The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

LGBTQ+

Spotlight on: Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

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Hannah Kaner, photo credit Hannah Kaner

“I remember being a furious child. Small and blonde, bookish and talkative, I hated how often I was “baby,” how often I was “cute.” I wanted to be loud, strong, and powerful. I wanted to fight my brothers and my cousins, strength to strength, arm to arm, bloody noses and bruises.

Worse was when they started getting bigger, taller, stronger. Worse is that being as loud as the lads was ‘annoying’ (them), ‘boisterous and unladylike’ (adults), ‘disruptive’ (teachers). I’m sure I was all of those things, but it was early that I understood that there was one expectation for ‘girls’, one for ‘boys’, and you were expected to fit neatly into one or the other.” ― Hannah Kaner, Interview, Fantasy Book Cafe

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

What booksellers are saying about Godkiller

  • Godkiller is an excellently written fantasy novel. We follow a host of characters as they reluctantly join together to solve their individual quests: saving the heart of a king, finding a shrine to call home, parting with a god of white lies, and god killing revenge. The characters are well developed and the world building is immersive with a digestible pace of folklore and history placed throughout. Godkiller also includes fantastic disability representation that fits seamlessly into the story. The final pages packed a punch and I’m already looking forward to the next book in the series.
      ― Madeline Newstead, Novel. in Memphis, Tennessee | Buy from Novel

  • Godkiller is a cinematic masterpiece. Kaner’s world building is exquisite, and her characters vibrant and intriguing. The story concept had me hooked right from the beginning (I have a soft spot for plots built around complex religious systems) and Kissen’s narration pulled me right along. I really enjoyed the descriptive flow of the prose and Kaner’s ability to be flawlessly inclusive was a refreshing change as well. Absolutely devoured this book.
      ― Morgan Holub from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, Georga | Buy from E. Shaver, bookseller

  • Godkiller is like The Witcher and The Last of Us but for wlw. For the sapphics. For those of us craving a grumpy older sister instead of a grumpy father figure. Godkiller is a queer, dramatic, lush affair full of some of the most beautiful, unique world building ever seen on page. It’s sure to absolutely rock your world.
      ― Reviewed by Caitlyn Vanorder, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | Buy from Bookmarks

  • This is my #1 read of the year and I didn’t even see it coming. This book has the best vibes I have read in a long time, it transports you to a world that feels like the setting of The Witcher while having all the action and travel timeline of American Gods. It feels Nordic and Enchanting in all the best way like if a Viking and a Fairy had a child. Hands down a 5 star read for me, and one of the only times I have actually enjoyed multiple POVs. The writing is captivating and the characters are both abrasive and loveable while the setting makes you feel like an adventurer.This book alone has added Hannah Kaner to my instant author purchase list!
      ― Reviewed by Charlotte Beck, Main Street Reads in Summerville, South Carolina | Buy from Main Street Reads

About Hannah Kaner

Hannah Kaner is the #1 internationally bestselling author of Godkiller. A Northumbian writer living in Scotland, she is inspired by world mythologies, angry women, speculative fiction, and the stories we tell ourselves about being human.

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Spotlight on: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

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Andrew Joseph White, photo credit Alice Scott

“I think the best horror is a combination of the fear of something inside themselves and something external, especially when one of them inherently feeds the other. However, external horror is what speaks the most to me as both a writer and reader. I can’t speak for all marginalized identities, obviously, but external horror for a lot of marginalized identities is terrifying because it’s real. The world is always lurking, waiting to make a horror movie of our lives or the lives of those we love. It doesn’t care about your internality. You’re different, and therefore a target. For me, the best horror acknowledges that, illustrates that, and allows the internality of both the character and the audience to expand from there.” ― Andrew Joseph White, Interview, Scifi Pulse

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

What booksellers are saying about The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

  • White’s brutal tale of a reimagined 1880s London where some people can commune with the dead is harsh and captivating. Silas wants nothing more to escape his family’s plan to marry him off to the highest bidder and force him to behave like the girl they think he is. But he has other plans. However, when his plan blows up and he’s sent to a sanitarium/finishing school to heal his sickness, he finds that things can always be worse. But there are a few bright spots in the cast ugliness.
      ― Jennifer Jones from Bookmiser, Inc. in Marietta, GA | Buy from Bookmiser

