It's Monday! Yeay...yeah, sure AND GLBT reading

First of all, This is something I meant to do at the beginning of the year, but somehow it slipped by me. I believe that every family has at least one or two gay or lesbian family members. It might be a brother, uncle, sister, cousin (I have at least three gay cousins) or even a parent or (gasp!) grandparent (though they're less likely to admit this). In my case, it's my brother as well as some cousins over in Panama. In Panama, the family all knows, but they don't speak about it. They're own version of don't ask, don't tell. This might be only the elders, maybe the young ones are more open - I don't know my family in Panama that well. I know they were all scandalized by my tattoo in 2005. With my brother, it was always in the back of my mind, but I don't remember it ever really affecting the way I felt about him, it just was. When he turned 18 and moved away to study Ballet and then to L.A. to be in Dance Videos I remember finally teasing him about when he was going to come out. It wasn't until at five more years that he came out to our mom, because he really was worried about how she would react. This could be because all our lives she would make these comments like (Imagine a spanish accent with this) "Aye, Those Gays - so Crazy. Why do they want to be with themselves!" it didn't make sense, but basically what she was saying is they already have a penis, what do they want with another one. She never even mentioned the lesbians -at all.

I bring this up, because I think we all need to be more open and honest about things. Gay and Lesbians are here - they always have been and they always will be. Why make things more difficult? My kids all knew about their uncle way before their grandma did. In fact, they spoke about it to their cousins, assuming that all parents were open about this subject like their parents. They were wrong, and I think my sister found out it didn't help to keep things quiet. I follow a blog called GLBT reading, where I (rather late, but better late than never) have joined the challenge to read GLBT literature. I prefer fiction, so that's what I'm concentrating on. Happily, August is mini-challenge for GLBT Speculative fiction.

I would hope that more and more people open up to acceptance so that perfectly wonderful teens and young adults (hell older adults too) don't feel like they have to hide part of themselves from their own family.

And now, for my It's Monday check in, hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

First, I finally finished Moonshine by Alaya Johnson. It's a good book with some wonderful world building, set during The Prohibition, it's gangsters and prohibition -only with vampires and "others". I recommend it - AND if you happen to be participating in the 2010 Persons of Color Reading Challenge, (if you're not, you should try it - believe me, it IS challenging trying to find authors who ARE POC) Alaya Johnson is a POC author.

I also read and reviewed A Wild Light by Marjorie M. Liu, one of the best books that I've read.
Marjorie M. Liu is another POC author.

I am starting (started today, in fact) The Man With The Golden Torc by Simon R. Green. I just figured out that he's from England - never paid attention before, so it'll help with my Typically British Challenge. I couldn't find his own website, just a bunch of other's, so I linked to a place called MY Shelf - click on the book cover.

I have also started a book called The Pack - about a kick-ass girl that lives on Mars. Hello! MARS! Imagine, living on Mars.....wow. The Pack is written by L.M. Preston, who also is a POC author, and published by Phenominal One Press. I like the premise of this book. I'm also going to be giving away some Pack swag soon. Click on book cover for an excerpt of the first three chapters. Love me some excerpts!