Collection: Adult

'l learned everything I know from television, and you can learn everything I know from this book' - RuPaul 

 

'ScreenAge is a must-read. We FINALLY have a book that recognizes the profound and positive impact television has had on all our lives.' - Michelle Visage

 

A riotous tale of pop culture, backstage drama and showbiz gossip from co-producer of RuPaul's Drag Race and award-winning director Fenton Bailey

 

World of Wonder is the iconic Hollywood-based production company behindRuPaul's Drag Race as well as other ballsy originals includingThe Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster, Inside Deep Throat and Monica in Black and White.
The production company, founded in 1991 by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, has been making must-see television for three decades, giving a voice tomarginalized communities and society's oddballs, all while entertaining audiences with its signature anarchic sense of humor.
Written by co-founder and Emmy award-winning filmmaker Fenton Bailey, this book tracks World of Wonder's triumphs and struggles, from the pair's humble beginnings as aspiring pop stars in '80s New York to managing 'Supermodel of the World' RuPaul.
Packed full of insider gossip featuring a star-studded litany of LGBTQ+ icons such as James St James, Pete Burns, Cher and Britney, this book reveals how Fenton and Randy helped to pioneer the revolutionary genre of reality TV and find success in an ever-changing media landscape.

 

A must-read for Drag Race die-hards as well as fans of pop culture and reality TV.

A sharp and scintillating summer novel that will make readers laugh out loud and cry happy tears from the New York Times bestselling author of Yours Truly.

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other's out, and they'll both go on to find the love of their lives. It's a bonkers idea... and it just might work.

Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected--including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

Things heat up on and off the court for two tennis rivals in this steamy debut gay sports rom-com, perfect for fans of TJ Alexander and Casey McQuiston.

American tennis star Leo Chambers is determined to win the US Open by thirty, the age when many players feel retirement looming. He's just a year away from that dreaded birthday, but he can't find his focus--considering he hasn't told anyone he's gay, he's clashing with his strict coach (who also happens to be his dad), and he still can't figure out how to beat his longtime nemesis on tour, Gabe Montoya, who, well, hits different. Gabe is playing better than ever, and Leo can't seem to escape him--and maybe he doesn't want to escape him.

Leo's other obstacle is Sascha Volkov, a Russian legend who has such a powerful influence on the tennis world, he would destroy Leo's career if he found out that he's gay.

No distractions, Leo reminds himself. But when Gabe makes a shocking announcement, Leo is thrown off his game--in more ways than one. Ready? Play.

Thirty Love is a must-read for fans of queer sports romances.

Undimmed is a revolutionary guide to help you break free from the habits that dim your life.

When Cecily Mak decided to take a break from drinking, the most common response she got was "Oh, I didn't know you had a problem." A problem? She was not an addict, or even committing to sobriety. She had simply realized that alcohol helped her avoid difficult feelings--but that it dimmed the good parts of her life along with the bad. She wanted to live her life with clarity, not avoid it.

Many of us are taught to believe that escapist and addictive behaviors are fine as long as they are not "problems" or wholesale addictions. But this binary mindset robs us of a more present life and our ability to make changes before the behavior becomes an unshakeable habit. What you use to dim your life may not be a substance--it might even be something healthy, like exercise, food, or work. And every dimmer exists on a spectrum from use, to heavy use, to potential abuse or worse. It's not about what you do, but how and why you do it. While leaving her unwanted habits behind, Mak developed the Eight Awarenesses--a set of principles we can use for inspiration and guidance on the path to embodying a clear life. Each one serves as an invitation to explore a deeper understanding of ourselves and our choices, and the empowerment that comes with choosing to live a life undimmed.

Undimmed is an invitation to choose freedom from the habits that dim our lives and to embrace the full spectrum of experiences that life has to offer.

