Readers > Booklists > Adult & teen lists > Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Fiction
GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) Fiction
All titles shelved in Fiction collection, except as noted: GN=graphic novels, M=mystery, SS=short story collection.
TIP: Look for more gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer fiction by searching the library catalog for the subjects Gay Men Fiction, Lesbians Fiction, Bisexuality Fiction, Transsexuals Fiction or Homosexuality Fiction.
Anthologies
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(2007-2009)SSCollecting some of the most seductive stories of love between men, Best Gay Romance, shows that however romance happens, however long love lasts — a heartbeat or a lifetime — erotic love between men is a wondrous thing.
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(2009)SSFrom threesomes to gender-bending to shedding one's wholesome image to indulge in more visceral pursuits, the women in these stories reveal all their pleasures in memorable tales that are both sexy and lyrical.
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(2007-2009)SSBest Lesbian Romance presents the juiciest, most seductive lesbian love stories. In Lynne Jamneck's "Shooting Snow," set in Greenland, a photographer and the scientist who has brought her north gradually melt the glacier between them. In Lisa Figueroa's "Under the Skin," a butch-femme couple on a tropical holiday discover the difference between new love and deep commitment.
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(2002)SSBest Transgender Erotica brings together 20 stories by writers of every gender. The first book to celebrate exclusively gender-bending, -crossing, and -breaking sexuality through erotic fiction, Best Transgender Erotica includes representations of many forms of "trans" identity. Whether blurring the line between masculine and feminine, or making the transition from female to male, or vice versa, these characters (and authors) had to put on their sexiest, most alluring, heart-racing show in order to make the cut.
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(2008)SSThis incendiary collection contains a wide range of erotic short stories that burn up the pages with unabashed, uninhibited sex between men. Two young guys' internet hookup leads to an exhibitionist encounter at a local shopping mall; a boy on the verge of manhood loses his gay cherry to the handyman of a local brothel; a college-bound boy raised by strict Christian parents comes out in the arms of his older brother's best surfer buddy; and two sexual dynamos have their way with a willing military man. These stories will definitely make you sweat.
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(2008)SSLambda Award-winning novelist Blair Mastbaum and writer Will Fabro have put together a fun and edgy anthology of hot new fiction by young gay writers.
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(2008)SSA construction worker, plumber, gardener, or any hard-working man with a tool belt plays a part in many gay male fantasies. In this steamy collection, take a ride to the top of a high-rise under construction for a precarious steel-beam encounter; go down in the belly of a dark, steamy mine; hang out with some hunky, sweaty landscapers; and slip into the construction manager's office for a quickie. Wherever you go, you'll find sexy men who are turned on by more than their buddies' tools. In this world, the hats are not the only things that are hard.
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(2007)SSA vibrant group of new and legendary erotica writers, including Sofia Quintero, Fiona Zedde, Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Tawanna Sullivan, tease and entice in this sizzling anthology.
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(2007)SSLose yourself in this sumptuous volume of original tales exploring the paths of eros and love, written by leading female writers of contemporary lesbian fiction.
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(2004)SSIn this first installment of a planned annual series of "New Exploits of..." novellas, authors put a lesbian spin on the classic fairy tales "Cinderella," "The Little Mermaid," "Snow White," and "Beauty and the Beast."
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(2006)SSWe all look forward to that long-deserved vacation and the pleasures it will bring, but aside from the planned activities, it is the unexpected encounter that makes it a vacation to remember. These are the hottest stories of traveling men encountering the exotic and erotic in foreign lands and locales — and not just what, but who they did on their summer vacations.
Fiction
- Aciman, André
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(2007)This heartrending ode to human passion is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' house, a cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera.
- Anable, Stephen
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(2008)MAfter comedian Mark Winslow arrives with his troupe of improv actors ready to break into the Provincetown club circuit, a public fight makes him the prime suspect in the grisly butchering of a Boston blueblood. Mark believes his choice is simple: find the killer or be charged with the crime.
- Anshaw, Carol
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(2002)From the award-winning author of Aquamarine comes a new novel about mothers and daughters and the surprising shape of the contemporary American family.
- Ayres, Diane
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(2002)Poignant, exhilarating, uplifting and tragic, the friends and lovers that Elizabeth—a newly arrived English major—discovers will change her forever as she makes a compelling journey toward womenhood in the company of . . . "Other Girls."
- Beck, Timothy James
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(2007)From the author of Someone Like You and I'm Your Man comes a superbly entertaining coming-of-age story that is as witty as it is touching.
