LGBTQ Books To Read For January 2019

Mesha Maren’s debut novel “Sugar Run”

Lambda Literary announces ALL the new LGBTQ book releases for January 2019.

They and I (how is that for great writing?!?!?) are all excited about Mesha Maren’s debut novel  Sugar Run (Algonquin Books). Lambda Literary highlighted the book first in its monthly rundown and I’m excited because Algonquin sent me a free copy in the mail to check out….which I desperately need to find the time to do!!!

Here’s Algonquin’s synopsis of the novel:

In 1989, Jodi McCarty is seventeen years old when she’s sentenced to life in prison. When she’s released eighteen years later, she finds herself at a Greyhound bus stop, reeling from the shock of unexpected freedom but determined to chart a better course for herself. Not yet able to return to her lost home in the Appalachian Mountains, she heads south in search of someone she left behind, as a way of finally making amends. There, she meets and falls in love with Miranda, a troubled young mother living in a motel room with her children. Together they head toward what they hope will be a fresh start. But what do you do with your past—and with a town and a family that refuses to forget, or to change?

Non-fiction wise there’s Siddharth Dube’s memoir, An Indefinite Sentence: A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex (Atria Books):

From his time as a child in 1960s India, Siddharth Dube knew that he was different. Reckoning with his femininity and sexuality—and his intellect—would send him on a lifelong journey of discovery: from Harvard classrooms to unsafe cruising sites; from ivory-tower think-tanks to shantytowns; from halls of power at the UN and World Bank to jail cells where sexual outcasts are brutalized.

Lambda is also all over Sabina Khan’s The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali (Scholastic Press):

Unable to come out to her conservative Muslim parents, she keeps that part of her identity hidden. And that means keeping her girlfriend, Ariana, a secret from them too. Luckily, only a few more months stand between her carefully monitored life at home and a fresh start at Caltech in the fall. But when Rukhsana’s mom catches her and Ariana together, her future begins to collapse around her.

Fiction

• Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Still in Love by Michael Downing, Counterpoint
• Sugar Run by Mesha Maren, Algonquin Books
• Temper CA by Paul Skenazy, Miami University Press
• Wanderer by Sarah Léon, Other Press

Nonfiction

• Gay a Day by L.A. Fields & Tyson Kadwell, Lethe Press
• Improving Services for Transgender and Gender Variant Youth: Research, Policy and Practice for Health and Social Care Professionals by Tiffany Jones, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• The Reflective Workbook for Partners of Transgender People: Your Transition as Your Partner Transitions by D.M. Maynard, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Sleeping with Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire by David Thomson, Knopf
• Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Students and Staff in Further and Higher Education: Practical Advice for Colleges and Universities by Matson Lawrence & Stephanie Mckendry, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Working with Trans Survivors of Sexual Violence: A Guide for Professionals by Sally Rymer & Valentina Cartei, Jessica Kingsley Publishers

LGBT Studies

• Capturing Mariposas: Reading Cultural Schema in Gay Chicano Literature by P. Doug Bush, Ohio State University Press
• GLQ at Twenty-Five ed. by Marcia Ochoa & Jennifer DeVere Brody, Duke University Press
• Incurable: The Haunted Writings of Lionel Johnson, the Decadent Era’s Dark Angeled. by Nina Antonia, Strange Attractor Press
• Queer Aging in North American Fiction by Linda M. Hess, Palgrave Macmillan
• Seeking Rights from the Left: Gender, Sexuality, and the Latin American Pink Tide, ed. by Elisabeth Jay Friedman, Duke University Press
• Shakespeare and Queer Theory by Melissa E. Sanchez, The Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury
• Transgender, Translation, Translingual Address by Douglas Robinson, Bloomsbury Academic

Young Adult and Children’s Literature

• Bloom by Kevin Panetta & Savanna Ganucheau, First Second
• The Cerulean by Amy Ewing, HarperTeen
• Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig, Feiwel & Friends
• Firestarter by Tara Sim, Sky Pony Press
• Lock & West by Alexander C. Eberhart, Seven Sisters Publishing
• The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan, Scholastic Press
• Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon, Simon Pulse
• The Princess of Baker Street by Mia Kerick, Harmony Ink Press
• Song of the Dead by Sarah Glenn Marsh, Razorbill
• The Whispers by Greg Howard, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Romance

• The Ashford Place by Jean Copeland, Bold Strokes Books
• Brace for Impact by Becky Harmon, Bella Books
• Careful What You Wish For by Jackie Calhoun, Bella Books
• Emily’s Art and Soul by Joy Argento, Bold Strokes Books
• Escape to Pleasure: Lesbian Travel Erotica ed. by Sandy Lowe & Victoria Villasenor, Bold Strokes Books
• Is It Over Yet? by L.A. Witt, Self-published
• Music City Dreamers by Robyn Nyx, Bold Strokes Books
• Ordinary is Perfect by D. Jackson Leigh, Bold Strokes Books
• Rising Above by Genevieve Fortin, Bella Books
• Royal Court by Jenny Frame, Bold Strokes Books
• Strings Attached by Holly Stratimore, Bold Strokes Books

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror

• Brobots: The Complete Source Code by Trevor Barton, Beaten Track Publishing
• Harlem Smoke by James Champagne, Snuggly Books
• Sins of the Son by Christian Baines, Arcadia Trust
• Thorn by Anna Burke, Bywater Books
• Treason by Gun Brooke, Bold Strokes Books

Bio/Memoir

• The Bold World: A Memoir of Family and Transformation by Jodie Patterson, Ballantine Books
• Hudson & Halls: The Food of Love by Joanne Drayton, Otago University Press
• An Indefinite Sentence: A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex by Siddharth Dube, Atria Books
• The Unfinished Dollhouse: A Memoir of Gender and Identity by Michelle Alfano, DCB

Poetry

• i shimmer sometimes, too by Porsha O, Button Poetry
• The Twenty-Ninth Year by Hala Alyan, Mariner Books
• Weak Link by Rob Halpern, Atelos
• Write This Second: A Poetic Memoir by Kira Lynne Allen, Nothing But The Truth Publishing