CLICK ON THE SNOWFLAKE TO OPEN THE DOOR!
Filed under: Advent Calendar, Erastes | Tagged: Advent Calendar, Erastes | 26 Comments »
The List – Revisted
Posted on October 17, 2009 by Erastes
The List has been fiddled with and I’ve put it into historical order.
We have:
Anthologies
Ancient World
Dark Ages
Middle Ages
Renaissance
17th Century & Regency
18th Century
19th Century
20th Century
Then, ebooks (which I still need to put in the same order), graphic novels, free fiction, text books.
I hope it is a little easier to navigate – when I started the List, I [...]
Filed under: Erastes, discussion, news | 2 Comments »
Review: Rainbow Plantation Blues by Robert L Sheeley
Posted on May 25, 2009 by Erastes
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 »
Review: Transgressions by Erastes
Posted on May 5, 2009 by Hayden
1642, England: David Caverlys strict father has brought home the quiet, puritanical Jonathan Graie to help his dreamer of a son work the family forge. With war brewing in Parliament, the demand for metal work increases as armies are raised.
The fair David is drawn to his fathers new apprentice. And though his father treats them [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, 4½ Stars, England, Erastes, Fiction | 3 Comments »
Review: Confessing A Murder by Nicholas Drayson
Posted on April 26, 2009 by Erastes
Purporting to be an anonymous memoir found in an attic, its author is an arrogant but brilliant homosexual whose life has crossed with that of Charles Darwin with startling regularity. He is writing it on a small island in the Java Sea of which he is the only human inhabitant. Aware that his life will [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Review: A Class Apart by James Gardiner
Posted on April 19, 2009 by Erastes
The Private Pictures of Montague Glover.
A Class Apart is a selection of photographs and letters culled from the archive of Montague Glover (1898-1983) documenting the intimate, rarely recorded lives of gay men in Britain from the First World War to the 1950s. The book features Glover’s three obsessions: the Armed Forces, working-class men, and his [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, Erastes, Essential Reads, Photography, Resources, Reviews, True Life, World War I, World War II, five stars | 9 Comments »
Review: Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death by Gyles Brandreth
Posted on April 14, 2009 by Erastes
Talented and witty, and with a fabulously successful play playing to packed houses, Oscar is the toast of the town. On one of his club nights he plays a game with his guests, “who would you murder” and sets into motion events which look like they will result, not only in his own death, but [...]
Filed under: England, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian, three stars | 7 Comments »
Review: Frost Fair by Erastes
Posted on December 15, 2008 by Erastes
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll
Before the climate changed, Londoners were occasionally treated to a sporadic festival triggered by the freezing of the Thames River. This was known as the Frost Fair, where merchants hauled their wares onto the surface of the river, and citizens flocked to impromptu markets, drawn by the [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Erastes, Fiction, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, five stars | Leave a Comment »
Review: Gerard and Jacques Vol.01 & 02 by Fumi Yoshinaga
Posted on November 24, 2008 by Erastes
Blurb: The heroes of this story meet in a rather unlikely place – a brothel. Gerard, after deflowering the young aristocrat-turned-prostitute Jacques, pays to free him from his profession and spares him a life of selling his body to survive. Jacques shows up at Gerard’s door soon after, willing to work to repay his [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 2½ stars, Erastes, Reviews, graphic novel, yaoi | 5 Comments »
Review: A Perfect Waiter by Alain Claude Sulzer
Posted on September 17, 2008 by Erastes
Translated from the original German by John Brownjohn.
Erneste is master of the Blue Room in a Swiss Restaurant. He is the ‘perfect waiter’, a model of order in every way, and his private life seems to embody the qualities he brings to his job. But inwardly this polite, dignified, withdrawn man has been caught [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 1960's, 3½ Stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Review: The Leather Boys by Gillian Freeman
Posted on September 15, 2008 by Erastes
They’re Britain’s ‘Wild Ones’ – the motorcycle cowboys who live for gas machines and faster girls – who ton-up along the Motorways, terrorising drivers and defying the law. Who experience sex too young, marry unthinkingly and live only for the next kick – whatever or whoever it is.
The Leather Boys is a savage, brilliantly [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4½ Stars, Erastes, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Review: Oblivion by Harry J Maihafer
Posted on September 14, 2008 by Erastes
On Saturday, January 14, 1950, at 6:18PM, Cadet Richard Cox left his room at theU.S. Military Academy at West Point to goto dinner with an unidentified visitor. The man was supposedly someone Cox knew when he served in Germany. Cox never returned from that meeting.
