Description: This week, we’re back to talk about the new novel Grafting by Rylan Hynes, a heartfelt love story about a man who returns home to inherit his family’s apple orchard–and confronts the memory of his boyhood romance with the son of the local Methodist minister. Topics of discussion include rural queer stories, nonlinear narratives, a lot of apple symbolism, and a lengthy tangent about Brokeback Mountain.

Media Mentioned:

• Barbie dir. Greta Gerwig
• Billy Elliot dir. Stephen Daldry
• Half Man (TV show)
• Hamnet dir. Chloe Zhao
• Wasp’s Nest by Kat Stoddard
• The Philadelphia Story dir. George Cukor
• The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri
• The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles (TV show)
• Wreck (TV show)
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (TV show)
• A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
• Grafting by Rylan Hynes
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• Far From You by Tess Sharpe
• Real Queer America by Samantha Allen
• Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne
• Saltburn dir. Emerald Fennell
• The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan
• Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
• The Christophers dir. Stephen Soderberg
• The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar
• The Watermelon Woman by Cheryl Dunye
• The Dangerous Kingdom of Love by Neil Blackmore
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Brokeback Mountain dir. Ang Lee
• Sort Of (TV show)
• When Harry Met Sally dir. Rob Reiner
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• National Anthem dir. Luke Gilford
• The History of Sound dir. Oliver Hermanus
• On Swift Horses dir. Daniel Minahan
• God’s Own Country dir. Frances Lee
• Cactus Pears dir. Rohan Kanawade
• Heated Rivalry (TV show)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone

Content Warnings: Discussions of homophobia and domestic abuse.