The Inside Reader: Rob Rosen

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir Mitchell

When I read Rob Rosen's last book, Divas Las Vegas, I really loved the joy of life that transpired from the book, so much that it made me change my idea for my next USA travel (in summer 2011, I'm planning in advance ;-)), now I really want to visit Las Vegas! See the power of a good book? And Rob Rosen was so kind to share with us his list, that again, as often happens when there is a very good author behind, it's full of interesting points for your next book hunt. So welcome Rob!

Greetings everyone! What a rare honor to get to list one´s top ten gay books. As an author, all ten of these had a profound impact on me. The first seven, all published before I started my writing career, inspired me to want to write in the first place, and to want to write the kind of fiction I´ve been putting out there these last ten years. The final three on the list inspired me to want to write even better. So, as a background, I have always been a reader of gay fiction, a lover of really great gay books. Oh, and I love to laugh, too. The ten books listed below aren´t just well-written, well-crafted novels, but also comic gems, offering up humor mixed with pathos and a touch of irreverence. To these authors, I owe my entire writing career, and for that I´m thrilled to be able to pass their genius along to you.

1) Tim and Pete by James Robert Baker. Equally funny as it is subversive, Tim and Pete was the first gay book I ever read that pointed the middle finger at straight conservative society and shouted out a big old Fuck You! This novel is set in a 24-hour time period and is literally crammed full of action and adventure and laugh out loud humor, while dealing with the plight of AIDS. This is the buddy book taken to the extreme, with black humor so dark there should be a new color named after it.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Alyson Books; 1 edition (September 1, 2001)
ISBN-10: 155583566X
ISBN-13: 978-1555835668
Amazon: Tim and Pete: A Novel

James Robert Baker's groundbreaking novel of simmering rage and justifiable violence is follows combative ex-lovers Tim and Pete as they are thrown together on a bizarre trek from Laguna Beach, Calif., to Los Angeles. But it is when they find themselves on the trail of an anarchist gang of queers that Baker's novel takes off with a roar. Sarcastic, satiric, violent, and exhilarating, Tim & Pete is a fantastically imagined, boldly realized vision of the cultural war that continues to rage in the hearts of the disenfranchised and in the streets of America.

( books from 2 to 10 )

About Rob Rosen: Rob Rosen is the author of the critically acclaimed novels, "Sparkle: The Queerest Book You'll Ever Love" and the Lambda Literary Award nominated "Divas Las Vegas". He has been writing for the past ten years, starting when he got his first home computer, and not stopping for a minute since. His short stories have appeared in more than 80 anthologies, most notably: Mentsh: On Being Jewish and Queer; I Do/I Don't: Queers on Marriage; Best Gay Love Stories 2006; Truckers; Best Gay Love Stories: New York City; My First Time, Volume 5; Best Gay Love Stories: Summer Flings; Ultimate Gay Erotica (2008 & 2009); Hard Hats; Backdraft: Fireman Erotica; Ride Me Cowboy - Erotic Tales of the West; Cruise Lines; Service With A Smile: Fun with Couriers, Contractors and Plumbers; Frat Sex 2; Best Gay Romance (2007, 2008, 2009, & 2010); Biker Boys; and I Do Two.

Please visit him at www.therobrosen.com  

Divas Las Vegas by Rob Rosen
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Cleis Press (November 3, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.cleispress.com/book_page.php?book_id=324  
ISBN-10: 1573443697
ISBN-13: 978-1573443692
Amazon: Divas Las Vegas

What happens when you find out that Grandma's vase mistakenly sold at a yard sale is worth tens of thousands of dollars-and somebody else is about to cash in on it on Antiques Roadshow? Of course, you hop on a plane with your best friend and race off to Las Vegas to get Grandma's vase back! Filled with action and suspense, hunky blackjack dealers, divine drag queens, strange sex, and sex in strange places, plus a Federal agent or two, Divas Las Vegas puts the sin back in Sin City. A fun, new take on the murder mystery genre, Rob Rosen's Divas Las Vegas is a hilarious, touching, and compulsively readable page turner! 4 ½ stars from Rainbow Reviews and Instinct Magazine, and the Airplane Read of the Month in Passport.

