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Death Goes on Skis: Introduced by Sandi Toksvig - 'Her detective novels are hilarious' (Virago Modern Classics #800)
by Nancy Spain'Her detective novels are hilarious - less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal' Sandi ToksvigMiriam Birdseye is daring, brilliant - and a long way from The Ivy. Our dashing heroine, a famous revue artist, takes to the slopes with her coterie of admirers. Champagne flows and wherever Miriam goes she leaves a trail of gossip in her wake.Fellow ski-resort guests include the celebrated Russian ex-ballerina, Natasha Nevkorina, whose beauty is matched only by her languor, Natasha's burly husband, nightclub owner Johnny DuVivien, and the wealthy Flahertés, a family who have made their money importing scents: handsome playboy Barney, his wife Regan, their two obnoxious children and the governess, Rosalie. Unbeknownst to Regan, Barney's mistress, a film star, is also there with her husband.When secrets start to unravel, tensions rise, and soon amateur sleuths Miriam and Natasha have not one but two murders to solve. In the hands of Nancy Spain, for whom farce and humour are a lot more fun than a conventional detective novel, the result is a deliciously wild ride.'An either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own' Elizabeth Bowen
Death Goes on Skis: Introduced by Sandi Toksvig - 'Her detective novels are hilarious'
by Nancy Spain'Her detective novels are hilarious - less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal' Sandi ToksvigMiriam Birdseye is daring, brilliant - and a long way from The Ivy. Our dashing heroine, a famous revue artist, takes to the slopes with her coterie of admirers. Champagne flows and wherever Miriam goes she leaves a trail of gossip in her wake.Fellow ski-resort guests include the celebrated Russian ex-ballerina, Natasha Nevkorina, whose beauty is matched only by her languor, Natasha's burly husband, nightclub owner Johnny DuVivien, and the wealthy Flahertés, a family who have made their money importing scents: handsome playboy Barney, his wife Regan, their two obnoxious children and the governess, Rosalie. Unbeknownst to Regan, Barney's mistress, a film star, is also there with her husband.When secrets start to unravel, tensions rise, and soon amateur sleuths Miriam and Natasha have not one but two murders to solve. In the hands of Nancy Spain, for whom farce and humour are a lot more fun than a conventional detective novel, the result is a deliciously wild ride.'An either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own' Elizabeth Bowen
Death Goes on Skis: Introduced by Sandi Toksvig - 'Her detective novels are hilarious' (Virago Modern Classics #800)
by Nancy Spain'Her detective novels are hilarious - less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal' Sandi ToksvigMiriam Birdseye is daring, brilliant - and a long way from The Ivy. Our dashing heroine, a famous revue artist, takes to the slopes with her coterie of admirers. Champagne flows and wherever Miriam goes she leaves a trail of gossip in her wake.Fellow ski-resort guests include the celebrated Russian ex-ballerina, Natasha Nevkorina, whose beauty is matched only by her languor, Natasha's burly husband, nightclub owner Johnny DuVivien, and the wealthy Flahertés, a family who have made their money importing scents: handsome playboy Barney, his wife Regan, their two obnoxious children and the governess, Rosalie. Unbeknownst to Regan, Barney's mistress, a film star, is also there with her husband.When secrets start to unravel, tensions rise, and soon amateur sleuths Miriam and Natasha have not one but two murders to solve. In the hands of Nancy Spain, for whom farce and humour are a lot more fun than a conventional detective novel, the result is a deliciously wild ride.'An either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own' Elizabeth Bowen
The Gallery
by David Margolick John Horne Burns Paul Fussell"The first book of real magnitude to come out of the last war." --John Dos Passos John Horne Burns brought The Gallery back from World War II, and on publication in 1947 it became a critically-acclaimed bestseller. However, Burns's early death at the age of 36 led to the subsequent neglect of this searching book, which captures the shock the war dealt to the preconceptions and ideals of the victorious Americans. Set in occupied Naples in 1944, The Gallery takes its name from the Galleria Umberto, a bombed-out arcade where everybody in town comes together in pursuit of food, drink, sex, money, and oblivion. A daring and enduring novel--one of the first to look directly at gay life in the military--The Gallery poignantly conveys the mixed feelings of the men and women who fought the war that made America a superpower.
