12 Books to Read Right Now
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Happy almost-spring! I’m here with another roundup of book recommendations for you. There is no particular theme to this list, and there is a broad range of genres represented here, so hopefully you can find something that appeals to you. Many of these books are queer in some way, which I’ve noted in the descriptions. Reading is good for you, and it makes your brain feel good! We should all be doing it as much as we can. Let me know if you’ve read any of these books in the comments below.
Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
(Literary fiction, horror, magical realism)
I received this book as a Christmas present, and it was a total delight (in a freaky sort of way). The novel follows parents Magos and Joseph as they grieve the loss of their son, Santiago. Unable to accept his absence, Magos removes a piece of Santiago’s lung and, following instructions from an old folk tale, feeds and cares for it until it becomes a sentient being. As this monster grows into a boy, and later a man, Magos, Joseph, and their best friend Lena, struggle to curb his monstrous impulses while still loving him as their child.
Monstrilio is a wildly original novel that borrows from classic Gothic literature like Frankenstein to create something brand new. An evocative meditation on the meaning of family and what it takes to be human, the book is at once heartbreaking and hopeful. Read if you like magical realism mixed with literary horror.
Is it gay? Yes, most of the main characters are queer.
Bog Queen by Anna North
(Fiction, mystery, ecology, history)
Anna North’s Bog Queen is a time-hopping story that tackles the tension between culture, identity, and land. Agnes is an American anthropologist doing her postdoc in England. When a body is discovered in a bog, Agnes learns that the woman lived over 2,000 years ago. The mossy bog has preserved her body and left evidence of how she lived.
The book follows two timelines: that of Agnes and her search for the truth about the mystery woman, and the bog queen herself, a Celtic druid confronting the influence of the Roman Empire. In the present day, Anges must contend with what her work means for the environment and the local community, as environmental activists work to protect the bog and its natural resources and developers make plans to destroy it.
Agnes — brilliant but naive, someone with good intentions who often struggles to connect with others — makes for a compelling protagonist, and her Celtic counterpart mirrors Agnes’ modern concerns in a profound way. A slow-burning mystery more concerned with personal epiphanies than definitive answers, Bog Queen is an invigorating read.
Is it gay? One of the side characters is queer.
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
(Literary fiction, friendship)
The Wilderness is a big, bold, brilliant novel about friendship and growing up. It follows four black women as they muddle through their twenties in New York and Los Angeles and grow into middle age. Desiree has a fraught family history and tends to keep people at arm’s length. January feels bored by her relationship until a surprise pregnancy shakes things up. Monique goes from librarian to influencer after a viral moment, and Nakia is an aspiring restaurateur navigating familial and community expectations.
As the four friends age, life takes them in unexpected directions, and their relationships come apart and come back together as the years go by. It’s a stunning work from Angela Flournoy, and the book’s journey is both briefly shocking and heartbreakingly inevitable. The last fifteen pages or so truly took my breath away.
Is it gay? Yes, one of the protagonists is queer.
Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein
(Fiction, family, love, soccer)
On the surface, Spectacular Things appears to be a sort of “beach read” (it is a Reese’s Book Club pick, after all), but that doesn’t quite capture the book’s expansiveness. It follows the soccer-loving Lowe family, headed by Liz, a single mom who had her first daughter, Mia (named after Mia Hamm), when she was just a teenager. Liz was a soccer phenom headed for the big leagues when she got pregnant with Mia, and she gave it all up to start a family. Mia and her younger sister, Cricket, were raised to be soccer players, though Cricket emerges as the star, and all of Mia and Liz’s resources are diverted to her success.
Broadly, the book explores the sacrifices we make for family and the joy and pain of having a Big Dream. Liz is a kooky single mom that fans of Gilmore Girls will surely appreciate, and the soccer plot will appeal to fans of women’s sports. Despite the hardships these characters face and the book’s length, it’s a fairly breezy read with heartwarming moments mixed in with its tragedy. Satisfyingly sentimental.
Is it gay? Yes, one of the main characters is gay. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one, but you’ll probably be able to guess as you read.
Audition by Katie Kitamura
(Cerebral literary fiction)
I don’t quite know how to describe Katie Kitamura’s Audition; it’s a book that resists definition. Moreover, I don’t want to say too much about it, because its narrative leaps deserve to be experienced without warning. The novel follows an unnamed actress preparing for an upcoming stage play. She meets a young man who, had things worked out differently, could have been her son. What follows is a haunting take on identity and relationships without any easy conclusions. If provocative character studies that leave you with more questions than answers are your jam, pick this one up.
Is it gay? No.
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
(Fiction, suspense, romance)
I want to start by thanking the reader who suggested I read this a few months ago — you were right! Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep is a matryoshka doll sort of novel. Set in 1960s Netherlands, the book follows Isabel, a young woman who lives alone in her family home following the death of her mother. Isabel dislikes most other people and lives a life of solitude, obsessing over her routine and the upkeep of her house. When her brother Louis asks Isabel if his girlfriend, Eva, can stay with her while he’s out of town, Isabel is taken aback, but has no choice but to acquiesce.
Isabel behaves coldly toward Eva and is quite mean-spirited, though Eva’s annoyingly cheerful demeanor remains constant. As the two women spend more time together, long-held beliefs are upended, perspectives shift, and the past arrives to haunt the present. An unpredictable love story, a quiet thriller, and an incisive family history, The Safekeep is a must-read.
Is it gay? Yep.
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
(Thriller, atmospheric horror, sci-fi, dystopian)
Caitlin Starling’s The Luminous Dead reminded me of the Alien universe by way of The Descent, and if that sounds interesting to you, I think you’ll love this book. It takes place in a not-so-distant future wherein humanity has colonized the solar system, but class inequality remains — and has gotten worse, even. Some planets are wealthy, while others are populated by destitute workers with no means of upward mobility.