  • Andrew Joseph White’s phenomenal debut, “Hell Followed With Us,” would seem like a tough act to follow but White’s fans won’t be disappointed: “The Spirit Bares Its Teeth” is just as incredible. White tackles the overlapping ways in which misogyny, transphobia, and ableism manifest in society through a ghost-infested finishing school where protagonist Silas Bell must work with the spirits of deceased students to expose the school’s medical and psychiatric abuses and break free of the system’s tyrannical rule. Gut-wrenching yet gorgeous, “The Spirit Bares Its Teeth” is a necessary and impressive addition to both LGBTQ and horror lit.
      ― Charlie Williams from Square Books in Oxford, MS | Buy from Square Books

  • Absolutely amazing gothic exploration of ableism and transphobia in a Victorian context. Heartwarming, vindictive, and vicious.
      ― Minna Banawan from Park Road Books in Charlotte, NC | Buy from Park Road Books

About Andrew Joseph White

Andrew Joseph White is a queer, trans author from Virginia, where he grew up falling in love with monsters and wishing he could be one too. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University in 2022  and has a habit of cuddling random street cats. Andrew writes about trans kids with claws and fangs, and what happens when they bite back.

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Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love

A beautiful and light-hearted story for every kind of fanciful and imaginative kid! Jessica Love’s illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and so easily portray Julian’s wish to be a magical creature. This is a delightfully simple story that explores gender expression and individuality. Careful details also help communicate Julian’s fear of revealing his identity to his Abuela, an important representation that kids need for all kinds of situations.

Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love, (List Price: $17.99, Candlewick, 9780763690458, April 2018)

Reviewed by Johanna Albrecht, McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina

Family Meal by Bryan Washington

At times heartwarming, others heartrending, this tender work from Washington is delectable. Lust, hunger, grief, and a longing for belonging squeeze up against the forces that seek to tear us apart, but, what Family Meal serves is a generous familial communion made up of the people we love and those who, despite our flaws, love us back. A restorative novel to be shared, undoubtedly set to bring its readers together.

Family Meal by Bryan Washington, (List Price: $28, Riverhead Books, 9780593421093, October 2023)

Reviewed by Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

The Summer of Jordi Perez (And the Best Burger in Los Angelese) by Amy Spalding

The Summer of Jordi Perez is a pitch-perfect summery contemporary romance. I adored the plus-size lesbian blogger main character as she navigates new friendships, anxiety, new relationships, and an internship. With a romance that anyone can get behind, straight or otherwise, this book is perfect for anyone wanting a light, fun read.

The Summer of Jordi Perez (And the Best Burger in Los Angelese) by Amy Spalding, (List Price: $16.99, Sky Pony, 9781510727663, April 2018)

Reviewed by Shauna Sinyard, Park Road Books in Charlotte, North Carolina

The Free People’s Village by Sim Kern

In an alternate 2020, in which Al Gore once won the presidency and Democrats have held court for 20 years…we still live in an economically and racially unjust, imperialist, carceral state (now with more greenwashing!), and teacher and punk band guitarist Maddie Ryan finds herself and her community forever changed when she stands against the building of a new hyperway through the Black 8th Ward she’s inadvertently helped gentrify and gets swept up in a revolution. Achingly real, bitterly funny, and deeply moving, The Free People’s Village is a commentary, both compassionate and cutting, on the woke white activist’s journey and, above all, a full-throated ode to resistance and the found family that fuels it.

The Free People’s Village by Sim Kern, (List Price: $26.99, Levine Querido, 9781646142668, September 2023)

Reviewed by Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia

Jack of Hearts (and other parts) by L. C. Rosen

Jack Rothman is 17 years old. He likes to wear eyeliner, wear fantastic clothes, and have sex with boys. A LOT of sex. He’s gossiped about a lot in his high school, but when his friend Jenna starts drumming up interest for a new column Jack will be writing for her website, he starts getting little pink notes in his locker. The first one is short and sweet. But they get creepy really fast, and he has no idea who it is that is now stalking him. This is absolutely a very frank, sex-positive book for queer teen boys. It’s not going to be for everyone. But just like Jack helps the readers of his column, this book has real answers to problems that aren’t going to be covered in your high school sex ed class. I enjoyed that MANY of the adults in this book were positive in regards to Jack’s sexuality, but there were some who were not, and that’s a very real fear.

