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Growing up in Pakistan, Samra Habib lacks a blueprint for the life she wants. She has a mother who gave… up everything to be a pious, dutiful wife and an overprotective father who seems to conspire against a life of any adventure. Plus, she has to hide the fact that she's Ahmadi to avoid persecution from religious extremists. As the threats against her family increase, they seek refuge in Canada, where new financial and cultural obstacles await them. When Samra discovers that her mother has arranged her marriage, she must again hide a part of herself--the fun-loving, feminist teenager that has begun to bloom--until she simply can't any longer. So begins a journey of self-discovery that takes her to Tokyo, where she comes to terms with her sexuality, and to a queer-friendly mosque in Toronto, where she returns to her faith in the same neighbourhood where she attended her first drag show. Along the way, she learns that the facets of her identity aren't as incompatible as she was led to believe, and that her people had always been there--the world just wasn't ready for them yet. 2019.
Eric Davidson was a beautiful, fair-haired toddler when the Halifax Explosion struck, killing almost 2,000 people and seriously injuring thousands… of others. Eric lost both eyes-a tragedy that his mother never fully recovered from. Eric, however, was positive and energetic. He also developed a fascination with cars and how they worked, and he later decided, against all likelihood, to become a mechanic. Assisted by his brothers who read to him from manuals, he worked hard, passed examinations, and carved out a decades-long career. Once the subject of a National Film Board documentary, Eric Davidson was, until his death, a much-admired figure in Halifax. Written by his daughter Marilyn, this book gives new insights into the story of the 1917 Halifax Explosion and contains never-before-seen documents and photographs. Winner of the 2019 The Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award (Non-Fiction). 2018.
"A hilarious memoir of effervescent misadventures." --Toronto Star"How am I laughing at someone's mother's cancer? How? We think we can't… laugh about death, about cancer, about our mothers and their suffering . . . and we can't, but we can. And there's so much relief in that. I laughed, I cried, I laughed and laughed and laughed." --Carolyn Taylor, BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOWA traumedy about life and death (and every cosmic joke in between)When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, Rachel Matlow is concerned but hopeful. It's Stage 1, so her mom will get surgery and everything will go back to normal. But growing up in Rachel's family, there was no normal. Elaine, an alternative school teacher and self-help junkie, was never a capital M "Mommy"--she spent more time meditating than packing lunches--and Rachel, who played hockey with the boys and refused to ever wear a dress, was no ordinary daughter.When Elaine decides to forgo conventional treatment and heal herself naturally, Rachel is forced to ponder whether the very things that made her mom so special--her independent spirit, her belief in being the author of her own story--are what will ultimately kill her. As the cancer progresses, so does Elaine's conviction in doing things her way. She assembles a dream team of alternative healers, gulps down herbal tinctures with every meal, and talks (with respect) to her cancer cells. Anxious and confused, Rachel is torn between indulging her pie-in-the-sky pursuits (ayahuasca and all) and pleading with the person who's taking her mother away.With irreverence and honesty--and a little help from Elaine's journals and self-published dating guide, plus hours of conversations recorded in her dying days--Matlow brings her inimitable mother to life on the page. Dead Mom Walking is the hilarious and heartfelt story of what happens when two people who've always written their own script go head to head with each other, and with life's least forgiving plot device.
