Thanks to Simon and Schuster for the free advance copy of this book.

HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES is Jones' memoir about coming of age as a black gay man in the South. Told through vignettes that follow his travels from home in Texas, to college, and elsewhere, it examines his life against the backdrop of phobias and -isms that run rampant in America.

This book is 200 pages worth of a punch to the chest. Each story knocked the air out of me, even as someone who has read plenty of wrenching memoirs. It's Jones' exploration of his experience and the world's experience of his marginalized body, and how he turns his body into a weapon to be used against the world and against himself.

Threaded through this journey is Jones' relationships with his mother and grandmother. I think the complicated, intensely loving relationships of half-truths he lives with both these women will feel so very familiar to many queer readers.