A Taste of You (Chef's Table #1)


Irene Preston - 2015
    He has a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City, a hit reality TV show, and a new man in his bed every week. Yes, he secretly thinks his business partner, Giancarlo “Carlo” Rotolo, is hotter than a ghost pepper, but he would never jeopardize their friendship with a fling. Then Garrett overhears some juicy gossip among the crew and realizes he’ll have to break Giancarlo’s cardinal rule, no banging the staff - for Carlo’s own good, of course. Just a taste of Carlo should be plenty. Long-term relationships aren’t on Garrett’s menu.Giancarlo’s been in love with Garrett forever. He’s sure Garrett will eventually realize they are destined to be more than business partners. But when Garrett installs his latest boyfriend as their new chef d’cuisine and announces plans to leave Carlo in New York while he opens a second restaurant on the west coast, Carlo is forced to re-evaluate his life. Can a high-strung British chef and a nice Italian boy from Brooklyn find the perfect fusion of fine-dining and family-style?

Hood


Emma Donoghue - 1995
    Yet Cara, the free spirit, and Pen, the stoic, craft a bond so strong it seems as though nothing could sever it: not the bickering, not the secrets, not even Cara’s infidelities.But thirteen years on, a car crash kills Cara and rips the lid off Pen’s world. Pen is still in the closet, teaching at her old school, living under the roof of Cara’s gentle father, who thinks of her as his daughter’s friend. How can she survive widowhood without even daring to claim the word? Over the course of one surreal week of bereavement, she is battered by memories that range from the humiliating, to the exalted, to the erotic, to the funny. It will take Pen all her intelligence and wit to sort through her tumultuous past with Cara, and all the nerve she can muster to start remaking her life.

The Sallee Rovers


M. Kei - 2010
    The Sallee Rovers, Book One of The Pirates of the Narrow Seas Trilogy is an expertly crafted swashbuckler brimming with authentic detail and fully realized portraits of life at sea, written by a tall ship sailor and internationally acclaimed poet.

Nothing Serious


Jay Northcote - 2013
    His relationship with Rachel is over and he’s moving out of the home they’ve shared for six years. They get along, but he can’t fix a relationship when the person he’s with is the wrong gender. Jamie Robertson, one of the removal men, is huge and ridiculously gorgeous, and Mark is smitten at first sight. When a cardboard box splits, revealing items of a personal nature that Mark never wanted anybody to see, he’s mortified. But it sparks the start of a beautiful friendship with benefits. As Jamie initiates Mark into the joys of gay sex, the two men get increasingly close and “nothing serious” turns into something rather important to both of them. But communication isn’t their strong point. Will either man ever find the courage to be honest about his feelings? Please note that although this edition has been re-edited for publication, there is no new or additional content.

Like People in History


Felice Picano - 1995
    At crucial moments in their personal histories their lives intersect, and each discovers his own unique - and uniquely gay- identity. Through the lends of their complex, tumultuous, yet enduring relationship - and their involvement with the handsome model, poet and decorated Vietnam vet Matt Loguidice, whom they both love - Felice Picano chronicles and celebrates gay life and subculture over the last half of the twentieth century. From Malibu Beach in its palmist surfer days to the legendary parties at Fire Island Pines in the 1970s, from San Francisco during its gayest era to AIDS activism in Greenwich Village in the 1990s, Like People in History presents 'the heroic and funny saga of the last three decades by someone who saw everything and forgot nothing' (Edmund White).

Bertram Cope's Year


Henry Blake Fuller - 1919
    Though Fuller was well known as an accomplished realist and had published twelve previous novels, this was his first to address sexual ambivalence. Bertram Cope, a young college teaching assistant, is befriended by Medora Phillips, a rich society type who tries to match him with three eligible young women. However, Bertram is emotionally attached only to his friend and housemate, Arthur Lemoyne. The portrayal of various friendships makes it an ironic and witty comedy of manners.

Beneath the Surface


Kate Sherwood - 2012
    Technically he's a lawyer, but really he's a problemsolver. He just never expected the problem to be Caleb Sinclair, the passionate but introverted artisan carpenter who lives next to the proposed quarry site."Know your enemy." That's Caleb's philosophy. And trying to turn fertile farmland into a gravel pit earns Peter the title of "enemy." Caleb loves that land, and if he has to make peace with his homophobic neighbors to make war on Peter, so be it. Except knowing his enemy doesn't turn out anything like he expected. Peter's not the fairy-tale monster-he just might be the first step to happy ever after.

Mysterious Skin


Scott Heim - 1995
    Neil McCormick is fully aware of the events from that summer of 1981. Wise beyond his years, curious about his developing sexuality, Neil found what he perceived to be love and guidance from his baseball coach. Now, ten years later, he is a teenage hustler, a terrorist of sorts, unaware of the dangerous path his life is taking. His recklessness is governed by idealized memories of his coach, memories that unexpectedly change when Brian comes to Neil for help and, ultimately, the truth.

