Book Club Zoom Discussing “Girls Can Kiss Now” by Jill Gutowitz
written by Natasha, 4/14/22 7:37am
edited by Natasha, 6/11/23 2:37pm
Join us for a lively discussion of “Girls Can Kiss Now” by Jill Gutowitz, a collection of personal essays exploring the intersection of queerness, relationships, pop culture, the internet, and identity. Named One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2022.
Facebook Info (to Share):
Thursday, July 20, 2023:
8:00-9:30 pm ET (Eastern Time); 5 pm Pacific Time
Join us for a lively discussion of "Girls Can Kiss Now" by Jill Gutowitz. A collection of essays, suggested by Aman.
Please RSVP for the Zoom link. (Same as last month, if you attended before).
[We send book announcements to everyone who indicates an interest in the Book Club] - if you aren't receiving these emails please send natasha@yalegala.org your details.
“ Named One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2022 byVogue, BuzzFeed, Bustle, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Electric Lit, Thrillist, Glamour, CNN, and Shondaland
“Wickedly funny and heartstoppingly vulnerable…every page twinkles with brilliance.” —Refinery29
Perfect for fans of Samantha Irby and Trick Mirror, a funny, whip-smart collection of personal essays exploring the intersection of queerness, relationships, pop culture, the internet, and identity, introducing one of the most undeniably original new voices today.
Jill Gutowitz’s life—for better and worse—has always been on a collision course with pop culture. There’s the time the FBI showed up at her door because of something she tweeted about Game of Thrones. The pop songs that have been the soundtrack to the worst moments of her life. And of course, the pivotal day when Orange Is the New Black hit the airwaves and broke down the door to Jill’s own sexuality. In these honest examinations of identity, desire, and self-worth, Jill explores perhaps the most monumental cultural shift of our lifetimes: the mainstreaming of lesbian culture. Dusting off her own personal traumas and artifacts of her not-so-distant youth she examines how pop culture acts as a fun house mirror reflecting and refracting our values—always teaching, distracting, disappointing, and revealing us.
Girls Can Kiss Now is a fresh and intoxicating blend of personal stories, sharp observations, and laugh-out-loud humor. This timely collection of essays helps us make sense of our collective pop-culture past even as it points the way toward a joyous, uproarious, near—and very queer—future.”
2. Wikipedia Entry:
3. Where to find the book:
Google Books
Other sources: your library (including inter-library loan), retailers, Amazon Kindle edition is $9.10 [direct link] or use the free Kindle app on any device; book is available from all booksellers in every format).
It also may be available to borrow (for free) on WorldCat: https://www.worldcat.org/title/1304517630
(Enter your location)
Alas it isn't available at OpenLibrary https://openlibrary.org/ Preview only: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL21337755W/Gender_Queer?edition=key%3A/books/OL28900544M
or The Internet Archive https://archive.org/
Used book sellers include
Abe Books
Thriftbooks
Alibris Books
4. *OPTIONAL RESOURCES* for the book and authors here:
Publisher's Page: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Girls-Can-Kiss-Now/Jill-Gutowitz/9781982158507
5. Reviews
Library Journal
Publishers Weekly
Booklist
–> ** INVITE ** ANY YALE ALUMNI to our discussion on July 20:
NOTE: Our informal group doesn’t have any set “curriculum;” we discuss the books that members nominate and that we all vote for… but ongoing themes, connected to LGBTQ+ experience – sometimes including Yale – do emerge. At discussions, each of us can bring up ANY points we want. We welcome the widest range of opinions, in a lively collegial atmosphere – Boola Boola Redux!
Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club is a series of lively Zoom discussions of LGBTQ+ contemporary and classic novels, non-fiction, plays, and poetry. All alumni are welcome, of all orientations, genders, races, and points of view. We meet the third Thursday of every month at 8 pm ET via Zoom.
To register, please email natasha@yalegalaevents.org with the subject line, “Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club: Girls Can Kiss Now (July) - or simply Book Club
More Info: http://www.yalegala.org/article.html?aid=739
SOME BOOKS TO CONSIDER FOR FUTURE DISCUSSIONS
We are NOT limited to the below recommendations but see what you think of these diverse titles. Nominate any LGBTQ+ book that interests you, contemporary or classic, whether a work of FICTION (novel, story collection), NON-FICTION (history, biography, memoir, essay collection), PLAY (or musical), or POETRY; there doesn’t need to be a Yale connection. Mention your choice, at a discussion, and I’ll add it to the following list for future group emails. We periodically, live at the beginning of discussions, take nominations and then vote as a group.
