Blending memoir with Smith's own drawings and paintings, We Did Porn will do for alt porn what Hunter S. Thompson did for motorcycle gangs and Tom Wolfe for psychedelica.

Punk artist and icon Zak Smith made a name for himself by visually re-creating Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow and drawing pictures of girls in the "naked girl business." His artistic pedigree and acute observation landed him in high-profile shows from the Whitney to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Somewhere along the line, Smith went from the observer to the observed, from the guy in the corner with a sketchpad to the guy on-screen doing the unnamable for anyone eighteen or older to see. We Did Porn follows Zak Smith (or Zak Sabbath) from the New York art scene to Los Angeles's seedy, yet colorful, underbelly—the world of alt porn. Smith narrates his own foray into pornography and gives his readers a new understanding of the industry, its players, and its audience.

Nujood Ali, Delphine Minoui “I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.”
 
Forced by her father to marry a man three times her age, young Nujood Ali was sent away from her parents and beloved sisters and made to live with her husband and his family in an isolated village in rural Yemen. There she suffered daily from physical and emotional abuse by her mother-in-law and nightly at the rough hands of her spouse. Flouting his oath to wait to have sexual relations with Nujood until she was no longer a child, he took her virginity on their wedding night. She was only ten years old.

Unable to endure the pain and distress any longer, Nujood fled—not for home, but to the courthouse of the capital, paying for a taxi ride with a few precious coins of bread money. When a renowned Yemeni lawyer heard about the young victim, she took on Nujood’s case and fought the archaic system in a country where almost half the girls are married while still under the legal age. Since their unprecedented victory in April 2008, Nujood’s courageous defiance of both Yemeni customs and her own family has attracted a storm of international attention. Her story even incited change in Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries, where underage marriage laws are being increasingly enforced and other child brides have been granted divorces.

Recently honored alongside Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice as one of Glamour magazine’s women of the year, Nujood now tells her full story for the first time. As she guides us from the magical, fragrant streets of the Old City of Sana’a to the cement-block slums and rural villages of this ancient land, her unflinching look at an injustice suffered by all too many girls around the world is at once shocking, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable.

Dorothy Allison A fantastic collection of essays, autobiographical narratives, and performance pieces, including updated versions of earlier groundbreaking material with provocative new work by the lifelong feminist activist, controversial sex radical, and Southern expatriate writer with an attitude who brought us Bastard Out of Carolina, Trash, and The Women Who Hate Me. Funny, passionate, and compelling prose on what it means to be queer and happy about it in a world that is still arguing about what it means to be queer.

Jonathan Ames But who could describe my fright when, on the next morning, I awoke and found myself feeling as if completely changed into a woman. — Case 129, Autobiography, from Psychopathia Sexualis, a Medico-Forensic Study by Richard Von Krafft-Ebing
At the time the passage above was written, people who felt trapped in the wrong gender automatically became case-studies. Today they become the men and women they always felt they were. Transsexuals test our notions of what it is to be male or female and, more provocatively, what it means to be one self as opposed to another. “Their stories,” says Jonathan Ames, “hold the appeal of an adventurer’s tale.”

In Sexual Metamorphosis, Ames presents the personal narratives of seventeen gender pioneers. Here is Christine Jorgensen, the first celebrity transsexual, greeting thousands of well-wishers from the stage of Madison Square Garden. Here is Caroline Cossey, former model and Bond (as in James) girl, being outed in the tabloid press. Here is novelist and English professor Jennifer Finney Boylan discussing her impending transformation with her heartbroken spouse and supportive yet confused colleagues. The result is a fascinating and compulsively readable book, filled with anguish, introspection and courage.

Jeannette Angell Jenny is left penniless by an ex-boyfriend and, in order to make ends meet, she finds herself juggling two lives - respected college-lecturer by day and $200-an-hour high class callgirl 'Tia' by night.Tia's clients range from the pitiful to the downright disturbing: there's the man obsessed with wearing her underwear, the client who wants her to pretend to be his mother and the punter who gets his kicks from inflicting pain. Tia is paid to fulfil all kinds of desires. Despite her madam's protection, Tia is drawn into a world of increasing danger, trying to dodge undercover cops, resist the temptation of drugs and, most of all, avoid falling in love with the wrong man. As Jenny juggles the twin roles of professor and prostitute, the eventual strain of keeping her life secret from friends and family forces her to re-examine everything - before her two worlds inevitably collide…

Gary Anthony, Rocky Bennett A revealing look at phone sex by a "mistress of fantasy" responsible for a lot of heavy breathing. With claims of more than half a million calls each day, professional telephone sex is a billion-dollar business in the United States, becoming even more popular in an age of sexually transmitted diseases. Phone sex calls may be expensive, but they are secret, fulfilling turn-ons to many men and even a few women. This book offers a fascinating, no-holds-barred insider's look at the steamy and mysterious world of phone sex fantasy and the clients who keep coming back for more.Gary Anthony joined the business because he needed work, but he also hoped to hone his acting skills on duty, on the phone, he was every man's, and a few women's, fantasy, playing everything from a dominatrix to a she-male to a wide-eyed young male lover. His anonymous callers could be lonely truck drivers, frustrated business men, the sexually ambivalent, or those who just needed to hear his friendly voice of acceptance."Dirty Talk" is more than just a look at the world of phone sex. This unique, non-judgemental, tell-all book is part autobiography, part industry expose. Anthony digs deep beneath the surface of our desires and reveals the truth about the phone sex actresses who leave male callers physically spent and sexually satisfied. During his years as a phone sex actor, Anthony kept a detailed diary of his conversations and encounters in this alternate world of sexual expression. Reprinted here are many of those titillating conversations featuring every possible scenario from straight sex, transsexual and gay encounters to kinky scenes, fetishes, and the downright bizarre!

St. Augustine The greatest spiritual autobiography of all time, this classic work is a literary and theological masterpiece. John K. Ryan's masterful translation brings out the luster of Augustine's unmatched tale of his soul's journey to God.

Roland Barthes "Barthes's most popular and unusual performance as a writer is A Lover's Discourse, a writing out of the discourse of love. This language—primarily the complaints and reflections of the lover when alone, not exchanges of a lover with his or her partner—is unfashionable. Thought it is spoken by millions of people, diffused in our popular romances and television programs as well as in serious literature, there is no institution that explores, maintains, modifies, judges, repeats, and otherwise assumes responsibility for this discourse . . . Writing out the figures of a neglected discourse, Barthes surprises us in A Lover's Discourse by making love, in its most absurd and sentimental forms, an object of interest."—Jonathan Culler

Kevin Bentley

S. Bear Bergman Lambda Literary Award finalist

Alternately unsettling and affirming, devastating and delicious, The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You is a new collection of essays on gender and identity by S. Bear Bergman that is irrevocably honest and endlessly illuminating. With humor and grace, these essays deal with issues from women's spaces to the old boys' network, from gay male bathhouses to lesbian potlucks, from being a child to preparing to have one. Throughout, S. Bear Bergman shows us there are things you learn when you're visibly different from those around you—whether it's being transgressively gendered or readably queer. As a transmasculine person, Bergman keeps readers breathless and rapt in the freakshow tent long after the midway has gone dark, when the good hooch gets passed around and the best stories get told. Ze offers unique perspectives on issues that challenge, complicate, and confound the "official stories" about how gender and sexuality work.

