Amazon & beyond
So. I'm a librarian. My big issue as a librarian is censorship, and in particular as that relates to LGBT books. I've written papers on censorship and LGBT issues. I follow the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom on Twitter (@ oif). And [Banned Books Week] is my favourite time of the year, but I like to celebrate it every day because censorship happens every day.
Case in point: [Amazon de-ranks so-called adult books, including National Book Award winner]
Which is to say, as many of you already know, Amazon has implemented a new "policy" through which they are excluding a number of LGBT-friendly books from their sales rank system, on the basis that they contain "adult" content. In actuality, some of the de-ranked books contain adult content, some don't, and Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds still has a ranking. No matter how creatively you do the math, it just doesn't add up to anything but censorship. (Yes, I still count it as censorship, even though the books are still for sale at Amazon. I wrote a paper on same-sex parent families in picture books last term, and the amount of time and effort it took me to round up just twelve picture books on the topic was infuriating and heartbreaking. It's not just whether or not the books are there; it's whether or not you can find them.)
It's kind of pointless for me to link to [Amazon Rank] since my journal's not searchable, but there you go. [ Pass it on.]
*
For more blog/news posts, see the following:
*[ markprobst]
*[Smart Bitches, Trashy Books]
*meta_writer [ here and here]
*[ lavvyan]
*[ cathalin]
*[ copperbadge]
*[Denver Examiner]
*[ ontd_political]
*[ tehdely] (conspiracy theories and meta-trolls)
*[Publishers Weekly] (Amazon claims a "glitch".) (The PW site may be spotty due to traffic volume. See the link below for a full repost and analysis of the article.)
*[Lilith Saintcrow] (PW article and why "glitch" is a stupid answer.)
*[Craig's Pop Life] (In which the problem has been occurring since February, at least. See also the same author's [Amazonfail timeline].)
For microblogging, check the hashtag #amazonfail at Twitter. [Link]
*
Other bookstore options:
The Amazon discounts are nice, but this is an excellent opportunity to give your patronage to independent bookstores. Here's a few:
*[IndieBound], part of the [American Booksellers Association], is a community of independently-owned businesses [throughout the U.S.]. They even have the option to create a [wishlist].
*flyakate recommends a few West Coast indie bookstores [ here].
*If you're in the Washington, D.C. area, check out [Politics & Prose]. P&P also offers online ordering, and I've been nothing but pleased with them.
*[Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon and with online ordering.
And specifically related to the issue at hand, here are some LGBT bookstores:
*The Yahoo! Directory offers a list of LGBT bookstores [here].
*And in searching for LGBT bookstores, I found this [blog post] by Keith Orr about the closing of America's oldest LGBT bookstore. The article is definitely worth a read as Orr discusses the importance of supporting the LGBT economy. Orr and his partner own the [Common Language Bookstore] in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which has an online section with a wishlist function.
*[Lambda Rising] in Washington, D.C. and Delaware, and with online ordering.
*[Giovanni's Room] in Philadelphia, also with online ordering.
*[A Different Light] in San Francisco and with online ordering.
*[Outwords] in Milwaukee and with online ordering.
International/online bookstores:
*[Alibris]
*[Blackwell's] in Oxford, England and online.
*[Countrybookshop] in the UK and online.
*JustBooks, with sites for [the UK], [Germany], [France], and [the Netherlands], and at the bottom of each of those pages you can choose to search for books in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish.
*[Independent Booksellers Network], online, UK-based.
*[Word Power Books], world-wide online.
If you have a favourite indie and/or LGBT bookstore, please let me know in comments. And, in particular, if anyone knows any non-U.S. indie/LGBT bookstore resources, please let me know and I'll add them in. I'll keep looking myself later, but I have homework to do as well.
*
LGBT recs:
I'll take this as an opportunity to finally make my LGBT recs post that I've been meaning to do for ages now. Keep in mind, my own preferences are for children's and YA books with happy endings, so that's what's on my list. They are excellent books, though, and well worth the read, even if you're a "grown up". But just to add some diversity, I'll also point you to the [Lambda Literary Awards], for the best of LGBT in many different genres.
Title: And Tango Makes Three
Author: Justin Richardson & Peter Parnell. Illustrated by Henry Cole.
ISBN: 0689878451
Summary: Picture book. At New York City’s Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.
Notes: Ranked #1 on the ALA's list of the most frequently [challenged books] for two years running, this is an incredibly sweet story about real life gay penguins. The illustrations are adorable, and fuzzy little baby Tango is especially charming.
