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SUMMER IN THE CITY 2019: Page turners for the beach or pool

‘Love Falls on Us,’ A Wanderer’s Love Letter’ among summer book highlights

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2019 summer books, gay news, Washington Blade
‘Love Falls on Us,’ A Wanderer’s Love Letter’ among summer book highlights. (Book covers courtesy of the respective publishers)

Looking for some refreshing page turners for the summer? Dive into these new LGBTQ novels that are light on the mind. 

Award-winning journalist Robbie Corey-Boulet takes on the LGBTQ movement in Africa and how it differs from those in the United States and Europe in his novel “Love Falls on Us: A Story of American Ideas and African LGBT Lives” (Aug. 15). 

He argues that the international LGBT activists and allies have created winners and losers within the movement. If someone from an African country identifies with the those of the global movement, then they find support. If their identity doesn’t happen to align so neatly, funding and care can be unavailable.

Especially in a world where LGBT rights are being reversed even in “developed” countries, Corey-Boulet investigates the right way to address LGBT issues in Africa. This novel is for those who care to know the difference in approach. 

Upcoming pop artist, Boy Untitled (Mark Tennyson), is releasing his first self-titled EP and accompanying illustrated book of poetry “A Wanderer’s Love Letter to the Universe” (out this month). Both the EP and book reflect a tumultuous time in Tennyson’s life over the course of two years. There are five parts representing stagnation, recognition, action, vision and evolution. Tennyson is a Los Angeles-based artist who began their career in the art scene and slowly transitioned to the sultry, electronica side of pop music.

“Diary of a Drag Queen” (out now) is exactly what the title suggests. Crystal Rasmussen takes readers through her crazy life on a daily basis over the course of a year. She spills the details about her experiences dating men three times her age, sleeping with a VIP for her journalism career, being fired by a well-known magazine and much more. If you’re looking for a new perspective on life, this is the book for you. 

Tehlor Kay Mejia tells the tale of Daniel Vargas, the top student at the Medio School for Girls in “We Set the Dark on Fire” (out now). Daniel has two options after graduation: maintain her husband’s household or raise his children. 

The only problem is that her paperwork was forged by her parents to give her a better opportunity. Although there’s a few hiccups at her graduation, she gets through the day without anyone discovering her secret. Her new challenge is to spy for a resistance group causing a shift in her newest options: hold onto the privilege her parents sacrificed for her or pursue freeing Medio and a forbidden love. 

If you enjoy the tale of King Arthur, “Once & Future” (out now) by Cori McCarthey and Amy Rose Capetta is the novel for you. The main character, Ari Helix, crash lands on Old Earth and pulls the legendary sword from its place making her the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Merlin, who has aged backwards and is now a teenager, informs Ari that together they must break the curse that keeps bringing back Arthur. They must save humankind, defeat the oppressive government and bring peace to all. No big deal. 

“Like a Love Story” (out now) follows three teenagers impacted by AIDS. Abdi Nazimian uses the stories of Reza, Judy and Art to address the complexities of being gay during the 1980s. Reza is an Iranian boy who knows he’s gay but won’t admit it because he worries about the disease affecting him. Judy is a fashion designer who has a strong relationship with her uncle who has AIDS and is active with ACT UP. Art is Judy’s best friend who rebels against his conservative parents by photographing the epidemic and is the only out gay student at school. Somehow Reza and Judy end up dating leaving room for heartbreak and disappointment.

“Red, White & Royal Blue” (out now) is a romantic comedy by Casey McQuiston where the First Son, Alex Claremont-Diaz, and his nemesis, Prince Henry, are forced into a fake friendship to help with his mother’s re-election campaign. After a confrontation between the two was leaked to the tabloids, they were forced to truly get to know one another and their once fake friendship turns into a secret relationship. With President Claremont’s campaign picking up, Alex must make a decision on which matters to him more: his political image or the potential love of his life. 

In their first published work, Mason Deaver delivers “I Wish You All the Best” (out now). It’s a story following a non-binary (like the author) character, Ben De Backer, who has recently come out to his family. Disowned and thrown out on the street, Ben has no other choice but to go live with his sister and her fiance who, along with their therapist, are the only other ones to know their identity. Ben tries their best to get through the rest of their senior year by keeping a low profile however, Nathan Allan has other plans for them. 

In poet Ocean Vuong’s debut novel “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” (out now), he explores topics such as race, class and masculinity. The novel is a written letter from a son to his mother who cannot read. It unearths the family history of Little Dog whose roots stem from Vietnam. Written when the speaker is in his late 20s, Vuong takes readers through Little Dog’s life that includes information that even his mother has no clue about including an unforgettable revelation. 

