Here are some non-fiction suggestions for the Pride season. Get inspired!

Creative types

In the introduction to her book, The Animals: Love Letters Between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014), edited by Kathleen Bucknell, Bucknell writes, “From February 14, 1953 until January 4, 1986, the conversation between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy never stopped.” One of the greatest true gay love stories of all time, the relationship of legendary author Christopher Isherwood and visual artist Don Bachardy was immortalized in the acclaimed 2007 doc Chris and Don: A Love Story., and readers can now get another intimate glimpse into their lives through this collection of correspondence.

Lauded (and openly gay) British composer Benjamin Britten (The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra), who collaborated with other queer writers of the time, including W.H. Auden and E.M. Forster, is given the biographical treatment in Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music (Henry Holt, 2014) by Neil Powell.

Influential (and somewhat controversial) 20th century “cultural impresario” Carl Van Vechten is the subject of The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America by Edward White (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014). A familiar face during the Harlem Renaissance, Van Vechten’s circle included Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Zora Neale Hurston, Bessie Smith and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A coffee table book, A Journey Through Literary America (Val De Grâce, 2014) by Thomas R. Hummel, with photography by Tamra L. Dempsey, takes readers on a wondrous voyage through New England, the South, the West, the Midwest and beyond, focusing on “the places that America’s great writers had described in their own words.” The writers, living and dead, represented include Raymond Carver, Phillip Roth, Toni Morrison, John Updike, Rita Dove, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Queer voices, including Langston Hughes and Willa Cather, are also present, as is E. Annie Proulx, straight author of the novella Brokeback Mountain.

Edited by Robert Kirby, Qu33r: New Comics from 33 Creators (Northwest, 2014) includes Diane DiMassa, Ed Luce, Justin Hall, Jennifer Camper, Steve MacIsaac, Amanda Verwey, David Kelly, Jon Macy and Eric Orner, providing personal essays in images.

Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire (Duke, 2014) by Amy Villarejo, a professor of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University, takes a close look at the representation of queer life on television and how it has evolved from the 1950s to the present day.

Strong women

Best known as the straight-talking lesbian host of the popular Bravo series “Tabatha Takes Over,” Tabatha Coffey publisher her first book, It’s Not Really About The Hair: The Honest Truth About Life, Love, and the Business of Beauty in 2011. The follow-up tome, Own It! (It Books, 2014), subtitled Be the Boss of Your Life – at Home and in the Workplace, contains more useful advice delivered in Coffey’s trademark style.

Journalist and blogger Kelly Cogswell tells her own story in Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger (University of Minnesota, 2014). Abandoning her Southern Baptist roots for a new and queer life in the East Village of the `90s, Cosgrove immersed herself in activism, plunging into the explosive, fire-eating world of the Lesbian Avengers’ brand of in-your-face action, protests and marches, all in the name of making the world a safer place for “baby dykes,” lesbians and women everywhere.

Before there was openly gay football player Michael Sam, there was out, 6’8” WNBA Mercury Phoenix player Brittney Griner. Her memoir In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court (It Books, 2014) by Brittney Griner with Sue Hovey follows her from her Houston childhood to college at Baylor University (where she played basketball) to her career as a professional athlete.

Personals

The “pilgrimage” in the title of Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America (Harper Perennial, 2014) by Jeff Chu takes the writer on a 20,000 mile trek through almost 30 states resulting in more than 300 interviews with people asking and answering similar questions in regards to their own spiritual journeys.

A memoir by Pacific Northwest-based writer Ross Eliot, Babette: The Many Lives, Two Deaths and Double Kidnapping of Dr. Ellsworth (Heliocentric, 2014), traces the writer’s experience during the time he acted as caretaker for Professor Albert Ellsworth, whose Southern French high society childhood and later gender reassignment surgery to become Babette, bracket a life that makes for a lively read.

Consisting of 26 personal essays, In A New Century: Essays on Queer History, Politics, and Community Life (University of Wisconsin, 2014) by award-winning writer and newly retired university professor John D’Emilio, looks at history and its lessons, strategizing and making change, and the under-valued gay community in Chicago.

Over the course of the 12 “Essays on the Body” in You Feel So Mortal (University of Chicago, 2014), Peggy Shinner touches on subjects ranging from feet to posture, from shoplifting to self-defense, from bras to nose jobs, from anti-depressants to autopsies, and places in between and beyond.

