It's important to remember that these relationships were different to what we perceive same sex relationships today. To call ancient Greeks gay or homosexuals would be an anachronistic fallacy.

I just pick the one on top. All the books I have on my list are books I want to read, so there's no pick that's more wrong or right than any of the others.

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The author’s caretaker streak seems to be an interesting effect of her childhood. She cared for her family and her mom then and continues to do so.

I wish I could understand her mother a little better though. Jeanette shares a lot of positive stories about her father that display both sides of him, but most of her mothers interactions seem either self serving or completely off the wall. There’s a streak of narcissism, but it has to be more than that. Hoarding explains her inability to let things go. Bipolar possibly explains the swings in mood and lack of touch with reality. I don’t know. Just wish I could understand her.

If you look the author up on YouTube, there are a couple videos that have her mom in them and some of her paintings. It brings a new perspective on the futility of her aspirations towards art. They aren’t bad exactly, but also aren’t anything spectacular. If she had any ability to balance, the mom should have been able to work a job and paint as a hobby to make her happy. But that’s a rational brain speaking.

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I love this book and I read it twice. I was inspired by the way Walls and her siblings were able to make it on their own as adults. Clearly her parents were completely insane and continued to get worse as the years passed. For some reason I was able to understand her love for her dad, but her mother was just irredeemable to me.

Nah more like Asia, China for shizzle

Ya its the same in China, they also walk holding hands. I asked my chinese friend if there were a lot of gay dudes there. He said no one is gay in China haha

You could mention that 42 in computing code is an asterisk, which would imply that one has to make one's own meaning, that life itself.os meaningless, but to build meaningful relationships is the purpose of life.

My condolences, he sounds great.

Yeah but then you have people who take every intimate thing between men as they were gay etc. Just look at the sapphoandherfriend sub....

You could try Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk. The main focuses are magic, hunting a serial killer, and Faustian bargains.

Now follow it up by reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Trust me.

What killed it was the demonization of same-sex affection, not same-sex affection being made more visible. If two men being attracted to each other wasn't demonized then there wouldn't be any reason to be bothered if someone called you gay and you weren't.

It truly baffles me as to how this is even remotely controversial while the homophobe trying to justify homophobia based on how things were centuries ago is treated as rational.

I picked up I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokboki by Baek Se-Hee while in Korea a few months ago and found it fascinating. The author is a normal Korean woman suffering from depression, so maybe that counts for your bonuses? (I don't know if Korean is considered BIPOC or depression is considered a disability)

How old is OP? It might hit differently if you're too old

The general understanding as I learned getting my masters was that the friendship between two men was, historically, seen as a more noble and valuable kind of love or affection because you didn't "get" anything out of it but the friendship. No, titles, no heir, no political alliances. The value was placed only in the friendship itself since all you got was the other's company

Such isn't to say that some of that love might have gone a bit further than that would have let on back then, but you've got to remember how drastically gender norms have changed, even within the last few decades. As other's have mentioned, some cultures today show male friendship by holding hands or even kissing, it isn't necessarily UNUSUAL unless society seems it so. With literature over 150 years old, some things are obviously going to change

Indeed.

That one sounds great, thank you.

Purple and Black by K.J. Parker is one of the best fantasy novellas I've ever read, and is definitely snarky and funny while also being layered and interesting.

Arrange 6 pints of bitter, a bowl of peanuts and a towel alongside the casket or urn. He'll get it!

Give Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese a try.

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Florida Project is probably my biggest BP nomination snub I have seen. Devastating, but incredibly done.

I'm looking for some tragic coming of age novels, family drama, and bittersweet/sad romance novels. Basically just want to ~feel something~, ya know? I've read and enjoyed the occasional Nicholas Sparks book, I loved "This is Where I Leave You." I just don't know who or what to turn to for some feels again.

I’ve also read most of the Honorverse and and Safehold, and… I agree completely. Love his work, recommend it to others, but 20ish books in and you see a distinct pattern :)

To his credit though, very few SciFi authors can keep a coherent universe together like he can. Taxes, politics, technology and physics… it’s amazing.

But… When I need a breath of fresh air, I switch over to lois mcmaster bujold…