The Brick Foxhole
by Richard BrooksNew York Times Bestseller: This “shocking” murder mystery addresses homophobia in the military during World War II (Richard Wright, author of Native Son). The men in the barracks, wrenched from the normal pursuits of life, are being molded into warriors in a battle against the “others.” Isolated and fearful, they sometimes relieve their frustrations on the most disenfranchised civilians, namely homosexuals. But one weekend, one of them loses control and commits murder. This tale of suspense is also a story ahead of its time, written by a young marine stationed at Quantico who would go on to become an Academy Award–winning director of such films as Elmer Gantry and The Blackboard Jungle. Sinclair Lewis, writing in Esquire, called Richard Brooks “a really important new writer” and The Brick Foxhole was acclaimed in the Saturday Reviewof Literature as “angry, rapid, stream-lined, and beautifully written . . . the best of the new stuff coming out of this war”—though the US Marines threatened the author with court-martial. Eventually, the story was made into the movie Crossfire (with the hate crime in question changed to an act of anti-Semitic rather than antigay violence), which earned Brooks an Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture. Today, The Brick Foxhole remains both a twisting thriller and an early landmark of gay-themed fiction.
The Friendly Young Ladies: A Novel (Virago Modern Classics Ser. #72)
by Mary RenaultA wry romp through 1930s mores, social and sexualProgressive for its time as well as ours, The Friendly Young Ladies is a deftly witty comedy set in England between the wars. At eighteen, Elsie has had enough of life at her bickering parents&’ Cornwall home. She decides to join up with her bohemian older sister, Leo, in the city. Leo&’s life is full of surprises—not least her significant other, Helen, a beautiful nurse. As Elsie gets acquainted with Leo&’s world, new characters—including a novelist and a doctor deluded enough to chase all three women at once—come into play. With acid humor and a supremely light touch, The Friendly Young Ladies colors in an unseen dimension of the 1930s.
The Price of Salt: OR Carol
by Patricia HighsmithA chance encounter between two lonely women leads to a passionate romance in this lesbian cult classic. Therese, a struggling young sales clerk, and Carol, a homemaker in the midst of a bitter divorce, abandon their oppressive daily routines for the freedom of the open road, where their love can blossom. But their newly discovered bliss is shattered when Carol is forced to choose between her child and her lover.Author Patricia Highsmith is best known for her psychological thrillers Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Originally published in 1952 under a pseudonym, The Price of Salt was heralded as "the novel of a love society forbids." Highsmith's sensitive treatment of fully realized characters who defy stereotypes about homosexuality marks a departure from previous lesbian pulp fiction. Erotic, eloquent, and suspenseful, this story offers an honest look at the necessity of being true to one's nature. The book is also the basis of the acclaimed 2015 film Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
The Color of Summer: or The New Garden of Earthly Delights (Pentagonia)
by Thomas Colchie Andrew Hurley Reinaldo ArenasCritics worldwide have praised Reinaldo Arenas's writing. His extraordinary memoir, Before Night Falls, was named one of the fourteen "Best Books of 1993" by the editors of The New York Times Book Review and has now been made into a major motion picture.The Color of Summer, Arenas's finest comic achievement, is also the fulfillment of his life's work, the Pentagonía, a five-volume cycle of novels he began writing in his early twenties. Although it is the penultimate installment in his "secret history of Cuba," it was, in fact, the last book Arenas wrote before his death in 1990. A Rabelaisian tale of survival by wits and wit, The Color of Summer is ultimately a powerful and passionate story about the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of political and sexual repression.
The Little Less
by Angela Du MaurierThis is a novel about a lesbian relationship. The author is the sister of Daphne Du Maurier.
A Boy's Own Story: A Novel (Modern Library #47)
by Edmund White&“An extraordinary novel&” about growing up gay in the 1950s American Midwest (The New York Times Book Review). Critically lauded upon its initial publication in 1982 for its pioneering depiction of homosexuality, A Boy&’s Own Story is a moving tale about coming-of-age in midcentury America. With searing clarity and unabashed wit, Edmund White&’s unnamed protagonist yearns for what he knows to be shameful. He navigates an uneasy relationship with his father, confounds first loves, and faces disdain from his peers at school. In the embrace of another, he discovers the sincere and clumsy pleasures of adolescent sexuality. But for boys in the 1950s, these desires were unthinkable. Looking back on his experiences, the narrator notes, &“I see now that what I wanted was to be loved by men and to love them back but not to be a homosexual.&” From a winner of the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, this trailblazing autobiographical story of one boy&’s youth is a moving, tender, and heartbreaking portrait of what it means to grow up.
