Must Read Books for the GLB&T Community

[woodshere]

This summer while on vacation in San Francisco I visited A Different Light Bookstore in the Castro hoping to pick up a little light reading for the flight home.  However what I came away with was a little book that was far from light, "The Tragedy of Today's Gays".  It is primarily a speech made by Larry Kramer on November 7, 2004 at New York City's Cooper Union presented by the HIV Forum in conjunction with a host of other groups.  It does contain a forward, afterword and an introduction written by Kramer.  It was fantastic and I found my self surprised at how much I agreed with what he was saying. 

One particular statement that really stuck with me  was, "......Oh, we study sexuality and gender stuff until is comes our of every university's asshole but we don't study history, our history, who we were and where we came from and our roots, the wellsprings of our historical existence...."  I have read my share of gay fiction and lord knows I have spent a fortune on porn (I have a fondness for the stories), but a thorough understanding of gay history, from people to events to movements is lacking tremendously.

I am an avid reader and have decided to read at least one gay nonfiction book a month.  Thus far I have read "And the Band Played On" and "The Mayor of Castor Street" am about to start "Conduct Unbecoming" but where to from there?  What are must read books for today's GLB&T community that can increase the knowledge of "our history"?

Any suggestions are welcomed!!!

Woods

[Iggy]

I am an avid reader and have decided to read at least one gay nonfiction book a month.  Thus far I have read "And the Band Played On" and "The Mayor of Castor Street" am about to start "Conduct Unbecoming" but where to from there?  What are must read books for today's GLB&T community that can increase the knowledge of "our history"?

Any suggestions are welcomed!!!

I wouldn't limit yourself to just nonfiction:

Faggots by Kramer (http://tinyurl.com/36tktq) & City of Night (http://tinyurl.com/2rdg7g) by Rechy are both excellent.

Though both are about 30 years old, I think they are both pretty current in depiction of segments of life today.

[Andy Velez]

Hi Woods,

I thought you'd enjoy knowing that I forwarded your comments to Larry.

Now I have to think of some books to suggest.

Cheers,

[woodshere]

Iggy, yeah you're probably right especially about "Faggots" as I have heard a little about that and also thought of the play "A Normal Heart".

Thanks Andy.

[Cerrid]

Woods,

try "Like People in History" by Felice Picano. It's fictional, alright. But it covers the time from the 50ies to the 90ies and adresses all major things gay which happended during that time. It's a gay "Gone with the Wind", if you like.

[Iggy]

It's a gay "Gone with the Wind"

oh so very true.......zzzzzzzzzz

[Miss Philicia]

I'm actually re-reading Kramer's "Reports from the Holocaust" right now.  I read "Faggots" eons ago.  While he always makes some very keen and insightful observations, I have a very love/hate relationship with him.  In fact, sometimes I downright hate him. (sorry Andy... feel free to forward this to him! )

Anyhow, I'd say "Reports from the Holocaust" (out of print now, but I see used copies on amazon.com) is of particular historical interest to HIVers.  It's a collection of essays starting at the very beginnings of the epidemic when nobody knew what was going on and there was quite the backlash for anyone (Larry) suggesting that perhaps folks should hold off on continual forays to the bath house until someone understood what was happening, which of course fell on deaf ears.

I won't go into all the things about him I have issues with, because I'm still in the process of forming them, so they go up and down at times and have over the course of this entire epidemic.  Still, on balance I knew when Mr. Kramer departs from the earth I will shed a tear and be thankful that he was here and did what he did.  One can never diminish his sense of commitment to the issue which has been deep and profound from Day One.

[Mouse]

They're fiction, but they were just published a couple years ago and they're directed at kids around my age, so I think they're really important, especially the second one:

Boy Meets Boy and Wide Awake, both by David Levithan. He's pretty much my favorite author. They're amazing books and Wide Awake especially leaves me feeling both very sad and hopeful at the same time. Just knowing that there is about a handfull or two of gay fiction for young adults now in the past few years is really exciting, and that they're actually willing to put them in the young adult section in bookstores and libraries. I mean, there are a ton of stores I found that won't carry them, but the major ones (Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc) do.

[pozattitude]

I wouldn't limit yourself to just nonfiction:

Faggots by Kramer (http://tinyurl.com/36tktq) Though both are about 30 years old, I think they are both pretty current in depiction of segments of life today.

Iggy you scare me....I just organized my books the other day and found a copy of Faggots. 
Just started to read it again...


