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NBC News
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
18 queer AF beach reads to devour this summer
The summer months are a perfect time to sit back, unwind and enjoy a bit of escapism with a book (or e-reader) in hand. For some, this could entail a trope-filled gay romance, while for others, it could mean tales of lesbian vampires and carnivorous flowers (looking at you, Florida!). In order to serve up beachworthy queer recommendations for book lovers with a variety of tastes and preferences, we asked booksellers and bibliophiles across the country for the titles they'd throw in their beach bags. 'Stop Me if You've Heard This One' ' Stop Me if You've Heard This One ' by Kristen Arnett, about a down-on-her-luck professional clown juggling a messy personal and professional life, was recommended by Christina Pascucci-Ciampa, the founder and owner of All She Wrote Books in Somerville, Massachusetts. 'This book, while at times outlandish and bonkers, was also extremely real and relatable. It's why I fall in love with books like this one. I also fell in love with all of Arnett's quirky characters, and the one-liners are *chef's kiss* — sharp zingers that make you laugh so hard,' she said in an email. When asked how she defines a beach read, Pascucci-Ciampa said it's 'a book that you can get lost in, and if it can, makes you laugh out loud. When you are at the beach, it is all about having a good time, especially if there are books involved.' 'Deep House' ' Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told ' by Jeremy Atherton Lin, a memoir about young love and gay rights, was recommended by Matty Faries, the assistant manager and book club coordinator at Unabridged Bookstore in Chicago. 'It's an intimate memoir that braids the young author's story of falling in love with the boy of his dreams with the historical record of the fight for marriage equality,' Faries said. 'It'll scratch the itch for anyone who wants a sexy and sweet story of young love, but it has plenty to teach about the culture wars and bureaucratic hurdles that have made living and loving so difficult for LGBTQ and immigrant communities, too.' While Faries notes his top pick is not a typical beach read, he said that 'for a lot of folks a good beach read is any book that is easy to fall into and share with friends, maybe a romance or a fantasy novel that feels like a mini-vacation when you can escape into the pages.' 'Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil' ' Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil' by V.E. Schwab, an epic lesbian vampire tale spanning five centuries, is another top pick from the Unabridged Bookstore team (and a favorite of this article's author). At more than 500 pages, this Sapphic story is a heavy book for a beach read (both literally and figuratively), but it will undoubtedly transport the reader (only figuratively) across Europe, America and time as its three main characters seek to sate their hunger and their hearts (at times simultaneously). This novel, while centered on the undead, may also have readers questioning what makes us human. 'Call Your Boyfriend' ' Call Your Boyfriend ' by Olivia A. Cole and Ashley Woodfolk, a Sapphic romance about two teens seeking revenge on their cool-girl crush, was recommended by Leah Johnson, the owner of Loudmouth Books in Indianapolis. 'It's 'John Tucker Must Die' for a new generation, it's 'Bottoms' in book form. It has all of the makings of a classic teen movie, but infused with an effortlessly diverse, progressive worldview,' she said in an email. 'In a time like now, queer readers — especially young people — need to see themselves reflected in stories that highlight all the complexity of loving and living in a queer body while also getting to experience the shenanigans and hijinx that have long marked the genre for everyone else.' When it comes to a beach reads, Johnson said it must 'be page turning but quick, and bonus points if it fits easier in my suitcase!' 'Hungerstone' ' Hungerstone ' by Kat Dunn, a retelling of the classic lesbian vampire tale 'Carmilla,' is the top recommendation of Alex Spencer, the owner of Common Ground Books in Tallahassee, Florida. She also said it's her bookstore's top seller. 'Lesbian vampires are very in right now, which I don't think anybody is going to complain about,' she said. (This article's author is most definitely not complaining.) When asked about the concept of a 'beach read,' Spencer said she defines it as 'something you would read for enjoyment and to unwind,' but she noted that could mean very different things to different people. 'Some people like beach reads that they don't have to think about very much, like the romantic fiction, the happy ending,' she said. 'Some people just like horror and things that are a little bit darker. I've had some people come in and be like, 'I need a book, but I can't do anything dystopian right now, because it's just too real,' so I would cut dystopian off the list of the beach read, but other than that, pretty much just anything that makes you happy and let's you escape.' 'Eat the Ones You Love' ' Eat the Ones You Love ' by Sarah Maria Griffin is Spencer's second recommendation. The book is centered on a woman who has just lost her job and her fiancé and ends up employed by a flower shop where her co-workers include a beautiful shop manager and a carnivorous, sentient orchid. 'For people that are into the creepier fun reads, that would definitely be a fun one for them this summer,' she said. Spencer added that it was the book''s tagline — 'This is a story about desire, dreams, decay — and working retail at the end of the world' — that initially reeled her in. 'That kind of hits me real hard right now, as somebody who works retail while the world is just like exploding around us,' she said. 'Bed and Breakup' ' Bed and Breakup ' by Susie Dumond, a second-chance romance about two exes reuniting to fix up and sell a bed-and-breakfast, was the first of two recommendations by Jaime Harker, the founder of and bookseller at Violet Valley Books in Water Valley, Mississippi. She explained the story, which is set in Asheville, North Carolina, as 'fun and engaging, with interesting characters.' Harker described a 'beach read' as a 'story that grabs my full attention, without the stress of terrible things happening to characters I like.' 