29 Best Gay & Lesbian, Biography & Autobiography Books
Gay & Lesbian, Biography & Autobiography is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Gay & Lesbian, Biography & Autobiography audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 29 Gay & Lesbian, Biography & Autobiography audiobooks below.
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Big Love
- By: Brooke Blurton
- Narrator: Brooke Blurton
- Length: 7 hours 21 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 20, 2022
- Language: English
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4.46(237 ratings)
4.46(237 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDA raw, moving and uplifting memoir about courage, resilience and the transformative power of love, from one of Australia’s most captivating personalities ‘Powerful, heartbreaking and beautiful … a story of incredible triumphA raw, moving and uplifting memoir about courage, resilience and the transformative power of love, from one of Australia’s most captivating personalities
‘Powerful, heartbreaking and beautiful … a story of incredible triumph fuelled by love and compassion’ Osher Gunsberg
‘Brooke Blurton is an icon for people of all generations and backgrounds. I love seeing her star shine.’ Clementine Ford
My story is about the one thing that I never went without. Love. Big love, that filled me up and made me feel like there was a future for me. The kind of love that’s unconditional, and that lasts across time and space …
From the moment Brooke Blurton appeared on Australian television, she dazzled audiences with her authenticity, self-knowledge, generosity and honesty. As a proud young Noongar-Yamatji woman, Brooke’s connection to her culture and country is deep, and as an openly queer woman, she knows that love is simply love. Most of all Brooke knows the importance of family, and the uplifting power of unconditional connection.
But behind the public persona Brooke presents to the world is a story of epic proportions and awe-inspiring resilience – she had to grow up fast from a very young age, surviving an extremely challenging childhood and youth, and overcoming the shocking legacy of intergenerational trauma, abuse and homelessness. She’s also had to defy labels and perceptions about who she is, and her worth, all her life.
But through it all, Brooke didn’t just survive, she found her voice and thrived, and in this raw, heartbreaking, often funny and ultimately life-affirming memoir, Brooke lays her journey bare about how she refused to allow the past to define her and reclaimed her own identity – and realised the power of love, for herself, for her family, and her community.
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Ma and Me
- By: Putsata Reang
- Narrator: Putsata Reang
- Length: 11 hours 21 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: May 17, 2022
- Language: English
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4.42(366 ratings)
4.42(366 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USD“Putsata Reang’s quiet narration of her beautiful, poignant memoir holds both deep compassion and raw pain. Reang’s ability to capture both her own and her mother’s histories, desires, and dreams–in her voice and her“Putsata Reang’s quiet narration of her beautiful, poignant memoir holds both deep compassion and raw pain. Reang’s ability to capture both her own and her mother’s histories, desires, and dreams–in her voice and her prose–is remarkable.” –AudioFile on Ma and Me
This program is read by the author.“A nuanced mediation on love, identity, and belonging. This story of survival radiates with resilience and hope.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“This openhearted memoir . . . opens the door to include queer descendants of war survivors into the growing American library of love.” –Sarah Schulman, author of Let the Record ShowWhen Putsata Reang was eleven months old, her family fled war-torn Cambodia, spending twenty-three days on an overcrowded navy vessel before finding sanctuary at an American naval base in the Philippines. Holding what appeared to be a lifeless baby in her arms, Ma resisted the captain’s orders to throw her bundle overboard. Instead, on landing, Ma rushed her baby into the arms of American military nurses and doctors, who saved the child’s life. “I had hope, just a little, you were still alive,” Ma would tell Put in an oft-repeated story that became family legend.
Over the years, Put lived to please Ma and make her proud, hustling to repay her life debt by becoming the consummate good Cambodian daughter, working steadfastly by Ma’s side in the berry fields each summer and eventually building a successful career as an award-winning journalist. But Put’s adoration and efforts are no match for Ma’s expectations. When she comes out to Ma in her twenties, it’s just a phase. When she fails to bring home a Khmer boyfriend, it’s because she’s not trying hard enough. When, at the age of forty, Put tells Ma she is finally getting married–to a woman–it breaks their bond in two.
In her startling memoir, Reang explores the long legacy of inherited trauma and the crushing weight of cultural and filial duty. With rare clarity and lyric wisdom, Ma and Me is a stunning, deeply moving memoir about love, debt, and duty.
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Confess
- By: Rob Halford
- Narrator: Rob Halford
- Length: 13 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: September 29, 2020
- Language: English
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4.4(1717 ratings)
- #BookTok
4.4(1717 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDThe legendary frontman of Judas Priest, one of the most successful heavy metal bands of all time, celebrates five decades of heavy metal in this tell-all memoir.Most priests hear confessions. This one is making his.Rob Halford, front man of global... Read moreThe legendary frontman of Judas Priest, one of the most successful heavy metal bands of all time, celebrates five decades of heavy metal in this tell-all memoir.
Most priests hear confessions. This one is making his.
Rob Halford, front man of global iconic metal band Judas Priest, is a true “Metal God.” Raised in Britain’s hard-working, heavy industrial heartland, he and his music were forged in the Black Country. Confess, his full autobiography, is an unforgettable rock ‘n’ roll story-a journey from a Walsall council estate to musical fame via alcoholism, addiction, police cells, ill-fated sexual trysts, and bleak personal tragedy, through to rehab, coming out, redemption . . . and finding love.
Now, he is telling his gospel truth.
Told with Halford’s trademark self-deprecating, deadpan Black Country humor, Confess is the story of an extraordinary five decades in the music industry. It is also the tale of unlikely encounters with everybody from Superman to Andy Warhol, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and the Queen. More than anything else, it’s a celebration of the fire and power of heavy metal.
Rob Halford has decided to Confess. Because it’s good for the soul.
