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Pretty Baby: A Memoir
By Chris Belcher. 2022
A queer teen rebel escapes small-town Appalachia and becomes Los Angeles&’s Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix in this searing and darkly funny…
memoir that upends our ideas about desire, class, and power. &“Pretty Baby is a muscular, canny memoir about labor and power and gender; it shimmers with rage and insight and I couldn&’t put it down. What a fucking gorgeous book.&” —Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House &“Chris Belcher&’s Pretty Baby reminds me why I fell in love with memoirs in the first place.&”—Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our LivesThe dominatrix is the id of American femininity. She says the words that we all wish we could say when we find ourselves frozen in the presence of men. No is principal among them. So writes Chris Belcher, who appeared destined for a life of conventional femininity after she took first place in an infant beauty contest—a minor glory that can follow you around a working-class town of 1,600 people in rural West Virginia. But when she came out as queer, the conservative community that had once celebrated its prettiest baby turned on her. A decade later, living in Los Angeles and trying to stay afloat in the early years of a PhD program, Belcher plunges into the work of a pro domme. Branding herself as LA&’s Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix, she specializes in male clients who want a domme to make them feel worthless, shameful, and weak—all the abuse regularly heaped upon women for free. A queer woman whom men can trust with the unorthodox sides of their sexualities, Belcher is paid to be the keeper of the fantasies that they can&’t enact in their everyday relationships. But moonlighting as a sex worker also carries risks, like the not-so-submissive who tries to turn the tables and the jealous client out for revenge. As Belcher moves between the embodied world of the pro domme and the abstract realm of academia, she discovers how lessons from the classroom apply to the dungeon, and vice versa. Still, fear that her doctoral program won&’t approve burdens her with a double life. Pretty Baby is her second coming out. In this sharp and discerning memoir, we see through Belcher&’s eyes how power and desire can be renegotiated—or reinforced.All Down Darkness Wide: A Memoir
By Seán Hewitt. 2022
&“Exquisitely written.&” —Claire Messud, Harper&’s Magazine Named a Best Book of July by Buzzfeed * A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction 2022…
Summer Read * Observer Book of the WeekBy turns devastating and soaring, an ambitious memoir debut from one of Irish literature&’s rising starsWhen Seán Hewitt meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe mental illness, they soon come face-to-face with crisis.All Down Darkness Wide is a perceptive and unflinching meditation on the burden of living in a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds, and a tender and honest portrayal of what it&’s like to be caught in the undertow of a loved one&’s deep depression. As lives are made and unmade, this memoir asks what love can endure and what it cannot.Delving into his own history, enlisting the ghosts of queer figures before him, Hewitt plumbs the darkness in search of answers. From a nineteenth-century cemetery in Liverpool to a sacred grotto in the Pyrenees, it is a journey of lonely discovery followed by the light of community. Haunted by the rites of Catholicism and spectres of shame, it is nevertheless marked by an insistent search for beauty.Hewitt captures transcendent moments in nature with exquisite lyricism, honours the power of reciprocated desire and provides a master class in the incredible force of unsparing specificity. All Down Darkness Wide illuminates a path ahead for queer literature and for the literature of heartbreak, striking a piercing and resonant chord for all who trace Hewitt&’s dauntless footsteps.A Working-Class Family Ages Badly
By Juno Roche. 2022
'Delicate and devastating. Up there with the best of them.' HANNAH LOWE, WINNER OF THE COSTA PRIZE'Roche is a charming,…
