Gay Lit Thread

[WillParkinson]

Currently on AfterElton.com they have a Gay Literature thread (you can read it here http://www.afterelton.com/node/33955)

What books have you read and can recommend that have gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender characters that might be of interest?

One of the books that I read the other day was called Vintage. I got the suggestion from the aforementioned thread. It was a very good read.

"A lonely gay teen bides his time with trips to strangers' funerals and Ouija board sessions, desperately searching for someone to love--and a reason to live following a suicide attempt.

Walking an empty stretch of New Jersey highway on an autumn night, he meets a strange and beautiful boy who looks like he stepped out of a dream. But the vision becomes into a nightmare when the boy turns out to be the local urban legend, the ghost of a star athlete killed in 1957--a ghost with a deadly secret and a dangerous obsession.

Vintage: A Ghost Story is an intense thriller that looks at the dark side of gay urban fantasy, where the dead can never rest and trapped spirits never find peace.

---

I've actually read a few books listed in the thread and Vintage was one of my two favorites. The other is from one editors of AfterElton called "Geography Club". You can read a bit of it here: http://books.google.com/books?id=yKpHUoQwvowC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Geography+Club&source=bl&ots=x0HplJLwLu&sig=Mch6ioqcQpG2IyNAmDwiCUXaVSU&hl=en&ei=n7cPTeX0MMOBlAfz6-WcDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

[LuvNewcastle]

1. Poppy Z. Brite has written some

of my favorite gay-themed books, especially her vampire novels. I don't remember the titles and I've loaned out my copies of those books, so you'll just have to use Google to find out what they are. Scott Heim is another author that I read and liked a long time ago. I read two novels by him but I don't remember their titles either.

[terrya]

2. Well...

Some classics. These are must reads, imo:

"A Single Man" by Christopher Isherwood
"Maurice" by E.M. Forster
"Giovanni's Room" by James Baldwin

Ethan Mordden wrote a wonderful novel that's a virtual history of gay and lesbian people from the late 40's to the 90's: "How Long Has This Been Going On"

And of course the amazing Armistead Maupin and the "Tales of the City" books...which he is still happily writing. :-)

[BlueState]

3. Excellent selections!

Each would be a good intro to any younger gay reader wondering what it was like to
be gay in decades past. As I did in the 80s.

Maupin's Tales of the City stands as such a wonderful period piece now. San Francisco
in the 70s is such an interesting time and place.

To the list I would add Edmund White's - "A Boy's Own Story" and John Rechy's - "City of Night."
The latter maybe a little dark but an important book.