S. Bear Bergman's first book was Butch is a Noun (Suspect Thoughts Press). Ze is an activist, gender-jammer, and author of two books and three award-winning solo stage shows. Bergman recently relocated to Burlington, Ontario, from New England.

Blue Blake Out of the Blue is a hilarious autobiographical romp that details the life of porn star turned director/producer Blue Blake and his adventures in the skin trade. Blue has worked with every major star in the industry and won many major awards and honors, including induction into the Gay Porn Legend Hall of Fame.

Barrie Jean Borich Winner of the American Library Association GLBT Book Award

Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award

Helen Boyd Helen Boyd's husband, who had long been open about being a cross-dresser, was considering living as a woman full time. Suddenly, Boyd was confronted with the reality of what it would mean if her husband were actually to become a woman — socially, legally, and medically. Would Boyd love and desire her partner the same way?
Boyd's first book, My Husband Betty, explored the relationships of cross-dressing men and their partners. Now, She's Not the Man I Married is both a sequel and a more expansive examination of gender in relationships. It's for couples who are homosexual or heterosexual, and for readers who fall anywhere along the gender continuum.
As Boyd struggles to understand the nature of marriage, passion, and love, she shares her confusion and anger, providing a fascinating observation of the ways in which relationships are gendered, and how we cope, or don't, with the emotional and sexual pressures that gender roles can bring to our marriages and relationships.

Jennifer Finney Boylan The provocative bestseller She’s Not There is the winning, utterly surprising story of a person changing genders. By turns hilarious and deeply moving, Jennifer Finney Boylan explores the territory that lies between men and women, examines changing friendships, and rejoices in the redeeming power of family. Told in Boylan’s fresh voice, She’s Not There is about a person bearing and finally revealing a complex secret. Through her clear eyes, She’s Not There provides a new window on the confounding process of accepting our true selves.

“Probably no book I’ve read in recent years has made me so question my basic assumptions about both the centrality and the permeability of gender, and made me recognize myself in a situation I’ve never known and have never faced . . . The universality of the astonishingly uncommon: that’s the trick of She’s Not There. And with laughs, too. What a good book.” —Anna Quindlen, from the Introduction to the Book-of-the-Month-Club edition.

Jennifer Finney Boylan The provocative bestseller She’s Not There is the winning, utterly surprising story of a person changing genders. By turns hilarious and deeply moving, Jennifer Finney Boylan explores the territory that lies between men and women, examines changing friendships, and rejoices in the redeeming power of family. Told in Boylan’s fresh voice, She’s Not There is about a person bearing and finally revealing a complex secret. Through her clear eyes, She’s Not There provides a new window on the confounding process of accepting our true selves.

“Probably no book I’ve read in recent years has made me so question my basic assumptions about both the centrality and the permeability of gender, and made me recognize myself in a situation I’ve never known and have never faced . . . The universality of the astonishingly uncommon: that’s the trick of She’s Not There. And with laughs, too. What a good book.” —Anna Quindlen, from the Introduction to the Book-of-the-Month-Club edition.

Iris Brent, (Iris Bancroft)

Susie Bright Susie Bright has gained a reputation as one of the world's leading writers on sex and sexual politics. Bright's stories in magazines like Salon, Playboy, and Bust have drawn cultish followings, and her books are national bestsellers. Mommy's Little Girl contains selected writing since the birth of Bright's now twelve-year-old daughter, Aretha. Challenging the idea that a woman cannot be a mother and sex goddess at the same time, this book positions Bright as a beacon of hope for women who feel that their days of openness about their sexuality must come to an end after they have a child. Bright describes how her daughter and her classmates have made her aware of how sexually charged children are these days, yet dangerously lack a proper education about their own bodies. From reminiscing on her role as "lesbian consultant" to the directors of The Matrix to her hilarious instruction for both men and women on how to ruin their sex lives in twelve easy steps, Bright's always provocative, often hilarious prose is sure to appeal to anyone with a heartbeat, and tops it off with the perfect end to perfect sex - a recipe for lustful cherry pie!

Chester Brown A CONTEMPORARY DEFENSE OF THE WORLD’S OLDEST PROFESSION
Chester Brown has never shied away from tackling controversial subjects in his work. In his 1992 book, The Playboy, he explored his personal history with pornography. His bestselling 2003 graphic novel, Louis Riel, was a biographical examination of an extreme political figure. The book won wide acclaim and cemented Brown’s reputation as a true innovator.

Paying for It is a natural progression for Brown as it combines the personal and sexual aspects of his autobiographical work with the polemical drive of Louis Riel. Brown calmly lays out the facts of how he became not only a willing participant in but a vocal proponent of one of the world’s most hot-button topics—prostitution. While this may appear overly sensational and just plain implausible to some, Brown’s story stands for itself. Paying for It offers an entirely contemporary exploration of sex work—from the timid john who rides his bike to his escorts, wonders how to tip so as not to offend, and reads Dan Savage for advice, to the modern-day transactions complete with online reviews, seemingly willing participants, and clean apartments devoid of clichéd street corners, drugs, or pimps.

Complete with a surprise ending, Paying for It provides endless debate and conversation about sex work and will be the most talkedabout graphic novel of 2011.

William S. Burroughs "Naked Lunch" is the unnerving tale of a monumental descent into the hellish world of a narcotics addict as he travels from New York to Tangiers, then into Interzone, a nightmarish modern urban wasteland in which the forces of good and evil vie for control of the individual and all of humanity. By mixing the fantastic and the realistic with his own unmistakable vision and voice, Burroughs has created a unique masterpiece that is a classic of twentieth century fiction.

Marcia Carlisle, Ben B. Lindsey, Madeleine An insider's eloquent, moving account of life as a nineteenth century prostitute.

This memoir offers a vivid account of brothel life in 1890s North America—in the city (Chicago, St. Louis), the Western boom town (Butte, Montana), and on the Canadian frontier. Containing the introductions to the 1919 and 1986 editions (by Judge Ben B. Lindsey and scholar Marcia Carlisle, respectively), its eponymous narrator offers great insight into the daily workings of both "high" and "low" class houses, as well as her relationships with madams, clientele, and members of the "legitimate" society in which prostitution flourished.

Kim Chernin By turns provocative and startlingly revealing, MY LIFE AS A BOY is the story of a woman trying to figure out what love is, trying to understand what happens between desire and the determination to possess the object of that desire, and discovering what it's like to go after what you want. "Chernin writes with the grace of a poet and the insight of a psychotherapist, bringing the shape-shifting nature of intimate relationship alive."—San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle

Diablo Cody Full of insight and wit, Candy Girl is the seductive memoir of a young woman who dared to bare it all as a stripper

Diablo Cody was twenty-four years old when she decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. On a whim, she signed up for amateur night at Minneapolis’s seedy Skyway Lounge. She didn’t win a prize that night, but she discovered that stripping delivered a rush she had never experienced before, and too many experiences to not write about it. While she didn’t fit the ordinary profile of a stripper—she had a supportive boyfriend, was equal parts brainpower and beauty, was from a good family, and was out to do a little soul searching—she soon immersed herself in this enticing life full-time.

In Candy Girl, Diablo tells the captivating fish-out-of-water story of her yearlong walk on the wild side. In witty prose she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at this industry through a writer’s keen eye, from quiet gentlemen’s clubs to multi-level sex palaces, with all of her wry observations along the way. Some of her discoveries? Blondes make more money; it takes a pro to master The Pole; and while the girls wield much sway over the customers, in reality the power is totally out of their hands. Eventually, the lucrative skin trade began to drain Diablo emotionally, but her foray into this world had a profound and, surprisingly, positive effect. Funny and fascinating, Candy Girl is a seductive treat.