Named one of the Best Music Books of 2020 by Rolling Stone and Kirkus Reviews -
Some New Kind of Kick
- By: Kid Congo Powers
- Narrator: Kid Congo Powers
- Length: 8 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 18, 2022
- Language: English
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4.37(165 ratings)
4.37(165 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDAn intimate, coming-of-age memoir by legendary guitarist Kid Congo Powers, detailing his experiences as a young, queer Mexican-American in 1970s Los Angeles through his rise in the glam rock and punk rock scenes.Kid Congo Powers has been describedAn intimate, coming-of-age memoir by legendary guitarist Kid Congo Powers, detailing his experiences as a young, queer Mexican-American in 1970s Los Angeles through his rise in the glam rock and punk rock scenes.
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Kid Congo Powers has been described as a “legendary guitarist and paragon of cool” with “the greatest resume ever of anyone in rock music.” That unique imprint on rock history stems from being a member of not one but three beloved, groundbreaking, and influential groups–Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the Cramps, and last but not least, The Gun Club, the wildly inventive punk-blues band he co-founded.
Some New Kind of Kick begins as an intimate coming of age tale, of a young, queer, Chicano kid, growing up in a suburb east of East LA, in the mid-’70s, exploring his sexual identity through glam rock. When a devastating personal tragedy crushes his teenage dreams, he finds solace and community through fandom, as founder (‘The Prez’) of the Ramones West Coast fan club, and immerses himself in the delinquent chaos of the early LA punk scene.
A chance encounter with another superfan, in the line outside the Whiskey-A-Go-Go to get into a Pere Ubu concert, changes the course of his life entirely. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, a misfit Chicano punk who runs the Blondie fan club, proposes they form a band. The Gun Club is born. So begins an unlikely transition from adoring fan to lauded performer. In Pierce, he finds brotherhood, a creative voice, and a common cause, but also a shared appetite for self-destruction that threatens to overwhelm them both.
Quirky, droll, and heartfelt, with a pitch-perfect evocation of time and place, and a wealth of richly-drawn supporting characters, Some New Kind of Kick is a memoir of personal transformation, addiction and recovery, friendship and belonging, set against the relentless creativity and excess of the ’70s and ’80s underground music scenes. -
Miss Memory Lane
- By: Colton Haynes
- Narrator: Colton Haynes
- Length: 6 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.31(1251 ratings)
4.31(1251 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDA brutally honest and moving memoir of lust, abuse, addiction, stardom, and redemption from Arrow and Teen Wolf actor Colton Haynes.Four years ago, Colton Haynes woke up in a hospital. He’d had two seizures, lost the sight in one eye, almostA brutally honest and moving memoir of lust, abuse, addiction, stardom, and redemption from Arrow and Teen Wolf actor Colton Haynes.
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Four years ago, Colton Haynes woke up in a hospital. He’d had two seizures, lost the sight in one eye, almost ruptured a kidney, and been put on an involuntary psychiatry hold. Not yet thirty, he knew he had to take stock of his life and make some serious changes if he wanted to see his next birthday.
As he worked towards sobriety, Haynes allowed himself to become vulnerable for the first time in years and with that, discovered profound self-awareness. He had millions of social media followers who constantly told him they loved him. But what would they think if they knew his true story? If they knew where he came from and the things he had done?
Now, Colton bravely pulls back the curtain on his life and career, revealing the incredible highs and devastating lows. From his unorthodox childhood in a small Kansas town, to coming to terms with his sexuality, he keeps nothing back.
By sixteen, he had been signed by the world’s top modeling agency and his face appeared on billboards. But he was still a broke, lonely, confused teenager, surrounded by people telling him he could be a star as long as he never let anyone see his true self. As his career in television took off, the stress of wearing so many masks and trying to please so many different people turned his use of drugs and alcohol into full-blown addiction.
A lyrical and intimate confession, apology, and cautionary tale, Miss Memory Lane is an unforgettable story of dreams deferred and dreams fulfilled; of a family torn apart and rebuilt; and of a man stepping into the light as no one but himself. -
Prayers for Bobby
- By: Leroy Aarons
- Narrator: Wentworth Miller
- Length: 9 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.28(1283 ratings)
4.28(1283 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDBobby Griffith was an all-American boy … and he was gay. Faced with an irresolvable conflict–for both his family and his religion taught him that being gay was “wrong”–Bobby chose to take his own life. Prayers forBobby Griffith was an all-American boy … and he was gay. Faced with an irresolvable conflict–for both his family and his religion taught him that being gay was “wrong”–Bobby chose to take his own life.
Prayers for Bobby, nominated for a 1996 Lambda Literary Award, is the story of the emotional journey that led Bobby to this tragic conclusion. But it is also the story of Bobby’s mother, a fearful churchgoer who first prayed that her son would be “healed,” then anguished over his suicide, and ultimately transformed herself into a national crusader for gay and lesbian youth.
As told through Bobby’s poignant journal entries and his mother’s reminiscences, Prayers for Bobby is at once a moving personal story, a true profile in courage, and a call to arms to parents everywhere.
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A Girlhood
- By: Carolyn Hays
- Narrator: Erin Bennett
- Length: 10 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.28(155 ratings)
4.28(155 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDA parent’s love letter to a daughter who has always known exactly who she is. One ordinary day, a caseworker from the Department of Children and Families knocked on the Hays family’s door to investigate an anonymous complaint about theA parent’s love letter to a daughter who has always known exactly who she is.
One ordinary day, a caseworker from the Department of Children and Families knocked on the Hays family’s door to investigate an anonymous complaint about the upbringing of their transgender child. It was this knock, this threat, that began the family’s journey out of the Bible Belt but never far from the hate and fear resting at the nation’s core.
Self-aware and intimate, A Girlhood asks us all to love better, not just for the sake of Hays’s child but for children everywhere enduring injustice and prejudice just as they begin to understand themselves. A Girlhood is a call to action, an ode to community, a plea for empathy, a hope for a better future. A Girlhood is a love letter to a child who has always known exactly who she is–and who is waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.