- Bennett, Saxon
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(2007)Date Night Club is a dark romantic comedy about the pitfalls of dating in your thirties.
- Besson, Philippe
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(2003)Charming, impudent, privileged, emotionally precocious, Vincent de l'Etoile is the same age as the young century when he meets the elegant, asthmatic 45-year-old Marcel Proust, and in one week — at literary salons, at the Ritz, in cafes — the striking youth with black hair and green eyes fashions an intimate platonic friendship with Parisian society's preeminent outsider.
- Bram, Christopher
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(2006)The author of The Notorious Doctor August probes the dark depths of the human heart in this insightful and arresting novel that explores how the personal becomes the political.
- Braund, Diana
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(2007)Aspen must choose between the woman she loves and the forest she hopes to preserve.
- Camper, Jennifer
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(2007)GNThe only current publication that showcases comics by queer artists, the ground-breaking graphic novel Juicy Mother 2 contains richly drawn tales that examine LGBT life from new perspectives: killer dykes chasing romance, a superhero tranny, how Hothead met Chicken, homeboys in love, lesbian internet hookups, West Hollywood parties, kids with queer parents, and many other unexpectedly funny depictions of how like-minded individuals have found each other for love, lust, and heartbreak.
- Cooper, Dennis
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(2002)Dennis Cooper's latest novel has emerged as his finest, most thought-provoking, and most challenging piece of writing yet. At the heart of the work is Larry, a teenager who is struggling to understand not only his sexuality and physical feelings toward his younger brother, but also the purpose and reason behind his own existence. When someone offers Larry money to kill a fellow student and retrieve the boy's notebook, it all seems straightforward enough. Once Larry ventures into the notebook, however, complications arise. Captivated by both the beauty of its articulation and the horror of its content, he longs for such an ability to communicate himself.
- Copp, Rick
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(2003)MFormer child star Jarrod Jarvis has managed to escape the notoriety that has plagued his peers, but his quiet life in the Hollywood Hills is soon in jeopardy when a friend is found dead in his lap pool. Jarrod sets out to find the killer.
- Coyote, Ivan E.
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(2006)A breathtaking story of love and loneliness, Coyote's first novel is about an affable small-town mechanic who struggles to deal with a wife who has left him for another woman, until a used cello and an acquaintance's suicide attempt compel him to make some changes in his own life. With quiet authority, Bow Grip is about one man's true rite of passage: trying to keep the ghosts of personal history at bay with a heart that's as big as the endless prairie sky.
- Christian, M.
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(2008)He looks just like you. He acts exactly like you. Every day he becomes more and more like you, taking away that what was yours until there's nothing left. You may think you've met your match — or your double — but that's not even close.
- Diaz, Johnny
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(2008)The bestselling author of Boston Boys Club delivers another witty, sexy novel about gay life from a Latino perspective.
- Donoghue, Emma
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(2007)A delightful, old-fashioned love story with a uniquely 21st century twist, here is a romantic comedy that explores the pleasures and sorrows of long-distance relationships.
- Ford, Michael Thomas
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(2004)The critically acclaimed author of Last Summer whisks readers off to a small town in upstate New York, where seven gay men — regardless of their circumstances, backgrounds, and ages — are still "looking for it."
- Gerrold, David
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(2002)When David Gerrold decided he wanted to adopt a son, he thought he had prepared himself for fatherhood. But 8-year-old Dennis turned out to be more than he expected — a lot more. The son of a substance abuser and alcoholic who abandoned him in a seedy motel, Dennis suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. Seized by the state and shuffled among eight different foster homes in less than eight years, he was prone to violent emotional outbursts. His case history identified him as "hard to place" — a euphemism for "unadoptable" — but for Gerrold it was love at first sight.
- Glass, Julia
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(2002)Three Junes is a vividly textured symphonic novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family. Paul McLeod, the recently widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret sorrows of his marriage.
- Gómez-Arcos, Agustin
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(2007)A viciously funny, shocking yet ultimately moving novel, an allegory of Franco's Spain, about a young gay man coming of age with a mother who despises him, a father who ignores him, and a brother who loves him.
- Grant, Stephanie
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(2008)The acclaimed author of The Passion of Alice has penned a gritty and tender story about sexual identity and race relations, set during the tumultuous integration of the Boston public school system in 1974.
