Maybe I'm especially fond of this because I love the period of music For What It's Worth centers around. I don't think that you have to love the 70s and the music of its time to love Janet Tashjian's very engaging read, though.

There's a vibe here that is just lovely and great writing, too. One of my favorite sentences is: "I know it doesn't make any sense, but there's something cool about Caroline being so uncool."

The author clearly understands how deeply music touches our souls and the neat facts and playlists Quinn, a fourteen-year-old walking "encyclopedia" of music, shares are fascinating.

His zeal for buying albums is wonderful nostalgia for those of us who loved record stores as a teenager. This will go on my to-be-read-again list and is definitely "feel good." 

Never have I seen a book cover so perfectly capture what's inside it as That Witch! does, yet for all the sincere sweetness and goofy likability of almost every character involved, there's something I can't exactly put my finger on that takes away a bit of the magic.

Maybe it's that things go just a little too well for both girls soon after That Witch! opens? Not in respect to what happens when they both come out (though that does go a bit more without a hitch than would probably happen in real life) but more so in how quickly and easily Cassidy and Brynn bypass the cliques and social protocols involved in two wildly different people coming together in high school.

In the very beginning, there's promising (and very realistic) conflict in Cassidy's cold statement to Brynn: "I don't want to be the object of your affection." But in less time than it takes to sneeze, suddenly both girls realize they really (really, really) like each other and believability takes a back seat to romance. What could have been an honest and sometimes heart breaking look at what it's like to be uncool and gay in high school suddenly becomes just a little too lovey dovey.

Of course, if all you're looking for is an afternoon's great escape and a cute little (and very loving) romance that parental disproval, a nasty and judgmental best friend and high school cattiness can't shake for even a second, then That Witch! does its job.

I don't mean to be snarky, especially when romance and true love are usually my undoing, but there's just so much wonderful potential here that misses its mark ever so slightly..

 

 

 

 

"Get Well Soon" can be a casual sentence we dash off on a greeting card or the heartfelt words we say to a friend or loved one we desperately want to get better. Nowhere, in recent musical memory, have I heard it sung with such devastating sincerity and pain as here on this gorgeous album by Sarabeth Tucek.

There are so many pretty songs to like whether they're "The Wound and The Bow" or "The Doctor" or the title track. And there's also a lot of depth and quiet pain. "Wooden" is a stunner, but then most everything on here is. "Exit Ghost," like "Wooden," has a harder guitar edge to it. Both of these are about as close to hard rock as the album comes.

The two tracks that are absolute Kryptonite to any steely heart are "At The Bar" and "Get Well Soon." The former has a catchy little beat that rolls out like the beginning a harmless journey into a bar for a quick drink, but soon turns into a night with the kind of meditations that only break your heart. "Get Well Soon" is, quite simply, going to make you cry, unless you're as cold as ice. Not only is it an autobiographical account of the singer facing the aftermath of her father's death, it's a mini-guide to being there for someone who really needs us when they're not well.

Besides being a wonderful singer in her own right, Sarabeth Tucek sounds so much like Karen Carpenter it kind of scared me the first time I heard her voice, mostly because you don't hear too many vocalists who resemble the late singer's so well, not even British success story Rumer.

I'll admit I went into this album liking it because Sarabeth Tucek reminded me so much of Karen Carpenter, but I left "Get Well Soon," realizing it's about so much more than someone sounding like someone else. It's something that nestles nicely in your heart and mind and won't go away anytime soon!

The Queen’s Companion is that kind of gentle and romantic read that always makes me sigh contentedly and say, "yeah, right!" at the same time. There is lots of angst and impressive reality checks (that aren't always present in other historical fiction with gay characters) in Maggi A. Petton's historical lesbian romance which only add to the novel's appeal.

There is a scene where she goes to church to pray away her feelings is so sad and all too easy to relate to:

No matter how hard she tried to extinguish them, her thoughts returned again and again to Bella…The more she tried to shake her feelings loose, the more intense they became and the more she was afraid…

She prays and prays to God until her heart aches and still she has strong feelings for Bella. THIS is why I need lesfic in my life…because it speaks to me in a way nothing (or no one) else does. Everything Catherine feels and prays to leave her body and soul…THAT is how it’s been with me whenever I've had feelings for someone I shouldn't.

Though we can't help what's in our hearts, we can help what we do those feelings. I remember reading another novel a while back that truly spoke to me. In After Mrs. Hamilton by Clare Ashton, the main character realizes her unrequited love for someone is nothing but "futile."

The passage is wonderfully written and made me think of things in more general terms that be applied to some kind of  "how to" for getting someone."Futile" is more than right because (obviously) in such situations the feelings are never going to be returned and also, to some extent in the novel but more so in a real life situation I'm all too familiar with, because since you're not a direct part of that person's life you don't really even have the right to care for them.

 

In the 1980s I discovered a book called The Star People at my local Walden bookstore. This book spoke shamelessly to people like the person I was at that time: lonely, confused and searching.

Within it were some of the most ridiculous things ever written and yet I ate every part of it up because I figured possibly being someone from another planet was more exotic and (for me) an easier-to-live-with explanation than the simple fact I wasn't good at socializing with other kids.

That book was absurd, of course, but at the time it didn't strike me so. It would be the first of many books (though, thankfully, the only one about being from anywhere besides Earth) that would help me feel less alone in this world. :)