queer book

Everyone calls me ma'am on the phone. I love it.

Today we meet Jacob Budenz and we’re talking about the book that saved their life: Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris.

Jacob is a true multi-hyphenate: musician, author, performance artist, director, and witch. Jacob published their new book Tea Leaves in 2023 and is the front person for the band Moth Broth.

Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim is an essay collection where David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives -- a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love.

Connect with Jacob
Website: jakebeearts.com
Instagram: @dreambabyjake

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780316010795

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryant and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Permission to use clips from the tracks Baba Yaga and Fairy Queen performed by Moth Broth provided by Jacob Budenz.
Audio clip from Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim read by David Sedaris is used here under the Fair Use doctrine for the purposes of literary commentary and criticism.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

A tomboy who wants to be Perry Mason (and has a crush on Della) included this book on job applications.

Today we meet Jean M. Gustafson and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Jean M. Gustafson is a seasoned attorney who specializes in various branches of law, including employment law, elder law, criminal and family law. She is licensed in the states of Minnesota, South Dakota, Utah and Federal Court of the District of Minnesota. She has also received training in Basic Mediation. Jean is a firm believer in mediation and she has seen it obtain better results for her clients than adversarial court battles. She is currently highly involved in the Minnesota bar association serving as a diverse attorney in two affinity bars, Elder Law Education committee member and former chair of the Elder Law Institute Planning Committee.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father--a crusading local lawyer--risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

Connect with Jean
website: guslaw.net
email: jean@guslaw.net

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase To Kill A Mockingbird: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780060935467

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Are you ready to un-ban LGBT books in real time? 

I share with you about The Banned Book Club and then I sit down with the head of the project: John Bracken who is the Executive Director of The Digital Public Library of America.

How to start reading: 

1. Download the Palace Project App for iOS or Android in the Apple App store or Google Play.
2. Open the app
3. Select Banned Book Club
4. Start reading!

Banned Book Club website: thebannedbookclub.info
Digital Public Library of American website: pro.dp.la

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

My eighth grade brain was like: they're such great friends AND they kiss on the mouth?! That's great!

Today we meet Maya Williams and we’re talking about the book that saved their  life: The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

Maya Williams (ey/em, they/them, and she/her) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who is currently an Ashley Bryan Fellow and the seventh Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine .

​Maya's debut poetry collection, Judas & Suicide, is available through Game Over Books . And Maya's second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date, is available now through Harbor Editions.

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early-twentieth-century rural Georgia. Through a series of letters spanning nearly thirty years, first from Celie to God, then from the sisters to each other, the novel draws readers into a rich and memorable portrayal of Black women--their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery.

Connect with Maya
Website: mayawilliamspoet.com
Instagram:  @emmdubb16
Twitter: @emmdubb16

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase The Color Purple visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780143135692.

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Permission to use audio from the Kennedy Center Arts Across America - Maya Williams 'Definitions of Home' provided by Maya Williams.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

You didn't realize you'd end up reading a charming gay couple's 3,100 love letters. 

Today we meet Scott Bane and we’re talking about the book that launched a life-saving journey for him: American Renaissance by F.O. Matthiessen.

Scott is a Program Officer at the John A. Hartford Foundation and author of A Union Like Ours: The Love Story of F.O. Matthiessen and Russel Cheney.

Imagine coming across a book in a New York Times Book Review that introduces you to a writer whose little told life-long love story happened right in your hometown years before you lived there. After reading American Renaissance, Scott began a years-long journey to bring that love story to life.

Connect with Scott
Website: scott-bane.com
Russell Cheney art gallery: russellcheney.com

Buy American Renaissance and A Union Like Ours
Did you know that you can visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts? So many titles on sale now! bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase American Renaissance visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780195007596

To purchase A Union Like Ours visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781625346377

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use clips from Author Talk "A Union Like Ours: The Love Story of F. O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney" provided by Scott Bane.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

 Coming out wasn’t a switch that fixed everything. This book explained why.

Today we meet Chris Tompkins and we’re talking about the book that saved Chris' life: The Velvet Rage by Alan Downs.

Chris is an LGTBQ affirmative therapist and author of the new book Raising LGBTQ Allies: A Parent's Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground.

In The Velvet Rage, psychologist Alan Downs draws on his own struggle with shame and anger, contemporary research, and stories from his patients to passionately describe the stages of a gay man's journey out of shame and offers practical and inspired strategies to stop the cycle of avoidance and self-defeating behavior.

