Best LGBT Comics & Graphic Novels
Their lives suddenly change with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi’s estranged gay twin, Ryoji. With his young daughter Kana leading the way, he gradually rethinks his assumptions about what makes a family.“Renowned manga artist Gengoroh Tagame turns his stunning draftsmanship to a story very different from his customary fare, to delightful and heartwarming effect.” —Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home “Heartbreaking yet hopeful, Gengoroh Tagame’s beautifully rendered meditation on the struggle for gay acceptance in today’s Japan is quietly dazzling. Thoughtful and fetching, My Brother’s Husband is the first in a two-volume omnibus about grief, reconciliation and the strength to be who you are.” — Shelf Awareness *starred review* “ My Brother’s Husband focuses more on the uneasy relationship between Yaichi, a single father raising his daughter, Kana, and Mike Flanagan, who was married to Yaichi’s recently deceased (and estranged) twin brother, Ryoji….There’s something beautiful in the careful way that My Brother’s Husband handles Yaichi’s coming to terms with his feelings about his brother that’s rarely seen in mainstream comics. Tagame understands that and hopefully, as the rest of the book unfolds, readers will too.” —io9.com “ My Brother’s Husband is focused on normalizing a gay relationship to those who are uncomfortable with the idea….there’s an audience and a need for works like this…. It’s charming and provides hope for the future.” — Comics Worth Reading “The story provides a very interesting look at Japanese society through Yaichi’s struggle to come to terms with his brother’s sexuality, revealing some of the struggles the Japanese gay community faces at the same time….One of the most notable things about Tagame’s artwork is just how vastly different it is from nearly anything I’ve seen before. If these are qualities that help books rise to the top of your summer reading list, your new number one is My Brother’s Husband ….The story moves along quietly and gently, Tagame cleverly evoking parallels between mutual misperceptions of gays and straights, older and younger generations, Westerners and Japanese.” —Passport Magazine “This winsome look at culture clash compares the largely still-closeted Japanese gay culture with the West, underscoring a theme of universal yearning for family.” — Library Journal.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is a sad and beautiful story, captivating from the very start."
"A wonderful story, anyone gay or straight should be able to relate to the high emotions this book brings out!!"
"Excellent manga, gives a new and thought provoking perspective on homosexual relationships."
"Earth shatteringly lovely."
"A great read, really engaging."
"Nearly made me cry in public a few times."
"Seeing Yaichi struggle with acceptance is the heart of the story, and it's important to read, but also beautiful to look at artistically."
"Even grown-ups like good story telling, especially stories that help us deal with love and loss."
The candid tell-all of a young woman's struggles with depression and sexuality that has taken the internet by storm! " My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is one of the most powerful manga I have ever read, and it all comes down to Nagata Kabi's openness and honesty." "No question, absolutely, my pick this week is My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness , which was simply one of the best autobiographical manga I’ve read." Kabi Nagata is a manga artist best known for her autobiographical comic, My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you're not prepared, you might feel uncomfortable but this is a heartfelt and honest account that speaks to all of us who have felt lonely in our own selves."
"Intense introspective dialog with ones Id .. an insight into the mind of a complex personality."
"A very funny and touching read that is definitely worth your time."
"A very adorable and relatable story for anyone struggling with their own identity, sexuality, or mental ill's."
"Great story, I recommend it to anyone who enjoy's reading funny stories."
"The story is really genuine and easy to relate to."
"This was a wonderful story that touched me emotionally because of how I can relate to her feelings and thoughts throughout the book."
"A truly touching read."
3 Artifice
Deacon, a prototype android soldier, was ordered by his corporate masters to eliminate a team of scientists who knew too much and he has failed spectacularly. Essentially an intimate look into Deacon’s therapy sessions, with the mission’s events told in flashback, the narrative grips the reader from the first panel to the last, treating the audience to a moving rumination on love, free will, sexuality, and the question of whether a machine can feel. - Publishers Weekly Originally published as a serial webcomic, Artifice is a full-color graphic novel that tells a cyberpunk same-sex love story… Although Artifice is for mature audiences only, its violent and sexual content is directly in service to a thought-provoking science fiction story that will keep the reader fascinated to the final page.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Overall the story itself is enjoyable, the drama of the situation and the feelings evoked during the "present" and "flashback" scenes are very well crafted. As good as Alex Woolfson's story is, it is Winona Nelson's art that truly captures me."
"I had been meaning to read this graphic novel for a while, having heard good things about how it used a sci-fi / action story to talk about homophobia, racism, free will, first love, and self-acceptance; and in light of recent current events, it seemed like the perfect time."
"It has all been said, the art work is superb, the story is superb and the pacing is superb."
"It's practically the size of an artbook rather than a comic and has a lot of information from the site on the back as well as several extras, including the process of the artist getting such clean lines."
