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Gentleman Jack (Movie Tie-In): The Real Anne Lister
By Anne Choma. 2019
In 1834, Anne Lister made history by celebrating and recording the first ever known marriage to another woman. Now the…
basis for the HBO series Gentleman Jack, this is her remarkable, true story. Anne Lister was extraordinary. Fearless, charismatic and determined to explore her lesbian sexuality, she forged her own path in a society that had no language to define her. She was a landowner, an industrialist and a prolific diarist, whose output has secured her legacy as one of the most fascinating figures of the 19th century. Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister follows Anne from her crumbling ancestral home in Yorkshire to the glittering courts of Denmark as she resolves to put past heartbreak behind her and find herself a wife. This book introduces the real Gentleman Jack, featuring unpublished journal extracts decrypted for the first time by series creator Sally Wainwright and writer Anne Choma.We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir
By Samra Habib. 2019
How do you find yourself when the world tells you that you don't exist? Samra Habib has spent most of…
her life searching for the safety to be herself. As an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan, she faced regular threats from Islamic extremists who believed the small, dynamic sect to be blasphemous. From her parents, she internalized the lesson that revealing her identity could put her in grave danger. When her family came to Canada as refugees, Samra encountered a whole new host of challenges: bullies, racism, the threat of poverty, and an arranged marriage. Backed into a corner, her need for a safe space--in which to grow and nurture her creative, feminist spirit--became dire. The men in her life wanted to police her, the women in her life had only shown her the example of pious obedience, and her body was a problem to be solved. So begins an exploration of faith, art, love, and queer sexuality, a journey that takes her to the far reaches of the globe to uncover a truth that was within her all along. A triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, We Have Always Been Here is a rallying cry for anyone who has ever felt out of place and a testament to the power of fearlessly inhabiting one's truest self.Mean
By Myriam Gurba. 2017
“A painfully timely story . . . an artful memoir . . . a powerful, vital book about damage and…
the ghostly afterlives of abuse.” —Los Angeles Review of Books True crime, memoir, and ghost story, Mean is the bold and hilarious tale of Myriam Gurba’s coming of age as a queer, mixed-race Chicana. Blending radical formal fluidity and caustic humor, Gurba takes on sexual violence, small towns, and race, turning what might be tragic into piercing, revealing comedy. This is a confident, intoxicating, brassy book that takes the cost of sexual assault, racism, misogyny, and homophobia deadly seriously. We act mean to defend ourselves from boredom and from those who would chop off our breasts. We act mean to defend our clubs and institutions. We act mean because we like to laugh. Being mean to boys is fun and a second-wave feminist duty. Being rude to men who deserve it is a holy mission. Sisterhood is powerful, but being a bitch is more exhilarating . . . “Mean calls for a fat, fluorescent trigger warning start to finish—and I say this admiringly. Gurba likes the feel of radioactive substances on her bare hands.” —The New York Times “Gurba uses the tragedies, both small and large, she sees around her to illuminate the realities of systemic racism and misogyny, and the ways in which we can try to escape what society would like to tell us is our fate.” —Nylon “With its icy wit, edgy wedding of lyricism and prose, and unflinching look at personal and public demons, Gurba’s introspective memoir is brave and significant.” —Kirkus Reviews “Mean will make you LOL and break your heart.” —The Millions100 Times: A Memoir of Sexism
By Chavisa Woods. 2019
Shirley Jackson Award-winning author and three-time Lambda Finalist, Chavisa Woods presents one hundred personal stories of sexism, harassment, discrimination, and…
assault.Recounting her experiences with sexist discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence—beginning in childhood, through the present—Woods lays out clear and unflinching personal vignettes that build in intensity as the number of times grows. Individually, and especially taken as a whole, these stories amount to powerful proof that sexual violence and discrimination are never just one-time occurrences, but part of a constant battle all women face every day.In these extraordinary pages, sexual violence and sexist discrimination occur regardless of age, in all spheres of society, in rural and urban areas alike, in the US and abroad, from Woods' youth through adulthood. Demonstrating how often people are conditioned to endure sexism and harassment, and how thoroughly men feel entitled to women’s spaces and bodies, 100 Times forces the reader to witness the myriad ways in which sexism and misogyny continuously shape women’s lives, and are built-in facets of our society.Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz
By Fred Hersch. 2017
Jazz could not contain Fred Hersch. Hersch’s prodigious talent as a sideman—a pianist who played with the giants of the…
twentieth century in the autumn of their careers, including Art Farmer and Joe Henderson—blossomed further in the eighties and beyond into a compositional genius that defied the boundaries of bop, sweeping in elements of pop, classical, and folk to create a wholly new music. Good Things Happen Slowly is his memoir. It’s the story of the first openly gay, HIV-positive jazz player; a deep look into the cloistered jazz culture that made such a status both transgressive and groundbreaking; and a profound exploration of how Hersch’s two-month-long coma in 2007 led to his creating some of the finest, most direct, and most emotionally compelling music of his career. Remarkable, and at times lyrical, Good Things Happen Slowly is an evocation of the twilight of Post-Stonewall New York, and a powerfully brave narrative of illness, recovery, music, creativity, and the glorious reward of finally becoming oneself.Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America; Essays
