Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What Are you Reading?
I have only read good books this Christmas so far. Apart from my Icelandic book read on Christmas night, Passíusálmarnir, I read Almost Like Being in Love which I had actually bought before Antonella recommended it and it is absolutely great! Highly recommended and while not a suspense story it kept me on my toes until the end because I had no idea how the author would finish his plot. I didn't want the established couple to break up and I did want Travis to find his true love. This was excellent writing and very well done fun plot. And then I read The Boy Next Door. Oh wow. I'm just gonna say that if Josh wants to make this into a Boy Next Door Mysteries a la Adrien English Mysteries I have no problem with that. At all. None. Nada.
It's the end of the year, friends! Anyone want to mention their favourite books they read this year? Here's your chance to rec all your new favourites to us! :)
Ame wrote: "And then I read The Boy Next Door. Oh wow. I'm just gonna say that if Josh wants to make this into a Boy Next Door Mysteries a la Adrien English Mysteries I have no problem with that. At all. None. Nada. "Agreed. Wholeheartedly. :-)
Alison wrote: "It's the end of the year, friends! Anyone want to mention their favourite books they read this year? Here's your chance to rec all your new favourites to us! :)"I'm sure there are plenty that would agree when I say that His Quiet Agent was my surprise favorite of the year.
I will go through my list to see what else I really enjoyed.
Haldis wrote: "Alison wrote: "It's the end of the year, friends! Anyone want to mention their favourite books they read this year? Here's your chance to rec all your new favourites to us! :)"I'm sure there are ..."
That's definitely on my list! A surprise favourite. :)
2017 Favourites, in no particular order:--All the King's Men by Alex Powell. A gripping sci-fi internet thriller romance. Super cool.
--Malachite by Kirby Crow. An exciting fantasy romance set in an AU Renaissance Venice. Very cool and full of depth and complexity and amazing characters. Loved it!
--The Chains of Their Sins by Anna Butler. Book Four of the amazing Taking Shield sci-fi romance series. I absolutely love this series. It's intense space opera romance.
--Peter Darling by Austin Chant. Queer Peter Pan sequel/re-telling/romance. Charming and delightful.
--Summerwode by J. Tullos Hennig. Book four of a spectacularly good queer Robin Hood series. This series is so special to me. It's amazing.
--His Quiet Agent by Ada Maria Soto. Lovely and wonderful.
--Spectred Isle by KJ Charles. Superb paranormal historical romance.
--The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. This was gripping and made an impression.
Some of the books that stuck out for me this year, in no particular order:A Matter of Loyalty by Anselm Audley and Elizabeth Edmondson. This is the third and final book in a series set in 1950's cold war England. It was supposed to be a longer series but Elizabeth passed away suddenly. I am so glad her son finished this book.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles by Eli Easton. Christmas and a librarian, need I say more.
Spectred Isle by K.J. Charles
The Masqueradersby Georgette Heyer. Master of disguise brother and sister masquerade as brother and sister, except brother is sister and....you get the idea
Switched, The Weight of It All, Imago, and Imagines by N.R. Walker
The High King's Golden Tongue by Megan Derr
Eleventh Hour by Elin Gregory
Undertow by Jordan L. Hawk
Shadow's Edge by Sc Wynne
Haldis wrote: "Some of the books that stuck out for me this year, in no particular order:A Matter of Loyalty by Anselm Audley and Elizabeth Edmondson. This is the third and final book in a series..."
Yay Eleventh Hour! That was one of my favourites from last year. I'm so excited she's writing a sequel. :)
Here's a few more that I loved (honourable mention?):--The Lawrence Browne Affair and The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian. One of my favourite new authors. Excellent m/m historical romance.
--Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. Really enjoyable queer YA fantasy.
--An Unsuitable Heir by KJ Charles. A notably awesome non-binary main character!
--The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan. Excellent, political, fun, het historical romance.
--The Pursuit Of... by Courtney Milan found in Hamilton's Battalion: A Trio of Romances. Funny and moving m/m historical set during the American Revolution. This really should have gone on my first list--it's one of my favourite things I've read this year.
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I definitely third what Ame said about Josh’s The Boy Next Door!
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I'm sure there are ..."
YES. His Quiet Agent was my top favorite this year. Hands down.
There were other favorites too, some of which I do remember. But that was my favorite.
It's funny, because last year at this time, I couldn't remember a single book that really got to me. This year was much better. :-)
I've been reading at a snail's pace lately. But I did manage to buy most of Harper Fox's back catalog on audio with a ton of credits that I'd piled up.I listened to Driftwood, one of my favorites, and then just started The Salisbury Key this morning.
