GLBT Mini-Challenge 3: Graphic Novels

I do not read graphic novels in any way regularly, but every now and then a GN catches my eye in the library and I end up borrowing it. Most often I enjoy my graphic reads. When I realised that the March mini-challenge over at the Challenge That Dare Not Speak Its Name aka the GLBT Challenge was graphic novels I was somewhat at a loss. I knew about Alison Bechdel's graphic novels, had even read two of them, but that was it. My knowledge of GLBT graphic novels was very limited, to say the least. And even though I had loved Bechdel's books I wanted to read something else this time. Thanks to the wonderful lists available at the GLBT Challenge page I found out that Neil Gaiman had written a GN with a lesbian couple as main characters. I have not read a lot of Gaiman, but ever since I heard him speak at the Finncon here in Helsinki in 2000 I have been interested in his work. Luckily, my library had the graphic novel in question.

Death: The Time of Your Life tells about Foxglove, a successful young singer with a girlfriend Hazel, who for the outside world is her secretary. Foxglove wants to come out and finally her manager Larry agrees to it, but then he dies. This far the story seems more or less realistic, but now it moves to more mythical and magical dimensions. Larry appears to Foxglove after his death and makes her promise that even if Hazel says something that sounds grazy, Foxglove should listen to her. Well, I think I shall leave telling the plot here. ;) I'll just say that something has happened to Foxglove and Hazel's little baby boy and that Death is a gorgeous goth girl who loves everybody!

I really liked this graphic novel. The story was gripping and the illustrations were beautiful. An added bonus was a foreword by Claire Danes, one of my favorite actresses. She, by the way, stars in Stardust, a film based on Gaiman's book with the same name. Hmm, maybe I should watch that film again... :)

A Challenge Completed

'Lastly, do I vow,

that mine eyes
desire you above
all things.'

The words above form the last sentence of Katherine of Aragon's last letter to King Henry VIII. The letter was written in 1535. Katherine died the year after. She maintained till the end that her marriage with Henry was valid, she was queen , and that she loved her husband.

Love Letters of Great Women is an anthology edited by Ursula Doyle. In addition to some letters by Katharine of Aragon it includes letters from 1399 to 1917 written by almost 30 other women. Some of the most touching being the very last letters in the anthology written by a woman living in Walthamstow (in London) to her soldier husband fighting in the first World War. 

Not all letters were stricktly love letters. The anthology includes also a freezingly polite note by Katherine Mansfield to a rival for her husband's affections:

'Dear Princess Bibesco,
I am afraid you must stop writing these little love letters to my husband while he and I live together. It is one of the things which is not done in our world.

You are very young. Won't you ask your husband to explain to you the impossibility of such a situation.

Please do not make me have to write to you again. I do not like scolding people and I
simply hate to having to teach them manners.'

That is an icy letter, isn't it? Mansfield really knew how to use words for great effect. ;)

Love letters of Great Women was an easy and interesting read. In addition to the letters it includes a short biographical introduction of each of the women, plus some background info on the letters. This book was my third non-fiction read and the eight and final book to be read for the Women Unbound Challenge. Last year I entered my first two reading challenges but did not finish either one of them. Women Unbound is the first reading challenge that I have actually completed! Yay for me! :)

Teaser Tuesday 23.3.2010

What a bad blogger I have been this month! Not a single post since my February wrap up! Well, I have been very busy with other things, work and dancing to be more exact, and I have also tried to read all too many books at once. I should know already that that only leads to my not being able to finish any of those books!

I did finish Sefarad by Antonio Muños Molina, though, all 500+ pages of it. Muños Molina is from Spain and the book is originally written in Spanish, but it has been translated into many languages. I read the book in Finnish, but it is also available in English. It is a collection of 17 stories, both separate and somewhat intertwining, and has been said to map the mental changes of 20th-century Europe. It is an excellent book. Please, read it! :) Here's a link to a few reviews.

During the weekend I started reading a book I have wanted to read for a long time: The Lieutenent by Kate Grenville. Here is a link to a short YouTube video, where Grenville talks about the book. My teaser this week is from page 51.  It is year 1788 and the First Fleet has just arrived at New South Wales.

"As Sirius rounded a rocky island, Rooke saw men running along the shore, shaking spears. He could hear them on the wind calling the same word over and over: Warra! Warra! He did not think that they were calling Welcome! Welcome! He suspected a polite translation might be something like Go to the Devil!"

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participiants can add the book to their to be read lists if they like your teasers!

February Wrap Up & What I'm Reading Now

During the shortest month I still managed to finish eight books. Here's the wrap up:

Books read: 8

Books read in English: 7

Books read in Finnish: 1

Books by Finnish writers read: 1

Fiction: 7

Nonfiction: 1

Books reviewed: 4

Books read in 2010: 19

List of books read in February with links to my reviews:

-Ali, Tariq: Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree

-Ebershoff, David: The 19th Wife

-Godden, Rumer: Greengage Summer

-Langley-Hawthorne, Clare: Consequences of Sin

-Mahfouz, Naguib: Before the Throne: Dialogs with Egypt's Great from Menes to Anwar Sadat

-Mulisch, Harry: Two Women

-Taylor, Marianne: The Nature Book: What It Is and How It Lives

-Åsbacka, Robert: Urkujenrakentaja (originally written in Swedish, the author is a Swedish speaking Finn)

The most memorable of the books I read in February were no doubt The 19th Wife which I found really interesting and Two Women which ended up being a simply amazing story. Urkujenrakentaja, a lovely story of a solitary old man and the goodness of neighbours, was a close third in the most memorable list. And if anyone wants to read a funny little book about nature, Marianne Taylor's The Nature Book is the one for you.

At the moment I have so many books waiting for their turn that I hardly know where to start. I'm over halfway through The First Man-Made Man by Pagan Kennedy which is the story of Laura, later Michael, Dillon, the first known case of female to male sex change  which I'm reading for the GLBT Challenge. I have also read about 150 pages of John Dickinson's first adult novel The Lightstep, a historical epic set in a small German state in 1797. And I've started reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, The Book of Saladin by Tariq Ali, and Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou. The last of the three I'm reading for the Women Unbound Challenge and Ali's book will probably qualify for the World Religion Challenge. For one of my book clubs I'm reading Sefarad by Antonio Muños Molina. Soon I have to choose and concentrate on a couple of these otherwise I will not be able to finish them, at least not in time (book club meeting, due dates -and more lovely books waiting in the wings! :))