Moment of Zen: Summer Reading

My Recent Reading List

It's almost a cliche at this point to say that teen fiction isn't just for teens anymore. Just last year, the Association of American Publishers ranked Children's/Young Adult books as the single fastest-growing publishing category and NPR just published Listener's Picks for the 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels. The first two books on my recently read list are young adult murder mysteries by one of my all time favorite authors, Greg Herren. This genre is relatively new to Herren, but what a way to start!

Sara by Greg Herren

For Tony Martin, being a senior means being a star on the football team, classes to get through, hanging out with his friends—and dating Candy Dixon. And once he graduates, he’s getting out of Kansas and never looking back. But his best friend Glenn’s decision to come out and be openly gay at their small rural high school creates a lot of problems for the two of them. But a beautiful new student arrives at Southern Heights High—Sara. When all the kids who’ve been mean to Glenn start dying in very strange circumstances, and Glenn starts acting strangely, it’s up to Tony and Candy to get to the bottom of what’s going on in their school—before it’s too late for them.

Sleeping Angel by Greg Herren

Eric Matthews survives a near-fatal accident only to find his whole life has changed.

Eric Matthews wakes up in the hospital with no memory of how he wound up there—and soon learns that it's vital that he remember. Apparently, he was in a car accident—and the body of classmate Sean Brody was found in his car, shot to death. But nothing makes sense to Eric. He and Sean weren't friends. In fact, they disliked each other--Sean was gay and Eric is...well, he's not sure of much right now! Except he is certain he didn't shoot Sean, even though he can't remember anything about the day of the accident.

To make matters worse, he starts having psychic flashes about the people around him: his doctor, a nurse, his mother, and other visitors.

As Eric's memories slowly start to come back to him, he becomes more and more certain that not only is he innocent, but that the real murderer is out there….and wants to shut him up permanently.

Fair Game by Josh Lanyon

A crippling knee injury forced Elliot Mills to trade in his FBI badge for dusty chalkboards and bored college students. Now a history professor at Puget Sound university, the former agent has put his old life behind him—but it seems his old life isn't finished with him.

A young man has gone missing from campus—and as a favor to a family friend, Elliot agrees to do a little sniffing around. His investigations bring him face-to-face with his former lover, Tucker Lance, the special agent handling the case.

Things ended badly with Tucker, and neither man is ready to back down on the fight that drove them apart. But they have to figure out a way to move beyond their past and work together as more men go missing and Elliot becomes the target in a killer's obsessive game...

TMI Books

On Sean's blog, Just a Jeep Guy (Jeeps are my favorite vehicle, by the way), he posted on Tuesday "TMI TUESDAY QUESTIONS: BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS."  And I decide that because of my love of books and because my love of books in the gay genre of fiction helped me with coming to terms with my own sexuality, that I would answer his questions.  So here we go:

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS

1. eBooks or real books? If an eBook: Kindle, Nook or other?

Though I occasionally read books on my iPad or the Kindle app on my phone, I prefer the feel and smell of reading a real book. There is just something about turning the page that I love, and I love having books around my house, even if I don't always have a place for them.

2. Which book are  you currently reading?

Currently, I am reading Sleeping Angel by Greg Herren.  I will blog more about the recent books that I have read and am reading tomorrow.

3. How many books have you read in 2012? How has reading blogs, FB, and/or tweeting affected your book reading?

Not nearly as many as I would like to have read.  It's been a really busy year, and though I have probably started on 3 or 4 dozen different books, I think that I have only finished maybe half a dozen.

4. What genre(s) of book do you enjoy reading?

I love reading mysteries, but more fun gay fiction is nice too.  I tend to read kind of trashy gay books filled with a fair amount of sex, LOL.  I also enjoy action adventure books like from author Steve Berry, Dan Brown, Will Adams, etc.  those books tend to have a historical feel to them that I enjoy.

5. Have you read the Kama Sutra or The Joy of Sex? Helpful?

Yes, and maybe a little.

Bonus

What was the first erotic novel you read that matched your sexual orientation? 

Hmm, I'm going to have to think on that one.  It would have had to have been a book I ordered from Amazon.com, because our local bookstores did not carry such books.  Though I used to love the gay stories in "Penthouse Letters." I read a fair number of gay short stories and stuff on Nifty Archives.  However, I do remember the first gay book I ever bought which was Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. I actually got up the nerve to go in the local Barnes and Nobles and buy it.  Though not erotic by today's standard, it was pretty damn erotic to me because I was reading about gay men for the first time.

