Terry Mangan Memorial Library

In a small Kansas town, sixteen-year-old Mary-Elizabeth "Mike" Szabo tries to come to terms with her father's suicide and her own homosexuality.

"Cactus is a novel about four women, how they affect each other, how they struggle to survive. As her daughters grow up, Bea begins to reassess her marriage, her youth, her likely future as a superfluous middle-aged, middle class woman. Ann and Dee are lesbian feminists trying, against formidable odds, to make a world in which they would be at home. Eleanor, finding herself drawn into relationships with the others, sees her painfully acquired independence...

Told in verse in two voices, with a chorus of fellow students, this is a story of two girls, opposites in many ways, who are drawn to each other; Kate appears to be a stereotypical cheerleader with a sleek ponytail and a perfectly polished persona, Tam is tall, athletic and frequently mistaken for a boy, but their deepening friendship inevitably changes and reveals them in ways they did not anticipate.

Traces an unusual love triangle between a former teen idol, a big-city paramedic, and a fashionable filmmaker, all part of the generation that grew up with the War on Terror, SARS, Hurricane Katrina, and texting.

"Based on his experience counseling thousands of gay men and lesbians, clinical psychologist Rob Eichberg has developed a wonderfully supportive, step-by-step program for coming out to family, friends, and co-workers--and for creating an honest, fulfilling, open life of love. An inspiring call to action for all gay men and lesbians, this warm and wise book goes beyond the private experience and explains why coming out publicly in the era of AIDS is...