By R. Eric Thomas. 2020
R. Eric Thomas didn’t know he was different until the world told him so. Everywhere he went—whether it was his…
rich, mostly white, suburban high school, his conservative black church, or his Ivy League college in a big city—he found himself on the outside looking in. In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Thomas reexamines what it means to be an “other” through the lens of his own life experience. He explores the two worlds of his childhood: the barren urban landscape where his parents’ house was an anomalous bright spot, and the Eden-like school they sent him to in white suburbia. He writes about struggling to reconcile his Christian identity with his sexuality, the exhaustion of code-switching in college, accidentally getting famous on the internet (for the wrong reason), and the surreal experience of covering the 2016 election for Elle online, and the seismic changes that came thereafter. Ultimately, Thomas seeks the answer to these ever more relevant questions: Is the future worth it? Why do we bother when everything seems to be getting worse? As the world continues to shift in unpredictable ways, Thomas finds the answers to these questions by reenvisioning what “normal” means and in the powerful alchemy that occurs when you at last place yourself at the center of your own story. Here for It will resonate deeply and joyfully with everyone who has ever felt pushed to the margins, struggled with self-acceptance, or wished to shine more brightly in a dark world. Stay here for it—the future may surprise you.La Berkins: Una combatiente de frontera
By Fernández Josefina. 2020
Biografía única de Lohana Berkins, travesti y activista fundamental de la diversidad, los derechos de las minorías sexuales en Argentina…
y Latinoamérica. «La Berkins. Una combatiente de frontera tiene momentos de gran novela latinoamericana.»María Moreno Vos, que sos antropóloga, explicame. ¿Por qué me pasa esto justo ahora, que tengo un buen trabajo, vacaciones, obra social, cobro bien y hago lo que me gusta? ¿Por qué? La pregunta de Lohana era para su amiga y compañera de militancia Josefina Fernández, a quien años antes había invitado a escribir juntas su biografía. No llegaron a hacerlo: murió el 5 de febrero de 2016. Nacida en un pequeño pueblo de Salta, Lohana fue expulsada de la casa familiar siendo muy chica y forzada a ejercer la prostitución para sobrevivir. Aprendió a caminar en la frontera. A finales de los 80, se instaló en Buenos Aires y se cruzó a diario con chongos, rufianas, garrones y policía. Se enamoró y, peleando por la derogación de los edictos policiales, se convirtió en una líder única cuya principal batalla fue el derecho a la identidad. Abrazó el feminismo y fue la primera travesti que consiguió un empleo formal. La Berkins. Una combatiente de frontera enhebra magistralmente la intimidad con el manifiesto, la crónica policial con la memoria afectiva, la etnografía con la historia y la política: libro lúcido, descarnado y también vital, creativo e hilarante, como su protagonista.Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul's Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life
By Tom Fitzgerald, Lorenzo Marquez. 2020
A definitive deep-dive into queer history and culture with hit reality show RuPaul's Drag Race as a touchstone, by the…
creators of the pop culture blog Tom and LorenzoFrom the singular voices behind Tom and Lorenzo comes the ultimate guide to all-things RuPaul's Drag Race and its influence on modern LGBTQ culture. Legendary Children centers itself around the idea that not only is RuPaul's Drag Race the queerest show in the history of television, but that RuPaul and company devised a show that serves as an actual museum of queer cultural and social history, drawing on queer traditions and the work of legendary figures going back nearly a century. In doing so, Drag Race became not only a repository of queer history and culture, but also an examination and illustration of queer life in the modern age. It is a snapshot of how LGBTQ folks live, struggle, work, and reach out to one another--and how they always have--and every bit of it is tied directly to Drag Race. Each chapter is an examination of a specific aspect of the show--the Werk Room, the Library, the Pit Crew, the runway, the Untucked lounge, the Snatch Game--that ties to a specific aspect of queer cultural history and/or the work of certain legendary figures in queer cultural history.I've Been Wrong Before: Essays
By Evan James. 2020
From the award-winning essayist and author of the &“shrewd as hell and hysterically funny&” (Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her…
Body and Other Parties) novel Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe comes a moving and unforgettable essay collection about his travels around the globe as he reflects on the power and complexity of human relationships. From the award-winning essay &“Lover&’s Theme,&” in which Evan James explores the life of a drag queen in San Francisco, to his poignant story of coming out in &“One Hell of a Homie,&” set against the backdrop of the 1992 film Class Act, this essay collection brilliantly captures both the beauty and pain of relationships—friendly, familiar, and romantic. I&’ve Been Wrong Before is an eye-opening and heartfelt illustration of how our differences are often the things that bring us closer together. Masterfully balancing tremendous insight with startling humor, this absorbing collection features Evan James&’s &“wry intelligence and sense of the absurd&” (R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries) and is perfect for fans of Alexander Chee and Maggie Nelson.¿Por qué ser feliz cuando puedes ser normal?
