From the Bookshelf of Diversity in All Forms!…

Two Boys Kissing

David Levithan

Start date: April 1, 2017

Finish date: May 1, 2017

Discussion: Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: April's Group Read topic/theme is LGBTQ+.…more
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What Members Thought

Feb 26, 2017 Mariah Roze rated it really liked it

Shelves: diversity-in-all-forms-book-club

This is a based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who break the world record for the longest kiss, 32-hours. They set a new Guinness World Record. Between the story of them kissing the author, David Levithan, did a phenomenal job talking and telling of the hardships that people in the LGBTQ community deal with. He talked about the AIDS epidemic and how a very little amount of people provided help to stop it or even cared, because it was spreading through the gay community This is a based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who break the world record for the longest kiss, 32-hours. They set a new Guinness World Record. Between the story of them kissing the author, David Levithan, did a phenomenal job talking and telling of the hardships that people in the LGBTQ community deal with. He talked about the AIDS epidemic and how a very little amount of people provided help to stop it or even cared, because it was spreading through the gay community. He talk about the discrimination and lack of support that (specifically gay men) received. The book was narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generations of gay men lost to AIDS.

But besides AIDS, he talked about a lot of other problems that gay men face. One specifically was parents and family members acknowledging that their child was gay. In this book he told a story of a family that caught their son holding hands with another boy and never said a word about it. When the son later tried to get his parents to talk about it, they didn't want to. They didn't want to acknowledge and especially admit out loud that their son was gay. Their son also talked about how his parents should fight and care for his rights. He used the example of his mother's immigration status and how if there was a dislike or terrible news of Korean immigrants his mother would care, but since there is an outrage and problems with gay rights, his mother doesn't even notice.

This book also covered the issues of a gay transgender boy. He talked about his insecurities with his body and he talked about going to the bathroom in a public place. The fear that he felt not begin able to use a urinal and to hide his genitalia was extremely embarrassing for him.

The book also covered other moments; coming out, navigating gender identity, gay prom, bullying and abuse, suicide and gay hookup sites—all while the two boys are still kissing.

This was a phenomenal book and now I plan on reading more books by David Levithan. ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jun 08, 2019 Puck rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary, young-adult, lgbtqia, romance

“There is no reason that we should ever be ashamed of our bodies or ashamed of our love.”

A beautiful gay own-voices novel about the gay men of the past and the present. I loved all the different relationships and boys that we meet – Neil is American-Korean, Tariq is black, and Avery is transgender – but I sadly wasn’t a fan of the narration.

In the novel, we follow several storylines of gay boys currently going on a date, struggling with their identity, or trying to break a world-record of the ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 30, 2015 Toni FGMAMTC rated it it was amazing

Shelves: coming-of-age, inspirational, young-adult, top-must-reads-in-your-lifetime, m-m, informative, slice-of-life

FGMAMTC Blog Review

This is an amazing inside look at the struggles of being gay in the past and present. The narrator is the collective voice of the gay generation during the AIDS epidemic. The storyline follows a cast of several gay teens in different walks of life during the age of the internet.

I don't know what it says about me. Maybe I'm not as knowledgable as I thought I was. I consider myself to be a supporter, but I've never thought about things from some of the angles which this ...more

2 likes · Like · see review