My all time favorite is The Rushes by John Rechy. It is about a group of bar buddies who show up at a bar called The Rushes, and the adventures that ensue. It starts out around 8pm and ends at around 8am. Each character's emotions and issues are displayed as they intertwine; making for an interesting evening.
City of Night by John Rechy was written in the early sixties. It's now considered a cult classic. I purchased the paperback in a drugstore and hid the book in my school locker. I created a book cover so no one would know what I was reading. I'm so happy times are different today. And I got to experience them at age 77.
Most of the contemporary books I wasn't familiar with, but I've added Nevada, The Prettiest Star, and Despised and Rejected to my to read list. I love those under the radar classics.
A few of these are new to me. It's nice to see Tales of the City get some love. The Prettiest Star sounds quite interesting to me, I'll need to keep an eye out for that. Did you ever watch the mini series "It's A Sin" by Russell T Davies? That was very good/tragic and might have similar beats.
Excellent list! I’ve read Giovanni’s Room, Nevada, and The Death of Vivek Oji…all of which I loved. Definitely added some of the modern books to the TBR. I’m super excited because I just bought a copy of Emezi’s Little Rot and am looking forward to reading it. :
Great list, Brian, and great idea for a video. I’ve read E.M. Forster and Baldwin. A few titles that I might include: Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle ( dated now as it’s from 1973, but it’s iconic); Michael Cunningham’s The Hours; and Allison Bechdel’s Fun Home. One I’d like to read is Audrey Lorde’s Zami, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Thanks for this video, Brian.
@@BookishTexan I think RubyFruit was considered a welcome relief after years of the depressing Well of Loneliness being the only book available about lesbians. It's a very life-affirming novel. I also adored the film, THE HOURS, adapted from the novel. I think it's the best book that Michael Cunningham ever wrote.
Good show, you always have a different slant on things. I appreciate that. My favorite L.B.G.T.Q. plus novel will always be Remembrance of Things Past by Proust. I also like Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy.
Great list! I looked for a copy of Despised and Rejected while I was in Ireland and Scotland but never found it. The Prettiest Star is a book I think a lot more people should read.
Great list, Brian. I would also have Despised and Rejected and the Baldwin novels on my list. I will recommend A Burning by Megha Majumdar which has a trans character who has to make decisions akin to what you mentioned about Vivek Oji. I thought it was very good.
Sharing good books is always welcome! Fun fact I recently became aware of. Most of my reading this year has been queer, as SFF seems to have found it easier to include queer characters without making their trauma the topic of their inclusion or existence. I find myself not reaching for the literary LGBTQIA+ books as so often they deal with struggles and drama and not saying tht''s not valid or important, just I'd much rather have more fun stories where it's a side note that the characters are queer and they get to have other things going on as books about cis people do. I hope you understand what I want to say with this.
I think I do. I think it’s great to have LGBTQIA+ characters in books where that part if their identity isn’t the focus of the book and the book is fun. That was true for me with Darryl and Nevada from my list.
As a literary list, you might start with Djuna Barnes' seminal modernist fiction Nightwood. There's others mentioned by other commenters but in terms of major American 20thC fiction, Nightwood tops the list for its humor and structuralist weirdness. The placement and combination of practically every word makes you wonder. As you slide off the Pont Vecchio into the Arno.
If I understood Nightwood better I might have listed it. There is some beautiful writing, great characters, cool modernist touches, and it is a very important book. But not quite in my own top 10
Know half of them One of My favourite authors is Paul Russell Sea of Tranquility The Coming Storm Both great books in My opinión. Thanks for putting this list !
I still haven’t read _Freshwater_ which I have, but I’ve begun to think that since Akwaeke Emezi has so many books maybe I should choose a little more carefully and go for _Vivek Oji_ or something newer.
Why do we constantly gravitate to pain filled novels and films? I find the ones which just accept the fact that the characters are gay and tell us the story they want to tell are far better than the doom and gloom novels you listed.
I don’t think all of the books on my list are doom and gloom, Tales of the City, Darryl, Nevada, are all more funny than doom and gloom, but I see your point.
@thomasscott4877 Perhaps because until recently being gay was often a cause of doom & gloom? If you were open about it you were subject to social ostracized, discremination, and perhaps even violence & imprisonment. If you were "closeted" you'd be lonely, frustrated, & unhappy. It has gotten somewhat better in most Western countries, but it is still true to a certain extent.
