Home Station on the Prairie The Nebraska territory is a lonely place for young Jamie, who longs to be a Pony Express rider, but only manages to take care of their horses. Still, he has the ponies, and his father, and before he knows it he has Thad, a boyhood friend from back in Iowa. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, 4½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Kara Larson, novella, Western | Leave a Comment »
Lee Masters is fired from his cattle drive when his sexual orientation is discovered. Frustrated and angry, he rides to a mountain lake where he meets Running Buffalo, Tatanka, who is also exiled from his tribe for refusing to adhere to tribal custom for braves who prefer men to women. They strike up a friendship, [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Reviews, Terry O'Reilly, Western | Leave a Comment »
Mute saloonkeeper Donnell knows all about prejudice; he’s had to battle it all of his life. He also knows how self-righteous and judgemental the people of the old west town of Nazareth can be, so he isn’t surprised when he sees them spurn requests for work from a man who walks into town looking to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Reviews, Western, Willa Okati | Leave a Comment »
Reggie Grayson has a secret admirer. A traveling Shakespearean actor in 1883 Virginia City, Reggie’s already been robbed at gunpoint by a masked bandit, and now he’s receiving drawings and roses from a mystery man who won’t leave his name. Is this any way to make his debut as a leading man? Desperate to discover [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Aaron Michaels, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Podcast, Reviews, Western | Leave a Comment »
“The City of Lovely Brothers” is a family saga, the history of Caladelphia Ranch, jointly owned by four brothers, Calvin, Caleb, Calhoun and Caliban Caldwell – how it grew and prospered, and how rivalry between the brothers led to its breaking up and decline. As the story evolves, it focuses on the love affair between [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, Anel Viz, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Billy Strobaw’s world turns on its axis when he has a surprising and physical reaction to a young Indian he and two of his travelling companions have taken captive. The handsome warrior, Cut Hand, eventually not only earns his freedom but also steals Billy’s heart and prevails upon the American to come live among his [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, Fiction, five stars, Mark Wildyr, Reviews, Western | 8 Comments »
In 1955, Sam Coles is Hollywood’s newest rising star, and his latest role in Gordon Palmer’s movie, The Devil Inside, promises to send his popularity into the stratosphere. But Sam is less interested in the potential boost to his career, and more interested in his gorgeous co-star, Hollywood’s latest bad boy, Elijah McKinley. Their careers [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 2 stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Jamie Craig, novella, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
It’s the Roaring Twenties. Skirts are short, crime is rampant, and booze is in short supply. Prohibition has hit Little Egypt where newspaper man David Flynn has come to do a follow-up story on the Herren Massacre. But the massacre isn’t the only news in town. Spiritualist Medium Julian Devereux claims to speak to the [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Josh Lanyon, Murder Mystery, novella, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Bitter Creek is a town on the brink of war. Lines are being drawn and sides taken as two powerful men gather armies of gunfighters. The townspeople are helpless and the law worthless. One man has already died in the opening salvo of this land war and an air of fearful anticipation hangs over the [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, American Civil War, Fiction, Reviews, T A Chase | Leave a Comment »
This long out-of-print and newly rediscovered novel tells the story of two boys growing up in the cotton country of Mississippi a generation after the Civil War. Originally published in 1950, the novel’s unique contribution lies in its subtle engagement of homosexuality and cross-class love. In The Bitterweed Path, Thomas Hal Phillips vividly recreates rural [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, America, Fiction, Reviews, Thomas Hal Phillips | Leave a Comment »
It’s 1955, Las Vegas is swinging, and David Lonergan has the chance of a lifetime when he accompanies his cousin to be the headlining act at the Thunderbird Casino. A pianist who cut his teeth in the jazz clubs of Chicago, David is dazzled by the lights, the music, and the anything goes attitude of [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 3½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Jamie Craig, novella, Reviews | Tagged: 1950’s, 3½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Jamie Craig, novella, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Brock Evans heads for Hollywood in 1935, hoping to be the next Clark Gable, and meets another would-be star in Randy Pearce, who works as a soda jerk while awaiting his big break. It’s love at first sight, just like in the movies. But the path to stardom in Hollywood is not quite that easy. [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 1½ stars, America, Jamie Craig, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews | Tagged: 1930’s, 1½ stars, America, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, S.E. Taylor | 1 Comment »
“Brokeback Mountain” exploded the myth of the American cowboy as a tough, gruff, and grizzled loner. “Queer Cowboys” exposes, through books by legendary Western writers such as Mark Twain, James Fenimore Cooper, and Owen Wister, how same-sex intimacy and homoerotic admiration were key aspects of Westerns well before “Brokeback’s” 1960’s West, and well before the [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, history, Research, Resources, Reviews, Western | Tagged: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, history, Research, Resources, Reviews, Western | Leave a Comment »
The sequel to Cane. Two men, one war. Can love survive when each takes a different side? Leaving his lover behind to support the abolitionist cause, Piet Van Leyden finds himself leading one of the first all-black Union troops into the heart of battle. Reuniting with free slave and former love Joss brings some comfort, [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, America, American Civil War, Reviews, Stevie Woods | Tagged: 19th Century, 2½ stars, America, American Civil War, Reviews, Stevie Woods | Leave a Comment »
The place is gaudy yet drab, lively yet death-like, dispassionate mother hen to a brood of dithered chicks. Discover its bizarre existence from the inside, through the muddled collective mind of the outcast in-group, a gay throng of third-sex bewildered ones who frantically seek a why–but must always settle for The Why Not! Review by [...]
