Bay Area Reporter :: Books News

Sasha Velour's 'Big Reveal' - drag artist brings new show to Palace of Fine Arts

March 28, 2023 | by David-Elijah Nahmod

Drag artist Sasha Velour takes to the stage of the Palace of Fine Arts Theater on April 6 with a new show that's also a celebration of the publication of "The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag," her first book.

Queer books for life: podcast celebrates LGBTQ literature

by David-Elijah Nahmod
Mar 28, 2023

Books with queer themes are the subject of each episode of "This Queer Book Saved My Life," a podcast based out of Minneapolis. In installment after installment, host J. P. Der Boghossian talks to a guest about books that saved their life.

Lucy Jane Bledsoe's 'Tell the Rest'

by Jim Piechota
Mar 21, 2023

For the two enthralling queer protagonists in author Lucy Jane Bledsoe's just-published novel, they have lived a life scarred by their time in a Christian conversion camp, each bearing the enduring weight of psychological pain and torment.

Thomas Mallon's 'Up With the Sun'

by Brian Bromberger
Mar 21, 2023

Readers can discover Dick Kallman, a gay miniscule has-been yet fascinating celebrity, in the new novel on his tumultuous life, "Up With the Sun" by Thomas Mallon, perhaps the country's foremost historical fiction writer.

Leslie Absher's 'Spy Daughter, Queer Girl'

by Laura Moreno
Mar 14, 2023

While growing up, Leslie Absher didn't know or years that her father worked for the CIA. She later decided that her life as a spy daughter was also hers to reclaim. The result is an intimate portrait of personal healing.

A family affair: Richard Mirabella's 'Brother & Sister Enter the Forest'

by Tim Pfaff
Mar 14, 2023

The title of Richard Mirabella's debut novel, "Brother & Sister Enter the Forest" promises the sinister, and Mirabella makes good on the promise. The plot sits queasily somewhere between "Hansel and Gretel" and "A Long Day's Journey Into Night."

Supreme Models: Vogue docuseries based on Marcellas Reynolds' book

by Cornelius Washington
Mar 7, 2023

Marcellas Reynolds' ravishing book, "Supreme Models: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion," is a must-have for true fashion addicts. And so is the Vogue documentary series inspired by his book.

De'Shawn Charles Winslow: author discusses 'Decent People'

by Gregg Shapiro
Mar 7, 2023

Readers know a writer has created an effective murder mystery when they are kept guessing, and then are utterly surprised by the revelation of the guilty party. Gay author De'Shawn Charles Winslow does precisely that in his second novel, "Decent People."

Author Will Schwalbe discusses 'We Should Not Be Friends'

by Gregg Shapiro
Feb 28, 2023

Will Schwalbe's "We Should Not Be Friends" is a memoir about two people who couldn't possibly be more different yet became unexpectedly good friends.

'Kids On the Street' - Joseph Plaster's queer Tenderloin history

by Laura Moreno
Feb 28, 2023

An important new scholarly book, "Kids On the Street: Queer Kinship & Religion In San Francisco's Tenderloin" by Joseph Plaster, has unearthed the queer history of 'outsider youth' that has long remained hidden.

Rebecca Makkai: author discusses 'I Have Some Questions For You'

by Gregg Shapiro
Feb 21, 2023

Novelist and straight ally Rebecca Makkai has created some of the most unforgettable queer characters in contemporary fiction. She shared insights on new novel, 'I Have Some Questions For You.'

Sargent's 'Grand Affair' - biography of the painter brings new light on his life

by Brian Bromberger
Feb 14, 2023

Paul Fisher, professor of American studies at Wellesley College, begins his full-scale biography, "The Grand Affair: John Singer Sargent in His World," with a confession that Sargent, a great American artist (1856-1925), is also an abiding enigma.

Sargent and Spain: John Singer Sargent exhibit graces the Legion of Honor

by Robert Brokl
Feb 14, 2023

Like a swank ocean liner of a bygone era, the John Singer Sargent exhibition, "Sargent and Spain," at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco from the National Gallery in Washington, is a welcome arrival, full of his trademark bravura paintings and drawings.

Tom Crewe's 'The New Life' - Wilde times in Britain

by Tim Pfaff
Feb 7, 2023

Tom Crewe's debut novel, "The New Life" (Scribner), has been rightly praised as historical fiction at its finest. The irony, richly deserved, is that its two main protagonists, John Addington and Henry Ellis, never met in real life.

Winter's tales; new books part 2

by Jim Piechota
Jan 31, 2023

Continuing on our Winter Books picks, here comes part two, which contains even more provocative reading material than the first group. Enjoy tales of thrillingly engrossing wartime queer love, conversion camp survival, and speculative foreign lands.

Arts & Culture :: Books