ReadOut Shorts

Inferno
Trish Fields
Baycrest Books
Maybe it’s just me, but any lesbian novel entitled Inferno is sure to get more than a second look from me. And, ladies, this one doesn’t disappoint! Dray, as she’s affectionately known to her friends and co-workers, is one of Chicago’s finest firefighters and a goddess among women—tall, tan, strapping, and smoldering with a past that won’t let her go. She meets her match in Abby, a petite blond bombshell who has a few dark secrets of her own. Together, they fall ardently and passionately into a deep and timeless soulful connection, physically and emotionally taking each other to places they never would have dreamed they could go. The heated story climaxes with the two lovers at a crossroads, Dray struggling to survive while Abby fights to remain at her side. Perfect reading for lazy days at the beach, pool, or even as a sexy little addition to your night table. By all means, read this little gem and feel the burn. —Colleen Logan

Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs
Cheryl Peck
Warner Books
The title makes you smile and grimace at its boldness, yet pulls you along as you create your own reading experience. I can remember falling through a couple of worn lawn chairs and watching the adults around me sit very gingerly into one, waiting for the bottom to give out. That metaphor plays out in many other areas of our lives, and we are able to share a few others with Peck in our journey through Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs. Her poem called Star Bright is an amazing experience of the “bottom” falling out from underneath Peck as she takes a journey along side her mother as her mother dies of cancer. The anger, love, and sincere loss are captured with great skill. This book can be read in a day or picked up and put down over weeks—either way, you create the journey, and Peck will stimulate your memories for an interesting ride along the way. —Alexsys Coleman

Jackson Street Jazz
Greg Herren
Kensington Books
Remember that hot guy at the bar who wouldn't talk to you? If you can imagine him consulting his Tarot cards while trying to solve a murder mystery, then you'll get a kick out of Jackson Square Jazz, the follow-up to the highly successful Bourbon Street Blues. Author Greg Herren reintroduces readers to Scotty Bradley: ex-go-go boy, psychic, serial slut, and budding private detective. Jazz details Scotty's latest misadventures, starting with a one-night-stand who turns out to be America's top professional figure skater, and leading to the discovery of a dead body in a posh hotel room. This turn of events throws Scotty headlong into his new love-interest's shadowy past and a desperate search for a priceless stolen artifact that could cost him his life. Add to the mix Scotty's radical-leftist parents, his best friend, and a veritable support group of sort-of boyfriends and ex-tricks, and you're left with a madcap and surprisingly realistic romp through the New Orleans gay community. • Sequels do need to be able to stand on their own, though, and too many references to Bourbon Street Blues might leave readers confused. Characters are sometimes introduced without full development, as though Herren assumes that his audience is already intimately acquainted with his earlier work. That aside, Jazz is an entertaining read. Herren has created a protagonist that may not always be likeable, but is decidedly real and certainly worth the readers' affection. —Thomas Blanton

Gay Cinematherapy: The Queer Guy’s Guide to Finding Your Rainbow One Movie at a Time
Jason Bergund and Beverly West
Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
The only social redeeming value to be found in this utterly pedestrian video guide for the queer guy is the satisfying thought that all the un-sold copies—and there’ll be plenty of them immediately after the June Pride Week publication—eventually will be mulched back into pulp. • This latest installment in Beverly West’s disposable “Cinematherapy” series is from the gay prescriptive. Other titles include Cinematherapy for the Soul: The Girl’s Guide to Finding Happiness One Movie at a Time and Cinematherapy for Lovers: The Girl’s Guide to Finding True Love One Movie at a Time. This book is subtitled The Queer Guy’s Guide to Finding Your Rainbow, • I did not find my rainbow. • Second-rate, tired, and un-illuminating in any manner, this is a gimmick masquerading as a book. If the authors think they can snatch away our community’s hard-earned dollars just because they put “gay” in their title, I’m here to warn them—and you. • Abetted by her “best friend and roommate” Jason Bergund, West and her co-writer stagger haphazardly through movie categories such as coming-out, drama queen, finding yourself, or a boy’s best friend is his mother. Ostensibly a guide to help gay men find comfort, humor, and inspiration at the corner video store, this is, basically, a book of lists, pumped-up by campy plot synopses. Mercifully, these are brief. There’s little insight, less critical evaluation, no history. There’s not even any juicy Hollywood gossip. • Mrs. Doubtfire and The Birdcage are covered in the drag chapter; Beaches and Miss Congeniality in the fag-hag chapter, and almost Madonna’s entire movie oeuvre placed somewhere (the authors have an awed, unapologetic respect for Ms. Ciccone). There’s nothing new here. • Scattered among the unsurprising film examples is extraneous padding like facial recipes and hangover cures, character quotes, and forced acronyms like TSLGT (That Sexy Little-Guy Thang) to describe Tom Cruise in their “Sugar Shack: The Man-Candy Counter.” • Worse, it’s all written without style and in an annoying twinkie tone that could only be described as Nellie Lite. Cute and fuzzy-wuzzy, their writing wears an oatmeal mask and pink bunny slippers and assumes we do, too. • When it’s been “that time of the month‚ all month long, and you’re ready to shed a little of that excess irrigation, watch one of these PMS movies, and weep away the bloat.” (Introduction to Male PMS Movies). • “If you’re in the mood for a little overkill, paint the town blue with this cinematic triple scoop of rocky road, featuring three world class drama queens, all with a whopping case of the icks.” (The Hours) • “As every queen knows, the sour apple Œtini is the way to go when you want a drink that’s potent but tasty. Serve up this concoction in an extra big glass and pucker up, buttercup!” (Jason’s Barmacy) • If you love movies, this useless little book will only make you mad: at yourself for not mindlessly dictating your own, at the publishing industry for foisting this trifle upon us, and at the sickening waste of trees. —D.L. Groover

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