Books: A Baker's Passport

Baking is an international language, an art form, and for some, a calling. The term applies to everything that comes out of the oven: soufflés, meat and poultry, cakes, sweet and savory pies, breads, and of course cookies. Food writer, pastry chef and educator, Susie Norris believes that home-baked meals and mood-lifting sweets unite communities and families around the world. In her new cookbook, A Baker’s Passport, Susie shares over 200 technique-driven recipes culled from her global travels and her award-winning blog, Food Market Gypsy, designed to inspire home cooks as well as experienced chefs.

“I’m a lifelong, culinary road-tripper traveling through the world’s great food towns and traditions to explore what is baking where. This book visits beautiful countries with artisan baking traditions,” says Norris. “By exploring recipes in their regions, we help keep those traditions alive and relevant.”

A Baker's Passport presents recipes with easy-to-follow steps and measurements. The photography is beautifully simple and highlights the detail of each dish, often with travel photos from its region. Recipes include sweet and savory favorites such as Black Forest Cake from Germany, Enchiladas from Mexico, and French classics like Quiche Lorraine, Coq au Vin, and Creme Brûlée.

“My goal is to bring the joy of regional baking home. Take an international culinary excursion without leaving your kitchen with A Baker’s Passport and taste the world! With this book as your passport, we’ll bake together.”

Books: Dungeons and Drag Queens

Greg Scarnici's latest book, Dungeons and Drag Queens, is now available for pre-sale on Amazon. 

In it, he recounts some of his shocking and scandalous experiences over twenty-five seasons on New York’s Fire Island. From tea dances in Fire Island Pines to drag competitions in Cherry Grove, Greg paints a picture of what a typical summer on the island of misfit boys is like.

Books: Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Vol. 4

Much like a fine wine the Best Gay Erotica series just keeps getting better with each passing year—and this year’s volume is no exception! With M/M erotic stories about dominant men standing tall and powerful over their submissive, to dashing men with looks to kill for, to the rough-and-tumble type who is just asking for you to get down-and-dirty. So, pour yourself a glass and curl up with Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Volume 4. Clothing is optional.

Books: We Make It Better

We Make It Better profiles all the people, places, and events that show just how awesome and inspiring the LGBT community is.

LGBT people have always played important roles in society. We have served our country, served in office, pushed for the protection of human rights, and have impacted all fields of study, sport, art and industry.

We Make It Better offers biographies of some of the most famous gay thinkers and changers in history from Bayard Rustin, Alan Turing, Dr. Sally Ride, and Oscar Wilde to present day innovators and world changers such as Billie Jean King, Jason Collins, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim Cook, the Wachowski sisters, Sir Ian McKellen and more.

But, more than a “who’s who” of LGBT history, We Make It Better is also a vibrant chronicle of the events in history where the LGBT community came together to fight for equality and to save lives.

Books: 'Dark Rainbow: Queer Erotic Horror'

Dark Rainbow: Queer Erotic Horror is the first volume of a short fiction anthology series edited by award-winning queer writer and editor Andrew Robertson.

Published under Riverdale Avenue Books’ Afraid imprint, it features many members of the Horror Writers Association along with writers from all over the world.

Dark Rainbow contains 15 tales of dark appetites, hidden fantasies, sex and slashers including new work from Angel Leigh McCoy, Jeff C. Stevenson, Sèphera Girón, Julianne Snow, Derek Clendening, Spinster Eskie, Lindsay King-Miller and many more.

"There has always been a special relationship between queer culture and horror, said Writer and Editor Andrew Robertson. “ Horror is a genre about the ‘other’ and being a part of queer culture often comes with feelings of ‘otherness’ or being an outsider based on your desires…maybe you see a freak on screen during a midnight madness screening and you think to yourself, Well, I feel like a freak too. Maybe the monster is just misunderstood. We are all hunger for something, right?”

Downloads are available on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles Nook, iTunes, Kobo and wherever e-books are downloaded.

Books: Keep YourEyes on the Skies for Colorado UFOs

Embark on a whirlwind tour of contemporary UFO phenomena occurring in eleven locations throughout the state via Richard Estep's new book Colorado UFOs. 

