A novel of suspense, mysticism and dark romance set in Victorian England, Sarah Walters’ Affinity tells the story of Margaret Prior, who has begun visiting the women's ward of Millbank prison, London's grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work after a suicide attempt. During her weekly visits to the prison, Margaret visits Millbank's murderers, thieves, and ladies of the night, and finds herself increasingly fascinated by one apparently innocent inmate, the mysterious spiritualist Selina Dawes. Peering into Selina’s cell, Margaret is confronted by the most erotic of visions - a woman turned toward the sun, caressing her cheek with a forbidden violet: "As I watched, she put the flower to her lips, and breathed upon it, and the purple of the petals gave a quiver and seemed to glow..."

From this point forward, Margaret’s visits take on a new meaning and obsession.  Initially skeptical of Selina's gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of séances and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last persuaded to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina's freedom. The story switches back and forth between Selina’s former life and the present time with Margaret. It is a wrenching love story with a very surprising ending.  (Gina Macaluso)

A burned out blues singer hitchhikes through a town and leaves behind a pearl- handled jackknife.  Was it done knowingly?  Five years later Willie Lee is back and settles down to make roots in that very same town.  Or at least she thinks it might be, but she's not sure.  It is a dusty mining town in New Mexico with three families that we will get to know well.

Willie Lee meets Chavela, who defines a dry arroyo:  "Like a creek with no water. It's a beautiful place, really. Broad and open to the sky." You have to love the desert to think that an arroyo is beautiful. 

Willie Lee fits in, and even gets ready to sing again, when the dam breaks and the tailings pond flows out, threatening to flood the creek and the fields; if that happens, nothing will grow there again. Willie Lee, who loves Chavela, is again not sure this place is for her.

There is a gentleness and a sweetness to Woods’ writing that grabs you and holds on to you even when she has somehow managed to wander away from the story. The book is written like a blues song, with a slow, hot sensual pace like the southwestern sun. 

It hurts to have to say anything bad about this debut novel, because the characters are so nicely drawn that you want to keep reading. But just as we get to know Willie Lee and understand her sense of humor, we lose her for three chapters, and this hurts the book’s flow somewhat. When she shows up again, the story, still in that blues rhythm, is not really about her anymore, but about the mining town and some of the tragic people who live there.

Woods’ writing sings out with exquisite insight. There is great beauty in her style - it feels as though I am looking at an exquisite gown, a work of art, but unfinished, with seams open. I hope she will keep writing.
(Joanna Peled)

In British-occupied Ireland circa 1916, independence is in the air; childhood best friends realize that they are more than that; and a jaded older man returns to the ideals of his youth. All this and more, with plenty of class, religious and national politics at play, is covered in this epic historical novel. O’Neill provides strong descriptions of life on Dublin’s noisy, and shabby streets – with its shops and pubs and lively social scenes, evoking a vibrant community loaded with the tension of a possible uprising against the British occupation.  All the while, two young men from different backgrounds, but with a strong connection, are falling in love, though one of them is unaware and then in denial of such feelings. This big, masterful work is well worth the reader’s time. (Richard DiRusso)

There are those who love to read about the lives of Hollywood celebrities. Then there’s Robert Rodi. His latest novel is a campy take-off on what you might call the Jackie Collins school of fiction. Prime-time soap star Viola Chute decides to publish her memoirs, but the man she hires to ghost write her book asks uncomfortable questions, and Viola’s trashy past comes out. This plot is really just a springboard for Rodi’s satiric jabs at the omnipresent vulgarity of celebrity “culture.” Told through e-mails, interviews, news clippings, and other forms of literary detritus, the book is one hilarious, tawdry joke after another. Sample: a brief review of one of Viola’s films, called The Trial of Joan of Arc: “Just shut up and burn her!” A quick read - perfect for those who are fed up with People Magazine-style journalism. (Chris Dashiell)

Sexual relationships are the focus in this debut collection of short stories. Gay, straight, or sometimes just not sure, Cole's characters—mostly young men living on the edge—struggle with their desires and obsessions, revealed in the book's spare, matter-of-fact prose style. Some of the best offerings include a tale of a brief relationship with a damaged street kid narrated in the form of a case study, and a story of a paraplegic yearning for love—and finding it. The author's technique of reporting the ordinary stuff that goes through people's heads, with dramatizing kept to a minimum, has a strangely provocative effect. (Chris Dashiell)

Author Chris Kenry has been a milkman, UPS driver, English teacher and house painter _ so you shouldn't get his book at the library. Go right out and fork over $23 to buy it, and give him the means to write us some more bawdy and uproarious books.

