Ten years ago, Cheryl jumped at the chance to send her son, Javonte, to an exclusive boarding school in New England — far away from Atlanta and the violence of the city streets. It was the American dream, or was it? Now settled in Vermont, Javonte is married and well-employed, but Cheryl hardly ever sees him, and when she does, her own son seems like someone she only used to know. So, when Javonte announces he’s coming home to Atlanta for MLK weekend, Cheryl calls off work, thinking this could be their chance to reconnect.But a few days before the visit, Javonte cancels his trip.After begging for the hours back at the white-glove moving company where she works, Cheryl accepts a last-minute gig in her own neighborhood, cheered by the idea of a black family moving on to bigger and better. But on her way to the job site, Cheryl learns the home’s occupants aren’t moving by choice — they’re being evicted. Over the next several hours, Cheryl must reckon with her own unresolved past, in this searing story about family, race and the lasting consequences of a choice that can’t be taken back.

    But Nathan was apparently straight, and Owen was too busy with other guys to take his crush seriously. When Nathan moves back to Bristol after a year away, Owen hears that Nathan has come out of the closet, and he propositions him. Nathan doesn’t want to be just another notch on Owen’s bedpost, though, so he challenges Owen to prove he can be serious: five dates before they have sex.Owen doesn’t think that sounds too difficult. He’s expecting Nathan to find his charms irresistible anyway. But as they grow closer, Owen begins to care more about proving himself to Nathan than he does about getting him into bed.Word count: 31,000 approx

     Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer. Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it. The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for Fiction for its publication of "Brokeback Mountain," and the story was included in Prize Stories 1998: The O. Henry Awards. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Proulx limns the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world's violent intolerance.

    But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks camping in the countryside, bonding over an illicit copy of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Inhabiting a beautiful natural world removed from society and its constraints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable.Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly-coveted position in the ministry. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart, Swimming in the Dark is a potent blend of romance, post-war politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski has crafted an indelible and thought-provoking literary debut that explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.

    In New York after college, Bobby moves in with Jonathan and his roommate, Clare, a veteran of the city's erotic wars. Bobby and Clare fall in love, scuttling the plans of Jonathan, who is gay, to father Clare's child. Then, when Clare and Bobby have a baby, the three move to a small house upstate to raise "their" child together and, with an odd friend, Alice, create a new kind of family. A Home at the End of the World masterfully depicts the charged, fragile relationships of urban life today.

    Shocked and grieving, Jessa steps up to manage the failing business, while the rest of the Morton family crumbles. Her mother starts sneaking into the shop to make aggressively lewd art with the taxidermied animals. Her brother Milo withdraws, struggling to function. And Brynn, Milo’s wife—and the only person Jessa’s ever been in love with—walks out without a word. As Jessa seeks out less-than-legal ways of generating income, her mother’s art escalates—picture a figure of her dead husband and a stuffed buffalo in an uncomfortably sexual pose—and the Mortons reach a tipping point. For the first time, Jessa has no choice but to learn who these people truly are, and ultimately how she fits alongside them.

    Cohosted by beloved drag queen Shangela and storytelling maven Nikki Levy, Coming Out Party is a joyous celebration of LGBTQIA+ people and personalities.You’ll hear live stories from Grey’s Anatomy star Jake Borelli, whose on-screen journey inspired him to come out IRL, comic Nicky Paris (Wendy Williams), whose high school production of Peter Pan taught him "how to grow up", and comic Daniel Webb, who was so fabulous he never really needed to come out...that is, until he met Barack Obama in a BBQ joint. You’ll also hear stories told from inside the closet (literally, from our makeshift home studios - a certain virus cancelled our live shows, but it can’t hurt our pride). Hear how The L Word’s Rosanny Zayas had her first kiss with the coolest girl in school, how Pose’s Angelica Ross navigated "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" during her time in the navy, and how author Lisa Dickey came out...to the secretary of state himself.Pride might look different this year, but it can never be canceled! Listen in!

    They settle by the sea and have a daughter and conventional marriage does not seem such a tumultuous change after all. When a chance encounter awakens scandalous desires never acknowledged until now, however, Harry is forced to forsake the land and people he loves for a harsh new life as a homesteader on the newly colonized Canadian prairies. There, in a place called Winter, he will come to find a deep love within an alternative family, a love imperiled by war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism.If you've never read a Patrick Gale, stop now and pick up this book. From the author of the bestselling NOTES FROM AN EXHIBITION comes an irresistible, searching and poignant historical novel of love, relationships, secrets and escape.

    A dangerous task. A burning secret.Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.

    Sam & Miles belong together, except every five years, there’s a hitch and they don’t end up together. Now, as they tell their story to a reporter at a momentous occasion, will they finally break the five-year curse? Can these two friends and lovers find their happily ever after?

    I know I might be asking too much: you, a Hollywood star; me, a cashier at this small-town grocery store. But the thing is, Seraphina, I have information I think you need to know. And don’t worry about how I got it. Just remember I’ll do anything—anything in the world—to protect you.This captivating listen begins with fan letters to a beloved young actress, Seraphina, that become increasingly unhinged. As more and more is revealed about the troubled woman behind the fan mail and her connection to the starlet, a story of obsession becomes an expertly plotted tale of wrongdoing and revenge.

    But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will - from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France. The intensity of their bond brought Tristan happiness and self-discovery as well as confusion and unbearable pain. The Absolutist is a masterful tale of passion, jealousy, heroism, and betrayal set in one of the most gruesome trenches of France during World War I. This novel will keep readers on the edge of their seats until its most extraordinary and unexpected conclusion, and will stay with them long after they've turned the last page.

    Despite the cold weather outside, things get plenty steamy inside when sparks fly between Hay and his celebrity sports crush. But Hay's been down this road before, and he knows from experience hot connections never turn into the real deal for him. After all, everyone he's ever been interested in has left him for their childhood love. So when Christian's on-again, off-again childhood love shows up at the ranch hoping to reconcile, Hayworth knows he a decision to make. Does he hand over the ball and slink off the field, or does he step up and try to make the winning play? While Hay is set in the Made Marian world, this story stands completely on its own.

    Adeline vows to never speak again. But that’s not her only secret. After her mother takes a housekeeping job at a lighthouse off the tip of Cape Ann, a local woman vanishes. The key to the mystery lies with Adeline, the silent witness. New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic Alice Hoffman crafts a beautiful, heart-wrenching short story.Alice Hoffman’s Everything My Mother Taught Me is part of Inheritance, a collection of five stories about secrets, unspoken desires, and dangerous revelations between loved ones. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single setting. By yourself, behind closed doors, or shared with someone you trust.

    She never expected to win and end up engaged to her swoony Scottish suitor. Now she’s hiding out at her parent’s house in Nebraska and waiting for the show’s premiere, all while trying to keep her engagement to Liam top secret. But her real-life love story is about to take a turn she never expected....When she’s reunited with her high school bestie, Josh, it’s impossible to deny that he’s grown into quite a catch. As they rekindle their friendship, something deeper begins to spark between them...or has it always been there? Now, Amanda has a life-altering decision to make. Will she find happily ever after with her sexy Scottish TV boyfriend or the sweet small-town guy who knows her better than anyone?