I've had an E. Lynn Harris Weekend

Hello All,

I've had an E. Lynn Harris weekend. I read his latest book, In My Father's House. It's so-so. There were times when the old sparkle was there and others where I had frustrations from expectations that went unfulfilled. But more on that later.

When I completed In My Father's House, I picked up Visible Lives, a tribute anthology to Harris by Terrance Dean, James Earl Hardy and Stanley Bennett Clay. So far, so good. I'm about to finish up the second story. It's turning out to be a wonderful tribute. It got me to thinking that no matter how I felt about some of his books, Harris really did change the world through his books. He may not have been the first black gay author to write about black gay characters, Wallace Thurman and James Baldwin comes to mind, but Harris made them popular! His books not only became the talk of the town, they morphed into a whole conversation.

In the middle of reading Harris' latest, I had a thought, remembering, that I had not read any of the Pharaoh Love mysteries. Don't know who Pharaoh Love is? I'm not surprised. Pharaoh Love is a black gay police detective. Before the internet, I bought most of my books through mail order catalogs. I use to belong to a Mystery book clubs that specialized in mysteries. From that catalog I discovered the Pharaoh Love mysteries with A Queer Kind of Love by George Baxt. Baxt started the Love series back in 1966. I bought A Queer Kind of Love and the last Pharaoh Love mystery, A Queer Kind of Umbrella, but I never read them. I forgot I even had the books, until I reached the middle of In My Father's House. After doing a little research I was able to get a hold of two other installments in the series, there are 5 Love books altogether. I'll be able to start the series from the beginning, or as close to it as I can. I'll let you all know how it goes.