Book picks similar to
Bitch Goddess by Robert Rodi
fiction
gay-fiction
rodi
queer
The Swimming-Pool Library
Alan Hollinghurst - 1988
"Impeccably composed and meticulously particular in its observation of everything" (Harpers & Queen), it focuses on the friendship of two men: William Beckwith, a young gay aristocrat who leads a life of privilege and promiscuity, and the elderly Lord Nantwich, an old Africa hand, searching for someone to write his biography and inherit his traditions.
Frontiers
Michael Jensen - 1999
John Chapman, an impulsive young man and a sexual outlaw, forsaken in the bitter winter of the Allegheny Plateau, clings to his one tenuous dream: to claim a future in the Western outpost. Unarmed and near death, Chapman is on the brink of giving up when an unexpected rescue changes his course in life forever, and he discovers the true meaning of survival. The mysterious savior is Daniel McQuay, a loner whose overpowering bond with Chapman is as shifting as a shadow, as dark as the prairie tale he spins for the impressionable young man. For Chapman, McQuay's story of a deranged killer clings to his transient soul like a nightmare, tracking him further south and into the safe haven of a gentle Indian woman named Gwennie. His journey also takes him into the intimate deliverance of Palmer, a brash but irresistibly innocent seventeen-year-old settler. As the three adventurers carve a new life out of the endless wilderness, they face the ultimate enemy -- man -- in a life-and-death struggle that unfolds in the shadow of a legendary and avenging evil.
The Palace Of Varieties
James Lear - 2003
We follow Paul Lemoyne on a rake's progress, from low-life prostitution at the stage door of the Palace of Varieties to the salons and studios of Mayfair; from the bath-houses of Bermondsey to the rarefied circles of modern art. And behind it all lurks the mysterious figure of Albert Abbott, his lover, corrupter and Svengali.
Tommy's Tale
Alan Cumming - 2002
It was great. I had a laugh with Charlie, we went out, did drugs, had great sex, had a laugh, I saw Finn, I had a laugh. And now today, today, since the second I opened my eyes, the pair of them had turned into ogres of potential angst, pain, and -- oh no, the worst of all -- responsibility."Tommy is twenty-nine, lives and loves in London, and has a morbid fear of the c word -- commitment, the b word -- boyfriend, and the f word -- forgetting to call his drug dealer before the weekend. But when he begins to feel the urge to become a father, he starts to wonder if his chosen lifestyle can ever make him happy. His flatmates, the eccentric, maternal Sadie and the stoic, supportive Bobby, encourage Tommy to tone down his lifestyle a wee bit and accept the fact that he's got to grow up sometime. His boyfriend, Charlie (whose son, Finn, is the epitome of childhood charm), wishes that Tommy could make a real commitment to their relationship. But can he?Faced with the choice of maintaining his hedonistic, drugged-out, and admittedly fabulous existence or chucking it all in favor of a far more sensitive, fulfilling, and -- let's face its -- lightly staid lifestyle, Tommy finds himself in a true quandary. Through a series of adventures and misadventures that lead him from London nightspots to New York bedrooms and back, our boy Tommy manages to answer some of life's most pressing questions -- and even some he never thought to ask.Perfectly pitched, with scathing witticisms and deadpan observations, Tommy's Tale is a rollicking, tongue-in-cheek opus of absolute debauchery and reluctant redemption that's simply not to be missed.
Mr Clive and Mr Page
Neil Bartlett - 1996
In 1985, the "Daily Mirror" reported the death of Rock Hudson. Halfway through the century that falls between these dates a man who claims his name is Mr Page sits down by his gas-fire on a snowbound Christmas Eve and sets himself the task of explaining a story that connects these apparently unconnected events. Neil Bartlett's new novel spins a dark and erotic web of conjecture in the gaps of history. It takes its reader from the brittle glamour of the twenties into the violent repression of the fifties; from Mayfair dining rooms to the steam room of a gentlemen's Turkish Bath; from the ordinary world of Mr Page into the strange and unsettling world of the black-haired, well-dressed and immensely wealthy Mr Clive.
