The Inside Reader: Clare London
Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir MitchellClare is one of the most friendly, and full of energy, people I met during my foray at Yaoi Con on 2009. She travelled from London to San Francisco on Friday to be back in London on Sunday! And all for the love of the gay romance genre, and all right, maybe to meet also some of her friends and to do a signing, but guys, more than 20 hours on a plane in a 72 hours stretch, it says you how much she is invested in all of this. She has always a kind word for everyone, she is really a woman you need to meet, even if only online. So, welcome to Clare!
Clare London's Inside Reader List
When Elisa gave me the opportunity to join in with the Inside Reader feature, I’ll admit I was excited but nervous. I do read a lot but I’m never sure if it’s wisely and/or well, and not always what would be called “literary”. I also wasn’t sure how many GLBT titles I might personally include in a top ten.
Then I started my list and found how difficult it was to restrict myself to just ten! And of course, what’s important about a personal top ten is that it’s personal to me and important because of how it’s influenced me, regardless of any other criteria. So…it’s been fascinating and great fun to do! I got the chance to revisit a lot of books I love, and not only that, but to think about why and share that with Elisa and anyone else who reads this.
So before everyone wonders what weirdness I may be going to include, here are some of my favourites. Not all by any means, but ones that immediately come to mind: today’s Top Ten, I’d say, and in no particular order. There are plenty of other titles nipping at their heels – and there’ll be more in the future, I just know it!
1) The Regeneration Series by Pat Barker (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road). These books lead my list because of the astonishing impact they’ve made on me. I’m late to the party I think, I only read them recently, but I’ll be eternally grateful to my Book Club for introducing them on to the must-read list! I’m very sensitive toward any stories or accounts from WWI and would have avoided them, left to my own devices, but I enjoyed every word and would read them again. The three books take different points of view, shared between the psychiatrist Rivers and his diverse range of patients, including the poets Seigfreid Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, and the self-made, streetwise ‘chancer’ Billy Prior. The characterizations are sharp and sympathetic, the handling of the war context both blunt and compassionate. Billy especially takes us on a journey of pragmatic, internal monologue, pitching his adventures between a sense of self-preservation and his own perception of fairness. Why did they have such a vivid effect? The prose was lyrical, the poignancy of the time always in the background. The characters are products of their time: the themes cover war, mental illness, fear, spying, patriotism, courage, homosexuality, loyalty, humour, love…Everything, really. So much of the emotion isn’t actually voiced aloud, yet the books are still full of delicious dialogue, wit, and characterisations. Very British, I’d say!
I didn’t read them because I ought to (you can call me perverse, because I am), but once captured, I savoured every word and didn’t want the story to end. Of course, these being books that followed the characters in and through a World War, the story had to, for some of them at least.
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (May 1 2008)
Publisher Link: http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141030937,00.html
ISBN-10: 0141030933
ISBN-13: 978-0141030937
Amazon: Regeneration
In 1917, decorated British officer and poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote a declaration condemning the war. Instead of a court-martial, he was sent to a hospital for other "shell-shocked" officers where he was treated by Dr. William Rivers, noted anthropologist and psychiatrist. Author Barker turns these true occurrences into a compelling and brilliant antiwar novel. Sassoon's complete sanity disturbs Dr. Rivers to such a point that he questions his own role in "curing" his patients only to send them back to the slaughter of the war in France. World War I decimated an entire generation of European men, and the horrifying loss of life and the callousness of the government led to the obliteration of the Victorian ideal. This is an important and impressive novel about war, soldiers, and humanity. It belongs in most fiction collections. - C. Christopher Pavek, National Economic Research As socs. Lib., Washington, D.C.
2) Mind Fuck by Manna Francis, Book 1 of the Administration Series. The Administration series blew me away when I read it online years ago, and it still does today. I’m collecting every instalment as it comes out in paperback and re-reading it. The first time through, I was stunned and excited by the Toreth / Warrick dynamic, but on later reading, I pick up far more of the world-building in the intriguing New London. The jewel for me as a reader, though, will always be the two leads, both individually and together. I probably find the men a little less sympathetic with each reading, or maybe I’m just absorbing more of the clever and complex nuances in the writing. But they and their flaws, desires and struggles are totally fascinating. Warrick, who is so controlled in public, whose intelligence and academic abilities are so superior, and yet whose need for submission makes him vulnerable and draws him irresistibly to Toreth. Toreth, whose blend of sociopath, anguished loner, and effective and committed interrogator makes him the most dangerous and theoretically the most emotionally alien of men. Yet so terribly attractive! Their relationship is the perfect example of one which shouldn’t work but does. What else? It’s a treat to read. Lovely prose, clean editing, and a rich cast of subsidiary characters. It was maybe my first awakening to a book that could include a hot, provocative gay affair, yet wasn’t all about the sex. There were so many other themes to explore in the novel – work, politics, loyalty, betrayal, pain and pleasure.