Diablo Cody Full of insight and wit, Candy Girl is the seductive memoir of a young woman who dared to bare it all as a stripper

Diablo Cody was twenty-four years old when she decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. On a whim, she signed up for amateur night at Minneapolis’s seedy Skyway Lounge. She didn’t win a prize that night, but she discovered that stripping delivered a rush she had never experienced before, and too many experiences to not write about it. While she didn’t fit the ordinary profile of a stripper—she had a supportive boyfriend, was equal parts brainpower and beauty, was from a good family, and was out to do a little soul searching—she soon immersed herself in this enticing life full-time.

In Candy Girl, Diablo tells the captivating fish-out-of-water story of her yearlong walk on the wild side. In witty prose she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at this industry through a writer’s keen eye, from quiet gentlemen’s clubs to multi-level sex palaces, with all of her wry observations along the way. Some of her discoveries? Blondes make more money; it takes a pro to master The Pole; and while the girls wield much sway over the customers, in reality the power is totally out of their hands. Eventually, the lucrative skin trade began to drain Diablo emotionally, but her foray into this world had a profound and, surprisingly, positive effect. Funny and fascinating, Candy Girl is a seductive treat.

Kerry Cohen "Cohen's brutal honesty about her relentless quest for companionship is refreshingly relatable."

—Entertainment Weekly

"Cohen recounts her harrowing litany of hookups through clear, poignant, spare-no-details prose."

—Marie Claire

Kerry Cohen's journey from that hopeless place to her current confident and fulfilled existence is both a cautionary tale and a revelation.

Loose Girl is Kerry Cohen's captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction - not just to sex, but to male attention—Loose Girl is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning.

Never less than riveting, Loose Girl re-creates what it feels like to be in that desperate moment when a girl tries to control a boy by handing over her body, when the touch of that boy seems to offer proof of something but ultimately delivers little more than emptiness.

The unforgettable story of one young woman who desperately wanted to matter, Loose Girl will speak to countless others with its compassion, understanding, and love.

Cheryl T. Cohen-Greene, Lorna Garano For the past forty years, Cheryl Cohen Greene has worked as a surrogate partner, helping clients to confront, consider, and ultimately accept their sexuality. In this riveting memoir, Cohen Greene shares some of her most moving cases, and also reveals her own sexual coming-of-age. Beginning with a rigid Catholic upbringing in the 1950s, where she was taught to think sex and sexual desires were unnatural and wrong, Cohen Greene struggled to reconcile her sexual identity.

An Intimate Life offers a candid look into the personal and professional life of a surrogate partner, examining the cultural and emotional ramifications of pursuing something most people do not immediately understand.

The memoir opens with Cohen Greene's work with Berkeley-based poet and journalist Mark O'Brien, whose essay "On Seeing A Sex Surrogate" was adapted into a major motion picture titled "The Sessions," which was released nationwide in October 2012.

Quentin Crisp Quentin Crisp's witty and yet profound diaries cover four years of hectic cosmopolitan life. At an age when most people are moving into nursing homes, Crisp has launched himself into life in New York.

Aline Kominsky Crumb Aline Kominsky-Crumb, one of the earliest female cartoonists, presents a collection of her own highly inventive and daring artwork from over four decades, along with unusual photographs and memorabilia. The road to becoming an underground- comics legend begins with Komisky-Crumb as a nice jewish girl from Long Island, carries her to Greenwich Village in the 1960's, and to California, land of hippy cartoonists, and on to a more or less sedate life with hubby(equally legendary R. Crumb) and daughter, Sophie. Her funny/sad tales show a woman bewildered by her place in society and determined to find her own way. These stories touch on every phase of her existence from childhood, to sexual obsessions, food, motherhood and, of course, her art. The book includes sharp vignettes of the Movers and Shakers - and the jerks - of the art and music worlds since the sixties.

Carol Denker, Michael Ellis This beautiful coffee table book presents stories and photographs of couples who found true love in the second half of life. It also includes an Addendum, with a Words of Wisdom section containing advice from these couples, to those looking for love—and another section, Advantages, describing the many ways an autumn romance can satisfy and delight. Everyone in the book was 50 or older when they connected romantically. The couples hail from all over the U.S., from diverse backgrounds and occupations but one common thread unites them: all feel they have found the love of their life at ages when it was least expected. Autumn Romance is unique because up until now, photographs of older couples in love have been hidden. This book's beautiful black and white photos easily convince readers that passion and romance can are very much alive at older ages. The book comes from the author's heart, but it is born of her own experience. Happy and satisfied with her life at the time, Denker, who had weathered three failed marriages, did not really entertain the idea of marrying again until she got to know her future husband online. She felt as though she were the only one lucky enough to have found the path to true love in her 60s until she started meeting other people who, she says, were grateful to have found a soul mate, a passionate love, at this time in their life. The book concludes with Denker s own love story. Lavishly illustrated with photos, beautifully designed, this book presents the real world—funny, fascinating, moving stories of real people—within an aesthetically pleasing format. The images in Autumn Romance embody the groundbreaking nature of the book: instead of looking away from age, as we have been taught, the photos allow readers to look age in the face and see that love still resides there. Denker says, What is amazing and I didn't know this before I did the interviews is that very often this late-life love is healing and transformative, triumphing over mistakes made and hurts suffered during our earlier lives. It is her belief and hope that the stories in Autumn Romance will change someone s life just as love does.

Elisabeth Eaves It began when she was a teenager with an awareness of her body and the reaction other people had to it. It continued with the realization that women’s bodies often gave them a strange power over men. As an adult, it became a fascination with professional sex workers, leading to a plunge into their world. And when Elisabeth Eaves left the world of peep shows and private dancers for the more socially acceptable career of international journalism, she found she could not put that fascination behind her. Her experiences had left her with too many questions and too few answers. So she returned to the world she had left behind. Now, in this candid and insightful book, she recounts her firsthand experience of stripping and gives us a new understanding of women’s sexuality and contemporary sexual mores.

Bare follows the author and her fellow dancers through Seattle strip clubs and bachelor parties, exploring in riveting detail Eaves’s own motivations and behavior, as well as those of her coworkers, as they make their way through the sometimes exhilarating, often disturbing world of stripping. Grounded in an understanding of the intricate dynamics of exchanging sexual services for money, Eaves’s narrative examines the ways in which the work affects the women: how they negotiate the slippery boundaries between their jobs and their “real” lives; how their personal relationships are altered; how they reconcile themselves—or don’t—to the stereotypes that surround their profession; whether the work is exploitative or empowering or both.

In its unstinting honesty, Bare demands that we take a closer look at the way sexuality is viewed in our culture; what, if anything, constitutes “normal” desire; the ethics of swapping money—or anything else—for sex; and how women and men navigate the perilous contradictions and double standards that make up today’s socio-sexual conventions. The stories Eaves tells—outrageous, funny, sad, and deeply affecting—provide an engrossing and unforgettable look at a group of women who have a lot to reveal, not only about one of America’s largest and most taboo industries, but about the restrictions, joys, and hypocrisies of the world in which we all live.