Thirty five years later, a retired history teacher named [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4 stars, Erastes, Reviews, True Life, detective, history | 6 Comments »
Review: The Keeper by Kalita Kasar
Posted on August 8, 2008 by Erastes
Cobbler’s apprentice Thomas Williams is on his way out for the night when he’s stuffed into a carriage and whisked away from the staid life he’s always known. Stolen away from his Quaker master, Thomas is sold into the household of Leon Chambellan, a Frenchman also known as the Keeper.
Caught up in the latent sensuality [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 2½ stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, ebook, novella | 1 Comment »
Review: Sandals and Sodomy (anthology)
Posted on August 7, 2008 by Erastes
Review by Erastes
I don’t often comment on a book’s layout but this one deserves it. It’s beautifully done – a tasteful cover to complement the mention of Sodomy and a restrained, classical theme inside. Books aren’t often this pretty. Well done, Dreamspinner Press.
Greeks Bearing Gifts by D.G. Parker
Young Antenor of fallen Troy faces violation and [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Ancient Greece, Anthology, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Review: The Squire by Shawn Lane
Posted on July 28, 2008 by Erastes
Duncan has been Sir William’s squire for two years. During that time, he has lusted after and been in love with the beautiful muscular knight. Too bad Sir William prefers fair maidens…
Sir William is called home due to the impending death of his father. On the journey, he catches his squire watching other men [...]
Filed under: 14th Century, 2½ stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, novella | 1 Comment »
Review: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Posted on July 26, 2008 by Erastes
Like the comic books that animate and inspire it, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is both larger than life and of it too. Complete with golems and magic and miraculous escapes and evil nemeses, even hand-to-hand Antarctic battle, it pursues the most important questions of love and war, dreams and art, across [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 1950's, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, three stars | 5 Comments »
Review: Vienna Dolorosa by Mykola Dementiuk
Posted on July 10, 2008 by Erastes
Vienna Dolorosa by Mykola Dementiuk is a full-length historical novel set in Vienna, Austria, in an inner city hotel managed by a transvestite and doubling as a brothel for men who like boys dressed up as girls. The entire book takes place during a one-day time period — March 12, 1938, the day Hitler [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 4½ Stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, World War II, history | 11 Comments »
Review: An Asian Minor-The True Story of Ganymede by Felice Picano
Posted on June 30, 2008 by Erastes
From the blurb: “An Asian Minor is unlike any book you are likely to read this year. The story of a thirteen year old boy who discovers he is “the most beautiful mortal ever born,” it examines that dubious humour in a retelling of the classical Greek myth that has attracted artists for centuries. [...]
Filed under: 3½ Stars, Ancient Greece, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Review: The Erotic Etudes-Opus VI by E.L. van Hine
Posted on June 27, 2008 by Erastes
Robert Schumann, the Romantic composer, was a vibrant and complex man. Schumann’s public biography was carefully cleansed by his wife, his survivors, and his friends, but his own letters and diaries give indication of a series of passionate affairs with both sexes that sparked the creative outpouring of music that defined his artistic life. It [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Review: Speak Its Name by Charlie Cochrane, Lee Rowan and Erastes
Posted on June 2, 2008 by Alex Beecroft
A Three novella anthology from Cheyenne Publishing
Featuring:
Aftermath by Charlie Cochrane
Gentleman’s Gentleman by Lee Rowan
Hard and Fast by Erastes
Expectations riding on young Englishmen are immense; for those who’ve something to hide, those expectations could prove overwhelming.
Aftermath
When shy Edward Easterby first sees the popular Hugo Lamont, he’s both envious of the man’s social skills and ashamed [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 19th Century, Alex Beecroft, Anthology, Charlie Cochrane, Erastes, Lee Rowan, Regency, Reviews, Victorian, five stars, novella | 4 Comments »
Review: Damned Strong Love by Lutz Van Dijk
Posted on May 31, 2008 by Erastes
Set in occupied Poland during World War II, this novel is based on the true story of Stefan K., a Polish boy who, at 16, fell in love with a German soldier. When their liaison was discovered by the Gestapo, the teen was tortured and sentenced to a labour camp, eventually escaping during the chaotic [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4 stars, Erastes, Reviews, True Life, World War II | Leave a Comment »
Review: The Spartan by Don Harrison
Posted on May 14, 2008 by Erastes
Pantarkes’ goal is to enter the Olympics and win the laurel crown. But at the age of 16, after accidentally killing the son of a high official, Pantarkes is forced to flee from his native home in Sparta. For two years his Olympic dreams are postponed as he becomes embroiled in the wars [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Ancient Greece, Erastes, Fiction | 5 Comments »
Historical submission call – gay welcome
Posted on May 8, 2008 by Erastes
Lace and Blade
Closing Date August 1, 2008
Lace and Blade is accepting submissions for its second anthology of “elegant, sensual, romantic fantasy, emphasizing sharp verbal repartee as much as sharp pointed weapons, rapier rather than broadsword.”
