AIDS crisis – Reading While Fat

And The Ancestors Sing

And The Ancestors Sing (publication day 2/3/2026) by Radha Lin Chaddah transported me back to 1978 to post-cultural revolution China, to the farm workers and their families and the newly arrived migrants from the country to the city, and all of the issues they had to deal with. From arranged marriages to prostitution, from earthquakesContinue reading “And The Ancestors Sing”

Like a Love Story

Like a Love Story (2019) by Abdi Nazemian is the historical queer coming-of-age story I never knew that I needed to read. It was a 2020 Stonewall Honor book and chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best YA books of all time, both designations well-deserved. It’s 1987, and Reza has just movedContinue reading “Like a Love Story”

Tell The Wolves I’m Home

Tell The Wolves I’m Home (2012) by Carol Rifka Brunt was a achingly beautiful novel about grief, families, growing up, and being different, set in 1986-1987 in New York. The teenage narrator, June, and her sister, Greta, visit their Uncle Finn every weekend in the City so that he can paint their portrait. Finn isContinue reading “Tell The Wolves I’m Home”