"Great story and great graphics, thank you!"
"Though I already read this at the artists own website I still wanted to hold it in my own hands (I bought a hard copy)! Back when I was younger I read a few but with age I somehow found the stories to be boring, dreary, too Action-centered or whatnot..."
"I stumbled onto Artifice the webcomic and fell in love with the story, the characters (yes, even Maven) and the artwork. The romance between Deacon and Jeff is simultaneously sweet and erotic, but also deals with age-old questions about love--what it means to be in love, how do you know you're in love, how do you prove it?"
"However I wasn't too impressed with the packaging which consisted of a padded bag, putting the novel at risk of damage."
Best LGBT Graphic Novels
The candid tell-all of a young woman's struggles with depression and sexuality that has taken the internet by storm! Her story is an open, honest, and deeply personal look at her struggles to fight back against her eating disorder, stop self-harming, and learn more about her sexuality." "...this is a comic that (a) treats sex workers with dignity and agency in a medium which has been historically unkind, (b) addresses very real themes of self-harm in a direct and honest way, and (c) adopts an attitude of complete acceptance of sexuality fluidity." -- Sean Gaffney, Manga Bookshelf "A complicated play of gender and sexual identities that Nagata unbinds and sorts through with striking aesthetic aplomb. ".
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A picture into someone suffering from depression, with a somewhat opaque ending."
"If you're not prepared, you might feel uncomfortable but this is a heartfelt and honest account that speaks to all of us who have felt lonely in our own selves."
"Intense introspective dialog with ones Id .. an insight into the mind of a complex personality."
"A very funny and touching read that is definitely worth your time."
"A very adorable and relatable story for anyone struggling with their own identity, sexuality, or mental ill's."
"I chose it out of curiosity and enjoyed it."
"Great story, I recommend it to anyone who enjoy's reading funny stories."
"The story is really genuine and easy to relate to."
Best Yaoi Manga
Deacon, a prototype android soldier, was ordered by his corporate masters to eliminate a team of scientists who knew too much and he has failed spectacularly. Essentially an intimate look into Deacon’s therapy sessions, with the mission’s events told in flashback, the narrative grips the reader from the first panel to the last, treating the audience to a moving rumination on love, free will, sexuality, and the question of whether a machine can feel. - Publishers Weekly Originally published as a serial webcomic, Artifice is a full-color graphic novel that tells a cyberpunk same-sex love story… Although Artifice is for mature audiences only, its violent and sexual content is directly in service to a thought-provoking science fiction story that will keep the reader fascinated to the final page.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Overall the story itself is enjoyable, the drama of the situation and the feelings evoked during the "present" and "flashback" scenes are very well crafted. As good as Alex Woolfson's story is, it is Winona Nelson's art that truly captures me."
"I had been meaning to read this graphic novel for a while, having heard good things about how it used a sci-fi / action story to talk about homophobia, racism, free will, first love, and self-acceptance; and in light of recent current events, it seemed like the perfect time."
"It has all been said, the art work is superb, the story is superb and the pacing is superb."
"It's practically the size of an artbook rather than a comic and has a lot of information from the site on the back as well as several extras, including the process of the artist getting such clean lines."
"Great story and great graphics, thank you!"
"Though I already read this at the artists own website I still wanted to hold it in my own hands (I bought a hard copy)! Back when I was younger I read a few but with age I somehow found the stories to be boring, dreary, too Action-centered or whatnot..."
"I stumbled onto Artifice the webcomic and fell in love with the story, the characters (yes, even Maven) and the artwork. The romance between Deacon and Jeff is simultaneously sweet and erotic, but also deals with age-old questions about love--what it means to be in love, how do you know you're in love, how do you prove it?"
"However I wasn't too impressed with the packaging which consisted of a padded bag, putting the novel at risk of damage."
Best LGBT Travel
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year • A Publishers Weekly and The Washington Post Best Book of the Year • A New York Magazine "Future Canon" Selection • A Chicago Tribune and Seattle Times (Michael Upchurch's) Favorite Favorite Book of the Year. Elio—17, extremely well-read, sensitive and the son of a prominent expatriate professor—finds himself troublingly attracted to this year's visiting resident scholar, recruited by his father from an American university. Their shared literary interests and Jewishness help impart a sense of intimacy, and when they do consummate their passion in Oliver's room, they call each other by the other's name. What begins as a casual friendship develops into a passionate yet clandestine affair, and the last chapters fast-forward through Elio's life to a reunion with Oliver decades later.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Set in 1988 and on the Italian Riviera, which adds to the charm and appeal of the novel, Call Me By Your Name is narrated by and tells the story of a seventeen-year-old American-Italian-Jewish youth, Elio Perlman, and his six-week, summer love affair with Oliver Ulliva, a university professor who is seven years older than Elio and who has been selected to live in Elio’s parents’ home as a guest “resident” while finishing a manuscript for publication as part of the parents’ way of aiding budding writers. Much of the first half of Call Me By Your Name has a “stream of consciousness” feeling to it as Elio, a very precocious and intelligent but shy young man, defies his better intuitions and finds himself more and more attracted to Oliver. By time both Elio and the reader are aware of Oliver’s true feelings toward the younger man, a new sense of urgency, an even greater feeling of sensuality and eroticism, and a more intense atmosphere of anxiety and impending doom enters the story—all of it exquisitely captured by Aciman’s exquisitely accomplished writing."