Editor Deborah J. Ross is interested in “characters – both men and women – with vibrant personalities, complex, dashing, and [...]
Filed under: Erastes, submissions | Leave a Comment »
Review: The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Posted on April 22, 2008 by Erastes
New York City, 1896. A serial killer is on the loose, gruesomely preying upon cross-dressing boy prostitutes. Police detectives are making no progress solving the ghastly crimes. In fact, someone with power or influence seems to be bent on silencing witnesses and thwarting any investigation. Reform-minded police commissioner, and future president Theodore Roosevelt is determined [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, detective | 6 Comments »
Review: Mr Page and Mr Clive by Neil Bartlett
Posted on April 18, 2008 by speakitsname
It is Christmas Eve, 1956, and the reclusive Mr Page is remembering a dream from thirty years ago. The dream is about the rich and wild Mr Clive, a man who could have been Page’s twin, and what really happened to the beautiful white-haired boy who served in his house. And the dream is [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 1950's, Erastes, Essential Reads, Reviews, five stars | Leave a Comment »
Review: A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
Posted on April 18, 2008 by speakitsname
When A Single Man was originally published, it shocked many by its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in midlife. George, the protagonist, is adjusting to life on his own after the sudden death of his partner, and determines to persist in the routines of his daily life; the course of A [...]
Filed under: 1960's, 4½ Stars, Erastes, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Review: A Cold-Blooded Scoundrel by J S Cook
Posted on April 8, 2008 by Erastes
In London, with Jack the Ripper’s crimes still raw in the great city’s memory, a well-known male prostitute is brutally murdered, the head neatly severed, and the body set on fire. Detective Inspector Phillip Devlin of Scotland Yard, mid-thirties and secretly gay, is called to the murder scene by plainclothes constable Freddie Collins, and soon [...]
Filed under: Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian, detective, three stars | 1 Comment »
Review: Oscar Wilde & the Candlelight Murders by Gyles Brandreth
Posted on March 22, 2008 by Erastes
This work is set in London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian | 6 Comments »
Review: Honor Bound by Wheeler Scott
Posted on January 15, 2008 by Erastes
from the blurb: Christian has just come home to England, leaving his commission in the Army, so he can do his duty by the family now that his brother, the heir, is dead. Prodded by his crusty dowager of a grandmother, he sets out to find a wife and produce heirs. He thinks he’s done [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Erastes, Regency, Reviews, ebook, three stars | Leave a Comment »
Review: Longhorns by Victor J Banis
Posted on January 4, 2008 by speakitsname
Review by Erastes
From the blurb: The Double H cowboys are a tough bunch, and none of them are gay – exactly- but they have been out there on the prairie for several weeks, herding cattle, and new thoughts have begun to enter their minds. Enter Buck, a handsome young drifter with a silly grin, an [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Erastes, Reviews, Western, three stars | 7 Comments »
Review: Cinnamon Gardens by Shyam Selvadurai
Posted on January 3, 2008 by speakitsname
From the blurb: …Cinnamon Gardens is a residential enclave of wealthy Ceylonese. Among them is Annalukshmi, an independent and high-spirited young teacher intent on thwarting her parents’ plans to arrange her marriage. In a parallel narrative, her uncle, Balendran Navaratnam, respectably married but secretly homosexual, has his life disrupted by the arrival in Ceylon of [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Review: Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased) by Emma Collingwood
Posted on December 27, 2007 by Erastes
Review by Erastes
HMS Privet has the reputation of being a cursed ship: every first lieutenant serving aboard her dies gruesomely. Lieutenant Daniel Leigh is determined to solve the mystery and volunteers for the place himself, putting his life in desperate danger. Little does he suspect that he will fall in love with the captain, John [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Age of Sail, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Merry Christmas Everyone
Posted on December 24, 2007 by Erastes
And a very happy New Year!
THANK YOU for supporting this new Blog and making it sucessful. Since its inception, it’s had nearly 13,000 visitors which is great. People are referring to The List and reading the articles and reviews. It’s also, in its small way, making a difference, and I’m proud of that.
I hope that [...]
Filed under: Erastes | 2 Comments »
Review: Captain’s Surrender by Alex Beecroft
Posted on December 3, 2007 by Erastes
Review by Erastes
From the blurb: “Ambitious and handsome, Joshua Andrews had always valued his life too much to take unnecessary risks. Then he laid eyes on the elegant picture of perfection that is Peter Kenyon.
