Fine, I’ll do it. https://twitter.com/elmago3221/status/1264236247146512385

David Halperin’s How to Be Gay. Opened my eyes to gayness-as-culture, gateway into queer theory and criticism.

Wesley Hill’s Washed and Waiting. Read it when I was processing through faith and sexuality, no idea where I would be without it.

Eve Tushnet’s Gay and Catholic. I needed a book on faith and sexuality that was lighthearted, and this one, more than many others, convinced me my life could be happy.

Guy Deutscher’s Through the Language Glass. Connecting language, culture, and thought, absolutely fascinating.

James Martin’s The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. A primer on Ignatian spirituality, made me grow in admiration for the Jesuits.

Neil Miller’s Out of the Past. Overview of gay and lesbian history from 1869 to the Clinton presidency. Although white/cis/male-centered, it gave me a sense of the big picture of queer history.

Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life. Probably the most devastating book I have ever read.

Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. It helped me to see the beauty in life right now, and to move past a kind of escapism with which I was raised.

Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. Beautiful, introspective, literary graphic memoir about family and coming out. Subtle, powerful.

Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. Most important work of fiction for me, have reread it several times and seen it performed. “And I bless you: More Life. The Great Work Begins.”

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Not sure why it took so long for me to read this; it’s a classic for a reason.

James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Heartbreaking and moody, sad novel about the destructive consequences of living two lives.

Alan Downs’ The Velvet Rage. Explores the psychological development of gay men and how to heal from growing up in a world that tries to break them down.

Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider. A collection of her essays; she’s absolutely brilliant. The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.

Armistead Maupin’s Michael Tolliver Lives. My favorite so far of the Tales of the City series, about getting older and what it means to be family. Lots of sex, so be warned!

Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name. Read it when the movie was generating buzz; beautiful, helped me process through my own second adolescence.

Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited. Reflection on marginalization and Christianity as a means of survival. Short and profound.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz’ Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Young adult gay coming-of-age story, absolutely precious.

Kallistos Ware’s The Orthodox Way. Introduction to Christianity from an Eastern Orthodox perspective.

Shane Claiborne’s Jesus for President. Mostly convinced me of pacifism and absolutely shaped my political outlook.

Barry Danylak’s Redeeming Singleness. Convinced me (at a very tender time in my life) that lifelong singleness was not only liveable, but also purposeful and beautiful.

A collection of letters from Henri Nouwen titles Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life. Got me reading Henri Nouwen, who has been a lovely man from whom to learn!

David Carter’s Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution. First book I read on queer history, when I was just realizing it was, in a sense, my history.

Carol Anne Duffy’s book of poems, Rapture. This might be the collection that has had the most influence on my own poetry. Every single one is gold.

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. I could not put it down, completely absorbed in the story.

Rob Bell’s Sex God. Say what you want about Rob Bell, but this is one of the better Christian books I have read on sexuality.

John McWhorter’s Talking Back, Talking Black. An exploration and defense of black English/African American Vernacular English.

A collection of essays edited by Robert L. Plummer, Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism. Made me think for the first time, “Dang, maybe I should go Catholic?”