Flocks by L. Nichols
Flocks by L. Nichols is an odd little gem that proves you might not get what you expected, but you get what is needed. I am giving it a five as it is a 4.9 due to are a few questions I still have, but over all this is a “comfortable” book, despite the tough subject matter. SPOILER: If you were like me and did a little looking around about the book, you will learn the narrator is a trans-male (before the revel in the […]
The Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy: A New Translation by C.P. Cavafy
I know very little about poetry and even less about how to write about poetry, so to quote Prince, forgive me if this goes astray. I first heard of Cavafy when I was browsing through a book of gay love poems at Barnes and Noble back in my early twenties when I was first coming out. The simplicity of the poem made me think he was an ancient, perhaps the male equivalent of Sappho, but when I found this book, The Collected Poems of C.P. […]
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
I’ve put off this review far too long, and though I could just skip it, I don’t want to punk out when the reviewing gets tough. I really wanted to like Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees, as it came highly recommended and was written by an African lesbian, a voice I haven’t heard before, but this book really didn’t work for me. That said, I didn’t dislike it enough to hate-review it, so I’m stuck in a kind of mushy middle of blah. Ijeoma […]
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
The Pulitzer Prize for fiction tends to be more miss than hit for me, especially in the last several years, so when I heard the announcement last spring about Andrew Sean Greer’s Less, I didn’t pay much attention. I didn’t know the author by name, hadn’t heard anything about the book, and figured I could safely skip this one. But then I read a brief synopsis: gay novelist in his 40’s, heartbroken and struggling with his work, runs away and something-something-I-don’t-remember because I stopped reading […]
The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara
I’d heard for years that I should watch Paris is Burning, the groundbreaking documentary about the New York’s drag ball scene in the 1980’s, but I never quite got around to it for one reason or another. It wasn’t until a few years ago, when a friend told me just how much that movie influenced Rupaul’s Drag Race, that I finally forced myself to sit down and watch it. Needless to say, it’s brilliant and unforgettable, and shame on me for not watching it sooner. […]
“Forgive my bluntness, but… Goddamn, Sam Sax can write some poems. Ross Gay” And he can. I am not sure though if I like them or not. There are some fabulous images. He just explores what it was/is to be him. Gay, Jewish, male, a person and so much more. And he does it wonderfully, creatively, not easily through his poems. His experiences. His knowledge. Sax is not for the “I like flowers and pretty ponies” poetry crowd. He is for the “this poem will […]
