bought the author based on recommendations form bookcrossers. Bought this book because it sounded interesting in the write-up..so interesting I bought two copies...what's up with that ?


This is a wonderful book and I am glad I inadvertently got two copies as it will be fun to share it with a broader audience.

The story revolves around a New York gay man coping with being single, having friends that die of AIDS in the early stages of the epidemic, dating, and a host of other day-to-day issues. The humor is sharp and the story moves along well despite the serious issues explored

RELEASE NOTES:

To be released at the Capital Xtra Heroes Awards at the Crown Plaza Hotel near Queen and Kent Streets. The Heroes Awards are an annual award ceremony to recognize outstanding contributions within the GLBT Community of Ottawa.

didn't get taken so i took it home to avoid it being thrown out by staff. Will re-release somewhere else.

RELEASE NOTES:

to be released at a gathering of bookcrossers for brunch. Come and join us.Will be left behind if not taken by someone at brunch.

I got this at the mini meetup at the Daybreak restaurant in Toronto and OB told me it was good as I was reading the back cover and thinking it was. Thanks also for your huge contribution to the goody bags for the convention. Always great to see you my friend:)

Wow this writer is just amazing. His sense of humour is something else when you consider that he is writing about a very serious and troubling disease of epidemic size. The main character, a self-confessed hypochondriac with a vivid imagination sees his friends and lovers die one by one from the Aids virus and then himself tests positive for HIV. He overexaggerates(I hope) the lovelife of the single gay man claiming he has had sex with thousands. He recounts stories of his encounters with each of these lovers and I have learned a lot about the life of a thirty something gay, American and single guy but part of me wants to believe that he really did want to fall in love and have one monogonous partner;if you look deep into his heart and his very soul it is quite evident. His relationship with his only parent (mother) is not good and everytime he needs to really talk to someone, it seems they are all dead or dying and wasting away, bitter and angry men that the medical world has helped to murder by making the drugs very inexpensive and out of reach for many people. He becomes involved in the cause and goes to meetings and demonstrations almost every night of the week and even manages to get himself arrested in the line of protest. The author has made this novel humourous but in reality it makes one want to cry at the devasting loss, and the suffering of the victims of this dreadful disease that attacks the human body little by little as in a form of torture. Would I recommend this book. Yes I most certainly would. For everyone over the age of 16 and maybe as the trend shows children are having sex in early teens that should be age 14. I worked for a chirpractor once upon a time. I befriended a patient who came in who had aids and I could see from day to day how he was suffering and getting worse. He was lucky he came from a wealthy family in the fact that he did not have to worry about money as he tried to chase his disease around the clock by going to different specialists, trying new age, meditation, gimmicks, anything to show him hope. His lover had chosen to kill himself with street drugs. There is a funny story here too. I lived next door to the chiropractor and one day I made my friend's appointment to coincide with the last one before my lunch and took him up for a nice repast and a goot tete a tete. When I got in the apt, like I usually do, I take my shows off and throw my purse down wherever it may land, and change into more comfortable clothes like sweats. My friend had to leave and I was walking him to the elevator and we both heard this loud slam and then I realized what it was. It was my apt door slamming and automatically being locked. I was in deep trouble. No keys to the apt, no shoes, no keys for work, no proper attire for work but it was just so inconcievable we both broke into laughter. I borrowed money from the shopkeeper next door to the office and took a cab to my then live in lover who was taking a course not far away. Imagine his surprise when I walked in sans shoes with the shopkeepers plaid jacket around my shoulders. He asked me why I did not go over to the car and get the spare keys out of the boot? What spare keys? And then when I told him why and how I had locked myself out he got unjustifyingly angry because I had brought an infected person to our apt and served him food on our plates and let him use our bathroom. Until that point I never know he was homophobic. My friend stopped coming the the chiropractor's, it did not help, nothing helped. He phoned me every night, we talked for an hour and I always ended up crying. I sometimes went downtown to his beautiful condo when he would tell me I was his only friend and his parents only provided money not love. Some three months later his phone calls stopped coming and I knew he was dead. I saw the change in him from the day I had met him to my last visit to his home where his eyes looked at me beseechingly like a puppy. He had told me that if it got unbearable he had his own way out. I'll never know because noone called me - his number was disconnected. He no longer owned the condo downtown. He was a good friend and I think we were destined to meet and become close for reasons only God knows. I think that when I read the back cover at the mini meetup last sunday my thoughts were with my friend and I knew this was a book I should read. I am not sure yet where I should send it on its travels. Not a wild release I am sure. Maybe Casey House in Toronto - a hospice for aids patients in their final weeks...........

Caught this at the meet-and-greet (aka "promiscuous book-swapping" {grin}) session at the 2006 BookCrossing convention in Toronto. The title caught my eye, and I was only a little disappointed to find that it wasn't really about the human-bursts-into-flames type of spontaneous combustion after all - but it does look like a very entertaining book, and as it's gotten rave reviews from ottawabill and SerenityBlue I expect I'll enjoy this one!

Sigh; yet another book that I read a year ago but hadn''t reviewed yet. How did I get so far behind!

I enjoyed this book very much, and have added Feinberg to my list of authors to watch out for. When he''s being snarky and wry, he''s hilarious - rapid-fire riffs that had me laughing out loud - and yet he sketches some believable relationships in the midst of his characters'' quests for love (or lust, as the case may be). And, in counterpoint, those harrowing accounts of confrontations with AIDS are immediate and moving.

Perhaps the saddest part of the book is the "Appendix: After the Cure" chapter, speculating on the wild celebrations that would ensue if a cure were to be found; it''s dated 1996, which was five years in the future at the time the book was published, but alas, he didn''t allow nearly enough time...

Controlled release: I'm adding this book to Scoobs-buddy's GLBT bookbox, which will be on its way to BCer gaysocialworker in Texas tomorrow!

Thanks! TBR