Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick
Little Village series by ‘Nathan Burgoine
The Guncle by Steven Rowley
Meet Cute Club by Jack Harbon
Bonus: Coming September 7, 2021, The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun; October 12, The Other Man by Farhad J. Dadyburjor; and in 2022, I’m So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson and Never Been Kissed by Timothy Janovsky
You know that beautiful and painful feeling of having all your breath lodged somewhere squarely in your throat through the entire reading of a book? That is the exact experience of consuming and being consumed by Yes, Daddy, Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s debut, which released from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on May 18th.
A story of survival, betrayal, victimhood, and the dynamics of class, power, and beauty may not be the first place your brain goes with that title, but the titular Daddy here stands in for no fewer than three who have made gay playwright-waiter Jonah Keller’s life a living hell over the years, including the grand Daddy of them all. (Yes, I mean God, in case I was being overly subtle.)
It’s not an easy read, but it’s absolutely an absorbing one, and I’m still thinking about it weeks later. If you want to dive in, Lit Hub has an excerpt posted, so check it out, or just jump on ahead and use one of the buy links below! (See tags for CWs.)
When summer arrives, Richard invites his young lover for a spell at his sprawling estate in the Hamptons. A tall iron fence surrounds the idyllic compound where Richard and a few of his close artist friends entertain, have lavish dinners, and—Jonah can’t help but notice—employ a waitstaff of young, attractive gay men, many of whom sport ugly bruises. Soon, Jonah is cast out of Richard’s good graces and a sinister underlay begins to emerge. As a series of transgressions lead inexorably to a violent climax, Jonah hurtles toward a decisive revenge that will shape the rest of his life.
Bookshop | Amazon | Target | IndieBound
Look, it has been an impossible month for reading, but if there’s any premise that should absolutely grab you by the face at this time, it’s a trans woman’s novel about detransitioning, because, well, you’re up on recent discussions, yes? Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (published January 7th by Serpent’s Tail in the UK, and coming January 12th in the US via One World) is just such an attention-commanding novel, and though I haven’t gotten to read it yet, I absolutely cannot resist featuring it this month.
Ames isn’t happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese–and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames’s boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she’s pregnant with his baby–and that she’s not sure whether she wants to keep it–Ames wonders if this is the chance he’s been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family–and raise the baby together?
Buy it: Bookshop | B&N | Amazon | IndieBound
It’s the start of a new year, and with that comes resolutions. One of mine? To read more adult fiction. So it’s probably a good thing I’ve been stocking up on it for the last couple of years. One of the first books I purchased toward that end was Garth Greenwell’s debut, What Belongs to You, about an American teacher who begins an illicit affair with a Bulgarian hustler he meets and pays for sex in the well-hidden bathrooms under Sofia’s National Palace of Culture. Those who actually read my intros to these posts know I vastly prefer to have read a book before featuring it, but Greenwell’s sophomore, Cleanness, releases on the 14th of this month, so what better time to draw attention? (Plus it was lauded by pretty much every reviewer on the planet, so do you really need to take my word for it?) Come join me in reading it this month!
Amazon | B&N | IndieBound
