Rainbow Christmas stockings
It is that time of year again when visions of the sugar plum fairy dance in our heads. If nothing else, they provide an easy distraction from the stress of holiday shopping. That escape eventually ends in panic purchases of natty plaid scarves for everyone … just like last year. This season, perhaps a book might provide a more suitable gift.
Consulting with our guru of the LGBTQ+ written word, Carl Szatmary, proprietor of Milwaukee’s Outwards Books for just shy of three decades, I can offer a broad spectrum of his recommended reads as seasonal stocking stuffers for all the literati on your list (or yourself!).
Of course, a good romantic comedy is perfect to keep the holiday mood lighthearted. Szatmary’s titles in that genre include Dahlia Adler’s Going Bicoastal. Set in the Big Apple and Los Angeles, this young adult rom-com finds Natalya Fox seeking her happily-ever-after. Faced with choosing between summer in the city with her dad and her girl crush or in LA with her estranged mom, she picks both. But LA presents a surprise and he’s … well, read Going Bicoastal and find out.
Another, with a nod to the comedic genre of not-so traditional weddings, is a classic gay rom-com, Big Gay Wedding: A Novel, by Byron Lane. Inevitably, fun and glitter-filled hilarity ensues when Barnett Duran and his groom descend upon the rural Louisiana rescue farm run by his widowed mom. The pair also invite a couple of hundred friends.
In a more serious category, Language of Love and Loss by Bart Yates (a prolific publisher and familiar author to gay readers) has been called “bittersweet, hilarious and moving.” The author puts Noah York in the predicament of coming home to New Hampshire to take care of his mother with ALS. Like any return to one’s roots, the reluctant Noah discovers truths he never knew mattered.
The Late Americans
Set in Iowa City, a more serious yet humorous novel is acclaimed author Brandon Taylor’s The Late Americans, the story of four friends, one queer, one kind of queer, a woman and a straight man who confront their relationships and their individual uncertain futures. They come to a life-altering moment of reckoning. Named the “most anticipated book of the year,” critics hailed this intimate and erudite work as the most wonderful book Taylor has ever written.
Szatmary also named several lesbian- and trans-themed works to round out the list. The Guardian Book of the Year, New York Times Editor’s Choice Selection and longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, Selby Wynn Schwartz’s debut novel, After Sappho, re-imagines feminist life at the turn of the 20th century. Called “a luminous meditation on creativity, education and identity,” the work follows three famous women, Rina Faccio, Romaine Brooks and Virginia Woolf, “who claim the right to their own lives.”
Then for the history and nostalgia, there is Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Lesbian Bars in America, a nonfiction travelogue in which humorist Krista Burton explores the how and why of the decline from 206 lesbian bars in 1987 to today’s couple of dozen (including Milwaukee’s Walker’s Pint). Highly recommended as a fun non-fiction with a trans story included, Moby Dyke is filled with personal memories, local color and queer culture.
End Papers by Jennifer Savran Kelly promises to appeal to genderqueer, trans and nonbinary readers. Its story finds a queer book conservator struggling with her gender presentation. She discovers a letter with lesbian content hidden in a book and sets off on a quest to track down its author, finding life in the process.
Pageboy by Academy award nominee and trans advocate Elliot Page is getting hype. The coming-of-age memoir, praised by the Washington Post as “eloquent and enthralling” and described as a “love letter to the power of being seen,” shares the author’s backstage screen story of Hollywood with a range of conversations on love, gender and mental health.
Another trans title, Bellies by Nicole Dian, is a cute, fun novel that begins as a boy meets boy with Ming and Tom’s first encounter at a drag show. Their affair covers the globe but when Ming announces his transition, things take a turn, forcing each to answer the question “Is it worth losing a part of yourself to become who you are?”
Finally, the last of Szatmary’s trans suggestions is Mattie Lubchansky’s Boys Weekend, a wacky, satirical and surreal horror story in graphic novel format (all the rage now), a genre of faster storytelling. Sammie, having transitioned a year prior, has been invited to be Best Man at a friend’s wedding and attends the bachelor weekend at a posh hotel with the “boys.” Aside from the obvious conflict that ensues, things turn even more awkward when it is discovered that a murderous cult is also staying at the hotel and is dismembering guests.
On a more serious note, Asylum: A Memoir & Manifesto by Edafe Okporo offers an engaging read following the life of an outed gay man in Nigeria where a new law allows the government to kill homosexuals. Buying a one-way ticket to New York City, Okporo’s memoir covers his start in America, seeking to help others and finding support for immigrants. The straight-forward narrative is also a Nigerian gay love story. As Szatmary notes, “it’s rare to find a book set in contemporary time in the tumult of a third world country and depicting the hope for a free and just future in America.”
Whether as a thoughtful gift to an appreciative friend or for personal pleasure, a good book ennobles (and helps escape the season’s stress).
