This is not your mother’s memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly guides the reader through profound themes of gender, sexuality, violence, and family from her perspective as a lifelong swimmer turned artist.

Her writing delves into the very essence of memoir, tracing the impact of extreme grief on a young woman’s evolving sexuality, which some might view as unconventional due to her attraction to both men and women. Her journey as a writer unfolds simultaneously, leading her through a path of addiction, self-destruction, and ultimately, survival, culminating in the forms of love and motherhood.

The narrative is a testament to the power of self-discovery and resilience, as Yuknavitch emerges from the shadows of her past to find solace in her writing, teaching, and her new family.

New York Times bestselling author, director, actor, and YouTube superstar Shane Dawson returns with another highly entertaining and uproariously funny essay collection, chronicling a mix of real life moments both extraordinary and mortifying, yet always full of heart.

Shane Dawson shared some of his best and worst experiences in I Hate Myselfie, the critically acclaimed book that secured his place as a gifted humorist and keen observer of millennial culture. Fans felt as though they knew him after devouring the bestseller. They were right… almost.

In this new collection of original personal essays, Shane goes even deeper, sharing never-before-revealed stories from his life, giving readers a no-holds-barred look at moments both bizarre and relatable, from cult-like Christian after-school activities, dressing in drag, and losing his virginity, to hiring a psychic, clashes with celebrities, and coming to terms with his bisexuality.

Every step of the way, Shane maintains his signature brand of humor, proving that even the toughest breaks can be funny when you learn to laugh at yourself. This is Let's Pretend This Never Happened and Running With Scissors for the millennial generation: an inspiring, intelligent, and brutally honest collection of true stories by a YouTube sensation-turned one of the freshest new voices out there.

Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru Cormorant will look up from the sand of her home and see red sails on the horizon.

The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. They'll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. But Baru is patient. She'll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. She will learn the secrets of empire. She’ll be exactly what they need. And she'll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.

In a final test of her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. Aurdwynn kills everyone who tries to rule it. To survive, Baru will need to untangle this land’s intricate web of treachery - and conceal her attraction to the dangerously fascinating Duchess Tain Hu.

But Baru is a savant in games of power, as ruthless in her tactics as she is fixated on her goals. In the calculus of her schemes, all ledgers must be balanced, and the price of liberation paid in full.

Black Iris is a dark and sexy romantic suspense novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Unteachable.

Laney Keating only needed one moment of weakness for her world to fall apart. One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush, and then the rumors began: Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up—so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn't worth sticking around for.

If Laney could erase that whole year, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate. She's not looking for new friends, but they find her: charming, handsome Armin, the only guy patient enough to work through her thorny defenses—and fiery, filterless Blythe, the bad girl and partner in crime who has thorns of her own.

But Laney knows nothing good ever lasts. When a ghost from her past resurfaces—the bully who broke her down completely—she decides it's time to live up to her own legend. And Armin and Blythe are going to help.

Which was the plan all along. Because the rumors are true. Every single one. And Laney is going to show them just how true. She's going to show them all.

A Density of Souls is a stunning debut novel that uncovers the darker side of the teenage psyche. Set in the brooding milieu of New Orleans, this gripping tale follows four childhood friends torn apart by envy, passion, and a secret murder.

Five years ago, Meredith, Brandon, Greg, and Stephen discovered the fragile boundaries between friendship and betrayal as they entered high school and formed new allegiances. While Meredith, Brandon, and Greg gained popularity, Stephen was viciously treated as an outcast. The delicate bonds of their friendship were destroyed by two violent deaths, leading to unexpected revelations.

When the friends are drawn back together, new facts about their mutual history are exposed, and what was believed to be a tragic accident is revealed as murder. As the true story emerges, other secrets begin to unravel with more dangerous, far-reaching consequences.

City of Night is an explosive first novel by John Rechy, originally published in 1963. It boldly introduces a new era of gay fiction, with an inventive narrative that delves into the urban underworld of male prostitution.

The story follows a hustling "Youngman" on a restless search for self-knowledge, as he navigates through the neon-lit life on the edge. From El Paso to Times Square, Pershing Square to the French Quarter, the narrator's journey offers an unforgettable look at a life lived on the fringe.

Rechy's portrayal of the world of hustlers, drag queens, and their denizens is unflinching and deeply personal. His prose is characterized by a rare and beautiful recklessness, capturing the essence of a time and place with candor and understanding.

Sing You Home tells the poignant story of Zoe Baxter, a music therapist who has spent a decade longing to start a family. Her dreams shatter when she suffers infertility issues, leading to the heartbreaking end of her marriage with her husband, Max.

As Zoe navigates the complexities of her new life, she unexpectedly finds love again with Vanessa, a school counselor. Together, they envision a future filled with hope and the possibility of raising a family. However, Zoe's past is not entirely behind her. Max, now influenced by newfound religious beliefs, challenges Zoe's right to her embryos, leading to a gripping court battle.

Jodi Picoult masterfully explores themes of love, identity, and what truly defines a family. Sing You Home is a powerful narrative that questions societal norms and the rights of individuals to choose their path.

Nightwood, Djuna Barnes' strange and sinuous tour de force, belongs to that small class of books that somehow reflect a time or an epoch. That time is the period between the two World Wars, and Barnes' novel unfolds in the decadent shadows of Europe's great cities: Paris, Berlin, and Vienna—a world in which the boundaries of class, religion, and sexuality are bold but surprisingly porous.

The outsized characters who inhabit this world are some of the most memorable in all of fiction. There is Guido Volkbein, the Wandering Jew and son of a self-proclaimed baron; Robin Vote, the American expatriate who marries him and then engages in a series of affairs, first with Nora Flood and then with Jenny Petherbridge, driving all of her lovers to distraction with her passion for wandering alone in the night; and there is Dr. Matthew-Mighty-Grain-of-Salt-Dante-O'Connor, a transvestite and ostensible gynecologist, whose digressive speeches brim with fury, keen insights, and surprising allusions.

