Blog Tour: Music From Another World by Robin Talley

It’s summer 1977 and closeted lesbian Tammy Larson can’t be herself anywhere. Not at her strict Christian high school, not at her conservative Orange County church and certainly not at home, where her ultrareligious aunt relentlessly organizes antigay political campaigns. Tammy’s only outlet is writing secret letters in her diary to gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk…until she’s matched with a real-life pen pal who changes everything.

Sharon Hawkins bonds with Tammy over punk music and carefully shared secrets, and soon their letters become the one place she can be honest. The rest of her life in San Francisco is full of lies. The kind she tells for others—like helping her gay brother hide the truth from their mom—and the kind she tells herself. But as antigay fervor in America reaches a frightening new pitch, Sharon and Tammy must rely on their long-distance friendship to discover their deeply personal truths, what they’ll stand for…and who they’ll rise against.

 
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review. No payments made between me and the publisher.

Music From Another World is another interesting read from Robin Talley. I don't know who was Harvey Milk before I read the book, I had to Google search him and boom... things become clearer from my end. I had no idea he got a big name during this time and I think, I'm gonna thank him now for fighting what he knows was right. These days if he's still around I could say he's gonna be happy for the results. 

Being a Catholic and having a strong belief, reading the book somehow made me question things before people get the idea of "open mindedness". While reading, I was like does this really happen before? but deep inside I knew these things happen until now that's why some people are so afraid to "out". Some treat them like a curse or worse. I'm not sure where and how did they get that idea. But, in my personal opinion, straight or gay, you're still human. You might be different from others but so what? People should value the humanity more. I think now is not the time to discriminate gays or bi. Acceptance is the answer to these issues. It may not be written in the holy book or any book before that gay exists because that term doesn't even exist before, right? 

I think the book taught me a lot of things, I really had a great time reading it. It was intense on some parts, there were lots of what ifs in my head like; what if their parents found out? what if someone tells their secret to others? - I feel afraid for them, I feel afraid for people who's in a close minded family or environment, who knows what will happen to them? I like this phrase from the book and I one-hundred percent  (100%) support it. 

"You are who you are, and you don't care if other people don't like it."

One more thought before ending my review, maybe people experiment on lots of things because they don't feel accepted on who they really are. Some change because they feel neglected. Maybe, that's what we need to understand from here. I hope, as the days go by, people will accept more what kind of society we are in nowadays. To be honest, I'm happy that there's pride celebrations, but some countries doesn't accept that yet. I hope one day, they all do. 

"I want to be proud of who I am, the way you are, but how? How do you make yourself feel something when everyone around you believes the exact opposite?"

My Rating

I live in Washington, D.C., with my wife, our baby daughter, an antisocial cat and a goofy hound dog. Whenever the baby's sleeping, I'm probably busy writing young adult fiction about queer characters, reading books, and having in-depth conversations with friends and family about things like whether Jasmine's character motivation was sufficiently established in Aladdin.

My website is at http://www.robintalley.com, and I'm on Twitter and Tumblr.