Big Guy

Author:  Robin Stevenson

Publisher:  Orca Book, 2008

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary :


That picture I sent?  It was taken last year, before Mom left.  Before I packed on all the fat.  That was a good eighty pounds ago.  You wouldn't even recognize me if you saw me now.

I barely recognize myself.

Man in the Middle

Author:  John Amaechi

Publisher:  ESPN, 2007

Edition:  Print


Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library


Publisher's Summary:

Man in the Middle chronicles John Amaechi's extraordinary journey from awkward, overweight English lad to jet-setting NBA star.  Along the way, Amaechi encountered endless obstacles to achieving his hoop dreams - his father's abandonment, being cut from his first college team, a life-threatening injury, abusive coaches, the death of his mother - all the while protecting a vital secret that would end his career.  John Amaechi was gay.

Now, in this poignant and intimate memoir, Amaechi takes us deep inside the often hypermasculine world of professional sports to the very center of his soul.  As tender as it is brutally frank, Man in the Middle traces Amaechi's story from the streets of Manchester (where he was raised by a single mother) to Penn State University (where he first achieved basketball stardom and his sexuality awakened) to the cities (Orlando, Houston, Salt lake City) and countries (Greece, France) in which he played.  Despite the fear of being outed, Amaechi lived an active and activist life throughout his career, mentoring children and adopting two of his own.

A powerful story of adversity and diversity, Man in the Middle is a testament to the power of one man's highly personal conviction and the universal desire to make the world a better place.

Black Rabbit Summer

Author:  Kevin Brooks

Publisher :   Chicken House, Scholastic, 2008

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:


As kids they were tight.  Now, they've grown up -- and apart.  Before going their separate ways for good, they decide to get together one last time.
Just like old times.
Just the five of them.
Saturday night.

Nicole asked.  How could Pete say no?

But past hurts, personal histories, soon surface, and the party's over.  The group splinters off into the darkness. Into the noise and heat and chaos of the summer carnival.

Days later, a girl goes missing.  And each of them is a suspect in her disappearance.  Pete doesn't know what to believe.  Could one of their ow, one of the old gang, be a killer?

A tough, tense mystery twined with an emotional coming-of-age tale, Black Rabbit Summer
 explores the ways sex, love, class, and celebrity can forever change -or end-friendships.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Author:  Annie Flagg

Publisher:   McGraw-Hill, 1988

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:

Flagg's new novel is the Lake Wobegon of the South.  It is folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, filled with humor and drama - and has an ending that would fill the smiling tears the Whistle Stop Lake... if only they had a lake...

It's the first story of two women in the 1980s, of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age.  The tale she tells is also of two women - of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth, who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder.

Another Kind of Cowboy

Author:  Susan Juby

Publisher:  HarperCollins, 2007

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:


For Alex Ford, dressage is an oasis.  In the stable, he can slip into his riding pants, shed the macho cowboy image, and feel like himself for a change.

For Cleo O'Shea, dressage is a fresh start.  She's got a new boarding school, absentee parents, and, best of all, no one to remember her past.

When their paths collide, Alex doesn't want to have anything to do with the privileged, overbearing girl, not least because she doesn't seem to get how lucky she is to be riding horses all day.  But when Alex can't shake Cleo, he soon realizes she might be the only one who understands him.  After all, keeping a secret is as tough as getting a horse to dance.  Sometimes you need a little help.

The Rules for Hearts

Author:  Sara Ryan

Publisher:  Penquin, 2007

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:

Battle Hall Davies is sure of some things: she's going to Reed this fall; she loves girls; and her older brother, Nick, is cooler and more together than she'll ever be.  Nick ran away from home when Battle was thirteen.  Now, four and a half years later, he's tracked her down, and she's spending the summer between high school and college in Forest House, the group home where he lives in Portland.

It is a summer of surprises.  Battle is swept into Forest House's community Shakespeare production and its all-night card games, and into the arms of her new housemate, Meryl.  It turns out that Nick is not who Battle thought he was - and Battle's not who she thought she was, either.  The Rules for Hearts is a story about secrets, revealed truths , and the ins and outs of all kinds if love.

What Happened to Lani Garver

Author:  What Happened to Lani Garver


 Publisher :  Harcort, 2004

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library


Publisher's Summary:


Hackett Island has never seen anyone quite like Lori Garver.  Everything about this new kid is a mystery.  Where does Lani come from?  How old is Lani?  And - most disturbing - is Lani a boy or a girl?

Claire McKenzie isn't up to tormenting Lani like the rest of the high school elite.  Instead, she befriends the intriguing outcast.  But within days of Lani's arrival, tragedy strikes and Claire must deal with shattered friendships and personal demons - and the possibility that angels walk the earth.

