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The AIDS Epidemic
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The Invisible Cure
by Helen EpsteinA New York Times Notable Book of 2007 The Invisible Cure is an account of Africa's AIDS epidemic from the inside--a revelatory dispatch from the intersection of village life, government intervention, and international aid.
Helen Epstein left her job in the US in 1993 to move to Uganda, where she began work on a test vaccine for HIV. Once there, she met patients, doctors, politicians, and aid workers, and began exploring the problem of AIDS in Africa through the lenses of medicine, politics, economics, and sociology.
Amid the catastrophic failure to reverse the epidemic, she discovered a village-based solution that could prove more effective than any network of government intervention and international aid, an intuitive response that calls into question many of the fundamental assumptions about the AIDS in Africa.
Written with conviction, knowledge, and insight, The Invisible Cure will change how we think about the worst health crisis of the past century--and indeed about every issue of global public health.
Angels in America
by Tony KushnerWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes includes Part One, Millennium Approaches and Part Two, Perestroika
This new edition of Tony Kushner's masterpiece is published with the author's recent changes and a new introduction in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of its original production. One of the most honored American plays in history, Angels in America was awarded two Tony Awards for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was made into an Emmy Award-winning HBO film directed by Mike Nichols. This two-part epic, subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," has received hundreds of performances worldwide in more than twenty-six languages.
What Looks Like Crazy On an Ordinary Day
by Pearl CleageAfter a decade of elegant pleasures and luxe living with the Atlanta brothers and sisters with the best clothes and biggest dreams, Ava Johnson has temporarily returned home to Idlewild—her fabulous career and power plans smashed to bits by cold reality. But what she imagines to be the end is, instead, a beginning. Because, in the ten-plus years since Ava left, all the problems of the big city have come to roost in the sleepy North Michigan community whose ordinariness once drove her away; and she cannot turn her back on friends and family who sorely need her in the face of impending trouble and tragedy. Besides which, that one unthinkable, unmistakable thing is now happening to her: Ava Johnson is falling in love.Acclaimed playwright, essayist, New York Times bestselling author, and columnist Pearl Cleage has created a world rich in character, human drama, and deep, compassionate understanding, in a remarkable novel that sizzles with sensuality, hums with gritty truth, and sings and crackles with life-affirming energy.
Fairyland
by Alysia AbbottFinalist for a Lambda Literary Award and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year In this vibrant memoir, Alysia Abbott recounts growing up in 1970s San Francisco with Steve Abbott, a gay, single father during an era when that was rare. Reconstructing their time together from a remarkable cache of Steve’s writings, Alysia gives us an unforgettable portrait of a tumultuous, historic period in San Francisco as well as an exquisitely moving account of a father’s legacy and a daughter’s love.
My Own Country
by Abraham VergheseNestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from the anxieties of modern American life. But when the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, a crisis that had once seemed an urban problem, had arrived in the town to stay.
Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases. Dr. Verghese became by necessity the local AIDS expert, soon besieged by a shocking number of male and female patients whose stories came to occupy his mind, and even take over his life.
Verghese brought a singular perspective to Johnson City: as a doctor unique in his abilities; as an outsider who could talk to people suspicious of local practitioners; above all, as a writer of grace and compassion who saw that what was happening in this conservative community was both a medical and a spiritual emergency. Out of his experience comes a startling but ultimately uplifting portrait of the American heartland as it confronts--and surmounts--its deepest prejudices and fears.
The Gifts of the Body
by Rebecca BrownA woman volunteer who cares for people with AIDS narrates a poignant account of the clients she comes to love in her role as a home-care aide, in a bittersweet novel about life, illness, death, and remembrance. By the author of The Children's Crusade.
How to Survive a Plague
by David FranceThe definitive history of the successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic--from the creator of, and inspired by, the seminal documentary How to Survive a Plague.
A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments. Around the globe, 16 million people are alive today thanks to their efforts.
Not since the publication of Randy Shilts's classic And the Band Played On has a book measured the AIDS plague in such brutally human, intimate, and soaring terms. In dramatic fashion, we witness the founding of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group), and the rise of an underground drug market in opposition to the prohibitively expensive (and sometimes toxic) AZT. We watch as these activists learn to become their own researchers, lobbyists, drug smugglers, and clinicians, establishing their own newspapers, research journals, and laboratories, and as they go on to force reform in the nation's disease-fighting agencies.
With his unparalleled access to this community David France illuminates the lives of extraordinary characters, including the closeted Wall Street trader-turned-activist, the high school dropout who found purpose battling pharmaceutical giants in New York, the South African physician who helped establish the first officially recognized buyers' club at the height of the epidemic, and the public relations executive fighting to save his own life for the sake of his young daughter.
