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tjalexandernyc's reviews
97 reviews
Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency by Bea Koch
Read this for a little inspiration and ended up marking several pages. It's a pretty informal and slim volume, which is perfect for readers who are looking for vibes and not biographical tomes.
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
I would call this a fun horror read, probably best for big fans of movies and TV. I appreciated all the nods to queer characters who have been killed off in media in the cast. Listened to the audiobook; not my favorite style of narration, but not bad, and it was nice to see guest voices popping in for some of the interstitial bits.
The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery by Bill James, Rachel McCarthy James
An engaging account of the early 1900s rash of ax murders in America and a compelling argument for a suspect.
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
dark
tense
Reading short stories every so often to fill the bucket, and these are very good. Horrifying and necessary.
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
An excellent novella that flirts with magic and delves into more of my current thing: mid century queer history in San Francisco. Lesbians and pulp fiction abound, in the absolute best way. Told very cleverly with the POV darting around among a large cast.
Rough Pages by Lev AC Rosen
If Evander Mills has one fan, etc. I'm very happy to see more of Andy, my favorite drowned cat noir detective. In this installment, we briefly revisit the family from Lavender House, and the case revolves around a gay bookstore. It's a slam dunk as far as a plot tailormade for gay readers. Andy doesn't get physically beat up in this one, but don't worry! Mentally our boy is tortured.
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
Hey, want to read something in one sitting that will unsettle the hell out of you?? I've been meaning to read this for awhile now and decided to pick it up to kick off my Halloween reading season. Damn, this thing still hits. Not just in a trendy tradwife way, but in a real "what is the cost of assimilation? Are you being accepted for who and what you are, or are you being changed in order to be accepted?" I think everyone should give it a read at least once.
Haunted: Ghost Stories and Their Afterlives by E. Jay Gilbert
An approachable look at mostly British ghost stories and some of the theories about why they have such staying power. You don't have to be an academic to get something out of it.
Never Silent: ACT UP and My Life in Activism by Peter Staley
I grew up in the '90s in what I always thought of as the tail-end of the AIDS crisis, but since I was a child then, and since I was receiving at best a spurious education in the sciences of HIV and at worst homophobic fear-mongering, this book was a revelation. It's a heartbreaking and fascinating look at the world of activism and slow, incremental change. It's also a depressing mirror of the COVID pandemic, right down to the misinformation, popular interest in the fight against it disappearing, and a surge in infections.