Interesting list. I"m unfamiliar with the new authors, but Baldwin and Forester I do know. If I had to come up with authors I'd have Gore Vidal's "City and the Pillar" and "Myra Breckenridge." The latter is hilarious and amazing it was a top 10 best seller. Jean Genet's "Our Lady of the Flowers" and Wilfred Owen's poetry, are some authors that immediately come to mind.
'Two Serious Ladies', the sole novel (published in 1943) by Jane Bowles (1917-1973), is a singular work with strong lesbian themes created by a lesbian writer. The story traces the path of two women acquaintances towards an idiosyncratically realized state of sanctity; I know of no other novel quite like it. 'The Carnivorous Lamb' ('L'Agneau carnivore' in the original French) is a strange 1975 novel by the Spaniard Agustín Gómez-Arcos (1933-1998) that uses the shocking motif of an incestuous romance between two brothers to comment sardonically on the stagnant, ossified state of Franco's Spain (from which regime the author had fled to France). Both these novels are provocative and challenging, but rewarding.
British Gay literature not here. ' The Swimming Pool Library ' by Alan Hollinghurst, and that is just for starters and no European Gay literature either.
Alitini and Forester were British. Baltasar is Catalan. Emezi is Nigerian. De Robertis is Uraguayan American. So three European writers out of 10 and two who, though they now live in the US were born outside the US.
The whole notion of an LGBTQIA+ novel is ridiculous, no? I mean, the novels are always about something that goes beyond mere identity. Proust? Mann? Henry James? The list is kind of endless. In any case, Hollinghurst's "The Line of Beauty" is simply a great novel, mainly about real politics rather than identity politics. Please, let's dispense with the reductive labeling.
Thanks for recommending the Hollinghurst. I am hopeful that we are close to a time when it doesn’t feel necessary to identify a work with an aspect of its author’s identity, I just don’t think we are there yet. I think identifying great books by traditionally marginalized people is still a valuable exercise.
They may be your favorites but they aren’t the best ones; any list of gay novels ( as though novels have any sexuality as opposed to gay themes or characters!)which doesn’t include Isherwood isn’t a good list.
My all time favorite is The Rushes by John Rechy. It is about a group of bar buddies who show up at a bar called The Rushes, and the adventures that ensue. It starts out around 8pm and ends at around 8am. Each character's emotions and issues are displayed as they intertwine; making for an interesting evening.
That sounds really interesting. Thank you for the recommendation.
Thanks for these recommendations. I think I am going to start with Darren and Vivek Oji. I am so glad to have discovered your channel 😊
Thank you for the kind words. I hope you enjoy the books.
City of Night by John Rechy was written in the early sixties. It's now considered a cult classic. I purchased the paperback in a drugstore and hid the book in my school locker. I created a book cover so no one would know what I was reading. I'm so happy times are different today. And I got to experience them at age 77.
@@stevenpace1849 Thank you for the recommendation and the story. I am very glad things have changed and hope we don’t go back.
A lot of these are new to me. Thanks for the recommendations
@@JamesRuchala Thanks for watching.
Excellent video, Brian. Very well done in all respects. 🩷❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
@@TKTalksBooks Thank you Tess
Most of the contemporary books I wasn't familiar with, but I've added Nevada, The Prettiest Star, and Despised and Rejected to my to read list. I love those under the radar classics.
@@Edgea22 I hope you enjoy them all. Thanks for your comment.
A few of these are new to me. It's nice to see Tales of the City get some love. The Prettiest Star sounds quite interesting to me, I'll need to keep an eye out for that. Did you ever watch the mini series "It's A Sin" by Russell T Davies? That was very good/tragic and might have similar beats.
The Prettiest Star was pretty tough, but powerful. I have not seen It’s a Sin, but will look for it. Thanks Graham
@@BookishTexan if it is available over there it is well worth a watch.
Excellent list! I’ve read Giovanni’s Room, Nevada, and The Death of Vivek Oji…all of which I loved. Definitely added some of the modern books to the TBR. I’m super excited because I just bought a copy of Emezi’s Little Rot and am looking forward to reading it. :
I am looking forward to A Little Rot as well. Thanks Caitlin
Great list, Brian, and great idea for a video. I’ve read E.M. Forster and Baldwin. A few titles that I might include: Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle ( dated now as it’s from 1973, but it’s iconic); Michael Cunningham’s The Hours; and Allison Bechdel’s Fun Home. One I’d like to read is Audrey Lorde’s Zami, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Thanks for this video, Brian.
I should read Rubyfruit Jungle. My only knowledge of it comes the movie Educating Rita. I love the movie adaptation f The Hours.