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Casperian Books LLC (October 29, 2007)
Publisher Link: http://www.casperianbooks.com/catalog/1-934081-08-6.html
ISBN-10: 1934081086
ISBN-13: 978-1934081082
Amazon: Mind Fuck
There are no bad guys or good guys. There are only better guys and worse guys. One of the worse guys is Val Toreth. In a world in which torture is a legitimate part of the investigative process, he works for the Investigation and Interrogation Division, where his colleagues can be more dangerous than the criminals he investigates. One of the better guys is Keir Warrick. His small corporation, SimTech, is developing a "sim" system that places users in a fully immersive virtual reality. A minnow in a murky and dangerous pond, he is only beginning to discover how many compromises may be required for success. Their home is the dark future dystopia of New London. A totalitarian bureaucracy controls the European Administration, sharing political power with the corporations. The government uses violence and the many divisions of the feared Department of Internal Security to maintain control and crush resistance. The corporations fight among themselves, using lethal force under the euphemism of "corporate sabotage," uniting only to resist attempts by the Administration to extend its influence over them. Toreth and Warrick are more natural enemies than allies. But mutual attraction and the fight for survival can create unlikely bonds.
( books from 3 to 10 )
About Clare London: Clare took the pen name London from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with the weekly wash, waiting for the far distant day when she can afford to give up her day job as an accountant. She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic and sexy characters.
Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter 3 stage and plenty of other projects in mind . . . she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home.
All the details and free fiction are available at her website. Visit her today and say hello!
Clare’s website : http://www.clarelondon.co.uk
Clare’s Blog: http://clarelondon.livejournal.com/
Freeman by Clare London Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: MLR Press (March 27, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=FREEMAN1
ISBN-10: 1608200043
ISBN-13: 978-1608200047
Amazon: Freeman
Freeman's return to the city is quiet, without fuss -- the way he likes things. But, he's missed by more people than he thought: his ex-wife, his ex-lover, and his ex-business partner. One wants friendship, another one intimacy. The third just wants him the hell gone again.
Freeman -- private, controlled -- hasn't time or appetite for trouble. But, when he strikes up an unusual, ill-advised friendship with young, lively, amoral Kit, it seems trouble's come looking for both men, ready to expose secrets that can destroy the fragile trust they've built. Freeman's more ready for the challenge than anyone realizes when the choice comes down to peace or Kit's life.
1) The Regeneration Series by Pat Barker (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road). These books lead my list because of the astonishing impact they’ve made on me. I’m late to the party I think, I only read them recently, but I’ll be eternally grateful to my Book Club for introducing them on to the must-read list! I’m very sensitive toward any stories or accounts from WWI and would have avoided them, left to my own devices, but I enjoyed every word and would read them again. The three books take different points of view, shared between the psychiatrist Rivers and his diverse range of patients, including the poets Seigfreid Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, and the self-made, streetwise ‘chancer’ Billy Prior. The characterizations are sharp and sympathetic, the handling of the war context both blunt and compassionate. Billy especially takes us on a journey of pragmatic, internal monologue, pitching his adventures between a sense of self-preservation and his own perception of fairness. 
2) Mind Fuck by Manna Francis, Book 1 of the Administration Series. The Administration series blew me away when I read it online years ago, and it still does today. I’m collecting every instalment as it comes out in paperback and re-reading it. The first time through, I was stunned and excited by the Toreth / Warrick dynamic, but on later reading, I pick up far more of the world-building in the intriguing New London. The jewel for me as a reader, though, will always be the two leads, both individually and together. I probably find the men a little less sympathetic with each reading, or maybe I’m just absorbing more of the clever and complex nuances in the writing. But they and their flaws, desires and struggles are totally fascinating. Warrick, who is so controlled in public, whose intelligence and academic abilities are so superior, and yet whose need for submission makes him vulnerable and draws him irresistibly to Toreth. Toreth, whose blend of sociopath, anguished loner, and effective and committed interrogator makes him the most dangerous and theoretically the most emotionally alien of men. Yet so terribly attractive! Their relationship is the perfect example of one which shouldn’t work but does. 
Freeman by Clare London 
This is a call for all LGBT authors: I'm planning the Inside Reader Lists for May and on, so if you are an author (of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender books, also non fiction) and you'd like to submit your Inside Reader List, please contact me. 
This is a call for all LGBT authors: I'm planning the Inside Reader Lists for May and on, so if you are an author (of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender books, also non fiction) and you'd like to submit your Inside Reader List, please contact me. 
