24/08/2023
With thanks to Queer Lit in Manchester, Paned O Ge in Cardiff and Gay's The Word Bookstore in London - AND REMEMBER to support LGBTQIA and independent bookstores where you can.
Number TEN
After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
£9.99
Sarah Bernhard - Colette - Eleanora Duse - Lina Poletti - Josephine Baker - Virginia Woolf... these are just a few of the women (some famous, others hitherto unsung) sharing the pages of a novel as fierce as it is luminous. Lush and poetic; furious and funny; in After Sappho, Selby Wynn Schwartz has created a novel that celebrates the women and trailblazers of the past and also offers hope for our present, and our futures. Told in a series of cascading vignettes, featuring a multitude of voices, After Sappho is Selby Wynn Schwartz's joyous reimagining of the lives of a brilliant group of feminists, sapphists, artists and writers in the late 19th and early 20th century as they battle for control over their lives; for liberation and for justice.
Number NINE
Tales from Beyond the Rainbow by Pete Jordi Wood
£11.99
Ten captivating stories of adventure and resilience celebrating LGBTQ+ characters, published as an illustrated collection of queer classics for the first time. These are the fairy tales that history forgot - or concealed. Tales in which gender is fluid and where queer stories can have a happy ending. From the humble sailor who finds his handsome prince to the transgender market girl who becomes queen, from Europe to Asia via the African savannah, LGBTQ+ folklore researcher Pete Jordi Wood has combed through generations of history and adapted ten unforgettable stories, each illustrated by an artist who shares heritage with the culture from which the stories were born.
Number EIGHT
Radical Love by Neil Blackmore
£16.99
Welcome to England, 1809. London is a violent, intolerant city, exhausted by years of war, beset by soaring prices and political tensions. By day, John Church preaches on the radical possibilities of love to a multicultural, working-class congregation in Southwark. But by night, he crosses the river to the secret and glamorous world of a gay molly house on Vere Street, where ordinary men reinvent themselves as funny, flirtatious drag queens and rent boys cavort with labourers and princes alike. There, Church becomes the first minister to offer marriages between men, at enormous risk. Everything changes when Church meets the unworldly and free-thinking Ned, part of a group of African activist abolitionists who attend his chapel. The two bond over their broken childhoods, and Church falls obsessively in love with Ned's tender nature. In a fragile, colourful secret world under threat, Church's love for Ned takes him to the edge of reason. Based on the incredible true story of one of the most important events in queer history, Radical Love is a sensuous and prescient story about gender and sexuality, and how the most vulnerable survive in dangerous times.
Number SEVEN
Supporting Trans People Of Colour
Sabah Choudrey
£17.00
Providing an accessible and authoritative introduction to issues around People of Colour (POC) trans inclusion, this book uses case studies, tips, checklists and anonymous survey results to set out best practice for any professionals working with trans people to create safer spaces, support and awareness. Trans people of colour are often excluded because gender and race are treated as separate issues. They are therefore left out from movements and services and in trans and non-binary spaces, their POC identities are overlooked. Choudrey's guide introduces the theory of intersectionality from the start, giving practical tips and steps to ensure that the community as a whole may be represented and creates a safer space for trans people of colour to thrive. An empowering and self-preserving tool, Supporting Trans People of Colour is an invaluable resource for therapists, counsellors, healthcare professionals, and those working in education and charities, as well as those wanting to make their approach and service more inclusive.
Number SIX
Deep Sniff
Adam Zmith
£11.00
This is the intriguing story of how poppers wafted out of the lab and into gay bars, corner shops, bedrooms and porn super cuts. Blending historical research with wry observation, Adam Zmith explores the cultural forces and improbable connections behind the power of poppers. What emerges is not just a history of pub raids, viral panics and pecs the size of dinner plates. It is a collection of fresh and provocative ideas about identity, sex, utopia, capitalism, law, freedom and the bodies that we use to experience the world. In Deep Sniff, what starts as a thoughtful inquiry into poppers becomes a manifesto for pleasure.
Number FIVE
Bi : Notes For A Bisexual Revolution
Shiri Eisner
£18.00
Depicted as duplicitous, traitorous, and promiscuous, bisexuality has long been suspected, marginalized, and rejected by both straight and gay communities alike. Bi takes a long overdue, comprehensive look at bisexual politics- from the issues surrounding biphobia/monosexism, feminism, and transgenderism to the practice of labelling those who identify as bi as either too bisexual" (promiscuous and incapable of fidelity) or not bisexual enough" (not actively engaging romantically or sexually with people of at least two different genders). In this forward-thinking and eye-opening book, feminist bisexual and genderqueer activist Shiri Eisner takes readers on a journey through the many aspects of the meanings and politics of bisexuality, specifically highlighting how bisexuality can open up new and exciting ways of challenging social convention. Informed by feminist, transgender, and queer theory, as well as politics and activism, Bi is a radical manifesto for a group that has been too frequently silenced, erased, and denied- and a starting point from which to launch a bisexual revolution.