Expansive yet richly detailed, this is an insider's account of a pivotal moment in the history of American civil rights. Powerful, heart-wrenching, and finally exhilarating, How to Survive a Plague is destined to become an essential part of the literature of AIDS.
Borrowed Time
by Paul Monette&“An eloquent testimonial to the power of love and the devastation of loss&” from the National Book Award–winning author of Becoming a Man (Publishers Weekly). In 1974, Paul Monette met Roger Horwitz, the man with whom he would share more than a decade of his life. In 1986, Roger died of complications from AIDS. Borrowed Time traces this love story from start to tragic finish. At a time when the medical community was just beginning to understand this mysterious and virulent disease, Monette and others like him were coming to terms with unfathomable loss. This personal account of the early days of the AIDS crisis tells the story of love in the face of death. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Borrowed Time was one of the first memoirs to deal candidly with AIDS and is as moving and relevant now as it was more than twenty-five years ago. Written with fierce honesty and heartwarming tenderness, this book is part love story, part testimony, and part requiem. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Paul Monette including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the Paul Monette papers of the UCLA Library Special Collections.
A Place at the Table
by Susan Rebecca WhiteFrom Susan Rebecca White, award-winning author of A Soft Place to Land and Bound South, comes a breathtaking story of three richly nuanced outcasts whose paths converge in a chic Manhattan café as they realize they must give up everything they thought they knew to find a home at last.
Alice Stone is famous for the homemade southern cuisine she serves at Café Andres and her groundbreaking cookbook, but her past is a mystery to all who know her. Upon Alice's retirement, Bobby Banks, a young gay man ostracized by his family in Georgia, sets out to revive the aging café with his new brand of southern cooking while he struggles with heartbreak like he's never known. Seeking respite from the breakup of her marriage, wealthy divorcée Amelia Brighton finds solace in the company and food at Café Andres, until a family secret comes to light in the pages of Alice's cookbook and threatens to upend her life.
In her most accomplished novel yet, Susan Rebecca White braids together the stories of these three unforgettable characters who must learn that when you embrace the thing that makes you different, you become whole.
Tell the Wolves I'm Home
by Carol Rifka BruntIn this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don't know you've lost someone until you've found them.
1987. There's only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that's her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life--someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.
At Finn's funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn's apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she's not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.
An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I'm Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.
My Brother Has AIDS
by Deborah DavisWhen her older brother returns home because he is dying of AIDS, thirteen-year-old Lacy deals with changes in her family life, in relationships with classmates, and in her commitment to her swimming team.
With or Without You
by Brian FarreyEighteen-year-old Evan is ready to graduate high school and spend more time with Erik, the sweet, sexy guy he's been secretly dating for a year. But he doesn't want to abandon Davis, his lifelong best friend and fellow social pariah.
So when a charismatic and dangerous runaway named Sable recruits Evan and Davis to join a group called the Chasers, Evan is curious to learn more. But as Sable educates the Chasers on gay history, their meetings quickly morph into violent encounters and dangerous sexual pursuits.
Evan must choose between Erik and Davis before the Chasers' final initiation--a ceremony that involves having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive member of the group who has successfully "chased" the AIDS virus.
Chasers hits hard and is sure to get teens thinking and talking about important issues in a meaningful way.
Positive
by Paige Rawl and Ali BenjaminPaige Rawl was an ordinary girl.Cheerleader, soccer player, honor roll student. One of the good kids at her middle school. Then, on an unremarkable day, Paige disclosed the one thing that made her "different": her HIV-positive status.It didn't matter that she was born with the disease or that her illness posed no danger to her classmates.Within hours, the bullying began.They called her PAIDS. Left cruel notes on her locker. Talked in whispers about her and mocked her openly. She turned to school administrators for help. Instead of assisting her, they ignored her urgent pleas . . . and told her to stop the drama.She had never felt more alone.One night, desperate for escape, Paige found herself in front of the medicine cabinet, staring at a bottle of sleeping pills.That could have been the end of her story. Instead, it was only the beginning.Finding comfort in steadfast friends and a community of other kids touched by HIV, Paige discovered the strength inside of her, and she embarked on a mission to change things for the bullied kids who would follow in her footsteps.In this astonishing memoir, Paige immerses the reader in her experience and tells a story that is both deeply personal and completely universal: a story of one girl overcoming relentless bullying by choosing to be Positive.
Skyscraping
by Cordelia JensenA heartrending, bold novel in verse about family, identity, and forgiveness Mira is just beginning her senior year of high school when she discovers her father with his male lover. Her world-and everything she thought she knew about her family-is shattered instantly.
Unable to comprehend the lies, betrayal, and secrets that-unbeknownst to Mira-have come to define and keep intact her family's existence, Mira distances herself from her sister and closest friends as a means of coping.