Title: Uncle Bobby's Wedding
Author: Sarah S. Brannen.
ISBN: 0399247122
Summary: Picture book. Chloe is jealous and sad when her favorite uncle announces that he will be getting married, but as she gets to know Jamie better and becomes involved in planning the wedding, she discovers that she will always be special to Uncle Bobby--and to Uncle Jamie, too.
Notes: The emphasis of this story is not on the fact that Uncle Bobby is marrying a boy, but rather on Chloe's feelings. This book is not yet on ALA's list of frequently challenged books since it was only published last year, but it most definitely will be. It was notably challenged in Colorado last year, prompting library director Jamie LaRue to post [this response] at his blog, a beautifully written defense of every person's freedom to read and one of the things I point to when I say "Yes. That is why I want to be a librarian."
Title: Molly's Family
Author: Nancy Garden. Illustrated by Sharon Wooding.
ISBN: 0374350027
Summary: Picture book. While preparing decorations for Open School Night, Molly and several of her classmates draw pictures of their families and discover that family means something different to each of them.
Notes: In this story, Molly (a kindergartener) is told by a classmate that she "can't have two mommies" and the teacher intervenes in a positive way to show the students that there are different types of families.
Title: Everywhere Babies
Author: Susan Meyers. Illustrated by Marla Frazee.
ISBN: 0152053158
Summary: Picture book. Describes babies and the things they do from the time they are born until their first birthday.
Notes: Gorgeous illustrations of utterly adorable babies. The focus of the book is on babies, but the illustrator has done a fabulous job of including different ethnicities and different types of families, including lesbian and gay families.
Title: We Belong Together: a book about adoption and families
Author: Todd Parr.
ISBN: 0316016683
Summary: Picture book. The joy of adoption and bringing families together is presented in this tale.
Notes: The theme for all of Parr's books is "it's okay to be different" (and, in fact, that is the title of one of his books). His vivid, child-like illustrations highlight the various differences in a positive way. His books are about celebrating difference, and that includes different types of families. We Belong Together includes pages for lesbian and gay families, although every page follows the gender-neutral formula of "we belong together because..." It's heart-warming.
Title: Totally Joe
Author: James Howe. (Yes, of Bunnicula fame.)
ISBN: 068983957X
Summary: Chapter book. As a school assignment, a thirteen-year-old boy writes an alphabiography--life from A to Z--and explores issues of friendship, family, school, and the challenges of being a gay teenager.
Notes: The alphabiography format is quite interesting, and Joe is an utterly lovable (if not entirely believable) character. Joe is totally comfortable with his identity, even when dealing with bullies and peer pressure and "boyfriends" who are not as comfortable with their own sexuality. His outlook on life is whimsical and fun, and I missed him once I finished the book.
Title: Boy Meets Boy
Author: David Levithan.
ISBN: 0375824006
Summary: Young Adult. A love story.
Notes: This book has received a few negative reviews that claim the "gaytopia" setting is too perfect and not at all believable. I disagree. I think it's a hopeful portrayal of what LGBT and allies wish our society could be. And it's not entirely perfect. The main character, Paul, has a friend from the next town over, where being gay is not the norm and he has to deal with those issues. Paul also deals with conflict (although not related to his sexuality) in his own town when he and his best friend stop seeing eye-to-eye. The point is, although the book is set in a town where it's absolutely okay to be gay, it's not all sunshine and happiness. But, above all, this book is a love story. And a damn cute one, at that. From School Library Journal: "Levithan's prophecy of a hate-free world in which everyone loves without persecution makes this a provocative and important read for all young adults, gay or straight."
Title: Hero
Author: Perry Moore.
ISBN: 1423101952
Summary: Young Adult. Thom Creed, the gay son of a disowned superhero, finds that he, too, has special powers and is asked to join the very League that rejected his father, and it is there that Thom finds other misfits whom he can finally trust.
Notes: I'll be honest, this book is not without plot holes, some of them rather gaping. There are plans for sequel(s), which would theoretically fill in some of the backstory-related plot holes, but there were also some gaping holes in the main action of the book itself. So if that's the sort of thing that bothers you immensely, I don't recommend reading it. However, the book was written as the author's response to the [horrendous treatment of LGBT characters] in comic books, so I think it's a noteworthy book for beginning to make that discussion more visible. The superheroes that populate the world of Hero are thinly-veiled caricatures of DC and Marvel superheroes. The book won the Lambda Award for the Children's/YA category in 2007.
Feel free to add more recs in comments!