This debut novel features kept boy Jack, whose biggest worry is keeping up with his grueling Stairmaster regimen, until his lover dies without a will. Jack plods through temp misery and restaurant work, inadequate for his shop-a-holic lifestyle, until he meets the handsome hustler Ray. Then Jack takes a business class and and starts Harden Up, a male escort service. Jack and Ray attempt to live the American dream in suburban Denver, and you'll find yourself giggling and cheering them on. (Terry Nordbrock)

A fun read, chronicling the struggles of Jack Thompson, a lazy, pretty, boy toy who, through a series of unfortunate events, must make a living on his own. Sob. What does a handsome, athletic young gay man with no skills do? Open an escort service, discover something worth doing and along the way develop character. This delightful romp is a tame lighthearted look at the foibles of the denizens of Denver's gay scene. Stereotypes? Yes, but written with a flair that makes them endearing to the reader. The plot is well constructed and fully developed within the confines of the story _though the end is somewhat of a let down. A fine first novel by Kenry, a house painter in Denver, who seems to have led a pretty interesting life himself, I look forward to his next book. (Rich DiRusso)

Greta and Einar Wegener are artists living in 1925 Copenhagen. He paints small, dark pictures of the Danish bogs of his childhood and she paints larger than life portraits of opera singers and bank presidents. Greta is a large young woman from California, full of energy and determination. Einar is small, retiring and introspective.

Einar's transformation begins when he agrees to do a small favor for Greta, and poses in a silk dress, stockings and high-heeled shoes. It isn't long before Einar starts to disappear and Lili takes his place. After they move to Paris they decide that a choice needs to be made between Einar and Lili. Greta discovers a doctor in Dresden who is confident he can perform the surgery needed for Lili to be whole.

Inspired by the true story of Einar Wegener, the first man to undergo a sex-change operation, Ebershoff has fashioned a lyrical novel, drawing the reader into this tender story of unconditional love and the search for one's true self. (Laura Thomas Sullivan)

The Danish Girl is an enchanting and humane story of unconditional love, inspired by the true story of Danish painter Einar Wegener and his American-born artist wife, Greta. Einar became the first man to undergo a sex-change operation in 1930s Denmark. He is encouraged by his wife to follow her head and heart to become the person she truly feels she is, Lili. It is an unforgettable story of love, transformation, and letting go. (Gina Macaluso)

This inspired second novel by Cuban-born journalist Obejas is a complex blend of cultural influences. Born in Cuba as Castro seized power, heroine Alejandra and her parents escape to Chicago, where her father works as a linguist and translator. In adulthood Ale, too, discovers her father's love of language, and works as an interpreter. She returns to Cuba, brought back as much by her ancestral demons as by her work. There she makes surprising discoveries: her sexuality blossoms in the tropical heat, and she uncovers her family's secret Jewish past. Bisexual, bilingual, bicultural, and bireligious, Alejandra marvels at her boundary-crossing life. (Terry Nordbrock)

The prankish McCourt calls his latest book a novel, but the plot—about a gay newspaper reporter in Washington, D.C., in the 1990s—is really a pretext for his outrageous and witty observations on political society in our nation's capital. The author has a talent for fashioning just the right phrase to make any political figure—conservative or liberal—appear as ridiculous as he or she deserves. Wickedly funny and entertaining, and chock full of joking insider references to gay culture. (Chris Dashiell)

Self’s updating of the Oscar Wilde classic The Picture of Dorian Gray turns the 19th century parable into a rueful tragicomedy on AIDS and its corresponding spiritual malaise. In the modern version, video artist Baz creates an art installation featuring the nude figure of Dorian, whose wish that the picture grow old while he stays young comes true. After Baz’s junkie ex-lover Henry infects the artist’s circle with AIDS, everyone starts to die off except Dorian, whose imperviousness to illness turns him into a predatory sex killer. The narrative becomes a sort of underground version of queer history, with the author taking swipes at, among other things, the complacency and shallowness of white, well-off gays, and the corruption of a straight culture that co-opts queer life for purposes of commerce. The book has a tough, bitter, deliberately provocative style, with surprising notes of tenderness, especially in its latter half, when caustic satire gives way to mourning and the hope of redemption. (Chris Dashiell)

