Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What Are you Reading?
Coffee Cake is an upcoming release featuring an asexual character. I'm not familiar with the author.Blue Steel Chain (out in July) is listed by Riptide under Ace spectrum. And it's by Alex Beecroft so that is promising. :) I've been meaning to start this series.
Valerie wrote: "Coffee Cake is an upcoming release featuring an asexual character. I'm not familiar with the author.Blue Steel Chain (out in July) is listed by Riptide under Ace s..."
Thanks, Valerie. I marked it as "to read"
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You can read more about it on her blog: https://harperfoxblog.wordpress.com/2...
I've just seen it, thank you, Johanna!
What I'll be reading...I've just ordered all the Nick Nowak Mysteries on paper.
Stupid amazon.de didn't put up a rec once I bought the first one. In my opinion it would be logical that one person is interested in the whole series, or at least would like to know that a series exists. At first I saw only Book 1, 2, 3, and... 7.
Antonella wrote: "What I'll be reading...I've just ordered all the Nick Nowak Mysteries on paper.
Stupid amazon.de didn't put up a rec once I bought the first one. In my opinion it would be logica..."
Cool! They're all so very good.
KC wrote: "Antonella wrote: "What I'll be reading...I've just ordered all the Nick Nowak Mysteries on paper.
Stupid amazon.de didn't put up a rec once I bought the first one. In my opinion ..."
For anyone interested, these are available on kindle unlimited. Just downloaded it myself. :-)
Amazing stories. And I recommend the audiobooks, they are really good. Among the best.And I love Nick as flawed as he is, I see him growing and maturing as the stories go.
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And I love Nick as flawed as he is, I see him growing and maturing as the stories go."
I have these in ebook, but even though I keep saying I'm going to get to the second one, I never do. I keep thinking I should just get the audio books because I'll find time for them.
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Hm, I wish I had something like the Boystown series to look forward too. What does it say when the best book I read during the last two weeks was a children's book I read aloud to my daughter? Followed by an older reissued Dick Hardesty mystery... Well, don't answer that!!
Ije the Devourer of Books wrote: "I finished Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story. It is written by Paul Monette and focuses on his childhood, youth and early adulthood. It has been described as his comin..."I've just received it, but I can't read it just now.
I feel a bit overwhelmed.
I came home from Italy with a dozen books mainly about Resistance/Shoah, but also Love Song. Storia di un matrimonio, a present from my gay friend.
Now I've been reading here and I put some several books in my wish list, and immediately bought Carry the Ocean and The Druid Stone.
Antonella wrote: "Ije the Devourer of Books wrote: "I finished Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story. It is written by Paul Monette and focuses on his childhood, youth and early adulthood. ..."I got the Monette book today too, but I think I will wait a bit before starting it. Hopefully the moping mood will be gone soon...
Meanwhile I decided to start an anthology with short GLBT proses on WW I,
. And I tried the samples of two historical novels with gay protagonists by Jay Lewis Taylor, so maybe I will go there afterwards:
And there is always more Strachey to read! ;-)
Valerie wrote: "Coffee Cake is an upcoming release featuring an asexual character. I'm not familiar with the author.Blue Steel Chain (out in July) is listed by Riptide under Ace s..."
There's a small but growing list of queer romances with an asexual MC here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
I actually really enjoyed City of Soldiers although I wouldn't qualify it as a romance because it's really about four men and how they connect and relate to each other. One of the MCs is ace and I thought overall he was handled well. (My hackles didn't go up.) What I liked a lot about it was that I thought the author had a really good writing voice. It was an interesting read, but not really a romance because it does have a good ending, with romantic possibilities, but not a traditional HFN or HEA.
I'm looking forward to checking out Coffee Cake and Alex Beecroft's upcoming novel. (Beecroft has a nice essay over here from Queer Romance Month.)
And hopefully there will be more books. It feels like we're in the early stages, like maybe the early aughts of M/M romance, where there wasn't much so those interested would point to the same books over and over.
I'm looking forward to an ace romance where being asexual isn't part of the romantic conflict. Maybe someday.
Varecia wrote: "Antonella wrote: "Ije the Devourer of Books wrote: "I finished Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story. It is written by Paul Monette and focuses on his childhood, youth and ..."I'm looking forward to A Pride of Poppies, too. And also those two by Jay Lewis Taylor. Though I haven't bought any of them yet. Sigh. So many books! :)
ttg wrote: "I actually really enjoyed City of Soldiers although I wouldn't qualify it as a romance because it's really about four men and how they connect and relate to each other."I had forgotten to rate it, I really liked it.
This Sam Burke is in fact Sandra McDonald, whose Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories was also full of quite special characters.
