September signals the start of the official fall book season, one of the busiest times of the year for publishers and authors alike.
Some exciting fiction titles this month include Monique Truong‘s Bitter In the Mouth (Random House)—we interviewed Truong last month—and Yield (Kensington), the exciting debut from Lee Houck.
In nonfiction, we’re excited about The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings (Pantheon), a brilliant collection of James Baldwin essays edited by Lambda Award Winner Randall Kenan and Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation (Seal), an updated classic edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman (both Lambda Award Finalists). — AG
BIO/MEMOIR |
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1. A Life Like Other People’s by Alan Bennett Farrar, Straus and Giroux Alan Bennett recalls his childhood and the lives of two aunts, Kathleen and Myra; as his mother’s mental health fails, Bennett uncovers a long-held family secret in this humorous autobiography. |
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2. The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal Farrar, Straus and Giroux From Renoir to Rilke, Edmund de Waal traces five generations of Ephrussis family history by chronicling the story of a series of Japanese mini wood and ivory carvings called netsuke. |
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3. My Dog Tulip by J.R. Ackerley NYRB Classics J.R. Ackerly’s memoir of his 16-year relationship with the love of his life, a German shepherd named Tulip, is reissued in time for the release of a feature film by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger. (Movie Tie-In) |
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4. Crossing the Barriers: The Autobiography of Allan H. Spear by Allan H. Spear, forward by Barney Frank, afterward John Milton University of Minnesota Press This is the memoir of a prominent Minnesota politician and one of the country’s first openly gay elected officials, with John Milton filling in the details of Allen H. Spear’s final political accomplishments. |
YOUNG ADULT/CHILDREN |
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16. The Glass Minstrel by Hayden Thorne Cheyenne Publishing Historical novel of two 19th-century Bavarian fathers brought together by the deaths of their eldest sons, while 15-year-old Jacob struggles with an obsession with a traveling Englishman. |
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5. I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip. by John Donovan Flux Now The 40th anniversary edition of a groundbreaking classic young adult novel, which centers around a 13-year-old, his dysfunctional parents, his dog, and his evolving friendship with another boy from school. |
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6. The Perfect Family by Kathryn Shay Bold Strokes Books A 17-year-old Jamie Davidson’s coming out throws his family into turmoil, until the the family is able reconnect and redeem each other. |
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7. Z by Michael Thomas Ford Harper Teen Reality is muddled as a virtual-reality zombie-hunting game goes from the screen to streets, in a post-zombie world that is haunted by a suspicious new drug named Z. |
FICTION |
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8. Bitter In the Mouth by Monique Truong Random House A young synesthete, who can taste words, returns home to Boiling Springs, North Carolina after many years in search of identity, only to uncover family secrets and the truth about her origins. (Read our interview here) |
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9. Yield by Lee Houck Kensington Amidst a violent and gritty Manhattan, Simon, twenty-something part-time hustler, part-time hospital worker, searches for meaning, love, and healing with the help of friends in Houck’s anticipated debut. |
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10. Room by Emma Donoghue Little, Brown and Company From the point of view of 5-year-old Jack, Donaghue tells the story of a mother and a son, both kidnapping victims who live in a 11-sq-foot soundproofed cell and their escape to the “outside.” (Man Booker Shortlist) |
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11. Children of the Sun by Max Schaefer Soft Skull The lives of two gay men intersect in this shocking debut that chronicles the growth and decline of the National movement in Britain from the 70’s to the present. (Green Carnation Longlist) |
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12. Queer by William S. Burroughs; ed. by Oliver Harris Penguin The autobiographical novel follows William Lee’s pursuit of sex from bar to bar in the American expatriate scene of Mexico City in the 1950’s. Written in 1952, but not published till 1985. (25th-Anniversary Edition) |
NONFICTION |
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13. Gender Outlaws The Next Generation Edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman Seal Press Essays, commentary, comic art, and conversation from a diverse group of trans-spectrum people who live barrier-breaking lives, edited by two Lambda Award finalists. |
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14. The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin, ed. by Randall Kenan Pantheon Essays, articles, polemics, reviews, and interviews by James Baldwin that have never before appeared in book form, with an introduction by Lambda Award winning author Randall Kenan. |
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15. Queer Twin Cities by Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project University of Minnesota Press The Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project collective offers a critical analysis of the queer history, politics, and spaces of the Twin Cities told though oral history, archival research, and ethnography. |
ROMANCE & EROTICA |
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17. Match Maker by Alan Chin Dreamspinner Press A shamed professional tennis player’s life becomes endangered when he attempts to redeem his career and save his fragile relationship by coaching his protege to a Grand Slam championship win. |
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18. Lessons in Power: Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 4 by Charlie Cochrane Samhain Publishing Two Cambridge lovers are suspected of murder when an investigation reveals the victim to be one of the men’s sexual abusers from years ago. |
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19. Body Language by Kenna White Bella Books Bestselling author Kenna White takes readers on a breathless journey through the beauties of Venice and the romance of a lifetime. |
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20. Best of Best Gay Erotica 3 by Richard Labonté Cleis Press A collection of the most daring stories from the past five years of the Best Gay Erotica series, including stories from Simon Sheppard, Charlie Vásquez, Alana Noêl Voth, Tim Doody, and Thom Wolf. |
MYSTERY & CRIME |
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22. Cockeyed A Donald Strachey Mystery by Richard Stevenson MLR Press The eleventh Strachey novel is part mystery, part screwball comedy, and entirely serious in its exploration of the multiple ways of being gay in America. |
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23. Fever of the Bone: by Val Mcdermid Harper Collins The murder of teenager Jennifer Maidment marks the start of a chilling campaign, targeting a seeming unconnected group of young people who have been groomed by the killer via a social networking site. |
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24. Water Mark by J.M. Redmann Bold Strokes The sixth book in the Lambda Award-winning Micky Knight mystery series, Redmann’s P.I. uncovers a web of crime and murder that spans generations in pre-Katrina New Orleans. |
SPECULATIVE |
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25. Mangames by Denis Chabot-Martin StarBooks Press Through his background as a journalist, Denis-Martin Chabot relays this story adapted from actual news stories of sexual predators in Montreal. |
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26. Amorous Things by Kody Boye Library of Horror Press In this collection of short stories, Kody Boye explores the world of affection and the lives impacted by the world’s most simple emotion: love. |