Location, location, location

Growing out of South Africa, journalist Mark Gevisser’s obsession with Holmden’s Register of South Africa street guide, Lost and Found in Johannesburg: A Memoir (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014), “charts” the writer’s “intimate history of Johannesburg.”

For Safe Space (Duke, 2014), Christina B. Hanhardt, Associate Professor of American Studies at University of Maryland, College Park, drew on research in Manhattan and San Francisco to trace the way queer activism and the development of urban communities have intertwined for the past 40 years.

And anyone who has seen hetero takeover in Chicago’s Boystown, NYC’s Chelsea, San Francisco’s Castro, Washington DC’s DuPont Circle or Boston’s South End neighborhoods will find something to relate to in sociologist Amin Ghaziani’s There Goes The Gayborhood? (Princeton, 2014).

Is it so horrible to know what you want? You don’t think so. That’s why you’re decisive, you state your needs clearly and firmly, and you expect people to act accordingly. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. So why do people call you the “B” word that rhymes with itch? You’re not nasty or horrible, so why would they call you a diva? Author Sheryl Lee Ralph doesn’t know the answer.

But, as she says in her new book “Redefining Diva,” if they call you that last name, you really should thank them. Okay, so you’re a diva. What is that, anyhow? The word, says Ralph, has gotten a bum rap lately, but it was originally an Italian noun derived from the Latin word for deity; in other words, a diva is a goddess. Ralph also says that the word is an acronym for Divinely Inspired Vi ctoriously Anointed. A diva, says Ralph, “copies no one. She is her own woman.” Ralph became a diva through a lifetime of observing strong women.

Her mother, a Jamaican immigrant, worked in a hospital to pay for her ticket to America. Ralph’s grandmother, a North Carolina belle, was headstrong and fearless enough to tussle with the burglars who killed her husband. Divas, you see, know that risks are to be seized. At sixteen, Ralph took on a big risk when she went to Rutgers University. She had initially considered going to medical school, but she hated dissecting. She switched to law school, but considered it “boring.”

Then Ralph stumbled into drama auditions, tried out for a play, and found her niche. When a Diva discovers what she’s meant to do, Ralph says, she knows it. After working with the Defense Department, she landed in Hollywood and the movies, but Broadway was her first love. Good Diva that she is, she tackled every opportunity, which eventually gained her a part as one of the original “Dreamgirls,” in the stage show.

She ultimately quit the show, went back to Hollywood, and enjoyed more fame on television. Today, Ralph still acts, because Divas know “yes” can be satisfying. She also works with the Diva Foundation, an organization that focuses on HIV/AIDS awareness and testing. She does it to memorialize her friends and because, she says, a “real Diva counts…her blessings.”

I wasn’t sure what to expect when “Redefining Diva” crossed my desk. Is it a memoir? Or is it meant to inspire? The answer to that, delightfully, is both. Author Sheryl Lee Ralph weaves a lot of advice into this biography, giving readers plenty of takeaways while she shares tales of family, fame and folly.

And that’s what makes this book so enjoyable: Ralph imparts life lessons in between star-studded gossip and her own personal experiences, on-stage and off. Advisements are wrapped inside anecdotes, which somehow make them more memorable and definitely more fun to read.

I liked this book, and I think you will, too. Read “Redefining Diva” for the advice. Read it for the biography. Either way, this’ll be a book you’ll want to read.

Imagine going on the cruise of a lifetime. It would be so exciting! Imagine – you’d have a whole ship to explore. You could swim and play games, watch dolphins in the ocean, snack all day, and mess around without worrying your parents.

Maybe you could even get a tour of the ship’s inner workings. How cool is that? Just imagine: you wouldn’t have to make your bed. You wouldn’t have to clean up after yourself. You wouldn’t have a bedtime to think about. You would want to count lifeboats, however, once you’ve read “Titanic: Voices from the Disaster” by Deborah Hopkinson.

One hundred years ago, before airplanes made trans-Atlantic flight possible for everybody, the most common way to travel between Europe and North America was by ship. It usually took several days for those big ocean liners to make the trip from coast to coast and since there were no cell phones, there were very few ways to tell everyone back home that you were having a great time.

Of all the great ships, three of them were owned by White Star Lines: Olympic, Brittanic, and the largest and most luxurious of all, Titanic. The Titanic was massive: bigger than two full football fields, the ship weighed nearly 47,000 tons and could carry more than 3,500 passengers with three levels of travel. There were several dining rooms, a gymnasium, a swimming pool (which was unique at the time), and a post office. The Titanic was almost like a small town.