A memoir for our times Michael Stipe A coming-of-age drama… captured through poetic prose and convincing honesty Kirkus Reviews I swim for every chance to get wasted after every meet every weekend every travel trip This is what I look forward to and what I tell no one the burn of it down my throat to my soul curled up in my lungs the sharpest pain all over it it seizes and stretches becoming alive again and is the only thing that makes sense At fifteen Casey Legler is already one of the fastest swimmers in the world She is also an alcoholic isolated from her family and incapable of forming lasting connections with those around her Driven to compete at the highest levels sent far away from home to train with the best coaches and teams she finds herself increasingly alone and alienated living a life of cheap hotels and chlorine-worn skin anonymous sexual encounters and escalating drug use Even at what should be a moment of triumph competing at age sixteen in the 1996 Olympics she is an outsider looking in procuring drugs for Olympians she hardly knows and losing her race after setting a new world record in the qualifying heats After submitting to years of numbing training in France and the United States Casey can see no way out of the sinister loneliness that has swelled and festered inside her Yet wondrously when it is almost too late she discovers a small light within herself and senses a point of calm within the whirlwind of her life In searing evocative visceral prose Casey gives language to loneliness in this startling story of survival defiance and of the embers that still burn when everything else in us goes dark
An enthralling emotional memoir that recounts the ups and downs of coming-of-age set against the music and literature… of the 1970s Raised in a small town in the north of England known primarily for its cotton mills football team and its deep roots in the Respectable Working Class Graham Caveney armed himself against the confusing nature of adolescence with a thick accent a copy of Kafka and a record collection including the likes of the Buzzcocks and Joy Division All three provided him the opportunity to escape even if just in mind beyond his small-town borders But when those passions are noticed and preyed upon by a mentor everything changes Now as an adult Caveney attempts to reconcile his past and present coming to grips with both the challenges and wonder of adolescence music and literature By turns angry despairing beautifully written shockingly funny and ultimately redemptive The Boy with Perpetual Nervousness is a tribute to the power of the arts and a startling original memoir that feels as if it had to be written and demands to be read The Guardian UK
"There are moments when I suddenly realize that I'm a nice boy from Iowa who is entirely comfortable sitting in… a room of freaks. " So begins Patrick Moore's unforgettable account of life as a crystal meth addict—a "tweaker. " Like a wild ride down Alice's rabbit hole with a guide who is darkly funny and heartbreakingly honest, Tweaked chronicles a twenty-year trip that stretches from Moore's lonely childhood in Iowa with his grandmother, Zelma—an alcoholic artist who, when loaded, turns frozen food into crafts projects —to the day he sits, naked, in a Los Angeles rental, hallucinating about psycho-robbers while talking to a possum he's sure is God. Along the way, there are acid trips at the V. F. W. , Dexetrim study halls with his Bad Girl Posse in the seventies, teeth-grinding nights of dancing and anonymous sex in New York City's hottest eighties clubs, taking pictures of Andy Warhol, losing friends and lovers, and navigating a Byzantine underworld of cookers, users, club kids, dealers, and colorful characters as intense as the drug itself. There is Lee, the glamorous, outr#65533; bad boy with a devastating wit and a taste for danger; Tony, the tweaker who likes to remove his eyebrows; Ding-Dong, the Depends-wearing, nearly blind housemate; Hisako, the artist and squatter with an impenetrable Japanese accent and a fondness for hot plate cooking; "Mother" Judy, the tough, butch rehab counselor who takes no prisoners, and countless others on the road from crystal meth hell to eventual sobriety. Candid, gripping, and ultimately triumphant, Tweaked is that rarest of memoirs—a tale so vivid and personal in the telling it feels like fiction, but every word is true.
Imagine what it must be like to feel you are a woman 'trapped' in a man's body. Or a man… 'trapped' in a woman's body. And what happens if you decide to reject your birth gender and become a trans man or a trans woman? Drawing on over one hundred interviews with individuals, this book is a compilation of the voices of those who have decided to undergo transition - both male-to-female and female-to-male. The book details the diverse experiences and challenges faced by those who transition, exploring a range of topics such as hormone treatments; reassignment surgeries; coming out; sex and sexuality; physical, emotional and mental health; transphobia; discrimination; and hate crime, as well as highlighting the lives of non-binary individuals and those who cross-dress to form a wider understanding of the varied ways in which people experience gender. This powerful book is an ideal introduction to those keen to understand more about contemporary trans issues as well as those questioning their own gender identity.
