A compelling case for the sanctity of gay love, combining rigorous argument and emotional drama.
A gay member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fights for acceptance and equality in this heartfelt memoir.
Arizona-based author Kitchen—a lifelong LDS churchgoer and the past president of the group Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families & Friends—recaps his journey as a gay member of a faith that, he says, has decidedly antigay leadership and a doctrine that emphasizes traditional marriage and procreation as the cornerstones of salvation. He recalls, at the age of 17, revealing the fact that he was gay to his bishop, who told him to suppress it and marry a woman; he dutifully complied and went on to raise five children with his wife before they divorced. He recounts his long coming-out odyssey, which met with support from some churchgoing relatives and anger from others, including his son, although open communication led to reconciliations. Kitchen joined Affirmation and became an outspoken critic of LDS policies, especially the 2015 “exclusion policy” declaring gay marriage an act of apostasy and banning children of same-sex couples from receiving some sacraments. The issue was particularly urgent to him because of his impending marriage to his husband, which, he says, led to a drive by LDS officials to excommunicate him. Kitchen presents an incisive, well-informed analysis of LDS policy toward LGBTQ+ members and its contradictions, noting its shift from demonization to a stance that allows sexual minorities to remain members—as long as they remain celibate. It’s a sharp, confrontational critique, but the author remains optimistic that the Church’s teachings on love will lead to a full embrace of LGBTQ+ members. Kitchen is savvy about the struggle’s politics and ideology, but the book is also a passionate profession of faith in the Church and in gay rights, couched in stirring religious imagery. When his stake president pressed him not to marry Matthew, Kitchen writes, “The Spirit immediately descended upon me like fire,” telling him to “go forward with no fear. Your marriage is blessed in me.” The result is a sophisticated and deeply personal testament.
A compelling case for the sanctity of gay love, combining rigorous argument and emotional drama.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781961471146
Page Count: 472
Publisher: By Common Consent Press
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.
The late heavy metal legend considers his mortality in this posthumous memoir.
“I ain’t ready to go anywhere,” writes Osbourne in the opening pages of his new memoir. “It’s good being alive. I like it. I want to be here with my family.” Given the context—Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, two weeks after the publisher announced the news of this book—it’s undeniably sad. But the rest of the text sees the Black Sabbath singer confronting the health struggles of his last years with dark humor and something approaching grace. The memoir begins in 2018; he wrote an earlier one, I Am Ozzy, in 2010. He tells of a staph infection he suffered that proved to be the start of a long, painful battle with various illnesses—soon after, he contracted a flu, which morphed into pneumonia. A spinal injury caused by a fall followed, causing him to undergo a series of surgeries and leaving him struggling with intense pain. And then there was his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, the treatment of which was complicated by his longtime struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. Osbourne peppers the chronicle of his final years with anecdotes from his past, growing up in Birmingham, England, and playing with—and then being fired from—Black Sabbath, and some of his most well-known antics (yes, he does address biting the heads off of a dove and a bat). He writes candidly and regretfully about the time he viciously attacked his wife, Sharon—the book is in many ways a love letter to her and his children. The memoir showcases Osbourne’s wit and charm; it’s rambling and disorganized, but so was he. It functions as both a farewell and a confession, and fans will likely find much to admire in this account. “Death’s been knocking at my door for the last six years, louder and louder,” he writes. “And at some point, I’m gonna have to let him in.”
A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781538775417
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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