Good gay books

[nisomer]

What are some good gay books? fictional and non-fictional. I have not read any in the past (even though i very much wanted to) because I felt weird going up to the register of like borders buying a book from the gay and lesbian section.

[JonB321]

Clay's Way, by Blair Mastbaum is one of my favorites. It's short, and really fun to read. David Sederas (I forget how to spell his name) writes a decent amount of short stories that have to do with being gay. There's also the Rainbow Boys, and geography club. I heard that Dancer from the Dance is supposed to be really good, I haven't read it yet. Home at the End of the World is good. Umm... the Christopher Rice books are a lot of fun, they're like gay thrillers. Oh, and the Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is good so far, I haven't finished it yet.

But, as a side note, reading a work of gay fiction can be a lot of fun sometimes, but besides Clay's Way, which I thought was excellent, I think a good piece of regular non-fiction is better than anything in the gay lit section. Of course, people may disagree, but I think you get a lot more out Dickens than Dicks in general (sorry, I know how corny that was, but I had to throw it in!).

[Micah]

I heard that Geography Club is supposed to be really good. I've read one of the chapters and I must admit it sounded like a cool book.

[Eligh]

Okay, I absolutely love to read. I am a subscriber to ISO, and it has some of the greatest book line-ups in the world. If you arent subscribed to that thing, then you best sign up, personaly, I loved Geography Club, its sequel Order of the Poison Oak, Beyond the Wind, Trouble Boy, Luna, and Looking for it. I own all of the books, and they all have my appraisal. I highly recommend them to anybody that would like to sink into a book and loose themselves in the pages.

[goratrix]

I don't know about gay books... I don't read THAT much any more. However if you want to understand society a little better I could recomend you Isaac Assimov's Foundation saga (from The Robots of Dawn up to Foundation and Earth). It's a social study disguised in a fantastic novel.

A friend just gave me Maurice... she told me she really liked it, so I'll give it a try. She gave me the movie as well... XD but I'll watch that AFTER I read the book...

I'll tell you in a couple of days...

[joeyconnick]

There really are so many.

First off, nearly anything by Ethan Mordden, but especially "How Long Has This Been Going On?" It's an amazing epic about gay life in America over the course of about 40 years.

Another good "gay epic" is "Like People In History" by Felice Picano.

I used to think I would never say this but Christopher Rice actually has something more going for him than an extremely famous mother and the fact that he's hot: he's a really good writer. I haven't read his latest (third) book but his first two are really good. I liked the first one best ("A Density of Souls") but "The Snow Garden" was good too. I read both of these this summer.

The one gay book that wowed me more than any others was... okay, there were two: "The World of Normal Boys" by KM Soehnlein and "Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story" by Paul Monette. Soehnlein's much-anticipated second novel just came out ("You Can Say You Knew Me When") and if you're in a major city in the US northwest you can go to one of his readings/signings. I haven't read it but I'm chomping at the bit to. http://www.kmsoehnlein.com/

Monette's most famous book is probably "Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir" but I really preferred "Becoming A Man." He also has a book of essays called "Last Watch of the Night"... you can't really go wrong with him.

Fantasy/sci-fi-wise, you have to read Mercedes Lackey's trilogy "Books of the Last Herald-Mage," which comprises "Magic's Pawn," "Magic's Promise," and "Magic's Price." They're exceptionally relevant if you're coming out.

Non-fiction, everyone should have to read Randy Shilts' "And The Band Played On." You wouldn't think an account of the early days of the AIDS crisis could be so gripping but I was pretty much crying all the way through it. Similarly moving is a collection called "A Promise To Remember," which are letters about the NAMES Project quilt.

My friend Mary Gray edited a book called "In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth," which is a collection of first-person accounts about being young and gay. So go find it! It's really amazing.

Dramatically, read the two Angels In America volumes: "Millenium Approaches" and "Perestroika." Then rent the DVD of HBO's 6-hour miniseries of it. It's full of top-notch acting talent.

Finally, a guy named Peter McGehee wrote two extremely funny books called "Boys Like Us" and "Sweetheart."

And yes, I read a lot. It's not like we get taught queer studies in high school!

[BlackCherryBLN]

My favourite classic: The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood...We all know it as "Cabaret"...

[popboy]

In my humble opinion, Maurice by E.M. Forster is a great book, I bought it and read it after Goratrix told me about it (...as far as I know, he hasn't read a single page of it so far!).
Right now I'm reading (well, devouring actually) Equal Affections by David Leavitt. I am really enjoying this book, it's highly commendable. I'm reading it in Spanish and unfortunately the translation isn't good, but still I love it. I decided to buy it after reading the first three pages in print.google.com! (...in English, obviously!).

[azn_david6491]

try Rainbow Boys. Its a good trilogy by Alex Sanchez.

[imad]

The Book of Salt- Monique Truong

This is an amazing book... It takes place in 1920's-1930's France, and the main character is a poor Vietnamese cook (he's also gay :icon_cool ). It's one of those stories where it's better not to give too much description (don't read the synopsis if you decide to check it out).

It has a lot of between-the-lines stuff, and the author writes wonderfully. It would be slightly easier to understand for those who speak French, but I recommend it for everyone.