This Month's New Arrivals

 On the eve of World War I, three male explorers—Van, Jeff, and Terry—venture into unknown terrain and discover Herland: a hidden, all‑female civilization sustained for two thousand years through parthenogenesis. Within this peaceful realm, motherhood is sacred, violence is unknown, property is shared, and children are raised collectively in a community built on harmony, education, and mutual respect.

As the men learn the women's language and customs, they’re forced to confront their own cultural prejudices—challenging assumptions about gender, power, and the meaning of civilization. Romance, idealism, and moral reckoning ensue: one settler stays to embrace this egalitarian utopia, another is expelled for trying to dominate, and the narrator faces a choice between two radically different worlds.

Boldly feminist and satirically sharp, Herland poses enduring questions about the architecture of society—asking what happens when humanity rebuilds itself on the principles of cooperation, collective care, and true gender equality.

In the shadow of a reactor site cloaked in rumor and pine, a shapeshifting alien envoy touches down on Fire Island—only to be undone not by war, but by desire.

Commander Vex was forged in the Doctrine of Form, sent to prepare Earth for colonization. Cherry Grove was supposed to be a strategic landing site: isolated, accessible only by boat, close to New York City’s power grid. But what the Morphari didn’t expect was a queer enclave pulsing with freedom, lust, and self-directed identity.

Here, in the tangle of dunes and drag queens, of leathermen and disco balls, Vex is responsible for Flux and Scry—Morphari who’ve abandoned their assigned roles and embraced lives of joyful mutation. Each transformation, each intimate encounter, challenges Vex’s rigid sense of duty… until a sparrow’s flight and a cabaret piano shatter the boundary between obligation and authenticity.

Fluid Shape is a lush, genre-bending meditation on identity, embodiment, and the power of chosen form. Steeped in the dreamy strangeness of Fire Island and alive with queer sensuality, it is both sci-fi satire and spiritual reawakening—a call to come in peace, and come in pieces.

 Joseph and His Friend (1870) is widely considered the first American novel to explore romantic love between men—decades before the word “homosexual” entered common use.

Written by poet and diplomat Bayard Taylor, this quietly radical story follows Joseph Asten, a sensitive young man navigating betrayal, marriage, and the intense emotional bond he forms with the older, charismatic Philip Held. Though cloaked in 19th-century propriety, their relationship pulses with longing, devotion, and the dream of a life lived honestly and together.

Part sentimental romance, part social critique, Joseph and His Friend offers queer readers a glimpse into how love between men was imagined—and concealed—at a time when such affections had no name. A milestone in LGBTQ+ literary history, it remains a powerful testament to love’s endurance across time and taboo.