Where Nothing Sleeps: The Complete Short Stories and Other Related Works (Where Nothing Sleeps #1)
by Denton WelchThe first volume of Denton Welch's complete collected short works English novelist Denton Welch originally trained as a visual artist, and a painterly perspicacity and talent for human observation are evident in his writing. His close attention to detail renders even the most seemingly mundane trivialities memorable and important. Though he died at the young age of thirty-three, Welch was quite prolific, doing most of his writing while bedridden after a bicycling accident that left him seriously injured. He produced three novels, over seventy-five short stories, and a journal that ran over two hundred fifty thousand words long. Included in this volume are autobiographical works inspired by Welch's youth in China, such as "I Can Remember" and "The Coffin on the Hill." "I First Began to Write" is a brief vignette detailing Welch's early efforts as an author. These stories, fragments, and poems reveal a writer gifted with superb powers of description.
Fighting for Life
by S. Josephine Baker Helen EpsteinNew York's Lower East Side was said to be the most densely populated square mile on earth in the 1890s. Health inspectors called the neighborhood "the suicide ward." Diarrhea epidemics raged each summer, killing thousands of children. Sweatshop babies with smallpox and typhus dozed in garment heaps destined for fashionable shops. Desperate mothers paced the streets to soothe their feverish children and white mourning cloths hung from every building. A third of the children living there died before their fifth birthday.By 1911, the child death rate had fallen sharply and The New York Times hailed the city as the healthiest on earth. In this witty and highly personal autobiography, public health crusader Dr. S. Josephine Baker explains how this transformation was achieved. By the time she retired in 1923, Baker was famous worldwide for saving the lives of 90,000 children. The programs she developed, many still in use today, have saved the lives of millions more. She fought for women's suffrage, toured Russia in the 1930s, and captured "Typhoid" Mary Mallon, twice. She was also an astute observer of her times, and Fighting for Life is one of the most honest, compassionate memoirs of American medicine ever written.
Either is Love
by Elisabeth CraiginFirst published 1937. After the death of her husband, the narrator re-reads the letters she had written him about her earlier intense love affair with another woman. This beautifully written "memoir" is an almost unequaled treatment of a lesbian romance.
Encounter in April: Poems
by May SartonThe debut work of a literary legend May Sarton&’s career spanned sixty years and included novels, poetry, memoirs, and even children&’s books, but it was poetry that provided the world&’s first look at her wondrous talent. Encounter in April is a fitting starting point for readers wishing to familiarize themselves with one of the twentieth century&’s most lyrical and eloquent authors. In this anthology, Sarton describes womanhood devastatingly and unforgettably, deftly matching serene imagery with powerful emotion. Her sonnets are to be savored. Encounter in April is a thesis statement for a lengthy and profound career, and Sarton&’s talent is readily evident from the beginning.
What Stalks Among Us
by Sarah HollowellFrom Sarah Hollowell, author of A Dark and Starless Forest, comes a spine-tingling, deliriously creepy YA speculative thriller about two best friends trapped in a corn maze with corpses that look just like them. <p><p> Best friends and high school seniors Sadie and Logan make their first mistake when they ditch their end-of-year field trip to the amusement park in favor of exploring some old, forgotten backroads. The last thing they expect to come across is a giant, abandoned corn maze. <p><p> But with a whole day of playing hooking unspooling before them, they make their second mistake. Or perhaps their third? Maybe even their fourth. Because Sadie and Logan have definitely entered this maze before. And again before that. <p><p> When they stumble on the corpses in the maze, identical to them in every way (if you can ignore the stab and gunshot wounds)--from their clothes to their hidden scars to their dyed hair, to that one missing tooth--they quickly realize they’ve not only entered this maze before, they’ve died in it too. A lot. And no matter what they try, they can’t figure out what—or who—is hunting them. <p><p> Deeply unnerving, clever, and atmospheric, this time-bending, mind-bending speculative horror is a poignant meditation on the lasting effects of trauma and the healing powers of connection and forgiveness—all while delivering more surprise twists and turns than a haunted corn maze.
