book rage by mark hernandez
Who Killed Amanda Palmer
In this month’s “something completely different” department I want to bring
your attention to Amanda Palmer and the Dresden Dolls. Amanda’s world is
one big amazing mixture of music, art and theatre all mashed up together.
Singer and pianist Amanda Palmer and her drummer Brian Viglione make up
the Dresden Dolls often along with many others in their concert performances
given worldwide. Their latest offering is a set of things—an album, videos and
a book all titled Who Killed Amanda Palmer. The beautiful companion art book
features amazing and lavish photos, all of which are offered as pictorial clues as
to who killed Amanda Palmer. The pictures are stunning and make you think of
the art of Pierre et Gilles or David LaChapelle. Amanda herself likes it all, singing,
performing, dressing up, performance art and sleeping with both guys and girls,
too! You can sample her music on iTunes and learn more about Amanda and the
Dolls from a variety of websites starting with
dresdendolls.com.
Rounding Third
Local resident and accomplished writer Walter “Max” Meyer has gotten his first gay novel published, and it’s
received fantastic reviews from several other well-known authors in the genre. Rounding Third is a coming-of-age
tale set in high school, and Rob is the typical teen who feels like he’s a misfit just about everywhere, especially on
the baseball team. He’s particularly drawn to Josh, the team’s pitcher, and the two hit it off and develop a friend-
ship off the field. But as they get closer, Rob notices bruises on Josh that aren’t sports-related and starts to wonder
if it has anything to do with things Josh hasn’t been completely forthcoming about. When things start to get out
of control with the physical abuse, Rob gets pushed to the point of having to do something. What follows are a
lot of intense events involving their families and the world around them, along with their deepening feelings for
each other. While the story is fictional, it’s drawn from many very real experiences that are just one or two degrees
of separation from the author’s own life. It’s an excellent well-written must-read story for everyone, especially
someone who is struggling with him/herself or someone they care about.
David Inside Out
If you like the coming-of-age genre and are looking for something lighter, pick up David Inside Out by Lee
Bantle. Just looking at the sweet cover tells you so much about the book. But that doesn’t mean life is any less
difficult for David, who’s becoming acutely aware of himself and his unexpected feelings. Getting conflicting
messages from his mom, who encourages him to simply be himself, and the world around him, which tells
him the opposite, isn’t helping him sort things out. But thankfully his friendship with Sean, not surprisingly
a teammate on the track team, leads him first into major conflict with the entire universe, and finds his way
full-circle back to a more settled and intimate place.
Hate Thy Neighbor
The current health care debate has certainly reminded us of the fact that spreading misinformation and
preying on people who “hear what they want to hear” is still a powerful device in preventing progress. Of
course, the only way to combat this is to be informed and have your ammunition ready when the opportu-
nity to debunk a myth presents itself. Linda Patterson’s book Hate Thy Neighbor - How the Bible is Misused to
Condemn Homosexuality is an important new resource in that regard. In this book, Linda takes the approach
of listing the homosexuality-related Bible myths you might be confronted with, helps you understand what’s
really being said, how it fits with the modern world and puts it in perspective with the rest of the Bible. The
book is thin, easy to read, and very interesting. Regardless of the debate, misinformation is bad. And even if
the person you’re talking to has their fingers in their ears going “la la la la la” while you’re making your point, if
we don’t try to push back things won’t get any better.
18 RAGE monthly | september 2009
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96