GLBTQ: What Should I Read?

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976) Tom Robbins

Sissy Hankshaw is a woman born with a mutation of enormously large thumbs, though she considers it a gift. Sissy makes the most of her thumbs by becoming a hitchhiker and she travels to New York. She becomes a model for the Countess, a male homosexual tycoon of feminine hygiene products. He introduces her to a staid Mohawk named  Julian Gitche; whom she later marries. In her later travels she encounters, among many others, a sexually open cowgirl named Bonanza Jellybean and an itinerant escapee from a Japanese internment camp happily mislabeled the Chink.

Zero at the Bone (2009) Jane Seville

After witnessing a mob hit, surgeon Jack Francisco is put into protective custody to keep him safe until he can testify. A hitman known only as D is blackmailed into killing Jack, but when he tracks him down, his weary conscience won’t allow him to murder an innocent man. Finding in each other an unlikely ally, Jack and D are soon on the run from shadowy enemies.

Forced to work together to survive, the two men forge a bond that ripens into unexpected passion. Jack sees the wounded soul beneath D’s cold, detached exterior, and D finds in Jack the person who can help him reclaim the man he once was. As the day of Jack’s testimony approaches, he and D find themselves not only fighting for their lives… but also fighting for their future. A future together.

The Vast Fields of Ordinary (2009) Nick Burd

It’s Dade’s last summer at home. He has a crappy job at Food World, a “boyfriend” who won’t publicly acknowledge his existence (maybe because Pablo also has a girlfriend), and parents on the verge of a divorce. College is Dade’s shining beacon of possibility, a horizon to keep him from floating away.

Then he meets the mysterious Alex Kincaid. Falling in real love finally lets Dade come out of the closet—and, ironically, ignites a ruthless passion in Pablo. But just when true happiness has set in, tragedy shatters the dreamy curtain of summer, and Dade will use every ounce of strength he’s gained to break from his past and start fresh with the future.

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits (2003) Emma Donoghue

A series of short stories, including the tale of an English soldier tricked into marrying a dowdy spinster, a Victorian surgeon’s attempts to “improve” women, a seventeenth-century Irish countess who ran away to Italy disguised as a man, or an “undead” murderess returning for the maid she left behind to be executed in her place.

The Vinland Sheep (2004) Helen Shaklady

An adventure story, set between Autumn 1470 and Spring 1471, that centres around two families, one English, one Welsh. The attraction between Agnes and Gwyneth simmers next to the Wars of the Roses and the myriad excitements that voyages across the Atlantic generated.

Mistress Moderately Fair (1988) Katherine Sturtevant

In 17th century London’s theater district, muddy streets and stimulating coffee houses, a sensitive romance develops between two women Margaret Featherstone, a playwright, and Amy Dudley, a mysterious and talented actress. Beyond the challenge of maintaining their illicit relationship, the women grapple with the choice of fulfilling love or ambition.

Despite their intimacy, Amy does not reveal her troubled past to Margaretand her abrupt disappearance wounds her lover deeply. To assuage the pain, Margaret returns to “the strange, lonely world of invention” to write her finest play. The new work demands an exceptional actress, and both Cary and Margaret determine it must be Amy. The search for her moves rapidly toward the stunning and well-crafted denouement.

What I Was (2008) Meg Rosoff

An young man recounts his time as a disgruntled student at St. Oswald’s boarding school; upon ditching an outdoor physical education class jog, he stumbles upon a mysterious fellow teen named Finn who lives alone and off the grid in a hut by the sea. The protagonist, enraptured by his newfound friend, makes it his business to spend as much time as possible with Finn, a major challenge considering school curfews and that the hut can only be accessed during low tide. Weeks go by and Finn falls ill, setting the stage for a surprising revelation that will dramatically transform both boys.

Storm (2008) Kim Pritekal

In Medieval Europe, the name of the game is survival - the stakes are raised when the Black Plague hits in 1349. The worlds of two women collide one fateful day. Merryn, a thieving street rat, and Cara, a simple village girl granted divine power to heal, join forces to increase their chance of survival.

Unknown to either was how fate would play out - with love and with loss. Merryn’s heart breaks as Cara slips away from her. As time passes, Merryn learns to live without Cara in her life and ends up ruling the greatest empire since the time of the Romans. But who can heal the shattered heart of a ruler?

My Dearest Holmes (2007) Rohase Piercy

‘… The accounts of these cases are too bound up with events in my personal life which, although they may provide a plausible commentary to much of my dealings with Mr Sherlock Holmes, can never be made public while he or I remain alive …’

Although Dr Watson is known for recording some sixty of his adventures with the celebrated Sherlock Holmes, he also wrote other reminiscences of their long friendship which were never intended for publication during their lifetimes.

Rescued from oblivion by Rohase Piercy, here are two previously unknown stories about the great detective and his companion, throwing a fresh light upon the nature of their famous partnership, and helping to explain much which has puzzled their devotees. Together Holmes and Watson face disturbing revelations as they investigate the case of the Queen Bee; and we finally learn what actually happened at the Reichenback Falls, and the real reasons which lay behind Holmes’ faked death and his subsequent return.

The End (2010) Nora Olsen

When World War Three breaks out, seventeen-year-old Julia is on a school trip to Amsterdam, while fourteen-year-old Marly is trapped in a prison for delinquent girls. They both discover magical amulets, and try their best to save themselves and those around them. But it looks like their best will not be enough, as nuclear war threatens the survival of the human race.

On her journey home to New York, Julia is joined by three other queer teens and the mysterious and alluring Ginger; lipstick lesbian Vikki; and five-thousand-year-old Skilly, who has an amulet that grants him eternal life. When Julia and Marly meet, they are immediately attracted to each other. But romance has to take a back seat as the five friends learn the true powers of the amulets. Can they travel through time to save the world from total destruction?