Who am I kidding? They are all of my favorites!
I need to look better at what books are the best of the year but the first one that comes to mind is Everyday HistoryIt's really fantastic. So well written and untraditional romance story. Really good.
The last two I read were also pretty good, see post above.
Alison wrote: "It's the end of the year, friends! Anyone want to mention their favourite books they read this year? Here's your chance to rec all your new favourites to us! :)"Listing my 5-star-ratings of new-to-me books for this year (so far, there's still some time left^^):
Christmas Waltz by Josh Lanyon
Prosperity by Alexis Hall (science fiction/fantasy/mm)
Glitterland by Alexis Hall (contemporary/mm) (audio)
The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch (fantasy/mystery/non-mm) (text and audio)
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (fantasy/non-mm) (graphic novel)
The Gentleman and the Lamplighter by Summer Devon (historical/mm) (short read)
How to Bang a Billionaire by Alexis Hall (contemporary/mm)
The Monet Murders by Josh Lanyon (contemporary/mystery/mm) (text and audio)
Pink Fizz by Thom Lane (contemporary/mm)
Patron by C.B. Lewis (historical/fantasy/mm) (short read)
Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie (all three volumes) (science fiction/non-mm) (text and audio)
Five Dares by Eli Easton (contemporary/mm)
His Quiet Agent by Ada Maria Soto (contemporary/mm)
The Boy Next Door by Josh Lanyon (contemporary/mm) (short read)
Cathedral Close by Rolf and Ranger (contemporary/mm)
Calathea wrote: "Alison wrote: "It's the end of the year, friends! Anyone want to mention their favourite books they read this year? Here's your chance to rec all your new favourites to us! :)"Listing my 5-star-r..."
So many good ones! Thanks for posting. :)
I hadn't thought of audio! I haven't listened to many audiobooks this year, but I think my favourite audio was Alexis Hall's Waiting for the Flood. It's a favourite book of mine, and the audio performance was simply superb and absolutely perfect for the story.
That opens up another category if anyone wants to share: favourite audiobooks you listened to this year.
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Also Josh’s Fair Chance was perfect, including the audio. My favorite in that trilogy, I think.
So many good books mentioned by all of you. I certainly agree on NR Walker's Imago series, Anna Butler's Taking Shield series, Eleventh Hour, and Christmas Waltz. So many of you have recommended His Quiet Agent that I finally got it. LOL Now I just need to get around to reading it--so many new Christmas stories have made my backlog bigger than ever. Some new favorites of these are: An Open Window, The Holly Groweth Green, A Christmas Cactus for the General, and Love Happens Anyway.
Some of my other five-star reads this year were Across Your Dreams and its sequel Break of Another Day by Jay Lewis Taylor--both now 25% off on Smashwords. Micah Johnson Goes West by Sean Kennedy includes many of the characters from his Tigerland series.
Also this year I finally read What About Everything? from John Goode's Foster High series. I've really enjoyed his later books about the older characters in the series, but I've gotten burned out on high school or college stories. How do you all feel about the earlier stories?
I also want to recommend some non-m/m books which were great, too. The two new Harry Bosch books by Michael Connelly The Wrong Side of Goodbye and Two Kinds of Truth are so good. I love this entire series about an LA Homicide detective--and I don't even care much for "police procedurals." I am always amazed how Connelly gets down into the weeds on the details in these cases--and actually makes it all interesting! But much of the story is about the characters, and Harry Bosch is a truly wonderful character, who feels he has a mission to catch the killers in each of the books. If you don't want to think about reading the entire series of books, Two Kinds of Truth stands pretty well on its own and shows Harry's true character very well. If you think you might like to try the entire series, I have to mention that the first few are good, but not necessarily great.
And now I have to continue reading my holiday stories or I'll still be reading them in February. Have a great New Year everyone!
New to me and loved by me in 2017. I think I have reread all but two of these already.M/M first read by me 2017
Wolfsong by T J Klune (fantasy)
Aleksey's Kingdom by John Wiltshire (second to the series, but this was an exceptional book) (historical thriller)
Maps by Nash Summers (young adult, goofy)
In The Absence Of Light by Adrienne Wilder (romance/thriller)
Silver Bullet Everest Rolf and Ranger (adventure)
El Presidio Rides North Domashita Romero (very funny post apocalyptic short)
East Domashita Romero (short coming of age in small town)
Published 2017, M/M
The Seer Jordan Reece (sci fi/alt earth)
The Other Side of the Roses R. Cooper (romance)
His Mossy Boy R. Cooper (fantasy romance)
Pretty Pretty Boys Gregory Ashe (new mystery series)
How to Bang a Billionaireand How to Blow It with A Billionaire by Alexis Hall (romance)
Fair Chance Josh Lanyon
The Monet Murders Josh Lanyon
Dim Sum Asylum Rhys Ford (fantasy mystery)
Tramps and Thieves Rhys Ford (mystery)
Peter Darling Austin Chant (fantasy)
Spectred Isle K.J. Charles (fantasy/mystery)
Non mm
DC Smith murder mysteries by Peter Grainger
Doyle and Acton murder series by Anne Cleeland
White Hot (Hidden Legacy series) by Ilona Andrews
WMD wrote: "New to me and loved by me in 2017M/M first read by me 2017
Wolfsong by T J Klune.