Filed under: 1960's, America, Fiction, five stars, Reviews, Victor J Banis | Tagged: 1960’s, America, Fiction, five stars, Reviews, Victor J Banis | 6 Comments »
J.S. Cook debuts haunted American expatriate Jack Stoyles, whose numb exile in an unexpected Atlantic outpost is suddenly brightened by a stranger who kisses him — and then dies. Betrayal, graft, a lost girl, and too many deaths. With good reason Jack called his place Heartache Cafe. This short story in ebook format part of [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Joanne Soper-Cook, novella, Reviews, World War II | Tagged: 1940’s, 4½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Joanne Soper-Cook, novella, Reviews, World War II | 2 Comments »
Big Roy is a hard rock miner with a not so secret love for the theater, so when he hears a new troupe of actors are coming to the Telluride opera house to put on a Shakespeare play, he saddles his mule and makes the trek into town to see it. The play doesn’t disappoint, [...]
Filed under: America, ebook, five stars, Julia Talbot, Leslie H Nicoll, novella, Reviews, Western | Tagged: America, ebook, five stars, Julia Talbot, Leslie H Nicoll, novella, Reviews, Western | 2 Comments »
“Calico” is something of a breakthrough novel in that it spans a bridge which is only now opening for two-way traffic. The author describes “Calico” as a “western/romance/adventure/mystery with a twist”…the twist being that its cowboy hero/protagonist just happens to be gay. Calico Ramsey finds himself with the responsibility of seeing that two 17 year [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, America, Fiction, Reviews, Western, YA | Tagged: 4½ Stars, America, Fiction, Reviews, Western, YA | 4 Comments »
Complementing each other on the dance floor isn’t enough to form a relationship. Is it? It’s 1953, and Hollywood is booming with extravagant musicals. Coming off a string of hits with MGM, Paul Dunham couldn’t be hotter. Hoping to capitalize on Paul’s popularity, the studio announces its attention to pair him with the latest actor [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Jamie Craig, Reviews | Tagged: 1950’s, 4½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Jamie Craig, Reviews | 4 Comments »
A colorful novel of the circus world of the 1940s and 1950s, rich in detail, bursting with power and emotion. Mario Santelli, a member of the famous flying Santelli family, is a great trapeze artist. Tommy Zane is his protege. As naturally and gracefully as they soar through the air, the two flyers find themselves [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 1950's, 4 stars, America, Essential Reads, Fiction, Marion Zimmer-Bradley, Reviews | 12 Comments »
Set in a small town in the middle of nowhere in the mid-1960s, Common Sons not only anticipates the coming gay revolution, but delineates its fields of battle in churches, schools and society, pitting fathers against sons, straight teens against gay teens, and self-hatred against self-respect. From the opening scene (where a reckless bout of [...]
Filed under: 1960's, 4½ Stars, America, Reviews, Ronald L Donaghe | Tagged: 1960's, 4½ Stars, review, Ronald L Donaghe | 1 Comment »
Running away in 1762 from a dull life in fashionable Georgian Bath, Jesse Sunderland joins an ocean-going merchant ship. Just nineteen years old, naive and keen for adventure in the expanding world where England rules the seas and dominates the colonies, he has to not only deal with the harshness of this life at sea [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 1½ stars, Age of Sail, America, England, Fiction, Reviews, Steph Minns | 13 Comments »
Horace is a loner, a mountain man with a claim to a tiny stream of gold and a lonely cabin in the woods. When he finds young Walker wandering lost in his mountains just before the snow flies, he decides he’s found exactly the kind of companionship he craves. Walker is young, naive, and totally [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, B A Tortuga, ebook, Leslie H Nicoll, novella, Reviews, Western | Leave a Comment »
The “American hunk” is a cultural icon: the image of the chiseled, well-built male body has been promoted and exploited for commercial use for over 125 years, whether in movies, magazines, advertisements, or on consumer products, not only in America but throughout the world. American Hunks is a fascinating collection of images (many in full [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 1910's, 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 19th Century, America, five stars, Leslie H Nicoll, Photography, Resources, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Rafael Hurt comes from Mississippi to play Blues guitar, and he’s hiding a dangerous secret. When a young girl is found murdered during Rafe’s first gig at The Blues Angel, Rafe and Deke Davis, a veteran reporter, have to find the killer before the secrets of the past explode into racial violence and destroy any [...]
