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‘Bout to start some shit: getting tired of non-gay men writing gay male characters. True: there’s a long history of slash, fan-fiction, yaoi, and really great gay stories written by non-gay men. True: not every gay man is hypersexual. But it’s starting to feel sanitized, even tokenizing, to have two hot men who are clearly interested in each other not get it on. Or fantasize, masturbate, get hard, or anything embodied.

Yes, we fought hard to not be defined by the sex we have. But many also fought hard to not be shamed for it either: the sluts, people living with HIV, and other “non-respectable” gays. I’m not asking for non-stop fucking (just this once)—it’s not a binary. Rather, more thinking around gay inclusion. What purpose does it serve, you as a non-gay man, writing these characters? What does the presence/absence of sex mean? Otherwise, it feels exploitative.

Went to a reading and Urrea clearly delighted in his own writing. He convinced me to buy a copy even though I hadn’t read the prior book in this duology. It’s about his great aunt, Teresita, The Saint of Cabora, who either has healing powers or is a dangerous revolutionary, depending on who’s asked. An immigrant story that started in 19th Century Mexico in the first book—I plan on reading it soon.

Three short stories named after streets, which themselves are named after famous people, in East Berlin. Surreal things happen. Tawanda’s writing was slippery for me and I ended up glazing over and skimming. There’s more there for people who know what to look for, but I wasn’t one of them. Finished only because it was so brief.

Set in 18th Century Paris, a man with no scent possesses an incredible sense of smell. If it were written today, it could easily be a super-villain story: scent is the key to power and control here. It avoids those tropes, but gets mired in others that are unfortunately very gendered and tired. Interesting details on perfumery though, and the language can be entertaining in its hyperbole.

A novel about issues that doesn’t hit you over the head with them: undocumented workers, “nice” white people and the harm they blithely cause, Nantucket’s tourist economy and the income inequality with the island’s locals. But it’s mainly about two sisters and the eldest’s rich friend.

Another contemporary book that disposes of quotation marks and indenting paragraphs for new speakers. WHY. Enjoyed it nonetheless.

Billed as YA, which I’ve grown tired of, this didn’t come off that way at all. Except for a lot of yelling, there’s nothing significant that marks the two protagonists as young. One can unravel curses, the other is formerly cursed. And their world sits uneasily but peaceably next to The Wilds. Found this on a list of recommended books from 2023—I can only do the same.

Came to this one late: I remember when everybody seemed to be reading or talking about it. Really enjoyed Nguyen’s immigrant short stories in “The Refugees”. This is much more politically sophisticated as the title says, but not what I expected. Nor did it go where I thought it would—more espionage than I normally like. While the sequel is also on my list, the TV show isn’t anymore. Too dude-focused.

What a beginning. Unfortunately, the rest doesn’t quite gel. A standalone fantasy novel that throws you into its world building without any handholding. There’s a way to do this that’s successful, and normally Wells has no problem with it. Not here. The things she focused on were not what I wanted to read more about. Kinda frustrating!

Love this author and this series, but this is the least successful so far. We’re moving further away from the original characters and follow five new (mostly) unrelated characters. It just felt disjointed. And I cared more about some vs. others, e.g. Eyas the caretaker who does funeral rites. Learning more about Exodans and the culture of humans who left earth was really interesting though.

A grumpy librarian! Named herman melvill! Bound in other ways to that other Melville! And who wants to hide books away from people!

Wonderfully misanthropic. But the final two-thirds of this 80-page, single long sentence don’t bear out the promise of its quietly weary start. Big points for the premise though; I can definitely identify with it.

I enjoyed “The Martian” and this is more of the same, which is a good thing. Ryland, the protagonist, is a golden retriever of a narrator: super ENTHUSIASTIC! which surprisingly, didn’t grate (too much). Because it’s science and problem-solving, and Weir does a good job of keeping it interesting without dumbing things down. Really fascinating stuff. The stakes are much higher this time too. Very enjoyable.