Rich

[Iggy]

Iggy you scare me....I just organized my books the other day and found a copy of Faggots. 
Just started to read it again...


Rich

Ha!  If you want to be really scared, then wait till you see my pop-up book version of Faggots that I'm currently working on.

Andy - please ask Larry if he minds.

[Miss Philicia]

I'd also like to add this important book to the list:  Death Rush: Poppers And AIDS

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Rush-Poppers-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742056/ref=cm_syf_dtl_pl_18_rdsssl0/102-0323810-9332141/102-0323810-9332141

Don't say I didn't warn ya (note when it was published)

I just stumbled on some wacko's AIDS denial book "wish list" on amazon while researching something else.  The comments section on the book is a scream to read.

[thunter34]

I'd also like to add this important book to the list:  Death Rush: Poppers And AIDS

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Rush-Poppers-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742056/ref=cm_syf_dtl_pl_18_rdsssl0/102-0323810-9332141/102-0323810-9332141

Don't say I didn't warn ya (note when it was published)

I just stumbled on some wacko's AIDS denial book "wish list" on amazon while researching something else.  The comments section on the book is a scream to read.

Holy smokes!  It sounds as if it is a really tiny "booklet" for a whopping $37.50.   

I could buy one terrific bottle of poppers for that amount of cash.

[Andy Velez]

Iggy, a pop-up version of FAGGOTS! Whatta visual image that conjures up! (Scratch & sniff also?)

Phillie, no problem re love/hate with Larry. You're definitely not alone as I am sure he well knows.

[komnaes]

"States of Desire" by Edmund White!

[aztecan]

Hey Woods,

How about "The Celluloid Closet"? The name of the author is escaping me at the moment, but it is a great book.

HUGS,

Mark

[Miss Philicia]

Holy smokes!  It sounds as if it is a really tiny "booklet" for a whopping $37.50.   

I could buy one terrific bottle of poppers for that amount of cash.

Not to mention that one of the authors popped up in another thread within 2 hours of my post.  Odd how that works.

[komnaes]

How about "The Celluloid Closet"? The name of the author is escaping me at the moment, but it is a great book.

The book is by Vito Russo. It was made into a documentary in the mid 90s I think, narrated by Lily Tomlin. The DVD should be easy to find, though I guess someone should be making another one on lesbigay and modern films as there have been too many crappy gay-themed movies and TV series recently (Dante's Cove, anyone?) 

[Miss Philicia]

The book is by Vito Russo. It was made into a documentary in the mid 90s I think, narrated by Lily Tomlin. The DVD should be easy to find, though I guess someone should be making another one on lesbigay and modern films as there have been too many crappy gay-themed movies and TV series recently (Dante's Cove, anyone?) 

There's one currently on LOGO.  I saw it the other night when I was forced by a fellow board member to switch that dreadful channel on.

[Matty the Damned]

Holding the Man is exquistely heartbreaking.

MtD

[Dan J.]

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300080889

This important book is the first full-scale account of male gay literature across cultures, languages, and centuries. A work of reference as well as the definitive history of a tradition, it traces writing by and about homosexual men from ancient Greece and Rome to the twentieth-century gay literary explosion.

[md]

I highly recommend Paul Monette's later non fiction works - "Borrowed Time", "Becoming a Man" and "Last Watch of the Night" - not easy reading by any means, but worth it.

In contrast, Monette's earlier fiction is (IMHO) pretty lightweight.

Interestingly enough it was reading something that Monette wrote about Larry Kramer that convinced me that Kramer actually had something to say, even if I still can't quite understand what it is. The trouble with Kramer (for me at least) is that when he is angry (which appears to be most of the time - and with good reason) the white hot passion of his oratory frequently turns into incoherent ranting. I have not been through the things that he has been through and I have not seen the things that he has seen and perhaps that means that I just can't relate to him - and I feel bad about this, because I *think* that I actually agree with him about a lot of issues, but somehow I can never be sure ...