Our protagonist, Gyre Price, is from one of these destitute planets, and works as a caver — essentially spelunking on behalf of corporations — to claw her way out of poverty. Her current expedition is shrouded in mystery, and her only contact with the outside world is her above-ground handler, Em, who refuses to tell her what she’s looking for. As Gyre drops deeper beneath the ground, things start going haywire, and she wonders if she’s really alone down there.
The Luminous Dead is a wonderfully atmospheric novel, generating tension based on what’s just out of view. With only two characters and a dark, subterranean setting, the book does a lot with very little. It’s not gory or violent, but it is tautly written and deliciously spooky, which makes it hard to put down.
Is it gay? Yes, it is.
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
(Non-fiction, nature)
Is a River Alive? is a stunning work of nonfiction that explores humanity’s fundamental connection to nature. In an effort to understand our relationship with rivers and their importance to the functioning of our lives and this planet, naturalist Robert Macfarlane traveled to rivers across the globe, in Ecuador, Canada, and India, and spoke with the people who have pledged their lives to protect them. He explores the Rights of Nature movement and the effort to define rivers as living entities enshrined with the rights of personhood.
Is a River Alive? is a gorgeous book written with thoughtful, poetic prose, posing some of the most important questions of our time. Read this if you’re a nature lover, and if you’re not a nature lover, read it too, and maybe you’ll become one.
Is it gay? Well, no. But who am I to tell a river how it identifies?
Play You For It by Samantha Saldivar
(Romance)
Samantha Saldivar’s Play Your For It is a sports romance where neither of the protagonists actually play sports. We follow Jordan D’Amato, a former WNBA player named head coach of a college basketball team in Oregon. Jordan struggles to deal with the pressure of being the first of her kind and leading her team to a much-needed victory. Caroline Beck is a sports journalist tired of being underestimated by her male colleagues. Jordan’s rise to the top is the perfect story for Caroline, but will their personal relationship get in the way of their jobs?
Spoiler alert: yes, yes, it will. But that’s okay! This is a romance novel, so all problems can be overcome. I appreciated that this felt like an adult romance novel, with characters who care about their jobs and have responsibilities outside of romantic partnerships. The dynamic between the two characters is fun, and I enjoyed how ambitious they both are. Saldivar works in broadcast news and was a sports journalist herself, so the workplace elements are particularly strong.
Is it gay? Well, yes.
Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys by Mariana Enriquez
(Gothic non-fiction)
Mariana Enriquez is one of our greatest living horror authors, and her new nonfiction book, Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys, is even better than I had hoped. The book is exactly like it sounds: Enriquez shares her experiences visiting cemeteries around the world. In a less talented writer’s hands, this premise might feel derivative. But Enriquez is so tirelessly curious, empathetic, and a little (or a lot) freaky, that her experiences in these graveyards take on profound meaning.
With each graveyard Enriquez visits, over the course of several decades, she tells us how and why she ended up there, what was going on in her life at the time, and the many odd and unbelievable stories housed within its gates. Unapologetically macabre and more personal than Enriquez’s previous work, Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave is a riveting journey through many dark and buried histories.
Is it gay? Not particularly.
Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun
(Romance)
Every Step She Takes literalizes the journey one takes to find love and self-acceptance. We follow Sadie Wells, a 35-year-old woman who spends every waking moment managing her late grandmother’s antique shop in Seattle. Sadie has had no luck with romance, and comes to the sudden realization that she might be gay. When she gets the chance to walk the Camino de Santiago in Portugal, she decides that a grand adventure will be good for her.
The first problem arises when there’s turbulence on the flight and a slightly drunk Sadie spills her secrets — including her sexuality crisis — to her seatmate, a dashing stranger named Mal. Problem number two is the fact that Mal happens to be on Sadie’s Camion tour, which Sadie learns is a trip specifically for queer women. Both Sadie and Mal are keen on running from their problems, but the Camino forces them to confront what they’d rather keep buried — including their feelings for each other.
Every Step She Takes is a pretty classic sapphic romance, though the Portugal setting adds some intrigue and vibrancy. Not as dark as Cochrun’s previous book Here We Go Again (her best, in my opinion), it nonetheless touches on grief and familial strife. The Camino gives it a nice pace and a time/location constraint that works well for the plot and its familiar romance novel beats.
Is it gay? Yes, very.
Best Woman by Rose Dommu
(Rom-com)
Rose Dommu’s debut novel, Best Woman, draws clear inspiration from ‘90s rom-coms, and if those are your jam, you’ll probably get a kick out of this book. It centers on Julia Rosenberg, a Florida-born woman who leaves her glittery New York City life to return home and act as the “Best Woman” at her brother’s wedding. Though her family accepted her when she came out as a trans woman, she has mixed feelings about being back in the Sunshine State and staying with her overbearing mother.
Enter Kim Cameron, a smoking-hot lesbian whom Julia had a massive crush on in high school. Kim is also a part of the wedding party, and when the two reconnect, Julia tells an ostensibly harmless lie about her family that quickly spirals out of control. Julia desperately wants Kim’s love and approval, but her methods for getting it prove to be disastrous.
Best Woman’s closest rom-com relative is My Best Friend’s Wedding, the Julia Roberts film in which she plays an utterly unhinged woman who wreaks havoc on those around her. Similarly, Julia spends much of the book behaving badly and coming off as sort of an asshole, even if her intentions aren’t all bad. Dommu writes this messy but still lovable character well, and it adds some edge to the often syrupy rom-com genre.
Is it gay? Yep.