During the years that I have been writing ghost stories, many of them collected in The Haunted Heart and Other Tales, I have read a variety of classic and contemporary ghost stories, horror anthologies, and novels that included gay characters, written by authors who are also openly gay or whose legacy has identified the writer as homosexual. While there are a number of short stories that are personal favorites, this list focuses on novels.
Set in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Corpus Calvin brilliantly unravels the haunting of the Cloverkist Inn from several points of view, including a gay visitor from Amsterdam, a sensitive ten-year-old boy, the diary of a Union Soldier, and the inner thoughts of a dog named Calvin. Things ramp up with the unexpected arrival of a psychic, but it’s the marvelous puzzle of the mysteries—Who painted the unsigned painting? Where is Room 13? Who are the Pumpkin People?—that propel this thrilling exploration into local legends.
Jason Dekker doesn’t believe in ghosts but is haunted by memories of Amsterdam. A move to the White Mountains of New Hampshire with his dog, Calvin, promises a fresh start. College friend Tessa Bernstein enlists his help at Cloverkist Inn, where strange occurrences are scaring off customers and staff. Is someone trying to drive Tessa out of business, or are darker forces at work? Does an enigmatic boy who bonds with Calvin hold the key to a secret dating back to the Civil War? The unsolicited arrival of psychic medium Valraven creates further turmoil when his investigation into paranormal activity…
I learned about Stoicism through its connection to Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, whose founder, Albert Ellis, was influenced by Stoic philosophy. Since I had an interest in philosophy, I decided to look more into Stoicism, and—to my surprise—I learned that philosophy could be practical (who knew?!), and that others were trying to put Stoicism into practice today! This led me to try to find other Stoics by founding the New York City Stoics in 2013, followed by co-founding a non-profit—The Stoic Fellowship—to help other people do the same in 2016. I’ve now given talks on Stoicism worldwide in addition to co-writing a book on Stoic practice.
I first got into Stoicism the way most people do: to feel better and get control over my emotions. But after I studied and practiced it more, I realized that I got into it for the wrong reasons! Stoicism’s goal isn’t to get control over emotionsper se,but to eliminate a subset of them—the passions—because they stem from false beliefs. And you can’t control them; according to Stoic theory, once you let the passions arise by agreeing with the false underlying beliefs, they control you.Graver’s book was pivotal for my understanding of the Stoic theory of emotions in a deeper and more accurate way.
On the surface, stoicism and emotion seem like contradictory terms. Yet the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome were deeply interested in the emotions, which they understood as complex judgments about what we regard as valuable in our surroundings. "Stoicism and Emotion" shows that they did not simply advocate a suppression of feeling, as stoicism implies in today's English, but instead conducted a searching examination of these powerful psychological responses, seeking to understand what attitude toward them expresses the deepest respect for human potential. In this work, Margaret R. Graver gives a compelling new interpretation of the Stoic position.…
Light From Uncommon Stars is a
ray of sunshine when times are tough and the news is depressing.
It’s a yummy
and affirming sci-fi book where marginalized people, particularly trans women, get to thrive. Instead of
solving problems by killing people, small and affirming acts of allyship,
friendship, and love add up to a better world. The story is beautifully done,
nonviolent, and hopeful.
Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.
When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.
Activist Xander Wallace and his straitlaced father do not have an easy relationship. Jim’s views on race, immigration, gender, sexuality, and even Millennials alienate his son no matter how hard Xander tries to find common ground. Toss in Jim’s second marriage ten months after Xander’s mother died, and it’s a volatile cocktail. How, against this backdrop, will Xander ever dare to bare his soul and reveal his greatest secret?
Winner of a 2023 American Fiction Award, a First Place prize in the Chanticleer International Book Awards, and a 5-Star Readers’ Favorite review.
As someone who’s never been allowed to drive, but gets motion-sick reading in a bus or car, I’ve been a lover of audiobooks since I had my Walkman and a backpack full of audiobook cassettes. As a queer man, I’m always looking for more immersive stories about people like me. Finding queer voices and queer narratives is so important to me as a way to offset how queer people don’t have an inherited continuance of our culture as most marginalized people do; books are a way to fill that gap. I do own a rescued husky, and there’s nothing like an engrossing audiobook to get me through those minus-forty Canadian winter walks with a dog.