While attending summer rodeo school, Colorado teenager John Ritchie becomes friends with a fellow bullrider. Kit is mature, handsome, and a heck of a good bullrider, which all helps to throw John's world in a spin when he learns that his friend is gay. Ferris' novel effectively depicts the confusion of a teen's attraction and "guilt by association" fears. Gay teens can identify with both John, the young man just starting to come out, and Kit, a more self-possessed man who, nevertheless, can be hurt. The novel is about friendship, not first love, and it explores the challenge of acceptance without any quick and tidy cuts to a Hollywood ending. (Beth Petrucci)

Fanny: A Fiction
by Edmund White (Ecco, 2003)

Edmund White, considered by many to be America's foremost gay writer of fiction, forays into new territory with this work of historical fiction. Fanny is a faux memoir about two women, real people who knew each other in life and who influenced early America, but who are now long-forgotten.

Fanny Wright (1795-1852) was a feminist who worked to abolish marriage, an anti-slavery activist, and advocate for the working class, founded a utopian community in Nashoba, Tennessee. Mrs. Frances Trollope (1780-1863), mother of the novelist Anthony Trollope, followed Wright to America, and later wrote the scathingly funny critique, Domestic Manners of the Americans.

In the novel, an elderly Trollope writes a biography of Fanny Wright, describing the time period after Write invites Trollope to America to live in the utopian community she founded in Nashoba, Tennessee. Trollope arrives but finds Wright more concerned with causes than with people. Their friendship goes awry and devolves into a rivalry, then a catfight. Trollope is left to fend for herself and her children. But the misadventure is not all bad - at Nashoba, Trollope gets to have a very satisfying affair with a freed slave named Cudjo. In the novel and in life Trollope gets the last laugh as her writing career takes off while Wright is mocked as an extremist.

Fanny succeeds in making the characters and times come alive, but for those of you who want to cut straight to the funny part, you may prefer to check out Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans from the University of Arizona library instead. (Terry Nordbrock)

Sarah Waters, the award-winning author of Tipping the Velvet (1999),  and Affinity (2000), has released her third novel set in Victorian England. Waters has been described as a “university-educated lesbian Charles Dickens.” This time the narrative follows 17-year-old Susan Trinder, an orphan taken in by Grace Sucksby, who is den mother to a family of "fingersmiths" or pickpockets.  To repay Mrs. Sucksby, she agrees to help a con man, named “Gentleman” in his scheme to marry the naive heiress Maude Lilly.  As Susan falls in love with Maude, things get even more complicated.

Misdirections and reversals abound in this story of love, ambition and deception where the characters can be both predators and victims.  Fingersmith is a page-turning suspense novel with an engrossing plot and great period detail. (Beth Petrucci)

My first Maney book was that queerified parody of Nancy Drew novels, The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse. A road trip friend had kept me in hysterics by reading it aloud like a radio drama. Now Maney is back with extra silliness to spoof James Bond. It's 1965 and the Sons Of Britain Society are planning to overthrow Elizabeth II. James is in a sanitarium, causing the British Secret Service to recruit his lesbian twin sister to play stand-in. Jane is soon in drag and in a romance with Secret Agent Bridget St. Claire, one of the Powder Puff Girls (cosmetics sales girls by day). Maney tweaks Fleming's writing style, the 1960s, and spy formulas. Pull up a martini (shaken, not stirred) and relax with this goofy read. (Beth Petrucci)

The author of Blue has done it again! Social psychologist Blue McCarron, who lives in a half-built abandoned motel in the middle of the desert outside of San Diego with her Doberman, Bronte, knows that when two prominent women politicians die of cerebral hemorrhages within days of each other, it is a statistical impossibility. Now two more women have been threatened, and Blue is called upon to help solve the mystery.

Partnered in every way with clinical psychiatrist Roxie Bouchie, the two are hired by the San Diego Police Department to find out what is going on with this religious zealot of a serial killer who calls him/herself, "The Sword of Heaven." The only common factor that Blue can find between all the women is ties to a prestigious La Jolla plastic surgeon's office. When Blue decides to take her life into her own hands to flush out the killer before any more prominent women are killed, the "Sword of Heaven" begins to track her.

This is a brilliant mystery, with a multitude of suspects, twists and turns, identity crisis, colorful characters and blue willow plates! (Gina Macaluso)