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README.txt
- By: Chelsea Manning
- Narrator: Chelsea Manning
- Length: 9 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: October 18, 2022
- Language: English
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4.27(808 ratings)
4.27(808 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USD“Manning reads her book in a sharp voice that is clearly accustomed to marshaling information…”- Washington Post “[Manning’s] text and performance create a blistering autobiography that is both observant and“Manning reads her book in a sharp voice that is clearly accustomed to marshaling information…”- Washington Post
“[Manning’s] text and performance create a blistering autobiography that is both observant and instructive.”- AudioFile
This program is read by the author.
An intimate, revealing memoir from one of the most important activists of our time.
While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army in 2010, Chelsea Manning disclosed more than seven hundred thousand classified military and diplomatic records that she had smuggled out of the country on the memory card of her digital camera. In 2011 she was charged with twenty-two counts related to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military records, and in 2013 she was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison.
The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition, seeking hormones through the federal court system. In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence and she was released from prison.
In README.txt, Manning recounts how her pleas for increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside a fight to defend her rights as a trans woman. Manning details the challenges of her childhood and adolescence as a naive, computer-savvy kid, what drew her to the military, and the fierce pride she has about the work she does. This powerful, observant memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of our digital, information-driven age.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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The Firebrand and the First Lady
- By: Patricia Bell-Scott
- Narrator: Patricia Bell-Scott
- Length: 14 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: February 02, 2016
- Language: English
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4.26(711 ratings)
4.26(711 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDAn important, groundbreaking book–two decades in work–that tells the story of the unlikely but history-changing twenty-eight-year bond forged between Pauli Murray (granddaughter of a mulatto slave, who, against all odds, as a lesbianAn important, groundbreaking book–two decades in work–that tells the story of the unlikely but history-changing twenty-eight-year bond forged between Pauli Murray (granddaughter of a mulatto slave, who, against all odds, as a lesbian black woman, became a lawyer, civil rights pioneer, Episcopal priest, poet, and activist) and Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1948 and human rights internationalist) that critically shaped Eleanor Roosevelt’s, and therefore FDR’s, view of race and racism in America. It was a decades-long friendship–tender, moving, prodding, inspiring–sustained primarily through correspondence and characterized by brutal honesty, mutual admiration, and respect, revealing the generational and political differences each had to overcome in order to support one another’s life. Of the two extraordinary women, one was at the center of world power; the other, an outsider ostracized by the color of her skin, fighting with heart, soul, and intellect to push the world forward (she did!) and to become the figure for change she knew she was meant to be; each alike in many ways: losing both parents as children, being reared by elderly kin; each a devoted Episcopalian with an abiding compassion for the helpless; each possessed of boundless energy and fortitude yet susceptible to low spirits and anxiety; each in a battle against shyness, learning to be outspoken; each at her best when engaged in meaningful, important work. And each in her own society sidelined as a woman, and determined to upend the centuries-old social constriction . . . A riveting portrait that shows how their friendship deepened and endured in the face of enormous social barriers, and that makes clear how Pauli Murray, foremother of the modern-day black and feminist movements, crucially influenced Eleanor Roosevelt’s progressive stance on civil and human rights, challenging her to take a stand for justice and freedom (“If some of our statements are bitter these days,” Pauli Murray wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt in a postscript from a 1942 letter, “you must remember that truth is our only sword”), a book that reveals, as well, the profound impact of Eleanor Roosevelt’s friendship on the shape of Murray’s life as an activist, lawyer, cofounder of the National Organization for Women, principal strategist in the fight to preserve Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the first African American woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest.
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I Have Something to Tell You
- By: Chasten Buttigieg
- Narrator: Chasten Buttigieg
- Length: 7 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.25(4401 ratings)
4.25(4401 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NOW WITH A NEW PREFACE A moving, hopeful, and refreshingly candid memoir by the husband of Pete Buttigieg about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town, his relationship with Pete, and his hope forINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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NOW WITH A NEW PREFACE
A moving, hopeful, and refreshingly candid memoir by the husband of Pete Buttigieg about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town, his relationship with Pete, and his hope for America’s future.
Throughout the past year, teacher Chasten Glezman Buttigieg has emerged on the national stage, having left his classroom in South Bend, Indiana, to travel cross-country in support of his husband, former mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Pete’s groundbreaking presidential campaign. Through Chasten’s joyful, witty social media posts, the public gained a behind-the-scenes look at his life with Pete on the trail–moments that might have ranged from the mundane to the surprising, but that were always heartfelt.
Chasten has overcome a multitude of obstacles to get here. In this moving, uplifting memoir, he recounts his journey to finding acceptance as a gay man. He recalls his upbringing in rural Michigan, where he knew he was different, where indeed he felt different from his father and brothers. He recounts his coming out and how he’s healed from revealing his secret to his family, friends, community, and the world. And he tells the story of meeting his boyfriend, whom he would marry and who would eventually become a major Democratic leader.
With unflinching honesty, unflappable courage, and great warmth, Chasten Buttigieg relays his experience of growing up in America and embracing his true self, while inspiring others to do the same. -
Surpassing Certainty
- By: Janet Mock
- Narrator: Janet Mock
- Length: 7 hours 51 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.24(2060 ratings)
4.24(2060 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USD“A defining chronicle of strength and spirit” (Kirkus Reviews), Surpassing Certainty is a portrait of a young woman searching for her purpose and place in the world–without a road map to guide her. This memoir “should be“A defining chronicle of strength and spirit” (Kirkus Reviews), Surpassing Certainty is a portrait of a young woman searching for her purpose and place in the world–without a road map to guide her. This memoir “should be required reading for your 20s” (Cosmopolitan).