Kim Ficera Dusting the Virgin Mary. Crashing a lesbian drumming circle. Offending Mormon missionaries. It's all in a day's work for Kim Ficera. In this corrosive, hilarious, and ultimately humanistic collection of essays and performance pieces, the larger-than-life humorist takes on such disparate topics as why size matters to God, lesbian break-up parties, being called an "older woman," and embracing the C-word. (No, it's not cous-cous.)

It's a wild, strange trip through a uniquely American, pop culture wonderland where cloning is one step away from a November sweeps event and fake breasts threaten to overtake Vegas in Twilight Zone fashion.

Like a female David Sedaris - but definitely not like a virgin - Kim Ficera is the woman our mothers warned us about...and more dangerously fun than they could have possibly imagined.

Larry Flynt This century's most ardent advocate of the First Amendment, controversial and outspoken, hated and adored, the infamous Larry Flynt's life needs no exaggeration to make it one of the most interesting stories of our time. The real events of Flynt's life are captured here for the very first time, from his roots in Appalachia to his troubles in Beverly Hills. Updated to include Flynt's role in the recent Washington Madam brouhaha.

Paul Gallotta Gallotta has written a long-overdue book about the AIDS epidemic from a previously barely examined perspective - that of the social worker. Originally a journalist interviewing heavy metal rock musicians such as Axl Rose, Sebastian Bach and Ozzy Osbourne and writing for mags such as "Circus," he started volunteering at New York City's GMHC soon after the organization was founded in the mid-1980s. At the time he was himself still struggling with "coming out" as a gay man while attempting to control his drug and alcohol intake. Today as a proud "out" gay man he lives in South Florida with his partner with whom he is raising a child while working as an AIDS case manager at Center One.

************** "Living and Dying in 4/4 Time" charts the changing demographics of AIDS and is told from the viewpoint of the case manager - the person all too often left to pick up the pueces when friends and family desert someone. The book is irreverent, honest, and sometimes hilariously funny. Anyone interested in AIDS and the reality of battling the disease, HMOs, and sheer blind prejudice will find this book invaluable.

by John Grogan

Janet W. Hardy, Dossie Easton Almost a decade ago, the first `Bottoming Book` taught tens of thousands of people that bottoming - being a submissive, masochist, slave, `boy` or `girl,` or other BDSM recipient - is as much an art as topping. Since then, the growing popularity of BDSM, and the blossoming of the Internet as a source of information and connection, have created a whole new universe of possibilities for players. Now, the completely updated revised `New Bottoming Book` gives even more insights and ideas, updated for a new millennium, about how to be a successful, popular bottom! New sections on dominance/submission play, bridging the gap from on-line to real-time relationships, the four stages of a scene, and more. Plus, Fish`s hot illustrations of bottoms in action, many moving and funny anecdotes, and an extra-large helping of the realistic wisdom for which these authors are known.

E. Lynn Harris “In many ways writing saved my life. It’s my hope that sharing my experience will give hope to others who are learning to deal with their “difference.” I want them to know they don’t have to live their lives in a permanent “don’t ask, don’t tell” existence. Truth is a powerful tool.
“But my hope for this book doesn’t stop there. I think there is a message here for anyone who has ever suffered from a lack of self-esteem, felt the pain of loneliness, or sought love in all the wrong places. The lessons I have learned are not limited to race, gender, or sexual orientation. Anyone can learn from my journey. Anyone can overcome a broken heart.”—E. Lynn Harris

Jeffrey Hogrefe An exploration of the relationship between O'Keeffe's life and art discusses the impetus behind her sexually charged flower paintings, her relationship with the much older Stieglitz, why she lied about her past, and other issues. Reprint. PW. AB.

Mineko Iwasaki No woman in the three-hundred-year history of the karyukai has ever come forward in public to tell her story — until now.

"Many say I was the best geisha of my generation," writes Mineko Iwasaki. "And yet, it was a life that I found too constricting to continue. And one that I ultimately had to leave." Trained to become a geisha from the age of five, Iwasaki would live among the other "women of art" in Kyoto's Gion Kobu district and practice the ancient customs of Japanese entertainment. She was loved by kings, princes, military heroes, and wealthy statesmen alike. But even though she became one of the most prized geishas in Japan's history, Iwasaki wanted more: her own life. And by the time she retired at age twenty-nine, Iwasaki was finally on her way toward a new beginning.

Geisha, a Life is her story — at times heartbreaking, always awe-inspiring, and totally true.

Izabella St. James When this beach bunny caught the eye of Hugh Hefner at an L.A. nightclub, Izabella St. James was looking for a fun break from studying for the bar. As the latest Girlfriend of the Playboy founder, her “break” lasted two years, but life behind the gates of the Playboy Mansion was anything but fun. Sure there were parties, presents, puppies, and plastic surgery; but there was also a curfew, a strict regimen of who sits where on movie night, limited contact with the outside world, and a sex life that was anything but wild and crazy.

While the E! reality show, The Girls Next Door, has been a ratings hit, each of the three Playboy Bunnies in the series has since left the Mansion in newsworthy ways: one is engaged to a football player, and Hugh’s “main” Girlfriend has finally understood that there would be no fairy-tale marriage and family with the man she literally transformed her life for. Izabella was there to witness how each of these relationships formed, where each Girlfriend fell in the pecking—and bed—order, and when, exactly, the fabled life turned shabby and cheap.

From catfights to sneaking in boyfriends, from high-profile guests in the Grotto to the bizarre rituals of the octogenarian at the center of the sexual revolution, Bunny Tales is compulsively readable and endlessly entertaining!

Kathleen K. A rare, completely honest look behind the provocative advertisements and 970 prefixes that have come to symbolize an American obsession. Kathleen K. ran a phone sex company in the late '80s, and she opens up her diary for a very thought-provoking peek at the life of a phone sex operator and reveals a number of secrets and surprises. Because far from being a sleazy, underground scam, the service Kathleen provides goes straight to the heart of the American sexual zeitgeist. Transcripts of actual conversations are included.

Mary Karr From Mary Karr comes this gorgeously written, often hilarious story of her tumultuous teens and sexual coming-of-age. Picking up where the bestselling The Liars' Club left off, Karr dashes down the trail of her teen years with customary sass, only to run up against the paralyzing self-doubt of a girl in bloom. Fleeing the thrills and terrors of adolescence, she clashes against authority in all its forms and hooks up with an unforgettable band of heads and bona-fide geniuses. Parts of Cherry will leave you gasping with laughter. Karr assembles a self from the smokiest beginnings, delivering a long- awaited sequel that is both "bawdy and wise" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Joan Kelly When Joan Kelly took a weekend job as a professional submissive in a private dungeon, it seemed she'd finally found a perfect outlet for her pent-up desires. Suddenly, Joan was being paid to do things she'd only fantasized about. Having spent several years scouring the Internet unsuccessfully for a man who would dominate her in the bedroom without getting on her nerves outside of it, Joan had nearly lost hope of satisfying her sexually submissive urges. Now, using her professional name, "Marnie," she was being paid to do only what she felt like with kinky men who didn't even expect to have any real sex in their sessions. To Joan, it almost felt like being paid to practice the art of self-centeredness–—except for the part where she had to kneel and address strangers as "Master." The Pleasure's All Mine offers the reader a rare, intimate, often amusing, sometimes disturbing look into the life of a professional submissive–—one whose drive for self-acceptance and respect is as relentless as her sexual need for the services she provides. Readers will experience many humorous, bizarre, frightening, and utterly entertaining events through the perceptive and insightful eyes of this writer.

