The headline is not meant to be insulting. It's an homage to a new book titled, "My Week Beats Your Year — Encounters with Lou Reed, 1972-2013" (Hat & Beard Press) compiled by Michael Heath and edited by Pat Thomas.

Novelist, architect and poet Luis Panini grabs love and lust by the collar and insists we pay careful attention to his unflinching assessment of how they intertwine, overwhelm, and ultimately burn each other out.

Good murder mysteries simultaneously challenge the reader and afford a splendid way to relax, whether spending the summer at home or away.

The rigors and satisfactions of living in remote places for a certain type of LGBTQ people are rarely articulated more artfully and artistically than they are in Mike Parker's "On the Red Hill."

There are fewer tales in Hollywood lore sadder than that of Barbara Payton (1927-67).

What's your style, what makes you confident? How do you know what to wear for the occasion? Read "Naturally Tan" by Tan France, and see what fits.

Only the excellence of Nicole Dennis-Benn's writing got me all the way through her second novel, "Patsy" (Liveright).

Stonewall 50 celebrations may have come and gone, but that doesn't mean that there isn't an abundance of good LGBTQ reading to be found to take you through the summer and into the fall.

The image that probably comes to mind when you think of swans and ballet was the brainchild of Marius Petipa, the great 19th-century choreographer who brought "Swan Lake" back from oblivion.

"Justify My Sins" is based on Felice Picano's experiences of living in mid-1970s Hollywood working for actor Cary Grant, who wanted Picano to adapt one of his own books into a screenplay vehicle for him.

"The Flight Portfolio" re-enacts the doings of the US-fostered Emergency Rescue Commission, sanctioned by Eleanor Roosevelt, dedicated to getting the persecuted out of the clutches of the Nazis and to safe ground, particularly in the U.S.

Poet, novelist, playwright Kevin Killian died at his home in San Francisco on June 15, and the B.A.R. published his obituary in our June 20 edition.

Work! A Queer History of Modeling, by Elspeth H. Brown, is a unique take on the history of high fashion modeling.

"We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation" (Ten Speed Press), by Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown, tells stories of the LGBTQ community in words and pictures, from 1868 to the present day.