Recent, New & Future Releases of Interest

Hardcore porn—both the straight and gay varieties—entered mainstream American culture in the 1970s as the sexual revolution swept away many of the cultural inhibitions and legal restraints on explicit sexual expression. The first porn movie ever to be reviewed by Variety, the entertainment industry’s leading trade journal, was Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand (1971), a sexually-explicit gay movie shot on Fire Island with a budget of $4000. Moviegoers, celebrities and critics—both gay and straight—flocked to see Boys in the Sand when it opened in mainstream movie theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Within a year, Deep Throat, a heterosexual hardcore feature opened to rave reviews and a huge box office—exceeding that of many mainstream Hollywood features. Almost all of those involved in making “commercial” gay pornographic movies began as amateurs in a field that had virtually never existed before, either as art or commerce. Many of their “underground” predecessors had repeatedly suffered arrest and other forms of legal harassment. There was no developed gay market and any films made commercially were shown in adult x-rated theaters. After the Stonewall riots and the emergence of the gay liberation movement in 1969, a number of entrepreneurs began to make gay adult movies for the new mail order market. The gay porn film industry grew dramatically during the next thirty years and transformed the way men—gay men in particular—conceived of masculinity and their sexuality. Bigger Than Life tells that story.

Recent, New & Future Releases of Interest	Big Gay Book Group Home Page
	Here are some recent, new and future release that may be of interest. If you think the Group should use any of these for Future Selections, send an email to: biggaybookgroup@hotmail.com

*Persistent Voices: An Anthology of Poets Lost to AIDS* edited by Philip Clark & David Groff		Please note: Philip Clark, co-editor of this volume, may be a familiar face to many of the Big Gay Book Group, as he has attended numerous Book Group gatherings over the years. Big Gay Book Group extends its congratulations to Philip & David, and wishes great success with this volume. Timed to release on World AIDS Day, forty of the most admired poets who died of AIDS are remembered in a new and groundbreaking collection From Reinaldo Arenas, Tory Dent, and James Merrill to Paul Monette, Essex Hemphill, and Joe Brainard, *Persistent Voices* memorializes these poets and many others by presenting their work—often dealing with AIDS but also about other enduring topics—in the context of an unending epidemic that has profoundly affected our literature. Philip Clark is a writer and teacher from the Washington, D.C. area. David Groff is a poet, editor, and teacher in New York City.

*The Silver Hearted* by David McConnell		A darkly suspenseful sea-faring novel that turns pulp fiction on its head with writing so gorgeous author Edmund White calls it “our Heart of Darkness.” Set against a background of revolution and profiteering in an unnamed port city, this is the story of an ex-wastrel hired to look after a vast sum of money by a cabal of shadowy investors. Literally chests of silver coins, the fortune must be protected at all costs. For assistance, the nervous guardian turns to a sailor, a beautiful naïf, who helps evacuate the money when the trading emporium is overrun by violent mobs. In a hopeless confusion of fondness and morals, the boy wants acknowledgement that as a consequence of their flight lives were destroyed—destroyed for the sake of money. Unfortunately, a ruthless calculus of profit and loss has mesmerized the money’s guardian. Warfare is closing in. Again, he has to get the fortune out of a city offering only temporary and uneasy shelter.

Outsiders: The Best of Out Magazine edited by Aaron Hicklin		A who’s who of contemporary gay and lesbian journalism, Outsiders showcases the best writing from the world’s most widely read gay magazine. Among its entries are works by such celebrated writers as Michael Cunningham, Sarah Waters, Mark Doty, Andrew Sullivan, Daniel Mendelsohn, Dale Peck, Josh Kilmer Purcell, Gregory Maguire, and Michael Musto, among many other contributors from the past fifteen years. In the words of Out’s editor-in-chief and the book’s editor, these writings when gathered together, “take on the quality of social history, moments in time frozen on the page: Tony Kushner interviewing Liza Minnelli on the 25th anniversary of Stonewall, William Burroughs showing off his .45 automatic to Gary Indiana, Tom Donaghy responding to a panicked phone call from a friend newly diagnosed with HIV.” A celebration of Out's commitment to innovative writing, this collection will delight readers and provide the opportunity to rediscover the work anew.

Mornings with Mailer: A Recollection of Friendship By Dwayne Raymond		"Mornings with Mailer is a tender and affectionate view of the protean author at the end of the Big Novel that was his life. Dwayne Raymond’s book offers a uniquely intimate perspective on one of our literary giants. Applause.” — Tom Piazza, author of City of Refuge “In this moving memoir, Dwayne Raymond provides an intimate look at the daily routine of a great writer in the last years of his life.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Team of Rivals *Mornings with Mailer* is the revealing memoir by Dwayne Raymond, the man who worked as Norman Mailer’s personal assistant during the last five years of the iconic author’s life. Recasting the legendary writer of such classics as The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner’s Song in a new light, Mornings with Mailer describes the powerful bond that formed between him and Raymond from April 2003 until Mailer’s death in November 2007. Book Description In the spring of 2003, Norman Mailer, who was then eighty years old, invited an improbable companion into his life: Dwayne Raymond, a young writer who was waiting tables at a restaurant in Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod, where Mailer spent most of his final years. Raymond became Mailer's aide in all matters professional and private, assisting the Pulitzer Prize–winning author on the four books he published during this time, including his last novel, The Castle in the Forest. As Raymond's responsibilities grew, so too did his closeness to Mailer, who in turn taught him how to navigate his own personal challenges. In this touching memoir, Dwayne Raymond presents a loving portrait of Norman Mailer in his twilight years, depicting a quirky and complex but achingly human man so unlike the Mailer of disquieting legend. Beautifully written and honestly portrayed, Mornings with Mailer is a personal and revealing story of a great writer, his man Friday, and their unlikely but enduring friendship.

Bigger Than Life: The History of Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore by Jeffrey Escoffier		Hardcore porn—both the straight and gay varieties—entered mainstream American culture in the 1970s as the sexual revolution swept away many of the cultural inhibitions and legal restraints on explicit sexual expression. The first porn movie ever to be reviewed by Variety, the entertainment industry’s leading trade journal, was Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand (1971), a sexually-explicit gay movie shot on Fire Island with a budget of $4000. Moviegoers, celebrities and critics—both gay and straight—flocked to see Boys in the Sand when it opened in mainstream movie theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Within a year, Deep Throat, a heterosexual hardcore feature opened to rave reviews and a huge box office—exceeding that of many mainstream Hollywood features. Almost all of those involved in making “commercial” gay pornographic movies began as amateurs in a field that had virtually never existed before, either as art or commerce. Many of their “underground” predecessors had repeatedly suffered arrest and other forms of legal harassment. There was no developed gay market and any films made commercially were shown in adult x-rated theaters. After the Stonewall riots and the emergence of the gay liberation movement in 1969, a number of entrepreneurs began to make gay adult movies for the new mail order market. The gay porn film industry grew dramatically during the next thirty years and transformed the way men—gay men in particular—conceived of masculinity and their sexuality. *Bigger Than Life* tells that story.

Waiting to Land: A (Mostly) Political Memoir, 1985-2008 by Martin Duberman		Although best known for his acclaimed biographies, historian Martin Duberman is also a renowned memoirist who has plumbed his own life for truths that have meaning for us all. In the bestselling Cures, he carried his story up to 1970, focusing on his fear that homosexuality was pathological and on his desperate search for a therapeutic cure. Duberman's second autobiographical book, Midlife Queer, centered on the 1970s, by which time he'd thrown off his earlier doubts and become fully engaged in the worlds of gay politics and culture. Waiting to Land takes Duberman's story up to the present day. As his public engagement deepens, Duberman finds himself increasingly at odds with the mounting assimilationism of the mainstream gay movement--and with the left itself, which Duberman has come to believe is smugly oblivious to the realities of gay life. Disaffection leads him to till crucial new ground, including the founding of the groundbreaking Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) and serving as an original board member of Queers for Economic Justice. Interweaving diary entries with letters and with reflections written in 2008, Waiting to Land incisively probes issues of crucial import for everyone. By turns moving, funny, provocative, and profound, this book is an unflinchingly honest and deeply important window into an extraordinary life.

Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford		Two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen is still surrounded by the literature she loves—but now it's because she's the owner of Flyleaf Books in a sleepy college town in Upstate New York. Every day she watches her novels fly off the shelves—along with dozens of unauthorized sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations. Jane may be undead, but her books have taken on a life of their own. To make matters worse, the manuscript she finished just before being turned into a vampire has been rejected by publishers—116 times. Jane longs to let the world know who she is, but when a sudden twist of fate thrusts her back into the spotlight, she must hide her real identity—and fend off a dark man from her past while juggling two modern suitors. Will the inimitable Jane Austen be able to keep her cool in this comedy of manners, or will she show everyone what a woman with a sharp wit and an even sharper set of fangs can do?

*The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet* by Myrlin A. Hermes		A Divinity scholar at Wittenberg University, Horatio prides himself on his ability to argue both sides of any intellectual debate but is himself a skeptic, never fully believing in any philosophy. That is, until he meets the outrageous, provocative, and flamboyantly beautiful Prince of Denmark, who teaches him more about both Earth and Heaven than any of his books. But Hamlet is also irrationally haunted by intimations of a tragic destiny he believes is preordained. When a freelance translation job turns into a full-scale theatrical production, Horatio arranges for the theater-loving prince to act in the play-disguised as the heroine! This attracts the attention of Horatio's patroness, the dark and manipulative Lady Adriana. A voracious and astute reader of both books and people, she performs her own seductions to test whether the "platonic true-love" described in his poems is truly so platonic. But when a mysterious rival poet calling himself "Will Shake-speare" begins to court both Prince Hamlet and his Dark Lady, Horatio is forced to choose between his skepticism and his love. Laced with quotes, references, and in-jokes, cross-dressing, bed-tricks, mistaken identity, and a bisexual love-triangle inspired by Shakespeare's own sonnets, this novel upends everything you thought you knew about Hamlet. Witty, insightful, playful, and truly wise about the greatest works of the Bard, The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet is a delectable treat for people that have loved books like Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World and John Updike's Gertrude and Claudius.

Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr by Robert Hofler		Allan Carr was known as Hollywood’s premier party-thrower during the town’s most hedonistic era—the cocaine-addled, sexually indulgent 1970s.With fêtes that came to be known as the Mick Jagger/Cycle Sluts Party, the Truman Capote/Jail House Party, the Elton John/Horse Party, and the Roman Polanski/ Rolodex Party, not to mention the Tommy/New York City subway premiere and the Can’t Stop the Music/Lincoln Center Party, it was Carr, an obese, caftan-wearing producer—the ultimate outsider— who became the first catalyst to bring movie stars and rock stars, gays and straights, Old and New Hollywood together. Tracing Carr’s excess-laden rise and tragic fall as promoter and producer of both major hits and phenomenal flops—and sparing no one along the way—Hofler provides a candid behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood’s most infamous era.

Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett		The eagerly anticipated debut novel from the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist *You Are Not a Stranger Here: a deeply affecting portrait of the modern gilded age, the first decade of the twenty-first century. At the heart of Union Atlantic* lies a test of wills between a young banker, Doug Fanning, and a retired schoolteacher, Charlotte Graves, whose two dogs have begun to speak to her. When Doug builds an ostentatious mansion on land that Charlotte's grandfather donated to the town of Finden, Massachusetts, she determines to oust him in court. As a senior manager of Union Atlantic bank, a major financial conglomerate, Doug is embroiled in the company's struggle to remain afloat. It is Charlotte's brother, Henry Graves, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, who must keep a watchful eye on Union Atlantic and the entire financial system. Drawn into Doug and Charlotte's intensifying conflict is Nate Fuller, a troubled high-school senior who unwittingly stirs powerful emotions in each of them. Irresistibly complex, imaginative, and witty, Union Atlantic is a singular work of fiction that is sure to be read and reread long after it causes a sensation this spring.

Pride/Prejudice: A Novel of Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, and Their Forbidden Lovers by Ann Herendeen		“Audacious and masterful….True to Austen’s spirit, Ann Herendeen has given us a compelling, and sexual, novel of manners.” —Pamela Regis, author of A Natural History of the Romance Novel Ann Herendeen’s Pride/Prejudice—a novel of Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennett, and their other loves—revisits the classic Jane Austen work to “fill in the gaps” that the original left unexplained and unexplored. Ingenious, brazen, and unrelentingly entertaining—yet always appreciative and respectful of one of the world’s most beloved literary works—this masterful reinvention by the acclaimed author of Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander is truly a Pride and Prejudice for the 21st Century. For readers who've loved Jane Austen's most popular novel—the inestimable Pride and Prejudice—questions have always remained. What is the real nature of Darcy's intense friendship with Charles Bingley, to explain why he would prevent Bingley's marriage to Elizabeth's beautiful and virtuous sister Jane? How can Darcy reconcile his own desire for Elizabeth with his determination to save his friend from a similar entanglement? What is the disturbing history behind Darcy's tortured relationship with his foster brother, George Wickham? And what other intimacies, besides their cherished friendship, are exchanged between Elizabeth and Charlotte Lucas? Ann Herendeen, acclaimed author of Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander, reimagines this classic love story, focusing on the untold aspects of Jane Austen's timeless novel. Pride/Prejudice brings to light all the buried secrets, potential scandals, and unspoken, forbidden loves of Austen's story, weaving a tale of intertwined passions, pride humbled, and ultimately, freedom from prejudice.