The Inside Reader: Rob Rosen

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir Mitchell

When I read Rob Rosen's last book, Divas Las Vegas, I really loved the joy of life that transpired from the book, so much that it made me change my idea for my next USA travel (in summer 2011, I'm planning in advance ;-)), now I really want to visit Las Vegas! See the power of a good book? And Rob Rosen was so kind to share with us his list, that again, as often happens when there is a very good author behind, it's full of interesting points for your next book hunt. So welcome Rob!

Greetings everyone! What a rare honor to get to list one´s top ten gay books. As an author, all ten of these had a profound impact on me. The first seven, all published before I started my writing career, inspired me to want to write in the first place, and to want to write the kind of fiction I´ve been putting out there these last ten years. The final three on the list inspired me to want to write even better. So, as a background, I have always been a reader of gay fiction, a lover of really great gay books. Oh, and I love to laugh, too. The ten books listed below aren´t just well-written, well-crafted novels, but also comic gems, offering up humor mixed with pathos and a touch of irreverence. To these authors, I owe my entire writing career, and for that I´m thrilled to be able to pass their genius along to you.

1) Tim and Pete by James Robert Baker. Equally funny as it is subversive, Tim and Pete was the first gay book I ever read that pointed the middle finger at straight conservative society and shouted out a big old Fuck You! This novel is set in a 24-hour time period and is literally crammed full of action and adventure and laugh out loud humor, while dealing with the plight of AIDS. This is the buddy book taken to the extreme, with black humor so dark there should be a new color named after it.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Alyson Books; 1 edition (September 1, 2001)
ISBN-10: 155583566X
ISBN-13: 978-1555835668
Amazon: Tim and Pete: A Novel

James Robert Baker's groundbreaking novel of simmering rage and justifiable violence is follows combative ex-lovers Tim and Pete as they are thrown together on a bizarre trek from Laguna Beach, Calif., to Los Angeles. But it is when they find themselves on the trail of an anarchist gang of queers that Baker's novel takes off with a roar. Sarcastic, satiric, violent, and exhilarating, Tim & Pete is a fantastically imagined, boldly realized vision of the cultural war that continues to rage in the hearts of the disenfranchised and in the streets of America.

( books from 2 to 10 )

About Rob Rosen: Rob Rosen is the author of the critically acclaimed novels, "Sparkle: The Queerest Book You'll Ever Love" and the Lambda Literary Award nominated "Divas Las Vegas". He has been writing for the past ten years, starting when he got his first home computer, and not stopping for a minute since. His short stories have appeared in more than 80 anthologies, most notably: Mentsh: On Being Jewish and Queer; I Do/I Don't: Queers on Marriage; Best Gay Love Stories 2006; Truckers; Best Gay Love Stories: New York City; My First Time, Volume 5; Best Gay Love Stories: Summer Flings; Ultimate Gay Erotica (2008 & 2009); Hard Hats; Backdraft: Fireman Erotica; Ride Me Cowboy - Erotic Tales of the West; Cruise Lines; Service With A Smile: Fun with Couriers, Contractors and Plumbers; Frat Sex 2; Best Gay Romance (2007, 2008, 2009, & 2010); Biker Boys; and I Do Two.

Please visit him at www.therobrosen.com  

Divas Las Vegas by Rob Rosen
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Cleis Press (November 3, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.cleispress.com/book_page.php?book_id=324  
ISBN-10: 1573443697
ISBN-13: 978-1573443692
Amazon: Divas Las Vegas

What happens when you find out that Grandma's vase mistakenly sold at a yard sale is worth tens of thousands of dollars-and somebody else is about to cash in on it on Antiques Roadshow? Of course, you hop on a plane with your best friend and race off to Las Vegas to get Grandma's vase back! Filled with action and suspense, hunky blackjack dealers, divine drag queens, strange sex, and sex in strange places, plus a Federal agent or two, Divas Las Vegas puts the sin back in Sin City. A fun, new take on the murder mystery genre, Rob Rosen's Divas Las Vegas is a hilarious, touching, and compulsively readable page turner! 4 ½ stars from Rainbow Reviews and Instinct Magazine, and the Airplane Read of the Month in Passport.