See also http://www.sandramcdonald.com/bibliog...
ttg wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Coffee Cake is an upcoming release featuring an asexual character. I'm not familiar with the author.Blue Steel Chain (out in July) is listed by Ri..."
Thanks for the link to the list ttg and the essay by Beecroft.
Reading the latest Rick R. Reed, Dinner at Fiorello's. The first chapter, describing a lunch at the restaurant, made me so hungry.
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Blue Steel Chain (out in July) is listed by Ri..."
I think that was the problem I had with City of Soldiers. I was expecting it to be a romance when it clearly wasn't. If I didn't have that expectation, I might have had a different experience with it.
I also think the only way being ace wouldn't be an issue in a book is if there are two aces. Otherwise, someone's always going to be wanting sex. Right? That would get in the way of any relationship, I would think. But maybe I'm wrong? I dunno.
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Blue Steel Chain (out in July) is listed by Ri..."
Actually want to thank you for linking that list! So very useful, I never thought to create a list before. DOH! lol.
I finished my buddy read of Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story last week. It is an amazing story but definitely hard on the emotions. I still cant stop thinking about it but his writing is exquisite. I also watched the documentary about Paul Monette's life which is http://youtu.be/Xh6e6LCwIEoand I posted some radio interviews that he did in his author profile. The interviews and documentary are excellent because they show his thoughts behind his writing. Most of his fiction has messages about gay life and love. Fantastic writing but definitely emotionally demanding.
I finished reading The Yellow Canary which is a murder mystery series set across four decades. The first one is set in the 1950's and brings out all the challenges of being gay when homosexuality was illegal in the US. I am now reading The Black Cat: The L.A. AFTER MIDNIGHT Quartet: Book 2 which is the second one in the series and is set in the 1960's. I also wanted to read something lighter so I am reading two Rob Colton books:Salvation and also The Buckle
Ije the Devourer of Books wrote: "I am now reading Carry the Ocean in which one of the main characters has autism and the other has depression. I am enjoying the way this story realistically portrays these conditions."Thank you for the rec. I bought it yesterday and read it till 5 a.m. ;-). Now I have finished it. I loved it.
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I'd read and really enjoyed Steve Neil Johnson's Doug Orlando books, but the 1950s story (The Yellow Canary) got to me in a way that I had to set it aside. I'll need to feel emotionally strong enough to get back to it sometime.
Yes I agree with you. The Yellow Canary is a great mystery but emotionally it is a hard read because of the police brutality and the racism, sexism and homophobia. The writing is really great because it takes you to 1950's America but it left me thankful I wasnt living in those times. It was a bit harder for me because I went into it straight after reading Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story which also explores the homophobia of the 50's, 60's and 70's.
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Richard Stevenson, the Strachey series, eight volumes, 1981-2003. Albany, N.Y., private investigator Don Strachey. Okay, here I am circumventing my guidelines since the series actually continues. I justify myself on two grounds: First, Stevenson proved himself in these eight novels written over a 22-year period. Second, Tongue Tied, per its witty title, tied up all that came before, and the Strachey that has emerged in the later volumes, beginning 2008, though retaining the same basic character, seems more passive in his investigations. This is the only series to attain movie treatment, four of the early novels having been filmed with Chad Allen. (He plays such a convincing Strachey that it is impossible now to reread the books without hearing his distinctive voice.) Don takes on only gay cases. The novels are uniformly good, not a weak one among the lot. If I had to choose one though, it would be Third Man Out. To quote myself (from TGMS): “The case raises complex moral and ethical questions about the practice of outing, the use of euthanasia for brain-dead AIDS patients, Catholic priests’ abuse of power, and insurance companies’ accountability.” From the beginning, Don is in a relationship with Timmy Callahan, a state legislator’s aide, who has a prominent role in seven of the eight.
I found this here, along with other great gay mystery recommendations we've read and also some we haven't: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/feature...
Anyway, reading this recommendation, almost makes me want to skip the 2008 and newer books, especially if Tongue Tied ties everything up into a good ending. But, knowing me, I'll want to read the rest anyway, just to see the difference.
And after reading that, I'm off to check out the other books on this list that I haven't read yet.
ETA: At the bottom of the series list the writer says "Five singles from series that do not make my shortlist continue to haunt me." And Josh's A Dangerous Thing is the last on the list! Though he doesn't explain why these books haunt him, they just do. (of course, we know why Jake and Adrien would, don't we? Honestly, I still think A Dangerous Thing is my favorite of the five too.)
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Anyway, I thought I would just let you all know it's available, and super cheap, and looks good!
I'm back to the next one in my Holmes reread with The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Might start another book alongside it though as I like to just read one story a day, rather than blasting on through like a novel, and some of the stories are pretty short.Finished A Feast for Crows a couple of days ago, which means I only have A Dance with Dragons to go before I join the people waiting for The Winds of Winter to come out. I'll wait a few weeks to read Dragons then. :D No sense in rushing. I intended to get through that series by the end of the year. Looks like I'll be done by summer! Might start getting the audiobooks after that.
Thank you for the link, Jordan! I did not know that there is this Henry Rios story, Street People. I would love to read that!! And as you said, lots of other good reading recommendations! Unfortunately the Garland book is not even available in kindle on amz.de, but I marked it as a to-read, so if it shows up one day...
Thanks for the link Jordan. It is an interesting article with lots of great recommendations too.
I always look at the nominations for the Lamda Literary awards because I discovered some good authors that way a few years ago, when there were fewer blogs and review sites for gay and m/m fiction. I agree that this is a very useful article.I understand his reference to Dangerous Ground, and the other singles from series that do not make his shortlist which continue to haunt him, to mean that these are exceptional books which he feels he must mention even though the series to which they belong do not make his shortlist. Because they are all part of a series he couldn't include them in his list of standalones, and he feels he must list them somehow.
HJ wrote: "I always look at the nominations for the Lamda Literary awards because I discovered some good authors that way a few years ago, when there were fewer blogs and review sites for gay and m/m fiction...."I do the same thing and check the nominations for new authors. I have discovered some good non-fiction that way as well as some great mystery authors. It makes you realise that there is so much diverse and rich writing out there.
Becky wrote: "I'm back to the next one in my Holmes reread with The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Might start another book alongside it though as I like to just read one story a day, rather than blas..."I have read all of them except A Dance With Dragons (started in the mid-90's!!). There have been so many years betwen the latest books I somehow lost interest on the way. But maybe I should try again?
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This is all very interesting! Thank you also for the link, Jordan.
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I also bought a used hardcover of another recommendation, the one about Russia, and put another series on my wish list. Maybe I'll purchase them after I move when I get all of Hansen's work.
ETA:
Here we go, I'd forgotten the titles!
Here There Be Dragons is the standalone I ordered.
Simple Justice is the series I added to buy someday.
I really wanted the Front Desk series by Peter Tuesday Hughes, but as he said, those are very hard to find!
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Just finished Blue Eyed Stranger by Alex Beecroft. She normally does historical novels, but this contemporary series is wonderful.
Susinok wrote: "Just finished Blue Eyed Stranger by Alex Beecroft. She normally does historical novels, but this contemporary series is wonderful."I tried the sample, and then thought it might too depressing...maybe i'll give it another try someday.
I really liked Trowchester Blues. And the third one should be out soon, i'll try that one.
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I tried the sample, and then tho..."
This sounds like something I'd like. I haven't read the first one yet, but hopefully someday I'll get to it.
KC wrote: "I tried the sample, and then thought it might too depressing...maybe i'll give it another try someday.I really liked Trowchester Blues. And the third one should be out soon, i'll try that one...."
It actually isn't depressing. However the way the book starts can give that impression that it will be. It was a really nice story.
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I really liked Trowchester Blues. And the third one should be out soon, i'll try th..."
I agree with Susinok. It's a sweet story, but one that manages not to diminish the MCs challenges. I also enjoyed the descriptions of their performances and how questions of historical authenticity are discussed and resolved.
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Ouch. That would certainly be frustrating.
I read Alexis Hall's Waiting for the Flood last night. What a gorgeous, quiet little story. The writing is beautiful, and the main character is beautifully drawn. This novella is compact and complete and so very satisfying. It's delicate and warm and hopeful and I absolutely loved it. It's totally engrossing. Recommended. :)
Alison wrote: "I read Alexis Hall's Waiting for the Flood last night. What a gorgeous, quiet little story. The writing is beautiful, and the main character is beautifully drawn."I've just put there 5 stars...
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I'll second Johanna's ouch. That's a lot of money! Especially for something not well written. I'm glad you were able to get it cheaper than that!
Alison wrote: "I read Alexis Hall's Waiting for the Flood last night. What a gorgeous, quiet little story. The writing is beautiful, and the main character is beautifully drawn. This novella is co..."He is such an interesting author! And there will be two more books by him this year - For Real, another book in the Spires universe, where I went like BDSM? 500 pages? Gulp! But I am quite sure it's worth the reading time ;-) The second is a historical fiction, Nettlefield, which the author described as romantic but not romance. I look very much forward to that one!!
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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Thanks, I think I know the book you're talking about and it didn't necessarily appeal, but thought about getting it just to see how the character was portrayed.
Anywho,now we can both be on the hunt together. :-)