"Call Me By Your Name is a superlative novel that meticulously and comprehensively looks at the human condition from the folly of youth to the introspective later years. Told almost entirely from the stream of consciousness mind of a seventeen year old Elio, who simultaneously possesses intelligence beyond his years whilst embodying the insouciance of youth and trafficking in the same inane fickleness of the average teen in matters of the heart, and in him Aciman’s crafted a character that is quintessentially relatable. Oliver, the doctoral student who came to stay with him and his parents one summer in Italy, left a watermark on Elio’s soul. At seventeen he can’t possibly understand the rarity of his connection with Oliver, so he tells himself there will be another and there are, that it was never intended to last and maybe it wasn't, that is was a summer fling, but who's to say that makes it any less seminal? I’ve no doubt if I reread it in 5 or 10 yrs I’ll have a different interpretation; a change in perspective and the whole thing looks completely different and I feel like the same can be said of Elio. That place that meant so much from the berm to Mafalda and his parents to the bookstore to playing the guitar to paradise to afternoon naps and lazy days and nights spent f***ing each other’s brains out. The romantic in me wants to wallow in the heartbreak and vilify Aciman for countermanding the rules of romancelandia, but to simplify this novel in such a way, to make it solely about loss is a disservice to the narrative. Maybe I missed the point and it is solely a novel of love and loss with the primary objective being bittersweet heartbreak, but I choose to believe (this time) that Aciman deliberately penned a novel to make every reader take stock and cherish what they have, what they have had and what they will have."
"Love the way the author describes the scenery - makes me want to book tickets to Italy ASAP! I am so thankful I read this book , as I hesitated first, not knowing if I could relate to a love story about 2 young men falling in love -however it so exceeded my expectations, as it was just 2 souls who found each other."
"Call Me By Your Name is one of the most beautiful, most beautifully written novels I have ever read."
"Anyone who has loved and lost would find both pain and solace in this book - from the tingling sensation of anticipation of the first pages to the heart-shattering last five words that conclude this book."
"A beautiful and tender debut novel that depicts the learning of oneself in such sympathetic treatment and the obsessive love we feel so strongly when it is our first."
Best LGBT Romance
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year • A Publishers Weekly and The Washington Post Best Book of the Year • A New York Magazine "Future Canon" Selection • A Chicago Tribune and Seattle Times (Michael Upchurch's) Favorite Favorite Book of the Year. Elio—17, extremely well-read, sensitive and the son of a prominent expatriate professor—finds himself troublingly attracted to this year's visiting resident scholar, recruited by his father from an American university. Their shared literary interests and Jewishness help impart a sense of intimacy, and when they do consummate their passion in Oliver's room, they call each other by the other's name. What begins as a casual friendship develops into a passionate yet clandestine affair, and the last chapters fast-forward through Elio's life to a reunion with Oliver decades later.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Set in 1988 and on the Italian Riviera, which adds to the charm and appeal of the novel, Call Me By Your Name is narrated by and tells the story of a seventeen-year-old American-Italian-Jewish youth, Elio Perlman, and his six-week, summer love affair with Oliver Ulliva, a university professor who is seven years older than Elio and who has been selected to live in Elio’s parents’ home as a guest “resident” while finishing a manuscript for publication as part of the parents’ way of aiding budding writers. Much of the first half of Call Me By Your Name has a “stream of consciousness” feeling to it as Elio, a very precocious and intelligent but shy young man, defies his better intuitions and finds himself more and more attracted to Oliver. By time both Elio and the reader are aware of Oliver’s true feelings toward the younger man, a new sense of urgency, an even greater feeling of sensuality and eroticism, and a more intense atmosphere of anxiety and impending doom enters the story—all of it exquisitely captured by Aciman’s exquisitely accomplished writing."
