Reads 365: No.12
January - New Voices
Emerging authors & fresh perspectives
Some of the books features heavy subject matter, so please be mindful of the content warnings and research them fully.
Your mental wellbeing matters.
The Hours
by Michael Cunningham
✨ Three women. Three time periods. One novel connecting them: Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.
Michael Cunningham weaves together Virginia Woolf writing Mrs. Dalloway in 1923, Laura Brown reading it in 1949 Los Angeles, and Clarissa Vaughan living a parallel life in 1990s New York. A meditation on time, suicide, creativity, motherhood, and the lives of women—bound across decades by literature itself.
🏳️🌈 LGBTQ+ Themes
⭐ Pulitzer Prize Winner ⭐PEN/Faulkner Award ⭐Adapted into Oscar-winning film starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #TheHours #MichaelCunningham #PulitzerPrize #VirginiaWoolf #LiteraryFiction #Interconnected #MrsDalloway #OscarWinner #DiverseBooks
A Single Man
by Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood's masterpiece follows George through a single day; teaching, shopping, mourning, cruising, existing in a world that doesn't acknowledge his loss or his love. Published in 1964, this is one of the first novels to center a gay protagonist without tragedy as the endpoint.
💫 Perfect for:
Literary fiction readers
Fans of queer classics
Anyone exploring grief and loneliness
Readers who love "day in the life" narratives
✨ Beautifully adapted by Tom Ford in 2009 with Colin Firth.
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
🏳️🌈 Gay Classic
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #ASingleMan #ChristopherIsherwood #GayClassic #LGBTQ #1960s #ColinFirth #TomFord #LiteraryFiction #Grief #QueerLit #DiverseBooks
The Line of Beauty
by Alan Hollinghurst
✨ Sex, class, politics, and AIDS in 1980s Thatcher-era Britain.
Nick Guest, a gay Oxford graduate, moves into the home of a wealthy Conservative MP's family. As he navigates class divides, closeted desire, and the AIDS crisis, Hollinghurst captures a vanishing world with devastating precision.
💫 Perfect for:
British literature fans
Readers interested in 1980s history
Anyone exploring class and sexuality
Fans of sophisticated literary fiction
⭐ Booker Prize Winner
⭐One of the defining British novels of the 2000s
✨Gorgeous prose, sexual frankness, political commentary.
🏳️🌈 Gay Literature
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #Maurice #EMForster #QueerClassic #LGBTQ #GayLit #HistoricalFiction #HappyEnding #MerchantIvory #Cambridge #British #QueerJoy #DiverseBooks
Call Me By Your Name
by André Aciman
✨ "I wanted to tell her that being loved is a talent too, that it takes as much guts and as much work as loving."
Summer in Italy. 17-year-old Elio. 24-year-old Oliver. Six weeks that change everything. Aciman's meditation on first love, desire, and the person you become when you fall is lyrical, sensual, and utterly devastating.
Yes, THAT peach scene. Yes, worth the hype. Yes, you'll cry.
💫 Lyrical and devastating
⭐ International bestseller
📖 One of the great gay romances
🏳️🌈 Modern Gay Classic
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #CallMeByYourName #CMBYN #AndréAciman #GayRomance #LGBTQ #Italy #FirstLove #TimothéeChalamet #LiteraryFiction #QueerLit #DiverseBooks
Less
by Andrew Sean Greer
Arthur Less, a mediocre gay writer turning 50, accepts every international literary invitation to avoid his ex-boyfriend's wedding. What follows is a hilarious, touching journey through mishaps, self-discovery, and the realization that running away doesn't work when you're running from yourself.
Funny, warm, and proof that gay men get romantic comedies too.
💫 Perfect for:
Rom-com lovers
Fans of literary humor
Anyone turning 50 (or terrified of it)
Readers who want LGBTQ+ joy and laughter
⭐ Pulitzer Prize Winner
💜Warm and charming
🏳️🌈 Gay Rom-Com
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #Less #AndrewSeanGreer #PulitzerPrize #GayRomCom #LGBTQ #Funny #LiteraryFiction #RomanticComedy #Travel #QueerJoy #DiverseBooks
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
Nine-year-old Jai loves detective shows. When children start disappearing from his Mumbai slum, he and his friends investigate.
Deepa Anappara's debut captures life in a Mumbai basti through the eyes of three children navigating poverty, religious tension, police indifference, and the mystery of missing kids. Heartbreaking, tender, and brilliantly observed—a thriller that's also a love letter to childhood resilience.
💫 Perfect for:
Mystery readers who want depth
Fans of Slumdog Millionaire
Anyone interested in Indian literature
Readers seeking child protagonists done right
⭐ International bestseller
🌟 Stunning debut
🌱Urgent and tender
📚 Genre: Mystery/Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #DjinnPatrol #DeepaAnappara #IndianLit #Mumbai #Mystery #ChildProtagonist #SouthAsian #LiteraryFiction #EdgarAward #DiverseBooks
Red, White & Royal Blue
by Casey McQuiston
✨ The President's son. The Prince of Wales. Enemies-to-lovers but make it POLITICAL.
Alex Claremont-Diaz hates Prince Henry. When a PR disaster forces them to fake a friendship, hate turns to attraction, attraction to love, and love to a relationship that could change both their worlds. McQuiston's debut romance is smart, sexy, funny, and unapologetically queer—and became a cultural phenomenon.
Now a Prime Video film!
💫 Perfect for:
Romance readers (obviously)
Fans of enemies-to-lovers
Anyone who loves queer joy
Readers seeking smart, funny, sexy escapism
💕 LGBTQ+ romance that broke barriers
📚 Genre: Romance
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #RedWhiteAndRoyalBlue #RWRB #CaseyMcQuiston #QueerRomance #LGBTQ #EnemiesToLovers #Romance #PrimeVideo #BookTok #DiverseBooks
January’s New Voices list