are peaceful and do not feed on fear, like the propaganda posters do.
 

Book Drop

Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear (Namioka), People Weekly: The Most Intriguing People of the Century, Rainbow Fish and Friends: A Fishy Story (based on Pfister books), Prisoners in the Tower (Pitkin Guide),Culture Shock: Munich at Your Door (Smith)

Weight: 5 lbs

Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV


I brought a massive bag of books to the coffee shop.  T may have questioned my judgement, which I took as a challenge, and then I said I would write about all of them and get rid of them.  There are SO MANY!  I am shamelessly bundling some of them to get them out of my life in a more efficent manner, but at least I am holding myself to task, right?  I also do not want to carry them back home.  I have a limp and a hurt ankle.  The less weight the better, and I may be toting THREE bags of crap right now.

Yang is a stripped book my manager at the bookstore let me take home, and I read in bed with Vallan many years ago.  It read fast, but the story was not really anything to write home about, as they say.  The Intriguing People includes the usual suspects.  Elvis, Chavez, Malcom X, Sinatra, Churchill, Tina Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, and so on.  The Rainbow fish is super cute and comes with stickers!  The Prisoners book I got when touring the incredibly depressing Tower of London.  The place has the energy of death and darkness.  It is dreary and disturbing.  The travel guide is to Germany, somewhere I have always wanted to go but have never been to.

Ginger Spice in My Pocket

Unofficial Ginger Spice in My Pocket
1997
Weight: 1.8 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joes in EAV


Enough said.  Right?!  You can hide her in your pocket, and she speaks ridiculousness!
Anyone who knows me at all knows how I loved Geri...

 

The Daylight Gate

The Daylight Gate  by Jeanette Winterson
2012
Weight: 11.2 oz
method of disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV

This is a weird one for me.  This is Jeanette Winterson's latest novel.  I try not to purchase too many books while I am doing this project.  It defeats the point, but I LOVE Winterson.  Her books come out in the UK at least a full year before they come out here.  You cannot get them on an e-reader in the US until the book is actually sold here, none of the libraries have it, and I cannot borrow it from a friend.  I cannot wait either and, now, I have a connection in England.

I begged Harriet to send me this book for months and, finally, she brought it with her when she visited the States, along with a non-fiction book about the Lancashire witches.  I was already at the pinnacle of excitement and was thrown over the edge when I found out the book is based out of the location where Harriet lives.  Holler.  This was particularly exciting because I knew I would visit Harriet and thus the book could become more real to me.  It also made me feel like I was somehow reading into Harriet's history in some weird, distant way.

So, here is the wrap up.  This book was incredibly exciting and important because:
  • I read all of Winterson's books the second I can get my hands on them.
  • It was a gift from Harriet and came with an accompanying non-fiction text.
  • It took place somewhere I will stomp around one day
This book was fucking strange, and not really in a good way.  After reading the first few pages, while hanging out in a cabin with Harriet and Heather, I started to feel a little naughty, like I should hide.  Castration, incest, sexual assault, you name it---it was in this book.  Harriet and her mother went out to get the book, and I began to worry that one of them might decide to read it and that they would then think there was something seriously wrong with me.  There was next to no character development, and it was just one brutality after another.  There was next to no description of the land either.  It almost felt like she read the same nonfiction book and then quickly wrote a book afterwards and, perhaps, she was in a dark place.  Or, I realized it was put out by a publisher of horror stories so maybe that was why?  It is my least favorite Winterson book.

Around Valentines Day, I sent out cards to all my friends and, apparently, told some about the book, as well as my life.  Later, after I had finished The Daylight Gate, I got this text from Marisa: Your card was amazing!  Only you could include the words love, rape, incest, and awkward all in the same brilliant card.  Happy V day gorgeous."  I guess I do not need to worry about what people will think if they see me reading this book.  I, happily, put enough strangeness and confession into the world without any help.

I am sad to see this gift from Harriet go, but I know I will not read it again.  It served its purpose and then some.  It delighted me before it horrified me.  It created some laughs and unusual conversations.  It was there when I wanted it. 
 

Christ's Object Lessons

Christ's Object Lessons by E.G. White
2006
Weight: 8 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving in Joe's in East Atlanta


This book is just fun because it is so absurd.  It looks like a mass market romance novel until you realize it is Jesus on the cover and not Fabio.  It looks like it would be free or at most $5.99 but, apparently, retails for $12.95.  The back cover brags that over a million copies of this classic are in print.

 
I, personally, took it from a strange, dusty, cluttered gas station on my drive from Georgia to California after I graduated college.  My beloved friend (who is a preacher) was with me!  I love you, Liz!  It was such a fun, amazing trip.  Now, this book can continue its travels to who knows where from here.

