LITERARY DIVERSIONS
Dark Reflections by Samuel R. Delany
(Carroll & Graf, $15.95; in stores now) Gay
granddaddy Delany is best known for his science fiction, but
his latest novel is about a gay African-American poet
steeped in New York City's Lower East Side.
"It's an extraordinary meditation on deformed
social attitudes, loneliness, and the startling invigoration
of life's small triumphs," observes
Philly's Hermance.
Landing by Emma Donoghue (Harcourt, $25;
in stores now) Accomplished Irish novelist
Donoghue turns her pen to an old-fashioned
girl-meets-girl romantic comedy. "It's about a
world traveler and one who's never traveled,
who connect, fall in love, and try to sort themselves
out across the distances," says Brinster in New York.
She also recommends Donoghue's story collection
Touchy Subjects, now in paperback.
The Child by Sarah Schulman (Carroll &
Graf, $24.95; in stores now) One of our most
articulate observers of heterosexual cruelty and gay
resistance, Schulman delivers her eighth novel, about a teen
who kills after his online lover is jailed for
pedophilia. "Word is she doesn't hold
back in this book about online predators, AIDS, and mental
deterioration," says Galloway in San Francisco.
PLOTS FOR THE PLANE
Always by Nicola Griffith (Riverhead,
$26.95; in stores now) Stylish lesbian action
heroine Aud Torvingen knows how to multitask. While
wrestling with grief over her lost lover and reckoning with
her mother, she unleashes the unlikely female warriors
in her martial arts class, gets into an erotic tangle,
and roots out injustice on a Seattle film set.
"The Blue Place and Stay stand as
my all-time favorite thrillers. I'm excited to
catch another installment of Aud's
adventures," says Brinster.
The Messiah by Lee Hayes (Strebor, $15;
July 10) Hayes has won a wide following for his
visceral, seductive, and gripping novels that plumb
the recesses of black gay men's psyches and drip with
hot sex. His new thriller, about a reporter who faces off
with a serial killer (who may be his lover), looks
like one of the summer's most popular books,
says Atlanta's Rafshoon.
The Beloved Son by Jay Quinn (Alyson,
$24.95; in stores now) It could be
anyone's story: A grown man with almost-grown
children returns home to care for his elderly parents
and comes to terms with his gay brother. For Galloway,
the appeal is that "books about other people's
dysfunctional families let us forget about our own for a
while."
BEACH ACCESSORIES
Dahlia Season: Stories and a Novella by Myriam
Gurba (Manic D Press, $14.95; in stores now)
Looking for a fresh, edgy voice that could rival Michelle
Tea? Try this collection about a Chicana goth baby
dyke who's sent to Catholic school to get rid
of her weirdness. "We all know how that helps,
right?" asks Galloway, whose ears pricked when
he heard the main character's best friend is an
"ex-carny trannyboi."
Hook, Line and Homicide by Mark Richard Zubro
(St. Martin's Minotaur, $25.95; June 26)
It's hard to believe we're up to the 12th
mystery featuring retired Chicago high school teacher
Tom Mason and his lover Scott Carpenter, a former
major league baseball player. But "a new Tom and
Scott mystery is always one of the most popular beach
reads," says Brinster.
Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary by Monica Nolan
(Kensington, $14; August) This 1950s-style
potboiler about a "former cheerleader with a knack
for office skills" isn't coming out
until August, but the vintage pulp cover alone makes
it worth the wait.
GET SMART
The Grand Surprise: The Journals of Leo Lerman edited
by Stephen Pascal (Alfred A. Knopf, $30; in
stores now) This gay man was one of the most
influential figures in New York publishing. (Vogue,
Vanity Fair, Mademoiselle) Lerman's once
secret journals are dish to die for: Yul Brynner begging him
for sex, Marlene Dietrich giving him a lesson on
female anatomy, and Steve McQueen's bisexual
liaisons are just a taste.
The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein by Martin
Duberman (Knopf, $37.50; in stores now)
Memo to ballet queens: "One of our best historians
examines the life of the gay man who was a driving
force in helping create modernism, including
sustaining George Balanchine's New York City
Ballet," says Hermance.
The View From Here: Conversations With Gay and Lesbian
Filmmakers by Matthew Hays (Arsenal
Pulp Press, $22.95; in stores now) What's
not to love about a film book with Divine in a red dress on
the cover? Galloway points out that profiled
filmmakers include John Waters, Gregg Araki, Lea Pool,
and Pedro Almodovar.
PERFECT PRESENTS
Woof! A Gay Man's Guide to Dogs by Andrew
DePrisco (Bowtie Press, $19.95; June 30)
"We have just about as many dogs as humans come into
our little store in the Castro, and this cute
tongue-in-cheek gay men's guide to finding the
dog of their dreams will be huge for us," says
Galloway.
Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style by Tim
Gunn and Kate Moloney (Abrams Image,
$17.95; in stores now) The presiding stitch queen
on TV's Project Runway (who's soon to
have his own makeover reality show) delivers a manual for
sharp dressing that "will be on the reading
list of every stylish man," predicts Rafshoon.