unflinchingly honest guide on a journey that's as funny as it is heart-breaking.' JUNO DAWSONHow does an untrained eye recognise the process of dying, when your mind is fixed firmly on living?A radically honest and uplifting memoir about defying death and learning to live.Juno Roche was born into a working-class family in London in the sixties, who dabbled in minor crime. For their father, violence and love lived together; for their mother, addiction was the only way to survive. School was a respite, but shortly after beginning their university course Juno was diagnosed with HIV, then a death sentence.Juno is a survivor; they outlived their diagnosis, got a degree and became an artist. But however hard you try to take the kid out of the family, some scars go too deep; trying to run from AIDS and their childhood threw Juno into dark years of serious drug addiction, addiction often financed by sex work.Running from home eventually took Juno across the sea to a tiny village in Spain, surrounded by mountains. Only once they found a quiet little house with an olive tree in the garden did Juno start to wonder if they had run too far, and whether they have really been searching for a family all along.In an incredibly honest and brave book, Juno takes us through the moments of their life: Mum sending Christmas cards containing Valium, drug withdrawal on a River Nile cruise, overcoming their father's violence and finding their dream house in Spain. Showing immense resilience, Juno's memoir is a book about what it means to stay alive.Emotional, tragic and incredibly funny, A Working-Class Family Ages Badly is an unforgettable must-read memoir for anyone who loves Educated, Deborah Levy and Motherwell.'Full of heart, wit and charm. I'm obsessed with this book.' Travis Alabanza 'So gripping, I had to make myself slow down to appreciate the quality of the writing. Such a powerful story and so beautifully written.' Paul Burston'Utterly unique. Nobody can write with warmth and confrontation the way Juno can.' Tom Rasmussen'Compassionate, dreamlike and deeply moving.' CN Lester 'Should be read by everyone.' Irenosen Okojie 'Juno has always been a literary voice like no one else, scathingly honest and endlessly expansive.' Amelia AbrahamKind Like Marsha: Learning from LGBTQ+ Leaders
By Sarah Prager. 2022
For fans of Little Leaders and Pride comes a nonfiction picture book celebrating 14 incredible LGBTQ+ change makers and forward…
thinkers throughout history.Kind Like Marsha celebrates 14 amazing and inspirational LGBTQ+ people throughout history. Fan favorites like Harvey Milk, Sylvia Rivera, and Audre Lorde are joined by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Frida Kahlo, and more in this striking collection. With a focus on a positive personality attribute of each of the historical figures, readers will be encouraged to be brave like the Ugandan activist fighting for LGBTQ+ rights against all odds and to be kind like Marsha P. Johnson who took care of her trans community on the New York City streets.Querido diario. Una historia real
By Luis Corbacho. 2022
Luis conoció a Patricio en una red social. Antes de siquiera encontrarse, Patricio le aclaró que estaba casado con una…
mujer y que con varones sólo tenía sexo ocasional. Luego de la primera cita se enamoraron. Y eso termina siendo un problema. Expectativas, promesas y desilusiones son la antesala a un despecho que se convierte en venganza. Casi como una catarsis, Luis Corbacho cuenta una de sus últimas historias de amor con la frescura y la desfachatez que lo caracterizan. No disimula nada. Solo cambió el nombre de uno de los protagonistas. Y logra, de manera magistral, mostrar lo complejo, lo intenso y lo efímero de los vínculos gay, que no por eso dejan de ser verdaderos.In the Margins: A Transgender Man's Journey with Scripture
By Shannon T. Kearns. 2022
Moving the conversation beyond transgender inclusion to demonstrate the unique and vital theological insights transgender Christians can provide the church. Father…
Shannon Kearns is familiar with liminal spaces. He&’s lived in them his whole life. And while his experience as a transgender man has often made it difficult for him to fit in—especially in the context of Christianity—it has also shaped his perspective in important ways on complicated, gender-transgressing aspects of theology and Scripture. In the Margins weaves stories from Shannon&’s life into reflections on well-known biblical narratives—such as Jacob wrestling with the divine, Rahab and the Israelite spies, Ezekiel and the dry bones, and the transfiguration of Jesus. In each chapter, Shannon shows how stories have helped him make sense of his own identity, and how those same stories can unlock the transformative power of faith for those willing to listen with an open mind and stand alongside him in the in-between.Making Love with the Land
By Joshua Whitehead. 2022
Much-anticipated non-fiction from the author of the Giller-longlisted, GG-shortlisted and Canada Reads-winning novel Jonny Appleseed.In the last few years, following the…
publication of his debut novel Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead has emerged as one of the most exciting and important new voices on Turtle Island. Now, in this first non-fiction work, Whitehead brilliantly explores Indigeneity, queerness, and the relationships between body, language and land through a variety of genres (essay, memoir, notes, confession). Making Love with the Land is a startling, heartwrenching look at what it means to live as a queer Indigenous person "in the rupture" between identities. In sharp, surprising, unique pieces—a number of which have already won awards—Whitehead illuminates this particular moment, in which both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are navigating new (and old) ideas about "the land." He asks: What is our relationship and responsibility towards it? And how has the land shaped our ideas, our histories, our very bodies? Here is an intellectually thrilling, emotionally captivating love song—a powerful revelation about the library of stories land and body hold together, waiting to be unearthed and summoned into word.I'm Not Broken: A Memoir