Jack of Hearts (and other parts) by L. C. Rosen, (List Price: $17.99, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316480536, October 2018)

Reviewed by Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia

Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress

Everything about Sirens & Muses is unapologetically alluring, designed to catch your eye. Four different voices give us a glimpse into a prestigious New England art school. Along with many spiraling ideas about art, class, attraction, and desire, I found it had so much to say about what truly drives people forward, and about coming home. A moody, wonderful read.

Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress, (List Price: 18, Ballantine Books, 9780593496459, July 2023)

Reviewed by Emma Holland, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

MY. FAVORITE. BOOK. OF. ALL. TIME!!!!! Aiden Thomas is an incredibly talented author, and this book- from start to finish- had me absolutely captivated. The book centers around the magic and cultural importance of the Mexican holiday, Día de los Muertos. It brings the holiday to life and emphasizes the value and complexities of family. It also both honors and challenges tradition by incorporating a transgender main character. The characters’ journeys of acceptance, identity, friendship, mystery, and romance are profound and impactful. I went from crying on the floor, to begging my sister to spoil the ending before I finished, to crying again, to finishing the book and needing to take a few weeks to fully recover- in the best way. I couldn’t more highly recommend this beautiful masterpiece of a book!!

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, (List Price: 17.99, Swoon Reads, 9781250250469, September 2020)

Reviewed by Finn Fletcher, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia

Spotlight on: Open Throat by Henry Hoke

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Henry Hoke, photo credit Myles Pettengill

I call my cat Hecate, as sort of a – it’s formed a separate identity for me, you know, from the actual lion. But Hecate feels this community in this space, these people who are living adjacent to each other in tents and, you know, sharing food, taking care of each other. Calling it town is like this is the first encounter of, like, people in place and people forming a small civilization on the cat’s terms. It’s outside of the horror of a freeway that it’s crossed and the violent past it’s had with its own kind when its father sort of, you know, rejects it and hunts it.. ― Henry Hoke, Interview, NPR

Open Throat by Henry Hoke

What booksellers are saying about Open Throat

  • I do not need much convincing to read a book whose narrator is a queer mountain lion, and neither should you. This firecracker of a novel is a tale of a big cat living under the Hollywood sign; where witnessing gay hookups, therapist debriefings, and vent sessions about the social scene of “ellay” are normal occurrences. When a fire breaks out in the hills he calls his home, the mountain lion is forced to move closer to civilization. Our unconventional protagonist successfully and skillfully delves into themes of gender, familial issues, and loneliness in this flawless, fever-dream novella.
      ― Grace Sullivan from Fountain Books in Richmond, VA | Buy from Fountain Bookstore

  • As a bookseller, it’s pretty rare to say “I’ve never read anything like this before”, but in the case of Open Throat, it’s 100% true. I absolutely inhaled this beautiful, darkly funny, propulsive prowler of a book. Told from the POV of a mountain lion in pseudo-verse and using language acquired from the hikers under the thicket where it lives, near the Hollywood sign, this story made me think hard about how we treat the animals – wild and domestic- in and around our cities. Love love love!.
      ― Rachel Knox from Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, FL | Buy from Tombolo Books

  • Savage and gentle, the protagonist of OPEN THROAT sees the best of us—but mostly the worst. At only 156 pages, this short but powerful novel packs in a captivating meditation on queerness, climate disaster, and looks at just how little humans tend to care for their fellow man. I loved the nameless, ambiguously gendered, lonely mountain lion whose world we looked through. One of the most thoughtful and unique books I’ve had the pleasure of reading.   
      ― Gaby Iori from Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, NC | Buy from Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews

About Henry Hoke

Henry Hoke is an editor at The Offing and a writer whose work has appeared in No Tokens, Triangle House Review, Electric Literature, and the flash noir anthology Tiny Crimes. He co-created the performance series Enter>text in Los Angeles, and has taught at CalArts and the UVA Young Writers Workshop. He lives in New York City.

