Michael Tolliver Lives

Back in March, I was already thinking about summer reading and mentioned Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin as a book that I was really excited to read. Well, it finally came out and I got it a few days ago. To be honest, I could exhaust the "good" entry in any thesaurus documenting my love for this book. It was great and not only did it live up to my expectations, it surpassed them. Although it is not supposed to be another Tales of the City book, it pretty much is and I'm totally okay with that. Most of the characters from 28 Barbary Lane make an appearance or are at least mentioned as main character Michael Tolliver and his younger husband Ben attempt to deal with Michael's homophobic family and the declining health of both Tolliver's mother and former landlady and friend Anna Madrigal. Secrets are revealed about family and friends during the book and there are some real characters made out of Michael's sister-in-law with her religious puppet shows and Michael's mother's hairdresser Patreese. As always with Maupin, it's the humor and pop culture references that make the story so great. If you liked the Tales of the City books or mini-series (there were three of them - does that make it mini-serieses?), you owe it to yourself to read this book.