Pride Month Recommendations

Okay, so my first recommendation is going to be a novel called The Book of Luke.

Um, it is a, uh, s- novel about a gay man who finds out that his partner is cheating on him.

Uh, and he decides to go back to the Survivor-type show that he met his husband on to try to earn enough money to gain full custody of the kids.

My name is Lovell Holder, and I am the writer of The Book of Luke, which is a novel that is coming out from Grand Central Publishing.

And it took a great deal for me not to say writer-director of The Book of Luke, because primarily I have been, uh, in the film industry for about the last 13 years.

And while this book is about reality TV, that's kind of been the one, one part of the entertainment industry landscape that I have never really dared plant a flag, um, partially because it is so crazy and chaotic, and you really can't plan for what's going to come.

You're kind of just, on the creative side, going in and hoping for the best, and that you get something, I think, um, that you cast the right people and that they make some television for you.

And I think I've always been intrigued by that, um, and I've always been a fan of reality TV because it showcases people in ways that you really can't script.

It is the first book I finished this year, and I really, really loved it, so high recommendation there.

I've heard the audiobook is good.

I have not picked it up.

I read it back in January, and I finished it in, like, five days.

I really loved it.

We very often write off, uh, the sacrifices that people who go into reality TV do make.

It's a very vulnerable, open-hearted thing.

And so I really wanted to bring some dignity, um, to them and the lives that they lead.

I mean, everyone I've met in reality TV over the last couple years has just been such a lovely, lovely person, and it's clearly a very complex community, much in the same way that the queer community is a very complex community, too, and that was why it was important to me that, uh, I tell a story about a lead character who is gay.

And this is his story about, uh, being an alum of reality TV who thinks he's left it behind him, is now living his life, uh, in what he thinks is a happy marriage, is a father to two kids, and then one day everything is totally upended.

And he is back on the show where he started, um, his adult life and seeing what's changed and what hasn't and what he can't really leave in the past.

That's really what The Book of Luke is about.

Okay, so my first recommendation is going to be a novel called The Book of Luke.

Um, it is a, uh, s- novel about a gay man who finds out that his partner is cheating on him.

Uh, and he decides to go back to the Survivor-type show that he met his husband on to try to earn enough money to gain full custody of the kids.

My name is Lovell Holder, and I am the writer of The Book of Luke, which is a novel that is coming out from Grand Central Publishing.

And it took a great deal for me not to say writer-director of The Book of Luke, because primarily I have been, uh, in the film industry for about the last 13 years.

And while this book is about reality TV, that's kind of been the one, one part of the entertainment industry landscape that I have never really dared plant a flag, um, partially because it is so crazy and chaotic, and you really can't plan for what's going to come.

You're kind of just, on the creative side, going in and hoping for the best, and that you get something, I think, um, that you cast the right people and that they make some television for you.

And I think I've always been intrigued by that, um, and I've always been a fan of reality TV because it showcases people in ways that you really can't script.

It is the first book I finished this year, and I really, really loved it, so high recommendation there.

I've heard the audiobook is good.

I have not picked it up.

I read it back in January, and I finished it in, like, five days.

I really loved it.

We very often write off, uh, the sacrifices that people who go into reality TV do make.

It's a very vulnerable, open-hearted thing.

And so I really wanted to bring some dignity, um, to them and the lives that they lead.

I mean, everyone I've met in reality TV over the last couple years has just been such a lovely, lovely person, and it's clearly a very complex community, much in the same way that the queer community is a very complex community, too, and that was why it was important to me that, uh, I tell a story about a lead character who is gay.

And this is his story about, uh, being an alum of reality TV who thinks he's left it behind him, is now living his life, uh, in what he thinks is a happy marriage, is a father to two kids, and then one day everything is totally upended.

And he is back on the show where he started, um, his adult life and seeing what's changed and what hasn't and what he can't really leave in the past.

That's really what The Book of Luke is about.