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Wolfsong by TJ Klune

This is my first foray into TJ Klune (I know, I know, I’m behind the times) and I have to say, I loved Wolfsong! I had only read YA gay love stories and it was such an interesting change up reading a book written for gay men opposed to women attempting to write gay men. I loved Ox and how he developed his pack. I also loved that he was just a "What you see is what you get" kind of guy. Not everyone in the world is a deep thinker or an overthinker. And we need a balance. The only thing I didn’t care for was Ox being attracted to Joe when he was still a few months underage. I know that there wasn’t a power imbalance in their relationship, but I’ve seen a lot of hate groups accusing LGBT people of intentionally targeting young people, so I would be afraid for someone who has not read the story in its entirety to judge wrongly from that fact alone.

Wolfsong by TJ Klune, (List Price: $29.99, Tor Books, 9781250890313, July 2023)

Reviewed by Katlin Kerrison, Story On the Square in McDonough, Georgia

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

Eric Larocca’s newest novel Everything the Darkness Eats weaves cosmic horror with small town prejudice into a tale of creeping dread. Larocca never shies away from the gruesome or the traumatic and weaves these darkest parts alongside love. This Connecticut town is neither cozy nor warm, and is instead full of mysterious and bizarre disappearances, unrestrained bigotry and the dark effects of its most powerful resident Mr. Crowley. Interweaving two resident’s attempts to uncover and stop the horror, Larocca forces his characters to reckon with what means the most to them and to what lengths they’ll go for closure, revenge, and love. Perfect for fans of Clive Barker and other cosmic horror.

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca, (List Price: 16.95, CLASH Books, 9781955904278, June 2023)

Reviewed by Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

An engrossing and necessary work of memoir, queer perspective, and groundbreaking from examining a history of abuse through a series of prismatic episodes dissecting road trips, meetings with parents, Disney villains, and gaslighting. Stumbling through each new layer you delve deeper into the unshakeable, irrational hold of abuse. At times what seemed like romance transforms in the next page into folklore, raw emotion, queer theory, criticism, and horror. I am immensely grateful for the work Carmen Maria Machado has done in writing as generous a book as In the Dream House.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, (List Price: $18, Graywolf Press, 9781644450383, December 2020)

Reviewed by Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

The Southern Bookseller Review: Be Yourself

The Southern Bookseller Review Newsletter for June, 2023

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The Southern Bookseller Review: A Book for Every Reader

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June 2023

Be Yourself.

LGBTQ+ Pride illustration credit Sandra Milena Valero Orjuela

This month’s special edition of The Southern Bookseller Review celebrates Pride Month, and joyfully honors the impact and importance that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals in our lives. Recognizing the bright light of LGBTQ+ people is more important now than it has ever been. As more and more LGBTQ+ books become the targets of book bans, perhaps the most important thing any of us can do is read those books and decide for ourselves.

LGBTQ at SBR

The world isn’t binary. Everything isn’t black or white, yes or no. Sometimes it’s not a switch, it’s a dial." —Jeff Garvin, Symptoms of Being Human

Read This Now | Read This Next | The Bookseller Directory


Read This Now!

Recommended by Southern indies…

And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode

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And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode
Roxane Gay Books / June 2023


More Reviews from Bookmarks

And Then He Sang a Lullaby is a powerful debut that follows the story of Segun and August, two college students in Nigeria who yearn for love and connection. Readers will be deeply moved by this brave and beautiful tale of two men who can’t help but deny their attraction despite the risks to themselves and each other.

Reviewed by Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu photo credit Ileleji Prince

About the author

Ani Kayode is an award-winning Nigerian writer and queer liberation activist. His work interrogates themes of queer identity, resistance, and liberation. His writings have appeared in literary magazines across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.


