reviews_and_ramblings (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2010-10-29 03:01 pm
reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2010-10-29 03:01 pm
The Inside Reader: Terrance Dean
Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir MitchellI read Terrance Dean's story inside the tribute to E. Lynn Harris, and as the other two stories in it I liked them a lot. So I was more than glad to propose Terrance to do an Inside Reader list for my LiveJournal, and this was before knowing that Terrance is not out with a new non-fiction work, Straight from your Gay Best Friend, that is now in my reading list and that it seems a book up to my alley. So please welcome Terrance and his list.
Terrance Dean's Insider Reader List
Mama Black Widow by Iceberg Slim Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Holloway House (November 1, 2004)
ISBN-10: 0870679317
ISBN-13: 978-0870679315
Amazon: Mama Black Widow
"One of the most exciting literary revival series since the rediscovery of Jim Thompson's novels" (Playboy), Old School Books "is subtly transforming the landscape of post-war black fiction" (Bomb). "Mama Black Widow" is the nickname of Otis Tilson, a comely and tragic black queen adrift with his brothers and sisters in the dark ghetto world of pimpdom and violent crime. His story is told in the gut-level language of the homosexual underworld--an unforgettable testament of life lived on the margins of a racist and predatory urban hell.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Vintage; 2 edition (March 14, 1995)
Publisher Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679732761
ISBN-10: 0679732764
ISBN-13: 978-0679732761
Amazon: Invisible Man
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.
Invisible Life by E. Lynn Harris Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Anchor (February 15, 1994)
Publisher Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385469685
ISBN-10: 0385469683
ISBN-13: 978-0385469685
Amazon: Invisible Life
The re-issue of a remarkable first novel by a young, gay, black author who has fashioned a deeply moving and compelling coming of age story out of the highly controversial issues of bisexuality and AIDS.
Too Much Money by Dominick Dunne Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 28, 2010)
Publisher Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345464101
ISBN-10: 0345464109
ISBN-13: 978-0345464101
Amazon: Too Much Money
The last two years have been monstrously unpleasant for high-society journalist Gus Bailey. When he falls for a fake story and implicates a powerful congressman in some rather nasty business on a radio program, Gus becomes embroiled in a slander suit. The stress makes it difficult for him to focus on his next novel, which is based on the suspicious death of billionaire Konstantin Zacharias. The convicted murderer is behind bars, but Gus is not convinced that justice was served. There are too many unanswered questions, and Konstantin’s hot-tempered widow will do anything to conceal the truth. Featuring favorite characters and the affluent world Dunne first introduced in People Like Us, Too Much Money is a mischievous, compulsively readable tale by the most brilliant society chronicler of our time—the man who knew all the secrets and wasn’t afraid to share them.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reissue edition (June 29, 2010)
Publisher Link: http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780143118428,00.html?strSrchSql=0143118420/Eat,_Pray,_Love_Elizabeth_Gilbert
ISBN-10: 0143118420
ISBN-13: 978-0143118428
Amazon: Eat, Pray, Love
This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Trade; Reprint edition (September 2, 2008)
Publisher Link: http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781594483295,00.html?strSrchSql=1594483299/The_Brief_Wondrous_Life_of_Oscar_Wao_Junot_Diaz
ISBN-10: 1594483299
ISBN-13: 978-1594483295
Amazon: The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao
Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley Mass Market Paperback: 460 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (October 12, 1987)
Publisher Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345350688
ISBN-10: 0345350685
ISBN-13: 978-0345350688
Amazon: The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
If there was any one man who articulated the anger, the struggle, and the beliefs of African Americans in the 1960s, that man was Malxolm X. His AUTOBIOGRAPHY is now an established classic of modern America, a book that expresses like none other the crucial truth about our times. "Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." THE NEW YORK TIMES
Out of Bounds, Coming out of Sexual Abuse, Addiction, and My Life of Lies in the NFL Closet, by Roy Simmons Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press (December 7, 2006)
Publisher Link: http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/perseus/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0786719095
ISBN-10: 0786719095
ISBN-13: 978-0786719099
Amazon: Out of Bounds
When New York Giants coach Ray Perkins stated, "Roy Simmons just might be the best athlete on this football team," no one could have guessed that in just four years, Simmons would earn his living as a baggage handler at Kennedy Airport. The second NFL player ever to come out as gay and the first ever to come out as HIV-positive, Simmons was an up-and-coming star who quit football after just four years rather than be exposed as gay. Out of Bounds tells his story — from his rape at age 10 to being plucked from his poor Southern background to join the NFL, from his first taste of pro football fame and sudden enormous wealth to his fast-paced, no holds barred nightlife of heavy drugs and countless sexual encounters with women and men. Simmons roller-coaster life peaked in the late 1980s with his appearance in the Superbowl. Ultimately, reckless living left him penniless, friendless, and on the brink of suicide. Finally in 1992, he tapped the courage to come out as gay on national TV, and as HIV-positive 10 years later — an act which set him on the path towards sobriety and self-acceptance.
