Showing posts with label Erik Orrantia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Erik Orrantia. Show all posts

Saturday, December 22, 2012

2012 LGBT: Favorite Books & Authors

If you read Impressions of a Reader, then you know that I absolutely love my LGBT books. Every year I wish that I had more time to read and review all the great books released, but due to time restrictions and other commitments I can never read everything I purchase or in some cases review everything I read. There is never enough time!

From the list of books read and reviewed during 2012, I have chosen 9 top books and authors representing my favorite within each category. They are listed below in no particular order. And because I read so many short stories, this year as my number 10 I'm including a short list of favorite short stories chosen from anthologies and collections read and reviewed in 2012. (Click on book titles to read reviews) 


TOM CARDAMONE: Queer Speculative Fiction
Green Thumb  (2012 print & digital ed.,BrazenHead)
Green Thumb by Tom Cardamone is an original, creative, queer speculative fiction novella that takes a curve and ends up in that space we refer to as the Weird. It's a favorite combination that Cardamone handles first with subtlety and then with grand beauty, making this novella my favorite speculative fiction read of 2012. In Leaf, Cardamone created an unforgettable character and in Green Thumb a magnificent story.

EDUARDO C. CORRAL: Poetry
Slow Lightning (2012 print ed., Yale University Press)
Slow Lightning won The Yale's Young Poet's Prize in 2012. In the foreword Carl Phillips says: "Corral resists reductivism. Gay, Chicano, 'Illegal-American,' that's all just language, and part of Corral's point is that language, like sex, is fluid and dangerous and thrilling, now a cage, now a window out. In Corral's refusal to think in reductive terms lies his great authority." I don't think anyone can describe Mr. Corral's point better than that! This is one of my favorite books of 2012.  I've re-read it and will continue to do so.

JEFF MANN: Erotic Historical Romance
Purgatory: A Novel of the Civil War (2012 print & digital ed., Bear Bones Books)
One of the most memorable reads of 2012 for me, Purgatory: A Novel of the Civil War is an erotic historical romance that reads more like an erotic historical fiction novel containing gorgeous research about the Civil War and a distinct Southern flavor. The talented Jeff Mann integrates graphic violent situations yet shows a loving BDSM relationship in progress between captive and captor. A fantastic love story. 


ELLIOTT MACKLE: Historical Fiction/Mystery
Captain Harding and His Men (Captain Harding #2) (2012 print & digital ed., Lethe Press)
Elliott Mackle has become one of my favorite writers within a very short period of time. I absolutely adored Captain Harding and His Men and can't deny that I'm in love with the main character. All of his books (all of them) are worth reading. I'm including the three books I read by Elliott Mackle in 2012 in my favorite list, making him one of my favorite authors this year. That includes: It Takes Two, Book #1, (reprint digital ed., 2012, Lethe Press) and *Only Make Believe (It Takes Two, Book #2) (2012 digital ed., Lethe Press), two magnificent historical fiction/mystery romances set in the South during WWII.

LEE THOMAS: Horror
Torn (2012 hardcover print ed., Cemetery Dance Productions)
Lee Thomas has the ability to make me visualize both the subtle and horrific situations described in his books. I love the way he juxtapositions prosaic events from everyday life with moments of desperation and horror that leave the reader bug-eyed, but always saying more and adding depth to the plot. I loved this horror novella by Mr. Thomas, as well other short stories included in different anthologies. Example: "The House By The Park"(Wilde Stories 2012 Anthology).

MELISSA SCOTT: Fantasy
Point of Knives: A Novella of Astreiant (2012 print & digital ed., Lethe Press)
Point of Knives flawlessly bridges the gap between the two classic fantasy novels Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams originally written by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett. Ms. Scott further develops the romantic relationship between the two main characters and also gives fans and new readers a fantastic new mystery to solve within a magnificent pseudo-Renaissance fantasy world. I absolutely loved this novella.


MEL BOSSA: Romance
Split  (2011 digital ed., Bold Strokes Books)
Split was released in 2011. I am including it with this list because I read it in 2012 and it is also my favorite gay romance. Split has excellent characterization and plotting, plus the emotional connection I need in my romance. This is an author whose other works I followed throughout the year and whose talent I learned to appreciate even more after reading her second novel, also recommended, Franky Gets Real (2012 digital ed., Bold Strokes Books).

LEWIS DESIMONE: Gay Fiction
The Heart's History (2012 print ed., Lethe Press)
Lewis DeSimone's The Heart's History is a story that stayed with me for a long time after I read it. In this novel DeSimone displays a talent for delving into his individual characters so that their portrayals become three-dimensional. The connection DeSimone establishes between those amazing characters is extended to the reader, and that makes them and their inner struggles, unforgettable. I know Edward is the center of this story, but who can read this novel and forget Harlan? I still can't. 

ERIK ORRANTIA: Gay Fiction with Romantic Elements
Taxi Rojo (2012 digital ed., Cheyenne Publishing)
Taxi Rojo by Erik Orrantia is a novel where the characters, portrayed as survivors of everyday struggles, are placed in extraordinary circumstances. Their individual stories are so gripping that I couldn't stop talking about them for weeks after I finished the book. Additionally, I found Orrantia's depiction and incorporation of Tijuana, Mexico as almost a secondary character, brilliant. A story that stayed with me.

FAVORITE SHORT STORIES: Miscellaneous categories from Anthologies & Collections

ARTHUR WOOTEN: The "Dear Henry Letters"
(Arthur Wooten's Shorts, 2012 digital ed. Galaxias Prod)
SIMON SHEPPARD: Heaven and Earth
(History's Passion, Richard Labonté, 2011 print ed. Bold Strokes Books)
JOEL LANE & MATT JOINER: Ashes in the Water
(Wilde Stories 2012, Steve Berman, 2012 print ed. Lethe Press)
CHAZ BRECHLEY: Keep the Aspidochelone Floating & VINCENT KOVAR: Wave Boys
(The Touch of the Sea, Steve Berman, 2012 print ed. Lethe Press)
'NATHAN BURGOINE: Leap
(Boys of Summer, Steve Berman, 2012 digital ed. Lethe Press)

That is it for my favorite LGBT reads of the year. What about you? Do you have a favorite LGBT book that you would like to recommend?


Friday, June 22, 2012

Review: Taxi Rojo by Erik Orrantia

Taxi Rojo is my first read by Erik Orrantia. The setting is Tijuana, Mexico. That right there is one of the reasons this book grabbed my attention. For me, the setting alone presented many wonderful possibilities for this story, and I couldn't wait to meet Orrantia's characters.

With Taxi Rojo, Orrantia creates that combination of LGBT fiction with romance/love stories that I seem to enjoy so much these days. And yes, if the definition of romance is for couples to find a happily ever after, there are at least two full-fledged romances and the beginning of another one in Taxi Rojo. Of course these are no cookie cutter romances, gay or otherwise. Orrantia's characters are everyday people struggling to survive in a place where survival is the word of the day, and their romances are not fantasy filled, but take place as they struggle with the harsh realities of every day concerns. I think of these as reality-based romances.

The story begins when six strangers share a taxi from downtown to Playas, a neighborhood in Tijuana, Mexico. While on their way, there is a tragic accident where the driver and a passenger are killed. The passenger is a gay old man who is found with no wallet or identification. The rest of the passengers survive and forge a bond through this terrible experience that changes their lives.

Orrantia highlights each central character from their individual points of view beginning with Pancha/Pancho, a transvestite and performer who dreams of finding a man who will accept her for whom she is. She's just not sure that her long-term lover Eduardo is that man. After the accident, Pancha finally finds the resolve to clarify her position to Eduardo. Julia is a poor, guilt-ridden, hardworking woman that lives for her family but has allowed herself to become a doormat. The death of that unknown old man in the taxi deeply affects Julia, and slowly she strives to make things happen for herself, including allowing a man in her life. Julia's character also serves to make a social statement. Through her character, Orrantia makes the argument and shows the need and growing frustrations that comes from the daily struggle of having to cross that border on a daily basis to make a living.

Rigoverto, Cristian and Toni's lives become intertwined when, in the evening of the accident, Rigo and Toni hook up while Rigo's partner Cristian is away. Rigo and Cris confront two conflicts in this story; dishonesty/lack of trust due to Rigo's lies and a more serious conflict that arises as a result of medical testing that will affect Cris and Rigo's lives forever. Each character struggles with the emotional aftermath and consequences of their actions, as well as with the possibility of a future together or apart. In the meantime, Toni's denial of his sexuality is as wide as the River Nile. I found this character rather compelling because he's not just in the closet or on the down low – he’s in complete, utter denial. As a result of his encounters with Rigo, life also changes for Toni, and as his homosexual encounters gain momentum that denial changes to extreme homophobia.

There's a lot of denial going on in this story and all the characters seem to rationalize their actions in one way or another until the accident takes place. Afterwards, most of Orrantia's characters work through the denial, rationalization, and conflicts, while others can't come to terms with reality and cross the line. On a personal note, I enjoyed all the stories but must admit that Pancha and Eduardo's romance became my favorite and particularly like the queer twist that Orrantia brought to their happy ending.

Although there are multiple points of view used in Taxi Rojo, Orrantia delivers a tight narrative by using the bond established by the characters through the accident and the old man's death. As the setting, Tijuana is incorporated into the story so seamlessly that it almost becomes another character that the author explores to its fullest extent with all its gritty flaws exposed. There are happy endings in Taxi Rojo, moments that may seem to be just a bit too happy or convenient in the end. But in my opinion if anybody deserved happy moments and happy endings, these characters with their ordinary lives and struggles, did. Well done!

Category: LGBT Fiction/Romance
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Cheyenne Publishing/April 10, 2012
Grade: B+

Visit Erik Orrantia here.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

TBR Highlights: Speculative Fiction, Fantasy, Gay Fiction

On Wednesday of this upcoming week some of us will be reviewing one book from our TBR (to be read) piles. My stack of books to be read has been growing and growing for a while. Today, I would like to share with you some of the books that I've yet to mention in my blog, but that I've quietly added to that pile.

I know there are a lot of new releases that I want to read coming out at the end of June, but there are always other books out there that catch my eye, books that I hunt or flag until they release, or books that I finally purchase after placing the title on my list of "books to buy." I've added quite a few of those books to my TBR within the last month. Here are five of them:

The Croning by Laird Barron (Night Shade Books, May 2012) 
Strange things exist on the periphery of our existence, haunting us from the darkness looming beyond our firelight. Black magic, weird cults and worse things loom in the shadows. The Children of Old Leech have been with us from time immemorial. And they love us. Donald Miller, geologist and academic, has walked along the edge of a chasm for most of his nearly eighty years, leading a charmed life between endearing absent-mindedness and sanity-shattering realization. Now, all things must converge. Donald will discover the dark secrets along the edges, unearthing savage truths about his wife Michelle, their adult twins, and all he knows and trusts. For Donald is about to stumble on the secret...of The Croning.

From Laird Barron, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of The Imago Sequence and Occultation, comes The Croning, a debut novel of cosmic horror.
Last year I "discovered" Laird Barron when I read one of his magnificent short stories. For a while now I have slowly been reading his awesome book of short stories, Occultation And Other Stories. Laird Barron certainly has a gift for writing speculative fiction/horror. The Croning is his debut novel and I was keeping my eye out for this title's release so I could scoop it up immediately!

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Scourge of the Betrayer by Jeff Salyards (Night Shade Books, May 2012)
Many tales are told of the Syldoon Empire and its fearsome soldiers, who are known throughout the world for their treachery and atrocities. Some say that the Syldoon eat virgins and babies-or perhaps their own mothers. Arkamondos, a bookish young scribe, suspects that the Syldoon's dire reputation may have grown in the retelling, but he's about to find out for himself.

Hired to chronicle the exploits of a band of rugged Syldoon warriors, Arki finds himself both frightened and fascinated by the men's enigmatic leader, Captain Braylar Killcoin. A secretive, mercurial figure haunted by the memories of those he's killed with his deadly flail, Braylar has already disposed of at least one impertinent scribe . . . and Arki might be next.

