May
27
I wrote a recent post about the novel A Lady for a Duke. In case it wasn’t apparent from the hoity-toity language I used to describe the plot and such, I loved the book!
It is 400+ pages of exquisite writing, where you got the sense that every sentence was crafted with care. It is also a beautiful story, told well, and features, as its star, a remarkable trans woman and an even more remarkable relationship between her and her lifelong best friend.
I am rehashing all this because I was searching for another book to read, and I came by chance upon a Reddit discussion on that book, and several of the commenters chose to compare it to A Lady for a Duke. I was taken aback by the attitude of these commenters who would dismiss this book as unreadable or unworthy because (spoiler alert!) it contains a sex scene – or perhaps the sex scene – that is not their cup of tea.
Honestly, it’s not mine either.
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Mar
30
I don’t think I wrote a single book review in the first decade of this blog, and here I am with the third in less than a month.
A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall is a period love story between two dear friends separated by war, one damaged by it both physically and psychologically, the other, presumed lost but using the circumstance to liberate herself from being the person she never was.
For our heroine, the stakes of her transition are much higher than what we consider difficult these days, because she is forced to give up her name, her title and her property in addition. Her friend, meanwhile, is in physical pain and mental anguish over his participation in the fighting and over the loss of his cherished friend.
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Mar
15
I have done a lot more writing than reading when it comes to trans experiences. But now that I’m on a reading kick, I am discovering how powerful it feels to me when transgender authors express experiences I have had through their lenses.
The whole thing is making me a bit emotional. First, there’s that sense of community, of shared feelings and responses that I never got even from all those trans events I attended over the years, where I got to know so many terrific people. I now get to sit in the quiet of my home and let these messages wash over me rather than having to have a ready answer for a conversation-mate, or a quick reply before the music or other revelers intruded.
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Mar
08
Preoccupied as I am at the moment with writing and books, especially about topics that mirror my own book, I picked up a copy of Jordyn Taylor’s See You at the Summit.
Good move! I absolutely devoured the book in two days and loved every minute of it.
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Feb
27
This feels vaguely like climbing, stiffly and slowly, back behind the wheel of a truck I left by the side of the road years ago. I wonder if I can still handle this rig.
Hard to believe, but it’s been nearly a decade since my last post. In that time, we’ve had Covid, and
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