A Finalist for the Northern California Book Award

"Ali explores cultural conditions with sensitivity, and mercifully does not over-exoticise. Her story is intriguing . . . She is one of a rare breed of writers who take us into the closed world behind a Muslim woman's veil . . . Carefully crafted [and] eminently readable."—Mitali Saran, Far Eastern Economic Review

"This book goes to a place where few, if any, of its predecessors have gone before. . . [This is] a deeply feminist novel with richly drawn and complicated characters."—Ms.

"A scholarly, exhaustive, and utterly convincing refutation of the notion that human homosexuality is an aberration in nature . . . Bagemihl does realize that some among us will never be convinced that homosexuality occurs freely and frequently in nature. But his meticulously gathered, congently delivered evidence will quash any arguments to the contrary."—Kirkus Reviews

"I read through this book saying again and again, 'How did I miss this?' 'How did I manage not to know about this?'—a sign that Michael Bronski has done a necessary job and done it well. Rarely is a book so educational also such a delight. By leaving the hallowed precincts of the 'literary,' Bronski lends a continuity heretofore lacking in many of our pictures of the development of gay fiction from World War II on."—Samuel R. Delany, author of Times Square Red, Times Square Blue and The Motion of Light in Water

Riveting . . . not only the definitive examination of the riots but an absorbing history of pre-Stonewall America, and how the oppression and pent-up rage of those years finally ignited on a hot New York night."—The Boston Globe

"Fone [writes] in exquisite detail with a masterful command of history, a balanced interpretation of contradictory documents, and an explosive set of assertions that fly against the conventional view of not just homophobes but of gay people themselves."—Michael Alvear, Salon

"[This book is] almost as engaging as the times it so energetically resurrects. Filled with interviews from Sylvester's friends, family, fellow musicians, and admirers, Gamson's account vibrantly reconstructs pre-AIDS San Francisco—the baths and bars, the dizzying sense of personal freedom, and the tragedies that followed when the drugs-and-disco-fueled bacchanal came crashing down . . . Gamson efficiently weaves, among what sometimes seems a never-ending party along Castro Street, the serious issues San Francisco also grappled with, including antigay crusades and the shocking assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk. Of course, as the book reaches its later chapters, the shadow of AIDS grows more ominous. Complications from the disease would claim Sylvester in 1988. Yet, this isn't a dour book, and Gamson's descriptions of places and people crackle with humor and zest."—Renée Graham, The Boston Globe

Pulitzer Prize Finalist

"Mr. Greenberg brings his gymnastic verbal skills to bear on the subject of the all-American pastime . . . An enchanting and enchanted take on baseball . . . [It is] the story of Darren Lemming, a god among baseball players and the star of a team called the Empires, who sets off a complicated chain of ultimately tragic events when he publicly announces that he is gay. This allows Mr. Greenberg to consider . . . big, big subjects like sexual and racial prejudice, moral responsibility, public versus personal identities and the inability of people to ever truly know one another."—Ben Brantley, The New York Times

"JT LeRoy's deft and imaginative first novel is astonishingly confident. His language is always fresh, his soul never corrupt [and] turns the tawdriness of hustling into a world of lyrical and grotesque beauty."—Catherine Texier, The New York Times Book Review