Duplicates

Jay's Journal (Dr. Beatrice Sparks), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), Cunt: A Declaration of Independence (Muscio), The X-Files: The Calusari (Nix), Island of the Blue Dolphins (O'Dell), Slaughter House-Five (Vonnegut)

Weight: 2.5 lbs

Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in EAV


These are all titles I have written about and disposed of in past blogs.  There are quite a few books (particularly classics, required reading for school, and favorites) that I own duplicates of.  They are not shelved together so I do not see them right away when I am getting rid of their twins.  I owned more X-Files books than you want to know about.  Beatrice Sparks wrote faux journals for teens that I use to love as a kid.  Cunt was my favorite book all throughout high school and I bought many copies to hand out to people but now I am far less enthusiastic about the book.  Island of the Blue Dolphins was on so many public school lists, as was Slaughter House-Five, which is not my favorite Vonnegut book but still good and, incidentally, I have a tattoo from the novel on my back.  I got it for the dogs I have witnessed being euthanized, never having the chance at having a loving/secure home and because I kind of want it on my own tombstone as a sort of, "Okay, fuck you, but okay."



 

Winona Ryder


Winona Ryder (By the Editors of US Magazine)
1997
Weight: 1.7 lbs
Method of Disposal: Leaving @ Joe's in EAV


Me: Books like these are the easiest to let go of, but the most difficult to write about.  Who wants to write about a Winona Ryder book?

T: Then don't write about Winona.  Why do you have it?

Me: Because I use to love Winona Ryder.

T: Then write about how things change.

I still have a fondness for Winona, despite the fact that her acting career seemed to go down hill after her stealing problem hit the news.  Her appearance in Black Swan was great, but it seemed a little haunting.

She is a beautiful woman and, as a 13-16 year old girl, I loved laying around, looking at beautiful women.  Obviously, I will probably never again care to flip through this book, and I faux-show will not be reading it.  There is not really a lot to say.  Over 1 lb of uneccesarry will soon be disbanded from my life.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

422 Books, 117.78 lbs


Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo by Frank Milner
1995
Weight: 1.8 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating


I was suppose to head to the High Museum in Atlanta last Friday to see the Frida/Diego Exhibit, but plans got canceled.  I spent the weekend doing other high class activities, like running through mud, getting cut up on gritty slip and slides, climbing scary ass cargo nets, and taking a turn on the world's largest water slide (also known as the death drop). 

The Frida exhibit will be here until May.  I think I will lay in bed, sore and banged up, flipping through my book.  Then, I will donate it and make plans to get to the High in the near future.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Literary Book of Answers

The Literary Book of Answers  Carol Bolt
2000
Weight: 1.7 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating


I was looking for books to get rid of the other day when I came across this one.  I had some serious life questions, and I might have grown a little too excited when I found a place to ask them.  I kept asking yes/no questions and getting confusing, convoluted answers.  I quickly grew frustrated and threw this in the get rid of pile.  My friend (later when we had coffee) also thought it was a neat book but was disappointed upon asking it a few questions herself.  That would have been that, but the coffee shop closed an hour early and I never got to write about the book.

Tonight, I asked it several more questions, as a goodbye.  The answers were far more compelling, though frequently heartbreaking, as they were not what I wanted to hear.  Now, I do not want to toss it.  Who doean't love magic 8 balls?!  Still, I feel like I commited to this somehow so into the donation box it goes.  Besides, it depresses me when it tells me things I want to happen won't.  Who wants to know the future if it is no good?!
 

Roadfood

Roadfood: The Coast-to-Coast Guide to Over 400 of America's Great Inexpensive Regional Restaurants--All Within 10 Miles of a Major Highway  Jane and Michael Stern
1978
Weight: 1lb 12 oz
Method of Disposal: Recycling


 This was a fun find!  I wonder where it came from.  It is, clearly, going to be mostly obsolete now so it would make the most sense to recycle it, but I flipped through Georgia to see if I recognized anything.  I made a bet (with myself) Mary Mac's would be in there and, of course, it was.  I had never heard of Ma Groover's Pig and Plate but a quick Google search delighted me.  It is no longer open, but there are some great pictures of Groover out there!

This book proclaims twice on the back that "You'll never have to eat plastic food again!"  That brought such joy to my heart.  What fun.  If it was more current, I would do a cross-country trip just to try every restaurant they wrote about.

Monday, March 11, 2013

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Volume 1 and 2
1960
Weight: 4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in East Atlanta on the "Friends of EA Library Book Cart"


My grandparents picked these books up for me at an estate sale fairly recently.  They have a great old book smell and yellowing pages.  I find them charming for those reasons alone.  They have very small print that is set up much like a Bible might be but without the super fine pages that I remember kids in high school smoking pot with.  These pages would never work for that!