Connect with Chris
Instagram: @aroadtriptolove
Twitter: @aroadtriptolove
Facebook: facebook.com/aroadtriptolove
Website: aroadtriptolove.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christompkinslife

Buy The Velvet Rage and Raising LGBTQ Allies
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts:  bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Buy The Velvet Rage directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781538136263
Buy Raising LGBTQ Allies directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781538136263

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use the TEDx talk "What Children Learn From The Things They Aren't Told" provided by Chris Tompkins.
Additional permissions provided by Chris Tompkins.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

I had no queer friends. I kept going to the same bookstore hoping a girl would hit on me.

Welcome to our new season! Today we meet Leslie Vincent and Michelle Tea!

We’re talking about the book that saved Leslie's life: Valencia by Michelle Tea.

As a music maker, Leslie Vincent performs jazz and the great American Songbook. She released her new album About Last Night earlier this year.

Michelle Tea is a writer, Guggenheim Fellow, founder of Drag Queen Story Hour, and host of the podcast Your Magic with Michelle Tea.

Valencia is the fast-paced account of one girl's search for love and high times in the drama-filled dyke world of San Francisco's Mission District.

Connect with Leslie and Michelle
instagram: @leslie_della_vincent
website: lesliedellavincent.com
facebook: facebook.com/LeslieVincentMusic

website: www.michelle-tea.com
instagram: @michelleteaz
twitter: @TeaMichelle

Buy Valencia
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts.

Or, buy Valencia directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781580052382

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use "Laura" and "Stars Fell Over Alabama" provided be Leslie Vincent.
Permission to use the film trailer to Valencia provided by Michelle Tea.
Permission to use Your Magic with Michelle Tea provided by Michelle Tea.
Music credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

The book where your self-proclaimed fag hag decides to kidnap you. 

Today we meet Clark Carlton and Robert Rodi!

Our guest is novelist, playwright, and producer Clark Carlton. You may know him from his sci-fi/fantasy novel Prophets of the Ghost Ants which launched his Antasy series.

Our featured author is Robert Rodi who has published seven novels, and he also writes comic books, nonfiction, as well as a spoken-word performer and jazz singer.

We’re talking about the book that saved Clark's life: Fag Hag by Robert Rodi.

Fag Hag is a cult classic. Set in Chicago, the novel is about Natalie who is obsessed with her gay best friend Peter. When Natalie’s attempts to sabotage Peter’s new relationship with the love of his life, Natalie is forced to resort to … let’s say extreme measures.

Connect with Clark and Robert

twitter: @clarktcarlton
website: clarkthomascarlton.com

website: robertrodi.com
Facebook: @RobertRodi

Visit our website for more links to Robert's and Clark's projects: thisqueerbook.com/fag-hag.

Buy Fag Hag
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781469953168

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Meet four-time HQ MIX Trophy winner for best Webcomic, Mário César and his new book Blessed Cure. 

Like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, César's Blessed Cure uses comics to explore queer life. 

In this book, our hero, Acacio do Nascimento, knew he was a different boy from others. He would rather be playing with dolls than playing soccer. The hula hoop interested him more than cowboy pistols. Scared by the possibility of their son being a homosexual, Acacio's parents begin conversion therapy, starting when he was five years old, to make him a "normal boy" like the others.

Mario Cesar is an awarded comic book's author from Brazil. He has published comics since 2006 and he was one of the first openly gay authors to address issues of sexual and gender diversity in Brazilian comics with the book Ciranda da Solidão (2013). He is also one of the creators and producers of POC CON, the first brazilian LGBTQ+ Comic Con.

Buy Blessed Cure
Head to our Bookshop store or buy directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781908030542

Connect with Mário César
Twitter: @mas_que_mario
Instagram: @mas_que_mario

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Meet A.J. Bermudez and her darkly playful (and Lambda Literary Award nominated!) story collection: Stories No One Hopes Are About Them.

These short stories explore characters who are ni de aquí, ni de allá—neither from here nor there—straddling competing worlds, disrupting paradigms, and transitioning from objects of other people’s stories to active subjects and protagonists of their own.

Big things happen in this collection. But it’s also a collection of small intimacies: misremembered names, chipped teeth, and private rituals; unexpected alliances and barely touched knees beneath uniform skirts; minutiae of the natural world; incidents that quietly, achingly, and delightfully transgress the familiar.

Buy Stories No One Hopes Are About Them
Head to our store at thisqueerbook.com/bookshop or click: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781609388638

Connect with A.J. Bermudez
Twitter: @AmandaJBermudez
Instagram: @a.j.bermudez
Website: https://amandajbermudez.com

Check out this Lambda Literary award (Lammy) finalist:
We shout out Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang in the show. Here's where you can buy it: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593241585

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

We're back live in May 2023!

