70 Best 「gay」 Books of 2024| Books Explorer
- Your Driver Is Waiting: A Novel
- Confidence: A Novel
- The Late Americans: A Novel
- The Atlas Paradox (Atlas series, 2)
- Camp
- I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself: A Novel
- Physical: Cape Poetry
- 13th Balloon
- Carol
- Boys Keep Swinging: A Memoir
ABEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Autostraddle, Shondaland, Booklist • In this electrifyingly fierce and funny social satire—inspired by the iconic 1970s film Taxi Driver—a ride share driver is barely holding it together on the hunt for love, dignity, and financial security...until she decides she's done waiting.“What you are about to read is a call to arms. Best to prepare for a confrontation." —New York Times Book Review"A perfect gut punch of a novel…Full of love and real friendship and frustrations boiled over and the urge to burn everything down…This is a hard-hitting masterpiece.—Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth and Mostly Dead ThingsDamani is tired. Her father just died on the job at a fast-food joint, and now she lives paycheck to paycheck in a basement, caring for her mom and driving for an app that is constantly cutting her take. The city is roiling in protests--everybody's in solidarity with somebody--but while she keeps hearing that they’re fighting for change on behalf of people like her, she literally can’t afford to pay attention.Then she gives a ride to Jolene (five stars, obviously). Jolene seems like she could be the perfect girlfriend--attentive, attractive, an ally--and their chemistry is off the charts. Jolene’s done the reading, she goes to every protest, and she says all the right things. So maybe Damani can look past the one thing that's holding her back: she’s never dated anyone with money before, not to mention a white girl with money. But just as their romance intensifies and Damani finally lets her guard down, Jolene does something unforgivable, setting off an explosive chain of events.A wild, one-sitting read brimming with dark comedy, and piercing social commentary and announcing Priya Guns's feverishly original voice, Your Driver Is Waiting is a crackling send-up of our culture of modern alienation.
One of The Washington Post’s 50 Best Works of Fiction of 2023A New York Times Editors’ ChoiceOne of Them’s Best Books of 2023One of Crimereads Best Crime Novels of 2023“Theranos but make it gay.” —Electric LiteratureBest friends (and occasional lovers) Ezra and Orson are teetering on top of the world after founding a company that promises instant enlightenment in this “propulsive, cheeky, eat-the-rich page-turner” (The Washington Post) about scams, schemes, and the absurdity of the American Dream.At seventeen, Ezra Green doesn’t have a lot going on for him: he’s shorter than average, snaggle-toothed, internet-addicted, and halfway to being legally blind. He’s also on his way to Last Chance Camp, the final stop before juvie.But Ezra’s summer at Last Chance turns life-changing when he meets Orson, brilliant and Adonis-like with a mind for hustling. Together, the two embark upon what promises to be a fruitful career of scam artistry. But things start to spin wildly out of control when they try to pull off their biggest scam yet—Nulife, a corporation that promises its consumers a lifetime of bliss.“Propulsive” (The New York Times Book Review) and “laugh-out-loud funny” (BuzzFeed), with the suspense of The Talented Mr. Ripley, the decadence of The Great Gatsby, and the wit of Succession, Confidence is a story for anyone who knows that the American Dream is just another pyramid scheme.
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLERNAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE, ELLE, OPRAH DAILY, THE WASHINGTON POST, BUZZFEED AND VULTURE“Erudite, intimate, hilarious, poignant . . . A gorgeously written novel of youth’s promise, of the quest to find one’s tribe and one’s calling.” —Leigh Haber, Oprah DailyThe Booker Prize finalist and widely acclaimed author of Real Life and Filthy Animals returns with a deeply involving new novel of young men and women at a crossroadsIn the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a loose circle of lovers and friends encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. Among them are Seamus, a frustrated young poet; Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicate her relationships with friends and a trusted mentor; and Noah, who “didn’t seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection.” These four are buffeted by a cast of artists, landlords, meatpacking workers, and mathematicians who populate the cafes, classrooms, and food-service kitchens of the city, sometimes to violent and electrifying consequence. Finally, as each prepares for an uncertain future, the group heads to a cabin to bid goodbye to their former lives—a moment of reckoning that leaves each of them irrevocably altered.A novel of friendship and chosen family, The Late Americans asks fresh questions about love and sex, ambition and precarity, and about how human beings can bruise one another while trying to find themselves. It is Brandon Taylor’s richest and most involving work of fiction to date, confirming his position as one of our most perceptive chroniclers of contemporary life.
“DESTINY IS A CHOICE”The Atlas Paradox is the long-awaited sequel to dark academic sensation The Atlas Six—guaranteed to have even more yearning, backstabbing, betrayal, and chaos.Six magicians. Two rivalries. One researcher. And a man who can walk through dreams. All must pick a do they wish to preserve the world—or destroy it? In this electric sequel to the viral sensation, The Atlas Six, the society of Alexandrians is revealed for what it a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way. But the cost of knowledge is steep, and as the price of power demands each character choose a side, which alliances will hold and which will see their enmity deepen?”
Feelgood Lgbtq Romantic Comedy From The Acclaimed Author Of Jack Of Hearts (and Other Parts). Sixteen-year-old Randy Kapplehoff Loves Spending The Summer At Camp Outland, A Camp For Queer Teens. It's Where He Met His Best Friends. It's Where He Takes To The Stage In The Big Musical. And It's Where He Fell For Hudson Aaronson-lim - Who's Only Into Straight-acting Guys And Barely Knows Not-at-all-straight-acting Randy Even Exists. This Year, Though, It's Going To Be Different. Randy Has Reinvented Himself As 'del' - Buff, Masculine And On The Market. Even If It Means Giving Up Show Tunes, Nail Polish And His Unicorn Bedsheets, He's Determined To Get Hudson To Fall For Him. But As He And Hudson Grow Closer, Randy Has To Ask Himself How Much Is He Willing To Change For Love. And Is It Really Love Anyway, If Hudson Doesn't Know Who He Truly Is?
Finalist for the Lambda Literary AwardsFinalist for the Libby Book AwardsDept. of Speculation meets Black Mirror in this lyrical, speculative debut about a queer mother raising her daughter in an unjust surveillance stateIn a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third, fourth, and fifth) shadow as a reminder of their crime—and a warning to those they encounter. Within the Department, corruption and prejudice run rampant, giving rise to an underclass of so-called Shadesters who are disenfranchised, publicly shamed, and deprived of civil rights protections.Kris is a Shadester and a new mother to a baby born with a second shadow of her own. Grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone, Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world. She can’t forget her wife, but with time, she can make a new life for herself and the kid, supported by a community of fellow misfits who defy the Department to lift one another up in solidarity and hope.With a first-person register reminiscent of the fierce self-disclosure of Sheila Heti and the poetic precision of Ocean Vuong, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is a bold debut novel that examines the long shadow of grief, the hard work of parenting, and the power of queer resistance.