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A few months before her twentieth birthday, Janet Mock is adjusting to her days as a first-generation college student at the University of Hawaii and her nights as a dancer at a strip club. Finally content in her body after her teenage transition, she vacillates between flaunting and concealing herself as she navigates dating and disclosure, sex and intimacy, and most important, letting herself be truly seen. Under the neon lights of Club Nu, Janet meets Troy, a yeoman stationed at Pearl Harbor naval base, who becomes her first. The pleasures and perils of their relationship serve as a backdrop for Janet’s progression through all the universal growing pains–falling in and out of love, living away from home, and figuring out what she wants to do with her life.
Fueled by her dreams and an inimitable drive, Janet makes her way through New York City intent on building a career in the highly competitive world of magazine publishing–within the unique context of being trans, a woman, and a person of color. Hers is a timely glimpse about the barriers many face–and a much-needed guide on how to make a way out of no way.
Long before she became one of the world’s most respected media figures and lauded leaders for equality and justice, Janet learned how to advocate for herself before becoming an advocate for others. In this “honest and timely appraisal of what it means to be true to yourself” (Booklist), Surpassing Certainty offers an “exquisitely packaged gift of her experiences…that signals something greater” (Bitch Magazine). -
Beautiful on the Outside
- By: Adam Rippon
- Narrator: Adam Rippon
- Length: 8 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 15, 2019
- Language: English
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4.23(2185 ratings)
4.23(2185 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDFormer Olympic figure skater and self-professed America’s Sweetheart Adam Rippon shares his underdog journey from beautiful mess to outrageous success in this hilarious, big-hearted memoir that the Washington Post calls “comedicFormer Olympic figure skater and self-professed America’s Sweetheart Adam Rippon shares his underdog journey from beautiful mess to outrageous success in this hilarious, big-hearted memoir that the Washington Post calls “comedic gold.”
Your mom probably told you it’s what on the inside that counts. Well, then she was never a competitive figure skater. Olympic medalist Adam Rippon has been making it pretty for the judges even when, just below the surface, everything was an absolute mess. From traveling to practices on the Greyhound bus next to ex convicts to being so poor he could only afford to eat the free apples at his gym, Rippon got through the toughest times with a smile on his face, a glint in his eye, and quip ready for anyone listening. Beautiful on the Outside looks at his journey from a homeschooled kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to a self-professed American sweetheart on the world stage and all the disasters and self-delusions it took to get him there. Yeah, it may be what’s on the inside that counts, but life is so much better when it’s beautiful on the outside. ... Read more -
Transformer
- By: Simon Doonan
- Narrator: Nigel Pilkington
- Length: 4 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: November 08, 2022
- Language: English
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4.21(34 ratings)
4.21(34 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0018.99 USDIn this funny and poignant memoir and cultural history, the television personality, columnist, and author of Drag pays homage to Lou Reed’s groundbreaking album Transformer on its fiftieth anniversary and recalls its influence on his coming ofIn this funny and poignant memoir and cultural history, the television personality, columnist, and author of Drag pays homage to Lou Reed’s groundbreaking album Transformer on its fiftieth anniversary and recalls its influence on his coming of age and coming out through glam rock.
In November 1972, Lou Reed released his album, Transformer because he thought it was “dreary for gay people to have to listen to straight people’s love songs.” That groundbreaking idea echoed with the times. That same year, Sweden was the first country to legalize gender-affirming surgery, and San Francisco struck down employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Sometimes an artistic creation perfectly aligns with a broader social and political history, and Transformer–with the songs “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Perfect Day,” and “Vicious”–perfectly captured its time. “Walk on the Wild Side” was banned on radio across the country but became a massive hit when young people threatened to boycott stations that would not play it. The album’s cover featured a high-contrast image of Lou, flaunting a new mascara’d glamrock incarnation, shot by legend Mick Rock, thereby underscoring his intention to create “a gay album.”
In Transformer, Doonan tells the story of how Lou Reed came to make the album with the help of David Bowie, and places its creation within the course of Reed’s life. Doonan offers first-hand testimony of the album’s impact on the LGBTQ+ community, recalling how it transformed his own life as a 20-year-old working class kid from Reading, England, who had just discovered the joys of London Glam Rock and was sparked by the artistic freedom of Warhol’s The Factory. Transformer was a revelation–hearing Reed’s songs, Doonan understood how the world was changing for him and his friends.
A poignant, personal addition to modern music and LGBTQ+ history, Transformer captures a pivotal moment when those long silenced were finally given a voice. As transgender icon Candy Darling, highlighted in his lyrics, told Reed, “It’s so nice to hear ourselves.”
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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A Carnival of Snackery
- By: David Sedaris
- Narrator: David Sedaris
- Length: 17 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 05, 2021
- Language: English
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4.21(9705 ratings)
4.21(9705 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0038.99 USDA New York Times Book Review Editors’ ChoiceFinalist for the Audie Award in HumorThere’s no right way to keep a diary, but if there’s an entertaining way, David Sedaris seems to have mastered it. If it’s navel-gazingA New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
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Finalist for the Audie Award in Humor
There’s no right way to keep a diary, but if there’s an entertaining way, David Sedaris seems to have mastered it.
If it’s navel-gazing you’re after, you’ve come to the wrong place; ditto treacly self-examination. Rather, his observations turn outward: a fight between two men on a bus, a fight between two men on the street, pedestrians being whacked over the head or gathering to watch as a man considers leaping to his death. There’s a dirty joke shared at a book signing, then a dirtier one told at a dinner party–lots of jokes here. Plenty of laughs.