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Books

I’m a lesbian and LGBTQ books would have changed my life

Misguided parents pushing Montgomery County court case

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(Photo by gOrlica/Bigstock)

As a child born in Maryland in the 80’s, I had very few LGBTQ+ role models other than Elton John and Ellen DeGeneres. In high school, I went through the motions of going out on Friday nights with boyfriends and dancing with them at prom, but I felt nothing. I desperately wanted to fit in, and it took me until my senior year of high school to finally admit to myself that I was different – and that it hurt too much to hide it anymore. 

When I think back on those years, I feel the heartache and pain all over again. I used to lay awake at night begging God not to make me gay. When a boy on my Cross Country team accused me and my friends of being lesbians, I scoffed and said, “You wish.” I hid my true self in cheap wine coolers while my hate for myself festered. 

I found healing in books, my creative writing class, and my school’s literary magazine. Writing allowed me to hold up a mirror to myself and see that I could be many things: a loving daughter and sister, a supportive friend, a dedicated member of the Cross Country team, and also a girl who wanted a girlfriend. In my love poems, I evolved from ambiguous pronouns to distinctly feminine ones. When I felt ready to tell my best friend, I showed her one of my poems. To my surprise, the world did not end. She smiled and said, “It’s a good poem. Are you ready to go to the mall?” 

I’m one of the lucky ones. When I finally did come out to my parents, they told me they would always love me and want me to be happy. That’s not the case for more than 40% of LGBTQ+ youth, who are kicked out of their homes after they find the courage to tell their family who they truly are. We are facing a mental health epidemic among LGBTQ+ youth, with 41% seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, the vast majority living in homes that aren’t accepting. 

Some of the dissenting parents in Mahmoud vs. Taylor argue that inclusive books aren’t appropriate for elementary school kids. To clarify, these books are simply available in schools – they aren’t required reading for anyone. There is nothing sexual or provocative about stories like “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” or “Jacob’s Room to Choose” that send a very simple, non-political message: We all are different, and we all deserve to be treated with respect. Opting out of books that show diversity, out of fear that it might “make kids gay” fails to recognize a fundamental truth: art, pop culture, even vegan food cannot make someone gay. I was born this way. There were times I wished that I wasn’t, and that was because I didn’t have books like these telling me it was OK to be who I am. 

I wonder how many parents opting out of these books will end up having a LGBTQ+ child. It is both horrible and true that these parents have two choices: love and accept your LGBTQ+ child, or risk losing them. Now that I’m a parent myself, I feel more than ever that our one aim in parenthood is to love our kids for exactly who they are, not who we want them to be. 

For several years, a grocery store in Silver Spring, Md., displayed a poem I wrote for my mother in my school’s literary magazine. I wrote about how she taught me that red and blue popples can play together, and that Barbie doesn’t need Ken to be happy. I imagine that maybe, a girl passing through the store read that poem and saw a glimpse of herself inside. That spark of recognition – of I’m not the only one – is all I wanted as a child. I was able to find my happiness and my community, and I want every LGBTQ+ child to be able to do the same. 


Joanna Hoffman was born and raised in Silver Spring, Md. She is the author of the poetry collection ‘Running for Trap Doors’ (Sibling Rivalry Press) and is the communications director for LPAC, the nation’s only organization dedicated to advancing the political representation of LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary candidates. 

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A boy-meets-boy, family-mess story with heat

New book offers a stunning, satisfying love story

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(Book cover image courtesy of Random House)

‘When the Harvest Comes’
By Denne Michele Norris
c.2025, Random House
$28/304 pages

Happy is the bride the sun shines on.

Of all the clichés that exist about weddings, that’s the one that seems to make you smile the most. Just invoking good weather and bright sunshine feels like a cosmic blessing on the newlyweds and their future. It’s a happy omen for bride and groom or, as in the new book “When the Harvest Comes” by Denne Michele Norris, for groom and groom.

Davis Freeman never thought he could love or be loved like this.

He was wildly, wholeheartedly, mind-and-soul smitten with Everett Caldwell, and life was everything that Davis ever wanted. He was a successful symphony musician in New York. They had an apartment they enjoyed and friends they cherished. Now it was their wedding day, a day Davis had planned with the man he adored, the details almost down to the stitches in their attire. He’d even purchased a gorgeous wedding gown that he’d never risk wearing.

