reviews_and_ramblings | In the Spotlight: E. Lynn Harris

The Book: John “Basil” Henderson has always played the field, both as a professional football player and as an equal opportunity lover. After retiring his jersey for a career as a sports agent, the dashing playboy is surprising everyone—including himself—by deciding to settle down and commit to his new love, Yancey Harrington Braxton. A fiercely driven Broadway star on the rise, blessed with beauty, charm, and a fondness for the finer things in life, she appears to be his ideal mate. A lavish wedding is planned, but just before the nuptials, fate and a little comeuppance threaten the happy couple’s future.

Charged with narrative exuberance and sumptuous detail, Not a Day Goes By proves that nobody spins a sexy urban love story like E. Lynn Harris.

"There is a universality about his characters--their stories are told with warmth and humor from a perspective that is as refreshing as it is straightforward." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Breezy, big-hearted entertainment." --Entertainment Weekly

"What's got audiences hooked? Harris's unique spin on the ever--fascinating topics of identity, class, intimacy, sexuality, and friendship." --Vibe

Amazon: Not a Day Goes By: A Novel

Amazon Kindle: Not a Day Goes By: A Novel

Other Books in the List:

Invisible Life (2003) - Amazon: Invisible Life

Just As I Am (1995) - Amazon: Just As I Am

And This Too Shall Pass (1997) - Amazon: And This Too Shall Pass

Any Way the Wind Blows (2002) - Amazon: Any Way the Wind Blows

A Love of My Own (2003) - Amazon: A Love of My Own

Abide With Me (2000) - Amazon: Abide With Me

If This World Were Mine (1998) - Amazon: If This World Were Mine

I Say a Little Prayer (2006) - Amazon: I Say a Little Prayer

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted (2004) - Amazon: What Becomes of the Brokenhearted

Just Too Good to Be True (2008) - Amazon: Just Too Good to Be True

Basketball Jones (2009) - Amazon: Basketball Jones

Freedom in This Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men's Writing (2005) - Amazon: Basketball Jones

The Author: E. Lynn Harris was born in Flint, Michigan and raised, along with three sisters, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where he was the school's first black yearbook editor, the first black male Razorbacks cheerleader, and the president of his fraternity. He graduated with honors with a degree in journalism.

Harris sold computers for IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and AT&T for thirteen years while living in Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. In 1991, he quit his sales job to write his first novel, Invisible Life, which, failing to find a publisher, he self-published and sold mostly at black-owned bookstores, beauty salons, and book clubs before he was "discovered" by Anchor Books. Anchor published Invisible Life as a trade paperback in 1994, and E. Lynn Harris’s career as an author officially began.

Harris went on to become a ten-time New York Times bestselling author. His work included the memoir What Becomes of the Brokenhearted and the novels, A Love of My Own, Just as I Am, Any Way the Wind Blows (all three of which were named Novel of the Year by the Blackboard African American Bestsellers), I Say a Little Prayer, If This World Were Mine (which won the James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence), the classic Invisible Life, Just Too Good to Be True, and Basketball Jones.

Harris was a member of the Board of Directors of the Hurston/Wright Foundation and the Evidence Dance Company. He was also the founder of the E. Lynn Harris Better Days Foundation, a nonprofit company that provides support to aspiring writers and artists.

E. Lynn Harris passed away at the age of 54 in 2009, just months before the publication of his final novel, Mama Dearest.

http://www.elynnharris.com/

Top 100 Gay Novels List (*)

External Link to the Top100 Gay Novels List (simple - without photos)

External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (wanted - with photos)

*only one title per author, only print books released after January 1, 2000.

Note: I remember to my friends that guest reviews of the above listed books (the top 100 Gay Novels) are welcome, just send them to me and I will post with full credits to the reviewer.

Other titles not in the top 100 list:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/top50MM