Josh Kilmer-Purcell The New York Times bestselling, darkly funny memoirof a young New Yorker's daring dual life—advertising art director by day,glitter-dripping drag queen and nightclub beauty-pageant hopeful by night—was asmash literary debut for Josh Kilmer-Purcell, now known for his popular PlanetGreen television series The Fabulous Beekman Boys.His story begins here—before the homemade goat milk soaps and hand-gatheredhoneys, before his memoir of the city mouse’s move to the country, TheBucolic Plague—in I Am Not Myself These Days,  with “plenty of dishy anecdotes and moments of tragi-camp delight” (WashingtonPost).

Maxine Hong Kingston A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity.

Greg Louganis The world's greatest diver offers a candid account of his life and sports career, detailing his troubled youth, the highs and lows of athletic competition, the need to conceal his homosexuality, and life in a post-Olympics era. 75,000 first printing. Tour.

Norman Mailer vivid story of one man's sexual life and defense of his sexual identity

Eric Marcus, Greg Louganis This is a new edition of Greg Louganis's 1995 #1 New York Times bestselling autobiography and Literary Guild Selection. It is the unflinchingly honest first-person account of a man breaking free of a lifetime of silence and isolation.

Born to a young Samoan father and Northern European mother, and adopted at nine months, Greg began diving at age nine, and at sixteen won a silver medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. But despite his astonishing athletic skill, Greg struggled with late-detected dyslexia, prejudice toward his dark skin coloring and anguish over his homosexuality, which he felt compelled to hide. Being in the spotlight intensified his difficulties with relationships and substance abuse.

However, Louganis went on to win double gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. His triumph at the 1988 Olympics came several months after he tested positive for HIV. This is the haunting, searingly candid story of the world's greatest diver. This new edition includes a new foreword.

Harry Maurer A portrait of American sexuality presents the results of interviews with fifty-five people, including firsthand accounts by people of all ages, professions, classes, and ethnic backgrounds as they describe their sexual experiences. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.

Harry Maurer Twelve-year old Amos Hartigan has yet to kiss a girl. Judith Rothstein, age fifty-seven, has slept with nearly a thousand men. Bisexual Jackie Dunhill finds liberation through S/M. Protestant minister Eli Gregory has been married and faithful for forty years.

Harry Maurer Twelve-year old Amos Hartigan has yet to kiss a girl. Judith Rothstein, age fifty-seven, has slept with nearly a thousand men. Bisexual Jackie Dunhill finds liberation through S/M. Protestant minister Eli Gregory has been married and faithful for forty years.

ELIZABETH MCNEILL The first time we were in bed together he held my hands pinned down above my head. I liked it. I liked him. He was moody in a way that struck me as romantic; he was funny, bright, interesting to talk to, and he gave me pleasure. The second time he picked my scarf up off the floor where I had dropped it while getting undressed, smiled, and said. "Would you let me blindfolded you?" No one had blindfolded me in bed before and I liked it. I liked him even better than the firs night and later couldn't stop smiling while brushing my teeth: I had found an extraordinary skillful lover. The third time he repeatedly brought me within a hairsbreadth of coming. When I was beside myself yet again and he stopped once more, I heard my voice, disembodied above the bed, pleading with him to continue. He obliged. I was beginning to fall n love. The fourth time when I was aroused enough to be fairly oblivious, he used the same scarf to tie my wrists together. That morning, he sent thirteen roses to my office.

Catherine Millet A national best-seller that was featured on such lists as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, and Publishers Weekly, The Sexual Life of Catherine M. was the controversial sleeper hit of the year. Since her youth, Catherine Millet, the eminent editor of Art Press, has led an extraordinarily active and free sexual life — from al fresco encounters in Italy to a gang bang on the edge of the Bois du Boulogne to a high-class orgy at a chichi Parisian restaurant. A graphic account of sex stripped of sentiment, of a life of physical gratification and a relentlessly honest look at the consequences — both liberating and otherwise — have created this candid, powerful, and deeply intelligent depiction of unfettered sexuality.

Paul Monette The critically and popularly acclaimed coming of age/coming out story from the author of Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir. "Witty as it is anguished and as full of understanding as of anger, this is Monette's best book."—Booklist

Paul Monette The critically and popularly acclaimed coming of age/coming out story from the author of Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir. "Witty as it is anguished and as full of understanding as of anger, this is Monette's best book."—Booklist

Caitlin Moran “Caitlin Moran is the profane, witty and wonky best friend I wish I had. She’s the feminist rock star we need right now.”
—Ayelet Waldman, author of Bad Mother

“Caitlin Moran is so fabulous, so funny, so freshly feminist. I don’t want to be like her—I want to be her.”
 —Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter

Caitlin Moran puts a new face on feminism, cutting to the heart of women’s issues today with her irreverent, transcendent, and hilarious How to Be a Woman. “Half memoir, half polemic, and entirely necessary,” (Elle UK), Moran’s debut was an instant runaway bestseller in England as well as an Amazon UK Top Ten book of the year; still riding high on bestseller lists months after publication, it is a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Now poised to take American womanhood by storm, here is a book that Vanity Fair calls “the U.K. version of Tina Fey’s Bossypants….You will laugh out loud, wince, and—in my case—feel proud to be the same gender as the author.”

Anais Nin This celebrated volume begins when Nin is about to publish her first book and ends when she leaves Paris for New York. Edited and with a Preface by Gunther tuhlmann; Index.

Anais Nin, Gunther Stuhlmann Beginning with Nin's arrival in New York, this volume is filled with the stories of her analytical patients. There is a shift in emphasis also as Nin becomes aware of the inevitable choice facing the artist in the modern world. "Sensitive and frank...[Nin's] diary is a dialogue between flesh and spirit" (Newsweek). Edited and with a Preface by Gunther Stuhlmann; Index.

Anais Nin, Gunther Stuhlmann Nin's years of struggle and final triumph as an author in America. "Transcending mere self-revelation... the diary examines human personality with a depth and understanding seldom surpassed since Proust...dream and fact are balanced and...in their joining lie the elements of masterpiece" (Washington Post). Edited and with a Preface by Gunther Stuhlmann; Index.

Anaïs Nin, Gunther Stuhlmann The author's experiences in Greenwich Village, where she defends young writers against the Establishment, and her trip across the country in an old Ford to California and Mexico. "[Nin is] one of the most extraordinary and unconventional writers of this century" (New York Times Book Review). Edited and with a Preface by Gunther Stuhlmann; Index.

Asra Nomani A Foreign Correspondent's Search for Her Cultural and Spiritual Identity

What began as an assignment from her editor at the Wall Street Journal to investigate "America's hottest new fad," the secrets of sexual ecstasy in Tantra, became a story that would lead reporter Asra Nomani halfway around the world and change forever her life, faith, and self-identity. From a New Age Tantric seminar in Santa Cruz to sitting at the feet of the Dalai Lama in India, from meditation caves in Thailand to crossing the Khyber Pass with Muslim militants and staring down the barrel of an Afghan soldier's AK-47, Nomani's trek unexpectedly climaxes in Pakistan, where she risks great danger in joining the hunt for kidnapped fellow reporter Danny Pearl. She travels the globe in search of this elusive "divine love," but ultimately hers is a journey of self-discovery in which the divine within herself and within all women — all "tantrikas" — is revealed.