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Spotlight on: Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane

 

Byron Lane, photo credit the author

I just tried to be honest. When I’m honest in my life, about my life, it tends to make others honest about theirs and suddenly we all relate to each other and our lives in a more meaningful way. I don’t know whether it’s been years of therapy or what, but I find I’m generally an optimistic person. Even in sad or heavy situations I can usually find something sweet or helpful or humorous. ― Byron Lane, Interview, The Nerd Daily

What booksellers are saying about Big Gay Wedding

Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane
  • The most fun, funny, warm, heart-aching book full of big loving family feels I have ever read. Byron Lane writes the kind of page turners I love. Breezy at first glance, devastating as you dig deeper and full of heart.
      ― Rayna Nielsen from Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans, LA | Buy from Blue Cypress Books

  • This is a beautifully written, engaging, heartfelt book. The characters are quirky, lovable, and memorable. The plot unfolds with funny, sad, bittersweet and joyous events and conversations that ring very true and hit home emotionally. I’ll be looking for other books by this author.
      ― Ruth Goldstein from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, GA | Buy from E. Shaver, Bookseller

  • From Byron Lane, the author of A Star is Bored, comes a new story about a small town, a family on the edge of change, and a big gay wedding. Barnett’s mom hopes he’s coming for a visit to announce he’s moving home to take care of her and the family farm for rescue animals, but she soon finds out her son is getting married – and they want the wedding to take place on the farm. Hilarity ensues as a wide case of soon to be in-laws overtake the farm to plan the wedding of the year, but when the wedding starts to face protest and problems, it’s a lesson in conditional love and support. BIG Gay Wedding needs to be in everybody’s beach bags this year!  
      ― Beth Seufer Buss from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

Byron Lane is author of A Star Is Bored, hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “wildly funny and irreverent.” He’s a playwright, screenwriter, Emmy Award–winning journalist, and former assistant to actress Carrie Fisher. He’s originally from New Orleans and lives in Palm Springs, California, with his husband, author Steven Rowley, and their rescue dogs, Raindrop and Shirley.

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Good Sex by Catherine M. Roach

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Good Sex by Catherine M. Roach
Indiana University Press / October 2022

Excerpt:

The New Gender and Sexual Revolution

A cultural revolution unfolds in America.

It emerges from the relationship scene of dating apps and hookup sex, #MeToo activism against sexual misconduct, media campaigns around body positivity, and the increased visibility of people from across the gender and sexuality spectrum. These varied developments stand at the cutting edge of a broad shift happening across America and the globe. Together, they herald a welcome revolution for the twenty-first century and a new vision of sexual and gender well-being.

While a puritanical past shapes America, the twenty-first century has ushered in huge changes, fast. All these transformations, disparate yet interrelated, result in greater cultural acceptance and legal protection for diversity in gender expression and romance. A brave new world opens before us: we live in an era of new gender and sexual revolution…

This moment builds on the earlier sex-positive revolution of the 1960s and early 70s, fueled by that era’s counterculture movement and widespread availability of reliable contraceptives. But it adds fresh emphasis. Today’s revolution insists on broader inclusion, with personal identity understood as shaped through the overlapping intersection of gender and sexuality, as well as categories of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, body size and shape, age, (dis)ability status, and more (what academics term “intersectionality”). This next-generation revolution makes a deeper commitment to sexual justice through informed, affirmative consent and a hard line against sexual misconduct. It provides for a wider freedom from the exclusive binary boy/girl structure of gender. And it works to reduce the stigma of slut-shaming and to celebrate “cliteracy” (yup, we’re going to talk about closing the orgasm gap). All this it does through online means unimaginable fifty, or even ten, years ago: digital platforms and social media where people share personal stories to create community and empower activism. The very term “new sexual revolution” is trending…Americans across the country are taking part in this new cultural dialogue, reported and debated through news outlets, magazines, websites, Twitter feeds, and at workplace watercoolers.

Big picture? The cultural mood has altered. All these changes have us at a turning point, with more support than ever before for diversity and equity. American society is working out and reaching toward a bold new vision of sexuality and gender.

Catherine M. Roach

About the author

Catherine M. Roach has 25 years of grant-funded research experience on gender, sexuality, and American popular culture. A two-time Fulbright awardee with a PhD from Harvard and publications in both fiction and nonfiction, she’s been an invited visiting professor in Canada, Australia, and Europe. She is Professor of New College, an innovative liberal arts program at the University of Alabama, where she’s won the school’s top research and teaching awards and where she offers a popular cross-university course titled "Sexuality & Society." Originally from Ottawa, Canada, she is based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs

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Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs
Biblioasis / June 2023


More Reviews from Epilogue Books

An absorbing tale that begins with a single, terrible act of violence a father unleashes upon his son before tracing the ripple of that act as it courses over many lives across decades. Structurally, the novel is quite unique; nearly every named character in the novel, all of them affected in some way by this act of violence, have their perspectives shared with us. Childs’ precise writing makes their anguish and their frustration feel so real despite the short time we spend viewing the story through each character’s eyes. A queer coming-of-age story for the ages.