By Jeanette Winterson. 2011
Un libro de memorias destinado a convertirse en un clásico de la literatura contemporánea. ¿Por qué ser feliz cuando puedes…
ser normal?, preguntó la señora Winterson a su hija Jeanette cuando ella, recién cumplidos los dieciséis años, le confesó haberse enamorado de otra chica. Extraña pregunta, pero poco más podía esperarse de una mujer que había adoptado a una niña para hacer de ella una aliada en su misión religiosa, y en cambio se las tuvo que ver con un ser extraño que pedía a gritos su porción de felicidad. Armada con dos juegos de dentadura postiza y una pistola escondida bajo los trapos de cocina, la señora Winterson hizo lo que pudo para disciplinar a Jeanette: en casa los libros estaban prohibidos, las amistades eran mal vistas, los besos y abrazos eran gestos extravagantes, y cualquier falta se castigaba con noches enteras al raso, pero de nada sirvió. Esa chica pelirroja que parecía hija del mismo diablo se rebeló, buscando el placer en la piel de otras mujeres y encontrando en la biblioteca del barrio novelas y poemas que la ayudaran a crecer. Eso y mucho más es lo que ofrecen estas páginas excepcionales, donde alegría y rabia andan de la mano: un libro de memorias destinado a convertirse en un clásico de la literatura contemporánea. «Necesitaba palabras porque todas las familias infelices sellan unpacto de silencio. Quien rompa ese silencio jamás será perdonado. Él o ella tendrá que aprender a perdonarse a sí mismo.»Jeanette Winterson La autora ha dicho:«He escrito muchas obras de ficción, pero ¿Por qué ser feliz cuando puedes ser normal?... ¿qué es en realidad? ¿Unas memorias? Tal vez. ¿Una autobiografía? Quizá. Para mí es un experimento con las vivencias. Un relato de mi vida aunque deje de lado los veinticinco años del medio. La historia de cómo fui a caer con unos padres evangélicos pentecostales, que me adoptaron y se empeñaron en que fuera misionera y salvara almas en países tropicales, y de lo que sucedió cuando me enamoré de una chica, cuando los libros entraron en mi vida, cuando me marché a Oxford, cómo me convertí en escritora y cómo sobreviví a todas las cosas extrañas que han constituido mi vida. No son unas memorias tristes: es un libro sobre la esperanza, sobre los cambios, sobre la buena suerte y las oportunidades, y te reconfortará.» La crítica ha dicho sobre el libro...«¿Por qué ser feliz cuando puedes ser normal? se envuelve con el celofán del humor, que disfraza su vida dickensiana de digerible aventura literaria. Winterson ha escrito su autobiografía como la más subyugante de sus novelas.»Tereixa Constenla, El País «El libro más conmovedor de Winterson. Y además, de un humor vibrante. Deslumbrante en muchos sentidos, pero lo que más impresiona es la profunda simpatía que nos inspiran quienes lo protagonizan.»Zoe Williams, The Guardian Y sobre la autora...«Winterson [...] a través de la heterodoxia de sus textos, dinamita categorías, vocabularios y convenciones tristes. Una escritora maravillosa.»Marta Sanz, Babelia «Jeanette Winterson es una fuerza desatada de la naturaleza. Ella sola es el cambio climático entero.»Carmen Morán Breña, El País «Mientras la mayoría de autores y autoras se limitan a regurgitar la imaginación de sus antecesores, [...] esta inglesa rebelde se pone la literatura por montera y la reinventa.»M. Ángeles Cabré, Babelia «Una autora de extraordinaria sensibilidad cuya obra es devota de Virginia Woolf.»Jacinto Antón, El País «Una escritora outsider de referencia en Inglaterra.»Esther L. Calderón, Divinity «Lo que es seguro es que Jeanette Winterson siempre podrá seguir evolucionando; evocar nuevos paisajes, nuevos cuerpos, nuevas personalidades, es paDos vidas. Gertrude y Alice
By Janet Malcolm. 2007
¿Cómo lograron sobrevivir dos lesbianas judías en la Francia de Vichy durante la II Guerra Mundial? La historia de Gertrude…
Stein y Alice B. Toklas. En esta ocasión, la renombrada ensayista norteamericana Janet Malcom aborda la historia de la legendaria pareja de lesbianas expatriadas en Francia durante la II Guerra Mundial y de la tremenda imfluencia que Gertrude Stein y Alice B. Toklas ejercieron sobre la obra de grandes escritores como Hemingway, Ezra Pound y Faulkner. En el trabajo de Janet Malcolm, el biógrafo se convierte en un personaje más del libro y el proceso de escribir una biografía, de acumular hechos y documentación, se introduce en la narración como una historia más. El resultado: un relato brillante sobre una época, y una reflexión afilada sobre los mecanismos últimos del género biográfico.XOXY: A Memoir (Intersex Woman, Mother, Activist)
By Kimberly M. Zieselman. 2020
Meet Kimberly, a regular suburban housewife and mother, whose discovery later in life that she was born intersex fuelled her…