Shortlisted For The 2015 Forward Prize For Best First Collection. Raw And Urgent, These Poems Are Hymns To The Male Body - To Male Friendship And Male Love - Muscular, Sometimes Shocking, But Always Deeply Moving. We Are Witness Here To An Almost Religious Celebration Of The Flesh: A Flesh Vital With The Vulnerability Of Love And Loss, To Desire And Its Departure. In An Extraordinary Blend Of Mcmillan's Own Colloquial Yorkshire Rhythms With A Sinewy, Metaphysical Music And Thom Gunn's Torque And Speed - 'your Kiss Was Deep Enough To Stand In' - The Poems In This First Collection Confront What It Is To Be A Man And Interrogate The Very Idea Of Masculinity. This Is Poetry Where Every Instance Of Human Connection, From The Casual Encounter To The Intimate Relationship, Becomes Redeemable And Revelatory. Dispensing With Conventional Punctuation, The Poet Is Attentive And Alert To The Quality Of Breathing, Giving The Work An Extraordinary Sense Of Being Vividly Poised And Present - Drawing Lines That Are Deft, Lyrical And Perfectly Pitched From A World Of Urban Dereliction. An Elegant Stylist And Unfashionably Honest Poet, Mcmillan's Eye And Ear Are Tuned, Exactly, To Both The Mechanics Of The Body And The Miracles Of The Heart. Machine Generated Contents Note: I.physical -- Jacob With The Angel -- Urination -- The Men Are Weeping In The Gym -- Strongman -- Yoga -- The Schoolboys -- Screen -- Just Because I Do This, Doesn't Mean -- Saturday Night -- Choke -- Leda To Her Daughters -- Today -- Not Quite -- Things Men Take -- If It Wasn't For The Nights -- Ii.protest Of The Physical -- Iii.degradation -- How To Be A Man -- I.m. -- Okunna Per Runna -- Morn -- When Loud The Storm And Furious Is The Gale -- The Fact We Almost Killed A Badger Is Incidental -- Revelations -- A Gift -- Finally. Andrew Mcmillan. Poems. Earlier Versions Of Some Of The Poems Appeared In Various Magazines And Anthologies.
Bibbins Turns His Eye To The American Aids Crisis With Quiet Consideration And Dark Wit, Questioning Personal Loss Amongst Intolerance.
THE PRICE OF SALT (1952) is a romance novel by Patricia Highsmith, written under the pseudonym Claire Morgan. The author – known as a suspense writer following the publication of her previous book, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN – became notorious due to the story's latent lesbian content and happy ending, the latter having been unprecedented in homosexual fiction. THE PRICE OF SALT was an inspiration for Nabokov’s LOLITA.
A queer book conservator finds a mysterious old love letter, setting off a search for the author who wrote it and for a meaningful life beyond the binary in early-2000s New York City.It's 2003,and artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she spends all day repairing old books but hasn’t created anything of her own in years. What’s more, although she doesn’t have a word for it yet, Dawn is genderqueer, and with a partner who wishes she were a man and a society that wants her to be a woman, she’s struggling to feel safe expressing herself. Dawn spends her free time scouting the city’s street art, hoping to find the inspiration that will break her artistic block—and time is of the essence, because she’s making her major gallery debut in six weeks and doesn’t have anything to show yet.One day at work, Dawn discovers something hidden under the endpapers of an old book: the torn-off cover of a lesbian pulp novel from the 1950s, with an illustration of a woman looking into a mirror and seeing a man’s face. Even more intriguing is the queer love letter written on the back. Dawn becomes obsessed with tracking down the author of the letter, convinced the mysterious writer can help her find her place in the world. Her fixation only increases when her best friend, Jae, is injured in a hate crime for which Dawn feels responsible. But ultimately for Dawn, the trickiest puzzle to solve is how she truly wants to live her life.A sharply written, page-turning, and evocative debut, Endpapers is an unforgettable story about the journey toward authenticity and the hard conversations we owe ourselves in pursuit of a world where no one has to hide.
On September 5th, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: they're going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but for different reasosn, they're both looking for a new friend on their End Day. The good news: there's an app for that. It's called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure - to live a lifetime in a single day.
“An astounding debut.”―Adrienne Raphel, The New York Times Book ReviewA dazzling love story in poems about one woman’s coming-out, coming-of-age, and coming undoneA woman lives an ordinary life in Brooklyn. She has a boyfriend. They share a cat. She writes poems in the prevailing style. She also has dreams: of being seduced by a throng of older women, of kissing a friend in a dorm-room closet. But the dreams are private, not real.One night, she meets another woman at a bar, and an escape hatch swings open in the floor of her life. She falls into a consuming affair―into queerness, polyamory, kink, power and loss, humiliation and freedom, and an enormous surge of desire that lets her leave herself behind.Maggie Millner’s captivating, seductive debut is a love story in poems that explores obsession, gender, identity, and the art and act of literary transformation. In rhyming couplets and prose vignettes, Couplets chronicles the strictures, structures, and pitfalls of relationships―the mirroring, the pleasing, the small jealousies and disappointments―and how the people we love can show us who we truly are."An endlessly inventive, wise, exhilarating book.”―Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness and What Belongs to You
Jean Genet, French playwright, novelist and poet, turned the experiences in his life amongst pimps, whores, thugs and other fellow social outcasts into a poetic literature, with an honesty and explicitness unprecedented at the time. Widely considered an outstanding and unique figure in French literature, Genet wrote five novels between 1942 and 1947, now being republished by Faber & Faber in beautiful new paperback editions.The Thief's Journal is perhaps Jean Genet's most authentically autobiographical novel; an account of his impoverished travels across 1930s Europe. The narrator is guilty of vagrancy, petty theft and prostitution, but his writing transforms such degradations into an inverted moral code, where criminality and delinquency become heroic. With a holy trinity of his own making - homosexuality, theft and betrayal - in The Thief's Journal Genet produced a startlingly powerful novel without precedent.Includes a new introduction by Ahdaf Soueif.
“a Memoir That Is Jolting, Honest, Passionate, And Beautifully Written” (claudia Rankine), Becoming A Man Explores One Man’s Gender Transition Amid A Pivotal Political Moment In America. Becoming A Man Is The Striking Memoir Of P. Carl’s Journey To Become The Man He Always Knew Himself To Be. For Fifty Years, He Lived As A Girl And A Queer Woman, Building A Career, A Life, And A Loving Marriage, Yet Still Waiting To Realize Himself In Full. As Carl Embarks On His Gender Transition, He Takes Us Inside The Complex Shifts And Questions That Arise Throughout—the Alternating Moments Of Arrival And Estrangement. He Writes Intimately About How Transitioning Reconfigures Both His Own Inner Experience And His Closest Bonds—his Twenty-year Relationship With His Wife, Lynette; His Already Tumultuous Relationships With His Parents; And Seemingly Solid Friendships That Are Subtly Altered, Often Painfully And Wordlessly. Carl Blends The Remarkable Story Of His Own Personal Journey With Incisive Cultural Commentary, Writing Brilliantly About Gender, Power, And Inequality In America. His Transition Occurs Amid The Rise Of The Trump Administration And The #metoo Movement—a Transition Point In America’s Own Story, When Transphobia And Toxic Masculinity Are Under Fire Even As They Thrive In The Highest Halls Of Power. Carl’s Quest To Become Himself And To Reckon With His Masculinity Mirrors, In Many Ways, The Challenge Before The Country As A Whole, To Imagine A Society Where Every Member Can Have A Vibrant, Livable Life. Here, Through This Brave And Deeply Personal Work, Carl Brings An Unparalleled New Voice To This Conversation.
