Rouse, Wade.  At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream:  Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life.  2009.  301p.  Harmony House, $23.99.  (978-0-307-45190-3).  Gr. 10-12.

This hilarious memoir by the author of America’s Boy, an earlier Rainbow selection, covers a year in Michigan when Rouse and his partner, Gary, leave their city home in St. Louis for the idyllic rustic life.  Rouse uses Henry David Thoreau’s Walden as a basis for ten “life lessons” for his determination to change from the selfish, shopping-crazy urban gay to a caring, happy writer satisfied with a more minimalist environment.  Fortunately for the humor, he maintains his flamboyant attitude as the two men circumvent the rural culture in a mutual education for all.  As he details his current humiliations and victories, Rouse connects these to his struggles of growing up gay in the Ozarks.