David C. Dawson's Top 5 Books

1. At the heart of For the Love of Luke is the subject of gay conversion therapy. That’s why the first book in my top five has to be Garrard Conley’s disturbing but beautiful Boy Erased: A Memoir. It’s now a film starring Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman. Conley tells how he grew up in a Christian fundamentalist family in Arkansas. They enrolled him in a gay conversion therapy course where they told him he was “disgusting” and “unfixable”. It’s an important book and well written.

2. My second is John Irving’s In One Person. The central character is Billy, who’s bisexual. He tells his coming of age story in the first person. At school he has crushes on “the wrong sort of people”. He’s helped in his life journey by an assortment of well-developed characters with different sexualities, including a transgender character. It’s often hilarious, always engaging, and a great read.

3. The third book has to be the classic Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. This one features Jane Marple, who I prefer to Hercule Poirot. As Christie herself said, Poirot is a complete egoist, whereas Miss Marple is endearing with a streak of ruthless. Having visited the beautiful house called Greenways where Agatha Christie lived in Devon, I can imagine her spending summers writing there.

My final two books are both published by fellow Dreamspinner Press authors. 

4. The first is Rick R. Reed’s wonderful Dinner at Home. It’s such a sweet story and the main characters are so well drawn. I’ve read it a couple of times now, as it’s something of a comfort read.

5. Finally, Clare London’s True Colors. You grow to like its central characters Miles and Zeke, even though they’re pretty difficult to like to start with. And it’s got a great mystery to solve. Recommended.