The Inside Reader: Stephan Schmetterling
Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir MitchellStephan is one of my LiveJournal friends, and also a judge for the Rainbow Awards. Not yet a published author, I believe we will see soon maybe an historical essay? In any case, Stefan's list is for sure an interesting dig for new "out of the ordinary" books.
Stephan Schmetterling's Inside Reader List
1) The German Officer's Boy by Harlan Greene. "A highly original and compassionate account of how the fires of a forbidden love engulfed Europe. Harlan Greene has brought to life 'the boy who started World War II' in a headlong narrative both tender and terrifying." - Katherine Govier. I read this is in one evening- that is how utterly amazing this book was. Hardcover: 216 pages
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (February 1, 2005)
Publisher Link: http://www.uwpress.wisc.edu/books/2817.htm
ISBN-10: 0299208109
ISBN-13: 978-0299208103
Amazon: The German Officer's Boy
Prelude to Kristallnacht: desire and duty collide in a dangerous love story. What really happened that afternoon in November 1938, when the young Polish Jew walked into the German embassy in Paris and shots rang out? The immediate consequence was concrete: Nazis in Germany retaliated with the "Night of Broken Glass," recognized as the beginning of the Holocaust. Lost and overlooked in the aftermath is the arresting story of Herschel Grynszpan, the confused teenager whose murder of Ernst vom Rath was used to justify Kristallnacht. In this historical novel, award-winning writer Harlan Greene may be the first author to take the Polish Jew at his word. Historians have tried to explain away Herschel Grynszpan's claim that he was involved in a love affair with vom Rath; Greene, instead, traces the lives of the underprivileged and persecuted Herschel Grynszpan and the wealthy German diplomat Ernst vom Rath as they move inevitably towards their ill-fated affair. In spare, vivid, and compelling prose, Greene imagines their world, their relationship, and their last horrific encounter, as they tried to wrest love and meaning from a world that would itself soon disappear in a whirlwind of disaster and madness.
"In the room he heard a shout. Of joy? Recognition? . . . He flung the paper down and ran, pushing the door open, ready to shout, but stopped when he saw the blood on the carpet and the pale blond man thrashing on the floor.
And then there was the boy. Never before had Nagorka seen such an expression. The young man looked up, distraught and horrified from beneath his tousled hair and dark brows, his eyes circles of fear. The gun fell from his hand."—excerpt from The German Officer's Boy
2) Full Circle by Mike Seabrook. This book has it all for me: military/historical accuracy, great characters, beautiful love story, and the most tragically ironic ending I have ever read. Paperback: 235 pages
Publisher: Gay Men's Press (March 1997)
Publisher Link: http://www.gmppubs.co.uk/cgi-bin/web_store/web_store.cgi
ISBN-10: 0854492429
ISBN-13: 978-0854492428
Amazon: Full Circle
An RAF bomb-aimer in World War Two, shot down over the Atlantic, Brian Hales has already had to overcome a crisis of conscience when his lover Ronnie ended their relationship and went to prison as a pacifist. The risks of attempted escape are his next hurdle, bringing him into conflict with his superior officers in the prisoner-of-war camp where he eventually finds himself. But his most disturbing experience is still to come, when he finds himself falling in love with a young German guard. Praised by London's Gay Times for his "psychologically spot-on narratives", Mike Seabrook has brought his keen insight for personal relations in an all-male world to bear on the complexities of friendship with the enemy.
3) Boy I Love by Marion Husband. Normally, I can't stand the standard happy endings that accompany romances. I prefer more realistic or tragic endings. I'm just odd that way. That said, this book delivered on the realism I so wanted and yet, it so tugged at my heart-strings that I actually WANTED one of those happily ever afters for the star couple. That is how much I fell in love with characters and with story. Paperback: 276 pages
Publisher: Accent Press, Ltd. (April 25, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.accentpress.co.uk/category-3/9781905170005.html
ISBN-10: 1905170009
ISBN-13: 978-1905170005
Amazon: Boy I Love
Superbly written with engaging characters that are simultaneously strong and weak, compassionate and flawed. The book is a controversial but compulsive read and readers will find their sympathies tugged in unusual directions as they engage with the lives of the characters. The Boy I Love is the first of a two book series – the second book, Paper Moon is set in World War 2 and follows the life of Mick, now a war poet, his son and Robbie, son of Paul and Margot. The story is set in the aftermath of World War One. Paul Harris, still frail after shellshock, returns to his father’s home and to the arms of his secret lover, Adam. He discovers that Margot, the fiancée of his dead brother, is pregnant and marries her through a sense of loyalty. Through Adam he finds work as a schoolteacher; while setting up a home with Margot he continues to see Adam. Pat Morgan who was a sergeant in Paul’s platoon, runs a butcher’s shop in town and cares for his twin brother, Mick who lost both legs in the war. Pat yearns for the closeness he experienced with Paul in the trenches. Set in a time when homosexuality was ‘the love that dare not speak it’s name’ the story develops against the backdrop of the strict moral code of the period. Paul has to decide where his loyalty and his heart lies as all the characters search hungrily for the love and security denied them during the war.
( books from 4 to 10 )
About Stephan: I'm an aspiring historical fiction short story writer (male/male stories) and also an aspiring essayist on homosexual history and I wrote my senior thesis on the use of homoeroticism in the Victorian vampire Stories of John Polidori, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, and Bram Stoker". I am also very much an antique queer Oscar Wilde sort of man in a female body. Education: B.A. in History, A.A. in Behavioral Science, A.S. in Library Science, and a Library Technology Certificate.
http://twitter.com/pansybooklist
1) The German Officer's Boy by Harlan Greene. "A highly original and compassionate account of how the fires of a forbidden love engulfed Europe. Harlan Greene has brought to life 'the boy who started World War II' in a headlong narrative both tender and terrifying." - Katherine Govier. I read this is in one evening- that is how utterly amazing this book was. 
2) Full Circle by Mike Seabrook. This book has it all for me: military/historical accuracy, great characters, beautiful love story, and the most tragically ironic ending I have ever read. 
3) Boy I Love by Marion Husband. Normally, I can't stand the standard happy endings that accompany romances. I prefer more realistic or tragic endings. I'm just odd that way. That said, this book delivered on the realism I so wanted and yet, it so tugged at my heart-strings that I actually WANTED one of those happily ever afters for the star couple. That is how much I fell in love with characters and with story.