*
Please feel free to link to this post. It's here for spreading the word!
.eta (4/13): I'm still adding bookstores here, but I've got another link page going over [ here].
Case in point: [Amazon de-ranks so-called adult books, including National Book Award winner]
Which is to say, as many of you already know, Amazon has implemented a new "policy" through which they are excluding a number of LGBT-friendly books from their sales rank system, on the basis that they contain "adult" content. In actuality, some of the de-ranked books contain adult content, some don't, and Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds still has a ranking. No matter how creatively you do the math, it just doesn't add up to anything but censorship. (Yes, I still count it as censorship, even though the books are still for sale at Amazon. I wrote a paper on same-sex parent families in picture books last term, and the amount of time and effort it took me to round up just twelve picture books on the topic was infuriating and heartbreaking. It's not just whether or not the books are there; it's whether or not you can find them.)
It's kind of pointless for me to link to [Amazon Rank] since my journal's not searchable, but there you go. [ Pass it on.]
*
For more blog/news posts, see the following:
*[ markprobst]
*[Smart Bitches, Trashy Books]
*meta_writer [ here and here]
*[ lavvyan]
*[ cathalin]
*[ copperbadge]
*[Denver Examiner]
*[ ontd_political]
*[ tehdely] (conspiracy theories and meta-trolls)
*[Publishers Weekly] (Amazon claims a "glitch".) (The PW site may be spotty due to traffic volume. See the link below for a full repost and analysis of the article.)
*[Lilith Saintcrow] (PW article and why "glitch" is a stupid answer.)
*[Craig's Pop Life] (In which the problem has been occurring since February, at least. See also the same author's [Amazonfail timeline].)
For microblogging, check the hashtag #amazonfail at Twitter. [Link]
*
Other bookstore options:
The Amazon discounts are nice, but this is an excellent opportunity to give your patronage to independent bookstores. Here's a few:
*[IndieBound], part of the [American Booksellers Association], is a community of independently-owned businesses [throughout the U.S.]. They even have the option to create a [wishlist].
*flyakate recommends a few West Coast indie bookstores [ here].
*If you're in the Washington, D.C. area, check out [Politics & Prose]. P&P also offers online ordering, and I've been nothing but pleased with them.
*[Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon and with online ordering.
And specifically related to the issue at hand, here are some LGBT bookstores:
*The Yahoo! Directory offers a list of LGBT bookstores [here].
*And in searching for LGBT bookstores, I found this [blog post] by Keith Orr about the closing of America's oldest LGBT bookstore. The article is definitely worth a read as Orr discusses the importance of supporting the LGBT economy. Orr and his partner own the [Common Language Bookstore] in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which has an online section with a wishlist function.
*[Lambda Rising] in Washington, D.C. and Delaware, and with online ordering.
*[Giovanni's Room] in Philadelphia, also with online ordering.
*[A Different Light] in San Francisco and with online ordering.
*[Outwords] in Milwaukee and with online ordering.
International/online bookstores:
*[Alibris]
*[Blackwell's] in Oxford, England and online.
*[Countrybookshop] in the UK and online.
*JustBooks, with sites for [the UK], [Germany], [France], and [the Netherlands], and at the bottom of each of those pages you can choose to search for books in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish.
*[Independent Booksellers Network], online, UK-based.
*[Word Power Books], world-wide online.
If you have a favourite indie and/or LGBT bookstore, please let me know in comments. And, in particular, if anyone knows any non-U.S. indie/LGBT bookstore resources, please let me know and I'll add them in. I'll keep looking myself later, but I have homework to do as well.
*
LGBT recs:
I'll take this as an opportunity to finally make my LGBT recs post that I've been meaning to do for ages now. Keep in mind, my own preferences are for children's and YA books with happy endings, so that's what's on my list. They are excellent books, though, and well worth the read, even if you're a "grown up". But just to add some diversity, I'll also point you to the [Lambda Literary Awards], for the best of LGBT in many different genres.
Title: And Tango Makes Three
Author: Justin Richardson & Peter Parnell. Illustrated by Henry Cole.
ISBN: 0689878451
Summary: Picture book. At New York City’s Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.
Notes: Ranked #1 on the ALA's list of the most frequently [challenged books] for two years running, this is an incredibly sweet story about real life gay penguins. The illustrations are adorable, and fuzzy little baby Tango is especially charming.
Title: Uncle Bobby's Wedding
Author: Sarah S. Brannen.