Journalist Marguerite Holloway arrives at the Women's Tree Climbing Workshop as a climbing novice, but with a passion for trees and a deep concern about their future. Run by twin sister tree doctors Bear LeVangie and Melissa LeVangie Ingersoll, the workshop helps people--from everyday tree lovers to women arborists working in a largely male industry--develop impressive technical skills and ascend into the canopy. As Holloway tackles unfamiliar equipment and dizzying heights, she learns about the science of trees and tells the stories of charismatic species, including hemlock, aspen, Atlantic white cedar, oak, and beech. She spotlights experts who are chronicling the great dying that is underway in forests around the world as trees face simultaneous and accelerating threats from drought, heat, floods, disease, and other disruptions.

As she climbs, Holloway also comes to understand the profound significance of trees in her relationship with her late mother and brother. The book's rousing final chapter offers something new: a grander environmental and arboreal optimism, in which the story of trees and their resilience meshes with that of people working to steward the forests of the future, and of community found among fellow tree climbers. A lyrical work of memoir and reportage, Take to the Trees sounds the alarm about rapid arboreal decline while also offering hope about how we might care for our forests and ourselves.

The New York Times bestselling author of Ottolenghi Flavor reimagines comfort food with over 100 global, personal recipes.

Yotam Ottolenghi--the beloved chef who has captured the hearts of homecooks looking for inspiration and great-tasting cooking--is back. In Ottolenghi Comfort, he brings his inspiring, flavor-forward cooking to comfort dishes.

With game-changing low-lift recipes as well as recipes to spend an afternoon on, Ottolenghi Comfort presents creative dishes that are comfortable to both cook and eat. In more than 100 recipes, Ottolenghi--and co-authors Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller, and Tara Wigley--bring together childhood memories and travels around the world, celebrating food and friends and the connections they build together, ones to pass on from generation to generation.

For Ottolenghi, a bowl of pasta becomes Caramelized Onion Orecchiette with Hazelnuts & Crispy Sage, a warming soup is Cheesy Bread Soup with Savoy Cabbage & Cavolo Nero, and potatoes are transformed into Garlicky Aligot Potato with Leeks & Thyme. In Comfort, he tackles everything from crepes to hummus; lamb meatloaf to quick ramen; savory rugelah to chocolate mousse.

This is a book filled with meals that are easy and exciting, familiar and fresh, new and nostalgic, revelatory yet reassuring.

Questions linger about Theo, a pleasant but mysterious stranger, after his arrival in the southern city of Golden.

Who is he, and why is he here?

He arrives early one spring and by chance - or is it? - he visits a coffee shop where 92 framed pencil portraits are on display. Inspired, Theo sets out on a mission of purchasing all the portraits one at a time and quietly bestowing them on their 'rightful owners.'

Stories are told; friendships are born; and lives are changed.

Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted story about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the far-reaching possibilities of anonymous kindness.

Angels Before Man: Revised and Extended

A Queer Retelling of Satan's Fall

In an eternal paradise, the most beautiful angel, Lucifer, struggles with shame, identity, and timidity, with little more than the desire to worship his creator.

It isn't until the strongest angel, Michael, comes into his life that Lucifer learns to love himself. Along the way, their friendship begins to bloom into something else. Maybe the first romance in the history of everything.

But this God is a jealous one, and maybe paradise is not paradise.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER - NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - In this beautifully written masterwork, the Pulitzer Prize-winnner and bestselling author of Caste chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.

"Profound, necessary and an absolute delight to read." --Toni Morrison

From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.

With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an "unrecognized immigration" within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.

PORCHLIGHT BESTSELLER
Zibby Owens 2022 Book of the Year

A galvanizing, stirring memoir about growing up homeless and in foster care and rising to become a leading advocate for child welfare, recognized by President Obama as an American Champion of Change. "You will fall in love with David Ambroz, his beautifully-told, gut-wrenching story, and his great big heart." (Jeanette Walls, author of The Glass Castle)

"It's impossible to read A Place Called Home and not want to redouble your efforts to fight the systems of poverty that have plagued America for far too long. In this book, David shares his deeply personal story and issues a rousing call to make this a more humane and compassionate nation."--HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

There are millions of homeless children in America today and in A Place Called Home, award-winning child welfare advocate David Ambroz writes about growing up homeless in New York for eleven years and his subsequent years in foster care, offering a window into what so many kids living in poverty experience every day.