From the Rocky Mountains to the Denver International Airport to a lonely and isolated UFO Watchtower in the San Luis Valley, join paranormal investigator Richard Estep and other leaders in the field of Colorado Ufology to uncover some of the state's most harrowing stories. Are we alone in the universe, or is there something more to these stories from the Centennial State?

Richard Estep has been investigating claims of the paranormal on both sides of the Atlantic since 1995. Relocating to the United States in 1999, he feeds his fascination with all things ghostly and extraterrestrial with regular field trips to mysterious locations. He is author of several books and his work has been filmed for the TV series Haunted Case Files. When he isn't traveling strange highways, Richard makes his living as a paramedic. Hailing originally from England, he now lives in Colorado with his wife, Laura, and a menagerie of rescued animals.

Books: “the AIDS activist project”

A powerful new book of unique photographic portraits of AIDS activists from around the world, including members of ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) chapters in the United States and Europe, has just been published. the AIDS activist project is a 28-year project by veteran photographer and AIDS activist Bill Bytsura.

“the AIDS activist project is a memorial to the brave men and women who struggled and died while fighting the epidemic and government neglect,” Bill Bytsura said. “But this book is also a renewed call to action, because the AIDS epidemic is not over. Infection rates are rising again, and the Trump Administration, like Reagan and Bush, is ignoring the dangers.”

From 1989 to 1998, Bytsura photographed AIDS activists from around the globe, beginning with members of the New York City chapter of ACT UP, and branching out to capture members of other ACT UP chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami and Puerto Rico. Bytsura subsequently traveled to AIDS conferences in Europe to photograph ACT UP members and other AIDS activists from Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris.

the AIDS activist project features a foreword by David France, the Academy Award-nominated director of the 2012 documentary “How to Survive a Plague,” and author of the award-winning 2016 companion book of the same name.

The genesis for the AIDS activist project came when Bytsura, a longtime New Yorker, lost his life partner Randy Northup to AIDS in 1989. Filled with anger and helplessness, Bytsura attended an ACT UP/NY meeting. Eventually, he channeled his grief into protests and began photographing the group’s raucous street demonstrations. During that time, Bytsura conceived the idea for the AIDS activist project.

“I saw ACT UP members as brave people taking a stand,” Bytsura recalled, “but the public and media saw them only as sinners, lawbreakers and disease carriers. My goal was to photograph a series of studio portraits of these warriors, to show the world their heroic and mournful sides.”

the AIDS activist project book also includes candid shots of AIDS activists at picket lines across the nation, in well-orchestrated protests. Bytsura's images capture the resistance of activists that drew national attention, forcing the medical establishment and government to act — and, ultimately, elicited empathy from the public at large.

Bytsura’s complete collection of 225 photographic portraits and original negatives, plus the activists’ personal statements, are now archived at Fales Library at New York University, as part of The Downtown Collection.

Books: Raised by Unicorns: Stories from People with LGBTQ+ Parents

In recent years, the world has been saturated by endless blogs, articles, and books devoted to the subject of LGBTQ+ parenting. On the flip side, finding stories written by the children of LGBTQ+ parents is akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. Now that the world is more accepting than ever of non-traditional families, it's time to create a literary space for this not-so-unique, shared, but completely individual experience.

In Raised by Unicorns: Stories from People with LGBTQ+ Parents, Frank Lowe has carefully edited an anthology that reflects on the upbringing of children in many different forms of LGBTQ+ families. From Baby Boomers to Generation Z, it features diverse stories that express the distinctiveness of this shared journey and of each particular family. It's visceral, raw, and not always pretty, but love is always the common thread.

Lowe candidly reveals true accounts of this particular niche of humanity, while simultaneously creating a moving snapshot of the world in which we live. Raised by Unicorns guides the reader through an empathetic journey that is nothing short of compelling and poignant. We've all heard the phrase "raised by wolves." Now we have a window into the complex world of being Raised by Unicorns.

Books: Let Me Dream

With the gay literature market rapidly growing, authors such as Harry Lavis are inspired to release new emotion-rich novels that explore a variety of themes such as inclusion, HIV, immigration, racism and environmentalism.

Let Me Dream is certainly no exception; a cocktail of multiple genres that ultimately pulls readers into an intense love story between two men who, while at odds, refuse to give up on their growing bond.