ISBN: 0399247122
Summary: Picture book. Chloe is jealous and sad when her favorite uncle announces that he will be getting married, but as she gets to know Jamie better and becomes involved in planning the wedding, she discovers that she will always be special to Uncle Bobby--and to Uncle Jamie, too.
Notes: The emphasis of this story is not on the fact that Uncle Bobby is marrying a boy, but rather on Chloe's feelings. This book is not yet on ALA's list of frequently challenged books since it was only published last year, but it most definitely will be. It was notably challenged in Colorado last year, prompting library director Jamie LaRue to post [this response] at his blog, a beautifully written defense of every person's freedom to read and one of the things I point to when I say "Yes. That is why I want to be a librarian."
Title: Molly's Family
Author: Nancy Garden. Illustrated by Sharon Wooding.
ISBN: 0374350027
Summary: Picture book. While preparing decorations for Open School Night, Molly and several of her classmates draw pictures of their families and discover that family means something different to each of them.
Notes: In this story, Molly (a kindergartener) is told by a classmate that she "can't have two mommies" and the teacher intervenes in a positive way to show the students that there are different types of families.
Title: Everywhere Babies
Author: Susan Meyers. Illustrated by Marla Frazee.
ISBN: 0152053158
Summary: Picture book. Describes babies and the things they do from the time they are born until their first birthday.
Notes: Gorgeous illustrations of utterly adorable babies. The focus of the book is on babies, but the illustrator has done a fabulous job of including different ethnicities and different types of families, including lesbian and gay families.
Title: We Belong Together: a book about adoption and families
Author: Todd Parr.
ISBN: 0316016683
Summary: Picture book. The joy of adoption and bringing families together is presented in this tale.
Notes: The theme for all of Parr's books is "it's okay to be different" (and, in fact, that is the title of one of his books). His vivid, child-like illustrations highlight the various differences in a positive way. His books are about celebrating difference, and that includes different types of families. We Belong Together includes pages for lesbian and gay families, although every page follows the gender-neutral formula of "we belong together because..." It's heart-warming.
Title: Totally Joe
Author: James Howe. (Yes, of Bunnicula fame.)
ISBN: 068983957X
Summary: Chapter book. As a school assignment, a thirteen-year-old boy writes an alphabiography--life from A to Z--and explores issues of friendship, family, school, and the challenges of being a gay teenager.
Notes: The alphabiography format is quite interesting, and Joe is an utterly lovable (if not entirely believable) character. Joe is totally comfortable with his identity, even when dealing with bullies and peer pressure and "boyfriends" who are not as comfortable with their own sexuality. His outlook on life is whimsical and fun, and I missed him once I finished the book.
Title: Boy Meets Boy
Author: David Levithan.
ISBN: 0375824006
Summary: Young Adult. A love story.
Notes: This book has received a few negative reviews that claim the "gaytopia" setting is too perfect and not at all believable. I disagree. I think it's a hopeful portrayal of what LGBT and allies wish our society could be. And it's not entirely perfect. The main character, Paul, has a friend from the next town over, where being gay is not the norm and he has to deal with those issues. Paul also deals with conflict (although not related to his sexuality) in his own town when he and his best friend stop seeing eye-to-eye. The point is, although the book is set in a town where it's absolutely okay to be gay, it's not all sunshine and happiness. But, above all, this book is a love story. And a damn cute one, at that. From School Library Journal: "Levithan's prophecy of a hate-free world in which everyone loves without persecution makes this a provocative and important read for all young adults, gay or straight."
Title: Hero
Author: Perry Moore.
ISBN: 1423101952
Summary: Young Adult. Thom Creed, the gay son of a disowned superhero, finds that he, too, has special powers and is asked to join the very League that rejected his father, and it is there that Thom finds other misfits whom he can finally trust.
Notes: I'll be honest, this book is not without plot holes, some of them rather gaping. There are plans for sequel(s), which would theoretically fill in some of the backstory-related plot holes, but there were also some gaping holes in the main action of the book itself. So if that's the sort of thing that bothers you immensely, I don't recommend reading it. However, the book was written as the author's response to the [horrendous treatment of LGBT characters] in comic books, so I think it's a noteworthy book for beginning to make that discussion more visible. The superheroes that populate the world of Hero are thinly-veiled caricatures of DC and Marvel superheroes. The book won the Lambda Award for the Children's/YA category in 2007.
Feel free to add more recs in comments!
*
Please feel free to link to this post. It's here for spreading the word!
.eta (4/13): I'm still adding bookstores here, but I've got another link page going over [ here].