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The Big Penis Book

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When it comes to pleasure, size doesn't matter; as we all know it s quality, not quantity, that counts. But let's admit it: a big penis is undeniably compelling. Big shoulders, big lapels, and big hair may come and go, but the big penis never goes out of fashion. With those possessing more than 8 inches (20 cm) making up less than 2% of the world's population, this rare accessory will always fascinate.

In The Big Penis Book we explore the centuries-old fascination with the large phallus, a fascination common to men and women alike. This hefty book is profusely illustrated with over 400 historic photos of spectacular male endowments, including rare photos of the legendary John Holmes. The majority of the photographs are from the 1970s, when the sexual revolution first freed photographers to depict the male entirely nude. Photographers include Bob Mizer of Athletic Model Guild, David Hurles of Old Reliable, Colt, Falcon, Sierra Domino, Third World, and Champion Studios, with each of these iconic photographers interviewed or profiled, along with information about each of their models. And if this isn t enough, the book closes with a special surprise comparable to the Guinness Book of Records Norma Stitz featured in The Big Book of Breasts! Can you guess what body part Dian is dissecting next?

Running with Scissors: A Memoir

Augusten Burroughs

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 822 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs's harrowing and highly entertaining memoir, Running with Scissors, that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped, glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. "I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor's office," he writes, "And it certainly wouldn't be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours." There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist, and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist's eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile who lives in a shed out back. But just as he dreamed of doing with that old table, Burroughs employs a vigorous program of decoration and fervent polishing to a life that many would have simply thrown in a landfill. Despite her abandonment, he never gives up on his increasingly unbalanced mother. And rather than despair about his lot, he glamorizes it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a capella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs's perspective achieves a crucial balance for a memoir: emotional but not self-involved, observant but not clinical, funny but not deliberately comic. And it's ultimately a feel-good story: as he steers through a challenging childhood, there's always a sense that Burroughs's survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. --John Moe

Crisis: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay in America

Mitchell Gold, Mindy Drucker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Raising the Curtain on Growing Up Gay 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Gold, Mitchell, editor with Mandy Drucker. "Crisis: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay in America", Greenleaf Book Group, 2008.

Raising the Curtain on Growing Up Gay

Amos Lassen

This is the book that many have waited for because we are in desperate need of ways to save our gay teens who suffer from depression, rejection, isolation, persecution and just plain fear. They often have nowhere to turn and no one to talk to. A large percentage of them turn to drugs and alcohol and some lean toward suicide. We know the causes---discrimination, bullying and homophobia (from their families and their peers) and these kids (as well as many adults) suffer great pain. We need to find ways t give them the love and support that they need.
"Crisis" was written as an effort to help and is directed at those who cause harm to our youth and is a wonderful aid for clergy, parents and teachers and counselors who have no idea to deal with the issues. Forty diverse stories gave us a background. We learn the problems that many had accepting themselves and we have looks at what parents and straight clergy have to say by offering support and looking at gay people for what they are--human beings who are guaranteed equal rights but may not get them because they are guilty of loving people of the same sex as they are.
As people it is our responsibility to learn about gay people, teach one another what we know and make sure that the next generation understands the meaning of diversity and difference in order that the future generations will not have to face the problems that others have felt. If we commit ourselves to changing the way things are, it is our duty to rid the world of prejudice.
It's a pity that we have not always has this book because if we had, many would have understood the pain that is felt by our GLBT youth. We know that many feel that they are not worthy of our love because they are afraid of rejection. They want to be able to hold jobs, to love, to practice their faith. We need to give them the love they need as parents and allies so that they can feel complete and not alone. This book is a way to start. Some of the stories will break your heart and others will shine a light on you. If you are interested in saving children and if you buy no other book this year, this is the one that should be in your personal library.

Editorial Review:

A mental health crisis faces American teens right now--and it is one we can solve. Hundreds of thousands of gay teens face traumatic depression, fear, rejection, persecution, and isolation--usually alone. Studies show they are 190 percent more likely to used drugs or alcohol and four times more likely to attempt suicide. Homophobia and discrimination are at the heart of their pain. Love, support, and acceptance--all within our power to give--can save them.

This book is for: clergy, parents, educators, and politicians who cause harm with their words and actions; parents of gay teens; teens navigating this difficult time; and fair-minded people who want to help end the harm. Here are revealing stories by forty diverse Americans, some well known and some not, plus insights from straight clergy and parents explaining their support of gay people as whole human beings guaranteed equal rights by our Constitution.