Elegido Reina del célebre carnaval de Salvador Bahía, personaje central de la vida cultural argentina y animador gay inigualable de… la escena under desde hace cuatro décadas, Fernando Noy cuenta todo en un libro imperdible donde conviven lo más granado de los habitués de los bares porteños de los 60 a las leyendas del tropicalismo. De Pizarnik a Caetano Veloso, de Mercedes Sosa a Tanguito, de Sumo a María Luisa Bemberg, Noy se ha convertido en el cronista más desenfadado de una historia que pedía a gritos su Homero. «¿Quién nos quita lo brillado?, se pregunta Fernando Noy y sigue el consejo de su amigo Pedro Lemebel que solía decirle, con sabiduría de Machi: 'No hables más, Noy: escríbelo'. Y finalmente lo hizo. Aquí están sus memorias, estas Peregrinaciones profanas, puro vértigo de purpurina, cemento y rincones donde el desamparo se convierte en jardín secreto. El propio nacimiento anunciado por la caída de un jinete mapuche; una cartografía del deseo suburbano con las locas del Oeste en los años 60; los náufragos hippies en flor; las temporadas en París o Bahía. Y, por supuesto, las amistades sagradas de Alejandra Pizarnik, Marosa Di Giorgio, María Luisa Bemberg, Batato Barea, Paco Jamandreu, Alejandro Urdapilleta y tantos más. Entre carnavales, lisergia y poetas, desfilan las deidades de Noy y él nos bendice con su misticismo afro-celta, sus túnicas y collares, su inefable paso andrógino que es maravilla, desafío y carcajada.»Mariana Enríquez «Cuando no existía la palabra queer la poeta, la vedette, la actriz, nuestro Fernando Noy, la estaba inventando. Lean estas memorias danzantes de la reina de la fiesta de la libertad y el arte.»Gabriela Cabezón Cámara «Sabíamos que Noy, poeta 24 horas, tenía el don de adelantarse al futuro. Ahora sabemos que es capaz de atravesar la memoria de su tiempo y recuperar un pasado por venir, impredecible, lleno de promesas.»Liliana Viola Noy va narrando un laberinto de encuentros increíbles, pero siempre reales. De la niñez patagónica a la adolescencia del yire hermafrodita con las locas del Oeste en los 60, a la fugaz militancia frustrada por su homosexualidad. El nacimiento alucinógeno y anfetamínico de venta libre en farmacias del hippismo se sobrexpone con el descubrimiento de la bohemia del Di Tella. La crónica de sus amistades son el índice onomástico de la Historia de la Cultura y el Espectáculo de la Argentina de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Cuando la Junta Militar prohibía los carnavales, Noy se coronaba reina en Bahía, donde se había exiliado. Trepado al árbol de un neuropsiquiátrico parisino donde había sido internado por tratar de recuperar "sus" joyas de faraona en medio de un viaje con drogas, ve llegar a Jackie O. y María Callas al hospital donde acababa de morir Aristóteles Onassis... Quien se anime a seguir, en estas páginas plagiadas a sí mismo, su incesante deambular, encontrará un mundo fantástico, sobreimpreso con purpurina, visible de noche. Y también para quienes buscan las claves de una fiesta eterna y compartida.
A New York Times Notable Book: To truly understand herself, Doris Grumbach embraces solitude With a busy career as a… novelist, essayist, reviewer, and bookstore owner, Doris Grumbach has little opportunity to be alone. However, after seventy-five years on the planet, she finally has her chance: Her partner has departed for an extended book-buying trip, and Grumbach has been given fifty days to relax, think, and write about her experience. In this graceful memoir, Grumbach delicately balances the beauty of turning one's back on everything with the hardship of complete aloneness. Even as she attends church and collects her mail, she moves like a shadow, speaking to no one. Left only to her books and music in the midst of a Maine winter, she must look within herself for solace. The result of this reflection is a powerful meditation on the meaning of aging, writing, and one's own company--and reaffirmation of the power of friends and companionship.
A New York Times Notable Book: One woman's search for the value of a long life With the advent of… her seventieth birthday, many changes have beset Doris Grumbach: the rapidly accelerating speed of the world around her, the premature deaths of her younger friends, her own increasing infirmities, and her move from cosmopolitan Washington, DC, to the calm of the Maine coast. Coming into the End Zone is an account of everything Grumbach observes over the course of a year. Astute observations and vivid memories of quotidian events pepper her story, which surprises even her with its fullness and vigor. Coming into the End Zone captures the days of a woman entering a new stage of life with humanity and abiding hope.
A New York Times Notable Book: A moving glimpse of a life shrewdly examinedExtra Innings follows a year in the… life of Doris Grumbach, beginning with the release of her previous memoir and journal, Coming into the End Zone, and revealing that the devoted essayist, novelist, and critic possesses as keen an eye in her seventies as she did when she wrote The Spoil of Flowers thirty years earlier. Grumbach details each passing month and the trials and tribulations therein. Age and experience have tempered her anger, allowing her to view the world in a rosier light than she has before. In this eventful period that concludes with her move from Washington, DC, to Maine, Grumbach travels between signings and speeches, describes her home life in a new state, and deals not only with her own mortality, but with that of her daughter. Grumbach's wisdom and wit endure as she looks back on her own memories, seeing the world as only Doris Grumbach can.