Seriously, though. How DO we thread together all of our queer identities?

Our guest is writer, educator, and theater maker Allison Vincent and we talk about the queer book that saved her life: the novella Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.

Goodbye to Berlin is a Queer classic. Our hero moves to Berlin where he meets the incomparable Sally Bowles. They become roommates as he explores Berlin and his sexuality. The novella was adapted into the award-winning theatrical production and film Cabaret.

For Allison, it not only saved her in writing her college thesis, but it also provided visibility to her as a Queer woman to see herself represented in history. We dive into all the queer meanings of the novella's most famous line: "I am a camera with a shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking" and threading together all of our different identities.

Buy Goodbye to Berlin
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Goodbye to Berlin and all the books we discuss on our podcasts.

Connect with Allison
Twitter: @allisonrvincent
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13955074
Transatlantic Love Affair:  https://www.transatlanticloveaffair.org

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

When you go up that mountain you don't know what you'll find.

Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we meet Gerard Cabrera (he/him) and I talk with him about The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Gerard tells me that, "The Magic Mountain is about educating yourself and trying to make decisions for how you want to live your own life. Do you want to follow a path of seeking freedom or do you want to follow a path of just maintaining a status quo so that you can survive? With AIDS raging, I think that was a very salient sort of internal debate for me."

Gerard is the author of the new novel Homo Novus and I talk with him all about it. What is the plot? It's Holy Week 1987. And Fr. Linus Fitzgerald, a Catholic priest, is confined to his hospital bed by an AIDS diagnosis, while being comforted by the seminarian he sexually abused as an adolescent.

Episode transcripts and more info are available at thisqueerbook.com/podcast/magic-mountain.

Buy the books we discuss on this episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Gerard's novel Homo Novus and Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain.

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our LGBT podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the LGBT books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Visit our friends!

Reclaiming our coming out stories.

Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we meet Jacob Aloi (he/him) and I talk with him about Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. This YA novel follows 16-year old Simon Spier as he navigates coming out as well as meeting his first love. The book really tackles coming out stories and owning them. It was also adapted into the rom-com Love, Simon which was the first LGBT rom-com by a major film studio. 

Plus, Becky (she/her) joins us to discuss writing Simon and the challenges she had writing the novel as she navigated her own coming out journey.

Ticket Giveaway!
Email us at thisqueerbook@gmail.com to be entered into our contest to give 2 free tickets to the Guthrie Theater's production of Born With Teeth. The tickets are for March 10th. Email us by March 8th and we'll announce the winners on March 9th! Buy tickets at guthrietheater.org

Buy The Books We Discussed On This Episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Becky's novels Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and Imogen, Obviously.

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.

Today, we meet Joshua Gonzales and his new book Keep Sweet: My Homemade Recipe for a Fulfilling Gay Life. He is an LGBTQ+ Latino actor and writer living in NYC. He is also the host of the podcast Keep Sweet: The Positive World podcast. 

Joshua's book Keep Sweet tells the story of his life as a Mexican-American kid, raised in the small town of Huntsville, Texas, and believing in his innate fabulousness. This is no Misery Memoir. Through tough lessons learned, Joshua shows that, with your own foresight and self-determination, you can skirt the path of potential misery, while keeping your humor and optimism intact. And may we all help the next generation of queer youth grow into the out, proud, empathetic, kind, and powerful adults they were born to be.

Pre-order Keep Sweet!
To pre-order visit: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or iBooks.

• https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Sweet-Homemade-Recipe-Fulfilling-ebook/dp/B0BW6CQ4F6
• https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/keep-sweet-joshua-gonzales/1142805929
• https://books.apple.com/book/keep-sweet/id6445048924

Connect with Joshua!
Twitter and Instagram and Tiktok: @joshwadam

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Building a language to be able to talk with my parents.

Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with community organizer and activist LaSaia Wade (she/they) about Secret Society by Miasha.  This novel starts as a story about two flashy women who hustle men for money, but then dives into the twists and turns of living and loving in the world as trans women of color.  LaSaia tells us that Secret Society "was part of me building the language to translate transness to my parents."

Plus! Miasha (she/her)  joins us to talk discuss her inspiration for the novel, what she hoped for it, and how she turned it into a film franchise.

Buy Secret Society at our Bookshop page: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Stream Secret Society on Tubi or purchase it at Amazon Prime.

Connect with LaSaia at lasaiawade.com

Stay connected with Miasha on Instagram: @miashaofficial