“I have definitely used this book to force readers to confront many important and prevalent issues,” explains Lavis. “For example, one of our main characters’ ex partners is HIV positive and it gets plenty of attention in the narrative; HIV is of course a vital societal issue, so why not use literature as a vehicle to raise its profile and acceptance?

Ultimately, the book was written to address my passion for inclusion and acceptance among all people, everywhere. The many issues intertwined into the story will push readers outside their comfort zone and hopefully see them turn the last page with a refreshed view on how we can all live together, happily, no matter what we believe.”

Books: Love Activism

Today it seems our world is filled with dissension, divisiveness, and a lack of kindness toward one another. In her new book, Love Activism, author Stacy Russo presents a radical way to live through what she calls Love Activism. This is realized through how we perform our work, what we do in our communities, and the decisions we make each day.

“What is Love Activism? The easiest definition is that it is a daily, radical, and holistic activism of kindness,” Russo says. “It is alive by caring deeply for our own needs, as much as it lives in what we do for others. Love Activism brings positive changes and rewards since it is a wide-ranging form of activism that we are able to infuse in everything we do every day.”

Love Activism provides inspiration and support for activists. Through stories, examples, and lists of practices, readers discover the different elements of this form of activism and how they can bring these practices into their lives.

The book also includes interviews with ten activists throughout the United States who are involved in various types of activism in their communities. These individuals include the founder of a community garden organization; an art therapist; the founder of a food justice organization; and an individual involved with educating his community on printmaking as a form of activism.

Books: Two Journeys to One Wondrous Life

The seventh of eight children, Lee Klein was born in 1924 in Lincoln, Nebraska. In “Two Journeys to One Wondrous Life,” he shares his story of being a closeted gay man in the military and his life moving forward.

In the aftermath of repealing “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” the book offers a fascinating look into the past and what it was like for a gay man to serve in the military.

“The book is the sharing of blocks of time in my life revealing how I had to live two separate lifestyles, so I could keep my security clearance and keep my gay life in the closet for most of my adult life,” said Klein. “I also hope to influence young gay men and women by letting them know that it gets better.”

Books: Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color

Lambda Literary is excited to announce the publication of Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color. Click the link to read more.

Books: Raised By Unicorns: Stories from People with LGBTQ+ Parents

Perfectly timed for Father's Day, Mother's Day and nationwide PRIDE events this summer season, RAISED BY UNICORNS: STORIES FROM PEOPLE WITH LGBTQ+ PARENTS, edited by acerbic Twitter and LGBTQ+ media personality Frank Lowe, is poised to not only inform LGBTQ+ families about the challenges they may face and provide insight on how to overcome them, but to also further the definition of the American modern nuclear family. 

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to spread the love, and maybe you'll find yourself inspired along the way!

Books: Playful Intelligence: The Power of Living Lightly in a Serious World

As adults, we have more responsibilities than we could have ever imagined growing up. Navigating the bumpy terrain of relationships. Maintaining a social life. Facing grave hardship. Finding contentment in our career.

As the years pass by, we sense how the good things in life are so often eclipsed by stress. We find ourselves doing everything we can just to endure adulthood, all the while wondering whether we are actually enjoying it. This is exactly why Dr. Anthony T. DeBenedet decided to write Playful Intelligence: The Power of Living Lightly in a Serious World (Santa Monica Press/May/Softcover), to show readers how playfulness helps us counterbalance the seriousness of adulthood. 

“Five years ago, my life was becoming more intense and stressful,” DeBenedet says. “My relationships, clinical work as a physician, and basic interactions with the world were blurring into a frazzled mosaic. Going through the motions became my norm, and every day brought busyness and exhaustion. I thought about whether I was depressed. I didn’t think I was. Anxious? Sure, but aren’t we all anxious on some level? I also thought about the lifestyle factors that could be making me feel this way. Was I getting enough sleep? Was I exercising regularly? Was I eating healthy? Was I playing and remembering to be playful?”

Today, we live in a taxing world. The endless pressure to keep up with our responsibilities and the daily headlines swarming around us can be overwhelming. DeBenedet’s work comes at a time when stress, uncertainty, and intensity levels are high. Playful Intelligence shows adults that there is a way to live lighter—and smarter—as we navigate the seriousness of adulthood. It’s not about taking life less seriously; it’s about taking ourselves less seriously.