At the National Council of Churches Robert Spike had organized American churches to support the passage of both the… Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act to march in Selma and to organize in Mississippi An important white leader in the black civil rights struggle he helped the LBJ White House pass legislation and write crucial civil rights speeches In the midst of what he described as the dirtiest fight of my life struggling to save a federal Mississippi education program he was viciously murdered in Columbus Ohio The murder was never solved Very little effort went into finding the murderer The Columbus police and the FBI hinted the unsolved murder was connected to Spike s undisclosed gay life During his father s rise in the civil rights movement Paul Spike lived a life typical of a young man in the 1960s finding his way through a labyrinth of booze drugs and girls At Columbia University he was active in the 1968 student rebellion and friends with many SDS radicals That rootless life ended with his father s murder Paul Spike lives in London where he writes about politics literature film and travel for a wide range of newspapers and magazines
The esteemed American composer and unabashed diarist Ned Rorem provides a fascinating, brazenly intimate first-person account of his life and… career during one of the most extraordinary decades of the twentieth century <P> Ned Rorem is often considered an American treasure, one of the greatest contemporary composers in the US. In 1966, he revealed another side of his remarkable talent when The Paris Diary was published, and a year later, The New York Diary, both to wide critical acclaim. In The Later Diaries,Rorem continues to explore his world and his music in intimate journal form, covering the years 1961 to 1972, one of his most artistically productive decades. The Ned Rorem revealed in The Later Diaries is somewhat more mature and worldly than the young artist of the earlier works, but no less candid or daring, as he reflects on his astonishing life, loves, friendships, and rivalries during an epoch of staggering, sometimes volatile change. Writing with intelligence, insight, and honesty, he recalls time spent with some of the most famous, and infamous, artists of the era--Philip Roth, Christopher Isherwood, Tallulah Bankhead, and Edward Albee, among others--openly exploring his sexuality and his art while offering fascinating, sometimes blistering, views on the art of his contemporaries.
In this collaborative memoir, a parent and a transgender son recount wrestling with their differences as Donald Collins undertook medical-treatment… options to better align his body with his gender identity. As a parent, Mary Collins didn’t agree with her trans son’s decision to physically alter his body, although she supported his right to realize himself as a person. Raw and uncensored, each explains her or his emotional mindset at the time: Mary felt she had lost a daughter; Donald activated his “authentic self.” Both battled to assert their rights. A powerful memoir and resource, At the Broken Places offers a road map for families in transition.
"A book for any of us, gay or straight, who have had to find our family. Maupin is one of… America’s finest storytellers."—Neil Gaiman"I fell in love with Maupin’s effervescent Tales of the City decades ago, and his genius turn at memoir is no less compelling. Logical Family is a must read."—Mary KarrIn this long-awaited memoir, the beloved author of the bestselling Tales of the City series chronicles his odyssey from the old South to freewheeling San Francisco, and his evolution from curious youth to ground-breaking writer and gay rights pioneer.Born in the mid-twentieth century and raised in the heart of conservative North Carolina, Armistead Maupin lost his virginity to another man "on the very spot where the first shots of the Civil War were fired." Realizing that the South was too small for him, this son of a traditional lawyer packed his earthly belongings into his Opel GT (including a beloved portrait of a Confederate ancestor), and took to the road in search of adventure. It was a journey that would lead him from a homoerotic Navy initiation ceremony in the jungles of Vietnam to that strangest of strange lands: San Francisco in the early 1970s. Reflecting on the profound impact those closest to him have had on his life, Maupin shares his candid search for his "logical family," the people he could call his own. "Sooner or later, we have to venture beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us," he writes. "We have to, if we are to live without squandering our lives." From his loving relationship with his palm-reading Grannie who insisted Maupin was the reincarnation of her artistic bachelor cousin, Curtis, to an awkward conversation about girls with President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office, Maupin tells of the extraordinary individuals and situations that shaped him into one of the most influential writers of the last century. Maupin recalls his losses and life-changing experiences with humor and unflinching honesty, and brings to life flesh-and-blood characters as endearing and unforgettable as the vivid, fraught men and women who populate his enchanting novels. What emerges is an illuminating portrait of the man who depicted the liberation and evolution of America’s queer community over the last four decades with honesty and compassion—and inspired millions to claim their own lives.Logical Family includes black-and-white photographs.