Filed under: 1960's, 4 stars, America, Leslie H Nicoll, Sarah Black | Leave a Comment »
When Ben gets a chance to leave his New Mexico home to visit his childhood friend in Hollywood, he jumps at it. 1930s Beverly Hills is full of bait and switch tricks that Ben just isn’t used to, especially when he meets up with Johnny, someone he knew a long time ago, better than he’s [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Parhelion, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Two outlaws and one widow turn to each other for comfort, but nobody expects lust to become a love affair… Amy Northe hasn’t known a man’s company in the six years since her husband died. That all changes the night her son comes in from chores with two strangers in tow. Kenneth and Leon are [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, America, ebook, Jamie Craig, novella, Reviews, Western | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic and often bawdy, Lola Dances ranges from the 1850 slums of the Bowery to the mining camps of California and Montana, to the Barbary Coast of San Francisco. Little Terry Murphy, pretty and effeminate, dreams of becoming a dancer. Raped by a drunken profligate and threatened with prison, Terry flees the [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, America, Reviews, Victor J Banis | 4 Comments »
Looking at The Lord Won’t Mind from a historical perspective Title: The Lord Won’t Mind Author: Gordon Merrick Published: 1970; republished in 1995 Length: 255 pages Charlie Mills and Peter Martin are both young, handsome and well-endowed. They meet and fall madly in love. The book follows Charlie’s path from a closeted gay man to [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 4 stars, America, history, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews | 11 Comments »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll When Jonathan and Nathaniel part ways, Nathaniel heads for the Ohio territory and a new life with Robert. Robert soon realizes his friend will never reciprocate his love fully. What can he do? Robert agrees to help the English translate in their negotiations with the Shawnee and in doing so [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 1½ stars, America, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
In 1910, Charles Smythe inherits a ranch from his late uncle. With some misgivings about leaving his life in England, he finally arrives in Arizona Territory only to meet one of his employees, an experienced hired hand named Sombra. In Sombra, Charles finds not only the perfect man to teach him all he needs to [...]
Filed under: 1910's, 4 stars, America, BDSM, ebook, Fiction, Western | 1 Comment »
Ex Civil-War surgeon George Callahan is a man haunted by his past. Unwilling to deal with the demons of his childhood he turns to opium, and finds back-alley employment with the heartless brothel keepers of San Francisco’s Chinatown. In Volume 1 of this gorgeously illustrated gay historical drama, Dr. George Callahan searches for a Chinese [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, China, ebook, Fiction, five stars, graphic novel | Leave a Comment »
A literary cause célèbre when first published more than fifty years ago, Gore Vidal’s now-classic The City and the Pillar stands as a landmark novel of the gay experience. Jim, a handsome, all-American athlete, has always been shy around girls. But when he and his best friend, Bob, partake in “awful kid stuff,” the experience [...]
Filed under: 1940's, America, Fiction, Hayden Thorne, Reviews, three stars, World War II | 1 Comment »
Set in 1920s Chicago, The Folded Leaf follows two very different boys who find themselves forming an unlikely friendship. Lymie is thin, clever and terrible at sport. Spud is athletic and quick to fight and blithely accepts Lymie’s passionate devotion to him. The bond between them is obsessively close, until they leave home for college [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4½ Stars, America, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews | 6 Comments »
In the shadow of the 1954 nuclear bomb tests on the Bikini atoll, two sailors begin a tender, passionate affair that will carry them all around the USA: to San Francisco, Manhattan, Fire Island and Washington DC. The lovers learn, with fumbling hands and lips, how to satisfy one another, but the erotic heat of [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4 stars, America, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll Rancher Paxton Terhune has lived a cold, lonely life for three hard years. A lynch mob took his lover, hanging him in front of Pax. A corrupt mine owner put a price on his head, chasing Pax from his own lands and into the high country. But Zane Steadman, a [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Reviews, three stars, Western | 1 Comment »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll Jonathon Carver, a young Puritan school teacher, meets the handsome Nathaniel Morgan, master cooper. He comes to recognize the longings he has had all his life as desire for the love of another man. Nathaniel provides that love. Their love must be carefully guarded as they live in Colonial America [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Reviews, three stars | 2 Comments »
In 1850, Jonathan Thomas, a young, personable, and aristocratic Southern gentleman, has returned to his antebellum home from an Ivy League school in the North. His father is dying and Jonathan is sole heir to the family’s lavish, prosperous, and renowned Rainbow Plantation. While up North, two major revelations had seriously shaken his self-image. His [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, three stars | 4 Comments »
Harvey Kramer shipped home from the European front with a damaged leg and memories of a man he couldn’t have. Ten years later, on the first official Veterans Day holiday, that man knocks on Harvey’s door and turns his world upside down. Zach Jones never forgot Sergeant Harvey Kramer. Though he made it through the [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 3½ Stars, America, ebook, novella, Reviews, World War II | Leave a Comment »
Ray’s a former mob enforcer who heads west to live off his comfortable retirement, provided graciously by his ex-employers. He’s got it all. A new place, a new business, and he’s making a pretty good go of it. Better than most folks in 1935 California. Still, things aren’t perfect. There’s some bad stuff going down [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 4 stars, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
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