Number FOUR
After the Revolution by Robert Evans
(AK Press, £16.00)
A chronicle of serendipitous alliances in a dystopia that's right around the corner.
What will the fracturing of the United States look like? After the Revolution is an edge-of-your-seat answer to that question. In the year 2070, twenty years after a civil war and societal collapse of the "old" United States, extremist militias battle in the crumbling Republic of Texas. As the violence spreads like wildfire and threatens the Free City of Austin, three unlikely allies will have to work together in an act of resistance to stop the advance of the forces of the Christian ethnostate known as the "Heavenly Kingdom." Our three protagonists include Manny, a fixer that shuttles journalists in and out of war zones and provides footage for outside news agencies. Sasha is a teenage woman that joins the Heavenly Kingdom before she discovers the ugly truths behind their movement. Finally, we have Roland: A US Army vet kitted out with cyberware (including blood that heals major trauma wounds and a brain that can handle enough LSD to kill an elephant), tormented by broken memories, and 12,000 career kills under his belt. In the not-so-distant world Evans conjures we find advanced technology, a gender expansive culture, and a roving Burning Man-like city fuelled by hedonistic excess. This powerful debut novel from Robert Evans is based on his investigative reporting from international conflict zones and on increasingly polarized domestic struggles. It is a vision of our very possible future.
"A world as deep as The Expanse, yet a story so close to home."
—Chelsea Manning
Number THREE
Why Sinead O'Connor Matters
by Allyson McCabe - £21.99 University of Texas Press (2023)
Top seller at News from Nowhere Books in Liverpool
In 1990, Sinéad O’Connor’s video for “Nothing Compares 2 U” turned her into a superstar. Two years later, an appearance on Saturday Night Live turned her into a scandal. For many people—including, for years, the author—what they knew of O’Connor stopped there. Allyson McCabe believes it’s time to reassess our old judgments about Sinéad O’Connor and to expose the machinery that built her up and knocked her down. Addressing triumph and struggle, sound and story, Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters argues that its subject has been repeatedly manipulated and misunderstood by a culture that is often hostile to women who speak their minds (in O’Connor’s case, by shaving her head, championing rappers, and tearing up a picture of the pope on live television). McCabe details O’Connor’s childhood abuse, her initial success, and the backlash against her radical politics without shying away from the difficult issues her career raises. She compares O’Connor to Madonna, another superstar who challenged the Catholic Church.
Number TWO
Paul Takes The Form Of A Mortal Girl
by Andrea Lawlor - £8.99 Pan Macmillan (2020)
It’s 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a lesbian best friend, makes zines, and is a flâneur with a rich dating life. But Paul’s also got a secret: he’s a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Women’s Studies major to trade, Paul transforms his body at will in a series of adventures that take him from Iowa City to Boystown to Provincetown and finally to San Francisco – a journey through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.
Andrea Lawlor’s debut novel offers a speculative history of early 90s identity politics during the heyday of ACT UP and Queer Nation. Paul Takes the Form of A Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.
AND NUMBER ONE!
It's Always Been Ours: Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies
by Jessica Wilson - £14.99 Hay House UK Ltd (2023)
For too long Black women have been left out of discussions about body image, food, health and wellness. By bringing the bodies of Black women centre stage, eating disorder specialist Jessica Wilson asks us to reimagine the ways we think about, discuss and tend to our bodies. This book is a call for body liberation now. It’s Always Been Ours pushes back against some of the unhealthy ideals within the wellness movement. Seamlessly blending stories of clients, friends and celebrities, Jessica reveals how a fixation on thin, white women by TERFy white fake feminists negatively impacts how Black women exist within our bodies and harms all women. Jessica urges us to reject a diet culture that disproportionately harms Black women. She offers, instead, a politics of body liberation that prioritizes Black women’s physical and psychological needs. With just the right mix of wit, levity and wisdom, Jessica shows us how a radical reimagining of body narratives is a prerequisite to wellbeing for everyone.
Please remember to support your independent, co-operative and radical bookstores. For a full list, visit the website of the ALLIANCE OF RADICAL BOOKSELLERS.