He knew that Everett’s family loved him a lot, but Davis didn’t dare tickle the fates with a white dress on their big day. Everett’s dad, just like Davis’s own father, had considerable reservations about his son marrying another man – although Everett’s father seemed to have come to terms with his son’s bisexuality. Davis’s father, whom Davis called the Reverend, never would. Years ago, father and son had a falling-out that destroyed any chance of peace between Davis and his dad; in fact, the door slammed shut to any reconciliation.

But Davis tried not to think about that. Not on his wedding day. Not, unbeknownst to him, as the Reverend was rushing toward the wedding venue, uninvited but not unrepentant. Not when there was an accident and the Reverend was killed, miles away and during the nuptials.

Davis didn’t know that, of course, as he was marrying the love of his life. Neither did Everett, who had familial problems of his own, including homophobic family members who tried (but failed) to pretend otherwise.

Happy is the groom the sun shines on. But when the storm comes, it can be impossible to remain sunny.

What can be said about “When the Harvest Comes?” It’s a romance with a bit of ghost-pepper-like heat that’s not there for the mere sake of titillation. It’s filled with drama, intrigue, hate, characters you want to just slap, and some in bad need of a hug.

In short, this book is quite stunning.

Author Denne Michele Norris offers a love story that’s everything you want in this genre, including partners you genuinely want to get to know, in situations that are real. This is done by putting readers inside the characters’ minds, letting Davis and Everett themselves explain why they acted as they did, mistakes and all. Don’t be surprised if you have to read the last few pages twice to best enjoy how things end. You won’t be sorry.

If you want a complicated, boy-meets-boy, family-mess kind of book with occasional heat, “When the Harvest Comes” is your book. Truly, this novel shines.

The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.

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Chronicling disastrous effects of ‘conversion therapy’

New book uncovers horror, unexpected humor of discredited practice

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(Book cover image courtesy of Jessica Kingsley Publishers)

‘Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy’
By Lucas F. W. Wilson
c.2025, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
$21.95/190 pages

You’re a few months in, and it hasn’t gotten any easier.

You made your New Year’s resolutions with forethought, purpose, and determination but after all this time, you still struggle, ugh. You’ve backslid. You’ve cheated because change is hard. It’s sometimes impossible. And in the new book, “Shame-Sex Attraction” by Lucas F. W. Wilson, it can be exceptionally traumatic.

Progress does not come without problems.

While it’s true that the LGBTQ community has been adversely affected by the current administration, there are still things to be happy about when it comes to civil rights and acceptance. Still, says Wilson, one “particularly slow-moving aspect… has been the fight against what is widely known as conversion therapy.”

Such practices, he says, “have numerous damaging, death-dealing, and no doubt disastrous consequences.” The stories he’s collected in this volume reflect that, but they also mirror confidence and strength in the face of detrimental treatment.

Writer Gregory Elsasser-Chavez was told to breathe in something repellent every time he thought about other men. He says, in the end, he decided not to “pray away the gay.” Instead, he quips, he’d “sniff it away.”

D. Apple became her “own conversation therapist” by exhausting herself with service to others as therapy. Peter Nunn’s father took him on a surprise trip, but the surprise was a conversion facility; Nunn’s father said if it didn’t work, he’d “get rid of” his 15-year-old son. Chaim Levin was forced to humiliate himself as part of his therapy.

Lexie Bean struggled to make a therapist understand that they didn’t want to be a man because they were “both.” Jordan Sullivan writes of the years it takes “to re-integrate and become whole” after conversion therapy. Chris Csabs writes that he “tried everything to find the root of my problem” but “nothing so far had worked.”

Says Syre Klenke of a group conversion session, “My heart shattered over and over as people tried to console and encourage each other…. I wonder if each of them is okay and still with us today.”

Here’s a bit of advice for reading “Shame-Sex Attraction”: dip into the first chapter, maybe the second, then go back and read the foreword and introduction, and resume.

The reason: author Lucas F. W. Wilson’s intro is deep and steep, full of footnotes and statistics, and if you’re not prepared or you didn’t come for the education, it might scare you away. No, the subtitle of this book is likely why you’d pick the book up so because that’s what you really wanted, indulge before backtracking.

You won’t be sorry; the first stories are bracing and they’ll steel you for the rest, for the emotion and the tears, the horror and the unexpected humor.

Be aware that there are triggers all over this book, especially if you’ve been subjected to anything like conversion therapy yourself. Remember, though, that the survivors are just that: survivors, and their strength is what makes this book worthwhile. Even so, though “Shame-Sex Attraction” is an essential read, that doesn’t make it any easier.

The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.

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