The way Rey handles butch-femme relationships never fail to impress me, and I think so much of it comes down to how expertly she manages to make her butch characters so non-toxic in their masculinity. They support without taking over, lead without diminishing, and her characters are so often imperfectly doing their best that you root for them even when you know they’re about to do something they’ll regret. Twice Shy puts two women together who’ve both divorced their exes, and listening to Kiera Grace perform Quinn and Amanda tentatively finding their way to each other was as sweet as Amanda’s bakery’s cupcakes. Oh, I should warn you, though: any Rey book will make you hungry. Bring snacks.
Sometimes, you get a second chance at love. Sometimes, you hook up with your ex and remember why you broke up in the first place.
Amanda Russo knows better than to give her failed marriage another try, but the brief fling reminds her there’s more to life than work and parenting. When the architect she hires to remodel her bakery turns out to be as charming as she is talented, Amanda finds herself ready to take a chance on new love. The only problem? Her ex-wife didn’t get the memo.
For Quinn Sullivan, the sting of divorce is still fresh.…
I knew when I was in elementary school that I wanted to be a therapist when I grew up, but I took a slight detour after finishing a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology to work as a line cook, retail manager, veterinary assistant, freelance editor, and registered nurse before finding my way back to graduate school. I also released ten young adult novels, many of them populated by characters struggling with mental illness. I understand anxiety, survivor’s guilt, grief, and loss as both a counselor and a human being, and I selected these books because they resonated deeply with me. I hope readers find comfort and connection in their pages.
Jaye Robin Brown writes complex characters with a deft hand and everyone in this book felt deeply real to me. I didn’t just read about Jess and Vivi’s relationship. I joined Jess on her tumultuous emotional journey. As a mental health counselor, I often encourage people to seek out coping mechanisms to manage adversity, but it’s important to realize that sometimes the thing that made a person whole is inaccessible after trauma or loss, and that healing means forging new paths. This story captures that idea beautifully. Heart-wrenching, but ultimately a story of hope and renewal.
"An evocative story of the thrills of first love and the anguish of first loss. This will break you and heal you." -Julie Murphy, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin'
Not to be missed by fans of Nina LaCour and Becky Albertalli, this powerful novel-from the acclaimed author of Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit-paints a poignant portrait of love in the past, grief in the now, and the healing power of art.
Before: Jess has always struggled with the fire inside her. But when she meets Vivi, everything changes. As they…
Writing a protagonist who can't talk out loud is quite a challenge. I talk constantly as I'm both an extrovert and a public speaker for my day job, but I have had several bouts of severe laryngitis and have been under severe no speaking orders from the doctor. People react differently when you can't talk. Nowadays, we all have a convenient mobile device on hand to help, but that isn't always the case in the fantasy books we read.
In Speechless in Achten Tan my main character Mila can't talk because magic took her voice. Her magic power is connected to her ability to speak, so she's pretty desperate to regain her ability to speak.
This is actually a humorous fantasy book, but I only discovered the fantasy elements about halfway through. It's also M/M romance. The MC lost his voice as a baby when his father cut his vocal cords. Pretty gruesome. He usually communicates with his phone, nonverbal cues, and lots of body language.
Third time’s the charm, right? At least that’s what I tell myself when I witness the same hot guy commit mass murder three times in a few days. I’m either the luckiest mute boy ever or possibly the unluckiest. Who knows, maybe him kidnapping me will turn into the greatest love story ever told? Hey, it could happen! You never know how these things will turn out. I happen to believe in love and soulmates, and if nothing else, Arlington Fox doesn’t treat my disability like a nuisance. It’s not everyday you find someone who just gets you, and…
I bought this book several years ago, but it was 700 pages long, so it stayed on my shelf until I got tickets for the play in London and decided
to read the book first. I was spellbound. The book is disturbing (child abuse, self-harm, suicide attempts) but superbly written.