Our Lady of the Assassins

Author:  Fernando Vallejo

Publisher:  Serpent's Trail, 1994

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library


Publisher's Summary:


Fernando, the narrator, returns after several decades to his birthplace, Medelin, to find it transformed into Columbia's "capital of hate".  A town tottering on the edge of the abyss where taxi drivers are shot dead for refusing to turn down their radio.  As he lovingly insults the country's president, its drug barons, priests, communists, sociologists, television and soccer addicts, Fernando cultivates a passion for Alexis, a young hitman from the shanty-towns.  The brutal and tender fuse in this first translation of an outstanding voice of Latin American literature.

Annabel

Author:  Kathleen Winter

Publisher:  House of Anansi, 2011

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:


In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once.  Only three people are privy to the secret - the baby's parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbour, Thomasina.  Together the adults make a difficult decision: to raise the child as a boy named Wayne.  But as Wayne grows to adulthood within the hyper-masculine hunting culture of his father, his shadow-self --a girl he thinks of as "Annabel" - is never entirely extinguished, and indeed is secretly nurtured by the women in his life.

Haunting and sweeping in scope, Annabel is a compelling tale about one person's struggle to discover the truth in a culture that shuns contradiction.

Gravity

Author:  Leanne Lieberman

Publisher:  Orca Book, 2008

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:


Is there any room in Orthodox Judaism for a distinctly unorthodox Jewish teenager?  Ellie Gold has always embraced her faith - at least until she meets Lindsay.  Faced with denying her sexuality or abandoning her community, Ellie looks to her mother, sister and grandmother to guide her, but in the end, her decisions are her own.

Crush

Author:  Carrie Mac

Publisher:  Orca Book, 2006

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:

Isn't she fazed by any of this?  Does she do this all the time?  Make unsuspecting, seemingly straight girls squirm?  Or am I making it all up?  But making up what?  The butterflies are real.  The fact that I want to kiss her is real.

Would kissing a girl be different from kissing boys?  If all I did was kiss her, would that make me queer?  Are you queer just for thinking it?  Or does doing it make you queer?  And what if I don't want to be queer?  Do I get a say in this at all?

Rainbow Road

Author:  Alex Sanchez

Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2007.

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:

With Rainbow Road, Alex Sanchez concludes the story begun in Rainbow Boys and Rainbow High about what it means to be young and gay, again told in his unflinchingly honest voice.


Jason Carrillo came out to his basketball team senior year and lost his university scholarship. Now, with graduation behind him and summer ending, he's asked to speak at the opening of a gay and lesbian high school across the country. But after spending years in the closet and losing his scholarship dream, what message can he offer?


Kyle Meeks is getting ready to go to Princeton in the fall and trying to see as much as possible of his boyfriend Jason before they have to separate. When Jason tells him about his speaking invitation, Kyle jumps at the chance to drive across country with him. Yet he can't help worrying: will their romance survive two weeks crammed in a car together?


Nelson Glassman is happy his best friend Kyle has found love with Jason. Now he's looking for his own true love-and hopes he might find his soul mate during the road trip. But will being the "third wheel" in a trio ruin his friendships with Kyle and Jason?

Stuck Rubber Baby

Author:  Howard Cruise

Publisher:  DC Comics, 2010

Edition:  Print


Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:


Art and story combine powerfully in this lyrical tale of a young man caught in the maelstrom of the civil rights movement and the entrenched homophobia of small-town America.  Toland Polk, the son of an uneducated white carpenter, has grown up in the Southern town of Clayfield.  It is the 1960s, a time of passionate beliefs and violent emotions, and Clayfield's citizens are divided in the fight over segregation.  As Toland fights on the side of the civil rights activists, he slowly begins to realize that he also has a more personal battle - to accept that he is gay.

When a subtle yet intricate, and distinctively evocative illustrations, Stuck Rubber baby is an unflinching honest book at one man's world of fears, dreams and prejudice.

Unbearable Lightness

Author:  Portia De Rossi

Publisher:  Simon and Schuster, 2010

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Stathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:

"I didn't decide to become anorexic.  It snuck up on me disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude."

Portia De Rossi weighted only 82 pounds when she finally collapsed on set playing her first lead in a Hollywood film.  On the outside she was thin, blond and successful, but on the inside, she was literally dying.

Even as she rose to fame in the hit television shows Ally McBeal and Arrested Development, Portia was starving herself and bingeing, all the while terrified that her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids. In this searing, unflinching honest book she captures the complex emotional truths of living with the earing disorder and being in the closet.

From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb to health and honesty, falling in love and marrying Ellen DeGeneres, and emerging as an outspoken, articulate advocate for gay rights and women's health issues.  Unbearable Lightness is a remarkable book, for all those who sometimes feel at war with themselves or their bodies, and a story of hope.

