A Small Sacrifice: A Jane Lawless Mystery. By Ellen Hart c1994. 274 p.

Fifth in the Jane Lawless series, the story opens in 1972 on a college campus. The self-named Shevland Underground group of friends all studying theater. They include Diana (lesbian who drinks too much), Cordelia (also lesbian), Annie and Curt (straights who later get married), and Theo and Orson (both are gay, just friends). Curt, Theo, and Orson live together. When Theo discovers graveyard remains in the back of his car, he expects to receive the posted reward. To his and the friends surprise the FBI takes him away on felony charges of impersonating an FBI agent!

Fast forward 22 years later. Annie and Curt are married. Diana's lover has died, leaving Jill's 14 year old daughter with Diana. Diana has invited the original group to unite for the first time since the incident to celebrate the opening of her new playhouse, The Summer Green. Feeling guilty for not helping Diane sooner, Cordelia orchestrates an intervention to take place after the grand opening of the playhouse. Of course the play was a hit and at the celebratory dinner following Orson and Theo get in to a fist fight that lands Theo in jail! After Diane springs him, he begins choking at the dinner table. Orson calls 911 and accompanies Theo to the hospital. Orson calls Diane shortly thereafter to let her know Theo was dead.

Accident, or murder? Cordelia has been in touch with her close friend, Jane Lawless, restaurant owner/amateur sleuth.

After Theo's death she invites Jane to investigate. Was the wine poisoned? Was it the housekeeper? One of the Shevland Underground? Remember, these are actors, very competitive actors. Jane figures out exactly what happened. Can you?

A Son Called Gabriel by Damian McNicholl, c2004. 341 p.

It is an autumn school day in Ulsted, Northern Ireland, and the oldest Harkin child, Gabriel, six, does not want to go school.

Fellow classmate Henry Lynch is only the first of many bullies to have singled out Gabriel throughout his youth. Told from Gabriel's point of view, a child's innocence and confusion over his sexual identity grows as he does. His family is working-class Irish Catholics, a minority in Northern Ireland. As in all good Catholic families at least one of them is a priest. Uncle Brendan, brother to Gabriel's father, is the priest who is a missionary in Africa. Over the years the cover up of the 'scandal' that sent him packing to another country erodes. And, as in most close knit families, parents and cousins compete with one another for who has the smartest, best child.

Gabriel notices from very early on that his desire to play with dolls, dress up in his mother's clothing, and assume the female roles in high school plays is not normal for boys his age. As young men are staring at women's bodies, Gabriel is drawn to the chest hair, lips, and groins of other men. His only successful sexual experience with a girl is while he is fantasizing about the other boys he has experimented with. When charged with the care of the Harkin children while their parents went out of town, older neighbor boy Noel shows Gabriel pornography and engages him.

All through high school and university one bully after another targets Gabriel. His cousin Connor convinces him that mutual masturbation is ok so Gabriel regularly engages in the act. When Connor graduates he tells Gabriel that what they had done before was ok, but not anymore.

During his senior year Gabriel meets Fiona, and they begin to date. He is relieved to hear that she wants no part of sex until she's married. But still there is a problem. Protestants and Catholics are at odds and talk of politics is constant. Fiona is a Protestant. In spite of his parent's protests, he continues to see her, even though for him she is just a friend. Political violence strikes several times and Gabriel's father puts himself at odds with his family when he provides refuge for an IRA man in their home.

Gabriel is a good catholic boy and prays ardently that God will make him not lust for men. Time after time anguished Gabriel confesses and prays. On an occasion in university a priest summoned Gabriel to his office to discuss his grades, only to sexually abuse him. When the scandalous uncle leaves the priesthood Gabriel confides what happened to him.

The uncle has the priest sent away discreetly, but not before he apologizes to Gabriel, calling himself sick. After this Gabriel consults his mother about his tendencies and she whisks him off to the doctor, who calls the behavior a phase and prescribes valium.

Gabe explains to the parish priest how he feels and the priest practically explains how difficult the life of a homosexual can be. As Gabriel comes to grips about who he really is, the scandal unfolds and Gabriel has an even better understanding of himself.

Any Way the Wind Blows by E. Lynn Harris, c2001. 342 p.

Immediately after being stood up by her fiance at the altar, Yancey Braxton (Yancey B) abandons her Broadway career for Los Angeles. Signed on by Motown Records, she records her first hit, Any Way the Wind Blows. Coupled with her music video, the title tops the charts and goes platinum in 'record' time. Did I mention she's gorgeous? But she's hiding a secret.