On April 10, 1912, amid much celebration, the Titanic set out on its very first trip. Bankers, financiers, and the Titanic’s director and designer were aboard, as well as many people from all walks of life. Sailing on the Titanic was a treat for some and a new beginning for others. For all, though, it would be a life-changing event.

Just before midnight on April 14, while most passengers were asleep, an iceberg was spotted. The captain, unworried, gave word to move slowly ahead: after all, the Titanic was thought to be unsinkable.

His orders were a big mistake.

Using documents, letters, and telegrams from people who survived, as well as authentic accounts of passengers who disembarked early, author Deborah Hopkinson tells the story of what happened that night 100 years ago and how it changed both lives and laws. I found those first-person accounts fascinating, and I was also particularly pleased to see a treasure-trove of pictures, all of which put a sobering face upon the tragedy and its aftermath.

While a Titanic-obsessed adult will find a lot to like here, “Titanic: Voices from the Disaster” is really meant for kids ages 10 and up. For them, for enjoyment, vacation, or for school, this mesmerizing book may be a lifesaver.

“Voyagers of the Titanic” by

Richard Davenport-Hines

© 2012, William Morrow

$26.99 / $29.99 Canada

342 pages, includes index

There’s no doubt about it: moving stinks. You pack your belongings, living with cartons and mess in the meantime, always needing something that’s stashed in a mystery box. Then you haul everything to your new place and unpack it, living with cartons and mess in the meantime, looking for the mystery box and apologizing to whatever friends you have left after they have finished helping.

Now imagine doing it blindly and with very little real preparation, clutching a few paltry possessions and a half-promise of a job, leaving your loved ones an ocean behind. That’s just one of the stories you’ll find in “Voyagers of the Titanic” by Richard Davenport-Hines. One hundred winters ago, the Arctic temperature was milder than normal, which created a higher number of icebergs from the glaciers near Greenland’s coast.

These icebergs floated down into the Atlantic Ocean, right into shipping lanes for cargo ships and luxury liners. One of the liners was the Titanic. Eleven stories high, weighing nearly 47,000 tons, the Titanic was massive. She carried 2,240 passengers and crew, gems and spices, books, a car, fine fabric, mail, and more. There were fine dining rooms onboard, a swimming pool, library, and quarters for pampered first-class dogs. Most of the crew of the Titanic was new to this ship, although they were an experienced lot.

An overwhelming majority of them were British and included stewards, a linen keeper, and a slew of men whose backbreaking job was to fill 190 steel furnaces with coal every 20 minutes. Their captain was on the verge of retirement. Third class passengers, who constituted most of those onboard, were likewise mostly British, but they also hailed from Ireland, Croatia, Norway, and elsewhere. Second-class passengers were largely working-class folks, social up-and-comers, and small business owners. They counted among them a single black man, the only one on board.

First class passengers were the kind who might board the Titanic on a whim, or just as quickly cancel the trip to pursue another fancy. Some of them, in fact, did so. Others, tragically, did not. “Voyagers of the Titanic” begins in an unusual place, and one can almost feel the doom in author Richard Davenport- Hines’ words. For reasons you’ll soon see, the ship was ill-fated from the moment it set sail and—knowing what you know—there is a sense of wanting to warn someone of the impending disaster as you’re reading. Davenport-Hines tells about each group of people onboard, and there are even surprises here.

I’ve read a lot of Titanic books, but I enjoyed this multifaceted take on the ill-starred story. “Voyagers of the Titanic” is truly quite moving.

Worth a Look:

“’Unsinkable’: The Full Story of the RMS Titanic” by Daniel Allen Butler takes the story from before the ship was built to the days when she was discovered at the bottom of the Atlantic. First published more than a decade ago, the newly-refurbished paperback is nicely updated.

Author Charles Pellegrino jumps into the midst of the tragedy in “Farewell, Titanic: Her Final Legacy” and tells the story of the last minutes before the sinking and its aftermath from the survivors point-of-view. Pellegrino then writes about the subsequent search for the ship.

Readers who just want an overview of events will appreciate “The Titanic for Dummies” by Stephen Spignesi. Like most other books in the “for Dummies” series, there’s just enough information to make you seem Titanic smart. The book is browse-able and also includes some cool pictures.

“Titanic: The Unfolding Story” takes a look at the days before the ship was built through the days after the disaster.

The unique twist here is that the book is created entirely of authentic newspaper articles and stories from the Edwardian era. The pictures imbue a “You Are There” feel to this read.