Brian Patrick O'Donoghue The Iditarod may be the only race that awards a prize for last place.  But then how many people can even complete a course that ranges across 1,000 miles of Alaska's ice fields, mountains, and canyons at temperatures that sometimes plunges to 100 degrees below zero?  In conditions like these, anything can go wrong.  For Brian Patrick O'Donoghue, nearly everything did. 

  In My Lead Dog Was a Lesbian, his reporter and intrepid novice musher tells what happened when he entered the 1991 Iditarod, along with seventeen sled dogs with names like Harley, Screech, and Rainy, his sexually confused lead dog. O'Donoghue braved snowstorms and sickening wipeouts, endured the contempt of more experienced racers (one of whom was daft enough to use poodles), and rode herd of four-legged companions who would rather be fighting or having sex.  It's all here, narrated with self-deprecating wit, in a true story of heroism, cussedness and astonishing dumb luck.

Cleo Odzer An insider's account based on three years of research discusses the near-epidemic proportions of prostitution in Asia, noting that eighty percent of Thailand's prostitutes are HIV positive and pinpointing its sources to political corruption and parental dysfunction. BOMC.

T. J. Parsell When seventeen-year-old T. J. Parsell held up the local Photo Mat with a toy gun, he was sentenced to four and a half to fifteen years in prison. The first night of his term, four older inmates drugged Parsell and took turns raping him. When they were through, they flipped a coin to decide who would "own" him. Forced to remain silent about his rape by a convict code among inmates (one in which informers are murdered), Parsell's experience that first night haunted him throughout the rest of his sentence. In an effort to silence the guilt and pain of its victims, the issue of prisoner rape is a story that has not been told. For the first time Parsell, one of America's leading spokespeople for prison reform, shares the story of his coming of age behind bars. He gives voice to countless others who have been exposed to an incarceration system that turns a blind eye to the abuse of the prisoners in its charge. Since life behind bars is so often exploited by television and movie re-enactments, the real story has yet to be told. Fish is the first breakout story to do that.

John Dececco Phd, Matt Bernstein Sycamore Learn about the real lives of sex workers by exploring the sex industry from the inside!

Explore the insightful—and oftentimes intense—accounts of sex workers who look squarely into the eyes of their clients, the sex industry, and society as a whole. Tricks and Treats delivers private stories about homo- and heterosexual encounters that sex workers usually confide only in each other. Not another “why I became a prostitute” book, it provocatively turns the tables on the buyers of sex, giving you a window into sex workers’lives. Tricks and Treats gives you straightforward accounts by sex workers to help you understand the pleasures, attractions, and truths of this profession.

Tricks and Treats tantalizes with its powerful collection of tales from a diverse group of male, female, and transgendered sex workers. Their commercial, cultural, emotional, sexual, (il)legal, and even spiritual relationships with their clients are discussed in intimate detail. You will explore accounts from streetworkers, escorts, strippers, porn actors, masseurs, dominatrixes, phone sex operators, an adult-video store clerk, an outreach worker, a sex educator, and even a sperm donor.

Tricks and Treats will ignite your imagination and answer questions few people dare to ask. You'll learn firsthand, of:how male, female, and transgendered hustlers turn tricks—in their own words—from sado-masochism and watersports to stripping, scat, foreplay, and fistinghow sex workers face their own mortality when confronted with the AIDS virusa porn star's compassion and understanding for her fansa sex worker's coming-to-terms with his/her transgendered identitya male escort's attempts at datinga young man's experience of finding a family and home when living at a brothela woman's story of spending thirty years as a prostitutethe experiences of hooking on the streets and in clubs, cafes, and homesThese engaging and shocking testimonials will entertain you and offer a unique understanding of the sex industry. Revealing and intriguing, these poignant talks will certainly not disappoint your imagination. Tricks and Treats is a testament to the lives of sex workers, a manifestation of their spirit, and gives them a chance to turn the tables on their clients, exposing their erotic tastes, turn-ons, and fantasies.

Liane de Pougy

Joan Price Joan Price is talking out loud about a subject that is often ignored or ridiculed in our society: later-life sexuality. Naked at Our Age is a candid, straight-talking book addressing senior sexuality in all its colors—the challenges, the disappointments, and the surprises, as well as the delights and the love stories. Naked at Our Age gives real-life people over fifty a voice to tell stories of their past and present sex lives, ask questions, and get straightforward advice and information from experts. No topic related to elder sexuality is off-limits.

In Naked at Our Age, women and men—coupled and single, straight and gay—talk candidly about how their sex lives and relationships have changed with age, and about how they see themselves, their partners, or their single life. Many of them are having unsatisfying sex, or no sex at all, and are seeking advice. Price presents their personal stories, and follows up with tips from sex therapists, health professionals, counselors, sex educators, and other knowledgeable experts. Naked at Our Age is an entertaining and indispensable guide to handling and understanding the issues of senior sex and relationships.

Carol Queen Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture by Carol Queenis Queen's long-awaited and delightfully candid collected writings on sex. Whether writing about the joys of being turned over her lover's knee and spanked into erotic bliss, performing in a red-light district peep show, educating physicians on the finer points of the gynecological exam, or attending a California Men's Movement gathering to lobby for the pro-pornography platform, Queen is compassionate and intel ligent - and deliciously provocative.

Margaret F. Rosenthal The Venetian courtesan has long captured the imagination as a female symbol of sexual license, elegance, beauty, and unruliness. What then to make of the cortigiana onesta—the honest courtesan who recast virtue as intellectual integrity and offered wit and refinement in return for patronage and a place in public life? Veronica Franco (1546-1591) was such a woman, a writer and citizen of Venice, whose published poems and familiar letters offer rich testimony to the complexity of the honest courtesan's position.

Margaret F. Rosenthal draws a compelling portrait of Veronica Franco in her cultural social, and economic world. Rosenthal reveals in Franco's writing a passionate support of defenseless women, strong convictions about inequality, and, in the eroticized language of her epistolary verses, the seductive political nature of all poetic contests. It is Veronica Franco's insight into the power conflicts between men and women—and her awareness of the threat she posed to her male contemporaries—that makes her literary works and her dealings with Venetian intellectuals so pertinent today. Combining the resources of biography, history, literary theory, and cultural criticism, this sophisticated interdisciplinary work presents an eloquent and often moving account of one woman's life as an act of self-creation and as a complex response to social forces and cultural conditions.

"A book . . . pleasurably redolent of Venice in the 16th-century. Rosenthal gives a vivid sense of a world of salons and coteries, of intricate networks of family and patronage, and of literary exchanges both intellectual and erotic."—Helen Hackett, Times Higher Education Supplement

The Honest Courtesan is the basis for the film Dangerous Beauty (1998) directed by Marshall Herskovitz. (The film was re-titled The Honest Courtesan for release in the UK and Europe in 1999.)

Wade Rouse In the tradition of such quirky and smart coming-of-age memoirs as Augusten Burroughs’s Running with Scissors and Haven Kimmel’s A Girl Named Zippy, America’s Boy is an arresting and funny tale of growing up different in America’s heartland.

Wade didn’t quite fit in. While schoolmates had crewcuts and wore Wrangler jeans, Wade styled his hair in imitation of Robbie Benson circa Ice Castles and shopped in the Sears husky section. Wade’s father insisted on calling everyone "honey"—even male gas station attendants. His mother punctuated her conversations with "WHAT?!" and constantly answered herself as though she was being cross-examined. He goes to school with a pack of kids called goat ropers who make the boys from Deliverance look like honor students. And he both loved and hated his perfect older brother.