Reviewed by Sam Edge, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

A Very Gay Book by Jenson Titus

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A Very Gay Book by Nic Scheppard and Jenson Titus
 Andrews McMeel Publishing / May 2023


More Reviews from Fountain Bookstore

The cover on this book is so deceptive – it’s hilarious from page one! You’ll laugh out loud on every page of the satirical gay history primer! Along with quirky art, this book touches on cultural moments and throughout time, and measures how gay they are (spoiler – they’re all very gay). Silly and delightful!

Reviewed by Andrea Richardson, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

Darkhearts by James L. Sutter

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Darkhearts by James L. Sutter
 Wednesday Books / June 2023


More Reviews from Fiction Addiction

David has lived with regret for the past two years, ever since his middle school best friends’ band hit it big right after he walked away from them. Now one of the Darkhearts duo is dead, and frontman Chance is back in town and back in David’s life. David isn’t sure he’s ready to forgive Chance for the part he played in David’s FOMO, but as they open up to each other, they start to rebuild their friendship, and maybe something more. Fans of LGBTQ romance will adore David and Chance’s budding relationship.

Reviewed by Melissa Oates, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina

Gender Identity for Kids by Andy Passchier

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Gender Identity for Kids by Andy Passchier
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers / June 2023


More Reviews from Main Street Books

This fun and educational book by Andy Passchier helps kids understand the importance of understanding, respecting, and being kind towards everyone and understanding yourself with fun characters, illustrations, and more! This is a great book for young and old, people who already know a thing or two about the subject but want to learn more, people who know nothing at all, and people who know all about it. You are sure to enjoy this helpful guide to being and knowing yourself, and you most likely will learn something from it.

Reviewed by Adah Fitzgerald, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina


Parting Thought

“I was not ladylike, nor was I manly. I was something else altogether. There were so many different ways to be beautiful.”
—Michael Cunningham

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Spotlight on: Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane

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Byron Lane, photo credit the author

I just tried to be honest. When I’m honest in my life, about my life, it tends to make others honest about theirs and suddenly we all relate to each other and our lives in a more meaningful way. I don’t know whether it’s been years of therapy or what, but I find I’m generally an optimistic person. Even in sad or heavy situations I can usually find something sweet or helpful or humorous. ― Byron Lane, Interview, The Nerd Daily

Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane

What booksellers are saying about Big Gay Wedding

  • The most fun, funny, warm, heart-aching book full of big loving family feels I have ever read. Byron Lane writes the kind of page turners I love. Breezy at first glance, devastating as you dig deeper and full of heart.
      ― Rayna Nielsen from Blue Cypress Books in NewOrleans, LA | Buy from Blue Cypress Books

  • This is a beautifully written, engaging, heartfelt book. The characters are quirky, lovable, and memorable. The plot unfolds with funny, sad, bittersweet and joyous events and conversations that ring very true and hit home emotionally. I’ll be looking for other books by this author.
      ― Ruth Goldstein from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, GA | Buy from E. Shaver, Bookseller

  • From Byron Lane, the author of A Star is Bored, comes a new story about a small town, a family on the edge of change, and a big gay wedding. Barnett’s mom hopes he’s coming for a visit to announce he’s moving home to take care of her and the family farm for rescue animals, but she soon finds out her son is getting married – and they want the wedding to take place on the farm. Hilarity ensues as a wide case of soon to be in-laws overtake the farm to plan the wedding of the year, but when the wedding starts to face protest and problems, it’s a lesson in conditional love and support. Big Gay Wedding needs to be in everybody’s beach bags this year!  
      ― Beth Seufer Buss from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

About Byron Lane

Byron Laneis author of A Star Is Bored, hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “wildly funny and irreverent.” He’s a playwright, screenwriter, Emmy Award–winning journalist, and former assistant to actress Carrie Fisher. He’s originally from New Orleans and lives in Palm Springs, California, with his husband, author Steven Rowley, and their rescue dogs, Raindrop and Shirley.

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