Aleksey's Kingdom by John Wiltshire (second to the series, but this was an except..."
Good idea to sort them, I went back and added the genres to my list. :-)
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:-D That was one of those blazes of inspiration. That story poured out in a flash flood of words and would not be denied.
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It's not exactly about being blocked--which is not my problem--so much as dealing with "writer resistance" which is putting off the thing you most love (writing, in my case, for a variety of conscious and unconscious reasons). This resistance became a huge issue for me in 2017, so I'm working on better understanding how and why--as well as what to do about it.
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I also just finished The Long Past & Other Stories and loved it! The second and third stories were in other anthologies, but I think they’re best read after the first story since they’ll make even more sense, world building wise.
I’m FINALLY going to start Promises next. I’ve had this book for years and haven’t read it yet.
And then I’ll start reading more books for this years We Are Pride list, which should be fun. I’m looking forward to David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music among others.
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Josh
Fair Chance
The Monet Murders
and each of the shorter works that came out this year, especially The Boy Next Door
Other novels/novellas
The Fine Point of His Soul | Julie Bozza
The Gilded Scarab | Anna Butler
An Unsuitable Heir | K.J. Charles
When First I Met My King | Harper Fox
Eleventh Hour | Elin Gregory
The Long Past & Other Stories | Ginn Hale
Maze-Born Trouble | Ginn Hale
How to Bang a Billionaire | Alexis Hall
Draakenwood | Jordan L. Hawk
The Remaking of Corbin Wale | Roan Parrish
His Quiet Agent | Ada Maria Soto
Series
Nick Williams Mysteries | Frank W. Butterfield (read #1-15 of 17 so far, starting with The Unexpected Heiress)
Sing Out series (#1-5) | Hanna Dare (starting with Life in a Nowhere Town)
Tales of the High Court | Megan Derr (starting with The Pirate of Fathoms Deep)
Common Law series (Common Law, #1-4) | Kate Sherwood (starting with Long Shadows)
YA/NA
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda | Becky Albertalli
Waiting for Walker | Robin Reardon
Graphic Novels
Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening | Marjorie Liu
The Witch Boy | Molly Ostertag
Nimona | Noelle Stevenson
I thought this was worth sharing: here's a list of all known queer YA that's been translated into other languages, sorted by language--from Bosnian-Montenegran to Vietnamese! If anyone's looking for queer YA that's not in English or knows someone who is, this is a great resource. Very cool! https://lgbtqreads.com/2017/12/26/lgb...
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Wow!
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I read two absolutely excellent books during our week in the Canary Islands. The other one was an ARC of an upcoming Josh Lanyon book I was lucky enough to get my hot little hands on, and it's definitely something I'll love, love, LOVE to discuss with you all when the time comes, because the book is BRILLIANT in so many ways. It's funny and mysterious and sharp-eyed and surprising and overall solid Lanyon writing with that delicious, layered plot and wonderful, highly entertaining characters. *trying to sit on her hands now* Until then... I'm afraid Josh will be the one hearing my endless babbling about it. (Yes, I feel for you, my dear!) :-D
The other book I read is Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman. This is a print book that I've had for years and it has even traveled with me once to UK and once to California without being read, I'm ashamed to say. Well, I really, really enjoyed it. A LOT. In fact, I think it would make a perfect BOM for us at some point. It's a lovely mix of carefree days of youth and also pained, harrowing, unforgettable moments. It's beautifully written and it has melancholic, bittersweet wisdom and some fascinating philosophical pondering in it. I'm sure someone here in this group recommended this years ago — thank you so much, whoever you are.
Johanna wrote: "Thank you for all these great lists and recommendations, everyone! I'm sure I'll be coming back to these posts many times later on.I read two absolutely excellent books during our week in the Can..."
Thanks you for sharing your impressions.