The author's style
reminds me of Donna Tartt. Four young American men of different ethnicities,
backgrounds, and sexual orientations meet at high school. The novel starts as a
coming-of-age story but follows the characters into middle age and beyond. The
author brings New York vibrantly to life. Readers get insights into their friendship and how unintended cruelty almost
breaks their bond. All four men struggle with burdens from childhood, but the central character,
Jude, who was abandoned as a baby and brought up by monks, has suffered unspeakable
horrors.
The darkness is only hinted at in the opening chapters, giving…
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2015 Shortlisted for the Baileys Prize for Women's Fiction 2016 Winner of Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2016 Finalist for the US National Book Awards 2015
The million copy bestseller, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.
When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted,…
Novels about horror movies appeal to two of my interests. This book, ostensibly about the making of a film inspired by a series of mysterious deaths surrounding a forbidden and possibly corrupting book (cursed/forbidden materials– another of my favorite tropes!), proved to be so much more than that.
Danforth glides between past and present, maintaining a subtle, eerie, threatening atmosphere that I prefer to in-your-face supernatural shenanigans. She also develops nuanced characters whose flaws I can appreciate as well their virtues. I wished this 600+ page book were longer still because I was enjoying it so much.
'It's a terrible story and one way to tell it is this: two girls in love and a fog of wasps cursed the place forever after...'
BROOKHANTS SCHOOL FOR GIRLS: Infamous site of a series of tragic deaths over a hundred years ago. Soon to be the subject of a controversial horror movie about the rumoured 'Brookhants curse':…
I’m a writer and also a history nerd. I love historical fiction—learning about the past through a story just makes the world come alive in a way that non-fiction doesn’t. As I child, I was entranced by middle-grade historical novels like The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and The Shakespeare Stealer. But I also love fantasy novels and how they use magic to make the truths of our world bigger and bolder, turning the elephant in the room into a dragon that can’t be ignored. Mixing history and fantasy together is my book version of peanut butter and chocolate.
Like a lot of people, I read The Great Gatsby in high school. I really loved it, which is why I was thrilled when one of my favorite authors did her own fantasy re-imaging of this classic.
The Chosen and the Beautiful is set in an alternate universe where magic flows as easily as champagne. It centers on Jordan Baker, a side character in the original book, and reimagines her as a Vietnamese orphan who was adopted as a baby into a wealthy white family.
I loved how this book managed to take a classic and cast it in a totally new light: it makes you think about who and what gets left out of the history books.
An Instant National Bestseller! An Indie Next Pick!
A Most Anticipated in 2021 Pick for Oprah Magazine | USA Today | Buzzfeed | Greatist | BookPage | PopSugar | Bustle | The Nerd Daily | Goodreads | Literary Hub | Ms. Magazine | Library Journal | Culturess | Book Riot | Parade Magazine | Kirkus | The Week | Book Bub | OverDrive | The Portalist | Publishers Weekly
A Best of Summer Pick for TIME Magazine | CNN | Book Riot | The Daily Beast | Lambda Literary | The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Goodreads | Bustle | Veranda…
Throughout my publishing career, I’ve been immersed within the confines of science fiction and all its trappings. As a part of this, I read a lot of science fiction books to stay up on things. I’m not sure I’ve read a more breathless or interesting sci-fi book in a very long time. A lot of the promise of the genre feels like it’s been stuck in itself for a while now, but reading a book like this reminds me of just what genre can be capable of.
There’s so much to love in this book, from the language to the passion, and the ability to take genre convention and turn it on its head. Sometimes this book was brutal, other times it was beautiful, but no matter what, this book was necessary, and I can’t say that for everything I read.
In 1997, New York City, a petty criminal named Alex Voss is about to die via bullet shot right between the eyes by his criminal employer: Boris. But was he really a petty criminal, or something even stranger? As all roads lead to death, he recounts his tragic life one last time; murder, sex, drugs, rock and roll, losing his mind and failing at being a true hero. There's no escape from his tragic ending. At least, that's how it's meant to play out. As events fail to line up, is Alex's mind breaking the fourth wall, has he finally…
