Four books that are great gifts

I thought I’d use the holiday season as an excuse to plug several books that I have read and enjoyed. I thought they might appeal to you (nothing like giving yourself a holiday gift or two) or someone you care about.

The books cover a wide range of subject matter and are written by gay authors.

Cover photo by Richard Corman. Book design by Anthony Coombs.

Madonna fans were treated to her Rebel Heart Tour this fall. The tour starts up again after the holidays in early January initially in Mexico City before coming back to the US.  For those who can’t get enough of the Pop Music Icon, boy culture blogger, Matthew Rettenmund’s, new book,  Encyclopedia Madonnica 20, might be something you’d like to purchase. Encyclopedia Madonnica 20 now available at Amazon.com.

For those who prefer non-fiction, I would strongly recommend Michelangelo Signorile’s latest book, It’s Not Over, which is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and is currently on sale everywhere.

Signorile’s  book is a wake up call of sorts. He warns the LGBT community not to take for granted the amazing progress we’ve made by assuming equality is inevitable. He makes a persuasive argument pointing to how the conservative movement is reorganizing and how groups the LGBT community often view as allies are sometimes without even realizing it becoming complacent and as he puts it “become a roadblock to progress.” Definitely worth the read if social justice and politics are your thing.

One of my favorite bloggers, Kenneth Walsh released a memoir last year called, Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful?  Gay men who grew up before the dawn of the Internet will likely find themselves relating to his memoir. The novel reminisces about the life of a gay Midwestern teenager coming of age in the 1980s and 1990s before the advent of  the Internet, mobile phones and apps.

My friend and neighbor, Russ Lopez, released a new book some of you may be interested in reading, Boston’s South End: The Clash of Ideas in a Historic Neighborhood.

This is the first book written about the history of the South End neighborhood – where I call home – in more than 100 years and it covers the neighborhood from the time of the retreat of the glaciers and the coming of the first people to the region to the explosion of development since 2000. I recently finished the book and loved every page.  I learned a lot about the history of the neighborhood and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this part of Boston. You can order Russ’ book online at South End Bookstore.