[englishgirl]

hi all
i agree with md that paul monette's borrowed time is wonderful. i also highly recommend 'PWA: looking aids in the face' by oscar moore. he was a british guy who wrote columns in the guardian newspaper until his untimely death in the mid-90s. the book is all his columns from the 3 years up until his death. lots of dark humour. anyone who isnt a LTS should read these two books to appreciate what those who went before us had to endure. (an aside: ive been meaning to change my signature to include a quote from that book so im gonna go do it now!)

also found alan hollinghurst's 'the line of beauty' a great read. it was dramatised a year or 2 ago on bbc here in england. dont think you'd get that kinda thing on tv in the states - cottaging, shagging in bushes etc - but if you can get hold of a copy on dvd i highly recommend it. the book is v english and set around the time of yuppies and E's and i think really is a great reflection of that time. maybe foreign readers wont enjoy it as much as english readers but i think its one of the best ive read. (btw ive read a couple of his others but didnt enjoy them as much).

i read a biography of robert mapplethorpe a while ago by patricia morriscoe which is very good (and altho authorised doesnt paint a particularly flattering picture of him). i found it fascinating that despite his pictures seeming to celebrate the black male he was actually (allegedly) hugely racist and considered his boyfriends and portrait subjects to be merely sex objects of rough trade. also, i found it interesting that while trying to battle aids, trying to get on drug research trials and beging completely incapacitated he still was smoking about 60 a day right up to his death. shows how much our understanding of the damage that smoking does has changed in the last 10-20 years.

i too went in to 'a different light' in SF and bought 2 books, one v good book about henry willson 'the man who invented rock hudson', and another which i intend to write to them urging them not to stock. yes, while perusing their shamably small hiv section i found and bought a book called 'Serious Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS', whose back blurb claimed it was about big pharma and meds. no, it is a DENIALIST book!!! i am absolutely disgusted that they stock such dangerous material, especially when it was not balanced by any other books other than one on how to cope in the first year after diagnosis and another on serodiscordant relationships. i urge you to do as i will and write to the bookshop telling them to remove it from their shelves.

lots of love to all (except denialists who can fuck off)
xxxx

[newt]

Oh 2 that really got me:

Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall by Neil Bartlett - another review

Theatrical, uneven, truly great.

Queens by Pickles (1984)

"Queens was published the same year I moved to London. Lambasted by the gay press for its allegedly 'negative' portrayal of London's gay community, it's a far more honest account of gay life in the big city than you'll ever read in any of the gay bar rags. For some strange reason, certain gay men seem to have a problem laughing at themselves. The writer of this book clearly doesn't." (Paul Burston)

Somewhere in the waspish analysis of scene types on the pull is a romance of true love, a coat and a bridge over the river Thames

- matt

[Miss Philicia]

i read a biography of robert mapplethorpe a while ago by patricia morriscoe which is very good (and altho authorised doesnt paint a particularly flattering picture of him). i found it fascinating that despite his pictures seeming to celebrate the black male he was actually (allegedly) hugely racist and considered his boyfriends and portrait subjects to be merely sex objects of rough trade. also, i found it interesting that while trying to battle aids, trying to get on drug research trials and beging completely incapacitated he still was smoking about 60 a day right up to his death. shows how much our understanding of the damage that smoking does has changed in the last 10-20 years.

Hmmm... Having been friends with Robert Mapplethorpe's younger brother, Edward, I am a bit skeptical about this.  Robert was indeed a first-class egomanica, drug addict, sex addict and 1st class prick, but I'm not sure I would assign those other words to him in the context of his overall asshole nature.  I hope that makes sense.

[englishgirl]

Hmmm... Having been friends with Robert Mapplethorpe's younger brother, Edward, I am a bit skeptical about this.  Robert was indeed a first-class egomanica, drug addict, sex addict and 1st class prick, but I'm not sure I would assign those other words to him in the context of his overall asshole nature.  I hope that makes sense.

ooh, goody i was hoping someone would say that! i would be interested if you ever read the book to get your take on it. i was disappointed to read that he was a nasty man as he is one of my fave photographic artists, but i feel a little bit better now i know that he wasnt a racist. oh, and please tell edward mapplethorpe if he has any of his brother's pics lying around i would be happy to display them on my walls - the real thing would be slightly better than the prints i have!

[Miss Philicia]

ooh, goody i was hoping someone would say that! i would be interested if you ever read the book to get your take on it. i was disappointed to read that he was a nasty man as he is one of my fave photographic artists, but i feel a little bit better now i know that he wasnt a racist. oh, and please tell edward mapplethorpe if he has any of his brother's pics lying around i would be happy to display them on my walls - the real thing would be slightly better than the prints i have!