Workin' It!: RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style by Ru Paul		More than just a style guide, this is a navigation system through the bumpy road of life. Let RuPaul teach you the tried, tested and found true techniques that will propel you from background player to shining star! No more playing small, your time is now! *Workin' It!* will provide helpful and provocative tips on fashion, beauty, style and confidence for girls and boys, straight and gay - and everyone in between! No one knows more about life, self-expression and style than RuPaul! With photos by Mathu Andersen from the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race and a fresh look at style and inner beauty, *Workin' It!* will pick up where the show leaves off. The book will be as colourful, fun, and intriguing as RuPaul, with insights into makeup, clothing choices and the illusion of drag. Fans of RuPaul will get piece of Ru's philosophy on style and attitude - and how it's more than the clothes that make the man, or woman! With four colour photos throughout and a fresh, funky design *Workin' It!* will be the perfect guide to RuPaul - part style guide, part confidence manifesto, and entirely fabulous!

*Remembrance of Things Forgotten* by Bob Smith		Available June 1, 2010 A time travel novel in which a middle-aged gay man has to decide how he would introduce himself to himself at twenty-six: “Hi. I’m you only with more wrinkles and problems you can’t imagine.” In this hilarious novel, comic book dealer John Sherkston flees 2006 in a time machine invented by his boyfriend, renowned physicist Taylor Esgard. His destination: 1961. His goal: purchasing thirty copies of Spiderman no. 1 (now worth thirty grand apiece) to finance the breakup of his fourteen-year relationship with Taylor—a nice guy turned staunch Republican. But things go deliciously wrong when the machine malfunctions and sends John back to 1986 where he meets—and gets hit on by—himself at age twenty-six. Seizing the opportunity to team up with “Junior” to prevent their sister’s suicide—and stop George W. Bush from becoming president—John comes middle-aged face to twenty-something face with his past and must decide whether or not to intervene and spare his younger self from all the bad fashions, lousy jobs, and dud boyfriends of the last two decades. Should he let the bad news stop with his baldness, or should he clue Junior in to the devastating losses, embarrassing secret screen names, and the news that money will still be a problem when he’s forty-six? In this wickedly funny and thought-provoking trek, John confronts his (and our country’s) blunders, and learns that having a second chance to change your life means having new and improved opportunities to make things worse—and maybe even better. The best-known gay stand-up comedian in the country (with appearances on The Tonight Show, HBO, and Politically Incorrect), Bob Smith’s first novel Selfish and Perverse garnered praise from such funny people as Armistead Maupin, Stephen McCauley, and David Rakoff .

*Fifty Gay & Lesbian Books Everybody Must Read* edited by Richard Canning		In a wide-ranging group of essays by some of today’s most outstanding novelists, writers, and critics, Fifty Gay and Lesbian Books Everybody Must Read insists on the importance of these fifty titles to all readers but also challenges our own bookshelves to make room for new arrivals. Some familiar names—Melville, Plato, Sappho, Rimbaud—are seen afresh, while others will be unfamiliar books waiting to be discovered. Jonathan Franzen pays tribute to James Purdy's macabre masterpiece, Eustace Chisholm and the Works. Alison Smith remembers coming out with Colette. Christopher Bram revisits Thomas Mann's disturbing tale of improper desire, Death in Venice, and Regina Marler inquisitions Henry James over the women of The Bostonians. A host of distinct, radically unalike names speak out—from Aaron Hamburger's witty gay take on the “Book of Samuel” to Jane DeLynn on the true story of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway; from Edmund White on Marguerite Yourcenar's extraordinary reanimation of Emperor Hadrian to the late Kathy Acker, getting off with William Burroughs's Wild Boys. Find out which books have beguiled Mark Merlis, Stella Duffy, Andrew Holleran, Bob Smith, Randall Kenan, Carol Anshaw, Jim Grimsley, Felice Picano and many more.

The Collected Plays of Paul Rudnick		Available October 12, 2010