What I'm Reading & Watching
A running list of books, shows, and movies I’m reading, revisiting, or planning to write about. Think of it as an open bookshelf — if you want to read along, grab a copy now and join the conversation.
If you want to follow along—or if you’re curious about the list I plan to tackle—here’s the opening stack. These are the titles and shows that cracked something open for me, and in one way or another, ripple through Line & Verse.
I would also love to hear your recommendations - comment below👇
Maurice by E.M. Forster
Written in 1913 but published only after Forster’s death in 1971, Maurice is the classic queer novel that dared to imagine a happy ending. Set in Edwardian England, it follows Maurice Hall from schoolboy crushes through university friendships and into an adulthood where desire and convention collide. Forster gave queer readers something almost unheard of at the time: not tragedy, not punishment, but love that survives.
For anyone who grew up scanning the margins for scraps of recognition, Maurice feels like a quiet miracle — proof that our stories have always existed, even when the world wasn’t ready to see them.
The Velvet Rage — Alan Downs
The book that finally made sense of the decades I spent trying to perform straight. Downs puts words around the shame that seeps into you long before you know its name. It’s not an easy read, but it’s an honest one.
Me Talk Pretty One Day — David Sedaris
I’ve been reading Sedaris for years, but lately I find myself recognizing my own family in his. The way humor, cruelty, and tenderness get tangled together feels familiar in a way that’s both painful and comforting.
On Being Different: What It Means to Be a Homosexual — Merle Miller
Published in 1971, it was radical just for existing. Miller’s essay-turned-book is plainspoken and devastating—one of the first public declarations that we are here, and that our lives matter.
A Boy’s Own Story — Edmund White
A novel, yes, but for so many it read like confession. White captures the beauty and the brutality of growing up queer in a world that never intended to make space for you. It’s lyrical and merciless all at once.
Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right — Randall Balmer
A history that cuts through the mythology. Balmer argues that the Religious Right wasn’t born out of “family values” but out of resistance to desegregation. Reading it, you see how control, faith, and fear built the cultural world so many of us grew up inside.
Shiny Happy People (Amazon Prime Documentary)
I’ve already written about this one—it deserved its own essay. A chilling look at the Duggar family and the IBLP movement behind them. It’s about faith, control, and the cost of silence—themes that echo far beyond one family. Watch it on Amazon Prime
Back to the Frontier (HBO Max / Magnolia Network)
Three families attempt homesteading like it’s the 1880s—including two gay dads and their twins. Watching them navigate silence, self-sufficiency, and family in that context cracked something open in me. Their presence on screen is a quiet kind of disruptor—you can’t argue with visibility.
This is just the beginning. Over time, I’ll add more—books that shaped me, shows that unsettled me, stories I wish I’d found sooner. Some may even echo inside the chapters of Line & Verse.
What am I missing? What’s on your list?
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