'I like other kinds of novels, too, but a beach read should not, in the end, break my heart,' she added. 'If I Told You, I'd Have To Kiss You' ' If I Told You, I'd Have To Kiss You ' by Mae Marvel, a love story between two international spies unaware of the other's secret profession, is Harker's second pick. Like 'Bed and Breakup,' she described it as a 'fun and engaging' second-chance romance with interesting characters. But this one, she added, is a thriller/fantasy that could be described as a 'Sapphic Mrs. and Mrs. Smith.' 'I read both on vacation (though not at the beach) and I found them funny and interesting,' Harker said of her two recommendations. 'Woodworking' ' Woodworking ' by Emily St. James, about the friendship between a transgender teacher and trans student in South Dakota, is the top beach read recommendation of Melissa Amstutz, the owner of Bishop & Wilde Books in Portland, Oregon. 'Emily St. James is a writer on 'Yellowjackets,' so I was already intrigued by what kind of book she would write. But if you were to compare it to a TV show, it's much more akin to 'Somebody Somewhere' than 'Yellowjackets,'' she said. 'It tells of the friendship between a high school trans girl and her English teacher in small town America and the intersecting lives of trans and queer folk surrounding them. It's heartwarming, compelling, and has fascinating twists.' Amstutz added that a beach read can be 'anything that is compulsively readable, and can be nonfiction, too.' Readers' picks In addition to asking booksellers across the country for their top titles, NBC News also solicited recommendations from queer book lovers on social media and IRL. Here are some their picks:
New York Times
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
So a Lesbian Clown and a 40-Something Magician Go On a Date
Some people don't like clowns. I happen to have married one. My husband was a birthday clown for about four years in the early 2000s, a history that endeared me to the premise of Kristen Arnett's latest, 'Stop Me if You've Heard This One.' Set in Central Florida, the novel follows Cherry Hendricks as she attempts to navigate the vicissitudes of late-stage capitalism. What does that look like? It means she spends her days working at Aquarium Select III, a dimly lit fish and reptile store, while pursuing, in her time off, her true calling: clowning. Cherry's clown persona is Bunko, a rhinestone-clad cowboy afraid of horses. She mainly books children's birthday gigs, but she's desperate to leave that grind for more full-time clown work. Luckily, there is a big audition for a traveling summer showcase. Cherry believes if she books the tour, it would allow her to 'network with half the clowns in Florida' and help her reach the big time. Then she meets Margot the Magnificent, 'one of the most well-respected magicians in the greater Orlando area,' through a dating app. Margot is older and toys with Cherry's heart, but she may have the professional connections to secure Cherry's future. Madcap adventures ensue, with a laid-back picaresque pace that still contains the plot elements you're hoping for: the dangling lure of the big audition, conflict with disapproving family, money problems and some pretty hot lesbian sex. Throughout the novel, clowns are framed as a way to explore queer identity and gender expression. Bunko is after all a cowboy and is referred to with male pronouns, though Cherry is a woman and referred to with female pronouns. But the way that clowns are reviled by the public at large is also explicitly compared with the queer experience: 'Clowning requires a kind of steeliness that I associate with my coming-out process: the knowledge that there will always be people in life who will hate you for who and what you love.' Clowns have always provided social commentary, whether by making kings laugh at their courts, or by reflecting back to the crowds at the circus their own self-serious posturing. But Cherry is not the scheming, hyper-intelligent court jester figure of Dumas's 'Chicot the Jester,' nor is she meant to be a dark political symbol like Heinrich Böll's Hans in 'The Clown.' If anything, she is closer to The Dude in 'The Big Lebowski': hapless yet lovable, the protagonist while never fully becoming the hero. Though Cherry has emotional motivations for becoming a clown (she's grieving a dead older brother who was always the life of the party and their mother's favorite), she is also interested in the philosophical underpinnings of clowning. Her musing leads to some of the most interesting lines in the book: 'To clown well, you must embrace the light smile and the dark heart.' Though her conceptual preoccupation sometimes slows the pace, the nerd in me longed for these passages to go even deeper and provide more technical and historical insight. Clowns are curiously underrepresented in literature, and this is rich terrain. Like Bunko, Cherry bumbles. A lot. If at times I yearned for her to simply have a better plan, or have a better act, or a better insight, I could also keenly imagine Arnett flopping down on my couch, cracking a beer and saying, 'She's not a heroine, she's a clown, you dork!' Part of the book's social commentary is a rejection of success as framed narrowly by capitalism, which also means dispensing with traditional narrative expectations of what the 'hero prevailing' might look like. What Arnett does best, besides set up scenes so cinematic the book is practically begging for adaptation, is ground Cherry in emotional reality. This is ultimately a book about not being loved enough by your mom, and the psychological accuracy of the scenes where Cherry grapples with that deficit ultimately carries the novel. At one point, Cherry is visiting one of the book's most lovable peripheral characters, an elder clown and purveyor of clowning accessories named Miri, who is certain that dolls have souls and that how we treat dolls determines how we come back in another life. 'I don't want to come back as something no one loves,' Miri says, a thought that haunts Cherry. If all characters are dolls to some extent, then it is clear Arnett has nothing to worry about: She loves Cherry very much, and by the end of 'Stop Me if You've Heard This One,' readers will love Cherry too.
