Reader's Place: June 1, 2023
Once again, we celebrate our LGBGTIA family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, community and selves, in all our glorious diversity.
Haven: a novel, by Emma Donoghue, 2022. (Library Catalog) FIC DONOGHUE
In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks--young Trian and old Cormac--he rows down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. In such a place, what will survival mean?
The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz, 2023. (Library Catalog) SF NEWITZ
Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn't exist, hidden inside a massive volcano. As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come
The consequences: stories, by Manuel Muñoz, 2022. (Library Catalog) FIC MUNOZ
With an unflinching hand, Muñoz depicts the Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers who put food on our tables but are regularly and ruthlessly rounded up by the migra, as well as the quotidian struggles and immense challenges faced by their families. The messy and sometimes violent realities navigated by his characters-straight and gay, immigrant and American-born, young and old-are tempered by moments of surprising, tender care.
Less is lost, by Andrew Sean Greer, 2022. (Library Catalog) FIC GREER
For Arthur Less, life is going surprisingly well: he is a moderately accomplished novelist in a steady relationship with his partner, Freddy Pelu. But nothing lasts: the death of an old lover and a sudden financial crisis has Less running away from his problems yet again as he accepts a series of literary gigs that send him on a zigzagging adventure across the US.
Sorry, bro, by Taleen Voskuni, 2023. ( Library Catalog) FIC VOSKUNI
Nar, an Armenian-American woman, rediscovers her roots and embraces who she really is when she meets Erebuni, who helps Nar see the beauty of their shared culture and makes her feel understood in a way she never has before. But there's one teeny problem: Nar's not exactly out as bisexual. The clock is ticking on Nar's double life, though-the closing event banquet is coming up, and her entire extended family will be there, along with Erebuni.
Compiled by Ina Rimpau