Elisa - My reviews and Ramblings

William Morris Meredith, Jr. (January 9, 1919 – May 30, 2007) was an American poet and educator. He was Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1978 to 1980. In an inspired act of matchmaking, Maxine Kumin introduced William Meredith and Richard Harteis around 1971, and despite the 28-year difference in their ages William and Richard were devoted to each other for the rest of William’s life. Meredith died in New London, Connecticut, near his home in Montville, where he lived with his partner of 36 years, the poet Richard Harteis. A film about his life, Marathon, premiered on November 19, 2008 in Mystic, Connecticut

Meredith was born in New York City to William Morris Meredith, Sr. and Nelley Keyser. He began writing while a college student at Princeton University where with his first volume of poetry Love Letter from an Impossible Land he was selected by Archibald MacLeish for publication as part of Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton in 1940, writing a senior thesis on Robert Frost.


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The Wrong Man by Lane Hayes
eBook: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6000
Paperback: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6001

Successful owner of an upscale boutique in fabulous West Hollywood, Brandon Good swears by his personal edict to “live in the present.” After a bad break-up, he agrees to dog sit to keep his mind off his ex. Never did he expect the dog to belong a man from his past, the only man to ever truly break his heart.

When Jake Westley relocates to join the WeHo fire department, the last thing he anticipates is reuniting with his secret high school love. Thrilled with the prospect of reconnecting with Bran, Jake feels no guilt in using his charming old dog as an unwitting matchmaker. As they rekindle their friendship, it becomes clear the intense attraction they once felt is stronger than ever. But as hard as they try to leave the past behind, painful memories resurface. Bran will have to confront his fears and consider the possibility that the man he swore was absolutely the wrong one might be perfect after all.

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Author Bio: Lane Hayes is grateful to finally be doing what she loves best. Writing full time! It’s no secret Lane loves a good romance novel. An avid reader from an early age, she has always been drawn to a well-told love story with beautifully written characters. These days she prefers the leading roles both be men! Lane discovered the M/M genre a fews ago and was instantly hooked. Her first novel was a finalist in the 2013 Rainbow Awards and her third received an Honorable Mention in the 2014 Rainbow Awards. She loves travel, chocolate, and wine (in no particular order). Lane lives in Southern California with her amazing husband and the coolest yellow lab ever in an almost empty nest.

Where you can find Lane:
Website: https://lanehayes.wordpress.com/
Facebook: LaneHayesauthor
Twitter: @LaneHayes3
E-mail: mailto:lanehayes@ymail.com



Tour Dates: January 9, 2015
Tour Stops: Parker Williams, My Fiction Nook, Rainbow Gold Reviews, Amanda C. Stone, Inked Rainbow Reads, Molly Lolly, BFD Book Blog, Bayou Book Junkie, Fallen Angel Reviews, Cate Ashwood, Havan Fellows, The Hat Party, The Blogger Girls, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Love Bytes, Lee Brazil, Kristy's Brain Food, Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews, Up All Night, Read All Day, Christy Loves 2 Read, Hearts on Fire, Charley Descoteaux, MM Good Book Reviews, Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings, 3 Chicks After Dark

Rafflecopter Prize: $10 Gift Card
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For how much lighthearted this historical "romp" was it made me think twice. First of all, it was a long time I didn't use the term romp for an historical romance, a romp was a very popular genre when I was reading a lot of historical romance in my teens, and I actually liked them a lot: light, funny, not too much commitment but a pleasant feeling of relax.

Second, the theme, a man misguided as a woman who is so convincing he ends to be bethroted with another man. Unrealistic? Maybe 10 years ago I was to say yes, but now, after all my historical researches, I know that isn't actually impossible. True, what I found more common is a woman passing as a man (so convincing in a case that only when she died people found out she wasn't a man), but I remember I read a biography of a French spy to the Russian court, a man, who loved so much his woman role that, once retired, moved to England and continued his life as a woman, and again, only when he died, people found out he was a man.

