Meet a "Homo Historian"

My thanks to Octavio Roca for alerting me to this LGBTQ Nation profile of Eric Cervini, an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ politics and culture who recently published The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America. Cervini is also the creator of "Magic Closet," a series of one-minute videos on Instagram exploring gay history, which are among the material available on his YouTube channel. 

Professor Pete strikes again

So far, we've discussed memoirs by Pete Buttigieg (Shortest Way Home) and, earlier this week, his husband Chasten (I Have Something to Tell You). To break the tie, Pete has just published Trust: America's Best Chance, which debuted at #11 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction list. In case you were wondering what the former mayor is up to these days, he's teaching a course on trust in politics to 19 undergraduates at the University of Notre Dame--masked and standing behind plexiglass, of course. For more details on his new book and thoughts on the election, here's a transcript of Buttigieg's Oct. 9 Washington Post Live conversation with Robert Costa.

Meet Max Jacob

I must confess that even after 20 years as a proud BookMen member, there are still many lacunae in my literary knowledge. One of them is the subject of a new, critically acclaimed biography, Max Jacob: A Life in Art and Letters, by Rosanna Warren. Though highly accomplished, the French poet (1876-1944) had three strikes against him his whole life: he was from the provinces, Jewish (though he converted to Catholicism) and gay. Here are reviews of Warren's book from the Washington Post and New York Times. I obviously haven't read it yet, but it sure sounds like a good candidate for our next reading list.

Chasten's clever chapter titles

In the unlikely event you need an incentive to read Chasten Buttigieg's memoir, I Have Something to Tell You (which we'll be discussing on Oct. 21), allow me to offer some of his chapter titles as a token of his puckish sense of humor:

1. Not That Kind of Camp

2. "Did You Walk Your Steer Today?"

3. How Do You Say "I Think I'm Gay" in German?

5. How to Succeed in Wisconsin Without Really Crying

6. Ma'am, This Is a Starbucks

14. This Is Nuts, Eat the Nuts

Worth many thousands of words...:-)

As a group devoted to celebrating the power of the written word, BookMen DC has not ever discussed a photography book, so far as I know. (That's a cue for my fellow old-timers to weigh in if I'm mistaken!) But the Washington Post's In Sight photography blog reports on the imminent publication of a fascinating book that might be worth consideration for a future reading list: Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s-1950s.

The Books in the Ban

Last month, Washington Post book critic Ron Charles decided to observe Banned Books Week by reading the "Top 10 Most Challenged Books" compiled by the American Library Association. Seven of them are LGBTQ-related: George; Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out; A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo; Prince & Knight; I Am Jazz; Drama; and what is probably the most famous title on the list: And Tango Makes Three. As Charles wryly observes:

"Nothing highlights the fragility of some adults quite like the campaign against this nonfiction picture book about two male penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo. Don't let their tuxedos fool you. According to complaints lodged at schools and public libraries, these little guys gave an agenda beyond just raising a chick on their own. But in fact, this adorable true story, with its perfect harmony of words and illustrations, will appeal to any child interested in the fascinating variety of nature. At the end, the authors write, 'Like all the other penguins in the penguin house, and all the other animals in the zoo, and all the families in the big city around them, they went to sleep.' Would that we could all let each other live and sleep in peace." Amen!