In the great tradition of David Sedaris David Rakoff and Augusten Burroughs memoirist Eric Poole recounts his… quirky childhood years in utterly hilarious and painful detail In 1977 Eric Poole is a talented high school trumpet player with one working ear the height-to-weight ratio of a hat rack a series of annoyingly handsome bullies and a mother irrationally devoted to Lemon Pledge But who he wants to be is a star ANY star With equal parts imagination flair and delusion Eric proceeds to emulate a series of his favorite celebrities like Barry Manilow Halston Tommy Tune and Shirley MacLaine in an effort to become the man he s meant to be that is anyone but himself As he moves through his late teens and early twenties in suburban St Louis he casts about for an appropriate outlet for his talents Will he be a trumpet soloist A triple-threat actor singer dancer A fashion designer in gritty New York City Striving to become the son who can finally make his parents proud Eric begins to suspect that discovering his personal and creative identities can only be accomplished by admitting who he really is Picking up at the end of his first acclaimed memoir Where s My Wand Poole s journey from self-delusion to acceptance is simultaneously hysterical heartfelt and inspiring A touching and RIOTOUSLY funny story about one boy s search for his personal and creative identities in the 1980 s Midwest You ll laugh you ll cry you ll keep your jazz hands to yourself Mister Judith Newman author of To Siri With Love Oh my Eric Poole s journey of self-delusion and self-discovery had me laughing one minute crying the next and rooting for him every second This charming book is a TV series waiting to happen George Takei author actor and activist
A beautiful, raw and compassionate memoir about identity, love and understanding. <P><P>The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded… in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. <P>When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to "cure" him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. <P>Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. <P>Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness. <P>By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, this memoir is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.
p David Sedaris tells all in a book that is literally a lifetime in the making … p For forty years David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments salacious gossip soap opera plot twists secrets confided by total strangers These observations are the source code for his finest work and through them he has honed his cunning surprising sentences p Now Sedaris shares his private writings with the world Theft by Finding the first of two volumes is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet p Written with a sharp eye and ear for the bizarre the beautiful and the uncomfortable and with a generosity of spirit that even a misanthropic sense of humor can t fully disguise Theft By Finding proves that Sedaris is one of our great modern observers It s a potent reminder that when you re as perceptive and curious as Sedaris there s no such thing as a boring day P b A New York Times Bestseller b
Not So Good a Gay Man is the compelling memoir of author, screenwriter, and activist Frank M. Robinson.Frank M. Robinson… (1926-2014) accomplished a great deal in his long life, working in magazine publishing, including a stint for Playboy, and writing science fiction such as The Power, The Dark Beyond the Stars, and thrillers such as The Glass Inferno (filmed as The Towering Inferno). Robinson also passionately engaged in politics, fighting for gay rights, and most famously writing speeches for his good friend Harvey Milk in San Francisco.This deeply personal autobiography, addressed to a friend in the gay community, explains the life of one gay man over eight decades in America. By turns witty, charming, and poignant, this memoir grants insights into Robinson's work not just as a journalist and writer, but as a gay man navigating the often perilous social landscape of 20th century life in the United States. The bedrock sincerity and painful honesty with which he describes this life makes Not So Good a Gay Man compelling reading.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
From major league baseball s only openly gay former player and now its first-ever Ambassador for… Inclusion the intimate chronicle of a man who in the prime of his career had to make a terrible choice between his love of the game and the love of his lifeMore than ten years after its original publication Going the Other Way remains deeply moving and more timely than ever By virtue of a relentless work ethic exceptional multi-sport talent and a quick left-handed swing Billy Bean made it to the majors where he played from 1987 to 1995 an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres But as a gay man in the brutally anti-gay world of baseball closeted to teammates and family Bean found himself unable to reconcile two worlds that he felt to be mutually exclusive At the young age of 31 in the prime of his career even as he solidified his role as a major-league utility player Bean walked away from the game that was both his calling and his livelihood At once heartbreaking and farcical ruminative and uncensored this unprecedented memoir points the way toward a more perfect game one in which all players can pursue their athletic dreams free of prejudice and discrimination