By Jesse Leon. 2022
In this unflinching and inspiring memoir, Jesse Leon tells an extraordinary story of resilience and survival, shining a light on…
a childhood spent devastated by sex trafficking, street life, and substance abuse."A book for survivors and those who know someone they hope survives, bodhisattvas all." —Sandra Cisneros, bestselling author of The House on Mango Street Born to indigenous working-class Mexican immigrants in San Diego in the 1970s, Jesse Leon&’s childhood was violently ruptured. A dangerous and harrowing encounter at a local gift shop when he was eleven years old left Jesse with a deadly secret. Hurt, alone, and scared for his life, Jesse numbed his pain by losing himself in the hyper-masculine culture of the streets and wherever else he could find it—in alcohol, drugs, and prostitution. Overlooked by state-sanctioned institutions and systems intended to help victims of abuse, neglected like many other low-income Latinos, Jesse spiraled into cycles of suicide and substance abuse. I&’m Not Broken is the heartbreaking and remarkable story of the journey Jesse takes to win back his life, leading him to the steps of Harvard University. From being the lone young person of color in Narcotics Anonymous meetings to coming to terms with his own sexual identity, to becoming an engaged mentor for incarcerated youth, Jesse finds the will to live with the love and support of his family, friends, and mentors. Recounting the extraordinary circumstances of his life, Jesse offers a powerful, raw testament to the possibilities of self-transformation and self-acceptance. Unforgettable, I&’m Not Broken is an inspirational portrait of one young man&’s indomitable strength and spirit to survive—against all possible odds.Both Sides of the Fire Line: Memoir of a Transgender Firefighter
By Bobbie Scopa. 2022
Bobbie Scopa spent close to five decades working through nearly every challenge a firefighter can face. Scopa was a strike…
team leader for the Dude Fire in 1990, where six firefighters were tragically killed, and she served at Ground Zero immediately after 9/11. She's worked mountain rescues, city fires, mega-wildfires, and everything in between. While battling conditions and harsh flames on the outside, she also found herself waging a tougher battle on the inside. Scopa was torn between how to maintain the faÇade everyone expected of her and whether to live as her true self. "A hero firefighter can't possibly be transgender, right?" she thought.Both Sides of the Fire Line is Bobbie Scopa's uplifting memoir of bravely facing the heat of fierce challenges, professionally and personally.History of Milwaukee Drag, A: Seven Generations of Glamour (American Heritage)
By Michail Takach, Bj Daniels. 2022
p>The queens that made Milwaukee famousFor over a century, drag has been an unstoppable force in Milwaukee nightlife. On June…
7, 1884, "The Only Leon" brought the fine art of female impersonation to the Grand Opera Hall, launching a proud local legacy that continues today at This Is It, La Cage, Hamburger Mary's, D.I.X. and innumerable other venues.Historians Michail Takach and BJ Daniels recognize that today's LGBTQ liberties were born from the strength, resilience, and resistance of yesterday's gender non-conforming pioneers. This is a long overdue celebration of those stories, including high-rolling hustler of the Fourth Ward "Badlands" Frank Blunt, over-the-top dinner theater drag superstar of the 1950s Adrian Ames, and "It Kid" Jamie Gays, first-ever Miss Gay Milwaukee and Latin community hero.And many, many more.Boy Erased: A Memoir
By Garrard Conley. 2016
A beautiful, raw and compassionate memoir about identity, love and understanding. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.Theft by Finding (1977-2002): Diaries (1977-2002)
By David Sedaris. 2017
David Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making 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. 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. 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. A New York Times BestsellerNot So Good a Gay Man: A Memoir
By Frank M. Robinson. 2017
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.Undivided: Coming Out, Becoming Whole, and Living Free from Shame
By Vicky Beeching. 2018
Vicky Beeching called arguably the most influential Christian of her generation in The…
