Book Report
Jul. 27th, 2013 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisVacation means that I get to read a lot more than usual! Here’s my book report.
Miss Vera’s Cross Dress for Success by Veronica Vera – I wanted phluff and so I got it. This is a book written by a woman who runs a school for cross-dressers. In case you didn’t know, generally speaking the difference between a cross-dresser and a drag queen is this: a cross-dresser is usually straight, often married, and likes to dress in women’s clothing often for their own pleasure. A drag queen is almost always a gay man, and he may or may not love dressing in women’s clothing but usually does it to entertain others, perform on stage, and make money. Anyway, so “Miss Vera” lays out in this book what happens in her school for cross-dressers and gives lots of tips. If someone was really into cross-dressing though, I don’t think that any of the tips here go into enough detail – but it is a good starting point. The feminist in me doesn’t like the fact that dressing like a woman has to – in some folks’ eyes – entail going so far over the top to meet an impossible standard (high hair, higher heels, gobs of make-up, corset, etc, etc). At its best, drag is a send-up of these standards which is why I love drag queens. And there was a section in here where one cross-dresser stages a wedding and reads some icky vows about being submissive to her man; my stomach churned. But hey, like I said, I wanted phluff and I got it. Grade: C+
The Round House by Louise Erdrich – I am so happy to have enjoyed a Louise Erdrich novel! She is renowned for being a great writer, for using words in rich and lush ways. But I’d read two of her earlier novels (The Beet Queen and The Painted Drum), and however great her prose may’ve been, I found both novels boring. I feel like such a non-intellectual when I write that, but it really is the truth. So I was very glad that this novel gripped me. It’s part coming of age story and part mystery. The protagonist is a teenage boy whose mother has been brutally attacked. P.S. - Doris needed something on our trip and picked this up; she’s not much of a reader but she loved this book too. Grade: B
More books behind the cut!
The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure, edited by Taormino, Shimizu, Penley, and Miller-Young – I should have more to say about this book. Porn is such a controversial topic, but I remain strangely ambivalent about it. I definitely liked this collection of essays by feminists who are involved, in one way or another, in porn. The pieces were pretty consistently high quality. One or two were academic mumbo-jumbo but several were really interesting. I did appreciate that most of the essayists did not bash those with opposing views and that the essays were intelligent. Grade: B
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier – I so admire Tracy Chevalier’s ability to write historical fiction. She always seems to hit the perfect combination of strong characters, setting, and plot. In this 19th century novel, a young Quaker woman leaves England for Ohio and finds herself wanting to shelter runaway slaves. It was very engaging. Grade: B+
Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences by Sarah Schulman – This short book is a call to action. Schulman contends that homophobia gets its root in families, and that families need to love and understand their gay children. She encourages those of us who are LGBT to demand more and not just settle for being “tolerated” by our families. I liked that aspect of the book and thought she was really onto something. Then Schulman kind of gets off track, more than once. She spends a lot of ink talking about her and her family’s experiences in therapy. She bemoans the lack of plays and TV shows with lesbian characters (a very valid point) but then goes on and on with her experiences struggling to get her plays produced (which makes me question – was it sexism/homophobia or are her plays not that great?). She makes some ridiculous assertions such as: straight actors never do a good job portraying lesbians – she then gives an example saying that a real lesbian would hold her partner with her arm around her waist not around her shoulders. Whaaaat?? Sorry that I didn’t know there was an official lesbian way to hold your boo. It’s too bad she kept getting off track because she had some good points. Grade: B-
Bound by Sally Gunning – Average historical fiction, nothing special and a little flat. (This was a selection from the cruise ship’s library, by the way). Grade: C-
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
None this time
Miss Vera’s Cross Dress for Success by Veronica Vera – I wanted phluff and so I got it. This is a book written by a woman who runs a school for cross-dressers. In case you didn’t know, generally speaking the difference between a cross-dresser and a drag queen is this: a cross-dresser is usually straight, often married, and likes to dress in women’s clothing often for their own pleasure. A drag queen is almost always a gay man, and he may or may not love dressing in women’s clothing but usually does it to entertain others, perform on stage, and make money. Anyway, so “Miss Vera” lays out in this book what happens in her school for cross-dressers and gives lots of tips. If someone was really into cross-dressing though, I don’t think that any of the tips here go into enough detail – but it is a good starting point. The feminist in me doesn’t like the fact that dressing like a woman has to – in some folks’ eyes – entail going so far over the top to meet an impossible standard (high hair, higher heels, gobs of make-up, corset, etc, etc). At its best, drag is a send-up of these standards which is why I love drag queens. And there was a section in here where one cross-dresser stages a wedding and reads some icky vows about being submissive to her man; my stomach churned. But hey, like I said, I wanted phluff and I got it. Grade: C+
The Round House by Louise Erdrich – I am so happy to have enjoyed a Louise Erdrich novel! She is renowned for being a great writer, for using words in rich and lush ways. But I’d read two of her earlier novels (The Beet Queen and The Painted Drum), and however great her prose may’ve been, I found both novels boring. I feel like such a non-intellectual when I write that, but it really is the truth. So I was very glad that this novel gripped me. It’s part coming of age story and part mystery. The protagonist is a teenage boy whose mother has been brutally attacked. P.S. - Doris needed something on our trip and picked this up; she’s not much of a reader but she loved this book too. Grade: B
More books behind the cut!