Ex-fiance Basil Henderson already has another gal on the side. Of course he's a hunk! He's always wanted children and when Rosa announces that she's pregnant, only with another man's child, he sends her marching. Sports agent Basil has his share of not only women, but men as well-a real playa. Can't decide whether to eat fish or beef ( p 175).

Homosexual Bart is a model whose agent sends him on various auditions. Oh yeah, he's hot, too. One led him to Basil's company where the workday had ended and Bart and Basil get it on. Bart is mad for Basil, but Basil doesn't want any ties. In spite of Basil making this perfectly clear, Bart continues to obsess over him.

Chapters alternate from the three main characters' point of view. The lyrics of Yancey's hit, "but then one day I come home, you were in the arms of another man" fuel the publicists' and columnists' suspicions. The three main characters are hot and they know it. Yancey and Basil are both distrustful of each other knowing that the other could ruin them. Bart is just a sweet, handsome homosexual, but his heart has been broken. Someone (Ava, aka the mother from hell) who has the goods on Bart AND Yancey enters the mix and stirs up trouble for all.

Auxilliary characters who are connected to the three help them to discover who they really are. Painful, tearful hearts all come around and, in the end, they all lived happily ever after. This novel picks up where Not a Day Goes By left off. Plenty of steamy sex. African American characters (and author) make some reference to the advantages of the white boys. Street talk may offend some and some language is African-American slang. Examples include, mofo, riding the jimmy, sista, I feel you, etc.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, 2002

If Charles Dickens and Susie Bright had had a love child, she may have written something like Sarah Waters' gripping third novel. Sue Trinder is an orphaned teen raised by a gang of pickpockets (fingersmiths) and small-time criminals in a seedy corner of Victorian London. One day a fellow crook asks her to become a maid for the wealthy Maud Lilly, part of an elaborate plot to steal the young lady's inheritance. Sue reluctantly agrees to the con, but regrets her deceit when she and Maud develop a regard that grows into passion. Still, the scheme proceeds until Sue discovers that she, in fact, has been the one done wrong, a plot development that plunges the reader into a cunning web of twists, turns and double-crosses.

Thick with period detail and sharp characterizations, Fingersmith is a literate page-turner that should appeal to fans of historical fiction such as The Crimson Petal and the White and The Great Smoke.
Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant by Dan Savage,1999

The author, best-known for writing the hilariously raunchy sex advice column Savage Love, chronicles his nontraditional foray into fatherhood as he and his boyfriend Terry decide to become parents. The two choose open adoption, a process in which a mother selects a family for her baby and continues to have ongoing contact with the child. Enter Melissa, a homeless gutter punk who selects them to raise her unborn son. Savage's humor is honest, catty and refreshingly unsentimental, yet The Kid is inherently moving, offering insight into the complex adoption process and the controversy and complications surrounding gay parenting. In 2005, Savage wrote a sequel of sorts: The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family.
Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, 2006

Tolstoy wrote that each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. That just about sums up the premise of Fun Home, an acclaimed memoir in graphic form from cartoonist Bechdel (Dykes to Watch Out For). Bechdel grew up in a Munsters-like Gothic revival house in rural Pennsylvania, steps away from the funeral home run by her father, who was also the town's high school English teacher. The two had a distant relationship, communicating chiefly through discussions about literature. Months before her dad's death (which Bechdel believes was a suicide), father and daughter learn that they share a secret: both are gay. Filled with literary references and punctuated by moments of trenchant humor, Fun Home is an unflinchingly intimate look at a lesbian daughter's relationship to her complicated father.
Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

True Enough by Stephen McCauley, 2001, 314 p.

Jane, wife and mother, and Desmond, in a long-term relationship with his male partner, meet when each is at a crossroads, rethinking their careers and their relationships. When they team up to produce a documentary about a little known cult singer, each has to evaluate the importance of love and their own commitment to it.
Debbie Wordinger, Indian Prairie Library

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, 1978, 259 p.

Short, two or three page chapters which first appeared in a San Francisco newspaper tell the tales of the inhabitants of 28 Barbary Lane. Mary Ann, an innocent from Ohio, Michael, a gay man from Florida, and the mysterious Mrs. Madigal, the landlady at 28 Barbara Lane are here as well an many other characters. These short sketches provide a good feel for a certain segment of San Francisco society after the summer of love and before AIDS.
Debbie Wordinger, Indian Prairie Public Library

Gonna Take a Homicidal Journey by Sandra Scoppettone, 1998, 229 p.