The Green Scamander
by Maude MeagherThe story of Penthesilea, noble and doomed last Queen of the Amazons.
Radcliffe: A Novel
by David StoreyMan Booker Prize-winning author David Storey takes us to a crumbling English town where a childhood friendship blossoms into obsessive love Leonard Radcliffe is the last heir to a proud family name that has nearly been forgotten. All that remains of the Radcliffe legacy is the Place: a ramshackle manor that once loomed over the countryside, but is now hemmed in by public housing and all but shaken apart by the trains that pass beneath it. At age 9, Leonard is shy, lonely, and too smart for his own good. When he becomes the target of school bullies, he is saved by the charming brute Vic Tolson, which marks the start of a friendship that will both define and destroy the two boys' lives. When Vic and Leonard meet again as adults, their dormant childhood friendship erupts into an irresistible physical passion. As the Place crumbles around them, Leonard and Vic pursue a love so powerful it can only end in death.
Nothing Ever Just Disappears: Seven Hidden Queer Histories
by Diarmuid HesterAn exploration of artistic freedom, survival, and the hidden places of the imagination, including James Baldwin in Provence, Josephine Baker in Paris, Kevin Killian in San Francisco, and E. M. Forster in Cambridge, among other groundbreaking queer artists of the twentieth century.Nothing Ever Just Disappears is radical new history of seven queer lives and the places that shaped these groundbreaking artists. At the turn of the century, in the shade of Cambridge's cloisters, a young E. M. Forster conceals his passion for other men, even as he daydreams about the sun-warmed bodies of ancient Greece. Under the dazzling lights of interwar Paris, Josephine Baker dances her way to fame and fortune and discovers sexual freedom backstage at the Folies Bergère. And on Jersey Island, in the darkest days of Nazi occupation, the transgressive surrealist Claude Cahun mounts an extraordinary resistance to save the island she loves, scattering hundreds of dissident artworks along its streets and shorelines. Nothing Ever Just Disappears brings to life the stories of seven remarkable figures and illuminates the connections between where they lived, who they loved, and the art they created. It shows that a queer sense of place is central to the history of the twentieth century and powerfully evokes how much is lost when queer spaces are forgotten. From the suffragettes in London and James Baldwin's home in Provence, to Kevin Killian's San Francisco and Derek Jarman&’s cottage in Kent, this is both a thrilling new literary history and a celebration of freedom, survival, and the hidden places of the imagination.
Las novelas de Claudine
by ColetteRecuperamos en un volumen las cuatro novelas de Claudine, el personaje de Colette que rompió todos los estereotipos y no ha dejado de fascinar a los lectores El presente volumen reúne las cuatro novelas que la genial Colette dedicó a su personaje quizá más icónico, la joven y desenfadada Claudine. Publicadas entre 1900 y 1903, Claudine en la escuela, Claudine en París, Claudine casada y Claudine se va fascinaron y escandalizaron a la sociedad de su tiempo, y desde entonces han tenido una enorme influencia en la literatura francesa e internacional, con ecos en obras como Lolita o Buenos días, tristeza, así como en incontables autoficciones. La historia comienza cuando la protagonista tiene quince años y se encuentra en el instituto, donde traba amistades a menudo ambiguas con distintas muchachas.Más tarde la vemos llegar a París y descubrir la vida de la metrópolis con toda la sensualidad de la belle époque. Al cabo, contrae matrimonio, pero la prevista felicidad conyugal se resquebraja cuando queda fascinada por la mujer de un amigo e inicia con ella una aventura homosexual que le abre nuevos horizontes. Reinvindicadas por el feminismo y precursoras de la literatura gay en una época en que ni siquiera existía esa categoría, las cuatro entregas de la serie siguen deleitando por su fabuloso manejo del lenguaje, su sentido del humor, sus retratos de época y su irrenunciable alegría de vivir. Sobre la autora y su obra:«Un gran escritor es también un escritor que crea mitos, que renueva nuestra mitología. Colette los creó, empezando por el de Claudine, la heroína traviesa de sus cuatro primeras novelas».Antoine Compagnon «La hedonista Colette exige a toda costa el derecho a la felicidad e impone su sensualidad desinhibida en las novelas de Claudine».Julia Kristeva«Una de las grandes escritoras francesas del siglo XX».The New York Times Book Review
Orlando: A Biography (El Libro De Bolsillo Alianza Editorial Ser. #Vol. 0735)
by Virginia WoolfOrlando is one of the most unforgettable creations of twentieth-century literature. He emerges as a young man at the court of Queen Elizabeth I and progresses, with breathtaking ease, through three centuries until, by now a woman, she arrives in the bustle and diversion of the 1920s. for Virginia Woolf, a leading figure of the Bloomsbury Group, Orlando was more than a fantastic flight of imagination. It was a roman à clef, a love letter for her lover, the charismatic, eccentric bisexual, Vita Sackville West. Orlando's journey, from wondrous youth barbed by love, to fêted writer, settled in her femininity, is a wild and curiously relevant fable for our times.