The book’s core chapters are devoted to exploring the effects and benefits of five playful qualities: imagination, sociability, humor, spontaneity, and wonder. By examining playfulness as a sum of its parts, readers will gain a working awareness of its power and be able to apply playful principles to their own lives, bringing the magic of childhood back into their day-to-day existence. The book also offers practical suggestions on how to make life more playful in nature.

Books: Charlie

Charlie is a harrowing account of a gay man’s fight against the authorities of a government hell-bent on destroying him, his reputation, his career, his family, and utterly everything in his life. This is a true story of heinous crimes against humanity and serious breaches of civil liberties. This is a story of rape, abuse, psychological terrorism, imprisonment without trial, and the murder of innocent gay men. 

“Even to this day, I get sick to my stomach when accepting that this all began with a comment on Facebook,” explains the author. “It shows the lengths a nation will go to in order to silence its residents, protect the Government’s interests and take drastic steps to belittle and bury those who speak out. Worst of all, this most definitely isn’t fiction.”

Continuing, “However, I also use the book to show the flipside; the British Government’s bending over backwards to ensure the safety of me and my boyfriend, and the human spirit’s ability to find hope if it refuses to give up in the face of adversity. I think, ultimately, it proves that good always triumphs over evil.”

The Telling Image: Shapes of Changing Times

It has been said that great artists do not see ahead of their time; rather, they are the few who see their time for what it truly is.

But what if we could see the world more clearly and better anticipate what is to come in the New Year?

As award-winning documentary filmmaker Lois Farfel Stark suggests, one way to balance the rapid changes of our technological era is shape: a key that reveal patterns of the past and helps us glimpse the future.

This is the focus her new book, The Telling Image: Shapes of Changing Times.

One example is the shape of the Big Dipper. To the Greeks and Native Americans, these same stars formed a great bear. In Medieval times these dots connected to draw a wagon. To the Chinese, they made up a heavenly goddess. Each culture saw the same set of stars but connected the dots in their own way to form a familiar shape that reflected their worldview.

If we were connecting the dots of the constellation today, perhaps we would draw a laptop computer. As Stark suggests, “The stars do not move—we change our description of them. How we describe the world inscribes our thinking.”

The Telling Image: Shapes of Changing Times reveals the powerful role shapes and patterns play in forming how humans think. As the New Year approaches, perhaps the secret to seeing ahead of our time is to see our current world with new eyes.

Books: Best Gay Erotica of the Year

In the world of man-on-man erotica, the best just keeps getting better! Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Volume 3, masterfully edited by Rob Rosen, features the absolute hottest M/M stories around. 

Stories from the likes of Landon Dixon, Richard Michaels, and Dale Chase cover it all: from dominant men going after the lovers they lust for, to suave men charming their sweethearts into the bedroom, to sweat-inducing masculine quickies. 

Whether you have a penchant for vampires, co-eds, threesomes, hot and hunky bartenders, or one-night stands, get ready to get off in every way possible!

Quentin Crisp Has The Last Word

MB Books this week announced the worldwide publication of The Last Word, the third and final installment of Quentin Crisp’s autobiography. Today is the eighteen-year anniversary of Quentin’s passing. The Last Word is available in paperback and as an e-book, exclusively on Amazon.

The Last Word was written by Crisp with the help of his best friend, Phillip Ward, who tape-recorded and later transcribed Quentin’s words between 1997-1999. Upon his death, Quentin left the rights and responsibility to publish The Last Word to Phillip, who later enlisted former Pink News features writer Laurence Watts to help edit the resulting manuscript.

Whereas The Naked Civil Servant made Crisp famous and How To Become A Virgin detailed that fame and his move to and life in New York, The Last Word was written by a man who knew the end was near. While Crisp died from a heart attack in November 1999 in Manchester, England - on the eve of a British revival of his one-man show - having been diagnosed with prostate cancer and heart problems and at the age of ninety, Crisp had begun to put his affairs in order. The Last Word then, is Crisp’s goodbye to the world. In it he recounts the story of him having once been a temporary tramp (a hobo in American-English), his recently discovered transgender identity, his struggles with ill-health and growing old, and a host of other previously untold stories.