A timely and genre-bending memoir that offers fresh and fierce reflections on motherhood, desire, identity and feminism.At the centre of The Argonauts is the love story between Maggie Nelson and the artist Harry Dodge, who is fluidly gendered. As Nelson undergoes the transformations of pregnancy, she explores the challenges and complexities of mothering and queer family making.Writing in the tradition of public intellectuals like Susan Sontag, Nelson uses arresting prose even as she questions the limits of language. The Argonauts is an intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of love, language and family.
Profound, Moving, And - As Charlotte Would Say - Radiant, This Book Will Stay With Anyone Lucky Enough To Find It. - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review For George Rick's Never Questioned Much. He's Gone Along With His Best Friend Jeff Even When Jeff's Acted Like A Bully And A Jerk. He's Let His Father Joke With Him About Which Hot Girls He Might Want To Date Even Though That Kind Of Talk Always Makes Him Uncomfortable. And He Hasn't Given His Own Identity Much Thought, Because Everyone Else Around Him Seemed To Have Figured It Out. But Now Rick's Gotten To Middle School, And New Doors Are Opening. One Of Them Leads To The School's Rainbow Spectrum Club, Where Kids Of Many Genders And Identities Congregate, Including Melissa, The Girl Who Sits In Front Of Rick In Class And Seems To Have Her Life Together. Rick Wants His Own Life To Be That . . . Understood. Even If It Means Breaking Some Old Friendships And Making Some New Ones. As They Did In Their Groundbreaking Novel George, In Rick, Award-winning Author Alex Gino Explores What It Means To Search For Your Own Place In The World . . . And All The Steps You And The People Around You Need To Take In Order To Get Where You Need To Be.
"Magnificent in every way."--Samantha Shannon, author ofThe Priory of the Orange Tree "A dazzling new world of fate, war, love and betrayal."--Zen Cho, author ofBlack Water Sister She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty's founding emperor. To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything "I refuse to be nothing..." In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness... In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family's eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family's clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate. After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.
One Evening, Ma Tells Daughter A Story About A Tiger Spirit Who Lived In A Woman's Body, Named Hu Gu Po. She Hungered To Eat Children, Especially Their Toes. Soon Afterwards, Daughter Awakes With A Tiger Tail. And More Mysterious Events Follow: Holes In The Backyard Spit Up Letters Penned By Her Grandmother; A Visiting Aunt Leaves Red On Everything She Touches; Another Aunt Arrives With Eels In Her Belly. All The While, Daughter Is Falling For Her Neighbor, A Girl Named Ben With Mysterious Powers Of Her Own. As The Two Young Lovers Translate The Grandmother's Letters, Daughter Begins To Understand That Each Woman In Her Family Embodies An Old Taiwanese Myth--and That She Will Have To Bring Her Family's Secrets To Light In Order To Change Their Destiny. With A Poetic Voice Of Crackling Electricity, K Ming Chang Is An Explosive Young Writer Who Combines The Wit And Fabulism Of Helen Oyeyemi With The Magical Realist Aesthetic Of Maxine Hong Kingston. Tracing One Family's History From Mainland China To Taiwan, From Arkansas To California, Bestiary Is A Novel Of Migration, Queer Lineages, And Womanhood--
BRAND NEW, Exactly same ISBN as listed, Please double check ISBN carefully before ordering.
"Flux happily offers a moving appraisal of lives buffeted by personal and systemic traumas; a deep dive into the good, the bad and the ugly of self-serving corporate culture; and no shortage of “wait, what the heck just happened?” thrills." -- The New York Times Book Review"Brazen, exhilarating, fun, and surprising! I couldn't predict where this novel was going, but I was definitely along for the ride." -- Ling Ma, author of SeveranceA blazingly original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his mysterious employers have inadvertently discovered time travel—and are using it to cover up a string of violent crimes . . .Four days before Christmas, 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer, and 48-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial against an infamous now-defunct tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his family.So begins Jinwoo Chong’s dazzling, time-bending debut that blends elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction as the lives of Bo, Brandon, and Blue begin to intersect, uncovering a vast network of secrets and an experimental technology that threatens to upend life itself. Intertwined with them is the saga of an iconic ’80s detective show, Raider, whose star actor has imploded spectacularly after revelations of long-term, concealed abuse.Flux is a haunting and sometimes shocking exploration of the cyclical nature of grief, of moving past trauma, and of the pervasive nature of whiteness within the development of Asian identity in America.
Sixteen-year-old, Not-so-openly-gay Simon Spier Is Blackmailed Into Playing Wingman For His Classmate Or Else His Sexual Identity--and That Of His Pen Pal--will Be Revealed.
Orlando is generally considered Woolf's most accessible and influential novels. Concerning the 300 year life of a man born during the reign of Elizabeth I and his quest to write a great poem, having love affairs as both man and women against the backdrop of some of the most important moments in European history. This novel has been hugely influential stylistically and is still an important moment in literary history and particularly in women's writing and gender studies. Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English writer. She is widely hailed as being among the most influential modernist authors of the 20th century and a pioneer of stream of consciousness narration. She suffered numerous nervous breakdowns during her life primarily as a result of the deaths of family members, and it is now believed that she may have suffered from bipolar disorder. In 1941, Woolf drowned herself in the River Ouse at Lewes, aged 59. Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this classic novel now in a new edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.
I know nothing. I am a tabula rasa, a blank sheet of paper, an unhatched egg. I have not yet become a woman, although I possess a woman's shape. Not a woman, no: both more and less than a real woman. Now I am a being as mythic and monstrous as Mother herself . . . 'New York has become the City of Dreadful Night where dissolute Leilah performs a dance of chaos for Evelyn. But this young Englishman's fate lies in the arid desert, where a many-breasted fertility goddess will wield her scalpel to transform him into the new Eve.