"Call Me By Your Name is a superlative novel that meticulously and comprehensively looks at the human condition from the folly of youth to the introspective later years. Told almost entirely from the stream of consciousness mind of a seventeen year old Elio, who simultaneously possesses intelligence beyond his years whilst embodying the insouciance of youth and trafficking in the same inane fickleness of the average teen in matters of the heart, and in him Aciman’s crafted a character that is quintessentially relatable. Oliver, the doctoral student who came to stay with him and his parents one summer in Italy, left a watermark on Elio’s soul. At seventeen he can’t possibly understand the rarity of his connection with Oliver, so he tells himself there will be another and there are, that it was never intended to last and maybe it wasn't, that is was a summer fling, but who's to say that makes it any less seminal? I’ve no doubt if I reread it in 5 or 10 yrs I’ll have a different interpretation; a change in perspective and the whole thing looks completely different and I feel like the same can be said of Elio. That place that meant so much from the berm to Mafalda and his parents to the bookstore to playing the guitar to paradise to afternoon naps and lazy days and nights spent f***ing each other’s brains out. The romantic in me wants to wallow in the heartbreak and vilify Aciman for countermanding the rules of romancelandia, but to simplify this novel in such a way, to make it solely about loss is a disservice to the narrative. Maybe I missed the point and it is solely a novel of love and loss with the primary objective being bittersweet heartbreak, but I choose to believe (this time) that Aciman deliberately penned a novel to make every reader take stock and cherish what they have, what they have had and what they will have."
Best LGBT Drama & Plays
A revised edition of one of the most influential plays of our time, published with a new foreword by the author. Tony Kushner's Angels in America is that rare entity: a work for the stage that is profoundly moving yet very funny, highly theatrical yet steeped in traditional literary values, and most of all deeply American in its attitudes and political concerns. These stories are contrasted with that of Roy Cohn (a fictional re-creation of the infamous American conservative ideologue who died of AIDS in 1986) and his attempts to remain in the closet while trying to find some sort of personal salvation in his beliefs. But such a summary does not do justice to Kushner's grand plan, which mixes magical realism with political speeches, high comedy with painful tragedy, and stitches it all together with a daring sense of irony and a moral vision that demands respect and attention. The most ambitious America play of our time: an epic that ranges from earth to heaven; focuses on politics, sex, and religion; transports us to Washington, the Kremlin, the South Bronx, Salt Lake City and Antarctica; deals with Jews, Mormons, WASPs, blacks; switches between realism and fantasy, from the tragedy of AIDS to the camp comedy of drag queens to the death or at least absconding of God Angels in America is the broadest, deepest, most searching American play of our time."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"One of the best things I've ever read."
"Kushner's masterpiece is still very relevant to all aspects of American culture."
"It's character-driven, it's funny despite its heartbreaking subject matter, it handles an historical figure in such a way as to make him larger than life. I've been seeing this more and more recently; authors trying to insert message drama (or fiction or poetry or...) by making the characters who have to put up with it slap the speaker into senselessness. Now that I've spent three hundred words on Louis and Belize's painful, conversation in Act Three, I'll say that the rest of the play is just plain awesome. The characters jump off the page, the pace is fast (despite there being almost no action), the dialogue is, in the main, witty and interesting."
"A wonderful and epic story."
"A modern classic."
"But Tony Kushner did an excellent job with this masterpiece."
"An absolute classic for anyone interested in American theater, gender studies, or just a spectacular play to read."
Best LGBT Fiction
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year • A Publishers Weekly and The Washington Post Best Book of the Year • A New York Magazine "Future Canon" Selection • A Chicago Tribune and Seattle Times (Michael Upchurch's) Favorite Favorite Book of the Year. Elio—17, extremely well-read, sensitive and the son of a prominent expatriate professor—finds himself troublingly attracted to this year's visiting resident scholar, recruited by his father from an American university. Their shared literary interests and Jewishness help impart a sense of intimacy, and when they do consummate their passion in Oliver's room, they call each other by the other's name. What begins as a casual friendship develops into a passionate yet clandestine affair, and the last chapters fast-forward through Elio's life to a reunion with Oliver decades later.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Set in 1988 and on the Italian Riviera, which adds to the charm and appeal of the novel, Call Me By Your Name is narrated by and tells the story of a seventeen-year-old American-Italian-Jewish youth, Elio Perlman, and his six-week, summer love affair with Oliver Ulliva, a university professor who is seven years older than Elio and who has been selected to live in Elio’s parents’ home as a guest “resident” while finishing a manuscript for publication as part of the parents’ way of aiding budding writers. Much of the first half of Call Me By Your Name has a “stream of consciousness” feeling to it as Elio, a very precocious and intelligent but shy young man, defies his better intuitions and finds himself more and more attracted to Oliver. By time both Elio and the reader are aware of Oliver’s true feelings toward the younger man, a new sense of urgency, an even greater feeling of sensuality and eroticism, and a more intense atmosphere of anxiety and impending doom enters the story—all of it exquisitely captured by Aciman’s exquisitely accomplished writing."
