Revolutionary voices: A multicultural queer youth anthology. Sonnie, A. (2000). 188 Pages. LGBT&Q

This anthology is a collection of personal experiences, poetry, and survival of LGBTQ youth. The writings and poems resemble the alienation that many of us in LGBTQ community can identify with, unfortunately. But there is strength in “knowing” that build our community and our spirits. Revolutionary Voices is empowerment in written form.

The trouble with Islam today: A Muslim’s call for reform in her faith. By Irshad Manji. 240 Pages. LGBT&Q

Irshad Manji jumps right in to the problems she sees with Islam and the world around her. In this book Manji is issuing a call to action for all people, Muslim or not, to pay attention to religious mindlessness. Manji is Muslim, Lesbian, Feminist, Author, Journalist, and Spokesperson for those that are oppressed into silence. Whatever label can be assigned to Manji Sincere is the label that is the loudest.

If you like this book you might want to check out her new book, Allah, Liberty and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom.

The seventh of the Tales of the City is a collection of loosely connected stories that examine love in a HIV positive relationship. Thanks to the wonders of modern drugs, Michael is in a relationship with a man 21 years his junior. Other memorable characters still appear from older books in the series and update us on their lives and loves. Told in first person from a variety of gay-friendly locations in the US. A quick, quirky book that reads like a soap opera.

Main character Max Rabinowitz is a bouncer turned bartender in this post 9/11 examination of life in New York City. Max has had a mid-life crisis and is tired of battling violent stares and attacks on the streets and subways of New York. Overwhelmed when a friend is murdered and Muslim neighbor disappears, Max re-joins the activist community to make positive changes to her life. Told in first person through dialog and description that is both honest and bleak as the desolate streets Max walks home each morning.

Four high school friends worlds are interwoven in this complicated tale of envy, passion and coming of age and coming out under the umbrella of some mysterious circumstances in the high school. The highly emotional tone is mirrored in the violent events in the high school as well as the town including a hurricane that devastates New Orleans at the end. Dialogue is choppy and the characters are at times unbelievable. 

Book 3 in the Aud Torvingen series.  Former Atlanta police officer Aud is still grieving over the death of her lover, Julia a year ago and is in Seattle visiting her mother when she and her friend Matthew are dragged into an investigation of sabotage at a movie studio that Aud owns. Drama unfolds as both Mattew and Aud fall for the same woman. An intense fast-paced thriller with frequent flashbacks to Aud’s classes in Self-defense in Atlanta make this book somewhat challenging to read.      

 Book 8 in the Kate Delafield series, finds Detective Kate Delafield and her partner Joe as they investigate a murder in the wealthy neighborhood of Hancock Park. Kate is a bit preoccupied with her personal life as her lover Aimee has disappeared and she co-ordinates two investigations. A “cozy” mystery – quick read with good balance of dialogue and court room descriptions as well as reflections back to Kate’s personal life and issues.

Bechdel consults her childhood journals to construct this memoir of growing up in small town Pennsylvania where her father was the town funeral director, high school English teacher and closeted gay man. Bechdel’s relationship with him is conducted mainly through their love of literature and the connection that they discover they have when she comes out to her family in college just before her father’s death. Thought provoking and reflective dialogue as the story flips back and forth from Bechdel’s youth, college relationships and adulthood.

Book 6 from the long-running national serial and soap opera with a social conscious. Bechdel draws Mo and her friends together again working at the bookstore, falling in and out of love and commenting on the political events during the 1990’s.  Comics are complete the way they were printed in the newspapers. Bechdel includes bonus cartoons in this book as well.  Dialogue is quick and witty with many political references.

Sports writer (John) Basil Henderson and his superstar girlfriend Yancy, are planning to get married tomorrow, but Basil’s feelings for a former college football teammate threaten to break off the engagement just before they walk down the aisle. A fast read told in first person with flashbacks. The story has many unpredictable plot twists.