E.B. Boatner

2 weeks ago | lavendermagazine.com | E.B. Boatner

The fourth Bob & Marcus mystery I read recently so perfectly and fully fulfilled the “You won’t be able to put this down!” claim that upon finishing, I immediately reached for the first of H.N. Hirsch’s four. Herewith my suggestion for an excellent four-score summer read. Hirsch’s teaching history encompasses Harvard, UC-San Diego, Macalester College and Oberlin, a credible background for his comprehension of the byzantine politics and Olympian egos at play in these academic groves.

1 month ago | lavendermagazine.com | E.B. Boatner

“No One Taught Me How to Be a Man”Shannon T.L. KearnsBroadleaf Books$25.99No one was ever taught to be a man; more accurately, boy children receive the negative caveat that anything “girly” or “womanly” is “weak” and therefore “not manly.” This, Kearns insists, produces much negative, little positive, not a happy outcome for anyone. As a trans man, Kearns has seen both sides and presents here a more nuanced look at the problem of masculinity.

1 month ago | lavendermagazine.com | E.B. Boatner

One of the books reviewed in this issue is Shannon T.L. Kearns’ “No One Taught Me How to Be a Man,” centering on his journey transitioning to his proper self. I mentioned the title to a friend who commented that he’d confronted his own dad, saying, “I had to learn this from a book!”“How do you think I learned?” his father replied.

1 month ago | lavendermagazine.com | E.B. Boatner

I’ve recently come across two highly engrossing books, histories of eras that shaped today’s America, each highlighting problems that concern us today. I recommend reading both, though not necessarily together, if you’ve any intention to remain optimistic about the future.

1 month ago | lavendermagazine.com | E.B. Boatner

Dwayne A. Ratleff’s “Dancing to the Lyrics,” reviewed in Lavender in 2022, was told through the eyes of a 5-year-old self, aka Grant Cole, a small, fierce intelligence navigating 1960’s segregated Baltimore, and a home steeped in its own violence, dominated by a cruel stepfather. Ratleff later commented, “The biggest problem was how to categorize the book. It is obviously a memoir, but I had to give the living plausible deniability.