"[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

National Book Award Finalist

"Life on the Outside is a powerful indictment of mandatory minimums, but the book isn't just about the way New York locks people up. It's also about what happens to the people who are left behind when somebody gets incarcerated, and what happens to prisoners once they get home. A book-length examination of this subject was long overdue . . . Gonnerman's compelling and moving account is a call to arms for further reform. At the same time, however, by virtue of the thoroughness and honesty of Gonnerman's reporting, Life on the Outside also points up the limitations of the criminal justice reform movement . . . [This book helps us] understand that mass incarceration, that incredibly ambitious enterprise at which this country has excelled far beyond any other, is not part of the solution . . . Life on the Outside is a masterpiece."—Nate Blakeslee, The Texas Observer

"A volume that intersperses short poems and prose selections written by teens of color from all over the country . . . The writers speak about the issues that matter most to teens (self-image, family, sex, love, abuse, pride, education, courage, race, and beauty), and Jacob's voice in her general introduction is clear and completely her own—direct, insightful, angry, and alternately adolescent and adult."—Booklist