Orlando
by Virginia WoolfVirginia Woolf's most unusual and fantastic creation, a funny, exuberant tale that examines the very nature of sexuality. WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY PETER ACKROYD AND MARGARET REYNOLDS As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman whose days are spent in rowdy revelry, filled with the colourful delights of Queen Elizabeth's court. By the close, he will have transformed into a modern, thirty-six-year-old woman and three centuries will have passed. Orlando will not only witness the making of history from its edge, but will find that his unique position as a woman who knows what it is to be a man will give him insight into matters of the heart. The Vintage Classics Virginia Woolf series has been curated by Jeanette Winterson and Margaret Reynolds, and the texts used are based on the original Hogarth Press editions published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. **One of the BBC’s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World**
The Well of Loneliness
by Radclyffe HallFirst published in 1928, this timeless portrayal of lesbian love is now a classic. The thinly disguised story of Hall's own life, it was banned outright upon publication and almost ruined her literary career.
In My Father's Arms: A Son's Story of Sexual Abuse
by Walter A. DemillyTo the outside world, Walter de Milly’s father was a prominent businessman, a dignified Presbyterian, and a faithful husband; to Walter, he was an overwhelming, handsome monster. This paperback of In My Father’s Arms: A True Story of Incest adds a reflective preface by the author and a foreword by Richard B. Gartner, PhD, author of Beyond Betrayal: Taking Charge of Your Life after Boyhood Sexual Abuse.
Diary of a Sex Addict
by Scott Alexander HessWitty, dark and explosively carnal, Diary of a Sex Addict chronicles a gay New Yorker’s month-long descent into a circus of anonymous hook-ups as he struggles to erase the pain of a failed romance and blot out the routine of a soul-numbing day job. Bizarre gang-bangs and fleeting attempts at celibacy are interspersed with visits to his wealthy and eccentric dowager aunt, visits which awaken lost memories of a chaotic youth.Written in prose that is at once poetic and unabashedly lewd, the novel offers a glimpse into a forbidden fringe world of longing and debauchery that ultimately reveals the narrator’s fervent search for something to fill a profound emptiness.Inspired by the transgressive works of the Marquis de Sade, Dennis Cooper and Bret Easton Ellis, Diary of a Sex Addict blends wry humor, elegant language and graphic sex to offer a novel that is “relentlessly erotic and divinely written” (Richard Labonte, Bookmarks).
Big Gay Wedding: A Novel
by Byron LaneNamed one of Shondaland and Town & Country's Best Books of May • Named one of Lambda Literary's Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Books • Named one of Cosmopolitan's Best Books of 2023 (So Far)An unashamedly proud, loud, and hilarious novel about a small town that’s forever changed by a big gay wedding, perfect for fans of Red, White & Royal Blue and The GuncleTwo grooms. One mother of a problem.Barnett Durang has a secret. No, not THAT secret. His widowed mother has long known he’s gay. The secret is Barnett is getting married. At his mother’s farm. In their small Louisiana town. She just doesn’t know it yet.It’ll be an intimate affair. Just two hundred or so of the most fabulous folks Barnett is shipping in from the “heathen coasts,” as Mom likes to call them, turning her quiet rescue farm for misfit animals into a most unlikely wedding venue.But there are forces, both within this modern new family and in the town itself, that really don’t want to see this handsome couple march down the aisle. It’ll be the biggest, gayest event in the town’s history if they can pull it off, and after a glitter-filled week, nothing will ever be the same. Big Gay Wedding is an uplifting book about the power of family and the unconditional love of a mother for her son.