to become an international human rights defender and globally-recognised activist. Charting her intersex discovery and her journey to self-acceptance, this book movingly portrays how being intersex impacted Kimberly's personal and family life, as well as her career. From uncovering a secret that was intentionally kept from her, to coming out to her family and friends and fighting for intersex rights, her candid and empowering story helps breakdown barriers and misconceptions of intersex people and brings to light the trauma and harmful impact medical intervention continues to have on the intersex community. Written from a non-queer perspective, and filled with much-needed, straightforward information and advice about what it means to be intersex, this is a vital and timely resource for intersex people and their families, as well as the general reader.My Sister: How One Sibling's Transition Changed Us Both
By Selenis Leyva, Marizol Leyva. 2020
A powerful memoir by two sisters about transitioning, family, and the path to self-realization.When Orange Is the New Black and…
Diary of a Future President star Selenis Leyva was young, her hardworking parents brought a new foster child into their warm, loving family in the Bronx. Selenis was immediately smitten; she doted on the baby, who in turn looked up to Selenis and followed her everywhere. The little boy became part of the family. But later, the siblings realized that the child was struggling with their identity. As Marizol transitioned and fought to define herself, Selenis and the family wanted to help, but didn't always have the language to describe what Marizol was going through or the knowledge to help her thrive.In My Sister, Selenis and Marizol narrate, in alternating chapters, their shared journey, challenges, and triumphs. They write honestly about the issues of violence, abuse, and discrimination that transgender people and women of color--and especially trans women of color--experience daily. And they are open about the messiness and confusion of fully realizing oneself and being properly affirmed by others, even those who love you.Profoundly moving and instructive, My Sister offers insight into the lives of two siblings learning to be their authentic selves. Ultimately, theirs is a story of hope, one that will resonate with and affirm those in the process of transitioning, watching a loved one transition, and anyone taking control of their gender or sexual identities.Save Yourself: Essays
By Cameron Esposito. 2020
From rising comedy star Cameron Esposito, a memoir that is "as hilarious and honest as she is on the stage,"…
tackling the big issues explored in her comedy, including gender, sexuality and feminism - and how her Catholic childhood prepared her for a career as an outspoken lesbian comedian in ways the Pope could never have imagined (Abby Wambach).Cameron Esposito wanted to be a priest and ended up a stand-up comic. Now she would like to tell the whole queer as hell story. Her story. Not the sidebar to a straight person's rebirth-she doesn't give a makeover or plan a wedding or get a couple back together. This isn't a queer tragedy. She doesn't die at the end of this book, having finally decided to kiss the girl. It's the sexy, honest, bumpy, and triumphant dyke's tale her younger, wasn't-allowed-to-watch-Ellen self needed to read. Because there was a long time when she thought she wouldn't make it. Not as a comic, but as a human. SAVE YOURSELF is full of funny and insightful recollections about everything from coming out (at a Catholic college where sexual orientation wasn't in the nondiscrimination policy) to how joining the circus can help you become a better comic (so much nudity) to accepting yourself for who you are-even if you're, say, a bowl cut-sporting, bespectacled, gender-nonconforming child with an eye patch (which Cameron was). Packed with heart, humor, and cringeworthy stories anyone who has gone through puberty, fallen in love, started a career, or had period sex in Rome can relate to, Cameron's memoir is for that timid, fenced-in kid in all of us-and the fearless stand-up yearning to break free.Fourteen
By Shannon Molloy. 2020
Fourteen is this generation&’s Holding the Man – a moving coming-of-age memoir about a young man&’s search for identity and…
