The books that get by far the most attention from the readers of this site are the host of offbeat biographies/memoirs of non-mainstream celebrities with unusual backgrounds and the one true crime thriller reviewed to date (She Wanted It All: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and a Texas Millionaire
Those of you that are up on your Marxist and Communist Party in America history are, no doubt, familiar with the Aptheker name. Bettina’s father was the late (deceased 2003) Herbert Aptheker, Marxist historian and political activist who was blacklisted during McCarthyism in the 1950s due to his outspoken affiliation with the Communist Party. Herbert was also well known for his works on African American history.
Daughter Bettina tells a startling tale. It begins, not with being raised in a free thinking household that supported Marxism and communist ideals though it does get there. Instead, she opens with sexual abuse suffered at the hands of her famous father that, at the time of 1st publication in 2006, caused quite an uproar among historians who worked hard to dispute her memories and to cast doubt on her. She would later be vindicated by journalist who interviewed her life partner (now spouse?) Kate Miller who was present at the time of her fathers 1999 confession.
The rest of the synopsis of her story is best told by the publisher:
At eight years old, Bettina Aptheker watched her family’s politics play out in countless living rooms across the country when her father, historian and U.S. Communist Party leader Herbert Aptheker, testified on television in front of the House on Un-American Activities Committee in 1953. Born into one of the most influential U.S. Communist families whose friends included W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Bettina lived her parents’ politics witnessing first-hand one of the most dramatic upheavals in American history. She also lived with a terrible secret: incest at the hands of her famous father and a frightening and lonely life lived inside a home wrought with family tensions.
A gripping and beautifully rendered memoir, Intimate Politics is at its core the story of one woman’s struggle to still the demons of her personal world while becoming a controversial public figure herself. This is the story of childhood sexual abuse, abortion, sexual violence, activism, and the triumph over one’s past. It’s about FBI harassment and persecution, Jewish heritage, and lesbian identity. It is, finally, about the courage to speak one’s truth despite the consequences and to break the sacred silence of family secrets.
Bettina Aptheker still teaches feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She’s a respected and well liked professor.
series of books, Mark A. Roeder, has quite a following among the queer teen to early 20′s something set – both gay and lesbian. Interestingly, he also has a strong – if not stronger – following among the gay male set between 30 and 60! No, there are no pedophile connotations there…get your mind out of the gutter, please. His books and story lines have appeal over such a wide range of ages because in Mark’s characters many of these men, and boys who would be men, see themselves.
, ”Mark” and “Taylor”, he admits portray a lot of his own background, personality and traits. Characters in his other books in the Gay Youth Chronicles series (24!) do as well. Too, his stories are set primarily in small town Indiana in the made up town of Verona. Mark grew up in a similar small town in southern Indiana (which he has since returned to) and he spent some time in a like area in northern Indiana.
. 
which features two gay teens in a battle with a televangelist over gay youth centers, And the mystery/suspense/thriller themed books like 
, 
and 
among a few others.
which has a gay teen romance theme that features the school outcast and the popular, “has it all” captain of the football team. Mark Roeder promises more books soon.
, author Audrey Borden chronicles the full history of gays in AA, oftentimes in the voices of the participants themselves. Borden interviewed more than 30 influential LGBT AA graduates. Interestingly, this book covers not only what AA did for gays, but what gays did for AA. It’s a great story.
by Will Fellows. Seriously! The first line of the book description caught my attention right away:
. I was in the Army, stationed down at Ft. Gordon in Georgia. I saw the movie the way most people see it the first time and the way everyone should see it at least once in their lives, in a theater, at midnight, with faithful devotees.
and pay attention during the well defined audience participation points during the feature. It will save you a bit of ridicule from your more worldly friends when you do go and see it in a theater!
, published by Freedom Editions. Shockingly, it’s been out since 1998! Why, oh why have I never run across it before?
and her 2007 follow-up to that, 
.
. It’s an accounting of how they met, how they came to live in the mountains of eastern Georgia, how they came out as lesbians – eventually – to the “town”, such as it is, and how they came to farm, carve and sell gourds for a satisfying, fulfilling living.
, the first novel for author Kergan Edwards-Stout, is set to the soundtrack of the Bette Midler album it takes its name from. The book is loosely based on the life story of his now deceased former life partner Shane Michael Sawick and an obvious passion for the music that moved a generation of gay men.
by Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle.
. Today’s book is, as the title of this post says, 
.
” starring Kenneth Nelson and Peter White. The 1970 movie was based on the 1960s hit off-Broadway play by Mart Crowley titled, you guessed it, “
, which is about the making of the movie version of 
) and it stars a cast of many in commentary including: Edward Albee, Mart Crowley, Dominick Dunne, William Friedkin (the director of the original movie), Carson Kressley (
), Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, and Robert Wagner (multitudes of movie and TV credits) among others.
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