Modern gay novels
It was another excellent year for LGBTQ books, as evidenced by the sprawling list of 65 standout titles across every genre published by Casey Stepaniuk earlier this month. Her list is a great exhibit of the range and depth of the year&#;s superior queer books. But I wanted to zoom in a bit and present a personal list, one narrowed down from my control stack of lgbtq+ books I worked my way through over the past year. I idea it would be fun to act a ranked list of the 12 queer novels that stood out to me this year. And by &#;fun,&#; I mean pleasurably agonizing. This was not an straightforward list to set together. There are several novels that almost made the cut and might even be just as worthy of a spot on the list but were nudged out for some abstract reason that would be difficult for me to perfectly explain. What I like about this final 12 is that they&#;re all very distinct novels from one another, even as some of them can easily be position into conversation with one another. Together, they form a thrilling tapestry of my year in queer reading.
Many of the novels on the list act not have standalone revie
A confession: I very nearly quit putting this list together.
Throughout the year I keep a running list, adding new names whenever I learn about an upcoming queer book—from Tweets, publicist pitches, endless NetGalley scrolls—and I usually initiate writing the blurbs for each book a scant months before the list is due. Let me also add that, because I am a novelist myself, someone who works very hard to set words on the page in a good-enough arrange for someone to respond to them, I experiment and read at least a little of each book featured. And here’s an incredible truth that’s both deeply satisfying and makes my job surprisingly difficult: there are more and more queer books published every year. There was a time when I could complete a list like this in an afternoon; I was lucky to find a dozen explicitly queer titles. Now there’s a lovely solid chance I fail a good number of them.
In mid-December—at the half-way point, and a couple days after my birthday—I looked at the list, halfway done then, and thought, “There’s no way I can do this. There’s no way I can finish putting together this
The debut individual novel by the bestselling and award-winning YA author Nina LaCour, Yerba Buena is a cherish story for our time and a propulsive journey through the lives of two women trying to find somewhere, or someone, to call home.
In , the bookshop I work for decided to start a couple of book clubs, and I offered to become the host and organise these meetings. They became something to bring people together (online) during a pandemic, and they provided a way to continue to learn in community.
For Educate Yourself Book Club — where we read books on subjects like racism, feminism, LGBTQIAP+ identity, fatphobia, and ableism — we pick fiction and nonfiction books we want to peruse together, and then we talk about what we have learned, bringing the books and our personal stories to the table.
No one in this group is an expert; we stay respectful and open to learning, using the tools at hand, and exchanging stories. It’s a humbling and interesting way to spend more time thinking about social matters, our own privileges, an
60 LGBTQ+ Books That Reaaally Deserve a Spot on Your Shelf
This gender-flipped reboot of the iconic 's film Taxi Driver follows a rideshare driver who is barely holding it together on the stalk for love, dignity, and financial securityuntil she decides she's done waiting.
When magazine reporter Monique Grant is summoned by aging and reclusive Hollywood show icon Evelyn Hugo, she's determined to use this opportunity to jump-start her career. Evelyn is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life, which includes tales of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great love she's kept secret for decades. Monique begins to establish a real connection to the legendary star, but as her story nears a conclusion, it becomes shockingly clear why Evelyn chose her.
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The Excellent Believers weaves the stories of a Chicago art gallery assistant who loses his friend (and soon everything he knows) to the s AIDS epidemic and his friend’s sister, who grapples with her own loss 30 years later in Paris.
What unfold