acceptance in the most unforgiving and hostile of places: high school. This is a story about my fourteenth year of life as a gay kid at an all-boys rugby-mad Catholic school in regional Queensland. It was a year in which I started to discover who I was, and deeply hated what was revealed. It was a year in which I had my first crush and first devastating heartbreak. It was a year of torment, bullying and betrayal – not just at the hands of my peers, but by adults who were meant to protect me. And it was a year that almost ended tragically. I found solace in writing and my budding journalism; in a close-knit group of friends, all growing up too quickly together; and in the fierce protection of family and a mother&’s unconditional love. These were moments of light and hilarity that kept me going. As much as Fourteen is a chronicle of the enormous struggle and adversity I endured, and the shocking consequences of it all, it&’s also a tale of survival. Because I did survive. &‘Teenagers should read this book, parents should read this book. Human beings, above all, should read this book.&’ Rick Morton bestselling author of One Hundred Years of Dirt &‘I love this book … a beautifully written account of a young man struggling with his sexuality, overcoming shocking abuse and finding his way to pride.&’ Peter FitzSimons, bestselling author &‘Shannon is unflinching in recounting the horror, but he is also funny, empathetic and, above all, full of courage.&’ Bridie Jabour, author of The Way Things Should Be &‘A slice of life as experienced quite recently in the &“lucky country&”.&’ The Hon Michael Kirby, AC CMGI Don't Want to Die Poor: Essays
By Michael Arceneaux. 2020
From the New York Times bestselling author of I Can&’t Date Jesus, which Vogue called &“a piece of personal and…
cultural storytelling that is as fun as it is illuminating,&” comes a wry and insightful essay collection that explores the financial and emotional cost of chasing your dreams. Ever since Oprah Winfrey told the 2007 graduating class of Howard University, &“Don&’t be afraid,&” Michael Arceneaux has been scared to death. You should never do the opposite of what Oprah instructs you to do, but when you don&’t have her pocket change, how can you not be terrified of the consequences of pursuing your dreams? Michael has never shied away from discussing his struggles with debt, but in I Don&’t Want to Die Poor, he reveals the extent to which it has an impact on every facet of his life—how he dates; how he seeks medical care (or in some cases, is unable to); how he wrestles with the question of whether or not he should have chosen a more financially secure path; and finally, how he has dealt with his &“dream&” turning into an ongoing nightmare as he realizes one bad decision could unravel all that he&’s earned. You know, actual &“economic anxiety.&” I Don&’t Want to Die Poor is an unforgettable and relatable examination about what it&’s like leading a life that often feels out of your control. But in Michael&’s voice that&’s &“as joyful as he is shrewd&” (BuzzFeed), these razor-sharp essays will still manage to make you laugh and remind you that you&’re not alone in this often intimidating journey.Native Country of the Heart: A Memoir
By Cherríe Moraga. 2019
"This memoir's beauty is in its fierce intimacy." --Roy Hoffman, The New York Times Book Review One of Literary Hub's…
Most Anticipated Books of 2019From the celebrated editor of This Bridge Called My Back, Cherríe Moraga charts her own coming-of-age alongside her mother’s decline, and also tells the larger story of the Mexican American diaspora. Native Country of the Heart: A Memoir is, at its core, a mother-daughter story. The mother, Elvira, was hired out as a child, along with her siblings, by their own father to pick cotton in California’s Imperial Valley. The daughter, Cherríe Moraga, is a brilliant, pioneering, queer Latina feminist. The story of these two women, and of their people, is woven together in an intimate memoir of critical reflection and deep personal revelation. As a young woman, Elvira left California to work as a cigarette girl in glamorous late-1920s Tijuana, where an ambiguous relationship with a wealthy white man taught her life lessons about power, sex, and opportunity. As Moraga charts her mother’s journey—from impressionable young girl to battle-tested matriarch to, later on, an old woman suffering under the yoke of Alzheimer’s—she traces her own self-discovery of her gender-queer body and Lesbian identity, as well as her passion for activism and the history of her pueblo. As her mother’s memory fails, Moraga is driven to unearth forgotten remnants of a U.S. Mexican diaspora, its indigenous origins, and an American story of cultural loss. Poetically wrought and filled with insight into intergenerational trauma, Native Country of the Heart is a reckoning with white American history and a piercing love letter from a fearless daughter to the mother she will never lose.Out East: Memoir of a Montauk Summer
By John Glynn. 2019
