Category: Reading

What I Read in 2024

11/26/2024

It’s hard to limit the best books I’ve read this year to a handful of titles, though out of the 60ish books, these felt like standouts. Some focus on queerness (the heartbreak of a first love in How We Named the Stars, the separation and pains of a current relationship in Memorial, the messiness of existence in Detransition, Baby), others on how families weather storms (both real and metaphorical in The Storm We Made and If I Survive You), others on the pain and grief of drug addiction (the fictional and surreal in Martyr! and the real in Bones Worth Breaking), while others on the strange (a parallel universe in State of Paradise, or the cataclysmic effects of Ice-nine in Cat’s Cradle). I always love when a book feels like it is singing to me, so I hope you’ll be able to find a choir in this list.

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10 LGBTQ+ Novels to Read this Month

6/1/2023

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Over the past couple years I’ve enjoyed reading and engaging with books that feature LGBTQ+ characters, plots, and speak to/about the gay community. Here are just a few which have stuck with me:

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

I loved Vuong’s amazing use of language. This is a coming-of-age novel that I recommend to anyone looking to understand the Asian American experience through a queer lens.

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

This novel is heartbreaking, tender, and truly powerful in its use of metaphors and language. I cried multiple times reading Edinburg, but it’s worth it.

What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell

Greenwell is an expert at culling beautiful and emotionally charged moments between the narrator and Mitko. Can’t recommend this one enough.

Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

Chang’s language is poetic, metaphorical, and structurally unique. Every moment is awe-inspiring.

Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote

While much of Capote’s fame comes from In Cold Blood, I found Other Voices, Other Rooms groundbreaking in its boldness on gay characters when it was published at the time.

Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima

I loved the way Mishima gets inside the mind of the narrator, his feelings of another boy, and the way it unravels. The voice was its main draw to me.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Miller is able to take a well-known Greek myth and show its queer contexts. Lovely read and there are some wonderfully tender moments.

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman

I loved the movie as well as the novel, and while Aciman had initially written the novel without a gay bend, it’s still a beautiful story.

Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor

The relationships and tensions Taylor creates is unparalleled and fascinating within the context of a university gay community.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

This novel is devastating, brilliant, and powerful. I don’t want to spoil or warp perception, so all I’ll say is it has changed me as a person.

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What I Read in 2024

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