These diaries remind you that you once really hated George W. Bush, and that not too long ago, Donald Trump was just a harmless laughingstock, at least on French TV. Time marches on, and Sedaris, at his desk or on planes, in hotel dining rooms and odd Japanese inns, records it. The entries here reflect an ever-changing background–new administrations, new restrictions on speech and conduct. What you can say at the start of the book, you can’t by the end. At its best, A Carnival of Snackery is a sort of sampler: the bitter and the sweet. Some entries are just what you wanted. Others you might want to spit discreetly into a napkin. -
Sontag
- By: Benjamin Moser
- Narrator: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 22 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: September 17, 2019
- Language: English
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4.2(1019 ratings)
4.2(1019 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.005.99 USDThe definitive portrait of one of the American Century’s most towering intellectuals: her writing and her radical thought, her public activism and her hidden private face. No writer is as emblematic of the American twentieth century as SusanThe definitive portrait of one of the American Century’s most towering intellectuals: her writing and her radical thought, her public activism and her hidden private face.
No writer is as emblematic of the American twentieth century as Susan Sontag. Mythologized and misunderstood, lauded and loathed, a girl from the suburbs who became a proud symbol of cosmopolitanism, Sontag left a legacy of writing on art and politics, feminism and homosexuality, celebrity and style, medicine and drugs, radicalism and Fascism and Freudianism and Communism and Americanism, that forms an indispensable key to modern culture. She was there when the Cuban Revolution began, and when the Berlin Wall came down; in Vietnam under American bombardment, in wartime Israel, in besieged Sarajevo. She was in New York when artists tried to resist the tug of money–and when many gave in. No writer negotiated as many worlds; no serious writer had as many glamorous lovers. Sontag tells these stories and examines the work upon which her reputation was based. It explores the agonizing insecurity behind the formidable public face: the broken relationships, the struggles with her sexuality, that animated–and undermined–her writing. And it shows her attempts to respond to the cruelties and absurdities of a country that had lost its way, and her conviction that fidelity to high culture was an activism of its own.
Utilizing hundreds of interviews conducted from Maui to Stockholm and from London to Sarajevo–Sontag is the first book based on the writer’s restricted archives, and on access to many people who have never before spoken about Sontag, including Annie Leibovitz. It is a definitive portrait–a great American novel in the form of a biography.
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Call Me Burroughs
- By: Barry Miles
- Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 29 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: January 28, 2014
- Language: English
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4.2(353 ratings)
4.2(353 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.98 USDFifty years ago, Norman Mailer asserted, “William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius.” Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individual political orFifty years ago, Norman Mailer asserted, “William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius.” Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individual political or spiritual ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media. Burroughs wrote novels, memoirs, technical manuals, and poetry. He painted, made collages, took thousands of photographs, produced hundreds of hours of experimental recordings, acted in movies, and recorded more CDs than most rock bands. Burroughs was the original cult figure of the Beat Movement, and with the publication of his novel Naked Lunch, which was originally banned for obscenity, he became a guru to the 60s youth counterculture. In Call Me Burroughs, biographer and Beat historian Barry Miles presents the first full-length biography of Burroughs to be published in a quarter century-and the first one to chronicle the last decade of Burroughs’s life and examine his long-term cultural legacy. Written with the full support of the Burroughs estate and drawing from countless interviews with figures like Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, and Burroughs himself, Call Me Burroughs is a rigorously researched biography that finally gets to the heart of its notoriously mercurial subject.... Read more -
My Sister
- By: Selenis Leyva
- Narrator: Selenis Leyva
- Length: 7 hours 41 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: March 24, 2020
- Language: English
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4.15(185 ratings)
4.15(185 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.98 USDA powerful memoir by two sisters about transitioning, family, and the path to self-realization.When Orange Is the New Black and Diary of a Future President star Selenis Leyva was young, her hardworking parents brought a new foster child into theirA powerful memoir by two sisters about transitioning, family, and the path to self-realization.
When Orange Is the New Black and Diary of a Future President star Selenis Leyva was young, her hardworking parents brought a new foster child into their warm, loving family in the Bronx. Selenis was immediately smitten; she doted on the baby, who in turn looked up to Selenis and followed her everywhere. The little boy became part of the family. But later, the siblings realized that the child was struggling with their identity. As Marizol transitioned and fought to define herself, Selenis and the family wanted to help, but didn’t always have the language to describe what Marizol was going through or the knowledge to help her thrive.In My Sister, Selenis and Marizol narrate, in alternating chapters, their shared journey, challenges, and triumphs. They write honestly about the issues of violence, abuse, and discrimination that transgender people and women of color–and especially trans women of color–experience daily. And they are open about the messiness and confusion of fully realizing oneself and being properly affirmed by others, even those who love you.Profoundly moving and instructive, My Sister offers insight into the lives of two siblings learning to be their authentic selves. Ultimately, theirs is a story of hope, one that will resonate with and affirm those in the process of transitioning, watching a loved one transition, and anyone taking control of their gender or sexual identities.... Read more -
The Family Outing
- By: Jessi Hempel
- Narrator: Jessi Hempel
- Length: 10 hours 31 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 04, 2022
- Language: English
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4.12(536 ratings)
4.12(536 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USD“Fascinating, funny, and wise, The Family Outing is an affirmation to all of us who know the pain and shame of hiding our truest self, and a stirring invitation into the courage, freedom, and joy of living our whole truth.”–Glennon“Fascinating, funny, and wise, The Family Outing is an affirmation to all of us who know the pain and shame of hiding our truest self, and a stirring invitation into the courage, freedom, and joy of living our whole truth.”–Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed, founder of Together Rising
A striking and remarkable literary memoir about one family’s transformation, with almost all of them embracing their queer identities.
Jessi Hempel was raised in a seemingly picture-perfect, middle-class American family. But the truth was far from perfect. Her father was constantly away from home, traveling for work, while her stay-at-home mother became increasingly lonely and erratic. Growing up, Jessi and her two siblings struggled to make sense of their family, their world, their changing bodies, and the emotional turmoil each was experiencing. And each, in their own way, was hiding their true self from the world.
By the time Jessi reached adulthood, everyone in her family had come out: Jessi as gay, her sister as bisexual, her father as gay, her brother as transgender, and her mother as a survivor of a traumatic experience with an alleged serial killer. Yet coming out was just the beginning, starting a chain reaction of other personal revelations and reckonings that caused each of them to question their place in the world in new and ultimately liberating ways.