Barnes' depiction of these characters and their relationships has made the novel a landmark of feminist and lesbian literature. Most striking of all is Barnes' unparalleled stylistic innovation, which led T. S. Eliot to proclaim the book so good a novel that only sensibilities trained on poetry can wholly appreciate it.

Now with a new preface by Jeanette Winterson, Nightwood still crackles with the same electric charge it had on its first publication in 1936.

Annie Proulx has crafted some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many, "Brokeback Mountain" stands as her masterpiece.

Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together while working as a sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.

Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations, this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it.

In gorgeous and haunting prose, Proulx explores the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world's violent intolerance.

At the age of eight, Brian Lackey is found bleeding under the crawl space of his house, having endured something so traumatic that he cannot remember an entire five-hour period of time. During the following years, he slowly recalls details from that night, but these fragments are not enough to explain what happened to him, and he begins to believe that he may have been the victim of an alien encounter.

Neil McCormick is fully aware of the events from that summer of 1981. Wise beyond his years and curious about his developing sexuality, Neil found what he perceived to be love and guidance from his baseball coach. Now, ten years later, he is a teenage hustler, a terrorist of sorts, unaware of the dangerous path his life is taking. His recklessness is governed by idealized memories of his coach, memories that unexpectedly change when Brian comes to Neil for help and, ultimately, the truth.

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues—technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism—have only become more pressing with the passage of time.

The novel's topic is information itself: What are the repercussions, once it has been made public, that two individuals have been found to be each other's perfect erotic object out to "point nine-nine-nine and several nines percent more"? What will it do to the individuals involved, to the city they inhabit, to their geosector, to their entire world society, especially when one is an illiterate worker, the sole survivor of a world destroyed by "cultural fugue," and the other is—you!

Seventeen-year-old Jacob Todd is about to discover himself. Jacob's plan is to go to Amsterdam to honor his grandfather who died during World War II. He expects to go, set flowers on his grandfather's tombstone, and explore the city. But nothing goes as planned. Jacob isn't prepared for love—or to face questions about his sexuality. Most of all, he isn't prepared to hear what Geertrui, the woman who nursed his grandfather during the war, has to say about their relationship.

Geertrui was always known as Jacob's grandfather's kind and generous nurse. But it seems that in the midst of terrible danger, Geertrui and Jacob's grandfather's time together blossomed into something more than a girl caring for a wounded soldier. And like Jacob, Geertrui was not prepared.

Geertrui and Jacob live worlds apart, but their voices blend together to tell one story—a story that transcends time and place and war. By turns moving, vulnerable, and thrilling, this extraordinary novel takes the reader on a memorable voyage of discovery.

Affinity is a captivating tale set in the grimmest jail of Victorian London, Millbank prison. The story follows Margaret Prior, an upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt. As part of her rehabilitative charity work, she begins visiting the women’s ward of Millbank.

Among the murderers and thieves, Margaret encounters an enigmatic spiritualist, Selina Dawes, who was imprisoned after a séance went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. Initially skeptical of Selina's gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions.

The narrative is a spellbinding ghost story, a complex historical mystery, and a poignant romance with unexpected twists. Sarah Waters brilliantly evokes the sights and smells of a moody and beguiling nineteenth-century London, crafting a tale that explores themes of confinement, betrayal, and the supernatural. Margaret's fascination with Selina leads her to concoct a desperate plot to secure both Selina's freedom and her own.

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, determined to persist in the routines of his daily life.

An Englishman and a professor living in suburban Southern California, he is an outsider in every way. His internal reflections and interactions with others reveal a man who loves being alive despite everyday injustices and loneliness.

Wry, suddenly manic, constantly funny, surprisingly sad, this novel catches the true textures of life itself.

Flesh and Blood takes readers on a masterful journey through four generations of the Stassos family, exploring the dynamics of a family striving to "come of age" in the 20th century.

In 1950, Constantine Stassos, a Greek immigrant laborer, marries Mary Cuccio, an Italian-American girl. Together, they have three children: Susan, an ambitious beauty; Billy, a brilliant homosexual; and Zoe, a wild child. Over the years, a web of tangled longings, love, inadequacies, and unfulfilled dreams unfolds as Mary and Constantine's marriage fails, and Susan, Billy, and Zoe leave to create families of their own.

Zoe raises a child with the help of a transvestite, Billy makes a life with another man, and Susan raises a son conceived in secret, each extending the meaning of family and love. With the power of a Greek tragedy, the story builds to a heartbreaking crescendo, offering a glimpse into contemporary life that will echo in one's heart for years to come.

The Last Herald-Mage is a captivating trilogy that encompasses three enthralling books: Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, and Magic's Price. This series takes you on an epic journey through a world where magic and heroism intertwine.

Follow the story of a young man discovering his magical abilities and the responsibilities that come with them. This tale is filled with adventure, self-discovery, and the challenges of wielding power in a complex world. With rich character development and a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat, this series is a must-read for fans of fantasy and magic.

Join the protagonist as he navigates through personal growth, battles with dark forces, and the pursuit of his destiny in a realm that is as enchanting as it is dangerous. Immerse yourself in a universe where the stakes are high and the rewards are even greater.

The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander the Great's life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedonian army conquered his homeland.

Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.

Originally published in 1925, The Counterfeiters became known for the frank sexuality of its contents and its account of middle class French morality. The themes of the book explore the problem of morals, the problem of society, and the problems facing writers.

An appendix to this edition contains excerpts from Gide's notebooks, providing deeper insight into the creative process behind this remarkable novel.

A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management, he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.