Welcome to Litsy!

Goal met, #100 for the year! I went with the audiobook since time is short. Turned out to be an excellent choice. Narrated by the author. He is pleasant and affirming with his mild Southern drawl - just as his books have always struck me. Highly recommend to any Tales of the City fans. 5 ⭐

Finished the year with 26 History, 15 Lit/Fiction, 20 Sci-Fi/Fantasy, & a mix of Science, Bio, Mystery, YA, Travel and other genres. Happy New Year everyone!

I also received this #bookmail today! 💌 I won this from HarperCollins on Instagram. Have you read it? It sounds really good.

After the Decatur Book Festival tonight I had the pleasure of attending a viewing of the documentary The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, followed by a Q&A with Maupin. Although I've heard of Maupin, I just recently started reading his stuff. Now I want to read it all. Immediately. AM said Netflix is doing a new take on Tales of the City & some original cast members will be back!! Can't wait to see him again tomorrow!! #dbf2018

Tails of the threads that gathered to become the most memorable and meaningful characters for so many. I loved this read. Thank you Armistead for being vulnerable and giving more of you than I would have expected.

I can‘t check this out today because I‘m already in the middle of too many books - but I‘m going to need to circle back to this. ❤️

Just received these amazing books for my roommate Christmas gift exchange! Can‘t wait to dive into both! #newbooks #presents #food #cookbooks #cookbook #memoir

A book as a door prize at work holiday party! Love it!

Loved this to the moon and back. Jet lagged and getting in lots of reading in the wee small hours of no sleep. Got a signed copy of this in SanFran to give as a gift to my brother. Found a copy in library and have read it in two days. I can hear him talking as I read. A great story teller. 😍😍😍 @MrsMalaprop
Highly recommend especially if you liked his Tales of the City.

Took a trip to Foyles on my lunchbreak and two of my Christmas wishes were on display next to each other. It‘s like they read my mind...

What ever possessed me to even try this? I don‘t like family memoir, especially those centered on childhood. Bailed within the first few paragraphs of chapter 2.

Can't recommend this enough! Read it if you are interested in #SanFrancisco #GayHistory #AuthorMemoirs ! #Family #NoteworthyNovember

So this was good, but not great like I wanted it to be. I was kind of hoping for more of his life in San Francisco, more about how he created his own logical family. The end become all about name dropping, and while I love a good, "I blew Rock Hudson" story, I was hoping for a little more. The insights into the inspiration for Tales were wonderful.

As a long time a Tales of the City fan I was very keen to read this memoir. It is thoroughly charming and quite surprising.

These two books made me very happy this month! #bestofoctober #uncannyoctober #octoberfavorites #spookyoctober

Easy breezy book about an author I‘d never heard of when Tales of the City showed up on PBS nearly 25 years ago. I conveniently ignored him ever since, up until this year when I decided to read the book (and the first sequel) in preparation for a SF trip. So I was surprised by the fact that Maupin was for many years better known as being ‘out‘ than for being a writer. A nice collection of recollections. Makes me want to read more of his works.

Even better than I expected it to be! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Funny, revealing, warm-hearted... Maupin's adult life is almost all here - I'd love to hear more of his travels with friends! 💜

There are so many great examples but these are a few picks for #lgbtqreads which I've read and loved over the years and the tagged I'm hoping to pick up soon 🏳️‍🌈🤘🏻
#riotgram

Gaaaa! 💜If only my mom were here to tell her about this! Miss you, Mom! 😢

OMG!!!

Five stars for this wonderful memoir. Evenly split between Maupin‘s childhood and his years in San Francisco, the book really takes off when he begins writing Tales of the City. It‘s a veritable who‘s who of 20th century gay life, from Rock Hudson to Ian McKellan. The book is capped with Maupin‘s Letter to Mama, published as part of the Tales of the City serial but loosely veiled; I read it when I was 16 and it still made me cry.

How I‘m spending my Saturday. I really hope this lives up to all I‘ve been expecting. When I was a scared, just coming out baby dyke I found the Tales of the City books and fell in love. I could read them in public without being found out, and they were laugh out loud hilarious. On our epic wedding road trip, my partner and I listened to the first one on audiobook (cassette, which SO dates me) and now it‘s kind of a tradition.

This was good and in many places, quite touching. I'm glad I read it. I especially appreciated reading about his experiences being in the military during the Vietnam War. But I couldn't get past the cis male gaze whenever he referred to trans women (real or fictional). Deadnaming and inconsistent gendering, and using the trans experience as a plot device. Otherwise, a lovely and heartfelt memoir. *Almost* a "pick".

Got my new audible credits, and I decided to pre-order two books. I've heard good things about The Silent Child, and I love love love Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books, so his memoir is a must-read for me.