Soon to be promoted to captain, Peter Kenyon is the darling of the Bermuda garrison. With a string of successes [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, Age of Sail, Alex Beecroft, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 12 Comments »
Review: Hot Valley by James Lear
Posted on November 28, 2007 by Erastes
It’s New England, 1861, and the troubles in the southern states seem a long way off for Jack Edgerton, the spoiled son of a prominent Vermont family. Howver, when he meets and falls in love with Aaron Johnson, the sexy son of a slave on the run from Virginia, Edgerton’s world is turned upside down. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2 stars, American Civil War, Erastes, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Review: A Different Sin by Rochelle Hollander Schwab
Posted on November 22, 2007 by Erastes
Review by Erastes
Wow. What a read! I had few expectations of this book – I’d seen it around here and there, in this limited genre the same books are bound to crop up from time to time – but the cover always put me off. However, eventually I ordered a copy and it arrived (and it’s a signed copy [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, American Civil War, Erastes, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews, five stars | 1 Comment »
Review: While England Sleeps by David Leavitt
Posted on November 10, 2007 by Erastes
Review by Erastes
From the blurb:
At a meeting of republican sympathisers in London, Brian Botsford, a young middle-class writer and Cambridge graduate, meets Edward Phelan, an idealistic, self-educated London Underground worker. They share a mutual attraction. Across the divisions of class they begin an affair in secrecy.
But Edward posesses “an unproblematic capacity to accept” [...]
Filed under: 1930's, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, five stars | 5 Comments »
Review: Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory
Posted on November 4, 2007 by Erastes
Seventeenth-century England is the setting for this engaging historical novel based on the life of John Tradescant, a gardener of common birth who transforms plain plots of land into slices of heaven on earth. As vassal to the secretary of state, Sir Robert Cecil, Tradescant—who, as fate would have it, had no sense of smell—places [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, 3½ Stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 5 Comments »
Review: Wicked Game by Jade Falconer
Posted on October 27, 2007 by Erastes
Niels got more than he bargained for when he broke into a certain townhouse in the fashionable section of London. The arrogant and dictatorial lord who caught him red-handed was more than willing to take advantage of the situation. Temporarily forced into a unique form of servitude, Niels learns more than he ever expected [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian, two stars | 5 Comments »
Review: A Summer Place by Ariel Tachna
Posted on October 24, 2007 by speakitsname
Review by Erastes
From the publishers website:
Overseer Nicolas Wells had been coming to Mount Desert Island for ten summers to help build cottages for the rich and powerful. Despite his secrets, he had grown comfortable in the peaceful little island town, getting to know its inhabitants and even to consider some of them friends. The [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Search Terms
Posted on October 22, 2007 by speakitsname
Just briefly and to restore humour…
These are the top search terms used to find this community.
“A Hidden Passion”
historical gay
as meat loves salt
HOMOSEXUALITY IN Jane Eyre
e.f. benson david blaize
boy man love
historical spanking stories
Jamie Fraser and Lord John
Ok. So where is the homosexuality in Jane Eyre please? I thought I [...]
Filed under: Erastes | Leave a Comment »
Review: Angel’s Evolution by T A Chase
Posted on October 22, 2007 by speakitsname
“I’m a monster. Or so my father would have me believe. I’m imprisoned in a world I hate and fear. As heir to my father’s title, I’m expected to marry, but my secret desires may keep me from fulfilling those expectations. One night a stranger kisses me. In his touch, I see the possibility of [...]
Filed under: Erastes, Regency, Reviews, three stars | 7 Comments »
Review: Indiscretions by Elayne S Venton
Posted on October 3, 2007 by speakitsname
Review by Erastes
From the blurb: In the Regency underworld, two covert Bow Street Runners discover mutual passion. Viscount Trent, renowned ladies’ man, has admired William Hall as furtively as Mr. Hall has lusted after the viscount. Only the affection for his mistress, Miss Anna Shaw, held Trent back from acting on his attraction, but [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, Erastes, Reviews | 6 Comments »
Discussion: Cover… MY EYES!
Posted on September 14, 2007 by speakitsname
It’s a fairly well known that that Romance – and by this I mean heterosexual Romance – (Harlequin, Avon, Mills & Boon and the like) – generally have a certain sort of cover.
You know the type…
There’s always a strong wind; the heroine is being clutched, their clothes are (yet) being blown away The hero is [...]
Filed under: Erastes, discussion | 36 Comments »
