Tag: Farrar Straus and Giroux

Books

Book 944: The Kingdom of Sand – Andrew Holleran

Geoff W

Book cover of "The Kingdom of Sand" with Amazon Affiliate linkI wanted to like this book so much like really wanted to, because Holleran is one of those early LGBT authors whose work has stood the test of time for decades. And that’s why I requested a copy from NetGalley.*

What I didn’t expect was how similar to Mrs. Dalloway and A Single Man this would be. I think that bodes well for the longevity of the novel, but unfortunately, for me, it wasn’t the time or place to read it to truly appreciate or enjoy it. While there were some incredibly beautiful passages throughout, I struggled to get into the book and (for the most part) identify with the nameless narrator.

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Books

Book 864: Hold My Hand (One Man Guy #2) – Michael Barakiva

Geoff W

Book cover of "Hold My Hand" with Amazon Affiliate linkThis was an adorable angsty follow-up to Barakiva’s One Man Guy. I feel like he could choose an emotion and keep going with Alek and Ethan exploring what that emotion means to the two of them and how it changes their relationship.

Hold My Hand picks up roughly five months after the end of One Man Guy, and Alek is facing fears of how and when they’ll take their relationship to the next level physically and honestly, it’s endearing and horrifying and hilarious all at the same time. (Seriously, read the second quote in the more quotes. DIED.)  The rest of this will contain spoilers so stay out if you don’t want to know the main plot point and what happens.

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Books

Book 863: The Hollow Heart (Forgotten Gods #2) – Marie Rutkoski

Geoff W

Book cover of "The Hollow Heart" with Amazon Affiliate linkI wanted to like this so much more than I did. After really adoring The Midnight Lie, I thought it was a shoe-in this one would be just as good. Unfortunately, it fell short for me.

The publicist reached out to me a few months ago and I was immediately drawn to the story because of the slow reveal of the magic and the love story aspect.* And Rutkoski really delivered on that in book one, but it just fell short for me in this book. Some of it may have been the narration, but I think the ending was what really sealed it for me as being meh.

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Books

Book 842: One Man Guy (One Man Guy #1) – Michael Barakiva

Geoff W

Book cover of "One Man Guy" with Amazon Affiliate linkI didn’t plan to read this in an afternoon, it just happened 😀 Started it on my lunch break and then just kept going.

At some point last year, I requested a copy of this via NetGalley but was either denied or never heard back and as I was cleaning up my account I saw it listed somewhere and was like “oh that one did sound interesting,” so I checked my library and they had a digital copy and here we are.

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ARC, Books

Book 718: The Deviant’s War – Eric Cervini

Geoff W

Cover art of "The Deviant's War" with Amazon affiliate linkEvery couple of years there’s a new kid on the block when it comes to the be-all-end all of LGBT nonfiction books. And every couple of year’s I’m sorely disappointed—I’m not sure if it has to do with the hype machine around the books, if it’s what they decide to focus on, or if it’s the author’s themselves (almost always cisgender white gay men).

When this book started to make waves in the LGBT book blogging community, I took notice. And then when I found out Cervini was giving a talk via the Boston Public Library (The Boston Calendar), I requested a copy of the book via NetGalley to see why there was so much hype.*

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