* Instant NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestseller ** GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER for BEST DEBUT and BEST ROMANCE of 2019 ** BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR* for VOGUE, NPR, VANITY FAIR, and more! *What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius―his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic."I took this with me wherever I went and stole every second I had to read! Absorbing, hilarious, tender, sexy―this book had everything I crave. I’m jealous of all the readers out there who still get to experience Red, White & Royal Blue for the first time!" - Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners"Red, White & Royal Blue is outrageously fun. It is romantic, sexy, witty, and thrilling. I loved every second." - Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six
“Drag embodies the queer possibility that exists within each of us—the infinite ways in which gender, good taste, and art can be lived.”–Sasha VelourThis book is a quilt, piecing together memoir, history, and theory into a living portrait of an artist and an art. Within these pages, illustrated throughout with photos and original artwork, Sasha Velour illuminates drag as a unique form of expression with a rich history and a revolutionary spirit.Each chapter strips off a new layer, removing one tantalizing glove and then another, to reveal all the twists and turns in the life of a queen. As Sasha recalls her own journey, from the women who raised her, to learning the craft of an artist, to success, disaster, and more, she also uncovers the history of queer life around the world that made it all possible.From shamans to “fairies balls,” empresses to RuPaul’s Drag Race (and beyond), The Big Reveal chronicles and celebrates our shared queer pasts. “If we want to be seen as legendary,” writes Sasha, “we have to weave ourselves into history.”From an iconoclastic drag queen comes an equally singular, thought-provoking manifesto that brings necessary and sparkling substance to our understanding of drag, queerness, beauty, and liberation!
The fourth novel from the phenomenally talented Alice Oseman one of the most authentic and talked-about voices in contemporary YA.It was all sinking in. Id never had a crush on anyone. No boys, no girls, not a single person I had ever met. What did that mean Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic shes sure shell find her person one day. As she starts university with her best friends, Pip and Jason, in a whole new town far from home, Georgias ready to find romance, and with her outgoing roommate on her side and a place in the Shakespeare Society, her teenage dream is in sight. But when her romance plan wreaks havoc amongst her friends, Georgia ends up in her own comedy of errors, and she starts to question why love seems so easy for other people but not for her. With new terms thrown at her asexual, aromantic Georgia is more uncertain about her feelings than ever. Is she destined to remain loveless Or has she been looking for the wrong thing all along This wise, warm and witty story of identity and self-acceptance sees Alice Oseman on towering form as Georgia and her friends discover that true love isnt limited to romance.
An Urgently Needed, Unyielding Book Of Theoretical And Intimate Strength. --kirkus Reviews, Starred The Youngest Ever Winner Of The Griffin Prize Mines His Personal History In A Brilliant New Essay Collection Seeking To Reconcile The World He Was Born Into With The World That Could Be. For Readers Of Ocean Vuong And Maggie Nelson And Fans Of Heart Berries By Terese Marie Mailhot, A History Of My Brief Body Is A Brave, Raw, And Fiercely Intelligent Collection Of Essays And Vignettes On Grief, Colonial Violence, Joy, Love, And Queerness. Billy-ray Belcourt's Debut Memoir Opens With A Tender Letter To His Kokum And Memories Of His Early Life In The Hamlet Of Joussard, Alberta, And On The Driftpile First Nation. Piece By Piece, Billy-ray's Writings Invite Us To Unpack And Explore The Big And Broken World He Inhabits Every Day, In All Its Complexity And Contradiction: A Legacy Of Colonial Violence And The Joy That Flourishes In Spite Of It; First Loves And First Loves Lost; Sexual Exploration And Intimacy; The Act Of Writing As A Survival Instinct And A Way To Grieve. What Emerges Is Not Only A Profound Meditation On Memory, Gender, Anger, Shame, And Ecstasy, But Also The Outline Of A Way Forward. With Startling Honesty, And In A Voice Distinctly And Assuredly His Own, Belcourt Situates His Life Experiences Within A Constellation Of Seminal Queer Texts, Among Which This Book Is Sure To Earn Its Place. Eye-opening, Intensely Emotional, And Excessively Quotable, A History Of My Brief Body Demonstrates Over And Over Again The Power Of Words To Both Devastate And Console Us.
In this debut collection of essays, lists, musings, and quips, New York-based comedian Zach Zimmerman delicately walks the fine line between tear-jerking and knee-slapping, and does so with aplomb.In this laugh-and-cry-out-loud, memoir-esque exploration of selfhood, Zimmerman dives into the pros and cons of retiring a Bible-Belt-dwelling, meat-eating, God-fearing identity in exchange for a new, metropolitan lease on life—one of vegetarianism, atheism, queerness, and humor. Whether learning to absolve instilled religious guilt or reminiscing over Tinder dates gone horribly wrong, this book is a candid and hysterical look at one person's journey toward making peace with the past and seeking hope in the future.HILARIOUS WRITING: The stories featured in this collection are an uproarious read with a strong and established tone of voice. Featuring pieces that were originally published in the New Yorker, Is It Hot in Here (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)? is a literary gem.RELEVANT AND INCLUSIVE: Zimmerman navigates obstacles in the queer community with essays that are not only humorous and heartfelt, but also act as guiding anecdotes for young, queer community members.ESTABLISHED AUTHOR AND COMEDIAN: Zimmerman has written dozens of New Yorker humor pieces and essays, a Billboard Top Ten comedy album that debuted at #1, and has been featured in New York Magazine, The New York Times, TimeOut, Vulture, and more.Perfect for: Comedy and humor fans Literary enthusiasts and fans of comedy writing like David Sedaris and Gary Janetti Short story and essay collection readers
In The Highly Anticipated Follow-up To His Beloved Debut, What Belongs To You, Garth Greenwell Expands His Exploration Of Foreignness, Obligation, And Desire Sofia, Bulgaria, A Landlocked City In Southern Europe, Stirs With Hope And Impending Upheaval. Soviet Buildings Crumble, Wind Scatters Sand From The Far South, And Political Protesters Flood The Streets With Song. In This Atmosphere Of Disquiet, An American Teacher Navigates A Life Transformed By The Discovery And Loss Of Love. As He Prepares To Leave The Place He’s Come To Call Home, He Grapples With The Intimate Encounters That Have Marked His Years Abroad, Each Bearing Uncanny Reminders Of His Past. A Queer Student’s Confession Recalls His Own First Love, A Stranger’s Seduction Devolves Into Paternal Sadism, And A Romance With Another Foreigner Opens, And Heals, Old Wounds. Each Echo Reveals Startling Insights About What It Means To Seek Connection: With Those We Love, With The Places We Inhabit, And With Our Own Fugitive Selves. Cleanness Revisits And Expands The World Of Garth Greenwell’s Beloved Debut, What Belongs To You, Declared “an Instant Classic” By The New York Times Book Review. In Exacting, Elegant Prose, He Transcribes The Strange Dialects Of Desire, Cementing His Stature As One Of Our Most Vital Living Writers.
