Books: 781

“Rabbis of the Garden State”
Daniel Meltz
Rattling Good Yarns Press
$18.95

If you grew up on “Catcher in the Rye,” but were Jewish, don’t miss this yeshiva twist on the age-old problems facing a young male growing up too smart, too clueless, too attracted to a handsome rabbi — and burdened with a mom suffering similar attractions — and acting out on them. Lest you suspect anti-Semitism, author Meltz knows whereof he speaks, having been raised in “the low-rent reaches of Jersey,” and has lived in NYC for 50 years now with longtime partner, playwright Mike Rendino. We first meet Andy Baer as an 11-year-old along with his angry older sister and silent younger, each suffering their flamboyant single mom in their own fashion, all backgrounded in a seedy 1960s New Jersey ambience. Is there a way out?

“Queer Mythology: Epic Legends from Around the World”
Guido A. Sanchez; Ill. James Fenner
Running Press
$19.99

These twenty tales, reaching around the globe and through the ages, colorfully illustrate how differently people have presented and behaved from earliest times. People have always responded to stories and storytellers. From tribes gathered around fires to the beginnings of civilizations to our own profusion of electronic devices, alone or projected to multitudes, humans crave a good tale. The best relate not only the simple ABCs of talking animals living by a riverside or a quest undertaken by small beings bearing a ring but also reveal emotions relevant to listeners, differences and sameness, and teach more than their narrative surface admits. Queerness is at the heart of many tales, from the Iliad’s Achilles and Patroclus to the Bible’s David and Jonathan to Hawaii’s Hi’iaka and Wahine-Omao.

“The Rarest Fruit”
Gaëlle Bélem
Europa
$24 

A novelized biography of Creole slave Edmond, orphaned in 1829 on the island of La Réunion. Desolate after his wife’s death, owner/botanist Ferrérol Bellier-Beaumont took the child daily through his gardens while the boy memorized the plants’ Latin nomenclature, but never became literate. Edmond would have remained unknown had not the boy at 12 discovered the secret of hand-pollinating the orchids that produce the bean that makes vanilla. “Vanilla” today means “ordinary” but was once a rarity, the flower requiring pollination by a vanished Mexican bee — or Edmond. The book is a narrative of exploitation and chance. Edmond, finally freed, chooses the surname Albius (more white). His story, name and his method of pollination finally reached a vanilla-mad world. He died alone in 1880.

“The Gender Binary is a Big Lie: Infinite Identities Around the World”
Lee Wind
Lerner
$19.99

Second in the Queer History Project follows Wind’s “No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves” (2021) also suited for YA readers grades 6-12. Wind scours a wide range of humanity to show that while many people identify as men or women, there are far broader spectra of gender along which individuals over centuries have lived that are far more nuanced than are often acknowledged, and this wide range represents a natural human diversity. Wind circles the globe; for example, the Hijras, in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. This third gender was highly respected and acknowledged before British rule, and endures today. Mahu in Hawaii and Tahiti are a recognized third gender there. Consider Ru Paul’s “You’re born naked, the rest is drag.” 

“See, What Had Happened Was…”
Dwayne A. Ratleff
Dwayne A. Ratleff
$12.99

Ratleff follows “Dancing to the Lyrics” (2022), growing up a gay boy in violent 1960s Baltimore, with life following his 21st birthday, just arrived in the Shangri-La that was the then-affordable city of San Francisco, his home for the following four decades. While the pseudonymous Grant Cole told the story in the first book, Ratleff himself narrates here through adult eyes. New to the fabulous city but learning quickly, he strives as best he can to live true to himself; not easy when poor, black and gay. Through love and lust, the horror of the AIDS years and the death of friends, Ratleff’s inner voice assesses his own triumphs and failures, never blaming others or taking on unearned guilt, revealing the successful making of the man. 

“Last Dance Before Dawn”
Katharine Schellman
Minotaur Books
$28

With sadness, I report “Last Dance” is the fourth and final installment of Schellman’s Nightingale Mysteries. Vivian Kelly has found a comfortable nest in New York City’s glamorous 1920s speakeasy with its teeming dance floor and close-held secrets. Into this idyll now comes a stranger from Chicago, seeking vengeance for a missing girl  — a cold case reheated that will doom some. There’s also a missing truckload of cash. For readers invested in Schellman’s characters, I can report some will rise, others fall, while protagonist Vivian has some words to say to Nightingale’s owner, Honor Huxley; believe me, you’ll want to hear them. I’d like to announce what upcoming thrills author Schellman has in store for eager readers; sorry, that’s a mystery to me as well.

“Home Fires Burn”
Anthony Bidulka
Stonehouse Publishing
$16

Bidulka’s final novel in his Merry Bell trilogy has arrived. An unlikely demise, a prominent philanthropist on an isolated road, slumped outside his locked car, frozen to death. His son, country music star Evan Whately, hires PI Merry Bell to investigate. As often happens, answers can be found in the past, and often the answers open wounds in those examining. Not always Merry, she is forced to examine her own pre-transition past and confront her own family’s history while examining a death that reaches out beyond the grave. As Bidulka himself explains, in addition to presenting mystery, the trilogy (as is much of his writing) is infused with celebration: of things Saskatchewan, Indigenous, Transgender, Ukrainian, Gay, Elder, Crossdresser. And maybe, even for Merry Bell, romance? Maybe…

“Queer as Folklore: The Hidden Queer History of Myths and Monsters”
Sacha Coward and Joanne Harris
Unbound
$25

Folklore provides a rich field for stories and myths championing “others” and “outsiders”; from the Little Mermaid to more modern superheroes, humans since the first gatherings have spun tales that provide solace for those who tread more liminal paths, speaking of unicorns and fairies, superhumans that can fly or flame. Otherness, transformation, Coward’s studies reveal that queerness, however it may be termed in a given age, has been an explanation for some, an affirmation and a solace for others for whom queerness is their life’s path. Humans are drawn to symbolism; even modern popular entertainment highlights singularity in ways that define “otherness.” He points out, for one, the traditional portrayal of Peter Pan by a male impersonator  — Mary Martin‘s live TV performance in 1956.