Call Me Sir by Stormy Glenn

There are various levels of BDSM “intensity” in romance stories, and I would say that Call Me Sir is a medium low level. For Logan and Joey, the two men of this story, being in a D/s relationship means that Joey is allowed to transgress when he wants to spicy their relationship and Logan will fake to punish him, when for real, he is doing exactly what Joey’s implicitly asked.

The story starts in an unusual way, Joey is frequenting Logan’s nightclub, and he is doing that since a year, but he has never got “lucky”. Joey is young, cute, kind, but people seem to avoid him like he had a plague. Joey doesn’t know that Logan put a claim on him and no one is allowed to go near the boy. This is actually quite a complicated plan in Logan’s mind: he doesn’t want to stake his claim on Joey since he thinks the boy is too young to be involved in a D/s relationship, he wants to give time to him to ponder his alternatives, but then he prevents Joey to meet possible partners. How on earth Joey should be able to willingly choose Logan if he has no other chance on the balance? Let alone the little detail that Logan didn’t warned Joey that he was “claimed” and so the little guy is wondering where he is wrong since no one wants to “go home” with him.

If not for the fact that, in the end, Joey appears to me like he really needs to be take care of, I probably wouldn’t like so much Logan’s behaviour. I think Logan is a good man, but probably he should learn something on relationship and self-esteem (of other people, he really risked to ruin Joey with his “being aloof” play). But as I said, in the end Joey prefers to be the “kept man”, he has no ambition to be independent, he is really happy to be the “little wife” who takes care of his man.

On the D/s aspect of their relationship, as I said, it’s pretty mild, really more a game between them than a real lifestyle. Enough to say that Joey is not into pain, something that it would be at the exact opposite in a real BDSM relationship. More or less, Logan is an old fashioned man, like those 40/50s husbands who went out work to provide a good lifestyle to their family; they were the master of the family and the wife was both the mainstay of the house and a pretty ornament on the husband’s arm. Here the situation is more or less the same, only that Logan is gay and so the “wife” has an attribute more ;-)

https://www.nobleromance.com/ItemDisplay.aspx?i=56

Amazon Kindle: Call Me Sir

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Call Me Sir by Stormy Glenn

There are various levels of BDSM “intensity” in romance stories, and I would say that Call Me Sir is a medium low level. For Logan and Joey, the two men of this story, being in a D/s relationship means that Joey is allowed to transgress when he wants to spicy their relationship and Logan will fake to punish him, when for real, he is doing exactly what Joey’s implicitly asked.

The story starts in an unusual way, Joey is frequenting Logan’s nightclub, and he is doing that since a year, but he has never got “lucky”. Joey is young, cute, kind, but people seem to avoid him like he had a plague. Joey doesn’t know that Logan put a claim on him and no one is allowed to go near the boy. This is actually quite a complicated plan in Logan’s mind: he doesn’t want to stake his claim on Joey since he thinks the boy is too young to be involved in a D/s relationship, he wants to give time to him to ponder his alternatives, but then he prevents Joey to meet possible partners. How on earth Joey should be able to willingly choose Logan if he has no other chance on the balance? Let alone the little detail that Logan didn’t warned Joey that he was “claimed” and so the little guy is wondering where he is wrong since no one wants to “go home” with him.

If not for the fact that, in the end, Joey appears to me like he really needs to be take care of, I probably wouldn’t like so much Logan’s behaviour. I think Logan is a good man, but probably he should learn something on relationship and self-esteem (of other people, he really risked to ruin Joey with his “being aloof” play). But as I said, in the end Joey prefers to be the “kept man”, he has no ambition to be independent, he is really happy to be the “little wife” who takes care of his man.

On the D/s aspect of their relationship, as I said, it’s pretty mild, really more a game between them than a real lifestyle. Enough to say that Joey is not into pain, something that it would be at the exact opposite in a real BDSM relationship. More or less, Logan is an old fashioned man, like those 40/50s husbands who went out work to provide a good lifestyle to their family; they were the master of the family and the wife was both the mainstay of the house and a pretty ornament on the husband’s arm. Here the situation is more or less the same, only that Logan is gay and so the “wife” has an attribute more ;-)

https://www.nobleromance.com/ItemDisplay.aspx?i=56

Amazon Kindle: Call Me Sir

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle