I first read Jeannette Winterson’s novel Written on the Body in 1995, after borrowing it from my hometown’s public library, and it was a revelation. The story of an unnamed and ungendered narrator who loves and lusts after a married woman named Louise, it was both brainy and erotic, and structurally adventurous. By my early teens, I already knew I wanted to be a writer and had loved many books, but had read few that struck that particular sense of I want to be able to do that on the page. This was one of the first. It has remained a touchstone ever since. I thought of it many times while writing The Dry Season, a book in which I wanted to vividly capture both the intellectual and erotic experience of a year spent celibate but in deep sensual connection with myself and the world. Deep House by Jeremy Atherton Lin From the author of Gay Bar, the gorgeous and sexy love story of Lin’s relationship with his now-husband interweaves with a scrupulously researched history of gay marriage in the United States—there is so much to love about this book, and I did all of it. It’s a book best read in both of its settings: the U.S. and U.K., but especially San Francisco. Stag Dance by Torrey Peters This novella and stories kept me rapt, and I’ve read few recent books that were quite as funny and devastating. Peters writes the most vulnerable parts of love and desire so well that it’s almost hard to take but also impossible to turn away from. For me, its pristine sentences and queer cringe make for a perfect beach read. - Melissa Febos, Author of The Dry Season #readwithpride
