These Books Are Real
This is a pro-trans newsletter.
It’s the eve of Pride, and I’m thrilled to wish a Not Happy Pride to the following individuals and entities.
Almost always at the top of the list these days is the dreaded Voldemort of authors, JK Rowling. A true monster in every sense, her latest antics include using Potter money to create an organization dedicated to removing transgender people's rights "in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.” Can we all just hold our Harry Potter memories in our heart and leave her behind? We don’t have to watch the new series. Choosing nostalgia over our trans siblings is not the look for Pride Month or any month after, so Not Happy Pride to you, JK.
A Not Happy Pride also goes out to the person who “wrote” the fake list of books with AI technology. If you’re reading this newsletter, you know what I’m talking about. Never mind the fact that some of the offerings in the article would have made an incredible game of two truths and a lie for books, there are so many places to get good book recommendations - pay a writer to put a list together. More broadly, AI content creation is making all of us more stupid. If no generative AI haters exist on this earth, then I have perished.
The whole federal administration can have a Not Happy Pride, but especially Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who just gave an interview saying that they want more trade school graduates and “less LGBTQ graduate majors from Harvard.” First of all, it’s “fewer.” Second, No one pays colleges for LGBTQ+ graduate degrees, we earn them on the streets! Third, are you saying that no LGBTQ+ people go to trade schools? An embarrassment, as always. Not Happy Pride to you, ma’am!
The rest of you may have a Happy Pride Month, but I reserve the right to add more to the Not Happy Pride list as the month goes on!
I read the following books below and did not use AI to tell you about it.
THE LIBRARY IS OPEN
The Shots You Take
by Rachel Reid (2025)
Why on earth are there so many hockey romance novels? It has emerged as its own mega-sub-genre in the book world, and a significant portion of these offerings are man on man face-offs. Is it because of the overt danger of burly men who wield knives on their feet? Is it because these musclebound men who relish a sport where fighting is not only allowed but encouraged are actually sensitive teddy bears behind the scenes? Is it because the word “puck” lends itself to so much clever wordplay about extracurricular activities? Whatever it is, it’s a moment, and I wanted to check out what all the fuss was about.
Riley Tuck believes that he has left the world of hockey behind. A Stanley Cup winner and out and proud homosexual, he’s moved home to the (not real) town of Avery River, Nova Scotia to be near his family and help his father with the family sports goods store. (Think Schitt’s Creek, but with more jerseys.) When a family tragedy strikes, he’s shocked to see an ex-teammate and former best friend walk through the door to console him, bringing along with him memories of the past he thought were long buried. Well, wrong, bitch! Adam Sheppard is back in his life, and the two of them have to confront the ways they acted in the past (read: sexually) and what it means going forward. Drama!
It’s not so much a “will they or won’t they” because they…did. But will they do it more? Can Riley forgive Adam for past transgressions? Can Adam fit into the new life that Riley has built for himself? Can we all suspend the disbelief that these men are not made for each other?! Reid does a great job dragging out the tension for a whole novel - a true talent in romance. The story is great too. It’s emotional and sexy. It will not surprise you that there are intricate and thorough descriptions of the male form throughout. I get the hype. Hockey romance is hot. If you’re the kind of person who thinks the words gay, hockey, and romance naturally go together, then you’re certainly the target audience for this book.
Read it if you like: gay stuff, hockey stuff, romance stuff, sensitive men hiding behind gruff exteriors, the potential for an “athletic supporter” joke.
Audition
by Katie Kitamura (2025)
A Katie Kitamura novel is a literary event. Her last novel, Intimacies, was a study in chill dread and way we all get lost in translation. Her latest is highly anticipated by the literary fiction fanatic in your life. Right now, there is someone in a cafe pulling this novel out of their Joan Didion tote bag and placing a hand to their face as they contemplate the deep meaning behind it all. If that sounds appealing to you, let’s move along.
I did not always know what was happening, but the writing was truly gorgeous. An elegant woman enters a fancy restaurant and sits in anticipation. We know she’s an actress of some renown. She’s joined by a younger man bearing some resemblance to her, and without understanding completely their relation to one another, we bear witness to a tense conversation. The situation is made all the more intriguing as the actress’s husband enters the restaurant and doesn’t see her with him. Or does he? As the blurb copy says: WHO IS SHE TO HIM AND WHO IS HE TO HER? We find out, and then something happens between part 1 and part 2 of the book that flips everything on its head. Intrigue!
To say anymore would be rife with spoilers. I think. It’s hard to say exactly what happens, but that’s kind of the point. I’ve been thinking about the novel since I read it weeks ago for that very reason. It’s only a mystery inasmuch as, like Madonna says, life is a mystery. We delve into the world of performance, identity, and the constructed nature of relationships. What is family? What is acting? Is all the world truly a stage? If I sound vague about the novel, it’s because I don’t want to give away the magic of it. However, I can be very clear that it’s one of the best of the year so far.
Read it if you like: literary fiction, accessible novels that might make you sound pretentious in a good way at a party, inflection points, blurred lines, rolling your eyes a little at actors.
Stag Dance
by Torrey Peters (2025)
I told everyone I knew to read Detransition Baby, one of the best books of the decade and an absolute revelation. That the author was also an incredible podcast guest with an endless list of interesting things to say about trans people in America was just a bonus. I was so excited to hear that her follow up was out this year, and I was so intrigued by its form: a novella with three short stories. (Novella is such a simple, sophisticated word to drop in conversation. Like baroque, candor, or exquisite.) And it is being released just in time to land in such a bleak moment in trans history, which makes it feel even more like an important piece of art.
The titular story is your typical story of a large, quite ugly lumberjack at an illegal forestry post who, when given the option to attend his crew’s stag dance as a woman, does so and thereby sets off a rivalry with the most feminine and beautiful member of the team. Tale as old as time. I don’t need to tell you that hijinks ensue and gender theory explodes. The other stories involve a post-apocalyptic future when humans no longer possess the ability to produce sex hormones and chaos reigns, an allegedly straight boy at a boarding school who has to deal with his burgeoning crush on a heavyset, feminine classmate, and a trans woman who has to deal with questions of identity when confronted by a stalker in an all-silicone woman body suit. You know. Run of the mill stuff.
This book is wild and wildly accomplished - four stories in four different genres that all manage to center today’s most important and divisive issues. I actually said, “Genre is just a construct” to myself aloud while reading it like a crazy person. Get it? Some stories work better than others, but all kept me captivated and unclear what would happen next. It’s a great follow up to a masterpiece, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
P.S. Two of my favorite novels of the year are by trans women, and they’d be great for you to pick up for Pride Month!
Read it if you like: short stories, being able to say “novella” in conversation, weird fiction, queer stuff, multiple genres.
LIGHTNING ROUND
What’s NPR excited about reading this summer?
What’s The Atlantic excited about reading this summer?
What are the Best Beach Reads of all time?
Until next time…happy reading!
Have you read other hockey M/M romance books? Is the Shots You Take part of a series?
I have Stag Dance and will read it, likely next month. I was late to reading Detransition, Baby but I really enjoyed it!
Ok I just read Stag Dance and I was CERTAIN you’d been the one to recommend it to me. (That’s usually what I think when a random queer book shows up in my library holds.) I have no idea why I picked it up but it blew me away.