Current affairs aside, I love a good political thriller. And my book of the month for October delivers some perfect escapism from our present reality. The Fourth Courier written by Timothy Jay Smith is a fabulous read. The action takes place in post-Cold War Warsaw circa 1992 after the Communist era has ended. Smith does a wonderful job in setting the … [Read more...] about The Fourth Courier
Book Review
Halloween Reading: LGBT-Related Horror Fiction
It’s that time of year again: the temperatures have plunged into the bone-chilling 70s, pumpkin spice has been suffused through all known matter, and Halloween decorations have haunted shelves since August. All you need now is a good, scary book. Come along with me, and I’ll take you on a dark descent through the history of LGBT themes in horror fiction. Late Nineteenth … [Read more...] about Halloween Reading: LGBT-Related Horror Fiction
LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia
LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia. Eds. Jeff Mann and Julia Watts. West Virginia UP. 288 pp. This collection, the first of its kind, gathers original and previously published fiction and poetry from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer authors from Appalachia. Like much Appalachian literature, these works are pervaded with an attachment to … [Read more...] about LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia
Firsts: Coming of Age Stories by People with Disabilities
The book review is one of my favorite columns to write for many reasons, but the main one is it gives me the chance to discover new authors and explore genres I normally do not read. This is definitely true of my book for August - Firsts: Coming of Age Stories by People with Disabilities. Edited by Belo Miguel Cipriani, this book highlights some of the best writers … [Read more...] about Firsts: Coming of Age Stories by People with Disabilities
Book Review: What Rough Beast
What Rough Beast. Robert Dole. Austin Macauley Publishers, 2017. 126 pages. This is a strange, odd mess of a book. Hot and shitty? Not necessarily—but certainly weird and peculiar. What Rough Beast is marketed as a novel but it’s more of a novella, sort of. The first half reads like notes for a memoir. The second half is formatted … [Read more...] about Book Review: What Rough Beast
Book of the Month: Augur of Shadows
Gay science fiction/horror seems to be a trend of mine lately. My book for the month of July is Augur of Shadows by Jacob Rundle. It is Book One in the Destined series. Jacob John Rundle was born in 1985, in Galesburg, IL. He attended Knox College, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Russian Language and Literature. He served eight years in the United States … [Read more...] about Book of the Month: Augur of Shadows
The Women of Dauphine
Deb Jannerson. The Women of Dauphine. Nine Star Press, 2019. 221 pages The Women of Dauphine is New Orleans poet and essayist Deb Jannerson’s debut novel, and while it is aimed at young adults, it is not an easy or comfortable read. It is perhaps better to say this is a necessarily uncomfortable read. At the heart of the story is lesbian ghost … [Read more...] about The Women of Dauphine
Book Review: The Stonewall Reader
The Stonewall Reader Edited by the New York Public Library 336 pp. Penguin Classics There are already a great many books on the subject of the Stonewall uprising. Perhaps the best-known and most widely-read are those by Martin Duberman and David Carter, but many others have been published in recent years. With 2019 marking the 50th anniversary of the events, it was … [Read more...] about Book Review: The Stonewall Reader
Book Review: Brown White Black
The Drama of Celebrity. Sharon Marcus. Princeton University Press, 2019. 328 pages. The Drama of Celebrity by Sharon Marcus, the Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, is a must read for anyone interested in an intellectual understanding of how celebrity works. Why do so many people care so much about … [Read more...] about Book Review: Brown White Black
Jimmy Neurosis
Jimmy Neurosis. James Oseland. Ecco, 2019. ISBN: 978-0062267368. 293 pages. Long before James Oseland was a judge on Top Chef Masters, he was a teenage rebel growing up in the pre–Silicon Valley suburbs, yearning for a taste of something wild. Diving headfirst into the churning mayhem of the punk movement, he renamed himself Jimmy Neurosis and embarked on a journey into a … [Read more...] about Jimmy Neurosis