Nope, I've not read the book in question myself.  Should I?  I like Mapplethorpe as well, and in fact his racis (!) "Black Book" sits firmly on my bookshelf as we type

As far as Edward goes, I have not spoken with him in a decade.  At the time he still went by the name Eddie Maxey, as Robert had unkindly forced him to not use his actual last name in a professional regard, as Eddie was also a photographer.  Eddie later developed a quite nasty heroin habit, moved to LA and dropped out of sight.  He recently resurfaced and there was a quite interesting article on him in New York Magazine as he has begun showing work again in NYC, and using his real last name (Maxey was his mother's maiden name).

Eddie, like his entire family, was cut off from any and all artwork and money from Robert's estate.  All Eddie was left was some cameras, and Eddie was the only one in the family still close to Robert, as Eddie had near the end of Robert's life assisted him.  In fact, Eddie knew more about darkroom stuff than Robert, because Eddie was professionally trained in photography.

[englishgirl]

the book actually talks about edward quite a lot, including the enforced name change and his photographic expertise. im pretty sure i remember reading that patricia morriscoe had interviewed edward quite a few times as part of her research.

i recommend that you read the book. not sure i enjoyed it (due to the fact that i hadnt realised before his many character defects ) but definitely found in very interesting. it also has lots of pictures in it, including many from the black book

[Miss Philicia]

Methinks I should take englishgirl on an exploratory edificational trip to Harlem's notorious Mount Morris bathhouse.

[pozattitude]

I need to update my library....

one of my favorite books is Queer and Loathing: Rants and Raves of a Raging AIDS Clone  by  David Feinberg written in 1988. Combining the razor-sharp black humor and impatience for injustice this book is a stand-up comedy routine, a political manifesto, and a chronicle of illness wrapped into one.

I think it was Susan Sontag who said "The two pioneering forces of modern sensibility are Jewish moral seriousness and homosexual aestheticism and irony." and I think David Feinberg self-described "Diseased Jew Fag Pariah," has that very modern sensibility indeed.



Rich

[woodshere]

i too went in to 'a different light' in SF ......yes, while perusing their shamably small hiv section

I am so glad you mentioned this as I started to in my post but thought it was a bit off course, but since I did start the thread I'll go ahead and rant about it.  I was absolutely amazed that in a gay & lesbian bookstore in the mecca of gay life in a city that was one of the hardest hit in the early stages of AIDS, that they had a total of 5 books specifically related to HIV research, health and such.  Now there may have been books such as And the Band Played On, somewhere else in the store, but in the health section, 5.  How do I know five, because I counted.  I was totally shocked.  It amazes me that you can find more coffee table books of nude men, than you can find HIV books.  Judging by their selection I don't guess it is a problem anymore.

Woods

[pozattitude]

you can find more coffee table books of nude men, than you can find HIV books. 
Woods

but sometimes you can find a coffe table book that is both about HIV and with lost of nude men.





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[Miss Philicia]

I don't recall A Different Light in NYC being like that.  It's closed now though.

Let's see.  Do I want to buy a book about a virus or a Colt calendar?

[fearless]

Holding the Man is exquistely heartbreaking.

MtD

I'd have to agree wholeheartedly about this book. In fact, I think it was Matty that recommended it to me a couple of years back.

My favourite memoir is 'Not Quite Straight', by Jeffery Smart. He's one of my favourite artists, as a writer he has a wicked wit, and interesting life to draw upon. http://www.grafico-qld.com/books/subject/aus/smart.htm

[carousel]

I agree with 'Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall'

also 'The Swimming Pool Library' by Alan Hollinghurst is a beautiful book that everybody should read.

[englishgirl]

I was absolutely amazed that in a gay & lesbian bookstore in the mecca of gay life in a city that was one of the hardest hit in the early stages of AIDS, that they had a total of 5 books specifically related to HIV research, health and such.  Now there may have been books such as And the Band Played On, somewhere else in the store, but in the health section, 5.  How do I know five, because I counted.  I was totally shocked. 

exactly. and especially disappointing seeing as how some people may only feel brave enough to buy a book on hiv in a store such as 'a different light' (unlike me who took great pleasure in approaching the helpdesk in both borders and barnes and noble and asking if they had any self-help books for the newly diagnosed. they didnt.)

the edition ive got of 'a boy's own story' has an intro by the author which refers to loads of books that inspired him. when i have time i will post a list here.

Methinks I should take englishgirl on an exploratory edificational trip to Harlem's notorious Mount Morris bathhouse.

philly you are a very bad man. when shall i come and visit?