I feel guilty about letting them go after such a short stay in my home, but I need to keep my eye on the prize, as they say, and I am not in need of more Shakespeare right now.  I have plenty of it to get rid of without adding more of the complete works.

I really did appreciate the gift and made sure to enjoy them for a short time before leaving them in a coffee shop.  Either way, they will be passed on, yet again, and they will make some new person happy.  I love books.
 

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Angelina and Gillian


Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Tech Manual  by Michael Jan Friedman (2001)

The Unofficial X-Files Companion II by N. E. Genge (1996)

Weight: 2 lbs

Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe’s in EAV
 
 

There seems to be a theme for the day, with the exception of Angry Girls.  These two books would have been purchased in my early teens.  Lara Croft because I thought Angelina Jolie was the sexiest woman alive.  I still find her attractive, but I have finally reached the stage in life where I do not have the need/desire to flip through pictures of her on a semi-regular basis and am content to casually watch her movies as they come out.

Gillian, on the other hand, still gets my giddy like a school girl.  I am far too excited about the possibility of her being in a new NBC television series, but I do not need to hold onto this ridiculously boring book with a very small amount of black and white photos.  And how often am I going to write on here, “this surely must be my absolute last X-File book.”  They just keep coming.  Like the glass in my backyard that continues to work its way up to the surface through dirt and mud, no matter how much I try to clean it out.

Still Angry Little Girls


Still Angry Little Girls  by Lela Lee

2006

Weight: 11 oz

Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe’s in East Atlanta
 

I could not track down Angry Girls—I wanted to get rid of it when I got rid of the sequel.  It may or may not show up one day.  I am still amazed to realize how many books have already gone missing before I get the chance to write about them.  I was very briefly interested in a woman who introduced me to these books, which seemed funny at the time but does not appeal to me anymore.  Maybe it is something that wears off after multiple reads, maybe the humor does not rub me in the same way anymore, or maybe the sequel is not as funny as the first.  I am not sure.  I am passing it on though.  Hopefully someone will get a few good chuckles.

 

Invisible Monsters


Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

1999

Weight: 1 lb

Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe’s in EAV
 
 

Speaking of authors/books I loved when I was sixteen but do not enjoy as much as a 27 year old, here is Invisible Monsters.  Not similar to Winterson, in that I realized quite a while back that I was no longer a Palahniuk fan, did not recommend him to hundreds of people, and do not feel as sad about my changing feelings about his work.   I also still enjoy Written on the Body in many senses, unlike Invisible Monsters.

Chuck started to lose me with books like Lullaby and Diary, but he lost me for good with Snuff.  There is only so much you can do with being extreme for being extremes sake.  A story needs more than  shock value and it is always nice when the characters have some believability.  His women characters are particularly lacking in quality.  Invisible Monsters seems particularly weak and lackluster.

Good riddance.

Written on the Body


Written on the Body  by Jeanette Winterson

1992

Weight: 8 oz

Method of Disposal: Leaving in Joe’s in EAV
 
 

I read Written on the Body for the first time when I was sixteen, and I fell in love.  I thought it was beautiful, and it started a long-term love affair with Jeanette Winterson that exists to this day.  I have since recommended it to countless people.  Strangers who came into the bookstore I worked at, heterosexual women who were in love with Nicholas Sparks, lesbian women looking for some fiction, and young men looking for something different than what they had been reading.  I have suggested it to friends and, recently, bought it for my girlfriend.  It was this most recent purchase that led me to read it again.

I remembered it as a moving and lyrical love story and had completely blocked out that the first half of the book is about a lesbian woman’s conquests of married heterosexual women.   I did not remember being regaled by sexual escapades with one woman and then the next and then the next.  Once I had finished the book, that section seemed like it had drawn on far too long.  A portion of it would have and did add to the second half of the book, but it was not all needed.  The lyricism could be beautiful, but it could also be trite and pull you out of the story.  So often, there were one-liners or even entire paragraphs that would make a great quote for a love letter, a tattoo, or a status update on Facebook (I said it), but they did not nest well in the full text of the book. 

It was difficult for me to reread this book and come to the realization that it is no longer one of my favorites, and that I was no longer impressed by it.  I thought about 16 year old Laura and 27 year old Laura and felt foolish for not realizing sooner that so much had changed within me that would influence my understanding and feelings towards the novel. 

I resisted getting rid of this book the entire time I have been writing on this blog but, I suppose, I am glad I reread it and now know that I can hand it off to the next person who is in the right place at the right time.  The realization of not being tied to this book is strangely sad though, and I almost feel like I am going through a literary crisis of sorts.  I am losing something I felt was essential to my reading self.  I know that sounds dramatic but, sometimes, you get bonded to a book and the “loss” of it is almost as moving as the initial love of it.