Best Lesbian Studies
From the author of Fun Home -- the lives, loves, and politics of cult fav characters Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and others. For twenty-five years Bechdel’s path-breaking Dykes to Watch Out For strip has been collected in award-winning volumes (with a quarter of a million copies in print), syndicated in fifty alternative newspapers, and translated into many languages. This ongoing comic strip chronicles the lives of a tight-knit group of lesbian friends over an astounding 21 years of life, work, love, boredom, political activism and countless reversals of fortune. At its heart are six women: the promiscuous Lois, a feminist bookstore clerk with a penchant for gender-bending; her two roommates, the overworked academic Ginger and self-identified bisexual lesbian Sparrow; their domestically partnered friends Clarice and Toni; and Mo, who despite (or perhaps because of) her frequent politically charged outbursts of neurosis is the hub of her circle. Mo’s kvetching centrality is complemented by the chorus of skewed radio and TV commentary and headlines that strikingly often intones a satirical leitmotiv under the characters’ conversation, which is always pitch-perfect for the highly intelligent, well-educated, earnestly committed, and witty bunch they are.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Drawn between 1987 and 2008, the “Dykes” strip focuses on the misadventures and foibles of a group of close-knit LGBT friends as they pursue education, work and love affairs while debating personal politics and political correctness. It’s unique in that it features multi-sexual, multi-racial, multi-ethnic characters and continually comments on the culture and politics of the times: lesbian and gay rights, the AIDS epidemic, the wars in Iraq, 9/11, celebrity culture, transgenderism, the financial crisis, etc."
"I read DTWOF in college, and this compilation volume brings me back to the good old days."
"I've read every book multiple times, and I enjoyed reading the entire thing as a lead-up to the new comics at the end."
"Such an amazing book."
"Much as, in her introduction, Ms. Bechdel critiques the idea of herself becoming an entry point into the culture, she is, but she also presents an amazing, evolving story, that gives the reader a real glimpse into human life and poses questions that the characters model asking themselves that, really, most of us should ask ourselves, at at least one point or another."
"I'm an avid reader of graphic memoirs, and in my opinion, Alison Bechdel and Joe Sacco rank head and shoulders above the rest in terms of their writing style, content, keen observation, wit/humor and highly detailed drawings."
"This was such an important comic for me when I was coming out, so great to be able to see them all together."
"This collection of Alison Bechdel's famous comic strip does a good job of introducing a new reader to Bechdel's iconic characters."
Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature. - Barbara Christian, PhD, author of Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"As a Black female living in America, I could relate to a lot of what she said and she raised a lot of important points."
"Excellent book."
"Great writing - speaks to everyone - no matter who or what or where your community is."
"There is -- or should be -- more outrage over income inequality now than earlier when we did not see this coming."
"This made a perfect gift for my girlfriend."
"She always speaks truth to power!"
Why understanding your gender identity is core to embracing your full being How to sustain the highs and lows of your journey with resources, connection, and self-care How to uncover and move through your feelings of fear, loneliness, and doubt Why it’s important to examine your past through the lens of gender exploration How to discover and begin living as your authentic self What options you have after making your discoveries about your gender identity. —Zander Keig, LCSW, co-editor of LETTERS FOR MY BROTHERS: TRANSITIONAL WISDOM IN RETROSPECT and MANNING UP: TRANSSEXUAL MEN ON FINDING BROTHERHOOD, FAMILY & THEMSELVES. "With an impressively detailed toolkit of exercises, Dara’s book has the potential to streamline and accelerate the process (of awareness and self-understanding) in an extraordinary fashion...Dara’s book is revolutionary." With an impressively detailed toolkit of exercises, Dara’s book has the potential to streamline and accelerate this process in an extraordinary fashion.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Excellent Infotmative accurate guide to help understand and accept who you really are in life even at 67 years old thank you Dana."
"You And Your Gender Identity A Guide To Discovery, offers a unique opportunity to come up with personalized answers for your particular situation, since no two are exactly alike, by a dedicated gender therapist with much experience in the field of gender identity."
"If you are in need of exploring your identity and discovering yourself, then this is the best tool for the job!"
"'Keeping in Mind the Big Picture' bothered me a bit, because it opens with so much discussion about internalized transphobia, but it goes on to share some fantastic thoughts on our identities and our sense of self, with a lengthy questionnaire that allows you to organize your thoughts and reflect on your own sense of self. It is here that Dara gets into discussions of transgender, gender diverse, non-binary, and gender dysphoria, but what spoke loudest to me was the section at the end about removing gender from the equation, looking at interests, behaviors, and appearances on their own, free of stereotypes and expectations. 'Wrestling with Uncertainty' hit me hard too, especially, the section that asks, "Is it actually this . There is a lengthy checklist, and I am sorry to say I have a lot of tick marks on that page."
"As an out member of the community I feel this could be a great resource to help people not sure how to process all the feelings and thoughts."
Best Gay Studies
Casting a compelling vision for holy sexuality, Out of a Far Country speaks to prodigals, parents of prodigals, and those wanting to minister to the gay community. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” - Luke 15:20. Includes a discussion guide for personal reflection and group use. Praise for Out of a Far Country “Christopher Yuan and Angela Yuan have told the story of their miraculous journey from broken lives, relationships, and dreams to a place of hope and healing. I’m particularly happy to endorse this book because Christopher, like myself, was broken in prison and redeemed by Christ.” —Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship and the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview “ Out of a Far Country reads like a modern rendition of the prodigal son parable, only it is more gripping. The journey taken by Christopher Yuan is rarely documented. Christopher Yuan and Angela Yuan travel nationally and internationally to speak at churches, conferences, youth conventions, and colleges about God’s desire for prodigals of all types to return to him.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"An enlightening book sharing the struggles of the devastating sin of homosexuality and the transformation in the mother's heart, leading her to loving her son and commitment to prayer and trusting the Lord to work in her son's life."
