My reading goals for 2024 were: more Own Voices books by and about gay men, plus WWI research for some writing to be done in the future. I read a ton of stuff in both categories. Total number of entries in my reading journal as of last night: 393.
These are in chronological order as read. First-time reads only (that is, I am regretfully passing over the many long-time favorites I re-read this year), and only full-length books (which means regretfully passing over some superlative shorts).
Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style by Paul Rudnick, a 50-year love story beginning in 1973. Plenty of big feelings in this book, along with a thoughtful time capsule.
X for Extortion by Garrick Jones, book 2 in his 7th of December series, a gripping WWII adventure centered on the M/M love story of Australian and American intelligence officers. Read books 3 and 4 this year, too – love the whole series.
The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren, a 1975 classic about a college-age distance runner and his much older coach. Fully heartbreaking, fantastic book.
Pas de Don’t by Chloe Angyal, F/M romance featuring a New York ballerina finding new love in Australia.
Star Bright by Shelly Greene, a fake-to-real showbiz new adult M/M romance featuring a movie star and a rock star.
The Best Material for the Artist in the World: Albert Bierstadt: A Biography in Poems by Kenneth Chamlee. Immensely well crafted.
How to Say I Do by Tal Bauer, a contemporary M/M left at the altar, bi-awakening, first-love romance that delivered big feelings.
The Sleeping Soldier by Aster Glenn Gray, a brilliant M/M take on ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in which a Civil War soldier wakes up in 1965.
The Musician and the Monster by Jenya Keefe, another fairy-tale retelling, this one M/M ‘Beauty and the Beast.’
P.S. I Spook You by S.E. Harmon, a paranormal procedural with M/M second-chance romance (read the whole series).
The Wedding Heard ’Round the World by Michael McConnell and Jack Baker as told to Gail Langer Karwoski, memoir by a gay couple who found legal loopholes to get legally married in 1971 in Minnesota, a sincere personal quest as well as part of a decade of gay rights activism.
Death in the Spires by KJ Charles, a completely satisfying early-20th-century mystery with a whiff of potential queer love story.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Can definitely see why this is *the* WWI novel.
Into Deep Waters by Kaje Harper, a M/M lifetime love story opening on a US Navy warship in 1942 and concluding in 2011.
The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie R. King, latest in the Mary Russell – Sherlock Holmes series. Intensely personal, small-scale story in which an old family mystery is satisfyingly solved.
Napkins and Other Distractions by M.A. Wardell, M/M contemporary romance featuring characters with mental health / neurodivergence issues.
Rattlesnake by Kim Fielding, a terrific hurt/comfort M/M set in the Sierra Nevada.
How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly, a slow-burn slice-of-life F/F contemporary set around high-level basketball.
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian, midcentury M/M with a professional baseball player and a journalist.
Leading Lady by Charles Busch, memoir by a Tony-nominated playwright.
The Deviant’s War by Eric Cervini. Historical biography of Frank Kameny, a Harvard Ph.D. astronomer who served in the Army during WWII, was then denied employment by the feds because he was gay, and spent the rest of his life as an activist.
Peter Darling by Austin Chant, a queer Peter Pan retelling.
Welcome to My World by Johnny Weir, an engaging memoir with plenty of energy and emotion.
Kings of B’More by R. Eric Thomas, a wonderful YA novel about the four emotion-packed days before two 16 year old BFFs are parted by one moving out of town.
Snow Boys by Simon Doyle, angsty YA romance set in Ireland. Honest, mature, and warm.
Margins by Landry Brennan, a gay-awakening M/M romance sparked by intriguing marginalia in some books the POV character buys at a yard sale.
A Different Kind of Brave by Lee Wind, YA M/M romantic suspense adventure with nonstop action. Thrills, chills, angsty adolescent love pains, trauma past and present, excellent allies.
The Duke at Hazard by KJ Charles, M/M road-trip aristo-in-disguise Regency inspired by Georgette Heyer’s ‘The Foundling.’
A Threefold Cord by Julie Bozza, M/M/M contemporary romance about three English actors.
From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata, F/M sports romance about figure skaters in which the FMC is allowed to be just as driven, single-minded, and uncompromising as the MMC.
The Shabti by Megaera C. Lorenz, M/M paranormal romance set in the 1930s featuring a university Egyptologist, a former ‘medium,’ and a legit scary ghost.
Magic Escaping by Kaje Harper, M/M supernatural suspense thriller with an established M/M couple and their allies facing an evil government agency.
Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman, F/M contemporary midlife romance in which a Baltimore piano teacher falls for the rock and roll drummer he crushed on as a young man.
Under Your Spell by Laura Wood, F/M contemporary showbiz romance. Parallels Alexis Hall’s ‘Boyfriend Material’ to some extent, but gives the FMC true closure with past betrayals and her narcissist but not cruel father.
Olivetti by Allie Millington, a charming and whimsical yet deeply emotional novel about a troubled family who’ve stopped communicating and are brought back together by the mother’s old typewriter, which starts talking to the 12 year old son who’s fixated on dictionaries in his search for meaning.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, for which the elevator pitch might be something like ‘Harry Potter meets Brazil.’
Icarus by K. Ancrum, YA M/M romance/thriller in which one MC is an art forger’s son and unwilling accomplice, and the other MC is the forger’s preferred victim’s son and prisoner.
The Troubleseeker by Alan Lessik, novel telling the life story of gay man who grew up in Castro’s Cuba, came to the US in the Mariel boatlift, contracted HIV, found love, but couldn’t survive his accumulated traumas. The narrator is a demigod (deified Roman Emperor Hadrian) who sees in the main character an avatar of his adored Antinous. Intensely literary, in the best way.
Cicadas by Avery Cockburn, M/M second (or third) chance love story beginning in 1987 when the MCs are 17 and concluding 34 years later. Deep characterizations and nothing left unresolved.
Trickle Down Theory by Will Forrest, an M/M/M/M why choose romance in which three older men, all friends, bring a younger man who’s a real mess into their homes and then their lives. Deep talk, sharing, comfort, and emotional release as the young man faces his traumas.
Australia’s Son by Garrick Jones, Sydney-set Edwardian M/M romantic suspense in which a famous opera singer falls for a police detective investigating a murder at the opera house.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi, loads of fun despite a high body count and lingering loneliness of the MC, who needs more than a sapient spy cat in his life, John.
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro, historical biography.
His Until Christmas by Con Riley, M/M contemporary romance featuring a duke’s personal assistant and the new head of the duke’s humanitarian foundation.
The Unlikely Pair by Jax Calder, M/M contemporary enemies-to-lovers romantic suspense featuring rival members of Parliament whose chartered plane crashes on the way to a climate conference, after which they find themselves hunted. Very satisfying.
Cliffhanger by Ulysses Grant Dietz, a cool and unusual M/M contemporary romance with a whiff of magic, featuring young assistant curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art unraveling the mystery of a particular artifact that turns out to be connected to both their families.
All Through the Night by Suzanne Brockmann, M/M romantic suspense set in her Troubleshooters world, featuring an FBI agent and an actor; it’s all about their wedding, but with mayhem, drama, and shenanigans.