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The Autumn Balloon
- By: Kenny Porpora
- Narrator: Kenny Porpora
- Length: 7 hours 9 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: February 03, 2015
- Language: English
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4.11(844 ratings)
4.11(844 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.98 USDEvery autumn, Kenny Porpora would watch his heartbroken mother scribble messages on balloons and release them into the sky above Long Island, one for each family member they’d lost to addiction. As the number of balloons grew, his mother fellEvery autumn, Kenny Porpora would watch his heartbroken mother scribble messages on balloons and release them into the sky above Long Island, one for each family member they’d lost to addiction. As the number of balloons grew, his mother fell deeper into alcoholism, drinking away her sorrows every night in front of the television, where her love of Regis Philbin provided a respite from the sadness around her.... Read moreWhen their house was foreclosed upon, Kenny’s mother absconded with him and his beloved dog and fled for the Arizona desert, joining her heroin-addicted brother on a quixotic search for a better life. What followed was an outlaw adolescence spent in constant upheaval surrounded by bizarre characters and drug-addicted souls.
In the wake of unspeakable loss, Kenny convinced a college to take a chance on him, and turned to the mentors, writers, and poets he found to rebuild the family he lost, and eventually graduated from the Ivy League with a new life.
Porpora’s memoir is the story of a deeply dysfunctional but loving family, and follows his life from the chaos of his youth to his triumphs in the Ivy League. At times darkly comic, at times elegiac, The Autumn Balloon is a beautifully written testament to the irreplaceable bonds of family, even under the most trying circumstances, and one that marks the debut of an exciting new writer.
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Real Queer America
- By: Samantha Allen
- Narrator: Samantha Allen
- Length: 7 hours 26 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: March 05, 2019
- Language: English
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4.11(2562 ratings)
4.11(2562 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDLAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALISTA transgender reporter’s “powerful, profoundly moving” narrative tour through the surprisingly vibrant queer communities sprouting up in red states (New York Times Book Review), offering a vision of aLAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST
A transgender reporter’s “powerful, profoundly moving” narrative tour through the surprisingly vibrant queer communities sprouting up in red states (New York Times Book Review), offering a vision of a stronger, more humane America.... Read moreTen years ago, Samantha Allen was a suit-and-tie-wearing Mormon missionary. Now she’s a GLAAD Award-winning journalist happily married to another woman. A lot in her life has changed, but what hasn’t changed is her deep love of Red State America, and of queer people who stay in so-called “flyover country” rather than moving to the liberal coasts.In Real Queer America, Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: “Something gay every day.” Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more.
Capturing profound cultural shifts underway in unexpected places and revealing a national network of chosen family fighting for a better world, Real Queer America is a treasure trove of uplifting stories and a much-needed source of hope and inspiration in these divided times.
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Pretty Baby
- By: Chris Belcher
- Narrator: Chris Belcher
- Length: 8 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.09(352 ratings)
4.09(352 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USD“Absolutely not to be missed.” —Vogue “A muscular, canny memoir about labor and power and gender…I couldn’t put it down. What a fucking gorgeous book.” –Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream“Absolutely not to be missed.” —Vogue
... Read more
“A muscular, canny memoir about labor and power and gender…I couldn’t put it down. What a fucking gorgeous book.” –Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House
A queer teen rebel escapes small-town Appalachia and becomes Los Angeles’s Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix in this searing and darkly funny memoir that upends our ideas about desire, class, and power.
The dominatrix is the id of American femininity. She says the words that we all wish we could say when we find ourselves frozen in the presence of men. No is principal among them.
So writes Chris Belcher, who appeared destined for a life of conventional femininity after she took first place in an infant beauty contest–a minor glory that followed her around a working-class town of 1,600 people in rural West Virginia. But when she came out as queer, the conservative community that had once celebrated its prettiest baby turned on her.
A decade later, living in Los Angeles and trying to stay afloat in the early years of a PhD program, Belcher plunges into the work of a pro domme. Branding herself as Los Angeles’s Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix, she specializes in male clients who want a domme to make them feel worthless, shameful, and weak–all the abuse regularly heaped upon women for free. A queer woman whom men can trust with the unorthodox sides of their sexualities, Belcher is paid to be the keeper of the fantasies that they can’t enact in their everyday relationships. But moonlighting as a sex worker also carries risks, like the not-so-submissive who tries to turn the tables and the jealous client out for revenge.
As Belcher moves between the embodied world of the pro domme and the abstract realm of academia, she discovers how lessons from the classroom apply to the dungeon, and vice versa. Still, fear that her doctoral program won’t approve burdens her with a double life. Pretty Baby is her second coming out.
In this sharp and discerning memoir, we see through Belcher’s eyes how power and desire can be renegotiated–or reinforced. -
Mercury and Me
- By: Jim Hutton
- Narrator: Patrick Moy
- Length: 7 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: January 29, 2019
- Language: English
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4.07(2083 ratings)
4.07(2083 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThe relationship between Freddie Mercury and Jim Hutton evolved over several months in 1984 and 1985. Even when they first slept together, Hutton had no idea who Mercury was, and, when the star told him his name, it meant nothing to him. HuttonThe relationship between Freddie Mercury and Jim Hutton evolved over several months in 1984 and 1985. Even when they first slept together, Hutton had no idea who Mercury was, and, when the star told him his name, it meant nothing to him. Hutton worked as a barber at the Savoy Hotel and retained his job and his lodgings in Sutton, Surrey, for two years after moving in with Mercury, and then worked as his gardener. He was never fully assimilated into Mercury’s jet-setting lifestyle, nor did he want to be, but, from 1985 until Mercury’s death in 1991, he was closer to him than anyone and knew all Mercury’s closest friends: the other members of Queen, Elton John, David Bowie, and Phil Collins, to name a few. Ever present at the countless Sunday lunch gatherings and opulent parties, Hutton has a wealth of anecdotes as well as a deep understanding of Mercury’s life. He also nursed Mercury through his terminal illness, often held him throughout the night in his final weeks, and was with him as he died. No one can tell the story of the last few years of Mercury’s private life–the ecstasies and the agonies–more accurately or honestly than Jim Hutton.