Letters to Montgomery Clift


Noel Alumit - 2002
    Following the Filipino tradition of writing letters to the ghosts of ancestors, Bong Bong Luwad begins to write letters to the ghost of Montgomery Clift, at first asking to be reunited with his family, but as he undergoes the pains of adolescence, sexual discovery, and mental illness, the letters form a journal of self-discovery.

Let It Sew


Anna Martin - 2019
    The only person who can possibly help him is Edward Saunders, who runs a small tailor and alterations shop in the village. Edward is more than a little shocked to be asked to make seventeen costumes for five year old children—he’s more comfortable making bespoke men’s suits. But there’s something beguiling and utterly charming about Harry Britton, so despite all his hesitations, he agrees to help.

The Shattered Door


Brandon Witt - 2011
    While his sexuality prohibits him from practicing his degree in youth ministry in a church setting, he’s found a fulfilling job as a youth counselor at a residential treatment facility in Colorado. He falls in love, marries the man of his dreams, and makes peace with God. He’s happy.Then his buried past drags him back to the Ozarks.The life Brooke has worked so hard to build is crumbling in his hands in the face of painful memories and past abuse, and his confidence is withering. In El Dorado Springs, where his nightmares come to life, Brooke desperately seeks closure life doesn’t offer. Brooke must find value in himself, in his marriage, and in the world around him—and create the hope and perseverance to keep his past from swallowing him whole.

Sam Dorsey and His Sixteen Candles


Perie Wolford - 2014
    When he turned one, he fell face-down into his birthday cake. When he turned seven, he broke his arm. At his twelfth birthday, his house caught fire. Now Sam is about to turn sixteen and he is dreading the day.The only birthday wish he has is for Jake Timbers, the Mr. Popular of Arcadia High, to acknowledge his existence, or better yet give him a happy-birthday kiss. But that's unlikely to happen. Or is it?Disclaimer: The plot of the book substantially varies from the movie and all the references are made as a tribute to its awesomeness.

Crazy for Vincent


Hervé Guibert - 1989
    He drank a liter of tequila, smoked Congolese grass, snorted cocaine...―from Crazy for VincentCrazy for Vincent begins with the death of the figure it fixates upon: Vincent, a skateboarding, drug-addled, delicate “monster” of a boy in whom the narrator finds a most sublime beauty. By turns tender and violent, Vincent drops in and out of French writer and photographer Hervé Guibert's life over the span of six years (from 1982, when he first met Vincent as a fifteen-year-old teenager, to 1988). After Vincent's senseless death, the narrator embarks on a reconnaissance writing mission to retrieve the Vincent that had entered, elevated, and emotionally eviscerated his life, working chronologically backward from the death that opens the text. Assembling Vincent's fragmentary appearances in his journal, the author seeks to understand what Vincent's presence in his life had been: a passion? a love? an erotic obsession? or an authorial invention? A parallel inquiry could be made into the book that results: Is it diary, memoir, poem, fiction? Autopsy, crime scene, hagiography, hymn? Crazy for Vincent is a text the very nature of which is as untethered as desire itself.

No Place Like Home


Annabelle Jacobs - 2019
    That is until hunky neighbour Ed Middleton moves in next door. Attraction is instant, but Ed is only there temporarily and neither wants to start something with an expiration date. As the festive season approaches, holiday cheer wraps around them, and giving in to temptation is inevitable. But Ed is still set on moving in the new year—a fresh start, miles away from those he’s closest to. If Oliver doesn’t want to lose his heart, he’ll have to show Ed that home is wherever he wants it to be, and love is possible no matter what.No Place Like Home is a heartwarming story of love between neighbours, family and friends, about adorable rescue cats, and remembering that sometimes the very thing you're looking for is right under your nose.

Finding His Place


Nic Starr - 2017
    Despite striving to win his father's affection, a confrontation that has been years in the making leaves Kieran devastated to realize he will never be good enough. Jealous of the half brother he's never met, and who most likely doesn't know of his existence, Kieran vows to find out what makes his brother so special in their father's eyes.Darius Jensen manages a nightclub. He loves his job, but is reluctant to commit when given the opportunity to become a partner. His previous foray into business ownership with a boyfriend had disastrous results, and Darius is still paying the price, both financially and emotionally.When Kieran starts working with Darius at Sparks, Darius shows him it's not too late for Kieran to realize his dreams--the fulfilling career, a loving family, and someone who loves him for who he is. If only Kieran can convince Darius of the same thing. But before Kieran's and Darius's dreams can come true, Kieran needs to come clean with his brother and deal with the resulting fallout... which threatens his relationship with Darius.Note: This book was originally published as part of the Memories with the Breakfast Club Kindle World. The text remains unchanged.