Guardian began writing songs for the church in her teens By the time she reached her early thirties Vicky was a household name in churches on both sides of the pond Recording multiple albums and singing in America s largest megachurches her music was used weekly around the globe and translated into numerous languages But this poster girl for evangelical Christianity lived with a debilitating inner battle she was gay The tens of thousands of traditional Christians she sang in front of were unanimous in their view they staunchly opposed same-sex relationships and saw homosexuality as a grievous sin Vicky knew if she ever spoke up about her identity it would cost her everything Faced with a major health crisis at the age of thirty-five she decided to tell the world that she was gay As a result all hell broke loose She lost her music career and livelihood faced threats and vitriol from traditionalists developed further health issues from the immense stress and had to rebuild her life almost from scratch But despite losing so much she gained far more she was finally able to live from a place of wholeness vulnerability and authenticity She finally found peace What s more Vicky became a champion for others fighting for LGBT equality in the church and in the corporate sector Her courageous work is creating change in the US and the UK as she urges people to celebrate diversity live authentically and become undividedYou Only Live Twice: Sex, Death and Transition (Exploded Views)
By Mike Hoolboom, Chase Joynt. 2016
YOLT explores two artists' lives before and after transitions: from female to male, and from near-dead to alive. The unspoken…
promise was that in our second life we would become the question to every answer, jumping across borders until they finally dissolve. Man and woman. Queer and straight. What if it's not true that you only live once? In this genre-transcending book, trans writer and media artist Chase Joynt and HIV-positive movie artist Mike Hoolboom come together over the films of Chris Marker to exchange transition tales, confessional missives that map out the particularities of occupying what they call 'second lives': Chase's transition from female to male and Mike's near-death from AIDS. Weaving cultural theory with memoir and media analysis, YOLT asks intimate questions about what it might mean to find love and hope through conversation across generations. 'Chase Joynt and Mike Hoolboom here give each other the gift so many people only dream of: ample, unhurried space to unspool crucial stories of one's life, and an attentive, impassioned, invested, intelligent receiver on the other side. The gift to the reader is both the example of their exchange, and the nuanced, idiosyncratic, finely rendered examination it offers of biopolitical experiences which, in many ways, define our times. I'm so glad they have each other, and that we have this.' - Maggie Nelson 'You Only Live Twice is an intelligent ode to enchantment, to the possibilities that arise in 'second lives' when all past expectations have been foreclosed.' - Chris Kraus 'The writing is out of the park -- strong and surprising, a relay race of brilliant twirling, tossing thoughts back and forth like balletic rugby bros. Joynt and Hoolboom's dances of disclosure are so courageous and generative, gifts to us all.' - John GreysonEmpire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal
By Jay Parini. 2015
An intimate, authorized yet totally frank biography of Gore Vidal (1925-2012), one of the most accomplished, visible, and controversial American…
novelists and cultural figures of the past century The product of thirty years of friendship and conversation, Jay Parini's Empire of Self digs behind the glittering surface of Gore Vidal's colorful career to reveal the complex emotional and sexual truths underlying his celebrity-strewn life. But there is plenty of glittering surface as well--a virtual Who's Who of the twentieth century, from Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart through the Kennedys, Johnny Carson, Leonard Bernstein, and the crème de la crème of Hollywood. Also a generous helping of feuds with the likes of William F. Buckley, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote, and The New York Times, among other adversaries. The life of Gore Vidal teemed with notable incidents, famous people, and lasting achievements that call out for careful evocation and examination. Jay Parini crafts Vidal's life into an accessible, entertaining story that puts the experience of one of the great American figures of the postwar era into context, introduces the author and his works to a generation who may not know him, and looks behind the scenes at the man and his work in ways never possible before his death. Provided with unique access to Vidal's life and his papers, Parini excavates many buried skeletons yet never loses sight of his deep respect for Vidal and his astounding gifts. This is the biography Gore Vidal--novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, historian, wit, provocateur, and pioneer of gay rights--has long needed.From the Hardcover edition.Ambigu@ - Guia de Experiências Infieis
