by Jeff Hiller
In terms of celebrity, Jeff Hiller's name may not carry the same gravitas as Demi Moore or Taraji P. Henson. His unforgettable face might resurface vague memories of a Pilgrim in a steady Snickers campaign, a flight attendant on 30 Rock, or a naked man bothering Ricky Gervais in the film Ghost Town. One might describe Hiller's acting career as niche, but in Actress of a Certain Age, the comedian delivers a performance of a lifetime, nimbly folding tenderness and vulnerability into a riotously disarming memoir
Read More »
by Michael Curato
Acclaimed children's author/illustrator Mike Curato (Little Elliot, Big City; Flamer) delivers his debut for adults: Gaysians, a poignant graphic novel about a young East Coast transplant to Seattle in 2003, where he finds a welcoming community of gay Asians. Curato opens with introductions to his primary players--newly out AJ at his first gay bar; Korean adoptee and gamer John; lothario Steven; and activist, seamstress, drag queen K.
For AJ, spilling his drink on K turns into a fortuitous entry
Read More »
by Rey Terciero, illus. by Claudia Aguirre
Dan in Green Gables, an energetic and enchanting YA graphic novel, embodies the spirit of L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables while giving it a shiny new take that compassionately incorporates chaotic family dynamics, friendship, queer identity, religion, bullying, and--above all--love.
In this full-hearted "reimagining," Dan is not a sunny, red-haired 11-year-old orphan in Canada but a sunny, red-haired 15-year-old gay kid in Tennessee. It's spring of 1995 and, although he longs for some stability, Dan
Read More »
by James Albon
Graphic novelist James Albon goes romantically global in Love Languages, a polyphonic romance featuring two expats of diverse backgrounds and their Parisian meet-cute beginning. Sarah, from London, is a self-described "slave to the capitalist grind" who aspirationally carries around 99 Ways to Re-energise and Be Your Best Incarnation in her bag. One morning, overzealous street mimes cause her to tumble, but the incident becomes the shake-up catalyst she didn't know she needed that transforms her life. Watching
Read More »
by Emily Tesh
Magic and hubris collide with devastating consequences as a professor attempts to keep the gears of her venerable school turning in the mature, emotionally complex dark academia fantasy The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo Award for her first novel, Some Desperate Glory.
Dr. Saffy Walden lives a life no different than that of any other school administrator: there's not as much time to teach as she would like, far more meetings than she would prefer, and the constant toil of keeping
Read More »
by Sarah Miller
Sarah Miller, author of Hanged!, pens an intriguing, engrossing young adult biography in Hick, about pioneering female journalist Lorena "Hick" Hickok. Miller, like her subject, "lure[s] readers in at the start and hold[s] them captive until the end" as she recounts Hick's life, her career, and her complex relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Using a wealth of sources, including some 3,500 personal letters between Hick and Roosevelt, Miller details the trajectory of Hick's life, from a 14-year-old
Read More »
by Lori Ostlund
The nine short fictions in Are You Happy?, the third book by Lori Ostlund (The Bigness of the World), form a stunning investigation into how violence and family dysfunction reverberate.
"The Peeping Toms" and "The Stalker" are a knockout pair featuring Albuquerque lesbian couples under threat by male acquaintances. The typical protagonist throughout is a writing professor of Scandinavian heritage. In "Just Another Family," Sibyl, back in Minnesota for her father's funeral, finds her childhood bedroom cluttered
Read More »