Lauren Laurano is a five foot tall lesbian PI from New York City who loves chocolate. In this entry in the series, Lauren is on vacation on Long Island when she is pulled into a murder investigation. Lauren and her business partner are likable and reason enough to read this series, but Scoppettone's plotting is at best so-so and Kip, Lauren's romantic partner was impossible to like, at least in this volume.
Debbie Wordinger, Indian Prairie Public Library

Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian, 2000.

What happens when you fall in lovie with a man, and then discover that he really feels that his is a lesbian trapped in a male body? Divorcee Allison Banks has to answer this question when she and Dana Stevens start dating, enjoy wonderful compatibility and great sex - until Dana drops a bomb and reveals that he is a pre-operative transsexual. The nuances of relationships, the importance of gender, and the fluidity of sexual preference are all explored from multiple points of view in this engrossing novel. And the radio of the title? Tying the different narratives together is the script of a National Public Radio story about the protagonists and the transgender issue.
Audience: Adult, older YA

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown, 1973.

A classic of alternative literature, this coming of age story follows Molly Bolt, who has always known that she likes girls. Adopted by a poor, uneducated family, who are alternately proud of and threatened by their brilliant daughter, Molly leaves college after she is discovered in bed with her roommate. She flees to New York City, determined to finish school and make it on her own. This upbeat novel portrays its feminist protagonist as a true winner, not just a survivor, and is a picaresque classic. Hard to believe that this is the same author who now pens a cat mystery series (coauthored by her cat)!
Audience: Adult, older YA

The Center of the World by Andreas Steinhofel, 2005.

This lyrical novel explores the life of seventeen-year old Phil, who has always been an outsider. As the son of the town's loose woman, the twin brother of a willful, prickly sister, and gay to boot, Phil has always remained alone except for his best friend Katja. The family lives in an old house on one side of a river, with the rest of the town on the other side, further enhancing the aloneness of the protagonist - until Nicholas joins the school as a new student and Phil falls in love for the first time. The themes of trust, and a sense of belonging, are woven throughout this highly literary story, which was a smash hit in Europe.
Audience: YA, Adult

Mordred Bastard Son by Douglas Clegg

Though usually portrayed as the worm in the bud that was Camelot, Mordred, the illegitimate offspring of King Arthur and sorceress Morgan le Fay, gets sympathetic treatment in Clegg's revisionist Arthurian fantasy, the first in a projected trilogy.

Born into exile on the Isle of Glass, the young Mordred knows his father only through the stories bitter elders tell of Arthur's theft of Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. Mordred flourishes under the instruction of his mother and the wizard Merlin, but he's distracted from his education in druidic mysteries by his adolescent passion for a hermit living in the nearby wilds. That hermit's identity, coupled with a transgression that alienates Mordred from his community by the novel's end, all point to the inexorable destiny that shapes the tale's events and tinges them with pathos. Clegg (The Priest of Blood) maintains a nice balance between the human and mythic dimensions of his characters, portraying the familiar elements of their story from refreshingly original angles.

In Another Part of the Forest: An Anthology of gay fiction

This laborious anthology posits that, before Stonewall and the emergence of a gay-specific literature, there was already a rich heritage of fiction by gay and non-gay writers touching on a gay theme. Unfortunately, most of these stories do little more than that. The range of writers is impressive--Francoise Sagan, I. B. Singer, Daphne du Maurier, Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, James Baldwin, Ann Beattie among them--but the focus is all too frequently on situations rather than on the characters. In Sagan's The Unknown Visitor, a woman returns from shopping with a friend to find evidence of her husband's gay infidelity, while in William Trevor's Torridge, an upperclassman in an English boarding school seeking to seduce a younger boy leaves a courtship note under the wrong pillow. And in Hemingway's A Simple Enquiry, an interested army major interrogates a young adjutant as to his sexual preferences with only indirect reference to homosexuality. In evocative preludes to each story, editors Manguel ( Other Fires ) and Stephenson ( Between Worlds ) make valiant attempts to reconfirm the unity of the collection. However, the volume unintentionally chronicles more clearly how insignificant and tangential the portrayal of gay lives has been in the world literatures of the past.

Enigma by Peter Milligan

This Graphic Novel defines postmodernism. Milligan plays with the convention of comics through editor comments and satire toward older styles. The main theme throughout the whole book, although one may not realize until partially through it, is that trying to find the meaning of life is absurd. The question What's next? permeates the mystery. And the answer?

Nothing. Life is like that. But that doesn't make the story less interesting. The characters are fascinating, and the art perfect for a postmodern comic. There is just enough detail and shadow for you to figure out what the lines are supposed to represent. Of course, these drawings aren't the real thing. So why try to recreate the thing on paper, if the artist can't help but fail. At best, all you get is a pretty picture.