When David and his siblings should be in elementary school, they are instead walking the streets seeking shelter while their mother is battling mental illness. They rest in train stations, 24-hour diners, anywhere that's warm and dry; they bathe in public restrooms and steal food to quell their hunger. When David is placed in foster care, at first it feels like salvation but soon proves to be just as unsafe. He's moved from home to home and, in all but one placement, he's abused. His burgeoning homosexuality makes him an easy target for other's cruelty.

David finds hope and opportunities in libraries, schools, and the occasional kind-hearted adult; he harnesses an inner grit to escape the all-too-familiar outcome for a kid like him. Through hard work and unwavering resolve, he is able to get a scholarship to Vassar College, his first significant step out of poverty. He later graduates from UCLA Law with a vision of using his degree to change the laws that affect children in poverty.

Told with lyricism and sparkling with warmth, A Place Called Home depicts childhood poverty and homelessness as it is experienced by so many young people who have been systematically overlooked and unprotected. It's at once a gripping personal account of deprivation--how one boy survived it, and ultimately thrived--and a resounding call for readers to move from empathy to action.

A memoir of sex, angst, and rocks, Turn to Stone chronicles one woman's ascent--on walls of stone and within herself--as she faces her demons and finds freedom and power in the raw and wild adventure of rock climbing.

Down on the ground, it was hard to connect, hard to attach, hard to untangle, hard to let go. But up here, I understood. Up here, I could make it good.

Broken by an abusive relationship, Emily Meg Weinstein impulsively tries rock climbing on a California road trip, following strangers into the vertical world. Soon, she is consumed by her addiction to the freedom she feels when she's up on the wall. Holding on to the rocks, she is free from societal constraints and expectations, free from her own sorrows and longings.

Raw and dark, but also funny, Weinstein describes the steep learning curve of becoming a climber, spending weeks at a time sleeping in the back of her Subaru, and a long, dark night stuck on top of a mountain. As she ascends, Weinstein faces her demons, finding power and grace in risk and adventure. Like Cheryl Strayed's Wild, but in the vertical, or William Finnegan's Barbarian Days, if lived by a Jewish woman from Long Island, Turn to Stone tells the story of a journey into nature that becomes a crucible of self-discovery.

Against a tapestry of van-dwellers, anarchists, and Jedi-like Stonemasters, Weinstein explores a world where each leap of faith is an existential lesson. From living on the edge, stepping into the unknown, and falling through thin air, Emily learns to forgive her own failures, heal her deepest wounds, and find courage in the face of fear. Throwing herself at walls of stone, she learns what it means to be human. Fitting her body into the rocks' broken places, she makes herself whole.

A richly illustrated history of the glittering world of queer artistic life in the 1920s and '30s

In Queer Moderns, Alice Friedman tells the fascinating story of the queer avant-garde of the 1920s and '30s in New York, Paris, and Venice, as seen through the eyes of Max Ewing (1903-1934), a young musician, photographer, and man-about-town who, although virtually unknown today, moved in extraordinary circles. In his photographs and letters, we meet the rising stars of modern art, music, dance, and literature and enter a world of interracial friendship, "queer space," and experimentation that shone brightly before being swept away by the Depression. It is a remarkable story that reveals that the history of modernism is more queer and more Black than previously recognized.

In the 1920s, Ewing became part of an international coterie of artists led by Carl Van Vechten and Muriel Draper. In Europe, he was entertained by Gertrude Stein, met Stravinsky, and took a road trip with Romaine Brooks and Natalie Barney. In 1928, in a closet in his apartment, Ewing created the Gallery of Extraordinary Portraits, an installation of photos of his favorite celebrities--Black and white, clothed and nude. For his Carnival of Venice, he took portraits of more than a hundred friends--including Paul Robeson, Berenice Abbott, Isamu Noguchi, Agnes de Mille, and E. E. Cummings--posed in front of a backdrop of Saint Mark's Square.