While other families traveled to Florida and Hawaii for vacation, Wade’s family packed their clothes in garbage bags and drove to their log cabin on Sugar Creek in the Missouri Ozarks. And it is here that Wade found refuge from his everyday struggle to fit in—until a sudden, terrible accident on the Fourth of July took his brother’s life and changed everything.

Equally nostalgic, poignant, funny, and compelling, this is a story of what it is to be normal, what it means to fit in, and what it means to be yourself.

Wade Rouse When Wade Rouse—a rural, public school graduate who grew up more Hee Haw than Dynasty—was hired as the director of publicity at the prestigious Tate Academy, he quickly discovered his real job was to make a few of the very pretty, very rich, very mean mommies of the elite students happy.

Enter former Tate beauty queen and sports star Katherine Isabelle Ludington—Kitsy to her friends—who went to an Ivy, married an Ivy, and made a lot of money. Now, she is Wade’s VIP volunteer and a perfectly coiffed nightmare.

In between designing Louis Vuitton–inspired reunion invitations, dressing as Ronald Reagan for Halloween, and surviving surprise Botox parties, Wade tries to tame Kitsy and her pink Lilly Pulitzer–clad posse while reclaiming his self-esteem.

Following a year in the life of the super rich and super spoiled, Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler is hilarious, heartbreaking, and deliciously catty.

Tina Russell

Peter Sagal Somewhere, somebody is having more fun than you are.

Orso everyone believes. Peter Sagal, a mild-mannered, Harvard-educated radio host—the man who puts the second "l" in "vanilla"—decided to find out if it's true. From strip clubs to gambling halls to swingers clubs to porn sets and back to the strip clubs (but only because he left his glasses there), Sagal explores what the sinful folk do, how much they pay for the privilege, and how exactly they got those funny red marks.

Peter Sagal Somewhere, somebody is having more fun than you are.

Orso everyone believes. Peter Sagal, a mild-mannered, Harvard-educated radio host—the man who puts the second "l" in "vanilla"—decided to find out if it's true. From strip clubs to gambling halls to swingers clubs to porn sets and back to the strip clubs (but only because he left his glasses there), Sagal explores what the sinful folk do, how much they pay for the privilege, and how exactly they got those funny red marks.

Peter Sagal Somewhere, somebody is having more fun than you are.

Orso everyone believes. Peter Sagal, a mild-mannered, Harvard-educated radio host—the man who puts the second "l" in "vanilla"—decided to find out if it's true. From strip clubs to gambling halls to swingers clubs to porn sets and back to the strip clubs (but only because he left his glasses there), Sagal explores what the sinful folk do, how much they pay for the privilege, and how exactly they got those funny red marks.

Jean P. Sasson A Saudi Arabian princess describes the inequities for women in her country, discussing arranged marriages for child brides, the murder of female babies, and her own life in the shadow of men. 100,000 first printing. $85,000 ad/promo. Lit Guild Alt. First serial, Cosmopolitan. Tour.

Dan Savage Welcome to the hot new wave of writing about sex: Savage Love. Columnist Dan Savage has hand-picked over 300 letters from six years worth of "Savage Love," a no-holds-barred syndicated sex-advice column which runs in 16 papers in the United States and Canada, including The Village Voice and the San Francisco Weekly. An original and funny thinker, thrashing around in the playground of human sexuality, Savage advises on a wide range of titillating topics: * What is the best seduction music? * How do I come out to my fundamentalist parents? * What is so wonderful about intercourse, anyway? Forget Anka Radakovich and Isadora Altman. Tune in to Dan Savage as he answers these questions and much more in his own uniquely irreverent and sexually spunky style.

David Sedaris Denim, David Sedaris returns to his deliriously twisted domain: hilarious childhood dramas infused with melancholy; the gulf of misunderstanding that exists between people of different nations or members of the same family; and the poignant divide between one's best hopes and most common deeds. The family characters his readers love are all here, as well as the unique terrain they inhabit, strewn with comic landmines. 'The Rooster' is back, and getting married in the funniest wedding ever described. David attends a slumber party and gets the upper hand in a unique version of strip poker. 'Rubber or plastic?' The strangest questions can tear people apart. A skinny guy from Spain, wearing a bishop's hat and accompanied by six to eight men, invades your house and pretends to kick you.Is this any way to spend Christmas? With this new book, Sedaris's prose reaches breathtaking new heights and marks off a territory that is unmistakably his own. Read it and weep tears of humane laughter.

Judy Shepard The mother of Matthew Shepard shares her story about her son's death and the choice she made to become an international gay rights activist

Today, the name Matthew Shepard is synonymous with gay rights, but before his grisly murder in 1998, Matthew was simply Judy Shepard's son. For the first time in book form, Judy Shepard speaks about her loss, sharing memories of Matthew, their life as a typical American family, and the pivotal event in the small college town that changed everything.

The Meaning of Matthew follows the Shepard family in the days immediately after the crime, when Judy and her husband traveled to see their incapacitated son, kept alive by life support machines; how the Shepards learned of the incredible response from strangers all across America who held candlelit vigils and memorial services for their child; and finally, how they struggled to navigate the legal system as Matthew's murderers were on trial. Heart-wrenchingly honest, Judy Shepard confides with readers about how she handled the crippling loss of her child, why she became a gay rights activist, and the challenges and rewards of raising a gay child in America today.

The Meaning of Matthew not only captures the historical significance and complicated civil rights issues surrounding one young man's life and death, but it also chronicles one ordinary woman's struggle to cope with the unthinkable.

Judy Shepard "A courageous, eloquent, and devoted mother...gives us all a greater understanding of Matthew and the larger meaning of his life."
-Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Today, Matthew Shepard is synonymous with gay rights, but until 1998, he was just Judy Shepard's son. In The Meaning of Matthew, Judy Shepard confides how she handled her crippling loss in the public eye, the vigils and protests held by strangers in her son's name, and ultimately how she and her husband gained the courage to help prosecutors convict her son's murderers.

Heart-wrenchingly honest, The Meaning of Matthew is an unforgettable and inspiring story, chronicling one ordinary woman's struggle to cope with the unthinkable.

Anne Thomas Soffee This hilariously uplifting memoir follows an Arab American woman's merry life as she shimmies her way from getting dumped by her tattoo-artist boyfriend to coming to grips with being single, ample, and 30. Feeling lost and heartbroken, Anne Thomas Soffee moves back home to Richmond, Virginia. Against the wishes of her extended family and friends, she enrolls in a belly dancing class hoping to heal her heart and reconnect with her Lebanese roots. Her life is never the same after she discovers the riotous world of American belly dancing, a warm and welcoming subculture where younger and thinner are not necessarily better. Wildly funny adventures ensue as a newly confident Soffee embarks on romantic adventures with a domineering sheik and a beautiful Lebanese boy-next-door. Among the zils (finger cymbals) and thrills of attending classes and performing in moose lodges and county fairs, Soffee is surprised to find happiness and true love along the way.