"[A] sharp, charming and passionate debut." —New York Times Book ReviewA Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Elle, USA Today, Bustle, Ebony, Harper’s Bazaar, PopSugar, New York Post, The Skimm, and The Millions.A Best Book of 2023 by Marie Claire, Esquire, Vogue, them, Autostraddle, Betches, Gay Times,and Cosmopolitan.An insightful, propulsive, and deeply sexy debut novel about a young Black writer whose world is turned upside down when she loses her coveted job in media and pens a searing manifesto about racism in the industry.Mickey Hayward dreams of writing stories that matter, but, for now, her days are filled with listicles about lip gloss and click-bait articles about celebrity haircare. Still, the job is flashy and her girlfriend is steady and supportive. The path may be long, but Mickey’s well on her way, and it’s far from the messy life she left behind in Maryland. Everything finally seems to be falling into place—until she finds out she’s being replaced.Distraught and enraged, Mickey fires back with a detailed letter outlining the racism she’s endured as a Black woman in media, certain it will change the world for the better. But when her letter is met with overwhelming silence, even from her usually-encouraging girlfriend, Mickey is sent into a tailspin of self-doubt. Forced to reckon with just how fragile her life is, she flees to the last place she ever dreamed she would run: her hometown.Back home, Mickey is seduced by the simplicity of her hometown—and the flirtation of a former flame—but she soon learns that you can’t outrun your past. In the newfound quiet, she is forced to reflect on the sacrifices she’d made for an industry that never loved her back and pick up the pieces of the life she thought she’d left behind for good. After all, when the walls of success you’ve carefully built around yourself come crumbling down, what—and who—are you left with?A meditation on identity, self-worth and the toll of corporate racism, Homebodies is a portrait of modern Black womanhood with a protagonist you won’t soon forget.
**A 2024 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST**“Zachary Zane is one of the best sex writers working today.” —Dan Savage, New York Times bestselling authorNamed a Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of the Year by BuzzfeedA sex and relationship columnist bares it all in a series of essays—part memoir, part manifesto—that explore the author’s coming-of-age and coming out as a bisexual man and move toward embracing and celebrating sex unencumbered by shame.As a boy, Zachary Zane sensed that all was not right when images of his therapist naked popped into his head. Without an explanation as to why, a deep sense of shame pervaded these thoughts. Though his therapist assured him a little imagination was nothing to be ashamed of, over the years, society told him otherwise.Boyslut is a series of personal and tantalizing essays that articulate how our society still shames people for the sex that they have and the sexualities that they inhabit. Through the lens of his bisexuality and much self-described sluttiness, Zane breaks down exactly how this sexual shame negatively impacts the sex and relationships in our lives, and through personal experience, shares how we can unlearn the harmful, entrenched messages that society imparts to us.From stories of drug-fueled threesomes and risqué Grindr hookups to insights on dealing with rejection and living with his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s wife, Boyslut is reassuring and often painfully funny—but is most potently a testimony that we can all learn to live healthier lives unburdened by stigma.
From AskMen senior editor and non-binary writer Alex Manley comes The New Masculinity: A Roadmap for a 21st-Century Definition of Manhood, a guide for escaping the shackles of toxic masculinity, unlearning what it means to be a man, and pushing back against the various ways masculinity teaches people to hurt rather than help, and to harm rather than heal. Manley charts a course for a wholly new future of the self that’s neither particularly manly nor particularly masculine, but responsive, invested, and caring.Having written and edited for a men’s website for seven and a half years, Manley has seen up close how angry, scared, and lonely men are, and how entrenched in a culture war they feel. This book is a guide for unlearning the habits that perpetuate that harm. There are an infinite number of ways to be a person, but to access them fully, men first need to unlearn the restrictions of modern gender roles and the ways society has taught them to shave parts of themselves off until their masculinity comes before their humanity.
From one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century comes a groundbreaking novel set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris, about love and the fear of love—“a book that belongs in the top rank of fiction” (The Atlantic).One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 YearsIn the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality.David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy.David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night—“the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.” With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin's now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a deeply moving story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.
"This debut novel about an Irish expat millennial teaching English and finding romance in Hong Kong is half Sally Rooney love triangle, half glitzy Crazy Rich Asians high living--and guaranteed to please." --Vogue A RECOMMENDED BOOK FROM: The New York Times Book Review * Vogue * TIME * Marie Claire * Elle * O, the Oprah Magazine * The Washington Post * Esquire * Harper's Bazaar * Bustle * PopSugar * Refinery 29 * LitHub * Debutiful An intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than "I like you a great deal." Enter Edith. A Hong Kong-born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theater and leaves her tulips in the hallway. Ava wants to be her--and wants her. And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong... Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith? Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life--and announces herself as a singular new voice.
“The rare work of fiction that has changed real life . . . If you don’t yet know Molly Bolt—or Rita Mae Brown, who created her—I urge you to read and thank them both.”—Gloria SteinemWinner of the Lambda Literary Pioneer Award | Winner of the Lee Lynch Classic Book AwardA landmark coming-of-age novel that launched the career of one of this country’s most distinctive voices, Rubyfruit Jungle remains a transformative work more than forty years after its original publication. In bawdy, moving prose, Rita Mae Brown tells the story of Molly Bolt, the adoptive daughter of a dirt-poor Southern couple who boldly forges her own path in America. With her startling beauty and crackling wit, Molly finds that women are drawn to her wherever she goes—and she refuses to apologize for loving them back. This literary milestone continues to resonate with its message about being true to yourself and, against the odds, living happily ever after.Praise for Rubyfruit Jungle“Groundbreaking.”—The New York Times“Powerful . . . a truly incredible book . . . I found myself laughing hysterically, then sobbing uncontrollably just moments later.”—The Boston Globe“You can’t fully know—or enjoy—how much the world has changed without reading this truly wonderful book.”—Andrew Tobias, author of The Best Little Boy in the World“A crass and hilarious slice of growing up ‘different,’ as fun to read today as it was in 1973.”—The Rumpus“Molly Bolt is a genuine descendant—genuine female descendant—of Huckleberry Finn. And Rita Mae Brown is, like Mark Twain, a serious writer who gets her messages across through laughter.”—Donna E. Shalala“A trailblazing literary coup at publication . . . It was the right book at the right time.”—Lee Lynch, author of Beggar of Love
Named one of the Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2023 (So Far) by Vogue • Named a Best Book of 2023 (So Far) by Cosmopolitan • Named a Best Book of Spring 2023 by Esquire • Named a Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of 2023 by BuzzFeed, Electric Literature, and ThemAn addictive, absurd, and darkly hilarious debut novel about a young woman who embarks on a ten-day getaway with her partner and two other queer couplesSasha and Jesse are professionally creative, erotically adventurous, and passionately dysfunctional twentysomethings making a life together in Brooklyn. When a pair of older, richer lesbians―prominent news host Jules Todd and her psychotherapist partner, Miranda―invites Sasha and Jesse to their country home for the holidays, they’re quick to accept. Even if the trip includes a third couple―Jesse’s best friend, Lou, and their cool-girl flame, Darcy―whose It-queer clout Sasha ridicules yet desperately wants.As the late December afternoons blur together in a haze of debaucherous homecooked feasts and sweaty sauna confessions, so too do the guests’ secret and shifting motivations. When Jesse and Darcy collaborate an ill-fated livestream performance, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges, sending Sasha down a spiral of destructive rage that threatens each couple’s future.Unfolding over ten heady days, Dykette is an unforgettable love story at the crossroads of queer nonconformity and seductive normativity. With propulsive plotting and sexy, wickedly entertaining prose, Jenny Fran Davis captures the vagaries of desire and the many devastating places in which we seek recognition.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GLAMOUR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A hilarious new essay collection from Samantha Irby "engages readers with her characteristic combination of laugh-out-loud moments, heartfelt passages and plenty of awkward experiences.... Quietly Hostile will delight established fans and newcomers alike (Parade).“Brilliant and one of the funniest people I’ve ever read.” —Roxane Gay • "The king of sparkling misanthropy and tender, loving dread." —Jia Tolentino"Absolutely hilarious.... If you are feeling down, or you feel like you haven't read anything you've loved in a long time, all you need is Samantha Irby.... She will make you laugh on every page." —Emma Straub, bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow, on The Today ShowSamantha Irby’s career has taken her to new heights. She dodges calls from Hollywood and flop sweats on the red carpet at premieres (well, one premiere). But nothing is ever as it seems online, where she can crop out all the ugly parts.Irby got a lot of weird emails about Carrie Bradshaw, and not only is there diarrhea to avoid, but now—anaphylactic shock. She is turned away from restaurants for being inappropriately dressed and looks for the best ways to cope, i.e., reveling in the offerings of QVC and adopting a deranged pandemic dog. Quietly Hostile makes light as Irby takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes. Relatable, poignant, and uproarious, once again, Irby is the tonic we all need to get by.A BEST BOOK from Vogue, Esquire, PopSugar, Glamour, The Skimm, and more
"The work of an exceptional artist working close to the peak of his powers." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times\nSet in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and Cambridge, and into his father's firm. In a highly structured society, Maurice is a conventional young man in almost every way―except that his is homosexual.\nWritten during 1913 and 1914, immediately after Howards End, and not published until 1971, Maurice was ahead of its time in its theme and in its affirmation that love between men can be happy. "Happiness," Forster wrote, "is its keynote.... In Maurice I tried to create a character who was completely unlike myself or what I supposed myself to be: someone handsome, healthy, bodily attractive, mentally torpid, not a bad businessman and rather a snob. Into this mixture I dropped an ingredient that puzzles him, wakes him up, torments him and finally saves him."