The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk

Randy Shilts

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A LEADER IN THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Randy Shilts was a great writer, his books are always a good read. This was his first, and perhaps best book. It tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected politician in America. I bought this book after reading the reviews of "Milk," the new movie starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk. It's a good history of how gay men were treated in America in the 1940's and 1950's, tells about Stonewall, then moves to San Francisco and the Castro, when Harvey Milk does.The Castro grew up around the time Harvey Milk first came here, started his camera store and ran for City Supervisor. Milk comes across as someone with compassion and a clear vision of what city governement should do, but also someone with a wicked sense of humor, and a sense of theatre, which makes it a fun read. He really comes alive in this book. The book goes through his assasination by a former police officer, Dan White, the candlelight procession after his death, the trial of Dan White, and subsequent "White Night Riots." A must read for anyone interested in the gay rights movement.

Editorial Review:

Known as “The Mayor of Castro Street” even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk’s personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.

Harvey Milk has been the subject of numerous books and movies, including the Academy Award–winning 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk. His life is also the basis of a 2008 major motion picture, Milk, starring Sean Penn.

The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family

Dan Savage

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Funny, intelligent personal memoir and comment on Gay Marriage 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

One of the things I liked best about this book was that Dan Savage didn't just destroy the arguments against gay marriage, but he also correctly criticized many of the popular arguments in favor of gay marriage for succumbing to the same double-standards as the opposition. What was left was arguments that are rational, clearly stated, and funny.

Savage's personal story is well told, reflective, and entertaining.

Editorial Review:

In a time when much of the country sees red whenever the subject of gay marriage comes up, Dan Savage—outspoken author of the column "Savage Love"— makes it personal.

Dan Savage’s mother wants him to get married. His boyfriend, Terry, says "no thanks" because he doesn’t want to act like a straight person. Their six-year-old son DJ says his two dads aren’t "allowed" to get married, but that he’d like to come to the reception and eat cake. Throw into the mix Dan’s straight siblings, whose varied choices form a microcosm of how Americans are approaching marriage these days, and you get a rollicking family memoir that will have everyone—gay or straight, right or left, single or married—howling with laughter and rethinking their notions of marriage and all it entails.

The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man's World

Alan Downs

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A groundbreaking examination of the psychology of homosexuality, why it leads to shame over one's identity and how to overcome it

The gay male world today is characterized by seductive beauty, artful creativity, flamboyant sexuality, and, encouragingly, unprecedented acceptability in society. Yet despite the progress of the recent past, gay men still find themselves asking, "Are we really better off?"

The inevitable byproduct of growing up gay in a straight world continues to be the internalization of shame, a shame gay men may strive to obscure with a faade of beauty, creativity, or material success. Drawing on contemporary psychological research, the author's own journey to be free of anger and of shame, as well as the stories of many of his friends and clients, The Velvet Rage outlines the three distinct stages to emotional well-being for gay men. Offering profoundly beneficial strategies to stop the insidious cycle of avoidance and self-defeating behavior, The Velvet Rage is an empowering book that will influence the public discourse on gay culture, and positively change the lives of gay men who read it.

What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality

Daniel A. Helminiak

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Sad, heretical, completely unsound theology..... 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 30 people found this review helpful.

From the synopsis: While cautioning against viewing biblical teaching as "the last word on sexual ethics," he stresses the need for accurate understanding of what the biblical "facts" are and concludes that "the Bible supplies no real basis for the condemnation of homosexuality."

A fundamental platform of what Christians believe is that the Bible IS the inerrant LAST word on ALL morality and ethics.

The description of the book attempts to claim that homosexuality "as we know it" was a concept lost on the ancient world. COME ON!!! Are you KIDDING me??? Where do you think we got it?? That same sex relationships just sprung up out of nowhere in the last 1000 years??

I'm sure this book makes a lot of people feel good about their struggle with reconciling what the Bible says with homosexuality. The only problem is you have to completely ignore what the Bible ACTUALLY says to swallow it.

Sad. Misleading. If you want to know what the Bible really says about homosexuality, just read it. It means what is says. It says what it means. Period.

Gay America: Struggle for Equality

Linas Alsenas

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Milestones of gay and lesbian life in the United States are brought together in the first-ever nonfiction book published specifically for teens.

Profusely illustrated with archival images, the groundbreaking Gay America reveals how gay men and women have lived, worked, and loved for the past 125 years. Gays and lesbians play a very prominent role in American life today, whether grabbing headlines over political gains, starring in and being the subject of movies and television shows, or filling the streets of nearly every major city each year to celebrate Gay Pride. However, this was not always the case, and this book charts their journey along with the history of the country.