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Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much
- By: Jen Winston
- Narrator: Jen Winston
- Length: 7 hours 30 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.02(3567 ratings)
4.02(3567 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDOprah Daily‘s “45 Best LGBTQ Books That Will Heat Up the Literary Landscape” Glamour‘s “Best Books to Read to Feel Big Feelings” Shondaland‘s “21 of the Best LGBTQIA+-Authored Books”Oprah Daily‘s “45 Best LGBTQ Books That Will Heat Up the Literary Landscape”
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Glamour‘s “Best Books to Read to Feel Big Feelings”
Shondaland‘s “21 of the Best LGBTQIA+-Authored Books”
BuzzFeed‘s “The 19 Best LGBTQ+ Books That Definitely Deserve A Place In Your Bookshelf”
Finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction and the 2021 Bisexual Book Awards, Memoir/Biography
A hilarious and whip-smart collection of essays, offering an intimate look at bisexuality, gender, and, of course, sex. Perfect for fans of Lindy West, Samantha Irby, and Rebecca Solnit–and anyone who wants, and deserves, to be seen.
If Jen Winston knows one thing for sure, it’s that she’s bisexual. Or wait–maybe she isn’t? Actually, she definitely is. Unless…she’s not?
Jen’s provocative, laugh-out-loud debut takes us inside her journey of self-discovery, leading us through stories of a childhood “girl crush,” an onerous quest to have a threesome, and an enduring fear of being bad at sex. Greedy follows Jen’s attempts to make sense of herself as she explores the role of the male gaze, what it means to be “queer enough,” and how to overcome bi stereotypes when you’re the posterchild for all of them: greedy, slutty, and constantly confused.
With her clever voice and clear-eyed insight, Jen draws on personal experiences with sexism and biphobia to understand how we all can and must do better. She sheds light on the reasons women, queer people, and other marginalized groups tend to make ourselves smaller, provoking the question: What would happen if we suddenly stopped?
Greedy shows us that being bisexual is about so much more than who you’re sleeping with–it’s about finding stability in a state of flux and defining yourself on your own terms. This book inspires us to rethink the world as we know it, reminding us that Greedy was a superpower all along. -
I Ran Into Some Trouble
- By: Peggy Caserta
- Narrator: Carol Monda
- Length: 11 hours 27 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4(500 ratings)
4(500 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDPeggy Caserta, founder of the famous Haight-Ashbury hippie boutique Mnasidika and lover and girlfriend of Janis Joplin, was a Louisiana homecoming queen turned airsick stewardess who eventually landed in 1960s San Francisco and set up shop. HerPeggy Caserta, founder of the famous Haight-Ashbury hippie boutique Mnasidika and lover and girlfriend of Janis Joplin, was a Louisiana homecoming queen turned airsick stewardess who eventually landed in 1960s San Francisco and set up shop. Her store was a hang-out for The Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company; it was where Wes Wilson’s posters hung, where Bill Graham sold concert tickets, and where Owsley’s LSD was enjoyed.
Caserta’s world of psychedelic peace, love, LSD, and rock kaleidoscoped into bereavement, heroin addiction, prison, and desperation. She was hated, betrayed, and self-exiled, and after many, many years has recovered, returning home to the bayou to care for her mother with dementia.
Now Caserta is giving a new generation an inside look into a revolution–both countercultural and personal–in her new memoir. It’s the celebration of a transitional time in history and an attempt at redemption.
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Theft by Finding
- By: David Sedaris
- Narrator: David Sedaris
- Length: 13 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 30, 2017
- Language: English
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3.94(26477 ratings)
3.94(26477 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0028.98 USDOne of the most anticipated books of 2017: Boston Globe, New York Times Book Review, New York‘s “Vulture”, The Week, Bustle, BookRiotAn NPR Best Book of 2017An AV Club Favorite Book of 2017A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2017AOne of the most anticipated books of 2017: Boston Globe, New York Times Book Review, New York‘s “Vulture”, The Week, Bustle, BookRiot
An NPR Best Book of 2017An AV Club Favorite Book of 2017... Read moreA Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2017A Goodreads Choice Awards nomineeDavid Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making.
For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences.Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet.
Written with a sharp eye and ear for the bizarre, the beautiful, and the uncomfortable, and with a generosity of spirit that even a misanthropic sense of humor can’t fully disguise, Theft By Finding proves that Sedaris is one of our great modern observers. It’s a potent reminder that when you’re as perceptive and curious as Sedaris, there’s no such thing as a boring day.
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Baggage
- By: Alan Cumming
- Narrator: Alan Cumming
- Length: 8 hours 37 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 26, 2021
- Language: English
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3.94(1944 ratings)
3.94(1944 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.005.99 USD“An intimate look at the making of a man, an actor, an advocate–and most importantly–a happy human being. A wonderful book that is funny, honest, fearless, and generous in its vulnerability.” —Douglas Stuart, Booker“An intimate look at the making of a man, an actor, an advocate–and most importantly–a happy human being. A wonderful book that is funny, honest, fearless, and generous in its vulnerability.” —Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain
There is absolutely no logical reason why I am here. The life trajectory my nationality and class and circumstances portended for me was not even remotely close to the one I now navigate. But logic is a science and living is an art.
The release I felt in writing my first memoir, Not My Father’s Son, was matched only by how my speaking out empowered so many to engage with their own trauma. I was reminded of the power of my words and the absolute duty of authenticity.