Annie Sprinkle Fans catch Annie Sprinkle's performance pieces, rent her porn videos, attend workshops, follow her career in magazines, trade playing cards and erotic postcards Out Magazine called Annie Sprinkle a cottage industry. Funny, unorthdox, and shockingly erotic, Annie Sprinkle: Post Porn Modernist is Annie's scrapbook of her life as a pleasure activist, tracing her evolution from Ellen Steinberg to Annie Sprinkle, High Priestess of Porn. The most nakedly graphic memoir you will ever read, Post Porn Modernist is packed with personal mementos, before-and-after photos, diary entries and art projects. Here are Annie's newest writings and never-before-seen photographs along with classics: Public Cervix Announcement, Tit Art, 101 Uses for Sex, Cut-Out Finger Puppets, The Bosom Ballet, Pornstatistics, and the Transformation of Les Nichols, Annie's transsexual lover. Originally published by Art Unlimited, Amsterdam, 1991, Annie Sprinkle: Post Porn Modernist is a cult classic.

Gertrude Stein Stein's most famous work; one of the richest and most irreverent biographies ever written.

David Henry Sterry, R. J. Martin Jr. The only thing the writers in this book have in common is that they've exchanged sex for money. They're PhDs and dropouts, soccer moms and jailbirds, $2,500-a-night call girls and $10 crack hos, and everything in between. This anthology lends a voice to an underrepresented population that is simultaneously reviled and worshipped.

Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys is a collection of short memoirs, rants, confessions, nightmares, journalism, and poetry covering life, love, work, family, and yes, sex. The editors gather pieces from the world of industrial sex, including contributions from art-porn priestess Dr. Annie Sprinkle, best-selling memoirist David Henry Sterry (Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent), sex activist and musical diva Candye Kane, women and men right off the streets, girls participating in the first-ever National Summit of Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth, and Ruth Morgan Thomas, one of the organizers of the European Sex Work, Human Rights, and Migration Conference.

Sex is a billion-dollar industry. Meet the real people who are its flesh and blood.

Andrew Sullivan "I intend to be among the first generation that survives this disease." That was former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan's first public statement about his HIV diagnosis. Speaking to heterosexual and homosexual audiences alike, this book is about the first steps in that journey of survival.

If Sullivan's acclaimed first book, Virtually Normal, was about politics, this long-awaited sequel is about life. In a memoir in the form of three essays, Sullivan asks hard questions about his own life and others'. Can the practice of friendship ever compensate for a life without love? Is sex at war or at peace with spirituality? Can faith endure the randomness of death? Is homosexuality genetic or environmental?

Love Undetectable, then, refers to many things: to a virus that, for many, has become "undetectable" in the bloodstream thanks to new drugs, and to the failed search for love and intimacy that helped spread it; to the love of God, which in times of plague seems particularly hard to find and understand; to a sexual orientation long pathologized and denied any status as an equal form of human love; and to the love between friends, a love ignored when it isn't demeaned, and obscured by the more useful imperatives of family and society.

In a work destined to be as controversial as his first book, Sullivan takes on religious authorities and gay activists; talks candidly about his own promiscuity and search for love; revisits Freud in the origins of homosexuality; and makes one of the more memorable modern cases for elevating the virtue of friendship over the satisfactions of love. Scholarly, impassioned, wide-ranging, and embattled, Love Undetectable is a book that is ultimately not about homosexuality or plague, but about humanity and mortality.

Anthony Summers She was born Norma Jeane but the world knew and loved her as Marilyn. Her life was one of unprecedented fame and private misery, her death a tragedy surrounded by mysteries. Drawing on first-hand interviews Anthony Summers offers both a classic biography and a shockingly revealing account of the screen goddess's relations with John and Robert Kennedy. 'The definitive story of the legend ...more convincing at every page - told with all the coldness of truth and the authority of the historian, but at the end of it we still love Marilyn' Maeve Binchy, Irish Times

Stuart Timmons

Brad Warner With his one-of-a kind blend of autobiography, pop culture, and plainspoken Buddhism, Brad Warner explores an A-to-Z of sexual topics — from masturbation to dating, gender identity to pornography. In addition to approaching sexuality from a Buddhist perspective, he looks at Buddhism — emptiness, compassion, karma — from a sexual vantage. Throughout, he stares down the tough questions: Can prostitution be a right livelihood? Can a good spiritual master also be really, really bad? And ultimately, what's love got to do with any of it? While no puritan when it comes to non-vanilla sexuality, Warner offers a conscious approach to sexual ethics and intimacy — real-world wisdom for our times.

Brad Warner With his one-of-a kind blend of autobiography, pop culture, and plainspoken Buddhism, Brad Warner explores an A-to-Z of sexual topics — from masturbation to dating, gender identity to pornography. In addition to approaching sexuality from a Buddhist perspective, he looks at Buddhism — emptiness, compassion, karma — from a sexual vantage. Throughout, he stares down the tough questions: Can prostitution be a right livelihood? Can a good spiritual master also be really, really bad? And ultimately, what's love got to do with any of it? While no puritan when it comes to non-vanilla sexuality, Warner offers a conscious approach to sexual ethics and intimacy — real-world wisdom for our times.

Judd Winick "You are eighteen years old. You get up in front of a thousand people—your classmates, your friends, basically the people who make up your entire existence—and announce, 'I'm HIV positive.'"

Told entirely in sequential art, here is the story of the life-changing friendship between the author, a cartoonist from Long Island, and Pedro Zamora, an HIV-positive AIDS activist, which was filmed day by day on MTV's Real World San Francisco.

As a speaker and educator, a guest on many talk shows (including Oprah), and when his tragic death received front-page coverage in the press, Pedro taught a generation that AIDS was not a punishment for moral defects or a mere killer that reduced humans to wraiths. Rather, he showed how those afflicted with the disease could live and love nobly with intelligence, humor and great humanity. Judd Winick's compelling memoir allows each of us to experience the vitally important message Pedro brought us.

Inspiring, moving, informative, and instantly accessible, Pedro and Me could become one of the books that defines a generation.

Marion Winik A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

   When Marion Winik fell in love with Tony Heubach during a wild Mardi Gras in New Orleans, her friends shook their heads.  For starters, she was straight and he was gay.  But Marion and Tony's impossible love turned out to be true enough to produce a marriage and two beautiful sons, true enough to weather drug addiction, sexual betrayal, and the AIDS that would kill Tony at the age of thirty-seven, twelve years after they met. 
   In a memoir heartbreaking and hilarious by turns, Marion Winik tells a story that is all more powerful for the way in which it defies easy judgments.  As it charts the trajectory of a marriage so impossible that it became inevitable, First Comes Love reminds us—poignantly indelibly—that every story is a special case.

Elizabeth Wurtzel "A book that became a cultural touchstone." — The New Yorker

Elizabeth Wurtzel writes with her finger in the faint pulse of an overdiagnosed generation whose ruling icons are Kurt Cobain, Xanax, and pierced tongues. In this famous memoir of her bouts with depression and skirmishes with drugs, Prozac Nation is a witty and sharp account of the psychopharmacology of an era for readers of Girl, Interrupted and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.

Madison Young In a world filled with constant change, we are all looking for a heroic figure to believe in. For Madison Young, that hero that we are in search of, is Daddy.  Daddy explores Young's interwoven relationships with the men in her life from the fraught relationship with her biological father to the BDSM "leather daddies" that lead her on a journey of sexual revelation, both on and off camera.  When Young finally finds the Daddy that she has been searching for, her fairytale quest is shattered with the flawed realities of human nature that exists outside of this little girl's fantasy.