Arts & Culture » Books
The faint voices of fairies
Out music scholar Paul Kildea, author of a brilliant biography of Benjamin Britten, has looked deeply into Chopin's Op. 28 Preludes in "Chopin's Piano: A Journey Through Romanticism" (W.W. Norton).
Nicola Griffith's "So Lucky" is a profound work of autobiographical fiction about overcoming life's boundaries, resisting victimization, and discovering long-dormant strengths.
Considering Todd Fisher's fascinating "My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie" (William Morrow, $27.99).
Jordy Rosenberg's "Confessions of the Fox" comes as a sharp reminder of the undervalued business of reading for pleasure.
Author Don Shewey is a therapist whose work with gay men concerns issues of sex and intimacy. He has a lot of wisdom and experience to share in his new book "The Paradox of Porn - Notes on Gay Male Sexual Culture" (Joybody Books).
As the limited field of porn star memoirs goes, a new book ranks high. It's "Body to Job" (Rare Bird Books, paper, $17.95; Kindle, $9) by Christopher Zeischegg, the former and mostly heterosexual porn star whose nom de porn is/was Danny Wylde.
Lesbian novels have rarely caught the public imagination, but this deserves to change with the publication of "Stray City," a tender, insightful debut novel set in 1990s Portland.
The greatest success story that "RuPaul's Drag Race" ever launched has now written a book of advice, "Blame It on Bianca Del Rio" (Dey Street).
J. Randy Taraborrelli provides new insights in his fascinating "Jackie, Janet & Lee: The Secret Life of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill" (St. Martin's Press, $29.99).
"History of Violence" is a harrowing work of fictionalized fact that depicts its 25-year-old author's rape and assault during a botched hookup.
"Obsexion," by local writer Matt Converse, is based on the author's seven years as a dancer at the iconic San Francisco club.
There are less loaded ways to ask the question "Has the Gay Movement Failed?" than making it the title of your new book from the University of California Press, as the eminent gay historian Martin Duberman just has.
"Pop Trash: The Amazing Art of Jason Mecier," a coffee-table book with full-page pictures of meticulously crafted celebrity portraits, rolled off the presses this month.
Whoever said that 60 is the new 40 hasn't met writer David Sedaris. The popular satirist's latest collection of tragicomic essays "Calypso" finds the pithy, prolific wordsmith at his finest.
It's not to diminish the significance of the art Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore made together in and around between-the-world-wars Paris to say that none of it is absorbing as Rupert Thomson's masterful novel about them, "Never Anyone But You."
A fine crop of murder mysteries is available to keep readers engaged while at the beach, the pool, or flying to an interesting destination.
A deeply felt, finely balanced account of being Leonard Bernstein's oldest daughter captures the madness of life in the orbit of one of the last century's most influential, larger-than-life musicians with equal parts candor and compassion.
Outspoken, forceful, and eminently significant, Michelle Tea has been a literary force of nature for well over a decade.
By the time young gay French author Edouard Louis' first novel "The End of Eddy" was translated into English and published in the U.S. last year, all of our friends who still read books had read it and were urging us to dive right in.
As the winner of the sixth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race" and the queen of her own expanding empire, insult comedienne extraordinaire Bianca Del Rio's (aka Roy Haylock) latest venture is a companion piece to her current comedy tour of the same name.
For gay readers cultivating families of their own, there remains a distinct need for literary nourishment especially written for the young ones.
The Swedish Royal Academy's decision to award the 1947 Nobel Prize for Literature to Andre Gide (1869-1951) was revolutionary. Never before had an openly homosexual author been given that prize.
The following titles are suggestions for reading on a park bench, at the beach or anywhere the sun is warmly shining on you.
Summer's finally here, and the time is right for reading at the beach, or wherever your heart desires.
Second novels are tough, especially when the author's debut was highly acclaimed. This was the challenge facing Madeline Miller, whose "Song of Achilles" (2012) was a superb retelling of the legendary Greek hero's homoerotic love affair with Patrocles.
Last week we previewed two books that are being released in time for LGBTQ Pride Month. This week we follow up with a passel more, books with publication dates this June.
June is bustin' out all over. LGBTQ Pride Month always brings with it a cornucopia of new books of special interest to our community.
Two recently published books are a Bob Fosse feast for musical theatre enthusiasts (aka, show queens, a fun but less politically correct nickname).
For one-handed readers who enjoy erotic novels dripping with over-the-top sex on every page, Lambda Award-winning writer Tom Cardamone has written the perfect indulgence.
In "Giant" (St. Martin's Press, $27), Don Graham, professor of English at the University of Texas and scholar of the Lone Star State's "literature, films, and pop culture," argues for the greatness of the 1956 movie.
In a couple of weeks last month, Ronan Farrow came out publicly, won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Harvey Weinstein for The New Yorker, was named one of Time's 100 most influential people, and saw the publication of his new book.