So no, the theme of this novel isn't unrealistic, and I quite liked how the author didn't make of the "heroine" a stereotype: Joseph/Josephine, in modern term, would be referred as a cross-dressed, he doesn't want to be a woman, he likes to dress as one, but during the intimacy with Marcus, he is quite happy and comfortable with his man body.

Again, do not expect a serious novel, but if you want to read a light novella, this is the one.

Publisher: Three Worlds Press, a div of Three Worlds Productions, LLC (December 22, 2014)
Amazon Kindle: Lightson Dinasty

More Reviews by Author at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Reviews



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William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the 'A' Train," "Chelsea Bridge," and "Lush Life." (Picture: Photo by Carl Van Vechten (August 14, 1958))

Duke Ellington was thoroughly heterosexual and notoriously promiscuous; Billy Strayhorn was gay, shy, and had romantic relationships with only two men: he spent ten years with pianist Aaron Bridgers and three years with Bill Grove. Lena Horne, a longtime friend of Strayhorn and Ellington, noted that despite their different natures, "their relationship was very sexual. Don’t misunderstand—it wasn’t physical at all. Duke treated Billy exactly like he treated women, with all that old-fashioned chauvinism. Very loving and very protective, but controlling." As Hajdu wrote, "The relationship was largely psychosexual, though by no means physically homosexual." Their romance found its expression and union in the music they created together. (Picture: Aaron Bridgers)

Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio. His family soon moved to the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, his mother's family was from Hillsborough, North Carolina, and she sent him there to protect him from his father's drunken sprees. Strayhorn spent many months of his childhood at his grandparents' house in Hillsborough. In an interview, Strayhorn said that his grandmother was his primary influence during the first ten years of his life. He first became interested in music while living with her, playing hymns on her piano, and playing records on her Victrola record player.


Bridgers was introduced to Strayhorn as a perspective "partner" by Mercer Ellington, son of the Duke. A straight black man in 1939 introduced these two "gay" men to one another. Anyway, a year after their meeting, both Strayhorn and Bridgers moved in together. They were describe as being very affectionate toward one another. Even more importantly, those who knew them as a couple were respectful of the two men and their relationship. Considering the time in which both men lived this is impressive in so many ways.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Strayhorn

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher


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The famous English painter Peter Gluck (13 August 1895 – 10 January 1978) was born as Hannah Glukstein to a wealthy and close-knit Jewish family. In 1944 Gluck moved to Chantry House in Steyning, Sussex, living with lover Edith Shackleton Heald until her death. (P: Gluck by 'Gluck' (Hannah Gluckstein), oil on canvas, 1942, 12 in. x 10 in. (306 mm x 254 mm), Given by the sitter and artist, 'Gluck' (Hannah Gluckstein), 1973, Primary Collection, NPG 6462)

Gluck was born into a wealthy Jewish family, the child of Joseph Gluckstein, whose brothers Isidore and Montague had founded J. Lyons and Co., a British coffee house and catering empire. Gluck's American-born mother, Francesca Halle, was an opera singer. Gluck's brother, Sir Louis Gluckstein, was a Conservative politician.

In the 1920s and 30s Gluck became known for portraits and floral paintings; the latter were favoured by the interior decorator Syrie Maugham. Gluck insisted on being known only as Gluck, "no prefix, suffix, or quotes", and when an art society of which Gluck was vice president identified Gluck as "Miss Gluck" on its letterhead, Gluck resigned. Gluck identified with no artistic school or movement and showed Gluck's work only in solo exhibitions, where they were displayed in a special frame Gluck invented and patented. This Gluck-frame rose from the wall in three tiers; painted or papered to match the wall on which it hung, it made the artist's paintings look like part of the architecture of the room. (P: Medallion by Gluck, 1937: this self-portrait of Gluck with her lover Nesta Obermer, which she painted after a shared night at the opera and referred to as the “YouWe”-picture)


Peter (A Young English Girl) by Romaine Brooks, 1923/24 (Portrait of Gluck)
The famous English painter Peter Gluck was born as Hannah Glukstein to a wealthy and close-knit Jewish family. In 1944 Gluck moved to Chantry House in Steyning, Sussex, living with lover Edith Shackleton Heald until her death. One of Gluck's bestknown paintings, Medallion, is a dual portrait of Gluck and Gluck's lover Nesta Obermer, inspired by a night when they attended a production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Gluck also had a romantic relationship with the British floral designer Constance Spry.