- Griffith, Nicola
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(2007)It doesn't matter how well trained you are, how big, how fast, how strong; there will always be someone out there bigger or faster or stronger. Always. That's what Aud Torvingen teaches the students in her self-defense class. But the question is whether Aud really believes this lesson herself — and if not, what it will take for her to learn it. Aud has trained herself to achieve a fierce, machine-like precision in hand-to-hand combat, and in life. But in Always she is abruptly confronted with the limits of her own power. Her self-defense classes spin violently out of her grasp and, still reeling from the consequences, she embarks on a seemingly simple investigation of Seattle real estate fraud that pulls her into something far more complicated and dangerous than she had imagined.
- Hardy, James Earl
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(2003)Fooling around is not something Mitchell "Little Bit" Crawford gave much thought until his boyfriend, Raheim "Pooquie" Rivers, heads to Hollywood to make his first feature film. As Mitchell soon discovers, the temptation to cheat is very real.
- Harris, E Lynn
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(2001)With just the right amount of wickedness, love, and compassion, Harris's masterful storytelling and delicious plot twists will have fans and newcomers alike frantically turning pages in search of the answer to the ultimate question: will the wily and wonderful Basil finally be undone?
- Herren, Greg
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(2007)MIn the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Chanse MacLeod returns to a different, shattered New Orleans in an attempt to rebuild his own life and face his own future. When he discovers that his last client before the storm was murdered the very night she hired him to find her long-missing father, he is drawn into a web of intrigue and evil that surrounds the Verlaine family.
- Herring, Peggy J.
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(2004)Bestselling author Herring brings two of her most popular characters, Dr. Maxine Weston and her lover, Betina Abbott, back to life in this story of discovery and awakening.
- Hill, Gerri
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(2008)Detective Casey O'Connor is back, this time with new partner Leslie Tucker. They join forces with Tori Hunter to track down a killer targeting single women who live alone. But as Casey and Leslie grow closer, Leslie begins to question her sexuality.
- Hinton, Gregory
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(2002)As funny, heart-wrenching, and evocative as Cathedral City, Desperate Hearts reacquaints readers with the first book's unforgettable cast, and with the town that serves as both backdrop and pivotal character in their stories.
- Joseph, Sheri
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(2002)Joseph's assured debut novel explores the lives of two Georgia families soon to be linked by a marriage. While tackling several dark themes, the core of the story is a hopeful portrait of the different and often elusive faces of salvation.
- Kallmaker, Karin
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(2005)Syrah Ardani tried independence, but the call of the Napa Valley hills and rolling vineyards of her family's winery have brought her home again — only to learn that her father's feckless management has put Ardani Vineyards into receivership. Corporate turnaround specialist Toni Blanchard, infamous for her slash-and-burn techniques, is caught between loyalty to her father, and old friend of the Ardani family, and her duty to the court, which has appointed her to safeguard the interests of the vineyard's creditors. Toni has other reasons to retreat from her high-pressure Manhattan lifestyle, not the least of which is a bitter break up. Syrah wants Toni off her land and out of her life. Their clashes smolder with distrust and resentment, but also threaten to light a completely different kind of fire.
- Kelly, Christopher
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(2007)Tortured by memories of being bullied all through school, Ben Reilly sets out to finally put his demons to rest. Although Terrence O'Connor, the beautiful boy who was his tormentor, is now a successful writer in Manhattan, he is also a man searching out his own identity. As Ben and Terrence form an unlikely friendship, hidden motives and long-kept secrets bubble to the surface. Does Ben realize he's fallen in love with Terrence? And can Terrence admit to his own confused feelings? Darkly disturbing and brilliantly written, here is a chilling depiction of the once-victim who unwittingly becomes the bully.
- Lemebel, Pedro
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(2004)It is spring 1986 in the city of Santiago, and Augusto Pinochet is losing his grip on power. In one of the city's many poor neighborhoods works the Queen of the Corner, a hopeless and lonely romantic who embroiders linens for the wealthy and listens to boleros to drown out the gunshots and rioting in the streets. Along comes Carlos, a handsome young man who befriends the aging homosexual and uses his house to store mysterious boxes and hold clandestine meetings.
- Lemus, Felicia Luna
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(2007)Spanning the worlds of present-day New York, 1990s Los Angeles, and 1940s Mexico City, Like Son is the not-so-simple story of a love-blindness shared between a father and a son. Born a bouncing baby girl named Francisca, Frank Cruz is now a post-punk 30-year-old who has inherited his dead father's wanderlust, unrequited love, and hyperbolic tendencies.
