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TYPE: Non-fiction
Paperback
TITLE: Coming Out to Parents: A Two-way Survival Guide for Lesbians and Gay
Men and Their Parents (Revised and Updated)
AUTHOR: Mary V. Borhek
PUBLISHER: The Pilgrim Press
BLURB:
Mary Borhek's best-selling Coming Out to Parents has served as a twin
beacon of wisdom and practical advice since its initial publication. This thoroughly
revised and updated edition reflects a decade more of intensive research and
activism on the author's part and demonstrates her keen and compassionate awareness
of how the tragedy of AIDS has impacted the gay community - and the coming-out
process.
In addition to a new chapter on living in the age of HIV/AIDS, Borhek has also expanded her discussion of religious viewpoints on homosexuality that both exposes myths and reflects the most up-to-date theological perspectives on this volatile issue.
For gays and lesbians, Coming Out to Parents explores the fears and misgivings accompanying the revelation of themselves to their parents, providing suggestions on how and when to come out, what reactions to expect, and how to deal with the awkwardness that follows. For parents, the books guides them through the natural feelings of grief and loss and shows how understanding, compassion, and insight can lead to an even deeper love between the parent and the finally whole child.
Praise for the first edition of Coming Out to Parents:
"Sound, sympathetic, and
helpful... Not rigid, facile, or unrealisitc, but a genuine help for reaching
self- and mutual understanding, this book is confidently recommended to professional
counsellors, parents of gay and lesbian children, homosexual persons - everyone
involved in the 'coming out' experience."
-SIECUS Report
"Among the most important
gay and lesbian books that should be represented in any general bookstore."
-American Bookseller
"Excellent... giving concrete
suggestions on how homosexuals might tell their parents of their lifestyles."
-Library Journal
"Outstanding and enlightening."
-The Disciple
TYPE: Non-fiction
Paperback
TITLE: 3 Plays by Mart Crowley
AUTHOR: Mart Crowley with a foreword by Gavin Lambert
PUBLISHER: Alyson Publications
BLURB:
The Boys in the Band
"The play is by far the
frankest treatment of homosexuality I have ever seen on the stage... This is
not a play about a homosexual but a play that takes the homosexual milieu and
the homosexual way of life totally for granted and uses this as a valid basis
for human experience... The power of the play is the way in which it remorselessly
peels away the pretensions of its characters and reveals a pessimism so uncompromising
in its honesty that it becomse in itself an affirmation of life."
-Clive Barnes, The New York Times
A Breeze from the Gulf
"So honestly written that
you cling to it for dear life. Mr. Crowley is a writer as The Boys in the
Band made clear - his ear for speech is as sharp as before, his economy and
candor with a line as cutting."
-Walter Kerr, The New York Times
"The fact that a playwright
in this day and age still feels that he can write a naturalistic play earns
my respect... As for Mart Crowley's, I have now seen his command of naturalistic
playwriting... In the second half [of the play], the sense of family as trap,
hate as boomerang, and love as Achilles' heel becomes overwhelming."
-John Simon, New York Magazine
For Reasons that Remain Unclear
"Crowley was the first writer
to put gay life on a mainstream stage... Most gay theatre in this more activist
age is about its presumably straight audience, which must be converted or insulted
or explained to. Like Boys, Reasonsisn't focused on the reactions
of straights... The play has its hard nugget of truth. Crowley is more honest,
and wiser about human nature, than many playwrights."
-Lloyd Rose, The Washington Post
TYPE: Non-fiction
Paperback
TITLE: Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality
AUTHOR: Simon LeVay
PUBLISHER: The MIT Press
BLURB:
What makes people gay,
lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual? And who cares? Written by one of the leading
scientists in the research of sexual orientation, Queer Science looks at how
scientific discoveries about homosexuality influence society’s attitude towards
gays and lesbians, beginning with the German sexologist and gay rights pioneer
Magnus Hirschfeld and culminating with the latest discoveries in brain science,
genetics, endocrinology, and cognitive psychology.
"Simon LeVay’s review of
what ‘causes’ homosexuality will be widely regarded as authoritative because
it is thorough and fair. He not only lays out the sometimes conflicting evidence
but also takes pains to assess the science as good or sloppy and to judge the
assumptions behind theories. And it is wonderful to encounter a scientist who
writes beautifully."
-Richard E. Cytowic, Washington Post
Simon LeVay is particularly well known for his 1991 reports in Science, which described a difference in brain structure between gay and heterosexual men. His previous books are The Sexual Brain and City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America (with Elisabeth Nonas).
TYPE: Non-fiction
Paperback
TITLE: The Rainbow Connection: The Internet and the Singapore Gay Community
AUTHOR: Ng King Kang
PUBLISHER: KangCuBine
BLURB:
The advent of the Internet has revolutionised the way people communicate and
relate to each other. While its impact on society is often spoken of in terms
of the economic benefit, the leisure and wealth of information it brings to
us, we often overlook the fact that the Internet is changing even patterns of
behaviour.
The first of its kind in Singapore, this study examines the impact of the Internet upon the gay community here, paying particular attention to certain aspects, such as the emotional, sociological and even sexual.
Combining quantitative survey data and face-to-face interviews with members of the gay community, the author takes a candid look at how the gay scene in Singapore has changed since the time the Internet took us by storm.
TYPE:
Non-fiction Paperback
TITLE: Life Outside
AUTHOR: Michelangelo Signorile
PUBLISHER: HarperPerennial
BLURB:
Popular OUT Magazine columnist Michelangelo Signorile investigates the hot-button
issues confronting gay men today.
Michelangelo Signorile galvanised a generation of lesbians and gay men when he took on the "closets of power" in his 1992 classic Queer in America. Now, in Life Outside, he offers and expose of what he calls the "cult of masculinity" within contemporary gay male culture, while finding hope and renewal in other aspects of gay life. He reveals the origins of the current obsession in much of the gay community with an impossible physical ideal and explores the malevolent commercialisation of gay sex.
Life Outside also identifies another, more positive phenomenon in the gay male world. With the expansion of the gay movement, with more gays coming out - and remaining - in suburban, small-town, and rural America, the urban "scene" is no longer setting the standard for what it is to be gay in America. With the "deghettoisation" and "deurbanisation" of homosexuality, we find men who challenge long held assumptions about being gay, relationships, and coping with growing older. With first-person accounts from men who are moving into midlife with pride and vitality, Signorile points the way for all gay men to face the passages of life with a new maturity.
"Exhaustively researched,
surpassingly perceptive."
-New York magazine
"Life Outside bravely
advances a critique of the attitudes and ideologies that have shaped the gay
'scene' and merits the attention of a broad audience for its courage and informativeness."
-New York Times Book Review
"A stunning expose. Gay men
should be handed three things when they come out of the closet: a box of condoms,
a videocassette of George Cukor's The Women, and a copy of Life Outside."
-The Advoate