First touching on colonial times, the book moves on to the Victorian period and beyond, including such historical milestones as the Roaring ’20s, the Kinsey study, the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s, the Beat generation, Stonewall, disco, AIDS, and present-day battles over gay marriage. Providing a sense of hope mixed with pride, author Linas Alsenas demonstrates how, within one century, gay women and men have gone from being socially invisible to becoming a political force to be reckoned with and proud members of the American public living openly and honestly. The book includes a bibliography and an index.

My Life in Porn: The Bobby Blake Story

Bobby Blake

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

More than just Porn 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Bobby Blake is a very interesting person, and that is revealed in his memoir. Although the memoir is written with British writer John R. Gordon, the voice of Blake is clearly in this work. Despite the stereotyping of porn stars, Blake is very intelligent, insightful and political. After hearing him in interviews, it is obvious that the man is quite articulate. This work is a candid look at his private life as well as his career in porn, and he makes it clear that working in porn was a career, and not the beginning and end of his personality. Blake allows the reader to see the person, or alter ego, of the porn persona, and one will find that interesting, controversial and enlightening. Blake provides a very insightful look at the porn industry, and this is very welcomed from a black person's point-of-view. Much of the literature about pornography is about white porn stars, written from a white point-of-view, which rarely handles any discussion of race. In addition, Blake explains his decisions made personally and professionally. I respect that he doesn't name individuals (unless they are already well known in the porn industry, for instance) because the work is about his life, not theirs. If there is a major message in this memoir, it is that by stereotyping people, and putting them in boxes, you don't realize the full spectrum of those various personalities. He is still a young man, and one might wonder if he decided to write this work too soon. Even so, the work is well timed, and include a wealth of information.

Editorial Review:

The most successful African American in gay adult film, Bobby Blake has appeared in over one hundred movies. In My Life in Porn, Blake for the first time goes behind the scenes of the sex industry to reveal intimate stories that are sexy, fascinating, and sometimes disturbing. Blake also shares his private spiritual struggle and the quest for love.

Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America (Plume Books)

Mel White

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 58 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Sad, but agenda-based, way too subjective. 2 out of 5 stars.
11 of 18 people found this review helpful.

I had first read about Mel White through the eyes of grace: his best friend Philip Yancey wrote a chapter about Mel in the book "What's So Amazing About Grace?" So I approached the book "Stranger" with a grace-filled attitude toward Mel. I truly felt sorrow for his terrible struggle against his homosexual urges and attractions. Eventually, I was practically convinced that Mel had tried his best to live as a straight man. However, I was troubled when I sensed that the book was more than simply a telling of his personal struggle. Rather, it became clear that Mel was driving a personal agenda against the religious right. From that point on, I thought the book lost all credibility. If he was only honestly sharing his struggles, I was all ears. But when he began to rip those who opposed him, I lost respect. Why are people of faith who hold a high view of sexual morality held in such contempt?

I was especially troubled when Mel was not particularly upset the first time he ventured out for an illicit sexual encounter with some unknown gay man. He had broken his vow of faithfulness to his wife, with hardly a passing reference in the subsequent paragraphs. While Mel may have done a thorough review of the theology of homosexuality from the Bible, I think he undervalued the importance of keeping the marriage bed undefiled and to flee from youthful lusts. And I know he read that God hates divorce.

White describes the great turmoil that gripped him as he concludes that he must be gay. However, Mel's conclusion that he must leave his wife and family and he must pursue these sexual urges is troubling to me at many levels. I am not unsympathetic to men who are already married and then find themselves to have same sex attractions. However, I believe these attractions occur on a wide spectrum of intensity. I do not accept that these longings can only be fulfilled by sexual activity with another man. Is there no ability to restrain oneself sexually? Placing homosexuals and heterosexuals in the same category, can we not behave in a manner that transcends our urges? As a healthy heterosexual male, I find it is possible to restrain myself against my urges to have sex with young attractive females. Must I accept that Mel was incapable of holding himself back from his urges? And returning to the marriage vow discussion, is "same sex attraction" an exception to "for better or for worse" and "keeping myself only unto thee, so long as we both shall live"?

I have homosexual friends who are "gay", but sexually celibate, as well as gay and married and planning on leaving their family to act-out. I am well aware of the heart-aches on both sides of the issues.

Editorial Review:

As seen on 60 Minutes. Until Christmas Eve 1991, Mel White was regarded by the leaders of the religious right as one of their most talented and productive supporters. He penned speeches for Ollie North, was a ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell, worked with Jim Bakker. What they didn't know is that Mel White--evangelical minister, committed Christian, family man--is gay. In this book, White details his twenty-five years of being counseled, exorcised, electric-shocked, prayed for, and nearly driven to suicide because his church said homosexuality was wrong. His salvation--to be openly gay and Christian--is much more than a unique coming-out story.

"Fascinating... harrowing... a remarkable and important story." --Dallas Morning News