I got this fair-condition softcover from Better World Books during a recent sale. It's a collection of short stories with gay themes, and the contributors include E. M. Forster, James Baldwin, Alice Munro, Ray Bradbury, Joanna Russ, Christopher Isherwood, and many more.

Some of the stories were familiar, including Bradbury's charming "The Cold Wind and the Warm", which I'd encountered in I Sing the Body Electric. (It's not the only Bradbury story with surprisingly positive views of gay people for the time in which they were published - most notably, there's "The Better Part of Wisdom" from Long After Midnight.) "The Cold Wind and the Warm" introduces a small Irish community to a flock of colorful and very fey lads from elsewhere. And I'd read "Punchlines" by W. P. Kinsella in his collection The Further Adventures of Slugger McBatt. And Theodore Sturgeon's bittersweet "The World Well Lost", which I'd read in his E Pluribus Unicorn collection, deals with prejudice - and misconceptions - on an interplanetary scale.

Others were new to me, including the heartbreaking "Arthur Snatchfold" by E. M. Forster; this one does not have the upbeat conclusion of Maurice, alas. Then there's "Michel" by Marco Denevi, an Argentinian author, one of many international entries. And Joanna Russ' brief but pointed "Mr. Wilde's Second Chance," in which Wilde, "too sad for heaven and too happy for hell", is allowed to see how his life might have turned out if he hadn't chosen to love young men...

Daphne du Maurier's "Ganymede" is a very bleak take on the Greek myth of Zeus and the beautiful youth, with notes of Death in Venice - and a dark, twisted psychological-suspense aspect that brought to mind Patricia Highsmith. Very effective, very disturbing.

And there's a lot more, some entries more dated than others, but overall a very compelling collection.

I'm adding this to the LGBTQ+ bookbox, which will be on its way on Monday.

Compendium of stories, some by some rather well-known authors. Will release as part of LGBTQ+ bookbox.

Passing along in LGBTQ+ bookbox. Enjoy!

Taken from emmejo's LGBTQ+ box with thanks.

Sounds like an interesting collection, although it's huge so I won't be carrying it around with me!

I don't seem to be getting to this, so I think it's time to let it go...

To be released during the 2019 Great Aloha Run Expo over the Presidents Day Weekend.

Update: over the course of Saturday (February 16, from 9-7), I put 42 books out on the table. At the end of the evening, only one book was left; it wasn't this one.

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