New Boy
William Sutcliffe - 1996
"Sutcliffe has managed to pull off a worthy British companion to Portnoy's Complaint" Jay Rayner,Observer "Well-written,clever and very funny" Literary Review "Smart,entertaining stuff...somewhere between Adrian Mole and Holden Caulfield" Philip Hensher,Mail on Sunday
Love By Numbers
Sienna Waters - 2021
As the co-owner of an up-and-coming dating app, love is big money. But business means she's not willing to indulge in any romantic shenanigans herself.Indy Chambers has a bucket list, and falling in love before she's thirty is just waiting to be checked off. But since she's never had a relationship last more than a date or two, that box doesn't look like it's going to be ticked any time soon.When Annabel's flawless algorithm matches her with Indy, neither of them is exactly thrilled. But Annabel's business could depend on making their date a marketing success, and her algorithm could be just what Indy needs to finally find the love she's been searching for.Before long, #IndyAnna is trending on social media and the two are inescapably bound together, at least in public. But in private, they know that they're not the perfect match. They're too different, they want different things, they live different lives.Can their differences bring them together? Or is Annabel's perfectly programmed algorithm less flawless than she thought? As the world watches their every move, Indy and Annabel have to decide what it really is they want. And maybe, just maybe, it's each other.Love By Numbers is a new stand-alone lesbian romance from Sienna Waters, the bestselling author of The Wrong Date, A Perfect Mess and the Oakview series.
David Inside Out
Lee Bantle - 2009
But team events become a source of tension when he develops a crush on one of his teammates, Sean. Scared to admit his feelings, David does everything he can to suppress them: he dates a girl, keeps his distance from his best friend who has become openly gay, and snaps a rubber band on his wrist every time he has "inappropriate" urges. Before long, Sean expresses the thoughts David has been trying to hide, and everything changes for the better. Or so it seems.In this thoughtful yet searing coming-of-age novel, Lee Bantle offers a raw, honest, and incredibly compelling account of a teenager who learns to accept himself for who he is.
Ghost in the Closet: A Nancy Clue and Hardly Boys Mystery
Mabel Maney - 1995
In A Ghost in the Closet, dark-haired, muscular Frank and his lovable kid brother Joe return from a gay trip to Europe to find that their parents -- world-famous detective Fennel P. Hardly and his wife, Mrs. Hardly -- have been kidnapped! Even worse, so have six poodles from the Lake Merrimen Dog Show! Pals Nancy Clue, Cherry Aimless, R.N., and Police Detective Jackie Jones help the Hardly boys track down the criminals -- and in the meantime, pick up useful tips on fingerprinting, evidence retrieval, and the laundering of sporty twill slacks. Like her beloved camp classics, The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse and The Case of the Good-For-Nothing Girlfriend, Mabel Maney's A Ghost in the Closet brilliantly parodies 1950s boys and girls adventure series. Pull on a casual rayon shirt and join the queer caper!
Flight Dreams
Michael Craft - 2000
In three months, she will be declared legally dead and her fortune will go to Chicago's Catholic Archdiocese. Investigative journalist Mark Manning believes the missing heiress is still alive. To prove his case, he enters a world where religion and politics make uneasy bedfellows -- as he confronts the inescapable fact that he is gay.
Clay's Way
Blair Mastbaum - 2004
For 15-year-old Sam, a wanna-be punk rocker who writes bad haiku poetry, his middle-class suburban life feels like a prison. Mistaking lust for fate, Sam becomes obsessed with Clay, a 17-year-old surfer, outwardly cool but equally adrift. The violence and tumult of Clay's search for identity propels him, with desperately confused Sam in his wake, through the hardest decisions and obstacles of their young lives.24-year-old Blair Mastbaum graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in fine arts. He was a fashion model for six years, and now lives in Beverly Hills, where he is hard at work on his second novel.
The Paternity Test
Michael Lowenthal - 2012
But what if the marriage at risk is a gay one, and having a baby involves a surrogate mother? Pat Faunce is a faltering romantic, a former poetry major who now writes textbooks. A decade into his relationship with Stu, an airline pilot from a fraught Jewish family, he fears he’s losing Stu to other men—and losing himself in their “no rules” arrangement. Yearning for a baby and a deeper commitment, he pressures Stu to move from Manhattan to Cape Cod, to the cottage where Pat spent boyhood summers. As they struggle to adjust to their new life, they enlist a surrogate: Debora, a charismatic Brazilian immigrant, married to Danny, an American carpenter. Gradually, Pat and Debora bond, drawn together by the logistics of getting pregnant and away from their spouses. Pat gets caught between loyalties—to Stu and his family, to Debora, to his own potent desires—and wonders: is he fit to be a father? In one of the first novels to explore the experience of gay men seeking a child through surrogacy, Michael Lowenthal writes passionately about marriages and mistakes, loyalty and betrayal, and about how our drive to create families can complicate the ones we already have. The Paternity Test is a provocative look at the new “family values.”