From the friday five community

[sasha_feather]

1. What is the best book you have ever read? Why did you like it?

*freezes with indecision*

A favorite from my teenage years is The Wings of a Falcon by Cynthia Voigt. There's an intense friendship and partnership between two boys/young men that in retrospect, is pretty queer. It's a fantasy world but with no magic. It has travel and adventure. I read it many many times.

2. What is your favorite kind of weather? Why?

Just cool enough for a jacket, because I love wearing jackets. The kind of weather that is perfect for walking at the dog park: cool, not hot nor cold. Sunny. Not windy. The dogs can run and not get over-heated; a little blood can come up and warm your cheeks.

3. If you had $100,000, how would you spend it?

I'd save it for future living expenses. Well, that's a boring answer. Maybe get all new furniture and a new-ish car.

4. Did you ever meet a famous person?

I met Janet Reno (former attorney general of the US) and her (female) partner, when she came to my university to speak. Ms. Reno did not seem interested in me particularly but her partner was very nice.

5. Were you ever in a helicopter, limousine, racecar, hot-air balloon, submarine, horse-drawn carriage?

Closest thing I can think of is going for a hay ride, where the horses pull a wagon and people sit on the hay or straw bales in the wagon, for a Halloween "Haunted hay ride".

Comments

[torachan]

Huh. I had no idea Janet Reno actually was queer. There were always jokes about her being a lesbian or looking like a man back in the day, but even now it doesn't say anything on Wikipedia or anywhere else that I could find.

[sasha_feather]

Yep, she was not publicly out.

Ronni Sanlo mentions Janet Reno in her LGBT history posts:
https://ronnisanlo.com/today-in-lgbt-history-november-7-2/

[torachan]

Neat!

[starshipfox]

I loved Cynthia Voigt as a teen and devoured a lot of her books, but I've never even heard of Wings of a Falcon! That sounds really interesting. I felt like she had queer-coded relationships in some of her other books, but I don't think she ever actually wrote about textually queer characters.

[sasha_feather]

I would recommend Wings of a Falcon, and the other books set in that world, if you are interested. "On Fortune's Wheel" is also one I read a lot-- it's a romantic adventure with a cool heroine.

She has a book called "David and Jonathan," but I don't recall if I ever read it or not. I looked on goodreads and someone said "there is a complete lack of boy-kissing in this novel".

[starshipfox]

Ahaha, I love that GoodReads review! On rereading some of Voigt's books as an adult, I think her viewpoint is fairly conservative, so I'm not surprised her books are so completely lacking in boys kissing. But it's a shame.

[sasha_feather]

Argh I hate that feeling, "my beloved childhood hero is conservative". Ah well, I can still love her books I suppose.