Posted on 17 Jun 2013 at 9:56am
John Irving, Dale Carpenter win Lambda Literary Awards, but not John Boyne
Life+Style » Books
Noble Savage
Posted on 07 Jun 2013 at 9:30am
Dan Savage’s new memoir slash advice book pushes all the right hot-buttons American Savage by Dan Savage (Dutton 2013); $26.95; 301 pp You’ve got this sticky issue, a little problem, a thing you need help with but you aren’t sure you can trust anybody. Your sister is a big-mouth, your mom won’t understand, and your [...]
Summer reading list
Posted on 31 May 2013 at 10:30am
The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon (2013 William Morrow). $15; 423 pp. Reggie Dufrane, a 39-year-old woman, never wanted to return to the old stone house built by her grandfather for his wife, Monique, who died in childbirth. Called Monique’s Wish the house was supposed to be a gift, but Reggie only saw [...]
Justin Hernandez is the gay stripper we dreamed about
Posted on 12 Apr 2013 at 9:45am
Inside the Vortex by Justin Hernandez (2013, CreateSpace), $14.95; 158 pp. Just last week, we wrote here about a book written by two straight men who strip for women. But that’s not all the guys who drop trou for some bucks — not by a longshot. Justin Hernandez should have been a tough, masculine kid: [...]
Lingua franca
Posted on 12 Apr 2013 at 8:15am
Texas-born gay Latino poet Dan Vera touches all the hot-button issues Poet T.S. Eliot told us that “April is the cruelest month,” but it’s also National Poetry Month. And ever since gay poet Richard Blanco was chosen to write President Barack Obama’s second inaugural benediction, poetry has been an unexpected topic of popular conversation within the [...]
Magic Mikes
Posted on 05 Apr 2013 at 8:00am
Texas beefcake share the secrets of strippers (Big news? They’re all straight!) Between them, Taylor Cole and Justin Whitfield have been getting naked (or nearly naked) professionally for more than 30 years. With that much skin in the game, it naturally made sense they would share their experience with the world — both the fans [...]
Memoir of Texas family coping with a troubled gay child strikes a chord
Posted on 01 Mar 2013 at 10:45am
Oddly Normal by John Schwartz (Gotham Books 2012). $26; 290pp. When we’re born, our parents count our fingers and toes. They lovingly stroke our skin, look into our faces and wonder what might become of us. That was certainly true of John Schwartz, though in his memoir Oddly Normal, he explains how some real battles laid [...]
Slice of life
Posted on 25 Jan 2013 at 10:15am
The stories in gay author Emma Donoghue’s ‘Astray’ stir the imagination Astray by Emma Donoghue (2012) Little, Brown. $26, 275 pp. The lady in the picture was wearing the biggest scowl you’d ever seen. The photo was taken long ago and it made you wonder: What happened that day to make her so snarly? Was [...]
The year in entertainment: Books
Posted on 04 Jan 2013 at 9:30am
Drivel, dreck, and what the heck. That kind of sums up many books that were released in 2012. There were some good things, some downright awful things, and some things that, well, they weren’t bad but they weren’t the best books you’ve ever read, either. And then there were the gems. I read more than [...]
A compelling history of marriage equality
Posted on 14 Dec 2012 at 10:00am
From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage by Michael J. Klarman (Oxford University Press, 2012) $28; 276 pp. In the years after World War II, gay rights faced “daunting hurdles.” Organized activism was rare because homosexuality was widely criminalized. Homosexuals — and those merely suspected of homosexuality — [...]