But…
No one ever fully recovers from their past. There is no cure for it. You just learn to manage and prioritize it. I believe the second you feel you have triumphed or overcome something – an abuse, an injury to the body or the mind, an addiction, a character flaw, a habit, a person – you have merely decided to stop being vigilant and embraced denial as your modus operandi. And that is what this book is about, and for: to remind you not to buy in to the Hollywood ending.
Ironically maybe, much of Baggage chronicles my life in Hollywood and how, since I recovered from a nervous breakdown at 28, work has repeatedly whisked me away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. It is also about marriage(s): starting with the break-up of my first (to a woman) and ending with the ascension to my second (to a man) with many kissed toads in between! But in everything, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), in every bad decision or moment of sensual joy I have endeavored to show what I have learned and how I’ve become who I am today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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As a Woman
- By: Paula Stone Williams
- Narrator: Paula Stone Williams
- Length: 7 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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3.94(351 ratings)
3.94(351 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThis moving and unforgettable memoir of a transgender pastor’s transition from male to female is an “audacious, gripping, and profoundly real journey that speaks to the mind, heart, and soul” (Joshua J. Dickson, director of FaithThis moving and unforgettable memoir of a transgender pastor’s transition from male to female is an “audacious, gripping, and profoundly real journey that speaks to the mind, heart, and soul” (Joshua J. Dickson, director of Faith Based Initiatives, Biden Campaign)–perfect for fans of Redefining Realness and There Is Room for You.
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As a father of three, married to a wonderful woman, and holding several prominent jobs within the Christian community, Dr. Paula Stone Williams made the life-changing decision to physically transition from male to female at the age of sixty. Almost instantly, her power and influence in the evangelical world disappeared and her family had to grapple with intense feelings of loss and confusion.
Feeling utterly alone after being expelled from the evangelical churches she had once spearheaded, Paula struggled to create a new safe space for herself where she could reconcile her faith, her identity, and her desire to be a leader. Much to her surprise, the key to her new career as a woman came with a deeper awareness of the inequities she had overlooked before her transition. Where her opinions were once celebrated and amplified, now she found herself sidelined and ignored. New questions emerged. Why are women’s opinions devalued in favor of men’s? Why does love and intimacy feel so different? And, was it possible to find a new spirituality in her own image?
In As a Woman, Paula’s “critical questions about gender, personhood, and place are relevant to anyone. Her writing insightfully reveals aspects of our gender socialization and culture that often go unexamined, but that need to be talked about, challenged, and changed” (Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her) in order to fully understand what it means to be male, female, and simply, human. -
Radiant
- By: Liz Heinecke
- Narrator: Moira Quirk
- Length: 11 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: February 16, 2021
- Language: English
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3.9(136 ratings)
3.9(136 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDPart hidden history, part love letter to creative innovation, this is the true story of an unlikely friendship between a dancer, Loie Fuller, and a scientist, Marie Curie, brought together by an illuminating discovery. At the turn of the century,Part hidden history, part love letter to creative innovation, this is the true story of an unlikely friendship between a dancer, Loie Fuller, and a scientist, Marie Curie, brought together by an illuminating discovery.... Read more
At the turn of the century, Paris was a hotbed of creativity. Technology boomed, delivering to the world electric light, the automobile, and new ways to treat disease, while imagination blossomed, creating Art Nouveau, motion pictures, and modernist literature. A pivotal figure during this time, yet largely forgotten today, Loie Fuller was an American performance artist who became a living symbol of the Art Nouveau movement with her hypnotic dances and stunning theatrical effects. Credited today as the pioneer of modern dance, she was perennially broke, never took no for an answer, spent most of her life with a female partner, and never questioned her drive. She was a visionary, a renegade, and a loyal friend.
In the early 1900s, she heard about Marie Curie’s discovery of a glowing blue element and dreamed of using it to dazzle audiences on stage. While Loie’s dream wouldn’t be realized, her connection with Marie and their shared fascination with radium endured. Radiant is the true story of Marie Curie and Loie Fuller, two revolutionary women drawn together at the dawn of a new era by a singular discovery, and the lifelong friendship that grew out of their shared passion for enlightenment. -
Becoming a Man
- By: P. Carl
- Narrator: P. Carl
- Length: 5 hours 21 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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3.88(600 ratings)
3.88(600 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDA “scrupulously honest” (O, The Oprah Magazine) debut memoir that explores one man’s gender transition amid a pivotal political moment in America.Becoming a Man is a “moving narrative [that] illuminates the joy, courage,A “scrupulously honest” (O, The Oprah Magazine) debut memoir that explores one man’s gender transition amid a pivotal political moment in America.
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Becoming a Man is a “moving narrative [that] illuminates the joy, courage, necessity, and risk-taking of gender transition” (Kirkus Reviews). For fifty years P. Carl lived as a girl and then as a queer woman, building a career, a life, and a loving marriage, yet still waiting to realize himself in full. As Carl embarks on his gender transition, he takes us inside the complex shifts and questions that arise throughout–the alternating moments of arrival and estrangement. He writes intimately about how transitioning reconfigures both his own inner experience and his closest bonds–his twenty-year relationship with his wife, Lynette; his already tumultuous relationships with his parents; and seemingly solid friendships that are subtly altered, often painfully and wordlessly.
Carl “has written a poignant and candid self-appraisal of life as a ‘work-of-progress'” (Booklist) and blends the remarkable story of his own personal journey with incisive cultural commentary, writing beautifully about gender, power, and inequality in America. His transition occurs amid the rise of the Trump administration and the #MeToo movement–a transition point in America’s own story, when transphobia and toxic masculinity are under fire even as they thrive in the highest halls of power. Carl’s quest to become himself and to reckon with his masculinity mirrors, in many ways, the challenge before the country as a whole, to imagine a society where every member can have a vibrant, livable life. Here, through this brave and deeply personal work, Carl brings an unparalleled new voice to this conversation.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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