This is a level of "relate" that I hadn't read in other books.

Today we meet René Zadoorian and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: I Will Greet The Sun Again by Khashayar J. Khabushani. And Khashayar joins us for the conversation!

René Zadoorian, is an Armenian writer with a degree in creative writing from California State University, Northridge. He was born in Tehran, Iran, and now resides in Los Angeles. He is a reader for Fahmidan and Orca, A Literary Journal. His short stories and film photography have been published in various magazines including WireWorm, Fruitslice, and elsewhere.

Khashayar J. Khabushani spent time in Iran during his childhood before returning to Los Angeles. He studied philosophy at California State University, Northridge and completed his MFA at Columbia University. This is his first novel.

A stunning, tender novel of identity and belonging, I Will Greet the Sun Again tells the story of a young man lost in his own family, his own country, and his own skin. Staring down the brutality of being a queer kid and a Muslim in America, Khashayar J. Khabushani transforms personal and national pain into an unforgettable and beautifully rendered exploration of youth, love, family--and the stories that make us who we are.

Connect with René
website: rene-writes.com
instagram: @lammpshade

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Buy your own copy of I Will Greet The Sun Again here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593243329

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Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

As we shield ourselves for the next four years, please consider attending the Creating Change conference. It will be in Las Vegas from January 22-26, 2025. It is the largest LGBTQ conference in the United States. Registration fees are sliding scale to keep it affordable, with free registration if you sign-up to volunteer. Learn more: thetaskforce.org

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This book gave me an understanding of the queer community that I hadn’t found anywhere else.

Today we meet David Reddish and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Angels in America by Tony Kushner.

Self proclaimed uber-geek David Reddish is the award-winning author of Sex, Drugs & Superheroes trilogy. The third novel in the series, The Wrath of Comic-Con, came out earlier in 2024. His novel The Passion of St. Sergius & St. Bacchus celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. David is also a noted entertainment journalist having written for such publications as MovieWeb, ScreenRant, Queerty, and Playboy.

One of the most honored American plays in history, Angels in America was awarded two Tony Awards for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was made into an Emmy Award-winning HBO film directed by Mike Nichols. This two-part epic, subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," has received hundreds of performances worldwide in more than twenty-six languages.

Connect with David
muck rack: muckrack.com/david-reddish-5
instagram: @thegaymagneto
Buy David's books here and at your local bookstores.

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Buy your own copy of Angels in America here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781559363846

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

As we shield ourselves for the next four years, please consider attending the Creating Change conference. It will be in Las Vegas from January 22-26, 2025. It is the largest LGBTQ conference in the United States. Registration fees are sliding scale to keep it affordable, with free registration if you sign-up to volunteer. Learn more: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Who am I going to be and what is my life going to look like?

Today we meet Samantha Mann and we’re talking about the queer book that saved her life: The Hours by Michael Cunningham.

Samantha writes essays & articles exploring culture, mental health, motherhood, & LGBTQ issues. Her work has been featured in The Cut, Vogue, Elle, TODAY, Romper, and more. Her forthcoming collection, Dyke Delusion, debuts June 2025.

The Hours tells the story of three women: Virginia Woolf, beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway as she recuperates in a London suburb with her husband in 1923; Clarissa Vaughan, beloved friend of an acclaimed poet dying from AIDS, who in modern-day New York is planning a party in his honor; and Laura Brown, in a 1949 Los Angeles suburb, who slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home. By the end of the novel, these three stories intertwine in remarkable ways, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace.

Connect with Samantha
website: samantha-mann.com
instagram: @samantha.mann05

Shout out to Alyy Patel
For more information about Alyy Patel and the Queer South Asian Women's Network visit: qsawnetwork.com.

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

As we shield ourselves for the next four years, please consider attending the Creating Change conference. It will be in Las Vegas from January 22-26, 2025. It is the largest LGBTQ conference in the United States. Registration fees are sliding scale to keep it affordable, with free registration if you sign-up to volunteer. Learn more: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Am I the only one who feels this crazy about what's happening to me right now?

Today we meet Mia Arias Tsang and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: Women by Chloé Caldwell. And Chloé joins us for the conversation!

Mia is a writer, freelance editor, and former biologist based in Queens, NYC. She has conducted extensive research in evolutionary virology and epigenetics, and has studied with writers such as Chloé Caldwell, Sarah Stillman, Michael Cunningham, and Susan Choi.

Chloé is the author of the national bestseller, Women (Harper Perennial, 2024). Chloé’s next book, Trying, is forthcoming from Graywolf, on August 5th, 2025. She is also the author of the books I’ll Tell You In Person (2016), The Red Zone (2022), and Legs Get Led Astray (2012).

In Women, a young writer moves from the country to the city and falls in love with another woman for the very first time. With startling clarity and breathtaking tenderness, Chloé Caldwell writes the story of a love in reverse: of nights spent drunkenly hurling a phone against a brick wall; of early mornings hungover in bed, curled up together; of emails and poems exchanged at breakneck speed.