@@BookChatWithPat8668 Zami is wonderful!
@@BookishTexan I think RubyFruit was considered a welcome relief after years of the depressing Well of Loneliness being the only book available about lesbians. It's a very life-affirming novel. I also adored the film, THE HOURS, adapted from the novel. I think it's the best book that Michael Cunningham ever wrote.
@@BookChatWithPat8668 That explains why it could be used as a cultural reference in a movie.
Good show, you always have a different slant on things. I appreciate that. My favorite L.B.G.T.Q. plus novel will always be Remembrance of Things Past by Proust. I also like Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy.
@@MarkGentry-xn6te Thanks. You know I didn’t realize the movie Midnight Cowboy was an adaptation from a novel until I read your comment.
Great list! I looked for a copy of Despised and Rejected while I was in Ireland and Scotland but never found it. The Prettiest Star is a book I think a lot more people should read.
Thanks Greg. I feel like The Prettiest Star faded from public awareness too quickly.
I listened to Imogen Binnie's Nevada based on your earlier review. The view of before & after explained in the author's update was fascinating.
@@MMjones6459 I kind of regretted reading Binnie’s afterword. I like the book so much that I didn’t really want any extra.
Great list. Shows me how much reading I have to do in this area.
Thanks Heidi.
Enjoyed glad I found your channel!
Thank you very much.
loved giovanni's room.. the prettiest star is on my shelf to be read soon!!
It’s a powerful read.
That’s a great list, Brian!
Thank you Leo
Great list, Brian. I would also have Despised and Rejected and the Baldwin novels on my list. I will recommend A Burning by Megha Majumdar which has a trans character who has to make decisions akin to what you mentioned about Vivek Oji. I thought it was very good.
@@LaurieInTexas Thanks for the recommendation Laurie. Nice to know we share some listed books.
Adore Cantoras and wish more people had it on their radar. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on it!
It is a very good book. I wish more had read it as well.
Sharing good books is always welcome! Fun fact I recently became aware of. Most of my reading this year has been queer, as SFF seems to have found it easier to include queer characters without making their trauma the topic of their inclusion or existence. I find myself not reaching for the literary LGBTQIA+ books as so often they deal with struggles and drama and not saying tht''s not valid or important, just I'd much rather have more fun stories where it's a side note that the characters are queer and they get to have other things going on as books about cis people do. I hope you understand what I want to say with this.
I think I do. I think it’s great to have LGBTQIA+ characters in books where that part if their identity isn’t the focus of the book and the book is fun. That was true for me with Darryl and Nevada from my list.
As a literary list, you might start with Djuna Barnes' seminal modernist fiction Nightwood. There's others mentioned by other commenters but in terms of major American 20thC fiction, Nightwood tops the list for its humor and structuralist weirdness. The placement and combination of practically every word makes you wonder. As you slide off the Pont Vecchio into the Arno.
If I understood Nightwood better I might have listed it. There is some beautiful writing, great characters, cool modernist touches, and it is a very important book. But not quite in my own top 10
James Purdy's Eustace Chisholm and the Works...Best gay novel by an underrated writer.
Thank you for the recommendation. I had not heard of the book or the writer.
Loved this video! Have you read The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith? I loved both the book and the film adaptation.
I haven’t read any Highsmith which is a real hole in my reading. Thanks for the recommendation
I loved Vivek Oji so emotional!
@@MeMyDogAndBooks Me too!
I really enjoyed Cantoras. I need to get to some of the classics on your list.
@@alldbooks9165 It is a book the deserves wider recognition I think.
Know half of them
One of My favourite authors is
Paul Russell
Sea of Tranquility
The Coming Storm
Both great books in My opinión. Thanks for putting this list !
@@cgemexico8981 Thank you for watching and for the recommendations.
Great video man!
@@lookmomnohands0391 Thank you.
"The City And The Pillar" by Gore Vidal 1948. Not on your list?
Thank you for the recommendation. I haven’t read that title.
Nothing by Alan Hollinghurst?
@@Johnnydazguy I’ve never read Hollinghurst but I will add him to my infinite TBR. Thank you
I still haven’t read _Freshwater_ which I have, but I’ve begun to think that since Akwaeke Emezi has so many books maybe I should choose a little more carefully and go for _Vivek Oji_ or something newer.
I prefer Vivek Oji, but Freshwater was very good.
Another great one, of course is Brideshead Revisited.
I gave intended to read that for decades. Thanks for the reminder.
