Pride 2020:  

The Clothesline Swing: A Novel

The Clothesline Swing is a journey through the troublesome aftermath of the Arab Spring. A former Syrian refugee, Ramadan unveils an enthralling tale of courage that weaves through the mountains of Syria, the valleys of Lebanon, the encircling seas of Turkey, the heat of Egypt and finally, the hope of a new home in Canada. Inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, The Clothesline Swing tells the epic story of two lovers anchored to the memory of a dying Syria. One is a Hakawati, a storyteller, keeping life in forward motion by relaying remembered fables to his dying partner. Each night he weaves stories of his childhood in Damascus, of the cruelty he has endured for his sexuality, of leaving home, of war, of his fated meeting with his lover. Meanwhile Death himself, in his dark cloak, shares the house with the two men, eavesdropping on their secrets as he awaits their final undoing.

Fist of the Spider Woman

Traditional horror has often portray female characters in direct relation to their sexual role according to men, such as the lascivious victim or innocent heroine; even vampy, powerful female villains, such as the classic noir 'spider women,' use their sexual prowess to seduce and overwhelm married men. Fist of the Spider Woman is a revelatory anthology of horror stories by queer and transgressive women and others that disrupts reality as queer women know it, instilling both fear and arousal while turning traditional horror iconography on its head. In this collection, horror (including gothic, noir, and speculative writing) is defined as that which both titillates and terrorizes, forcing readers to confront who they are. Subversive, witty, sexy – and scary – Fist of the Spider Woman poses two questions: 'What do queer women fear the most?' and 'What do queer women desire the most?'"

The Philistine (E-book)

Nadia Eid doesn't know it yet, but she's about to change her life. It's the end of the '80s and she hasn't seen her Palestinian father since he left Montreal years ago to take a job in Egypt, promising to bring her with him. But now she's 25 and he's missing in action, so she takes matters into her own hands. Booking a short vacation from her boring job and Québecois boyfriend, she calls her father from the Nile Hilton in downtown Cairo. But nothing goes as planned and, stumbling around, Nadia wanders into an art gallery where she meets Manal, a young Egyptian artist who becomes first her guide and then her lover. Through this unexpected relationship, Nadia rediscovers her roots, her language, and her ambitions, as her father demonstrates the unavoidable destiny of becoming a Philistine – the Arabic word for Palestinian. With Manal's career poised to take off and her father's secret life revealed, the First Intifada erupts across the border.

Jonny Appleseed: A Novel

"You're gonna need a rock and a whole lotta medicine" is a mantra that Jonny Appleseed, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, repeats to himself in this vivid and utterly compelling debut novel by poet Joshua Whitehead. Off the reserve and trying to find ways to live and love in the big city, Jonny becomes a cybersex worker who fetishizes himself in order to make a living. Self-ordained as an NDN glitter princess, Jonny has one week before he must return to the "rez" – and his former life – to attend the funeral of his stepfather. The seven days that follow are like a fevered dream: stories of love, trauma, sex, kinship, ambition, and the heartbreaking recollection of his beloved kokum (grandmother). Jonny's life is a series of breakages, appendages, and linkages – and as he goes through the motions of preparing to return home, he learns how to put together the pieces of his life. Jonny Appleseed is a unique, shattering vision of First Nations life, full of grit, glitter, and dreams.

Blue Is the Warmest Color (Graphic Novel the film is based on.)

Blue is the Warmest Color is a tender, bittersweet, full-colour graphic novel about the elusive, reckless magic of love: a lesbian love story for the ages that bristles with the energy of youth, rebellion and the eternal light of desire. Clementine is a junior in high school who seems 'normal' enough: she has friends, family and even a boyfriend. When her openly gay best friend takes her to a gay bar, she becomes captivated by Emma, a punkish, confident girl with blue hair, an event that leads Clementine to discover new aspects of herself, both passionate and tragic. DVD also available at Camosun Library!

Yellow Vengeance (E-book)

The third Calli Barnow mystery celebrates family: lost, found, chosen, and unexpected. Calli faces her most difficult challenges yet, confronting the unthinkable, armed only with the love of her friends and her own inner resources.

Moonlight (DVD)

A timeless story of human connection and self-discovery, Moonlight chronicles three defining chapters in the life of a young black man growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami. Anchored by extraordinary performances from a tremendous ensemble cast, Moonlight is a profoundly moving portrayal of the moments, people and unknowable forces that shape our lives and make us who we are.

• Direction & Screenplay by Barry Jenkins
• Based on the play, "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue" by Tarell Alvin McCraney

In a Glass Darkly (E-book)

In a Glass Darkly collects five short stories from gothic horror and mystery writer Sheridan Le Fanu. The stories are told from the posthumous writings of an occult detective named Dr. Martin Hesselius. In 'Green Tea' a clergyman is being driven mad by an evil demon that takes the ephemeral form of a monkey, but is unseen by others as it burdens the victim's mind with psychological torment. In 'The Familiar', revised from Le Fanu's 'The Watcher' of 1851, a sea captain is stalked by a dwarf, "The Watcher." Is this strange character from captain's past? In 'Mr Justice Harbottle' a merciless court judge is attacked by vengeful spirits, dreaming he is sentenced to death by a horrific version of himself. In 'The Room in the Dragon Volant', a notable mystery which includes a premature burial theme, an innocent young Englishman in France tries to rescue a mysterious countess from her unbearable situation. Lastly, 'Carmilla' tells the tale of a lesbian vampire. It was a huge influence on Bram Stoker's writing of Dracula and the basis for the films Vampyr in 1932 and The Vampire Lovers in 1970.

Mauve Desert (E-book)

Fifteen-year-old Mélanie drives across the Arizona desert in a white Meteor, chasing fear and desire and the mysterious Angela Parkins, and breaking free from her mother and her mother's lover in their roadside Mauve Motel. And then we are with Maude Laures as she reads Mauve Desert, this story of Mélanie, and becomes obsessed with it. She embarks on an extraordinary quest for its mysterious author, characters and meaning, which leads us into the third part, Mauve, the Horizon, Laures's eventual translation of Mauve Desert – like all good translations, it is both the same and enticingly different from the original. Nicole Brossard's writing is agile and inventive, exhilarating and erotic; Margaret Atwood says it's full of 'brilliant sparks and white hot fragments.' Originally published in 1990, Mauve Desert is a defining work of Canadian fiction and a perennial favourite.

The Deserter (E-book)

A new edition of the classic novel by Douglas LePan. Returned from the ravages of war, met with a city that offers him only despair, a young man finds himself caught between two opposing worlds -- the ordered but empty everyday life of "schedules and obligations," and the hellish chaos of the city's underside, a dark world of brutality and vice. Gripped with a restless passion for perfection, haunted by a brief and idealized experience of love, the hero of this poetic, experimental novel lives out in a modern context that most universal of myths: the descent into the underworld to experience initiations and ordeals, and the return with new understanding to the upper world.