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928 ratings | 207 reviews | avg rating:3.30

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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

READING

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Wendell has read 33 of 53 books.

62%

Wendell Ricketts

Goodreads Author

Member Since

November 2008

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Wendell Ricketts was born on an atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,and raised in various small towns on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. He holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and has worked professionally as a translator from Italian since 1998. In addition to The Wrong Door: The Complete Plays of Natalia Ginzburg (U. Toronto Press, 2008), an early version of which received the PEN American Center Renato Poggioli Prize for translation, he is the translator of Communicating Success: Public Relations with an Italian Flair; Olive Oil and the Mediterranean; Trilobites: The Back To The Past Museum Guide; Ferrara and its Bread: The History of a Culinary Masterpiece across Seven Centuries, and Twenty Cigarettes in N Wendell Ricketts was born on an atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,and raised in various small towns on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. He holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and has worked professionally as a translator from Italian since 1998. In addition to The Wrong Door: The Complete Plays of Natalia Ginzburg (U. Toronto Press, 2008), an early version of which received the PEN American Center Renato Poggioli Prize for translation, he is the translator of Communicating Success: Public Relations with an Italian Flair; Olive Oil and the Mediterranean; Trilobites: The Back To The Past Museum Guide; Ferrara and its Bread: The History of a Culinary Masterpiece across Seven Centuries, and Twenty Cigarettes in Nasiriyah: A Memoir, among other publications. He has also translated four books as yet unpublished in English, including the novels Generations of Love (Matteo B. Bianchi) and Around Three O’Clock (Andrej Longo); his translations of excerpts from two recent Italian working-class novels appeared in World Literature Today in November 2013. From 1986 to 1996 he was theater and dance critic for the Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco, California, and his writing about literature, travel, politics, the media, and contemporary social issues have appeared in such publications as Contact Quarterly, The Advocate, Dance Ink, Marriage and Family Review, Spin, Silent No More: Voices of Courage in American Schools, and 30 Days in Italy: True Stories of Escape to the Good Life. His fiction and poetry have been published in such journals and anthologies as Mississippi Review, Salt Hill, Blue Mesa Review, modern words, and The Long Story. He is the author of What We Lost in the Fire & Other Stories (FourCats Press, 2022), Cards from the Basket: 307 Imaginative Writing Prompts to Spark the Creativity of Writers, Writing Teachers, Students — and Everyone! and editor of Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men about More-or-Less Gay Life (2005) and of Blue, Too: More Writing by (for or about) Working Class Queers (2014). ...more

Combine Editions
Wendell Ricketts’s books

Average rating: 3.67 · 465 ratings · 66 reviews · 45 distinct works

	Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men About More-or-Less Gay Life 3.72 avg rating — 46 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wrong Door: The Complete Plays of Natalia Ginzburg 4.25 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2008 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blue, Too: More Writing by (for or about) Working-Class Queers by Wendell Ricketts (Goodreads Author) (Editor), L.A. Fields (Goodreads Author) 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What We Lost in the Fire & Other Stories 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2021 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What’s Your Paleo IQ?: The Fossil News Book of Paleo Quizzes, Puzzles & Brain Teasers it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Stone Lake: An Introduction to Fossil Butte, Fossil Lake & the Kemmerer Fish Quarries it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cards from the Basket: 307 Imaginative Writing Prompts to Spark the Creativity of Writers, Writing Teachers, Students — and Everyone! it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Said What I Said: Intemperate Observations about Politics, Pop Culture, AIDS, Art, Sex, the Expat Life in Italy, the Craft of Writing, and the Great ... Queer Collectanea & a Memoir of Four Decades it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Sampler of European Paleontology: The Museums, the Discoveries & the Fossils of the “Old Continent” (Fossil News Books) by Wendell Ricketts (Goodreads Author), Angela Baldanza, Allen A. Debus did not like it 1.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Loveo, Jameso: The Life & Writing of Homophile Literary Pioneer James Barr Fugate 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Wendell rated a book liked it Excavation by James Rollins (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I so wish this man had never learned the word “limn,” which he uses at least once every chapter. I wish he hadn’t tried to give an indigenous Quechuan teenager the sort of broken English that Bob Hope would have been to embarrassed to try in his come ...more
Oct 25, 2026 03:38PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Excavation by James Rollins. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Excavation by James Rollins <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell rated a book liked it The Boys of Fairy Town: Sodomites, Female Impersonators, Third-Sexers, Pansies, Queers, and Sex Morons in Chicago's First Century by Jim Elledge (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Wendell rated a book Darkness, Take My Hand (Kenzie & Gennaro, #2) by Dennis Lehane (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 13, 2026 10:06AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell and 24 other people liked Eva Bradshaw-Burnett's review of Dust (Kay Scarpetta, #21): "This is Patricia Cornwell at her possible worst, if you don't count her immediate, post Jack the Ripper book. This is what most of you want to read, so I have edited my post accordingly. Whatever I have written below this is irrelevant. The books a b" Read more of this review »
Oct 07, 2026 09:21AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dust by Patricia Cornwell. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dust by Patricia Cornwell <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell and 41 other people liked Carol Jean's review of Dust (Kay Scarpetta, #21): "Did someone hit Patricia Cornwell in the head while she was writing this? I've never been a big fan of her harsh, unpleasant world filled with unusually disturbed killers, but this book isn't even well written. I can't resist quoting: "Lucy does her b" Read more of this review »
Oct 07, 2026 09:21AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dust by Patricia Cornwell. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dust by Patricia Cornwell <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell and 117 other people liked Kyle Wendy Skultety (gimmethatbook.com)'s review of Dust (Kay Scarpetta, #21): "Interminable. Horrendous. Boring. Annoying. This series is nothing like the old Scarpettas, where she would actually talk more about the crazed killer and spend time tracking him or her down. These new books are full of internal monologues where Kay " Read more of this review »
Oct 07, 2026 09:21AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dust by Patricia Cornwell. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dust by Patricia Cornwell <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell rated a book liked it Dust (Kay Scarpetta, #21) by Patricia Cornwell (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
… then there are the Scarpetta novels in which she’s so paranoid, miserable, uncommunicative, neurotic, and just plain strange that you spend most of the reading thinking, “If she’s so smart, why isn’t she in therapy?”
Oct 07, 2026 09:16AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dust by Patricia Cornwell. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dust by Patricia Cornwell <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell rated a book liked it I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Polls

Which book would you like to read for our Category 1 read for February/March?

Object of Desire by William J. Mann

11 votes, 34.4%

Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men About More-or-Less Gay Life by Wendell Ricketts

8 votes, 25.0%

Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever by Joel Derfner

7 votes, 21.9%

The Charioteer by Mary Renault

5 votes, 15.6%

The Persian Boy by Mary Renault

1 vote, 3.1%

32 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Queereaders: February - March nominations	18	33	Jan 28, 2010 02:37PM
The Next Best Boo...: Author Alphabet	3700	3112	Mar 14, 2013 03:16PM

Wendell’s Quotes

“It's always wrong of course to say that you can't do this or you can't do that in fiction. You can do anything you can get away with, but nobody has ever gotten away with much.”
― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

tags: fiction-writing, writers-on-writing, writing, writing-fiction, writing-style

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