- Lerner, Lisa
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(2002)For 14-year-old Edie Stein, the road to Deansville's annual Feminine Woman of Conscience Pageant is strewn with pitfalls. True, she's an ace at Mystery Powders, and she's come a long way in Freestyle Walking and Better Person Skills. But she's increasingly troubled at the prospect of offing her genius bunny, Alice Jones, in the Sacrificial Rabbit event. And despite the strenuous coaching of her mother, training for the Electric Polyrubber Man erotic arts competition has been a disaster: Edie just can't stop thinking about the girl next door, sexy Lana Grimaldi.
- Mackle, Elliott J. (Elliot James)
(2003)February, 1949. Fort Myers Florida. It started out to be such a nice day. But early morning gunfire at the Royal Plaza Motor Hotel changed all that. One white man is dead. One black man is dead. The widow of the white man has just crashed the investigation, and is waving a gun around. Barely escaping the shot that blows the window out of the car in which he is sitting is Dan Ewing, who isn't even supposed to be there. Saving his bacon is police detective Bud Wright. Bud and Dan are more than fishing buddies, but no one can know that. But their secret is just one of many in this small town.
- Malloy, Brian
(2007)Malloy's stripped-down prose — featuring a 35-year-old gay man whose life is a series of unfortunate failures — makes for quick and immersive reading in his interesting spin on classic noir novels.- Mastbaum, Blair
(2008)The author of Clay's Way, this Lambda Award-winning novelist returns with a story of sexual obsession turned violent in Manhattan's East Village.- McCartney, Alistair
(2008)In this profound book about mortality, McCartney composes an irreverent archive of philosophical obsessions and homoerotic fixations, demonstrating the difficulty of separating what is real from what is imagined.- McNicholl, Damian
(2004)Gabriel Harkin, the eldest of four children in a working-class family, struggles through a loving yet often brutal childhood. It's a turbulent time in Ulster, and in the staunchly Catholic community to which Gabriel belongs, the strict rules for belief and behavior are clear. As Gabriel begins to suspect that he's not like other boys, he tries desperately to lock away his feelings and his fears. But secrets have a way of being discovered, and Gabriel learns that his secrets might not be the only ones in the Harkin family.- Meaker, Marijane
(2003)Even though he has dubbed himself "shockproof," nothing has prepared Sydney Skate for his mother sweeping the girl of his dreams off her feet.- Meyer, Jlee
(2002)A fast-paced adventure takes new lovers Conn and Leigh on a dangerous journey from California to Paris, and through the deadly streets of Karachi, Pakistan.- Nolan, Monica
(2007)This wickedly funny parody of gay and lesbian pulp classics weaves sex, mystery, murder, and mayhem into a highly entertaining romp.- Pomfret, Scott
(2009)Kory Miles has a secret. No matter what his fellow waiters at the Whine 'n' Dine think, he is really the mastermind behind the popular E-male dating web site. But when he enters into a mysterious business deal with Zac Djorvzac, the bitter and jaded owner of Djorvzac Travel, they embark on a wild trip from the city to the suburbs to a tropical circuit party.- Radclyffe
(2008)Medivac helicopter pilot Jett McNally's heart belongs to an Army officer she left behind in Afghanistan, and good-time anesthesiologist Tristan Holmes is no substitute—except maybe in bed—in this high-stakes medical drama of love in the fast lane.- Raphael, Lev
(2004)MEdith Wharton scholar and untenured professor Nick Hoffman escapes academic madness to vacation with his partner, Stefan, at a Caribbean getaway, but ends up face-to-face with murder.- Reardon, Robin
(2008)From the author of A Secret Edge comes a powerful second novel about the journey from boy to man, as a 16-year-old boy fights to remain true to himself when his parents ship him off to a religious camp.- Rhodes, Dan
(2003)Set in contemporary Italy and focusing on an extraordinary love triangle between two men and a dog, this is a novel of unexpected twists and inspiring humanity.- Ross, L. M.