By Alberto Aranda de la Gala, Joana Sousa. 2018
Strays: A Lost Cat, a Homeless Man, and Their Journey Across America
By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Britt Collins. 2017
For fans of A Street Cat Named Bob and Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, Strays is…
a compelling true story of a man who rescues a stray, injured cat and how they save each other.Homeless, alcoholic, and depressed, Michael King lives in a UPS loading bay on the wrong side of the tracks in Portland, Oregon. One rainy night, he stumbles upon a hurt, starving, scruffy cat and takes her in. Nursing her back to health, he names her Tabor and she becomes a bit of a celebrity in southeast Portland. When winter comes, they travel from Oregon to the beaches of California to the high plains of Montana, surviving blizzards and bears, angry steers and rainstorms. Along the way, people are drawn to the spirited, beautiful cat and moved to help Michael, who cuts a striking figure with Tabor riding high on his backpack or walking on a leash. Tabor comforts Michael when he’s down, giving Michael someone to love and care for, and inspiring him to get sober and to come to terms with his past family traumas and grief over the death of his life partner. As they make their way across the West Coast, the pair become inseparable, healing the scars of each other’s troubled pasts. But when Michael takes Tabor to a veterinarian in Montana, he discovers that Tabor has an identification chip and an owner in Portland who has never given up hope of finding his beloved cat, Michael makes the difficult choice to return to Portland and reunite Tabor with her owner. Now Michael must create a new purpose in his life after Tabor. The authentic tale of an adventurous and charismatic cat and her compassionate human admirers, Strays proves the healing power of love and the profound bond between humans and animals.Cora Du Bois: Anthropologist, Diplomat, Agent (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology)
By Susan C. Seymour. 2015
Although Cora Du Bois began her life in the early twentieth century as a lonely and awkward girl, her intellect…
and curiosity propelled her into a remarkable life as an anthropologist and diplomat in the vanguard of social and academic change.Du Bois studied with Franz Boas, a founder of American anthropology, and with some of his most eminent students: Ruth Benedict, Alfred Kroeber, and Robert Lowie. During World War II, she served as a high-ranking officer for the Office of Strategic Services as the only woman to head one of the OSS branches of intelligence, Research and Analysis in Southeast Asia. After the war she joined the State Department as chief of the Southeast Asia Branch of the Division of Research for the Far East. She was also the first female full professor, with tenure, appointed at Harvard University and became president of the American Anthropological Association.Du Bois worked to keep her public and private lives separate, especially while facing the FBI’s harassment as an opponent of U.S. engagements in Vietnam and as a “liberal” lesbian during the McCarthy era. Susan C. Seymour’s biography weaves together Du Bois’s personal and professional lives to illustrate this exceptional “first woman” and the complexities of the twentieth century that she both experienced and influenced.Tough Girl: Lessons in Courage and Heart from Olympic Gold to the Camino de Santiago
By Carolyn Wood. 2018
A coming-of-age memoir of a young swimmer s triumphs and heartbreaks on the path to winning Olympic gold at age…
14 Some 50 years later author Carolyn Wood embarks on a solo pilgrimage to walk the 500 miles of the Camino de Santiago in an attempt to reclaim her inner tough girl as she reflects on coming out as gay in the 1970s after a brief marriage and motherhood and the disillusionment and loss she experiences when her 30-year relationship suddenly ends After several failed attempts at learning to swim young Carolyn Wood finally conquers her fears and dives into unknown waters By 1958 she sets a goal to make the 1960 Olympic team and along with teammates and competitors begins the arduous road to Rome Losses pain fear and fatigue accompany the rambunctious athlete as she finds her way through athletic training school and dealing with social gender expectations as she realizes she s gay Tough Girl artfully weaves Wood s life story around the tale of her long walk on the Camino de Santiago an effort to tap into her tough girl resilience so she can begin to accept the end of her long marriage The ups and downs of Carolyn s childhood road to the Olympics as well as her journey on the Camino will thrill and inspire readers