"I have never cried while reading a book, but I sure did with this one. If you want to read a book that will captivate you the way it has captivated numerous others (myself included), please read this book."
"Call Me By Your Name is a superlative novel that meticulously and comprehensively looks at the human condition from the folly of youth to the introspective later years. Told almost entirely from the stream of consciousness mind of a seventeen year old Elio, who simultaneously possesses intelligence beyond his years whilst embodying the insouciance of youth and trafficking in the same inane fickleness of the average teen in matters of the heart, and in him Aciman’s crafted a character that is quintessentially relatable. Oliver, the doctoral student who came to stay with him and his parents one summer in Italy, left a watermark on Elio’s soul. At seventeen he can’t possibly understand the rarity of his connection with Oliver, so he tells himself there will be another and there are, that it was never intended to last and maybe it wasn't, that is was a summer fling, but who's to say that makes it any less seminal? I’ve no doubt if I reread it in 5 or 10 yrs I’ll have a different interpretation; a change in perspective and the whole thing looks completely different and I feel like the same can be said of Elio. That place that meant so much from the berm to Mafalda and his parents to the bookstore to playing the guitar to paradise to afternoon naps and lazy days and nights spent f***ing each other’s brains out. The romantic in me wants to wallow in the heartbreak and vilify Aciman for countermanding the rules of romancelandia, but to simplify this novel in such a way, to make it solely about loss is a disservice to the narrative. Maybe I missed the point and it is solely a novel of love and loss with the primary objective being bittersweet heartbreak, but I choose to believe (this time) that Aciman deliberately penned a novel to make every reader take stock and cherish what they have, what they have had and what they will have."
Best LGBT Erotica
He’s starting fresh and trying to get back on his feet with a new job at an upscale bar in downtown Chicago. Night after night Tate fends off the persistent advances of the undeniably charismatic man, but after an explosive moment in the bar, all bets are off as he finds his body stirring with a different desire than his mind. Ella Frank is a #1 Amazon Best-selling Author.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Relationships are for other people, he much rather enjoys what life has to offer and leaves before things get serious. Logan doesn't discriminate, he takes men or women depending on mood and gusto and when his eyes fall on Tate he knows he must have him. The divorce from his wife is in process and he can't wait to be free of the shackles. Logan realizes that with his new obsession he has gotten more than he bargained for when Tate gets comfortable with the fact that he actually likes and is attracted to a "him". Tate was a wonderfully likable character who stood his ground when Logan became too pushy. He has no filter and calls it as he sees it, and that in such an inappropriate fashion that you can only laugh and shake your head."
"When a man sits down at the bar and starts chatting him up, he is confused at the connection he is feeling towards this man. He was married, always been straight, but he feels this pull toward this gorgeous man. I got a little p***ed off at Logan for the games he was playing in the beginning, but understood that he was struggling himself with the pull he had towards Tate."
"Logan enjoyed sex and it didn't matter to him if it was with a female or male, that was until he spotted the handsome bartender working at the bar near where his office was. I just put the latest book in the Temptation series involving Logan & Tate titled Tease on my pre-order list."
"I really enjoyed Logan and Tate. Especially how Tate has to figure out his feelings for Logan and how Tate has to come to terms with himself and his family's opinion of him. The pace is slow but it suits the story because I needed to experience Tate's doubts and emotions and Ella Frank captured that perfectly."
"In turn, Tate is no pushover either and challenges Logan every step of the way, his inner-strength shining through after enduring a marriage breakdown."
Best LGBT Political Issues
Keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House may have bought a brief reprieve from the state’s assault, but it will not stop the West’s slide into decadence and dissolution. This sixth-century monk, horrified by the moral chaos following Rome’s fall, retreated to the forest and created a new way of life for Christians. The Benedict Option is both manifesto and rallying cry for Christians who, if they are not to be conquered, must learn how to fight on culture war battlefields like none the West has seen for fifteen hundred years. Only faith, hope, and love, embodied in a renewed church, can sustain believers in the dark age that has overtaken us. Even if you don't agree with everything in this book, there are warnings here to heed, and habits here to practice.”. —Russell Moore, president, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. “A terrific book: provocative in its content, shrewd in its insights, vivid and engaging in its style. —Carl R. Trueman, Westminster [PA] Theological Seminary; writer for First Things “An insightful and optimistic plan of action for Christians who are starting to realize just how hostile American culture is to their faith.”. —Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, senior editor, The Federalist “ Deeply convicting and motivating.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In first century Judaism, many Jews opted for isolation from the world, such as the "separated ones" in the sect of the Pharisees, or to a more extreme degree, the ascetic Essene community in Qumran. And for the world in the sense that His holy people, firmly rooted and grounded in the faith, would then share the transforming life of Christ with others. Instead, in actual practice most Americans subscribe to what sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton call "Moral Therapeutic Deism." Adherents of this new religion don't mind "Christianity" so long as it doesn't interfere with the materialism, consumerism, and radical individualism so endemic to our culture. Only those who have decided to accommodate to our culture would fail to see the hostility of the current age to Lordship of Jesus Christ and those who seek to follow Him. Those who chirp away about "alarmism" and a "persecution complex"remind me of Detective Frank Dreben in the old Police Squad movie telling a crowd, "Please disperse, there's nothing to see here," while a fireworks factory explodes in front of them! And such a culture, having lost its memory of the ancient truths about the deeper spiritual realities of the creation and its Creator, is on the verge of overwhelming the faulty levies of the vapid faith held by so many. What he does intend is that those who truly want to follow Jesus must take this commitment seriously, and to take it seriously in all aspects of life: in politics, at church, in the home, in school, at work, and in the bedroom. But I have been moved by this book to find ways to intentionally order all aspects of my life around the glory of God rather than the present evil age."