(2008)This exhilarating exploration of New York in an era before and after AIDS follows one man's evolution from promiscuous party animal to sober adult.- Russell, Paul Elliott
(2003)After nearly succumbing to AIDS, a man hires two local boys to do some renovation work in this powerful novel by the award-winning author of The Coming Storm and Boys of Life.- Sawyer, Michelle
(2007)Readers asked for it, and now Macy Delongchamp, our favorite Manhattan lipstick lesbian, returns for another wild, wicked adventure — only to discover that commitment to your one true love isn't a walk off into the sunset. Mayhem ensues as highstrung Macy is faced with parenthood, sobriety, and life as a California girl.- Schmidtberger, Paul
(2007)Through a hilarious series of events, two strangers find themselves railroaded into an anger management class, where they soon become fast friends.- Tyler, Ben
(2003)From the author of Hunk House and Tricks of the Trade comes a backstage tour of a notorious ice-skating show, where the best follies are off the ice — and between the sheets.- Van Arsdale, Sarah
(2003)On a rainy night in Intervale, Maine, an unknown woman appears on a bridge. Blue, as she comes to be known, has complete retrograde amnesia. Trying to recover fragments of her memory, she becomes the focus of the obsessions of local resident Rita LaPlatte, who attempts to prove that Blue is her long-lost twin. The amnesiac comes under the care of Robert Reichman, a psychiatrist who is grappling with his own lost identity as a Jew. Also under the care of Dr. Reichman is Annie Blaise, a psychotic woman who holds the key to the question of both her own identity and Blue's — an answer not revealed until the book's last pages.- Villarosa, Linda
(2008)In her sexy, fast-paced debut, Villarosa boldly probes the issues of race, desire, family, and friendship with seductive storytelling and an unforgettable voice.- Waters, Sarah
(2002)Raised by a loving family of thieves, orphan Sue Trinder is sheltered from the worst of the Victorian underworld until it becomes her turn to make the clan's fortune. She must help a professional rogue named Gentleman marry an heiress and then steal the girl's inheritance by declaring her insane. Sue wants to please everyone, but as she's confronted with the apparent helplessness victim, Maud, she begins to have her doubts.- White, Edmund
(2003)In her fifties, Mrs. Frances Trollope became famous overnight for her book attacking the United States. Twenty-five years later, she sharpens her pen for her most controversial work yet, the biography of her old friend, the radical and feminist Fanny Wright. She recalls the 1820s when the young Fanny erupted into the Trollopes' sleepy English cottage like a volcano, her red hair flying, her talk aflame with utopian ideals. Before long, Fanny had convinced Frances to follow her to America, a journey of extreme penury, frontier hardships, and the most satisfying sensual romance of the married woman's life.- Wilson, Christopher P.
(2006)Lee Cotton' s voice, equal parts Delta Blues and Motown, takes us on an exhilarating freedom ride through America' s preoccupation with identity politics. His funny, forgiving charm ultimately embodies a serious message: the freaks and oddities of this world may well be divine.- Wilson, John M.
(2003)MBenjamin Justice, a disgraced journalist in his mid-forties, is slowly putting his life back together. Under contract to write his tumultuous life story, Justice is trying to put all the elements of his life into perspective for the first time. When trying to locate his childhood priest, however, he runs into a bureaucratic stone wall. Then his best friend's fiancé is killed in a tragic and suspicious hit-and-run accident shortly after trying to aid Justice in his search. Reluctant at first, Justice soon finds himself in the midst of a complex case involving a decades-old child murder, a powerful and controversial cardinal, and elements of his own dark past.- Yi, Nu Nu
(2008)This mesmerizing story is set among the gay spirit mediums of Burma (now Myanmar). Censored for more than 12 years by the Burmese government, this work is an illuminating portrayal of a culture few Westerners have ever witnessed.- York, Rachel
(2003)In this startlingly funny, sensual, and beautifully written debut novel, York introduces the thoroughly winning, defiant Scarlett Faye — a woman whose greatest fear is knowing herself — while exploring the lightning-fast power of love to change people in ways they can never predict.- Zubro, Mark Richard
(2007)MSince when are vacations ever relaxing? All police detective Paul Turner is hoping for on his annual retreat from the city and his job is a little peace and quiet. He's headed to the Great North Woods for a couple of weeks with family and friends, but hopes of tranquility are soon crushed when Turner intervenes in a scuffle between a group of First Nations teens and a local bully and his cohorts. In the days following the incident, Turner and company find themselves the object of a series of attacks, break-ins, and sabotage of their equipment. The local police offer little help, and events continue to escalate until the bully's corpse is found floating in the water near their houseboat — making this not only one of the least relaxing vacations ever, but one of the deadliest.
Web Resources
- Lambda Literary Foundation
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http://www.lambdaliterary.orgThe Lambda Literary Foundation in a non-profit organization supporting gay and lesbian literature. They publish the Lambda Book Report, a monthly book review journal, and The James White Review, a gay men's literary quarterly and sponsor the annual Lambda Literary Awards and Behind Our Masks, a regional writers conference. Selected articles from their publications can be found on their web site.
- GLBTQ.com
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http://www.glbtq.com/subject/literature_a-b.htmlAn online encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer culture, this section of site lists both authors and subjects related to literature from the GLBTQ communites.