NOW A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • From the New York Times bestselling author of Normal People . . . “[A] cult-hit . . . [a] sharply realistic comedy of adultery and friendship.”—Entertainment WeeklySALLY ROONEY NAMED TO THE TIME 100 NEXT LIST • WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES (UK) YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD • ONE OF BUZZFEED’S BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vogue, Slate • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: ElleFrances is a coolheaded and darkly observant young woman, vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, they meet a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into her world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman’s sophisticated home and handsome husband, Nick. But however amusing Frances and Nick’s flirtation seems at first, it begins to give way to a strange—and then painful—intimacy.Written with gemlike precision and marked by a sly sense of humor, Conversations with Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth, and the messy edges of female friendship.SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD“Sharp, funny, thought-provoking . . . a really great portrait of two young women as they’re figuring out how to be adults.”—Celeste Ng, Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast“The dialogue is superb, as are the insights about communicating in the age of electronic devices. Rooney has a magical ability to write scenes of such verisimilitude that even when little happens they’re suspenseful.”—Curtis Sittenfeld, The Week“Rooney has the gift of imbuing everyday life with a sense of high stakes . . . a novel of delicious frictions.”—New York“A writer of rare confidence, with a lucid, exacting style . . . One wonderful aspect of Rooney’s consistently wonderful novel is the fierce clarity with which she examines the self-delusion that so often festers alongside presumed self-knowledge. . . . But Rooney’s natural power is as a psychological portraitist. She is acute and sophisticated about the workings of innocence; the protagonist of this novel about growing up has no idea just how much of it she has left to do.”—Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker“This book. This book. I read it in one day. I hear I’m not alone.”—Sarah Jessica Parker (Instagram)
A Singular, Beautifully Written Coming-of-age Memoir Of A Filipino Boy With Albinism Whose Story Travels From An Immigrant Childhood To Harvard To A Gender Transition And Illuminates The Illusions Of Race, Disability, And Gender Fairest Is A Memoir About A Precocious Boy With Albinism, A Sun Child From A Rural Philippine Village, Who Would Grow Up To Become A Woman In America. Coping With The Strain Of Parental Neglect And The Elusive Promise Of U.s. Citizenship, Talusan Found Childhood Comfort From Her Devoted Grandmother, A Grounding Force As She Was Treated By Others With Special Preference Or Public Curiosity. As An Immigrant To The United States, Talusan Came To Be Perceived As White. An Academic Scholarship To Harvard Provided Access To Elite Circles Of Privilege But Required Talusan To Navigate Through The Complex Spheres Of Race, Class, Sexuality, And Her Place Within The Gay Community. She Emerged As An Artist And An Activist Questioning The Boundaries Of Gender. Talusan Realized She Did Not Want To Be Confined To A Prescribed Role As A Man, And Transitioned To Become A Woman, Despite The Risk Of Losing A Man She Deeply Loved. Throughout Her Journey, Talusan Shares Poignant And Powerful Episodes Of Desirability And Love That Will Remind Readers Of Works Such As Call Me By Your Name And Giovanni's Room. Her Evocative Reflections Will Shift Our Own Perceptions Of Love, Identity, Gender, And The Fairness Of Life.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The lives of three women—transgender and cisgender—collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires in “one of the most celebrated novels of the year” (Time)“Reading this novel is like holding a live wire in your hand.”—VultureNamed one of the Best Books of the Year by more than twenty publications, including The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Time, Vogue, Esquire, Vulture, and AutostraddlePEN/Hemingway Award Winner • Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Gotham Book Prize • Longlisted for The Women’s Prize • Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club Pick • New York Times Editors’ ChoiceReese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel.
Featuring deep dives into thirst traps, drag queens, Antonio Banderas, and telenovelas—all in the service of helping us reframe how we talk about (desiring) men—this insightful memoir-in-essays is as much a coming of age as a coming out bookManuel Betancourt has long lustfully coveted masculinity—in part because he so lacked it. As a child in Bogotá, Colombia, he grew up with the social pressure to appear strong, manly, and, ultimately, straight. And yet in the films and television he avidly watched, Betancourt saw glimmers of different possibilities. From the stars of telenovelas and the princes of Disney films to pop sensation Ricky Martin and teen heartthrobs in shows like Saved By the Bell, he continually found himself asking: Do I want him or do I want to be him?The Male Gazed grapples with the thrall of masculinity, examining its frailty and its attendant anxieties even as it focuses on its erotic potential. Masculinity, Betancourt suggests, isn’t suddenly ripe for deconstruction—or even outright destruction—amid so much talk about its inherent toxicity. Looking back over decades’ worth of pop culture’s attempts to codify and reframe what men can be, wear, do, and desire, this book establishes that to gaze at men is still a subversive act.Written in the spirit of Hanif Abdurraqib and Olivia Laing, The Male Gazed mingles personal anecdotes with cultural criticism to offer an exploration of intimacy, homoeroticism, and the danger of internalizing too many toxic ideas about masculinity as a gay man.