Connect with Mia and Chloé
Mia's website: miatsang.com
instagram: @mia.arias.tsang

Chloé website: chloesimonne.com
instagram: @chloeeeecaldwell

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

As we shield ourselves for the next four years, please consider attending the Creating Change conference. It will be in Las Vegas from January 22-26, 2025. It is the largest LGBTQ conference in the United States. Registration fees are sliding scale to keep it affordable, with free registration if you sign-up to volunteer. Learn more: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Is it possible that my family, my mother, could ever accept me?

Today we meet Eric Marcus and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Consenting Adult by Laura Z. Hobson.

Eric Marcus is the author of a dozen books, including two editions of Making Gay History (the original 1992 edition is entitled Making History), Why Suicide?, and Breaking the Surface, the #1 New York Times bestselling autobiography of Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis. Eric is also the co-producer of Those Who Were There, a podcast drawn from the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. He is the founder and chair emeritus of the Stonewall 50 Consortium and is a founding board member of the American LGBTQ+ Museum.

In Consenting Adult, Tessa Lynn considers herself independent and progressive, a liberated woman of the 1960s. And yet, when she receives a letter from her youngest son, Jeff, informing her that he is gay, Tessa is distraught. At a time when homosexuality is regarded as a mental illness, she struggles with how best to be a parent to a gay son—and how to protect her family from the prejudices of the era. Elegant and subtly drawn, Consenting Adult is a stunning tribute to familial bonds, and a sympathetic portrait of a mother whose best intentions are often clouded by the stereotypes of her time.

Connect with Eric
Making Gay History website: makinggayhistory.org/about
instagram: @makinggayhistorypodcast
facebook: facebook.com/makinggayhistory

Fortunoff Video Archive podcast: fortunoff.library.yale.edu/education/podcasts

Listen to full episode with Damien Martin: makinggayhistory.org/podcast/damien-martin

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Permission to use the theme to Making Gay History provided by Eric Marcus. The theme was composed by Fritz Meyers.

Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has creat

As we shield ourselves for the next four years, please consider attending the Creating Change conference. It will be in Las Vegas from January 22-26, 2025. It is the largest LGBTQ conference in the United States. Registration fees are sliding scale to keep it affordable, with free registration if you sign-up to volunteer. Learn more: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

A new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops next week on September 17! In our off weeks, we air the most recent episode of The Gaily Show which J.P. hosts for AM950 Radio.

Today, the director of the new documentary Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln is here. Also joining me are two historical experts from the film. It debuted in theaters on September 6. Check your local listings for showtimes and or for when it is streaming.

Watch on YouTube
We're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshow

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Production and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950
Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950
Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson

As we shield ourselves for the next four years, please consider attending the Creating Change conference. It will be in Las Vegas from January 22-26, 2025. It is the largest LGBTQ conference in the United States. Registration fees are sliding scale to keep it affordable, with free registration if you sign-up to volunteer. Learn more: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Exile is not a choice that anyone wants to make. It’s something we come to through necessity.

Today we meet seeley quest and we’re talking about the book that saved hir life: Exile and Pride by Eli Clare. And Eli joins us for the conversation!

Seeley Quest (sie/hir) is a trans disabled environmentalist, working in literary and body-based composition, curation and facilitation.

Eli Clare (he/they): white, disabled, and genderqueer, Eli lives near Lake Champlain in unceded Abenaki territory (also known as Vermont). He is the author of Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure and Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. Their next book, a mixed genre volume titled Unfurl, will be released in July, 2025.

In Exile and Pride, Eli Clare’s revelatory writing about his experiences as a white disabled genderqueer activist/writer unspools the multiple histories from which our sense of self unfolds. Their essays weave together memoir, history, and political thinking to explore meanings and experiences of home.

Connect with Seeley and Eli
Seeley's website and newsletter: questletters.net

Eli's website: eliclare.com

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Exile and Pride visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780822360315

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

As we shield ourselves for the next four years, please consider attending the Creating Change conference. It will be in Las Vegas from January 22-26, 2025. It is the largest LGBTQ conference in the United States. Registration fees are sliding scale to keep it affordable, with free registration if you sign-up to volunteer. Learn more: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

This book isn’t about celebrity. It’s about queer heritage. And passing it on.

Today we meet Brent Love and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile.

Brent Love is the author of the memoir Leap which debuted in June 2024. He is also the host/producer of the podcasts Hope Works: A Surrogacy and You and Me and Everyone We Know. Brent currently resides in Hawaii with his family.

In Broken Horses, Brandi Carlile takes readers through the events of her life that shaped her very raw art--from her start at a local singing competition where she performed Elton John's "Honky Cat" in a bedazzled white polyester suit, to her first break opening for Dave Matthews Band, to many sleepless tours over fifteen years and six studio albums, all while raising two children with her wife, Catherine Shepherd.

Connect with Brent

website: heybrentlove.com
instagram: @heybrentlove
linkedin: @heybrentlove
podcast: Hope Works: A Surrogacy Podcast
podcast: You and Me and Everyone We Know

Our Bookshop

Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Broken Horses visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593237267

To purchase Leap visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798889260202

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

As we shield ourselves for the next four years, please consider attending the Creating Change conference. It will be in Las Vegas from January 22-26, 2025. It is the largest LGBTQ conference in the United States. Registration fees are sliding scale to keep it affordable, with free registration if you sign-up to volunteer. Learn more: thetaskforce.org

Support the show