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Wendell’s Year In Books

Wendell’s 2025 Year in Books

Take a look at Wendell’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

READING

CHALLENGE

Wendell has read 19 of 53 books.

36%

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 He has also translated four books as yet unpublished in English, including the novels Generations of Love (Matteo B. Bianchi) and Around Three O’Clock (Andrej Longo); his translations of excerpts from two recent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 · 458 ratings · 64 reviews · 44 distinct works • Similar authors

	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 4.22 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 2008 — 5 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
	Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Reptiles (Fossil News Books) by Wendell Ricketts (Goodreads Author), Allen E. Debus, Dean R. Lomax 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 The Caravaggio Shawl by Samuel M. Steward	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
Jul 16, 2026 09:10PM · like
Wendell rated a book liked it by Lehane, Dennis Gone, Baby, Gone: A Novel (1998) Hardcover 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
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Wendell rated a book really liked it Damage: Notes on a Queer Aesthetic by Jonathan Alexander (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
Jun 22, 2026 01:56PM · like
Wendell rated a book it was ok The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen	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 Tough Guy (Game Changers, #3) by Rachel Reid	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
Jun 01, 2026 03:12PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Tough Guy by Rachel Reid. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Tough Guy by Rachel Reid <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell rated a book liked it The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII by Jack El-Hai (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
May 26, 2026 03:08PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell rated a book really liked it Pendergast: The Beginning (Agent Pendergast, #0.5) by Douglas Preston (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
May 24, 2026 10:47AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Pendergast by Douglas Preston. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Pendergast by Douglas Preston <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell rated a book it was ok The Swarm by Frank Schätzing	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
This book is longer than The Brothers Karamazov, and the ending is forty-five-plus pages of incoherent, stream-of-consciousness, two-penny existential philosophizing. And that is because, you see, Frank Schätzing had these ideas about humans’ relatio ...more
May 24, 2026 10:46AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Swarm by Frank Schätzing. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Swarm by Frank Schätzing <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell rated a book it was ok Spoils of the Dead (Liam Campbell, #6) by Dana Stabenow (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
May 18, 2026 09:15PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Spoils of the Dead by Dana Stabenow. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Spoils of the Dead by Dana Stabenow <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Wendell made a comment on Kirschkuchen’s review of The Swarm " This made me snort, but in the best way. Bravo! "
May 07, 2026 10:41PM · see review

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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

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Queereaders: February - March nominations	18	33	Jan 28, 2010 02:37PM
The Next Best Boo...: Author Alphabet	3700	3111	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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