In A Collection Of Personal Comics That Span Eight Years Of Her Young Adult Life, Author-illustrator Noelle Stevenson Charts The Highs And Lows Of Being A Creative Human In The World.--provided By Publisher.
'it Is Superb' Rita Mae Brownset In The Deep American South Between The Wars, The Color Purple Is The Tale Of Celie, A Young Black Girl Born Into Poverty And Segregation. Raped Repeatedly By The Man She Calls 'father', She Has Two Children Taken Away From Her, Is Separated From Her Beloved Sister Nettie And Is Trapped Into An Ugly Marriage. But Then She Meets The Glamorous Shug Avery - Singer And Magic-maker - A Woman Who Has Taken Charge Of Her Own Destiny. Gradually Celie Discovers The Power And Joy Of Her Own Spirit, Freeing Her From Her Past And Reuniting Her With Those She Loves. The Color Purple Is One Of The All-time Greats Of Literature, A Global Bestseller, And Has Inspired Generations Of Readers.
When John Rechy's Explosive First Novel Appeared In 1963, It Marked A Radical Departure In Fiction, And Gave Voice To A Subculture That Had Never Before Been Revealed With Such Acuity. It Earned Comparisons To Genet And Kerouac, Even As Rechy Was Personally Attacked By Scandalized Reviewers. Nevertheless, The Book Became An International Bestseller, And Fifty Years Later, It Has Become A Classic. Bold And Inventive In Style, Rechy Is Unflinching In His Portrayal Of One Hustling Youngman And His Search For Self-knowledge Within The Neon-lit World Of Hustlers, Drag Queens, And The Denizens Of Their World, As He Moves From El Paso To Times Square, From Pershing Square To The French Quarter. Now Including Never-seen Original Marked Galley Pages And An Interview With The Author, Rechy's Portrait Of The Edges Of America Has Lost None Of Its Power To Move And Exhilarate. John Rechy.
Finalist for the Lambda Literary AwardsFor readers of Saidiya Hartman and Jeanette Winterson, Lesbian Love Story is an intimate journey into the archives—uncovering the romances and role models written out of history and what their stories can teach us all about how to loveWhen Amelia Possanza moved to Brooklyn to build a life of her own, she found herself surrounded by queer stories: she read them on landmark placards, overheard them on the pool deck when she joined the world’s largest LGBTQ swim team, and even watched them on TV in her cockroach-infested apartment. These stories inspired her to seek out lesbians throughout history who could become her role models, in romance and in life.Centered around seven love stories for the ages, this is Possanza’s journey into the archives to recover the personal histories of lesbians in the twentieth century: who they were, how they loved, why their stories were destroyed, and where their memories echo and live on. Possanza’s hunt takes readers from a drag king show in Bushwick to the home of activists in Harlem and then across the ocean to Hadrian’s Library, where she searches for traces of Sappho in the ruins. Along the way, she discovers her own love—for swimming, for community, for New York City—and adds her record to the archive.At the heart of this riveting, inventive history, Possanza asks: How could lesbian love help us reimagine care and community? What would our world look like if we replaced its foundation of misogyny with something new, with something distinctly lesbian?
New York Times BestsellerA TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club PickA Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises—especially to ourselves—by the bestselling and beloved author of The Guncle.It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation from Berkeley when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.
A revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other PartiesIn the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming.And it’s that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope―the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman―through which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles. She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships.Machado’s dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.
In This Poignant And Timely Love Letter To His Son, Producer Richie Jackson Reflects On His Experiences As A Gay Man In America And The Progress And Setbacks Of Lgbtq Citizens Over The Past Fifty Years. “my Son Is Kind, Responsible, And Hardworking. He Is Ready For College. He Is Not Ready To Be A Gay Man Living In America.” When Richie Jackson’s Eighteen-year-old Adopted Son Came Out To Him, The Successful Theater, Television, And Film Producer, Now In His Fifties, Was Compelled To Reflect On His Experiences And Share His Wisdom On Life For Lgbtq Americans Over The Past Half-century. Gay Is Our Superpower Is A Celebration Of Gay Identity And A Sorrowful Warning. Jackson Looks Back At His Own Progress And Growth As A Gay Man Coming Of Age Through Decades Of Political And Cultural Change. We’ve Come A Long Way Since Stonewall, He Marvels: Discrimination Is Now Outlawed In Most States, Gay Men And Women Can Marry, And Drugs Can Protect Against Aids And Mitigate Its Effects. Jackson’s Son Lives In A Newly Liberated America. Yet Nothing Can Be Taken For Granted. Bigotry And Hatred Still Exist, Nurtured By A President Whose Divisive, Manipulative Language Exacerbates Fear Of “the Other,” Drawing Support And Votes For Excluding Minorities And Anyone Who Can Be Labelled “an Outsider.” A Newly Constituted Supreme Court With A Conservative Tilt Could Revoke Laws And Turn The Clock Back Years. Gay Identity Can Be Worn With Pride, But Gay Citizens Cannot Be Complacent Jackson Warns; They Must Always Be Vigilant That Their Gains Are Fragile. As Ta-nehisi Coates Did In Between The World And Me, Jackson Offers A Response To Our Anxious And Uncertain Times. An Intimate, Personal Exploration Of Our Most Troubling Questions And Profound Concerns—about Issues Such As Human Rights, Equality, Justice—gay Is Our Superpower Is A Book For All Who Care About Tolerance, Diversity, And Social Progress. Angry, Proud, Fierce, Tender, It Is Powerful Letter Of Love From A Father To A Son That Holds Lasting Insight For Us All.
Middlesex is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.A dazzling triumph from the bestselling author of The Virgin Suicides--the astonishing tale of a gene that passes down through three generations of a Greek-American family and flowers in the body of a teenage girl."I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license...records my first name simply as Cal."So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.
“A moving chronicle of trans resilience and joy” (Vogue) from one of Out100’s Most Impactful and Influential LGBTQ+ Storytellers“Groundbreaking . . . [Rocero] quite literally models what triumph can look like.”—Glamour (Women of the Year)WINNER OF THEM’S AWARD FOR LITERATURE • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Book Riot, Elle, EsquireAs a young femme in 1990s Manila, Geena Rocero heard, “Bakla, bakla!,” a taunt aimed at her feminine sway, whenever she left the tiny universe of her eskinita. Eventually, she found her place in trans pageants, the Philippines’ informal national sport. When her competitors mocked her as a “horse Barbie” due to her statuesque physique, tumbling hair, long neck, and dark skin, she leaned into the epithet. By seventeen, she was the Philippines’ highest-earning trans pageant queen.A year later, Geena moved to the United States where she could change her name and gender marker on her documents. But legal recognition didn’t mean safety. In order to survive, Geena went stealth and hid her trans identity, gaining one type of freedom at the expense of another. For a while, it worked. She became an in-demand model. But as her star rose, her sense of self eroded. She craved acceptance as her authentic self yet had to remain vigilant in order to protect her dream career. The high-stakes double life finally forced Geena to decide herself if she wanted to reclaim the power of Horse Barbie once and for all: radiant, head held high, and unabashedly herself.A dazzling testimony from an icon who sits at the center of transgender history and activism, Horse Barbie is a celebratory and universal story of survival, love, and pure joy.