Say the Word

Author:  Jeannine Garsee

Publisher:  Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers, 2011

Edition:  Print

Where  I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's Summary:

Everything in Shawna's life is perfect.  She gets good grades, dates the right boys, and follows her father's every rule.  But Perfect Shawna never expected a phone call from the past.  When the voice on the other end of the line explains that her mother is dying, Shawna doesn't know how to react.  Her anger over feeling abandoned by her mother ten years ago is tangled up with her grief.  And her mother's lesbian partner, Fran, and Fran's two sons only complicate things further.

When her controlling father takes advantage of her mom's outdated will, Shawna begins to suspect that her memories aren't quite accurate, that her mom and Fran may have been hiding something.  And if her dad figures it out, there's no turning back.  Shawna will have to come to terms with a much less perfect life.

Rainbow Boys

Author :  Alex Sanchez

Publisher:  New York: Simon Pulse, 2001

Edition:  Print

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publishers Summary:

High school's hard enough as it is without falling in love with your best friend - who's crushing on the most popular guy in school. Or feeling like your parents would throw you out if they knew you were gay. Or being afraid of who you are...

Welcome to my World

Author:  Johnny Weir


Publisher:  Gallery Books, 2011


Edition:  Print


Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library


Publisher's Summary:


How does a boy from rural Pennsylvania become an all-American original icon adored by millions of fans worldwide and hailed as " the Lady Gaga of figure skating"?


In a memoir as candid and unconventional as Johnny Weir himself,
the three-time U.S. National Champion, who electrified the 2010 Winter Olympics, shares his glamorous, gritty, heartbreaking, hopeful, and just plain fabulous life story, and reveals the emergence of his natural talents for skating and horseback riding, the physically and emotionally grinding path to becoming a champion, a family that sacrificed everything to support his passions, an ability to rise again after the most devastating defeats and never look back, an appreciation of style (from his mom) and self-discipline (that would be his dad), and a fearless confidence to be himself and say whatever's on his mind.

A Love Story

Author:   Emily Horner

Publisher:   Dial books, 2010

Edition:   Print

Where I got the book:   Strathcona High School Library

Publisher's summary:


For months, Cass Meyer has heard her best friend, Julia, a wannabe Broadway composer, whispering about a top-secret project.  Then Julia is killed in a car accident, and Julia's drama friends make it their mission to bring the project -- a musical entitled "Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad" -- to fruition

But Cass isn't one of the drama people.  She can't take a summer of swallowing her pride and painting sets, and she won't spend long hours with Heather Galloway, the girl who rudely questioned Cass's sexuality all through middle school and who has somehow landed the starring role.

So Cass decides to follow her original plan for a cross-country road trip with Julia.  Even if she has a touring bicycle instead of a driver's license, and even if Julia's ashes are coming along in  Tupperware.  When Cass returns in late August she's not the same person --neither, she discovers is Heather.  In fact, it's hard to tell what will happen to the play when they start falling for each other.......

Becoming Chole

Author :  Catherine Ryan Hyde

Publisher:  Knopf Books,  2006

Edition:  print verson

Where I got the book:  Strathcona High School Library

Publishers Summary:  Meet Jordy. He’s on his own in New York City. Nobody to depend on; nobody depending on him. And it’s been working fine.

Until this girl comes along. She’s 18 and blond and pretty–her world should be perfect. But she’s seen things no one should ever see in their whole life–the kind of things that break a person. She doesn’t seem broken, though. She seems . . . innocent. Like she doesn’t know a whole lot. Only sometimes she does.

The one thing she knows for sure is that the world is an ugly place. Now her life may depend on Jordy proving her wrong. So they hit the road to discover the truth–and there’s no going back from what they find out.

This deeply felt, redemptive novel reveals both the dark corners and hidden joys of life’s journey–and the remarkable resilience of the human soul.


Mrs. R's Thougthts:


Okay, it has been a long time since I have read a book that made me cry like this one did.   I Jordy is a character that anyone would be lucky to have as a friend.   loved this book and highly recommend to anyone who wants to feel good about the world in spite of the cruelty that we sometimes encounter. 

Suicide notes

Author :  Michael Thomas Ford

Publisher:  New York:  Harper Teen, 2010

Edition:  eBook version

Where I got the book:  Overdrive from Strathcona High School Library

Publishers Summary:  Brimming with sarcasm, fifteen-year-old Jeff describes his stay in a psychiatric ward after attempting to commit suicide.

Mrs. R' s Thoughts:

I was really drawn into the novel.  Jeff refuses to acknowledge that he has tried to kill himself.  He is sure that his being in the phych ward is a mistake and he doesn't belong.  I wanted to know what happened to push this seemingly "normal" boy over the edge and that kept me turning pages.  As well, the cast of quirky characters made this novel's dark content and events somehow lighter.  I was surprised by how graphic some of the sexual content was and wonder why so many books about homosexuals have to include sexual abuse.  Overall, I would give this novel 4 out of 5 stars.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the novel.