“Gypsy Boy: My Life in the Secret World of the Romany Gypsies” by Mikey Walsh c.2012, Thomas Dunne Books $24.99 U.S. & Canada 288 pages When you were very small, there wasn’t much you wanted. Clean diapers, a cuddle, and food made the shortlist early on. Stuffed animals were slowly added, then siblings, books, and anything upon which you could climb.

By the time you hit school age, your wants became more complicated.

You wanted to be somehow famous. You wanted to stay up late, snack before dinner, and possess that cool toy you saw on TV. You wanted to grow up fast.

Author Mikey Walsh wanted those things, too, but he never wanted to become a fighter. As you’ll see in his memoir, “Gypsy Boy,” his father had other ideas. Mikey Walsh’s father was “fiercely determined” to have a son.

In Romany culture, having a male child was everything – even more so for the Walsh family, which was known for generations of “manly” men who were good with their fists. So, even though his mother was told that her heart condition precluded having a second child, Mikey followed his sister in succession. Upon the happy event, Mr. Walsh hung golden boxing gloves around his newborn son’s neck. Growing up, Mikey loved the dramatic. He and his older sister, Frankie, enjoyed playing dress-up and pretending games. They loved watching TV and, largely unsupervised, they played outside with their cousins, who lived on the same compound.

It was an idyllic early childhood, but at age four, Mikey’s destiny caught up with him. His father decided that it was time to start fight training, and the best way to do it was to beat the boy. His disgust at Mikey’s cries meant more punches.

By age seven, Mikey was being “hidden” in school by his mother, which was an unusual move. Gypsies were mostly forbidden to mingle with “Gorgias,” and sending a child to a Gorgia school was scandalous. It was her way of keeping Mikey safe, however, and it gave him a chance at an education, which was something she didn’t have. Yet, the beatings continued: always daily, sometimes more.

By age 13, Mikey realized that he was gay which, he knew, would enrage his father. He also knew that he needed to escape before it cost him his life.

Stunned, simply nowhere-to-go-stunned: that was me at the end of reading this book. Pseudonymous author Mikey Walsh lulls his readers into first believing that they’re reading a droll memoir filled with quirky relatives and a secret world about which few have dared to write. Walsh busts open a few myths about Romany culture, pokes gentle fun at his family, and makes us laugh out loud while he’s doing it.

But much like a dog that can’t be trusted, “Gypsy Boy” turns quick and bites. Walsh takes the laughter and, two pages later, spins it with horror and a painful emotionlessness that only serves to underscore the brutality he describes, which ultimately leads to an end that shimmers like a tambourine.

Published in Europe three years ago, “Gypsy Boy” is new stateside and absolutely can’t be missed. If you’re up for a funny, brutal, sharp memoir, this is the book you want.

Review by Ily Goyanes

First off, the title alone should tell you that this is not a serious read, but Bobby Blanchard Lesbian Gym Teacher never, for a single page, pretends to be. Author Monica Nolan pokes fun at classic lesbian pulp on every page. From the beginning of the book, when we are introduced to Bobby (“not Bobbi”) Blanchard, we are taken on a sweet ride of guilty pleasure until the last page.

Ms. Blanchard once had a promising future as professional field hockey player until she was injured in a freak drunk-diving incident. Yes, diving, not driving.

Lying in her hospital bed and pessimistic about a future without field hockey, Bobby gets the best advice of her life from her old guidance counselor: Become the new Games Mistress at Metamora Academy for Girls.

The teachers at Metamora are all referred to as Mistresses. There’s the Art Mistress, the Math Mistress, the Chemistry Mistress, and so forth. Sounds like Bobby will feel right at home, right? As soon as she steps on school grounds, the not-so-subtle hints that other teachers and students might also play for Bobby’s “team” fly around faster than a hockey puck.

Although Bobby’s appearance is never described in full detail, we know she is a butch. Her muscular biceps, abhorrence of skirts, and proclivity for sports, are all obvious signs that the beloved Games Mistress is your stereotypical butch gym teacher.  The book is filled with other funny, palpable stereotypes, such as the two closeted male teachers who live together off-campus spending their time cooking and gardening, the “straight” woman “trapped” in an unhappy marriage who gets female loving on the side but would never leave her husband, and Metamora’s female student athletes who all have crushes on Bobby.