A whirlwind romance between an eccentric archivist and a grieving widow explores what it means to be at home in your own body in this clever, humorous, and heartfelt novel.When archivist Sol meets Elsie, the larger than life widow of a moderately famous television writer who's come to donate her wife's papers, there's an instant spark. But Sol has a secret: he suffers from an illness called vampirism, and hides from the sun by living in his basement office. On their way to falling in love, the two traverse grief, delve into the Internet fandom they once unknowingly shared, and navigate the realities of transphobia and the stigmas of carrying the "vampire disease."Then, when strange things start happening at the collection, Sol must embrace even more of the unknown to save himself and his job. DEAD COLLECTIONS is a wry novel full of heart and empathy, that celebrates the journey, the difficulties and joys, in finding love and comfort within our own bodies.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA New York Times "100 Notable Books of 2023"A TIME Magazine "100 Must-Read Books of 2023"A Washington Post "50 Notable Works of Nonfiction"An Autostraddle "Best Queer Books of 2023"“Vivid…Moving…Juicy” – NPR"Eloquent and enthralling..." ―Washington Post"Searing, deeply moving, and incredibly poignant... This isn’t simply a book on what it means to be trans, it’s about what it means to be human." ―Alok Vaid-MenonFull of intimate stories, from chasing down secret love affairs to battling body image and struggling with familial strife, Pageboy is a love letter to the power of being seen. With this evocative and lyrical debut, Oscar-nominated star Elliot Page captures the universal human experience of searching for ourselves and our place in this complicated world.“Can I kiss you?” It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. Getting closer to his desires, his dreams, himself, without the repression he’d carried for so long. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back.With Juno’s massive success, Elliot became one of the world’s most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. He was forced to play the part of the glossy young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl, on and off set. The career that had been an escape out of his reality and into a world of imagination was suddenly a nightmare.As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do. Until enough was enough.The Oscar-nominated star who captivated the world with his performance in Juno finally shares his story in a groundbreaking and inspiring memoir about love, family, fame ― and stepping into who we truly are with strength, joy and connection.
A chance encounter between two lonely women leads to a passionate romance in this lesbian cult classic. Therese, a struggling young sales clerk, and Carol, a homemaker in the midst of a bitter divorce, abandon their oppressive daily routines for the freedom of the open road, where their love can blossom. But their newly discovered bliss is shattered when Carol is forced to choose between her child and her lover.Author Patricia Highsmith is best known for her psychological thrillers Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Originally published in 1952 under a pseudonym, The Price of Salt was heralded as "the novel of a love society forbids." Highsmith's sensitive treatment of fully realized characters who defy stereotypes about homosexuality marks a departure from previous lesbian pulp fiction. Erotic, eloquent, and suspenseful, this story offers an honest look at the necessity of being true to one's nature. The book is also the basis of the acclaimed 2015 film Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
**A 2024 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST*** Washington Post's 50 Best Nonfiction of 2023 * NPR's Books We Love 2023 ** A New and Noteworthy Memoir of 2023 Selected by * Washington Post * USA Today * Esquire * Buzzfeed * Debutiful * LitHub * and more! *A hilarious and poignant memoir grappling with family, disability, and coming of age in two closets—as a gay man and as a man living with cerebral palsy“Leg is intimate (and I mean that in all ways), insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny.” —Scott Simon, NPR’s “Weekend Edition”“A riotous new memoir . . . A hilarious yet loving account, this book has charm for days.” —People MagazineGreg Marshall’s early years were pretty bizarre. Rewind the VHS tapes (this is the ’90s) and you’ll see a lopsided teenager limping across a high school stage, or in a wheelchair after leg surgeries, pondering why he’s crushing on half of the Utah Jazz. Add to this home-video footage a mom clacking away at her newspaper column between chemos, a dad with ALS, and a cast of foulmouthed siblings. Fast forward the tape and you’ll find Marshall happily settled into his life as a gay man only to discover he’s been living in another closet his whole life: he has cerebral palsy. Here, in the hot mess of it all, lies Greg Marshall’s wellspring of wit and wisdom.Extraordinarily funny and insightful, Leg is packed with outrageous stories of a singular childhood. It is also a unique examination of what it means to transform when there are parts of yourself you can’t change, a moving portrait of a family in crisis, and a tale of resilience of spirit. In Marshall’s deft hands, we see a story both personal and universal—of being young and wanting the world, even when the world doesn’t feel like yours to want.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • From the creator of Elle’s “Eric Reads the News,” a heartfelt and hilarious memoir-in-essays about growing up seeing the world differently, finding unexpected hope, and experiencing every awkward, extraordinary stumble along the way.“Pop culture–obsessed, Sedaris-level laugh-out-loud funny . . . [R. Eric Thomas] is one of my favorite writers.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda, Entertainment WeeklyFINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TEEN VOGUE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Marie Claire • Men’s HealthR. Eric Thomas didn’t know he was different until the world told him so. Everywhere he went—whether it was his rich, mostly white, suburban high school, his conservative black church, or his Ivy League college in a big city—he found himself on the outside looking in.In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Thomas reexamines what it means to be an “other” through the lens of his own life experience. He explores the two worlds of his childhood: the barren urban landscape where his parents’ house was an anomalous bright spot, and the Eden-like school they sent him to in white suburbia. He writes about struggling to reconcile his Christian identity with his sexuality, the exhaustion of code-switching in college, accidentally getting famous on the internet (for the wrong reason), and the surreal experience of covering the 2016 election for Elle online, and the seismic changes that came thereafter. Ultimately, Thomas seeks the answer to these ever more relevant questions: Is the future worth it? Why do we bother when everything seems to be getting worse? As the world continues to shift in unpredictable ways, Thomas finds the answers to these questions by reenvisioning what “normal” means and in the powerful alchemy that occurs when you at last place yourself at the center of your own story.Here for It will resonate deeply and joyfully with everyone who has ever felt pushed to the margins, struggled with self-acceptance, or wished to shine more brightly in a dark world. Stay here for it—the future may surprise you.
Finalist for the National Book Award for PoetryWinner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection“[Smith's] poems are enriched to the point of volatility, but they pay out, often, in sudden joy.”―The New YorkerAward-winning poet Danez Smith is a groundbreaking force, celebrated for deft lyrics, urgent subjects, and performative power. Don’t Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved here on earth. Smith turns then to desire, mortality―the dangers experienced in skin and body and blood―and a diagnosis of HIV positive. “Some of us are killed / in pieces,” Smith writes, “some of us all at once.” Don’t Call Us Dead is an astonishing and ambitious collection, one that confronts, praises, and rebukes America―“Dear White America”―where every day is too often a funeral and not often enough a miracle.