Exits And Museums And Hallways

I started the year vowing to read 100 books, but I was short. Actually, I fell very short, with finishing just 55, but I don't feel too bad. Nowadays, 55 books a year is pretty good, and with all these distractions around me (i.e. The Internet) I think it is still an accomplishment. And I will not give up. For 202, I am making the same challenge to myself, and I know I will make it this time 'round. As 2011 closes, though, here are the last three books.

"Exit Through The Wound," by North Morgan was a little bit of a puzzlement for me, as far as how I reacted to it. It kept my attention, for sure, but at the same time, there was nothing I read that was really original, and it really did not make me think, or ponder. This was written by the blogger better known as "London Preppy" and I read that blog. He  is a gay blogger in London, and I kind of liked reading his entries there because it gave me a glimpse of what gay London was like, since LDN has been an "adopted city" of mine since way back. For better or worse, this book is very different, and while it has touches of brilliance (it took you inside the mind of someone with clinical mental illness) it is so mind-numbingly stylized that it was hard to see anything through the rubble. Morgan idolized Brett Easton Ellis  (he even had his name tattooed on his bicep) and some parts are (for better or worse once again) derivatives of Ellis' works. All in all, it's a more than average read, and I am sure that his next book will be fuller and will have more depth in it. I await it. 

I liked the concept of the fictional museum in "Miracle At The Museum Of Broken Hearts," wherein the main character, Rose, starts curating pieces for a museum designed to showcase artifacts pertaining to broken love stories. Unfortunately, that is the most innovative thing in Talli Rolland's Christmas novella. The "Christmas" part of the novella is very incidental as this could have been set at any season and it wouldn't have made any difference. Everything else in the book is by-the-numbers and it provided a very welcome distraction for me during those busy hazy days leading to the Holidays. I would have wanted a little more interaction between the two characters who fell in love before they actually did, but maybe that's just the hopeless romantic in me. 

"Love Is In The Hallways" is the sequel to "Love Is In The Title," which I reviewed here, and we find Luke and Cameron, who fell in love in that first book, getting their love tested in a hostile High School environment. These silly kids, you wanna fall in love, then you need to suffer the consequences. Love hurts, it scars, and for teenagers who are ruthless, these consequences can be very deadly. But RJ Scott, maybe because she is British, writes with such tenderness and dignity that you could only go with the flow with these two souls as they fall in love, and face the odds. This is a very romantic book, 'tis true, but it is also quite chaste and well, a tad unrealistic. But gay teenagers in need of escapism from the real truth can't have a better book to read, ans while we are at it, even adults will find a lot to love about it as well. In these very complicated times, love is still love. 








BC - 53, 54, 55 - and that's a wrap !