"*****. This rich book is not what it sounds like--a call for Christians to become more Benedictine or more monastic or more Catholic--it is NOT this...rather, it is a call to Christians of all denominations here in the west to carefully consider ways of being in community as we proceed in a post-Christian world."
"However, naming his movement the Benedict Option seems strange because the Benedictines intentionally isolated themselves from the world. If he gave the movement another name he might find it more welcomed by evangelicals and other biblically oriented Christians. On page 3 he states “The culture war that began with the Sexual Revolution in the 1960's has now ended in defeat for Christian conservatives.”. However, he does not want to focus on the decline but rather on “creative ways to live out the faith,” p. 4. I don’t recall Dreher mentioning any societies in history that were Christian, except possibly the European Middle Ages discussed below. IN CHAPTER ONE beginning on page 9 the author rightly criticizes moralistic therapeutic deism, which is the idea that God mostly wants to: make us feel better, help people to be nice to each other, solve our problems, and bring the good people to heaven when they die. Dreher quotes statistics about the decline of Christian values among young adults which are sad, although I was a little encouraged by the fact that significant minorities were faithful. On page 12 Dreher summarizes his proposal by saying that we should not continue to fight to influence society rather we should “work on building communities, institutions, and networks of resistance that can outwit, outlast, and eventually overcome the occupation,” p. 12. He recounts the story of Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century who developed a set of guidelines for committed Christians that helped establish communities that preserved some order in the chaotic years following the fall of the Roman Empire. Ironically, the lost American Christianity Dreher that laments was one heavily influenced by those who had rejected the fundamentalist approach of withdrawing from society to build their own subculture. Next is a discussion of Benedictine values including work, asceticism, stability, community, hospitality and order. Now he gets to the heart of his proposal: building parallel institutions and subcultures that don’t withdraw from society but rather engage it. Dreher complains about the weakness of churches but the fact remains that there are thousands of reasonably devout congregations who are engaging society and helping the needy. It is not enough to avoid what is bad; you must also embrace what is good.”. IN CHAPTER 5 he argues that the Benedict Option must be lived in the local church. He agrees with Russell Moore that “by losing its cultural respectability, the church is freer to be radically faithful.” He goes on to say that we need to recover our ancient heritage and worship. Dreher continues in chapter five by discussing the need for proper asceticism, for real church discipline, apologetics that aims at the heart more than the head, and openness to harsh persecution. He concludes the chapter by summing up his book: “If we don’t take on everyday practices that keep that sacred order present to ourselves, our families, and our communities, we are going to lose it. Dreher did not address the issue of the lack of success of monasteries in America in spreading Christian culture. It is true that Dreher’s movement is local church based, but one still wonders why monasticism has not done better here if it has keys to the future of Christianity. In the 13th century Francis and his early followers were unquestionably holy yet engaged urban society in striking and effective ways. Fourteenth century founder Gerhard Groote did not require monastic vows but the men (or women) lived in committed communities in cities and focused on spiritual growth as well as the education of children. Overall, I am thankful that Mr. Dreher is committing himself to finding ways to promote healthy Christian communities that can be a light to the world."
"The Benedict Option brings forward critical thinking on our contemporary times with insightful impact on the Christian faith, and vice versa ."
Best LGBT Poetry
Pillow Thoughts is a collection of poetry and prose about heartbreak, love, and raw emotions. So we have poems about heartbreak, about missing someone, we have poems for when we're sad, or for when we're lonely. In August 2017 she published Pillow Thoughts and The Road Between via US publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing. When Courtney isn't writing she enjoys keeping fit, listening to music, and hanging out with her two dogs, Hero & Dakota.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Time doesn’t mean a thing” could just have easily come from "Aleph" by Paulo Coelho, another favorite author."
