Arts & Culture :: Books

Lauren McBrayer's 'Like a House on Fire'

Lauren McBrayer's 'Like a House on Fire'

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Mar 29, 2022

2022 is proving to be one of the queerest ever in terms of literature, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry titles. If it's not already on your reading list, by all means, add lesbian writer Lauren McBrayer's debut novel 'Like a House on Fire.'

Blair Fell's 'The Sign for Home' - Gay ASL interpreter and straight DeafBlind young man's lives intersect

Blair Fell's 'The Sign for Home' - Gay ASL interpreter and straight DeafBlind young man's lives intersect

  • by Jim Provenzano
  • Mar 29, 2022

In his debut novel, 'The Sign for Home,' author Blair Fell explores the friendship between Arlo, a young, straight DeafBlind Jehovah's Witness, and Cyril, his gay older ASL interpreter. Fell shared his inspiration and ideas behind his novel.

Steve Fellner's 'Eating Lightbulbs and Other Essays'

Steve Fellner's 'Eating Lightbulbs and Other Essays'

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Mar 29, 2022

Steve Fellner's new book is at turns hysterically funny and cause for hysteria. Fellner is relentlessly open in the way he details his struggles with mental illness that is alternately clinical and casual.

Wayne Hoffman's 'The End of Her'

Wayne Hoffman's 'The End of Her'

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Mar 29, 2022

For his new book, 'The End of Her: Racing Against Alzheimer's to Solve a Murder,' Wayne Hoffman called on his skills as a journalist and a storyteller to unravel a family mystery.

Poet Richie Hofmann's new orbit of intimacy

Poet Richie Hofmann's new orbit of intimacy

  • by Mark William Norby
  • Mar 29, 2022

San Francisco poet Richie Hofmann combines memoir and fiction in order to detail the character's interior monologue in his new book of poems, 'A Hundred Lovers.'

Harvey Fierstein's 'Better' than ever: theater and film fave's memoir 'I Was Better Last Night'

Harvey Fierstein's 'Better' than ever: theater and film fave's memoir 'I Was Better Last Night'

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Mar 22, 2022

Award-winning writer and actor Harvey Fierstein qualifies as someone who has a distinctive voice and while reading his revelatory memoir, 'I Was Better Last Night,' you'd swear he was in the room with you, dishing away.

Queer reading: ACT UP's Staley is not silent in new book

Queer reading: ACT UP's Staley is not silent in new book

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Mar 15, 2022

ACT UP member Peter Staley pens a new memoir, "Never Silent: ACT UP and My Life in Activism."

Sang Young Park's 'Love in the Big City'

Sang Young Park's 'Love in the Big City'

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Mar 15, 2022

Sang Young Park's gay-themed 'Love in the Big City,' his first to be newly translated into English, has been a runaway bestseller (nine printings) in South Korea, astounding for such a socially conservative nation.

Frank Bruni's memoir, 'The Beauty of Dusk'

Frank Bruni's memoir, 'The Beauty of Dusk'

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Mar 8, 2022

"I went to bed seeing the world one way. I woke up seeing it another," writes gay journalist Frank Bruni in his new memoir about that fateful morning in 2017 when he awoke with blurred vision resembling a thick fog.

The lingering scent of murder: Lara Elena Donnelly's 'Base Notes'

The lingering scent of murder: Lara Elena Donnelly's 'Base Notes'

  • by Jim Piechota
  • Mar 8, 2022

Drenched in pheromones and the smells of the big bad city, Lara Elena Donnelly's latest novel offers further proof of the author's wide-ranging talent and creativity.

'Sticker' author Henry Hoke

'Sticker' author Henry Hoke

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Mar 1, 2022

With his breathtaking and brief memoir 'Sticker,' queer writer Henry Hoke challenges our notions and expectations of the genre and does it all in under 125 pages.

'Frankie & Bug' author Gayle Forman

'Frankie & Bug' author Gayle Forman

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Mar 1, 2022

In her new Young Adult novel, best-selling author Gayle Forman takes us back to the summer of 1987 in Los Angeles. Bug (aka Beatrice) and her older brother Danny navigate the streets around Venice Beach.

The work of sex: Michal Witkowski's 'Eleven-Inch' addresses sex as survival

The work of sex: Michal Witkowski's 'Eleven-Inch' addresses sex as survival

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • Mar 1, 2022

'Eleven-Inch.' Polish novelist Michal Witkowski's ninth book, bracingly rendered by his regular translator W. Martin, shares the picaresque chronicle of two teenagers on the lam from their politically oppressive homelands in Eastern Europe.

The good son: Neel Patel's 'Tell Me How To Be'

The good son: Neel Patel's 'Tell Me How To Be'

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • Feb 22, 2022

Akash, the protagonist of Neel Patel's debut novel, 'Tell Me How To Be,' ralphs at important family gatherings, behavior that evinces a certain sincerity in a clan infested with secrets.