Books, Books, Books...

Usually, my summers are spent reading.  That's what I I'd for fun.  I,have always loved to read, and it allows your mind to wonder to a different place away from your troubles.  This summer has been a bit different though.  When school let out, I had a lot of different things to do, so there went June.  July was spent with Grandmama's illness and death.  I love mysteries most, but they generally have at least one death, which was not something I could handle after Grandmama's passing.  I tried to read a few books, but when I got to a sad part, all I could do was cry. I tend to get wrapped up in the lives of the characters, and I could not handle their sadness and my own at the same time.

Now that it is August and school starts back tomorrow, I have been back to reading more this month. So for the rest of the week, I will be discussing books.  I hope you enjoy the posts.

All The World's a Stage

As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII [All the world's a stage]

By William Shakespeare

Jaques to Duke Senior

                                  All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Back to School

Dammit, the summer is over.  I go back to school today to get my room ready for classes to start on Wednesday.  Also, my night class begins tonight.  It's going to be a busy day.

Some Christians are Gay. Get Over It!

Do you ever feel hated by the world for being a gay Christian?  We're not just persecuted for being gay; the gay community's not too fond of our Christian beliefs either, especially if it makes more than a marginal difference in our lives.

That's why Jesus' words in this week's Bible passage are so meaningful for us.  Although his comments were addressed directly to his followers and refer to their dealings with the Jewish community of their day, in many ways they apply to us in our dealings with both the Christian community and the secular world.

John 15:18-21; 16:1-4 (NASB)"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, butI chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ' A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me."These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.  But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

When you feel lonely in your struggle, come back to this passage and remember the One who endured that hate and persecution first.  God is with you, even now.

I don't know about you, but there are times I don't even want to be called a Christian.  When my non-Christian friends talk about the hypocrisy and self-righteousness they observe in many Christians, I can't honestly disagree with them.  I see the same things, and it makes me angry.  In some cultures today, Christians are known more for hypocrisy than for grace, and that's a terrible shame.

But I have to remind myself that these things made Jesus angry, too.  The Jesus I serve is the same Jesus who spent his time eating with the most obvious sinners of his day without condemning them.  He's the same Jesus who spoke up for an adulteress when the rest of the town was ready to stone her for her sin.  And he's the same Jesus who reserved his harshest words for the religious leaders, angrily denouncing them as "sons of hell."

Next time you get angry at hypocritical Christians who turn people away from God, read this passage and know that God is angry with you.

Matthew 23:13-28 (NASB)" But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation."Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ' Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.' You fools and blind men!Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? And, 'Whoever swears by the altar,that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.' You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering? Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. And whoever swears by heaven,swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it." Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also." Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Notice how strong the language in this passages is.  Do you understand why Jesus was so angry?  Are you ever guilty of hypocrisy, ungrace, or other behaviors that might give Christians a bad name?

The church is made up of fallible human beings, so sometimes our pride gets in the way of becoming what the body of Christ is intended to be.  Nevertheless, what does this passage tell us about God's character as well as God's plans for us as Christians?

Moment of Zen: Snuggling with a Kitty

When I come home from a hard day of teaching, my lovely cat HRH (my blog nickname for her) is always there to make me feel better.  She sits at the window each day during the school year waiting for 3 PM so that she can meet me at the door.  I know that is where she waits because it overlooks the driveway, and I hear her distinctive thump as she jumps down from my chest of drawers to stand go stand at the top of the stairs.  There she waits for me to unlock the door and then comes bounding down the stairs to greet me.  I usually put my stuff down and lay down for a few minutes upstairs where she crawls into the crook of my arm and on my chest, much like the above picture, and we have our cuddle time.  I pet her as she purrs.  HRH is a wonderful companion and has been a happy addition to my home for nearly fourteen years.

Matthew Mitcham

In a move that surely has adoring fansaround the world crossing their fingers, gay Australian Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham tweeted that he would dive naked if he wins gold at the London games:

Though Mitcham -- one of the few openly gay athletes competing in London -- has generated quite a stir with his covers of "Single Ladies" and the "Family Guy" theme, this stunt would surely take the viral cake.

Sadly, as the sports news aggregation site SB Nation notes, "Mitcham has been fighting an abdominal injury and the 10-meter field is stacked."

The Men's 10-meter Platform competition is today and tomorrow.  Good Luck, Matthew.

Taking a Breather

School starts back on less than a week and there is so much to be done before the summer is over, so I am taking a breather from my blog today.