A while ago I proposed Call Me by Your Name as a BOM, because me too, I own it on paper since *9 years* (!) and I haven't managed to tackle it yet. I really would like to read it before I see the movie.
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I read two absolutely excellent books during our..."
Go, read it! It paints such a vivid picture of Italy, too. I hope you'll like it. It's probably a book that can divide opinions (maybe?), but I absolutely, completely loved it. It's such a lyrical love story filled with longing and desire and straightforward, adolescence logic. And it's spiced up with ties to music, visual arts and literary culture (philosophy, poetry, languages...). Very nice, indeed.
Oh yes, they've made a movie out of it quite recently, haven't they. I haven't seen it yet. Also, I checked if André Aciman has written more fiction and it looks like he's written at least a couple more fiction books: Eight White Nights (which doesn't look to be m/m, though) and Enigma Variations (which I'll try next). Have anyone read these?
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Oh! I hope I seconded your suggestion! :-D
I have been doing a deep dive into Harper Fox's audiobooks. Read Driftwood and Salisbury Key, and now I'm reading (listening) to Half Moon Chambers.Joe might be next. Not sure. That book is so full of pain, I have to psyche myself up for it.
Susinok wrote: "I have been doing a deep dive into Harper Fox's audiobooks. Read Driftwood and Salisbury Key, and now I'm reading (listening) to Half Moon Chambers.Joe might be next. Not sure. Th..."
Oh, looks like there are some new audiobooks of hers! I've been listening to Seven Summer Nights the last few days. While don't agree with the narrators choice for Archie's voice, I still like it a lot. It's well done.
As for 'Life After Joe' I'd recommend listening to the sample first. Lots of people aren't fans of the narrator's accent.
Calathea wrote: "As for 'Life After Joe' I'd recommend listening to the sample first. Lots of people aren't fans of the narrator's accent. ..."Life After Joe was re-recorded with a new narrator. The new guy is perfect.
Susinok wrote: "Calathea wrote: "As for 'Life After Joe' I'd recommend listening to the sample first. Lots of people aren't fans of the narrator's accent. ..."Life After Joe was re-recorded with a new narrator. ..."
It is? Good to know! Strange, I can only see the old version when I search for it on my audible. I hope that's not a country specific thing again... Could you maybe post the link?
Johanna wrote: "Oh yes, they've made a movie out of it quite recently, haven't they. I haven't seen it yet."I hope that Luca Guadagnini, the director, or Timothée Chalamet, the young actor, will win something this evening at the Golden Globe Awards, but the competition is strong, lots of good movies.
It was funny during this weekend when I was listening to Coach's Challenge, when the main characters were doing a jigsaw puzzle so was I. :-D(I don't need much to make me happy these days)
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(I don't need much to make me happy th..."
:-D
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"How is it?
The SO said our local B&N was out by mid-morning the day it went live -- and that's here in redneck country. :-D
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Joe might be next. Not sure. Th..."
I agree. That one is harrowing. But so well done.
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Joe might be ne..."
Was it? Interesting.
A reader notified me that the individual recordings for Lone Star and Icecapade have vanished off the Audible site. They are only available now as part of the holiday collections.
Mymymble wrote: "Well it didn't win, but it is up for best film and director at the BAFTAs."Yes, and it is the Guardian's film of 2017:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/...
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Anyway, does anyone want a copy of The Little Death? It’s in great condition!
You can pre-order Agent Bayne (PsyCop Book 9)here (out on the 16th January)
and win an Official PsyCop Exorcism Kit by leaving a comment or subscribing to the newsletter.
Calathea wrote: "Susinok wrote: "Calathea wrote: "As for 'Life After Joe' I'd recommend listening to the sample first. Lots of people aren't fans of the narrator's accent. ..."Life After Joe was re-recorded with ..."
Looks like it is the original. But it's a Northern accent, which is correct. Sean Crisden is the narrator.
https://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Li...
Susinok wrote: "Calathea wrote: "Susinok wrote: "Calathea wrote: "As for 'Life After Joe' I'd recommend listening to the sample first. Lots of people aren't fans of the narrator's accent. ..."Life After Joe was ..."
Thanks for the link, Susinok! That's the one I get too (the original).
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Life After Joe was ..."
British accents in audio are always so fraught with peril.
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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My Name Is N (in the US The Swede)
A Horse Named Sorrow
River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow, which I suggest you read one after the other.
I've learned to write a review immediately after I finish a book, so you can read more there.
I also managed to buy, discounted, and to reread a book twice. I found it out only when I wanted to write a review. So apparently not even a review guarantees that I won't buy something twice. Although the rating was 3 stars, so it wasn't exactly memorable.