For our UPCOMING OPEN DATES (‘Third Thursdays’) – in the next couple of months, we need to select books for: March , April and May. If you’re looking for some ideas, here are major LGBTQ+ book ‘best lists’ and award winners (Lambda Literary, Publishing Triangle, Stonewall Awards, more). NEW! BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) LGBTQ+ literature with links to external BIPOC sites. You’re not limited to those websites. PLEASE NOTE: new titles take a few months to become widely available in libraries. Here are members’ recommendations.
- AMAN recommends: (FICTION) Delicious Foods by James Hannaham; Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu; The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.; The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer. (NON-FICTION) Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition by P Carl; Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay; Love, Hait and Click Bait by Liz Bower and Ghost Wall: A Novel by Sarah Moss.
- ANN recommends: The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village memoir by Samuel R. Delany
- BRUCE recommends: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin; The Gallery by John Horne Burns (1947); Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns by David Margolick
- CHIP recommends: Poetry of Emily Dickinson (list of Dickinson’s most openly lesbian poems); There Will be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald; and Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns by David Margolick
- JIM recommends: The Bell by Iris Murdoch; The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde; Julian [last ‘pagan’ Roman emperor] by Gore Vidal; Pictures and Passions: A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts by James M. Saslow (includes hundreds of art photos; winner of two Lambda Literary Awards) – THANKS to Prof. Saslow, Pictures and Passions is briefly FREE to download complete (use the basic “Download PDF” link; 59 MB) and Gilgamesh (which translation).
- MARY ANNE recommends: The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen; and Love Me Tender by Constance Debre (English translation and/or French original).
- TASH recommends: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry. There is also a PBS documentary :)
- CAROLYN recommends: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl b Andrea Lawlor and XX by Carolina Robertis
- What would YOU – including new members – like our group to discuss? Nominate ANY LGBTQ+ book that interests you! I’ll add your recommendations here.
BOOKS WE’VE DISCUSSED (Complete List):
- July 2023: “Girls Can Kiss Now” by Jill Gutowitz, a collection of essays
- June 2023: I'm Afraid of Men and People Change -- both by Vivek Sharya; and History Compics - The Stonewall Riots, Making a Stand for LGBTQ Rights (a graphic novel for ages 9-13).
- May 2023: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (2020)
- April 2023: Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe (2019)
- March 2023: There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald (Yale MC '09)
- February 2023: Love in the Big City by Sang Jong Park. Translated by Anton Hur (2021-201 pages)
- January 2023: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
- December 2022: Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies:A Memoir of Love, Loss and Other Four-Letter Words by Michael Ausiello (2017). Also a Dec 2022 movie Spoiler
- November 2022: Love, Hate and Click Bait by Liz Bowery (2022)
- October 2022: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry (Yale '94). (2018) - 250 pages. PBG movie is Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes / Feeling Heart
- September 2022: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, by Andrea Lawlor (2017)
- May and June 2022: Maurice, by EM Forster (1913 - published 1971 with a happy ending)
- April 2022: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
- March 2022: Ain't I a Woman, by bell hooks
- February 2022 – Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Stephen Sondheim’s “Musical Thriller”
- January 2022 – Song in a Weary Throat, Pauli Murray’s memoir. (Movie available)
- December 2021 – Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s novel
- November 2021 – Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart’s novel
- October 2021 – Fa**ots, Larry Kramer’s satirical first novel
- September 2021 – The Sparsholt Affair, Alan Hollinghurst’s novel
- August 2021 – The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith’s thriller novel
- July 2021 – Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, Paul Monette’s memoir
- June 2021 – Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo’s novel
- May 2021 – The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s play, inspired by E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End
- April 2021 – The Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne’s novel
- March 2021 – Native Country of the Heart, a Memoir, by Cherríe Moraga
- February 2021 – Leaves of Grass (1855 first version), Walt Whitman’s poetry
- January 2021 – The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller’s novel
- December 2020 – Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman’s novel [no meetings in October or November]
- September 2020 – The Gods of Tango, Carolina de Robertis’s novel [no meeting in August]
- July 2020 – Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta’s novel
- June 2020 (our first discussion) – Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Audre Lorde’s autobiographical novel (“biomythography”)
More info: http://www.yalegala.org/article.html?aid=732
|
