[We send book announcements to everyone who indicates an interest in the Book Club] - if you aren't receiving these emails please send natasha@yalegala.org your details.

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Booklist

 

–> ** INVITE ** ANY YALE ALUMNI to our discussion on July 20: 

 

NOTE: Our informal group doesn’t have any set “curriculum;” we discuss the books that members nominate and that we all vote for… but ongoing themes, connected to LGBTQ+ experience – sometimes including Yale – do emerge. At discussions, each of us can bring up ANY points we want. We welcome the widest range of opinions, in a lively collegial atmosphere – Boola Boola Redux! 

 

Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club is a series of lively Zoom discussions of LGBTQ+ contemporary and classic novels, non-fiction, plays, and poetry. All alumni are welcome, of all orientations, genders, races, and points of view. We meet the third Thursday of every month at 8 pm ET via Zoom. 

 

To register, please email natasha@yalegalaevents.org with the subject line, “Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club: My Government Means to Kill Me (November) - or simply Book Club

 
More Info: 

SOME BOOKS TO CONSIDER FOR FUTURE DISCUSSIONS

 

We are NOT limited to the below recommendations but see what you think of these diverse titles. Nominate any LGBTQ+ book that interests you, contemporary or classic, whether a work of FICTION (novel, story collection), NON-FICTION (history, biography, memoir, essay collection), PLAY (or musical), or POETRY; there doesn’t need to be a Yale connection. Mention your choice, at a discussion, and I’ll add it to the following list for future group emails. We periodically, live at the beginning of discussions, take nominations and then vote as a group.

For our UPCOMING OPEN DATES (‘Third Thursdays’) – in the next couple of months, we need to select books for: March , April and May.  If you’re looking for some ideas, here are major LGBTQ+ book ‘best lists’ and award winners (Lambda Literary, Publishing Triangle, Stonewall Awards, more). NEW!  BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) LGBTQ+ literature with links to external BIPOC sites. You’re not limited to those websites. PLEASE NOTE: new titles take a few months to become widely available in libraries. Here are members’ recommendations.

 

• AMAN recommends: (FICTION) Delicious Foods by James Hannaham;  Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu;  The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.;  The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer.  (NON-FICTION) Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition by P Carl;  Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay; Love, Hait and Click Bait by Liz Bower and Ghost Wall: A Novel by Sarah Moss.
• ANN recommends: The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village memoir by Samuel R. Delany
• BRUCE recommends: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin;  The Gallery by John Horne Burns (1947); Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns by David Margolick
• CHIP recommends: Poetry of Emily Dickinson (list of Dickinson’s most openly lesbian poems); There Will be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald; and Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns by David Margolick
• JIM recommends: The Bell by Iris Murdoch;  The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde;  Julian [last ‘pagan’ Roman emperor] by Gore Vidal;  Pictures and Passions: A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts by James M. Saslow (includes hundreds of art photos; winner of two Lambda Literary Awards) – THANKS to Prof. Saslow, Pictures and Passions is briefly FREE to download complete (use the basic “Download PDF” link; 59 MB) and Gilgamesh (which translation). 
• MARY ANNE recommends: The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen; and Love Me Tender by Constance Debre (English translation and/or French original). 
• TASH recommends: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry. There is also a PBS documentary :) 
• CAROLYN recommends: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl b Andrea Lawlor and XX by Carolina Robertis
• What would YOU – including new members – like our group to discuss? Nominate ANY LGBTQ+ book that interests you! I’ll add your recommendations here.

 

 

BOOKS WE’VE DISCUSSED (Complete List):

   

 

• January 2024: TBD
• December 2023: Why Fish Don't Exist" by LuLu Miller
• November 2023: "My Government Means to Kill Me" by Rasheed Newson
• October 2023: Time Square Red Times Square Blue, by Samuel Delany
• September 2023: "The Future is History. How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia" by Masha Gessen 
• August 2023
• July 2023: "Girls Can Kiss Now" by Jill Gutowitz - a collection of essays 
• June 2023: I'm Afraid of Men and People Change -- both by Vivek Sharya; and History Compics - The Stonewall Riots, Making a Stand for LGBTQ Rights (a graphic novel for ages 9-13). 
• May 2023: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (2020)
• April 2023: Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe (2019)
• March 2023: There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald (Yale MC '09)
• February 2023: Love in the Big City by Sang Jong Park. Translated by Anton Hur (2021-201 pages)
• January 2023: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
• December 2022: Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies:A Memoir of Love, Loss and Other Four-Letter Words by Michael Ausiello (2017). Also a Dec 2022 movie Spoiler
• November 2022: Love, Hate and Click Bait by Liz Bowery (2022)
• October 2022: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry (Yale '94).  (2018) - 250 pages. PBG movie is Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes / Feeling Heart
• September 2022: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, by Andrea Lawlor (2017)
• May and June 2022: Maurice, by EM Forster (1913 - published 1971 with a happy ending)
• April 2022: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
• March 2022: Ain't I a Woman, by bell hooks
• February 2022 – Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Stephen Sondheim’s “Musical Thriller”
• January 2022 – Song in a Weary Throat, Pauli Murray’s memoir. (Movie available)
• December 2021 – Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s novel
• November 2021 – Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart’s novel
• October 2021 – Fa**ots, Larry Kramer’s satirical first novel
• September 2021 – The Sparsholt Affair, Alan Hollinghurst’s novel
• August 2021 – The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith’s thriller novel
• July 2021 – Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, Paul Monette’s memoir
• June 2021 – Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo’s novel
• May 2021 – The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s play, inspired by E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End
• April 2021 – The Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne’s novel
• March 2021 – Native Country of the Heart, a Memoir, by Cherríe Moraga
• February 2021 – Leaves of Grass (1855 first version), Walt Whitman’s poetry
• January 2021 – The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller’s novel
• December 2020 – Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman’s novel [no meetings in October or November]
• September 2020 – The Gods of Tango, Carolina de Robertis’s novel [no meeting in August]
• July 2020 – Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta’s novel
• June 2020 (our first discussion) – Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Audre Lorde’s autobiographical novel (“biomythography”)

 

 More info: http://www.yalegala.org/article.html?aid=732