An "extraordinary" debut memoir of first love, identity, and self-discovery among a group of friends who became family in a…
Montauk summer house (Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winner).They call Montauk the end of the world, a spit of land jutting into the Atlantic. The house was a ramshackle split-level set on a hill, and each summer thirty-one people would sleep between its thin walls and shag carpets. Against the moonlight the house's octagonal roof resembled a bee's nest. It was dubbed The Hive.In 2013, John Glynn joined the share house. Packing his duffel for that first Memorial Day Weekend, he prayed for clarity. At twenty-seven, he was crippled by an all-encompassing loneliness, a feeling he had carried in his heart for as long as he could remember. John didn't understand the loneliness. He just knew it was there. Like the moon gone dark.Out East is the portrait of a summer, of The Hive and the people who lived in it, and John's own reckoning with a half-formed sense of self. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, The Hive was a center of gravity, a port of call, a home. Friendships, conflicts, secrets and epiphanies blossomed within this tightly woven friend group and came to define how they would live out the rest of their twenties and beyond. Blending the sand-strewn milieu of George Howe Colt's The Big House with the radiant aching of Olivia Liang's The Lonely City, Out East is a keenly wrought story of love and transformation, longing and escape in our own contemporary moment."An unforgettable story told with feeling and humor and above all with the razor-sharp skill of a delicate and highly gifted writer." -- André Aciman, New York Times bestselling author of Call Me by Your Name"Out East is full of intimacy and hope and frustration and joy, an extraordinary tale of emotional awakening and lacerating ambivalence, a confession of self-doubt that becomes self-knowledge." -- Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winnerAn Entertainment Weekly Best Book of May 2019A Time magazine Best Book of May 2019Cosmopolitan Best Book of May 2019An O, the Oprah Magazine Best LGBTQ Book of 2019Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs
By Jennifer Finney Boylan. 2020
From bestselling author of She’s Not There, New York Times opinion columnist, and human rights activist Jennifer Finney Boylan, Good…
Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs, a memoir of the transformative power of loving dogs.This is a book about dogs: the love we have for them, and the way that love helps us understand the people we have been. It’s in the love of dogs, and my love for them, that I can best now take the measure of the child I once was, and the bottomless, unfathomable desires that once haunted me.There are times when it is hard for me to fully remember that love, which was once so fragile, and so fierce. Sometimes it seems to fade before me, like breath on a mirror.But I remember the dogs. In her New York Times opinion column, Jennifer Finney Boylan wrote about her relationship with her beloved dog Indigo, and her wise, funny, heartbreaking piece went viral. In Good Boy, Boylan explores what should be the simplest topic in the world, but never is: finding and giving love.Good Boy is a universal account of a remarkable story: showing how a young boy became a middle-aged woman—accompanied at seven crucial moments of growth and transformation by seven memorable dogs. “Everything I know about love,” she writes, “I learned from dogs.” Their love enables us to pull off what seem like impossible feats: to find our way home when we are lost, to live our lives with humor and courage, and above all, to best become our true selves.My Lesbian Husband
By Barrie Jean Borich. 1999
Barrie Jean Borich's memoir of her 14-year marriage is a subtle exploration of gender and the intricacies of butch-femme desire.…
My Lesbian Husband describes Borich's attraction to her partner, Linnea, and the slow building of their life together in a decaying neighborhood in Minneapolis. Borich traces both the pleasures and the wrenching difficulties of trying to construct a long-term union in the absence not only of legal and social but of everything that our aunts and uncles and parents take for granted: "names for their union in every language, the weddings of a square-chested prince and a big-busted, cinch-waisted princess at the end of every Disney movie, every Shakespeare comedy, not to Mary and Joseph, Hera and Zeus, and those little bride and groom figurines they have saved from their wedding cakes." This is as sharply observed and well-written a memoir as Jan Clausen's and Oranges, but a valentine rather than a valediction.