Archiving the mundane doings of millers and merchants was tedious, but at least it was safe. As Arki heads off on a mysterious mission into parts unknown, in the company of the coarse, bloody-minded Syldoon, he is promised a chance to finally record an historic adventure well worth the telling, but first he must survive the experience!
Okay, Scourge of the Betrayer is a fantasy book that came up in my list of recommendations at amazon in May when it released. I picked it up right there and then because from the blurb it just sounds like the type of book that I would love to read when I'm in the mood for fantasy. I'm hoping to get a break in my reading schedule soon so I can give it some time!

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Wonder by Dan Boyle (Lethe Press, January 2011)
Have a gay Caltech professor and his dying mother uncovered the secrets of the mind... and the universe?
Tom Flaherty's mother is suffering from a strange form of dementia that causes her to journey back in time; especially when she's housecleaning and finds personal items that trigger her memory. But Maude Flaherty's travels--from the Scopes Monkey trial in 1925 to the 1936 Berlin Olympics to the Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963--might be the evidence Tom needs as a Caltech physicist to develop a unified theory of space, time, and place and reconnect with a society he's lost touch with since the loss of his partner a decade ago.

As Tom attempts to determine just what is happening to his mother, the sense of wonder that disappeared with Ken's murder returns and his renewed quest for the meaning of life leads him to the national spotlight. Housecleaning is both a gay love story and a family drama, questioning science and faith and how scientists see the universe as God.
My friend Indigene reviewed Wonder by Dan Boyle back in September 2011, and her write up made this book sound so interesting that it went on my "list" of books to purchase and read. I finally purchased it and it's now in my TBR. It sounds like a fascinating read, right? My kind of read. *g*

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The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (Harper Collins, 2006)
A man broken in body and spirit, Cazaril returns to the noble household he once served as page and is named secretary-tutor to the beautiful, strong-willed sister of the impetuous boy who is next in line to rule. It is an assignment Cazaril dreads, for it must ultimately lead him to the place he most fears: the royal court of Cardegoss, where the powerful enemies who once placed him in chains now occupy lofty positions.

But it is more than the traitorous intrigues of villains that threaten Cazaril and the Royesse Iselle here, for a sinister curse hangs like a sword over the entire blighted House of Chalion. And only by employing the darkest, most forbidden of magics can Cazaril hope to protect his royal charge — an act that will mark him as a tool of the miraculous . . . and trap him in a lethal maze of demonic paradox.
Now, here I have a book that I've been wanting to read for a long time. I placed a hold on reading this book because I wanted to get through the Vorkosigan Saga first, but you know what? I'm just going to read it! I'll get through Miles and his adventures slowly anyway. I just want to read this book!

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Taxi Rojo by Erik Orrantia (Cheyenne Publishing, April 2012)
Tijuana-the melting pot of Mexico, the gateway to the U.S., the armpit of Baja California. Two million souls struggle for survival, each searching for a way to become...something, anything better. Fate brings a few strangers together one night in a crowded taxi rojo. When the red taxi crashes down a canyon, it creates a connection between the passengers that, like the international border within sight of the crash, draws a line between triumph and defeat, hopelessness and perseverance, life and death.

Boyfriends Rigo and Cristian confront their demons when a supposedly innocuous tryst gets out of control. Pancha looks for love in a complex world of ambiguous gender and sexual identity. Toni's biggest problem is self-acceptance in a culture that has ingrained in him the idea that real men are macho and self-sufficient. Julia's faith is challenged as she toils to make a living and support her disabled sister, while feeling paralyzed by her sense of responsibility and lingering guilt. Even in Tijuana, light can be found in the darkness. Facing fears and giving of oneself pave the road to strength and freedom, while stubbornness and denial lead only to demise.
Indigene has been recommending Mr. Orrantia's works to me for a few years now. I have Normal Miguel in my TBR and have yet to read it (shame on me), but I saw Taxi Rojo, and between the title, the setting and the blurb, it just drew me and I couldn't pass it up. So it seems as if this will be my first Orrantia read. Finally (Indie)!

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So these five books in my TBR pile are of the non-romance variety, and they're all Kindle editions. Next month, maybe I will have some print books on my list, as well as some romance. :)

Have you read any of these books? Are any of these books in your own TBR? I "discovered" Laird Barron last year and am really appreciating his writing, and a genre that I thought I would never read -- horror. Have you "discovered" a writer that grabbed your interest the way Barron grabbed mine?