"I would have liked some more details of after Christopher gave his life to Christ."
"It is very well written and shares a true story of God's Amazing Grace."
"It is an honest look at the ups and downs of relationships in the gay community."
"Incredible story of unconditional love and what it means to wait upon the Lord."
"Something that I found surprising as I read this book was the insight that it gives into the homosexual community and his strong desire for a faithful and monogamous relationship with a male."
Best Bisexuality Studies
In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman ( Sweet Valley High ) of color ( The Help ) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years ( Girls, Django in Chains ) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture. An Amazon Best Book of the Month, August 2014: "These essays are political and they are personal," Roxanne Gay announces in the introduction of Bad Feminist . One of the best pieces comes early in the book when Gay competes in a Scrabble tournament and her success as a beginner angers her male opponents. It's smart and laugh-out-loud funny essay, and in a humbling turn, Gay herself finds a similar unwarranted frustration toward competitors when she begins losing. Bad Feminist represents Gay's body of personal essays and critical work over the past several years, and if the book has a slight misstep, it's that it sometimes feels like these are articles that have been published elsewhere. Whether the topic is Gay's nemesis when playing in a Scrabble championship or deconstructing rape jokes, Turpin delivers with an assertiveness that will catch listeners' attention.''. -- AudioFile ''Smart readers cannot afford to miss these essays, which range from socially significant art (Girls, Django in Chains) and feminist issues (abortion) to politics (Chris Brown) and why Gay likes pink.''.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"When I read this, other movies came to mind, such as The Green Mile, in which the person of color, John Coffey, significantly improves the lives of the white people in his life but doesn’t save himself from being put to death by electrocution. Gay wishes for a day when people of color play characters other than a slave or a “magical negro” or a combination of the two; she wishes for a day when the script has a person of color performing significant acts for their own destiny and not for someone else. In a world where people think increasingly in absolutist claims, such as We versus Them, and use increasingly simplified and stunted language that can hardly do justice to the many ways life is lived, Gay’s writing forces the reader to consider the infinite shades of gray that exist in the world beyond the black and white, and demands through her logic that people be allowed to thrive in a variety of lifestyles, modes, and cultures and be respected and loved—despite religion, skin color, gender, chosen life paths, and level of so-called femininity."
"I thoroughly enjoyed this book."
"I found it insightful, intellectual, laugh out loud funny sometimes and well thought out."
"It is thought-provoking and helps one to identify their own biases and to evaluate critically many book and movies."
"Is there anything like a "good" feminist?"
"Even if it is just to broaden your knowledge of feminism, please read this book."
"A gift for my daughter and she was really excited about it."
"Roxane Gay is awesome."
Best Transgender Studies
He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, multiple severe disabilities, with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. Many families grow closer through caring for a challenging child; most discover supportive communities of others similarly affected; some are inspired to become advocates and activists, celebrating the very conditions they once feared. Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2012: Anyone who’s ever said (or heard or thought) the adage “chip off the old block” might burrow into Andrew Solomon’s tome about the ways in which children are different from their parents--and what such differences do to our conventional ideas about family. Ruminative, personal, and reportorial all at once, Solomon--who won a National Book Award for his treatise on depression, The Noonday Demon --begins by describing his own experience as the gay son of heterosexual parents, then goes on to investigate the worlds of deaf children of hearing parents, dwarves born into “normal” families, and so on. -- Sara Nelson *Starred Review* Solomon, who won the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon (2001), tackles daunting questions involving nature versus nurture, illness versus identity, and how they all affect parenting in his exhaustive but not exhausting exploration of what happens when children bear little resemblance to their parents.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Thank you, Mr. Solomon for pointing out the absurdities in our justice system when it comes to dealing with juvenile crime. I wanted to learn about how families deal with a diagnosis of autism; instead I learned about how families deal with all kinds of unexpected outcomes, how resilient parents can be when faced with hardships, and how connected are the identities of parents and their children. One more thing: in 700 pages (okay, I admit, I didn't read the Acknowledgments) I never found an example of "martyrdom" that one reviewer complained about. But Far From the Tree isn't a chronicle of long-suffering devastated parents; there are plenty of positive, hopeful, make-the-best-of-it moments as well."
"I hate very much the possibility of hurting someone's feelings who worked so hard. to enlighten humanity. What I think Solomon misses here is that it is the UNITED STATES approved medications that are intractable and unusable. Getting the really good antipsychotic/stabilizer/antidepressant, Amisulpride, from France or London can be a drag and most shrinks in Massachusetts won't even prescribe it. Also brain research is still going on and there may be a good cure for schizophrenia in ten years. based on gene therapy. The guy who writes so lovingly of his(Noonday Demon) depression, for which there already exists. a diagnosis through MRI, and his son's Autism- takes a very cold and under-researched eye to schizophrenia."
"Great read, tying in a wide variety of different and often difficult situations that make it hard for children to fully bond with their parents, their "vertical community"."
"Solomon focuses on a range of "differences" that children can have from their parents, e.g. deaf children born to hearing parents, "dwarf" children born to normal-sized parents, schizophrenic children, etc., and explores in extensive detail the experiences, dilemmas and challenges of both the parents and the children."
"I was assigned this book for my grad class that I'm in and I just read a chapter on disabilities that really shook me."
"Good read so far--I guess I missed the fine print about the hardback so was surprised when I received it in the mail."