Gays Reading

Host Jason Blitman talks to author Annie Summerlee about what she's been reading as she awaited the publication of her book: The Book of Blood and Roses.

Annie Summerlee lives in Spain with her partner, two cats, and a rescue dog. Her short stories have been featured in 404 Ink, Litro, and So To Speak, as well as other magazines and anthologies. She also writes in Catalan and Spanish.
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Announcing the February Gays Reading Book Club Pick...

⭐️ MISSING SAM by Thrity Umrigar, the bestselling author of HONOR

At first glance, MISSING SAM looks like a classic thriller: a woman goes missing after a morning run and her wife is left behind to search for answers. But very quickly, this book becomes something much deeper. The book is about what happens when grief collides with prejudice. About how quickly suspicion attaches itself to certain bodies. About love, marriage, and what it means to feel unsafe not just in the world, but inside your own community.

New to the club? Get your first book for just $1!

When you join the Gays Reading Book Club with Allstora, here’s what you get:
A SIGNED copy of the book!
30% off everything on Allstora’s website
Access to our Book Club chat
Every subscription donates a children’s book to an LGBTQIA+ youth
A book club that exclusively supports LGBTQIA+ authors
And more along the way

Thrity Umrigar is the bestselling author of nine previous novels, including Honor, which was a Reese’s Book Club Pick, as well as four picture books and a memoir. Her books have been published in over twenty countries and in several languages. A former journalist, she has contributed to the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and other newspapers. She is a recipient of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, and winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize, the Seth Rosenberg prize and a Lambda Literary award. She is currently a Distinguished University Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University.
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Host Jason Blitman chats with author Emily Austin about her latest novel, Is This a Cry for Help?

Conversation highlights include:
Emily’s habit of endlessly rewriting the pitch at the top of her manuscript
The ethics of librarianship and why access to information matters
Bug killing, sex dens, and everything in between

Emily Austin is the author of We Could Be Rats, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, Interesting Facts About Space, and the poetry collection Gay Girl Prayers. She was born in Ontario, Canada, and received two writing grants from the Canadian Council for the Arts. She studied English literature and library science at Western University. She currently lives in Ottawa, in the territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.
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Host Jason Blitman sits down with Sarah Dickinson, creator and host of popular podcast Sarah’s Bookshelves Live, to talk about the books she’s most excited to read in 2026.

Conversation highlights include:
Anticipated book trends for the year ahead
Why first lines should be part of a book's marketing material
Feelings on classic books
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Host Jason Blitman kicks off 2026 by revisiting some of the quiet yet impactful moments from Gays Reading episodes in 2025.

Featured in this episode are conversations with:
Rabih Alameddine
Daniel Black
Jennifer Finney Boylan
Karissa Chen
Prabal Gurung
Dylin Hardcastle
Rickey Laurentiis
Nathan H. Lents
Sameer Pandya
V.E. Schwab
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