"A beautiful collection of poetry for different parts of your life."
"Gifted this to my sister for Christmas and even though she read it in 30 minutes the words will stay with her, this book is for anyone who is going through a rough time and needs a pick me up."
"I've been going through a rough time, as I have recently been broken up with, and reading these poems made me feel as if I wasn't alone."
"Read it in one sitting, could not put it down."
"Amazing book and came in great shape."
Best LGBT Studies
In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman ( Sweet Valley High ) of color ( The Help ) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years ( Girls, Django in Chains ) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture. An Amazon Best Book of the Month, August 2014: "These essays are political and they are personal," Roxanne Gay announces in the introduction of Bad Feminist . One of the best pieces comes early in the book when Gay competes in a Scrabble tournament and her success as a beginner angers her male opponents. It's smart and laugh-out-loud funny essay, and in a humbling turn, Gay herself finds a similar unwarranted frustration toward competitors when she begins losing. Bad Feminist represents Gay's body of personal essays and critical work over the past several years, and if the book has a slight misstep, it's that it sometimes feels like these are articles that have been published elsewhere. Whether the topic is Gay's nemesis when playing in a Scrabble championship or deconstructing rape jokes, Turpin delivers with an assertiveness that will catch listeners' attention.''. -- AudioFile ''Smart readers cannot afford to miss these essays, which range from socially significant art (Girls, Django in Chains) and feminist issues (abortion) to politics (Chris Brown) and why Gay likes pink.''.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"When I read this, other movies came to mind, such as The Green Mile, in which the person of color, John Coffey, significantly improves the lives of the white people in his life but doesn’t save himself from being put to death by electrocution. Gay wishes for a day when people of color play characters other than a slave or a “magical negro” or a combination of the two; she wishes for a day when the script has a person of color performing significant acts for their own destiny and not for someone else. In a world where people think increasingly in absolutist claims, such as We versus Them, and use increasingly simplified and stunted language that can hardly do justice to the many ways life is lived, Gay’s writing forces the reader to consider the infinite shades of gray that exist in the world beyond the black and white, and demands through her logic that people be allowed to thrive in a variety of lifestyles, modes, and cultures and be respected and loved—despite religion, skin color, gender, chosen life paths, and level of so-called femininity."
"I found it insightful, intellectual, laugh out loud funny sometimes and well thought out."
"It is thought-provoking and helps one to identify their own biases and to evaluate critically many book and movies."
"Is there anything like a "good" feminist?"
"Author opines on gender and race implications of phenomena from Girls to Hunger Games to trigger warnings."
"It was an ok read."
"She carries the weight of the world and how to solve its problems with her, but readily admits she has her own issues to deal with."
"An engaging take on a variety of topics, including gender roles, reality TV, problematic pop culture faves, institutional racism, and rape culture."
Best LGBT Science Fiction & Fantasy
From a master of comedy and fantasy comes the long-awaited audiobook that lets you bring adventure and wonder with you wherever you go. In The Land, Aleron Kong. has sculpted a world of joy, horror, and wonder, forging together the best elements of American LitRPG. This guy's writingand story telling improves leaps and bounds with each new book and the amountof thought that has went into the leveling and abilities blows my mind. Alsothe use of this day and age humor mixed in the medieval environment makes melaugh and the one liners are great. The overwhelming nature ofeverything that happened and what you can see coming affected me just as muchas they did the main character. Thiswas a super fast paced action packed story that has youimaging your living inthis world. I walk around in life doing my"todo" list and I mentally hear TRING Congratulations! 5/5 Stars!I've been a happy Chaos Seed since book one and this author'swriting keeps gettingbetter and better! I only wished ithad another hundred thousand pages so I didn't have to stop reading it.- Daniel J Schinhofen Can't put it down. In the past year I am honored and blessed to have earned the title "The Father of American LitRPG". Thank you all for spending your precious time reading my work! Please join me in my groups to stay updated on the latest news and to win free swag!
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Easy to read with character development and great storylines."
"This series makes me laugh and cry."
"In this third installment Mr. Kong continues to take his readers through an exciting adventure in the land."
"Just like the ones before, amazing story telling with a rich, long and immersive plot."
"I really enjoyed reading The Land as a intro to Litrpg."
"Generally more of the same good stuff from the first two books."
"For a more thorough review of the series, please see my review under the same heading for The Land: Founding."
"Another wonderful story of "The Land" Another complication."
Best LGBT Mystery
Josh comes face-to-face with a painful reminder of his past just when he’s ready to acknowledge that his feelings for Gabe go way beyond liking the man.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is a true sequel and picks up where book one left off, so yes you need to read book one, Dyeing to be Loved , and read them in order. This story is just as full of passion, mystery, happiness, and sexy times as book one and the chemistry between Gabe and Josh continues to grow and burn like an inferno."
