November is National Novel Writing Month, when aspiring novelists are challenged to write a 50,000-word work (about 175 pages) in 30 days. In 2006, over 79,000 people participated and nearly 13,000 reached the 50,000-word goal. The organizers say: Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought […]
Today marks the start of Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read. This week, LGBT families have a particular reason to observe the event. Children’s storybook And Tango Makes Three, based on a true story about two male penguins who adopt an abandoned egg, tops the American Library Association’s list of “10
I admit it. I’m a skeptic when it comes to parenting books. I think I was put off after reading the touted What to Expect When You’re Expecting and finding it saccharine and patronizing. Or maybe it is just the sheer volume of parenting tomes on display at any given bookstore, each touting its own
The room was dark. “Lumos!” said the witch, and a glowing orb of light illuminated the bookshelves. The woman searched for a few minutes and then cried out in surprise. Behind a well-thumbed, leather-bound volume of Hogwarts: A History and a fraying copy of Parent Hex, was a tome covered in cruelty-free fabric (woven by
I’ve spent much of the past few days reading the U.K. “adult” edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (“Adult” refers only to a difference in jacket cover, not content.) The photo of author J. K. Rowling on the back of the dust jacket, the same one that’s been used in the past, shows
I suspect traffic across the blogosphere will be low today as people lock themselves away to read through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I thought it would be appropriate, however, to publish a heretofore lost list of charms and spells that came to light only recently when a scholar journeying through King’s Cross Station,
(Originally published on Bay Windows, June 14, 2007. Read an excerpt from the book in my post from yesterday.) When the Goodridge decision first made same-sex marriage a reality in Massachusetts, it sparked a string of jurisdictions around the country to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Beren DeMotier’s The Brides of March: Memoir
Beren DeMotier’s The Brides of March: Memoir of a Same-Sex Marriage is a raucous, personal, touching look at the brief legalization of same-sex marriage in Multnomah County, Oregon in March 2004, and its impact on her and her family. She also writes with knowing humor about the ins and outs of lesbian motherhood. I have
Many of us bloggers are also avid readers. As parents, however, we are often short of either time or money to maintain our habits. I was thrilled, therefore, to see Sassymonkey at BlogHer point out Best Places to Get Free Books: The Ultimate Guide (a link she in turn got from fellow BlogHer contributing editor
If you are still searching for the perfect Mother’s or Father’s Day gift for your partner or your own parents, you need look no further than Courting Equality: A Documentary History of America’s First Legal Same-Sex Marriages. It is a glossy, large-format work, but to call it a coffee-table book is to do it an