But her father's sexual orientation isn't all he's kept hidden. A shocking health scare brings to light his battle with HIV.
As Mira struggles to make sense of the many fractures in her family's fabric and redefine her wavering sense of self, she must find a way to reconnect with her dad-while there is still time.
Told in raw, exposed free verse, Skyscraping reminds us that there is no one way to be a family.
Fade to Black
by Alex FlinnThree perspectives -- one truth
The victim: After his windshield was shattered with a baseball bat, HIV-positive Alex Crusan ducked under the steering wheel. But he knows what he saw. Now he must decide what he wants to tell.
The witness: Daria Bickell never lies. So if she told the police she saw Clinton Cole do it, she must have. But did she really?
The suspect: Clinton was seen in the vicinity of the crime that morning. And sure, he has problems with Alex. But he'd never do something like this. Would he?
Night Kites
by M. E. KerrWhat do you do when your whole world is blown apart? A seventeen-year-old confronts love, betrayal, and his brother&’s illness in this brave, deeply compassionate novel by M. E. KerrLife is going great for Seaville High senior Erick Rudd. He&’s a good student, he has a girlfriend he&’ll probably marry, and he&’s on a straight path to college. Then his best friend&’s girlfriend lets him know she&’s attracted to him. Seventeen going on twenty-five, Nicki Marr is blond, green eyed, and gorgeous. Soon, Erick is seeing her on the sly.Guilt ridden over his deception, Erick isn&’t prepared for what happens next. He finds out that his brother, Pete, who&’s ten years older and lives in New York, is very sick . . . with AIDS. Erick is stunned; he didn&’t even know his brother was gay. It was Pete who told a five-year-old Erick that night kites don&’t think about the dark, that they&’re not afraid to be different.How Erick and his parents deal with Pete&’s illness—and how Erick handles his relationship with Nicki—are what make this book so unforgettable. Fearless and profoundly affecting, it will stay with you long after the last page is turned.This ebook features an illustrated personal history of M. E. Kerr including rare images from the author&’s collection.
Just Between Us
by J. H. TrumbleSeventeen-year-old Luke Chesser is trying to forget his spectacular failure of a love life.
He practices marching band moves for hours in the hot Texas sun, deals with his disapproving father, and slyly checks out the new band field tech, Curtis Cameron.
Before long, Luke is falling harder than he knew he could. And this time, he intends to play it right.
Since testing positive for HIV, Curtis has careened between numbness and fear.
Too ashamed to tell anyone, Curtis can't possibly act on his feelings.
And Luke--impulsive, funny, and more tempting than he realizes--won't take a hint.
Even when Curtis distances himself it backfires, leaving him with no idea how to protect Luke from the truth.
Confronting a sensitive topic with candor and aplomb, acclaimed author J. H. Trumble renders a modern love story as sweet, sharp, and messy as the real thing, where easy answers are elusive, and sometimes the only impossible thing is to walk away.
My Life After Now
by Jessica VerdiWhat now? Lucy just had the worst week ever. Seriously, mega bad. And suddenly, it's all too much--she wants out. Out of her house, out of her head, out of her life. She wants to be a whole new Lucy.
So she does something the old Lucy would never dream of.
And now her life will never be the same.
Now, how will she be able to have a boyfriend? What will she tell her friends? How will she face her family?Now her life is completely different...every moment is a gift.
Because now she might not have many moments left.
This Thing Called the Future
by J. L. PowersKhosi lives with her beloved grandmother Gogo, her little sister Zi, and her weekend mother in a matchbox house on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
In that shantytown, it seems like somebody is dying all the time. Billboards everywhere warn of the disease of the day.
Her Gogo goes to a traditional healer when there is trouble, but her mother, who works in another city and is wasting away before their eyes, refuses even to go to the doctor.
She is afraid and Khosi doesn't know what it is that makes the blood come up from her choking lungs.
Witchcraft? A curse? AIDS? Can Khosi take her to the doctor?
Gogo asks. No, says Mama, Khosi must stay in school. Only education will save Khosi and Zi from the poverty and ignorance of the old Zulu ways.
School, though, is not bad. There is a boy her own age there, Little Man Ncobo, and she loves the color of his skin, so much darker than her own, and his blue-black lips, but he mocks her when a witch's curse, her mother's wasting sorrow, and a neighbor's accusations send her and Gogo scrambling off to the sangoma's hut in search of a healing potion.
J.L. Powers holds an MA in African history from State University of New York-Albany and Stanford University. She won a Fulbright-Hays grant to study Zulu in South Africa, and served as a visiting scholar in Stanford's African Studies Department. This is her second novel for young adults.
Chanda's Secrets
by Allan StrattonA girl's struggle amid the African AIDS pandemic.