"I was very surprised by the first book in this series, especially since it was touted as being a romance between two men who could not be more different types of gays: The buff, burly detective Gabe and the lithe, smooth and somewhat flighty beauty stylist Josh."
"Absolutely loved this continuing romance of Gabe and Josh!"
"Because this is the second book in this series, all the characters have been established, and Gabe and Josh have already had their bumps and miscommunication in getting together, so this book felt like it flowed so much better."
"And this was so much more than just 'more' We got Josh coming alive in this book."
"On to the next book...."
"Josh's character is still wary of Gabe and continues to question his sincerity but tiptoes closer and closer to someone he doesn't want to be without."
"I'm not a fan of books that continue with the same characters, as they tend to be dragged out, but this set is amazing! but the story between Josh and Gabe is fabulous enough to keep me wanting more!"
Best Gay & Lesbian Literary Criticism
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year • A Publishers Weekly and The Washington Post Best Book of the Year • A New York Magazine "Future Canon" Selection • A Chicago Tribune and Seattle Times (Michael Upchurch's) Favorite Favorite Book of the Year. Elio—17, extremely well-read, sensitive and the son of a prominent expatriate professor—finds himself troublingly attracted to this year's visiting resident scholar, recruited by his father from an American university. Their shared literary interests and Jewishness help impart a sense of intimacy, and when they do consummate their passion in Oliver's room, they call each other by the other's name. What begins as a casual friendship develops into a passionate yet clandestine affair, and the last chapters fast-forward through Elio's life to a reunion with Oliver decades later.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Set in 1988 and on the Italian Riviera, which adds to the charm and appeal of the novel, Call Me By Your Name is narrated by and tells the story of a seventeen-year-old American-Italian-Jewish youth, Elio Perlman, and his six-week, summer love affair with Oliver Ulliva, a university professor who is seven years older than Elio and who has been selected to live in Elio’s parents’ home as a guest “resident” while finishing a manuscript for publication as part of the parents’ way of aiding budding writers. Much of the first half of Call Me By Your Name has a “stream of consciousness” feeling to it as Elio, a very precocious and intelligent but shy young man, defies his better intuitions and finds himself more and more attracted to Oliver. By time both Elio and the reader are aware of Oliver’s true feelings toward the younger man, a new sense of urgency, an even greater feeling of sensuality and eroticism, and a more intense atmosphere of anxiety and impending doom enters the story—all of it exquisitely captured by Aciman’s exquisitely accomplished writing."
"Call Me By Your Name is a superlative novel that meticulously and comprehensively looks at the human condition from the folly of youth to the introspective later years. Told almost entirely from the stream of consciousness mind of a seventeen year old Elio, who simultaneously possesses intelligence beyond his years whilst embodying the insouciance of youth and trafficking in the same inane fickleness of the average teen in matters of the heart, and in him Aciman’s crafted a character that is quintessentially relatable. Oliver, the doctoral student who came to stay with him and his parents one summer in Italy, left a watermark on Elio’s soul. At seventeen he can’t possibly understand the rarity of his connection with Oliver, so he tells himself there will be another and there are, that it was never intended to last and maybe it wasn't, that is was a summer fling, but who's to say that makes it any less seminal? I’ve no doubt if I reread it in 5 or 10 yrs I’ll have a different interpretation; a change in perspective and the whole thing looks completely different and I feel like the same can be said of Elio. That place that meant so much from the berm to Mafalda and his parents to the bookstore to playing the guitar to paradise to afternoon naps and lazy days and nights spent f***ing each other’s brains out. The romantic in me wants to wallow in the heartbreak and vilify Aciman for countermanding the rules of romancelandia, but to simplify this novel in such a way, to make it solely about loss is a disservice to the narrative. Maybe I missed the point and it is solely a novel of love and loss with the primary objective being bittersweet heartbreak, but I choose to believe (this time) that Aciman deliberately penned a novel to make every reader take stock and cherish what they have, what they have had and what they will have."
"Love the way the author describes the scenery - makes me want to book tickets to Italy ASAP! I am so thankful I read this book , as I hesitated first, not knowing if I could relate to a love story about 2 young men falling in love -however it so exceeded my expectations, as it was just 2 souls who found each other."
"Call Me By Your Name is one of the most beautiful, most beautifully written novels I have ever read."
"Anyone who has loved and lost would find both pain and solace in this book - from the tingling sensation of anticipation of the first pages to the heart-shattering last five words that conclude this book."
"A beautiful and tender debut novel that depicts the learning of oneself in such sympathetic treatment and the obsessive love we feel so strongly when it is our first."