Tuesday Celebration

So last night our ice dancing pair won the gold medal. It came pretty much down to the wire. Their performance was GORGEOUS. Just beautiful and smooth with never a falter or pause when going from one move to the next. The Americans who got the silver were also very good, the Russian? Well, I guess they are good but it was the ones with the weird Australian Aboriginal costumes so I wasn't too impressed. We stayed up until after midnight so we could see them get their medals. Very nice. You could tell anyone though from Russia or anywhere in Eastern Europe. Shredded chiffon and sequins out the wazoo. They would make good third rate strippers in Vegas (even the guys) as they already have the outfits. Most of the skaters from North America and Europe were much more refined and let the skating do the talking not glitzy costumes. I did manage to get some reading done though in the last day or so.

Tails and Teapots by Misa Izanaki (45 pages)

Yes, I'm still reading the stories about the strip clubs. I think this is the last one I have. Frankie who works as a bartender in the club is dumped by his boyfriend on Christmas eve. He's depressed but his Mom sent him a weird teapot from Japan for Christmas. He takes it up to his apartment and when he peels some paper off it, it turns into a tanuki which is a shape shifter raccoon dog thing that was trapped as a teapot 200 years ago. He's really cute but Frankie's not interested in any "wishes" so the tanuki leaves. Frankie goes down to the club and decides to drown his sorrows by finding a hot guy for the night. He sees a cutie who comes on to him and they go upstairs and get freaky. In the morning he wakes up to find his date with ears and a tail. Ack. He freaks which causes Aki to hide under the bed in his fuzzy form but they talk it out and decide to give it a whirl. The end. To be honest I liked this one more than the others about the threesome. So just a little tale about another couple at the club. It was it was.

Can't Hurry Love by M. Jules Aedin (? pages - shortish)

Vincent is an Easter bunny who gets himself in trouble at work by screwing a satyr in the supply cupboard. As punishment he's sent to motivate "on strike" cupid Charlie. Charlie is surly and basically ignores him for weeks until they finally get an assignment. They get to go to earth and get a lesbian couple together. Things go wrong in the case and Vincent gets in more trouble than he thought possible, can he get his fuzzy tail out of it. This was a VERY funny story. I chuckled and smiled all the way through but there were some poignant moments too. Vincent takes the phrase "fucks like a bunny" to heart, but after hanging around Charlie for a while he starts to wonder if that's all there is and he tries to be good, but it's hard for him. And the reason Charlie is refusing to do his job comes to light and maybe he has good reason. So while it is very funny and light there are also some more serious themes running through it. But on the whole I enjoyed it a lot and loved Vincent. The cover is adorable too.

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Lynn Lorenz (89 pages)

I won this book this week at Wave's. Yay me. Scott lives in a homeless shelter in New Orleans and has since before and after hurricane Katrina. He works at Tiffany's Waffle and Wing place where they are like his family, Miss Tiffany keeps an eye on him and some of the regulars from the drag bar are his friends. One morning he is mugged by a junkie and as he's about to get beaten a large black man saves him but takes him money. Tony lives in an abandoned house and has no job but refuses to sell drugs or himself in memory of his Grandma. Tony lost his family in Katrina. He feels bad for taking Scott's last $5 and after earning a little money unloading trucks he gives Scott his money back and walks him home to the shelter. Scott then agrees to move into Tony's house with him and they start a relationship.

This was a very interesting book as you are dealing with two essentially homeless young men (20) although Scott has a savings account at the bank and works 12 hour shifts with tips so he's not broke. While Tony's house has water, there is no electricity and it's boarded over. The only niggle I had was going over the time-line. Scott is mugged on Saturday morning, actually meets Tony on Sunday afternoon and moves in with him the same night and they declare their love on about Tuesday night. Whoa. What I liked was how wanting to be with Scott made Tony a better guy, he went to the fruit market and started offering to work rather than stealing and he started a relationship with one of the vendors. Scott was also the more aggressive sexually in that it was his idea to go to the drug store and get condoms which kind of shocked Tony. Not that he was inexperienced but wasn't so open about it. So what about the timing thing? This book had me laying in bed this morning thinking about this so Lynn obviously did her work and it stuck with me. These are two young guys, both abandoned by their families, both homeless and lost and looking for a connection, so yeah, no time to waste pussyfooting around and dating for 3 months, who knows what can happen, you've seen your life nearly snuffed out in seconds. I could also see Scott wanting out of the shelter, even if it's to an abandoned house where he doesn't have to live with a bunch of other people. So perhaps from that perspective it seemed normal for them to move that quickly. It made Tony start to think about having a real apartment and a home, not a squat somewhere, they kind of brought out the best in each other. So I enjoyed this book and as I said, it made me think about how different life experiences affect the decisions you make. So if you're looking for a book with a different vibe to it, I recommend it. Oh and the cover is prefect even if Scott was skinnier.

Rules Were Made to be Broken by Lenore Black (? pages)

Aaron and Dale have been best friends since age 8. Aaron took over his parents sporting goods store when they retired and is working himself to the bone. Dale works when he needs beer money and is getting annoyed that Aaron doesn't want to party any more. He gets a call from Dale saying he needs help in the middle of the night. He goes over and finds Dale handcuffed to his bed with his wallet stolen. He manages to get him free but when Dale suddenly realizes that Aaron has the hots for him he turns the tables and handcuffs Aaron to the bed and has his way with him. It's a very humerous book as Aaron has many rules as to how he should behave around Dale so as not to give away his attraction. He's never told Dale he's gay and Dale is a total slut. The only thing I found a bit odd was that when the chips are down, seems Dale is not so straight and has had some gay sex experience but Aaron was clueless. So there was a bit of suspension of disbelief there, that if they were THAT good of friends they didn't notice either thing, but still, they were a cute couple and it was a feel-good read with lots of humour to lighten your day.