This book fleshes out the laughs with puns and innuendos throughout. Bobby speaks in sport‘s metaphors and relates everything that is going on in her love life to field hockey. Bobby’s penchant for ESPN-speak irritates Enid Butler, the Math Mistress, no end. Mistress Butler is a pedagogical intellectual who is adamant that sports are a waste of time. Of course, Enid and Bobby have instant chemistry, which we realize far before they do.

Meanwhile, Bobby is getting it on with members of the staff as well as the student body. The plot thickens when several subplots enter the playing field. There is murder, gambling, and sabotage afoot, and the only people who can solve the mystery are, of course, Bobby and Enid.

In the heyday of pulp fiction, publishers used the form to publish what would have otherwise been considered smut or pornography. Stories about lesbians, gays, and drug addicts, were not considered acceptable reading in the fifties and sixties, so to be able to read about woman-on-woman sex, you had to read a cautionary tale on the dangers of moral decay. Tales of lesbian love and sex were delivered as warnings about ‘The Wrong Kind of Love’ or ‘The Evil Friendship’.

Bobby Blanchard Lesbian Gym Teacher pokes fun at these times by using sentimental and melodramatic prose and stereotypical characters and situations, but never delves into the ‘warning’ category. Lesbian love is celebrated, and if the real world were anything like Bobby Blanchard’s world, lesbians would never need to masturbate. Bobby is constantly getting propositioned by all kinds of women, from an heiress, to students, to teachers, to alumni. If only, the real world were like life at Metamora.

When you want to read something light, entertaining, and funny, Bobby Blanchard Lesbian Gym Teacher is a sure way to score.

Boys in Heat. Edited by Richard Labonté. Cleis Press. $14.95 (USD).

This varied collection compiled by Richard Labonté contains both sugar and salt. With some saccharine-tinged stories likeA Recipe For… by Kal Cobalt and some very briny stories likeMiss Vel’s Place by Jonathon Asche, Boys in Heat offers up tantalizing treats for all sorts of tastes. Of course, it is quite possible that the steamy man-on-man sex scenes will completely transcend previously decided palates.

Boys in Heat contains sixteen stories full of Y-chromosome action. A few of the especially tasty morsels are worth singling out.

Hooking Up by J.M. Snyder is a cyber-gothic one-night stand with two hot, young punk boys.

Rough trade doesn’t even begin to describe the roughneck main characters in Keith Peck’s Cockfighting.

Duffle by Dallas Angguish, takes us to college, so we can reunite with that friend of our older brother’s, whose image we jacked off to all through adolescence.

Like Peck’s cockfight, Miss Vel’s Place by Jonathon Asche takes us down metaphorical alleys where sex and smut combine to create a sour cocktail we just can’t help but crave.

Clarence Wong teaches us when it is okay to break the rules in Orbs.

Fluid Mechanics by Dale Chase, follows an eccentric professor on his journey to finding an apt pupil.

Hotter than Hades is Ted Cornwell’s story, The Key-Maker’s Wife. Cornwell weaves the familiar tale of a homo lusting after a “straight” person, and does it well. Another trip to Dante’s Inferno is Arden Hill’sTelling a Switch’s Story. Both of these stories are well worth the price of the entire book.

Bears. Edited by Richard Labonté. Cleis Press. $14.95 (USD).

This anthology is a must-have for lovers of all things bear. For most bear aficionados the attraction to bear culture is its largesse, which the stories in this collection serve in huge, bountiful spoonfuls. Containing seventeen very graphic stories of bear and cub love, Bears will satisfy even the most discerning chub lover.

If you like Muscle Marys, twinks, or other hirsutically-challenged examples of the Y-chromosome, you will not find much to enjoy here. When reading this book, it is extremely apparent that bear attraction is a fetish. Your ‘average’ person, whatever you might take that to mean, would not be turned on by many of the scenes in this book. The stories, though well written, will not appeal to everyone.

However, if you mentally ejaculate every time you see a “hairy, husky, bearded, big-bellied” beast, this is the book for you. The stories in Bears include threesomes, all sorts of bodily fluids, and highly inventive uses for sour cream.

White Meat by Daniel W. Kelly is a kinky exploration of jungle fever in which two bears share a piece of chocolate.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh Yeah! by Rob Rosen is animalistic in more ways than one, and one of the sexier stories in the book.

Jeff Mann’s Leather-Bear Appetites is a wonderful example of honesty and gravitas in which you get to inhabit the mind of a Daddy Bear through some enlightened introspection.

A Glass of Cognac by Jan Vender Laenen is a snarky, comical romp through European bear bars.

Bears offers a choice to those unsatisfied by hairless chests and trim bodies.