The Sons of El Rey – tale about a family of luchadores contending with forbidden love and secrets in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and beyond

posted Monday, September 30, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Ernesto Vega has lived many lives, from pig farmer to construction worker to famed luchador El Rey Coyote, yet he has always worn a mask. He was discovered by a local lucha libre trainer at a time when luchadores—Mexican wrestlers donning flamboyant masks and capes—were treated as daredevils or rock stars. Ernesto found fame, rapidly […]

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Nothing Ever Just Disappears: Seven Hidden Queer Histories

posted Sunday, September 29, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Nothing Ever Just Disappears: Seven Hidden Queer Histories is an exploration of artistic freedom, survival, and the hidden places of the imagination, including James Baldwin in Provence, Josephine Baker in Paris, Kevin Killian in San Francisco, and E. M. Forster in Cambridge, among other groundbreaking queer artists of the twentieth century. Nothing Ever Just Disappears is […]

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Just Gone is a collection of international survival stories from LGBTQ+ individuals who have sought safe refuge within Canada

posted Wednesday, September 25, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Just Gone is a gripping collection of true stories, based on the fact that at least 70 countries around the world still have anti-homosexuality laws. In 12 of these, it is punishable by death. Jo DeLuzio speaks with nine survivors who sought refuge in Canada, forced to escape assault, torture, and even death in their […]

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What I Know About You – a tale of queer love that traverses Cairo’s grand boulevards and hidden alleys, to Montreal’s grim winter streets

posted Tuesday, September 24, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

What I Know About You is a heartbreaking tale of a family and an impossible love, torn apart by secrets and traditions in late-twentieth century Cairo. In a tight-knit Levantine Christian family in 1960s Cairo, Tarek’s entire life is written in advance. He’ll be a doctor like his father, marry, and have children. Under the […]

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Down at Max’s – stories about the legendary NYC nightclub, Max’s Kansas City, as told by music curator, Peter Crowley

posted Monday, September 23, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Peter Crowley, the music curator of Max’s Kansas City, tells it like it is in his first volume of stories.  A teenage runaway from Vermont who has seen it all from the West Village in the 1960s to the colour sound of California, and managing and booking bands during the punk explosion of the 1970s. […]

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The White Washed Tombs – private investigator seeks answers when a member of the queer community is murdered in Ghana

posted Monday, September 23, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

The White Washed Tombs tells the story of how vicious hate crimes are rocking the LGBTQ+ community in the capital of Accra, while prejudice and politics threaten to stymie PI Emma Djan’s investigation. Marcelo Tetteh, a twenty-seven-year-old LGBTQ+ activist, is butchered one night after being lured on a dating app to a deserted building site. […]

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Never Understood: The Jesus and Mary Chain

posted Tuesday, September 17, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

William and Jim Reid, brothers and founding members of The Jesus and Mary Chain—a band that bridged the gap between the punk explosion and the emergence of grunge and Britpop—chronicle the chaos, confusion, and stories behind their music. For five years after they’d swapped sought-after apprenticeships for life on the dole, brothers William and Jim […]

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Sorry Looking for NOW LOL is a collection of political and personal essays from a gay man who has seen it all

posted Thursday, September 5, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Author David Roddis is the founder of slowpainful.com, where since 2014, he has offered unabashedly progressive, outrageously funny political commentary and personal reflections. Culled from his blog, A Slow, Painful Death Would Be Too Good for You, was his first collection of personal essays. Now’s he’s back with his second collection, Sorry Looking for NOW LOL, […]

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Under A Rock – a memoir from Blondie’s Chris Stein, with a forward by Debbie Harry

posted Thursday, August 29, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Under A Rock is Chris Stein’s nothing-spared autobiography. It’s about the founding of the band, ascending to the heights of pop success, and the hazards of fortune. Debbie Harry defined iconic band Blondie’s look. Chris Stein—her performing partner, lover, and lifelong friend—was its architect and defined its sound. “Parallel Lines”, their third album, catapulted to […]

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Anyone’s Ghost – love and friendship between two young men haunts them into adulthood

posted Wednesday, August 21, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Anyone’s Ghost is an extraordinary debut novel in which the transforming love and friendship between two young men during one unforgettable teenage summer in rural New England haunts them into adulthood. It took three car crashes to kill Jake. Theron David Alden is there for the first two: the summer they meet in rural New […]

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