Arts & Culture :: Books

Creative reading: Pride 2019 booklist

Creative reading: Pride 2019 booklist

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Jun 18, 2019

Visit your favorite independent bookseller or the love-it-or-hate-it Amazon.com to order copies of these LGBTQ books for readers of all rainbow stripes.

Impresario Marc Huestis impresses with new memoir

Impresario Marc Huestis impresses with new memoir

  • by John F. Karr
  • Jun 14, 2019

The buzz is on! Marc Huestis has just published his endlessly exciting and not infrequently moving autobiography, "Impresario of Castro Street" ($19.99).

The way men do: 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous'

The way men do: 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous'

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • Jun 11, 2019

Surely one of the last things Ocean Vuong thought he'd become is topical, and hotly so.

Talented, triumphant & tormented

Talented, triumphant & tormented

  • by Tavo Amador
  • Jun 4, 2019

Many people regard Vivien Leigh (1913-67) as a figure from Greek tragedy: beautiful, acclaimed, plagued by mental illness, abandoned by her husband of 20 years Laurence Olivier, and living a melancholy existence after their 1960 divorce.

Chasing Henry James

Chasing Henry James

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Jun 4, 2019

In their heyday (1982-2000), the sophisticated, independent gay personal-professional partnership of Ivory & Merchant was the most successful team in adapting literary classics to film, especially E.M. Forster and Henry James.

Whatcha reading?

Whatcha reading?

  • by Roberto Friedman
  • May 28, 2019

Out There has access to review copies and early galleys of published works, so we're often found with our nose in a book. Which ones? The following.

Boy destroyed

Boy destroyed

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • May 28, 2019

It's hard to imagine the reader of Damian Barr's debut novel "You Will Be Safe Here" (Bloomsbury Publishing) who doesn't sense that the title portends the opposite.

Rock Hudson, fantasy man

Rock Hudson, fantasy man

  • by Tavo Amador
  • May 26, 2019

Tall, dark, handsome, buffed, manly yet sensitive: Rock Hudson (1925-85) was the embodiment of the classic Hollywood hunk in the 1950s and 60s.

Young love & its bittersweet aftermath

Young love & its bittersweet aftermath

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • May 21, 2019

"Lie with Me" (Scribner) is as immediately involving and heart-breaking a tale of gay first love as I can recall.

Theater activism

Theater activism

  • by Jim Piechota
  • May 14, 2019

In his latest collection of essays and performance pieces, Tim Miller demonstrates a well-honed sense of humor, a passion for queer history, and the kind of melodrama only a true performance artist can exude.

Three queens & an ace

Three queens & an ace

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • May 7, 2019

I've wearied of the too-oft-repeated Joan Didion quote, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." In a warmer voice all his own, Dustin Lance Black has given it a new lease on life with his memoir, "Mama's Boy: A Story from Our Americas."

Everybody must get stoned

Everybody must get stoned

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • Apr 30, 2019

In the part of his life that begins after the events chronicled in his new book "The Light Years" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Chris Rush has become known as a painter.

It's curtains for Joy

It's curtains for Joy

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • Apr 23, 2019

Christopher Castellani's deeply felt new "Leading Men" (Viking) exhibits another compelling aurora.

Broadway or bust!

Broadway or bust!

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Apr 16, 2019

In his new memoir, gay actor Andrew Rannells tells the contemporary Candide-like adventure of a Midwestern boy relocating to New York City to fulfill his dream of being on a Broadway stage.