Trick Baby by Iceberg Slim Paperback: 284 pages
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd (July 2, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.meetatthegate.com/component/option,com_author_book/edition_id,1064/title_id,1061/
ISBN-10: 1847674313
ISBN-13: 978-1847674319
Amazon: Trick Baby
"Trick Baby" charts the rise of White Folks, a white Negro who uses his colour as a trump card in the tough game of the Con. Blue-eyed, light-haired and white-skinned, White Folks is the most incredible con man the ghetto ever spawned, a hustler in the jungle of Southside Chicago where only the sharpest survive. With his partner Blue, an old hand who teaches him the tricks of the trade, White Folks rises to the top of his profession. The cons he pulls off get more and more lucrative and dangerous until one day they go too far...
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Paperback: 180 pages
Publisher: Scribner; Reissue edition (September 30, 1999)
Publisher Link: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Great-Gatsby/F-Scott-Fitzgerald/9780684830421
ISBN-10: 0743273567
ISBN-13: 978-0743273565
Amazon: The Great Gatsby
The exemplary novel of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgeralds' third book, The Great Gatsby (1925), stands as the supreme achievement of his career. T. S. Eliot read it three times and saw it as the "first step" American fiction had taken since Henry James; H. L. Mencken praised "the charm and beauty of the writing," as well as Fitzgerald's sharp social sense; and Thomas Wolfe hailed it as Fitzgerald's "best work" thus far. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when, The New York Times remarked, "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s that resonates with the power of myth. A novel of lyrical beauty yet brutal realism, of magic, romance, and mysticism, The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.
About Terrance Dean: "I am the founder/creator of Men’s Empowerment, Inc. and co-creator of The Gathering of Men with Adeyemi Bandele. Adeyemi is the husband and spiritual partner of acclaimed teacher and best-selling author Iyanla Vanzant. Men’s Empowerment is an organization that is dedicated to the transformation of men of color in their communities for their own self-empowerment. Some of the featured guest speakers have included, Emil Wilbekin, Editor-in-Chief, Giant Magazine; Kevin Powell, Author and Activist; Stacy Spikes, CEO Urbanworld Film Group; Gordon Chambers, Grammy Award Song Writer; Omar Tyree, Author; and Kevin Liles, Chairman of Warner Music Group.
I am a 2005 John Seigenthaler Journalism Fellow from Vanderbilt University.
I am a contributing writer to the anthologies, “Souls of My Brothers” and “Always Too Soon.”
I have also appeared across the country on popular syndicated radio shows and has made television appearances on NBC 10 Philadelphia, WB 11 New York, and FOX 2 in Detroit."
Dean has written for VIBE, ESSENCE, The New York Sun, The Tennessean, Fatherhood Today, The Michigan Chronicle’s Front Page, Flirtingtime.com and Blackmeninamerica.com.
Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute To E. Lynn Harris by Stanley Bennett Clay, Terrance Dean, James Earl Hardy Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Kensington (June 1, 2010)
Publisher Link: http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/finditem.cfm?itemid=16878
ISBN-10: 0758255756
ISBN-13: 978-0758255754
Amazon: Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute To E. Lynn Harris
Bestselling author and literary icon E. Lynn Harris captivated millions of readers with his powerful, groundbreaking stories of black men searching for love in a taboo world. Now three outstanding writers and friends honor the late author with this trio of original novellas in the genre E. Lynn helped create—each accompanied by a special personal tribute remembering the important role he played in their lives. Evoking the hope, romance, and complexity of this gifted writer, this unique collection will serve as a living legacy for fans old and new.
Straight from Your Gay Best Friend: The Straight-Up Truth About Relationships, Work, and Having a Fabulous Life by Terrance Dean Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Agate Bolden (October 1, 2010)
Publisher Link: http://www.agatepublishing.com/book/?GCOI=93284100502410
ISBN-10: 1932841563
ISBN-13: 978-1932841565
Amazon: Straight from Your Gay Best Friend: The Straight-Up Truth About Relationships, Work, and Having a Fabulous Life
In today’s society, every woman needs a gay best friend—someone who gives it to her straight about life, clothes, sex, and relationships. For example, on the hit TV show, “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” the breakout star, NeNe, has introduced the world to her gay best friend, Dwight Eubanks. On “Sex In The City,” Carrie Bradshaw often turned to her gay best friend, Stanford, and “Will and Grace” was all about the relationship between a woman and her gay best friend. The gay best friend—smart, sympathetic, and straight-talking—is the new must-have; no woman wants to be without one.
Enter Terrance Dean, who offers direct and to-the-point insights on some of life’s most challenging issues—family, friends, career, love, sex, and intimate relationships of all kinds—mixed with a little sass, wit, humor, forwardness, and spirituality, as only a gay man can do. He speaks candidly to women about healing their souls of past hurts in order to tap into their fabulousness.
This book will help women discover the strength they need for a life of loving relationships and abundant success. And it’s all done from a place of love, coming from their gay best friend.