In the Arms of Africa: The Life of Colin M. Turnbull
by Roy Richard Grinker ($27.95, hardcover, nonfiction, St. Martin's Press) Colin M. Turnbull was one of the leading anthropologists of the 20th century. His longtime work with the African Pygmies made him one of the most famous intellectuals of the 1960s and 1970s. He holds a place among anthropology's greats, including Margaret Mead and Louis Leakey. Virtually everything known about the Pygmies today began with Turnbull's work. His books The Forest People and The Mountain People remain required reading in many high school and college classes.
Roy Richard Grinker holds Turnbull's former position as an associate professor of anthropology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Grinker came to write In the Arms of Africa, the story of Turnbull and his work, after having set out in 1985 for central Africa to study the Pygmies with the intention of disproving Turnbull's somewhat romantic and idealistic findings. Eventually, Grinker stopped looking at Turnbull as a scholar that he needed to debunk and became aware of the complicated relationship between Turnbull's work and life.
Grinker reveals Turnbull's complexities, composing a portrait of a man who, in addition to being an anthropologist, also worked at various times as a gold miner, builder of the African Queen, and consultant to theater director Peter Brook for a play based on The Mountain People. Some of the most important events of the 20th century touched Turnbull's life, including World War II, in which he fought.
Turnbull died of AIDS complications in 1994 at the age of 70. He and his lover, Joe Towles, lived as an openly gay interracial couple for 30 years in both New York City and rural Virginia. After Towles's death from AIDS in 1988, Turnbull ritually buried his own spirit in a second coffin that he laid next to Towles's, and he gave away most of his money. He later moved to India, studying Buddhism and eventually being ordained a Buddhist monk by the Dalai Lama.
Bridge Across the Ocean: A Novel
by Randy Boyd ($12.95, paperback, fiction, West Beach Books) Bridge Across the Ocean tells the tale of Derek Mayfield, a 26-year-old black gay man who has recently come out and is still coming to grips with being HIV-positive. Derek clocks out of life for a while and takes off to Mexico. A day into his retreat, he meets Rob, a naïve 16-year-old who is a carbon copy of the golden, athletic white boys Derek knew in his youth. Derek strikes up a friendship with Rob and his younger brother, Skeeter. The three become inseparable in their pursuit of summer adventure against the backdrop of the Caribbean. But Derek also craves the touch of Rob's innocent, virus-free skin, even though Rob is straight and underage. This creates a dilemma that threatens to ruin Derek's peaceful getaway, and the three youths find that one week will change all their lives forever.
"The book is definitely fiction, but the story is inspired by real events," says Boyd, a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, whose first novel, Uprising, was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards. "Whereas Uprising was like one of Hollywood's erotic thrillers but gay, Bridge is more like an ode to boyhood summer adventures, again from the point of view of a grown-up black gay man, as twisted as that might seem."
Men Like Us: The GMHC Complete Guide to Gay Men's Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Well-being by Daniel Wolfe ($39.95, hardcover, $24, paperback; nonfiction; Ballantine Books) For nearly two decades Gay Men's Health Crisis, one of the world's largest and most respected nonprofit AIDS service organizations, has provided vital health information and support for thousands of gay men in the New York City area. As GMHC staff, volunteers, and clients have realized over the years, effective prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS requires going beyond prescribing pills to treat the virus or condoms to contain it: It calls for dealing with issues such as sexual communication, relationships, self-esteem, diet, and attitudes toward illness, aging, and spirituality.
To share that level of wisdom, gathered through the firsthand experiences of hundreds of gay men across the country, Daniel Wolfe, GMHC's former director of communications and a New York City-based writer, has produced Men Like Us, moving beyond the basics of HIV to cover a range of male health issues that have long been overshadowed by AIDS: cholesterol levels, prostate cancer,
testicular cancer, and other health problems. The book is extensively illustrated with photographs
and drawings.
Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist by Cleve Jones with Jeff Dawson ($26, hardcover, nonfiction, HarperSanFrancisco) Cleve Jones, creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and founder of the Names Project, the organization that administers the quilt, has been an activist in the fight for gay rights over the past three decades. Throughout his memoir, Stitching a Revolution, he details his struggle for self-acceptance as a gay man, his tireless activism for gay rights, and his role as a leader and educator in the midst of the AIDS crisis. This book is an American chronicle about a man who in a backyard in San Francisco started a crusade—a crusade not just for gay rights but one that crosses all color lines and all borders—by stitching the first panel of the world-famous quilt for a friend who had just died of AIDS complications. Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989,
the quilt has achieved a goal of helping people mourn their losses with dignity, commemorating life, and envisioning a future without the threat of AIDS.
Colin M. Turnbull was one of the leading anthropologists of the 20th century. His longtime work with the African Pygmies made him one of the most famous intellectuals of the 1960s and 1970s. He holds a place among anthropology's greats, including Margaret Mead and Louis Leakey. Virtually everything known about the Pygmies today began with Turnbull's work. His books The Forest People and The Mountain People remain required reading in many high school and college classes.
Bridge Across the Ocean tells the tale of Derek Mayfield, a 26-year-old black gay man who has recently come out and is still coming to grips with being HIV-positive. Derek clocks out of life for a while and takes off to Mexico. A day into his retreat, he meets Rob, a naïve 16-year-old who is a carbon copy of the golden, athletic white boys Derek knew in his youth. Derek strikes up a friendship with Rob and his younger brother, Skeeter. The three become inseparable in their pursuit of summer adventure against the backdrop of the Caribbean. But Derek also craves the touch of Rob's innocent, virus-free skin, even though Rob is straight and underage. This creates a dilemma that threatens to ruin Derek's peaceful getaway, and the three youths find that one week will change all their lives forever.
For nearly two decades Gay Men's Health Crisis, one of the world's largest and most respected nonprofit AIDS service organizations, has provided vital health information and support for thousands of gay men in the New York City area. As GMHC staff, volunteers, and clients have realized over the years, effective prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS requires going beyond prescribing pills to treat the virus or condoms to contain it: It calls for dealing with issues such as sexual communication, relationships, self-esteem, diet, and attitudes toward illness, aging, and spirituality.
Cleve Jones, creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and founder of the Names Project, the organization that administers the quilt, has been an activist in the fight for gay rights over the past three decades. Throughout his memoir, Stitching a Revolution, he details his struggle for self-acceptance as a gay man, his tireless activism for gay rights, and his role as a leader and educator in the midst of the AIDS crisis. This book is an American chronicle about a man who in a backyard in San Francisco started a crusade—a crusade not just for gay rights but one that crosses all color lines and all borders—by stitching the first panel of the world-famous quilt for a friend who had just died of AIDS complications. Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989,
the quilt has achieved a goal of helping people mourn their losses with dignity, commemorating life, and envisioning a future without the threat of AIDS.