Like a character from a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ewing joined the party and then died tragically, unable to accept the end of his era or the lost dream of a new way of living. His story sheds new light on modernism and an artistic milieu that was ahead of its time.

GMA BUZZ PICK - INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER AND AWARD WINNER - A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during World War I - "Will live in your mind long after you've closed the final pages." --Maggie O'Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait

A Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR

"In Memoriam is the story of a great tragedy, but it is also a moving portrait of young love, and there is often a lightness to the book."--The New York Times

It's 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting.

Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle--an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood--without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt's family asks him to enlist to forestall the anti-German sentiment they face, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt's horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will be next.

An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.

Let go of negativity, rediscover your inherent worth, and unlock your true potential

How To Breathe While Suffocating is your antidote to the all-too-common tendency to surrender, giving up on your life's ambitions. You don't have to give up! For anyone who has gotten caught in the trap of "I can't do it," this book reminds you that you are enough, you possess value, and your unique ability to engage with the world can and will get you to where you want to be. Through simple positive affirmations, unflinching first-person stories, and insightful analysis, author Bruce Brackett helps you focus on the positive and keep moving forward.

Society today is experiencing a hidden pandemic of loneliness, disconnection, and resistance to recovery. After the life-altering shutdowns of COVID-19, many of us have simply remained in shutdown mode. This book uses universal concepts, expressed through engaging narrative, to help you grapple with issues like gender identity, mental health, isolation, disconnection, and the overwhelming sense of negativity for our collective future. By the end, you'll learn to turn it around and get back to the business of living. The message of How to Breathe When Suffocating is simple--spread love, inhabit joy, and embrace the power of positivity.

- Gain the inspiration you need to seize your potential, find confidence, and step into your authentic self

- Change your outlook on life with simple slogans and mantras for developing a healthier, more positive attitude

- Realize that you aren't alone in your struggle, and see how others are finding the strength to move forward in difficult times

- Read the compelling story of one man who overcame insurmountable odds and found salvation from negativity and self-doubt

After a two-decade healing journey of intensive trauma therapy, psychiatric treatment, and rehab, Bruce Brackett has emerged a survivor. Anyone in the midst of their own healing journey will resonate with benefit from his lived experience, portrayed here with intimate vulnerability and universal appeal.

The first in an ulta-charming new "quozy" mystery series starring Ben Rosencrantz, a queer 30-something English professor (and closet scifi fan) who's returned to his hometown of Salt Lake City to run his family's board game shop in the trendy Sugar House neighborhood - a community hotspot for players of all ages...and for killer collectors!

Back in his hometown of Sugar House running his family's board game shop and café, Ben Rosencrantz just can't seem to get his life to pass go, much less collect $200. Once he was a happily married English professor in Seattle. Now he's a divorced caregiver, looking after his ill father and a Chihuahua named Beans while still figuring out the rules of retail management. At least the town has become more LGBTQ+ friendly than when Ben was a teenager--and that flower shop owner, Ezra McCaslin, enjoys flirting with him.

But despite his usual clientele of gamers, Ben is barely earning enough to keep the store running and stay on top of his father's medical bills. Then a local toy and game collector named Clive offers him a winning strategy--to purchase a turn-of-the-twentieth-century edition of The Landlord's Game, the realty and taxation game that inspired Monopoly, at a tenth of the rare edition's true value. Suspicious of Clive's shady, low-priced deal, Ben turns the offer down.

Then Clive turns up dead at the front door of Ben's and a backpack full of $100 bills appears on his doorstep. Now Ben is the #1 suspect in Clive's death, and unless he and Ezra can prove his innocence and find the real killer, he'll go to jail for murder--and no amount of double dice rolls will set him free . . .

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

"Prepare to meet your next obsession." -- Rebecca Ross, author of Divine Rivals

From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Gillig comes the next big romantasy sensation, a gothic, mist-cloaked tale of a young prophetess forced on an impossible quest with the one knight whose future is beyond her sight. This edition will showcase all-new stenciled edges - available only in this first print run.

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.