never let me go

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. A classic of Young Adult Lit.

Forbidden Colours by Yukio Mishima. A beautiful story of friendship between a young man and his older mentor. Great for anyone who uses the word sempai unironically.

Dangerous Liaisons by Chloderlos de Laclos. A roguish French aristocrat unintentionally falls in love and decides to change his life. Lovers to Enemies.

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. Basically, Call me by your Name for Adults.

Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac. A bunch of friends living their best life in a Parisian tenancy.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Love Boat but down the Congo River.

Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. A 19th century mock-documentary into the ups and downs of a Russian family.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Marie Remarque. If you liked Little Life, you will LOVE this.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Your twitter bffs band together and decide to live in a picturesque New England town.

Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary, August 18th 1921

“thank you for this baby,” she says from the backseat. “he’s beautiful.”

i laugh. “you’re responsible for the beautiful part, rachel. the only thing he got from me was his balls.”

she laughs. she laughs hard. “oh, my god, i know,” she says. “they’re so big.”

we both laugh at our son’s big balls.

It's important to remember that "gay" as its used now did not exist in Melville's time. There was no word for gay people so Melville could not identify as gay or straight or anything but a sailor, a profession long associated with gay sex, from buccaneers to The Village People.

Were I a gambler I would bet Melville had sex with at least one dude, probably many dudes. It gets lonely at sea and Melville was kind of a babe. He has a tender, lumberjack vibe that I, for one, would find irresistible were I covered in sun blisters and spermaceti, trading horror stories about giant squids and whales. I would hold his magnificent beard for comfort.

“How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie  and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts’ honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg—a cosy, loving pair.” 

daisy jones & the six, by taylor jenkins reid

protect us, please. all of you. everyone. protect me, so i can protect her. help me see the danger before it strikes. help me resist their entrapments. give us the strength to hide and to fight.