The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure, edited by Taormino, Shimizu, Penley, and Miller-Young – I should have more to say about this book. Porn is such a controversial topic, but I remain strangely ambivalent about it. I definitely liked this collection of essays by feminists who are involved, in one way or another, in porn. The pieces were pretty consistently high quality. One or two were academic mumbo-jumbo but several were really interesting. I did appreciate that most of the essayists did not bash those with opposing views and that the essays were intelligent. Grade: B
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier – I so admire Tracy Chevalier’s ability to write historical fiction. She always seems to hit the perfect combination of strong characters, setting, and plot. In this 19th century novel, a young Quaker woman leaves England for Ohio and finds herself wanting to shelter runaway slaves. It was very engaging. Grade: B+
Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences by Sarah Schulman – This short book is a call to action. Schulman contends that homophobia gets its root in families, and that families need to love and understand their gay children. She encourages those of us who are LGBT to demand more and not just settle for being “tolerated” by our families. I liked that aspect of the book and thought she was really onto something. Then Schulman kind of gets off track, more than once. She spends a lot of ink talking about her and her family’s experiences in therapy. She bemoans the lack of plays and TV shows with lesbian characters (a very valid point) but then goes on and on with her experiences struggling to get her plays produced (which makes me question – was it sexism/homophobia or are her plays not that great?). She makes some ridiculous assertions such as: straight actors never do a good job portraying lesbians – she then gives an example saying that a real lesbian would hold her partner with her arm around her waist not around her shoulders. Whaaaat?? Sorry that I didn’t know there was an official lesbian way to hold your boo. It’s too bad she kept getting off track because she had some good points. Grade: B-
Bound by Sally Gunning – Average historical fiction, nothing special and a little flat. (This was a selection from the cruise ship’s library, by the way). Grade: C-
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
None this time
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no subject
Date: 2013-07-27 11:01 pm (UTC)Miss Vera's sounds kind of interesting but I dunno if I'd really like it. Dominance/submission can be great but if it isn't done well...*shudders* I get sick to my stomach. I agree about the 'dressing like a woman has to be - ' is annoying. I AM a woman and I get shit sometimes about stupid things like shaving my legs. I finally caved and keep up with shaving my legs because otherwise I never hear the end of it - from women, not men. I'm now thinking of Alaska's cropped, pink hair and pants suit outfit were she killed it. Yeah, she had make-up but that was a surprisingly feminine look. I loved that one.
Isn't The Round House the book that you bought to take with you? I'm glad you and Doris liked it!
It's cool that the essays were consistently good quality. Compilations of essays can be a hard thing to pull off but I'm glad they did well. That sounds like an interesting read.
The Last Runaway sounds really cool. I may have to see if I can find it.
Sounds a bit bitchy...eesh. Straight women can't portray lesbians? WTF? Since when is there a template for being a lesbian? Does the same apply to lesbians playing straight women? Sounds like a good topic but doesn't sound like the author and I would get along. Like I said, I don't do well with haughty or in-your-face and this sounds kinda 'hellfire and brimstone upon you' about some things...
no subject
Date: 2013-07-28 02:57 am (UTC)Miss Vera's sounds kind of interesting but I dunno if I'd really like it. Dominance/submission can be great but if it isn't done well...*shudders* I get sick to my stomach. I agree about the 'dressing like a woman has to be - ' is annoying. I AM a woman and I get shit sometimes about stupid things like shaving my legs. I finally caved and keep up with shaving my legs because otherwise I never hear the end of it - from women, not men. I'm now thinking of Alaska's cropped, pink hair and pants suit outfit were she killed it. Yeah, she had make-up but that was a surprisingly feminine look. I loved that one.
Amen on all of the above. I wish things were more...open - that we got less flack for things like what you reference. It's not the end of the world if someone doesn't want to shave.
The Round House is indeed the one I had to buy. I am very glad that at least we got good use out of it and we both liked it. Doris doesn't read a lot so i was really glad about her enjoying it!
Yeah, I hear you on that last paragraph. Truly that could've been a great book. But it dissolved into griping ('straight women do a terrible job portraying lesbians! they don't put their arms around each other the right way! and now here's 20 pages on my experiences in therapy') Such a waste because Schulman had some good ideas in there.