“I am delighted to finally be able to share The Last Word with all of Quentin’s fans throughout the world.” said Phillip Ward, literary and estate executor for Quentin Crisp. “Quentin was one of a kind. He was a philosopher, an observer of life, a survivor and a beacon of hope for many. In life, his primary mission was the immediate happiness of those around him. He leaves behind a legacy of great importance to the world’s gay and straight communities of which The Last Word is his swansong.”

The People's Victory: Stories From the Front Lines in the Fight for Marriage Equality

Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA) announces the release of an inspiring new book of essays showcasing the organization’s unwavering efforts to help bring marriage protections to same-sex couples throughout the United States. Told through the eyes of dozens of ordinary LGBTQ Americans who joined an extraordinary movement, “The People’s Victory: Stories From the Front Lines in the Fight for Marriage Equality” traces MEUSA’s origins in New York and California in the late 1990’s to its growth into a nationwide force of tireless activists.

Each of these activists, including the late Edie Windsor, Cathy Marino-Thomas, Stuart Gaffney & John Lewis, Del Shores, and countless others, most of whom are not household names, played a key role in making it possible for loving and committed LGBTQ couples to be recognized under the law and afforded the rights and respect that come with marriage.

“We wanted to show the world the power of everyday individuals to bring about monumental change,” wrote Marriage Equality USA Executive Director Brian Silva in the book’s introduction. “As a grassroots organization, MEUSA has always believed this fight for hearts and minds was something only achievable when everyday people not only believed they had the power to make change, but acted on it.”

The book caps off the decades-long activism of MEUSA and officially marks an end to its work. It also serves as a blueprint for dedicated activists who are pursuing civil rights on a host of other issues.

“‘The People’s Victory’ is a mirror for each of us to see our own power to fight for justice and create the change we want to see in our world,” wrote California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom in the book’s Foreword. Newsom is the former San Francisco Mayor and an iconic marriage equality advocate. “Marriage equality was the vehicle for these authors – but what will yours be? I hope these stories inspire you to resist, to fight, to win, and in the end write the next stories in our continuing push for a more just and perfect union,” he said.

Kirsten Berzon, one of the book’s dozens of authors, echoed those sentiments in her essay, writing: “When I think about… my tenure as a marriage equality activist, I keep coming back to the famous quote by Margaret Mead: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’”

In her piece, the late Edie Windsor remembers a 2007 briefing in which she was told by an LGBT movement leader that marriage equality would be addressed “a couple years down the line.” The fierce and feisty activist recalls retorting: “‘I’m 77 years old and I can’t wait!! What do we have to do?’ On that same night I signed up as a Marriage Ambassador. From then on Thea [Spyer] and I were at every MENY rally, speech and public event we could attend…”

“This book is a true labor of love and a final tribute to MEUSA,” said Brian Silva. “It’s also a call to action for all those fighting on the front lines of our most pressing social justice issues today. As I note in the book: ‘The fight to be treated equally in marriage cannot end at the altar or county clerk’s office. Those forces seeking to deny same-sex couples equal marriage rights for so long are the same people, ideologies and resources working against anyone who is pushing our country to be more fair and just. The People’s Victory elevates and honors the everyday heroes of social justice who make the brave decision to no longer sit idly on the sidelines of history. Instead, they hold a sign, attend a meeting, and share their stories. They are you.’”

The book is available for free digital download and at cost in print to ensure it distributed widely in libraries, educational facilities, and LGBTQ centers throughout the nation.

Books: The Last Word

MB Books, LLC, (MB Books) today announces that the third and final installment of Quentin Crisp’s autobiography, The Last Word, will be published worldwide on November 21, 2017. The publication date will coincide with the eighteen-year anniversary of Crisp’s passing, which occurred on November 21, 1999. The Last Word will be available in hardcopy and as an e-book, exclusively on Amazon.

The Last Word was written by Crisp with the help of his best friend, Phillip Ward, who tape-recorded and later transcribed Quentin’s words between 1997-1999. Upon his death, Quentin left the rights and responsibility to publish The Last Word to Phillip, who later enlisted former Pink News features writer Laurence Watts to help edit the resulting manuscript.

Whereas The Naked Civil Servant made Crisp famous and How To Become A Virgin detailed that fame and his move to and life in New York, The Last Word was written by a man who knew the end was near. The Last Word is Crisp’s goodbye to the world, an opportunity for him to have the last word.