Ooh a list. Irresistible. And I have only read half of these so several to add to my long term TBR.
@@scallydandlingaboutthebook2711 I love making and watching list videos.
Mary Renault's THE CHARIOTEER and THE FRIENDLY YOUNG LADIES ( and her books set in ancient Greece); Radcliffe Hall's THE WELL OF LONLINESS.
Thank you for those recommendations. Renault is not an author I had heard of.
Why do we constantly gravitate to pain filled novels and films? I find the ones which just accept the fact that the characters are gay and tell us the story they want to tell are far better than the doom and gloom novels you listed.
I don’t think all of the books on my list are doom and gloom, Tales of the City, Darryl, Nevada, are all more funny than doom and gloom, but I see your point.
@thomasscott4877 Perhaps because until recently being gay was often a cause of doom & gloom? If you were open about it you were subject to social ostracized, discremination, and perhaps even violence & imprisonment. If you were "closeted" you'd be lonely, frustrated, & unhappy.
It has gotten somewhat better in most Western countries, but it is still true to a certain extent.
Enjoyed the video but surprised at no YOUNG MUNGO or SHUGGIE BAIN.
God, can Douglas Stuart write! Shuggie Bain was so cathartic to read. I was ugly crying at the end of the book.
@@leonhayes188 So agreed! I have Ari Shapiro to thank for turning me on to YOUNG MUNGO, my big bawler.
@@BostonsRandJ The ending, where the brother takes the blame for the deaths....Wow.
I still haven’t read them. I will though.
What about Andre Gide's the Counterfeiters? Read Genet or Rethy?
I’ve never read either so thank you for the recommendations
Never too late 🌈
Interesting list. I"m unfamiliar with the new authors, but Baldwin and Forester I do know.
If I had to come up with authors I'd have Gore Vidal's "City and the Pillar" and "Myra Breckenridge." The latter is hilarious and amazing it was a top 10 best seller. Jean Genet's "Our Lady of the Flowers" and Wilfred Owen's poetry, are some authors that immediately come to mind.
@@LibroParadiso-ep4zt I have a copy of Myra Breckenridge but have never read it. Have not read Jean Genet. I have read some of Owen’s poetry.
'Two Serious Ladies', the sole novel (published in 1943) by Jane Bowles (1917-1973), is a singular work with strong lesbian themes created by a lesbian writer. The story traces the path of two women acquaintances towards an idiosyncratically realized state of sanctity; I know of no other novel quite like it.
'The Carnivorous Lamb' ('L'Agneau carnivore' in the original French) is a strange 1975 novel by the Spaniard Agustín Gómez-Arcos (1933-1998) that uses the shocking motif of an incestuous romance between two brothers to comment sardonically on the stagnant, ossified state of Franco's Spain (from which regime the author had fled to France).
Both these novels are provocative and challenging, but rewarding.
Thank you for both of these recommendations. Both sound really interesting.
Back where he started - Jay Quinn
@@DC-vw7yf Thank you for the recommendation.
I really want to find a copy of the Allatini!
I was surprised at how engaging it was. I think I had set my expectations too low.
❤🧡💛💚💙💜
British Gay literature not here. ' The Swimming Pool Library ' by Alan Hollinghurst, and that is just for starters and no European Gay literature either.
Alitini and Forester were British. Baltasar is Catalan. Emezi is Nigerian. De Robertis is Uraguayan American. So three European writers out of 10 and two who, though they now live in the US were born outside the US.
Try “To Be Chosen” by Michael Travis Jasper
John Rechy's novels.....
You are the second person to recommend them. I will definitely look them up. Thanks!
📚💙
Thanks Charlie 💙
The whole notion of an LGBTQIA+ novel is ridiculous, no? I mean, the novels are always about something that goes beyond mere identity. Proust? Mann? Henry James? The list is kind of endless. In any case, Hollinghurst's "The Line of Beauty" is simply a great novel, mainly about real politics rather than identity politics. Please, let's dispense with the reductive labeling.
Thanks for recommending the Hollinghurst. I am hopeful that we are close to a time when it doesn’t feel necessary to identify a work with an aspect of its author’s identity, I just don’t think we are there yet. I think identifying great books by traditionally marginalized people is still a valuable exercise.
They may be your favorites but they aren’t the best ones; any list of gay novels ( as though novels have any sexuality as opposed to gay themes or characters!)which doesn’t include Isherwood isn’t a good list.
The video makes it clear this is “My Top 10” not “The Top 10”. Feel free to create your own.
⚛😀❤