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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Gluckstein

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher


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Dennis Cooper (born January 10, 1953) is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist.

Cooper grew up the son of a wealthy businessman in Arcadia, California. His first forays into literature came early, focusing on imitations of Rimbaud, Verlaine, de Sade, and Baudelaire. As he began his teenage years, he wrote poetry and stories on scandalous and often extreme subjects. At the age of fifteen, he began to plan an ambitious novel cycle. This project, which took Cooper nearly twenty years to realize, would later become known as The George Miles Cycle. Cooper was an outsider and the leader of a group of poets, punks, stoners, and writers. After high school he attended Pasadena City College and, later, Pitzer College, where he had a poetry teacher who was to inspire him to pursue his writing outside of institutions of higher learning.

In 1976 Cooper went to England to become involved in the nascent punk scene. In the same year he began Little Caesar Magazine which included among other things an issue on and dedicated to Rimbaud. In 1978 with the success of the magazine, Cooper was able to found Little Caesar Press which featured the work of, among others, Brad Gooch, Amy Gerstler, Elaine Equi, Tim Dlugos, Joe Brainard, and Eileen Myles.

In 1979, Cooper published his first book of poetry, Idols, and became the director of programming at an alternative poetry space, Beyond Baroque, in Venice, California. He held that position for three years. Cooper's second book of poetry, Tenderness of the Wolves, published in 1982, was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In 1984, Cooper moved to New York City where he published his first book of fiction, a novella titled Safe, and began writing the cycle of five interconnected novels he had been planning since his mid-teens. In 1987 he moved to Amsterdam where he finished writing the first novel in the George Miles Cycle, Closer which later won the first Ferro-Grumley Award for gay literature.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Cooper

Cra - cra and yet more cra (crazy), So Many Ways to Sleep Badly by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, The Sluts by Dennis Cooper & Lithium for Medea by Kate Braverman would make Sybil (a patient made famous for her multiple personalities) look like Heidi (Johana Spyri's classic novels about a girl who lives with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps.) The authors - Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Dennis Cooper, and Kate Braverman - serve up emotionally and physically battered characters who are all in the grip: of sex, drugs, and trauma (most of it induced by monstrous parents.) Existentialism souped up on pain meds, desire, the "internet" and Mom. Wildly different (stylistically), these novels are relentlessly grim yet impossible to put down. Page turners, as it were, for the depressed and disaffected. Cooper's The Sluts is the apotheosis of a story he's been reworking for years: the elusive central character - a generic boy - appears in variation incarnations (Safe, Try) taken to dizzying heights. However, Cooper remains in control of the narrative and, while The Sluts comes close to unraveling, it never succumbs to collapse. --Tomas Mournian

Sweetness under the guise of horror. In the opening scene of Try, a teenage kid called Ziggy is sitting in his bed editing his zine about being abused. A kid gets killed by an evil pornographer. Yet you’re rooting for these people, you feel their heartache and lonliness. --Blair Mastbaum

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Further Readings:

The Sluts by Dennis Cooper
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press (October 19, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786716746
ISBN-13: 978-0786716746
Amazon: The Sluts

Set largely on the pages of a website where gay male escorts are reviewed by their clients, and told through the postings, emails, and conversations of several dozen unreliable narrators, The Sluts chronicles the evolution of one young escort's date with a satisfied client into a metafiction of pornography, lies, half-truths, and myth. Explicit, shocking, comical, and displaying the author's signature flair for blending structural complexity with direct, stylish, accessible language, The Sluts is Cooper's most transgressive novel since Frisk, and one of his most innovative works of fiction to date.

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

More Spotlights at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels


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