"As soon as I get back from the shabeen, I go next door to see Mrs. Tafa. I have to ask to use her phone to let our relatives know about Sara. I'm nervous. Mrs. Tafa would like to run the world. Since she can't run the world she's decided to run our neighborhood."
So speaks sixteen-year-old Chanda, an astonishingly perceptive girl living in the small city of Bonang, a fictional city in Southern Africa.
While Mrs. Tafa's hijinks are often amusing, the fact is that Chanda's world is profoundly difficult.
When her youngest sister dies, the first hint of HIV/AIDS emerges. In this sensitive, swiftly-paced story readers will find echoes of "To Kill a Mockingbird" as Chanda must confront undercurrents of shame and stigma.
Not afraid to explore the horrific realities of AIDS, Chanda's Secrets also captures the enduring strength of loyalty, friendship and family ties.
Above all, it is a story about the corrosive nature of secrets and the healing power of truth.
Through the artful style of acclaimed author Stratton, the determination and resilience Chanda embodies will live on in readers' minds.
City Boy
by Jan MichaelSet in contemporary Malawi, a poignant account of an orphaned boy's transition from city life to village life.
Sam's widowed mother has died from "the Disease," and Sam is claimed by his aunt Mercy, who lives in the small African village where Sam's mother was born and raised.
The gap between Sam's life in the city, where he had his own room, attended private school, and used a computer, and his new life in the dirt-floored one-room hut, which he is to share with his aunt and cousins, is vast beyond imagining.
Grief, loneliness, and the absence of everything familiar make for a rocky transition to a traditional culture where possessions count for little and everyone is expected to do his or her share.
Quicksand
by AnonymousWhat is it like to be affected by HIV/AIDS?
A moving first-person account offers insight- and basic facts.
One day I found out that someone I know- my brother-in-law, Jay- had HIV/AIDS.
At the moment I heard his diagnosis, I realized that I had stepped into the quicksand of a new and terrible world -- and I was sinking fast.
Weaving together her own story with straightforward questions and answers, the author explains the real ways that HIV/AIDS can be transmitted and explores the common experiences and emotions that might be encountered by friends and family members of someone who has the virus.
She also discusses why HIV/AIDS is often still kept a secret and the importance of treating this condition like any other.
With up-to-date medical information that has been thoroughly vetted by experts, this first-person narrative offers an invaluable look at what it is like to watch someone you know battle HIV/AIDS.
Ana's Story
by Jenna BushAna's life is a collection of bits and pieces of her past. Infected with HIV at birth, she's unaware of many details of her early childhood and barely remembers her mother. Living with her strict grandmother, she learns how to keep secrets – secrets about her infection and about the abuse she endures at home. But after Ana falls in love and becomes pregnant at seventeen, she begins a journey of hope – a journey of protecting herself and others. She is living with HIV, not dying from it. Jenna Bush tells of Ana's struggle to break free from the cycle of abuse, silence, and illness with passion and eloquence. But this is not just Ana's story. It is also the story of many children around the world who are marginalized, neglected, and mistreated.
Two Boys Kissing
by David Levithan
In his follow-up to the New York Times bestselling Every Day, David Levithan, coauthor of bestsellers Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, crafts a novel that the Los Angeles Times calls "open, frank, and ultimately optimistic".
Based on true events--and narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS--Two Boys Kissing follows Harry and Craig, two seventeen-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record.
While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teens dealing with universal questions of love, identity, and belonging.
With Levithan's trademark sharp-witted, warm-hearted tales of teenage love, Two Boys Kissing will appeal to fans of Levithan's breakthrough debut, Boy Meets Boy, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2013.
A 2014 Lambda Literary Award Winner.
A 2014 Stonewall Honor Book.
Named to the 2013 National Book Award Longlist.
Positively
by Courtney Sheinmel"When my mother died, I imagined God was thinking, 'One down, and one to go.'"
Emerson Price cannot remember a time when life was ordinary.
She was four years old when she and her mom were diagnosed as HIV-positive -- infected with the virus that causes AIDS -- and eight when her parents divorced. Now she is thirteen and her mother is dead.
Emmy moves in with her father and stepmother, but she feels completely alone. Even though everyone has always accepted her, no one -- not her father, or stepmother, or even her best friend -- understands what it's like to have to take medicine every single day and to be so afraid of getting sick.
Now Emmy misses her mom more than she ever thought she would.
When Emmy's dad and stepmother send her to Camp Positive, a camp for HIV-positive girls, Emmy is certain she is going to hate it.
But soon she realizes that she is not so alone after all -- and that sometimes letting other people in can make all the difference in the world.
Author Courtney Sheinmel has written an unforgettable novel about strength and hope in the face of tragedy.