1. The Gay Box - ShopQueer.co
  2. The Gay Box - ShopQueer.co

The Gay Box

Regular price $55.00
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READY-TO-OPEN HOLIDAY PACKAGING.

FREE SHIPPING (5-8 business days, may arrive after Christmas​)

For all ShopQueer.co books, 10% of proceeds go back to the book's author, doubling the royalties they receive.

This holigay season, give the gift of queer literature with... The Gay Box!

Introduce a friend to three of ShopQueer.co's bestsellers! Our selections navigate past and present, fiction and nonfiction, to take readers on a journey through gay history and culture. Dive into everything from ACT UP to washed-up sitcom stars, from Bayard Rustin to beach rendezvous, all while enjoying the ride!

Choose your favorite holigay message for the gift label, and let us know if you'd like us to write anything in the To and From section!

Inside The Gay Box, you'll find...

 

(SIGNED) My Government Means to Kill Me, by Rasheed Newson (Hardcover)

MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2022 by The New York Times, Bustle, Goodreads, The Boston Globe, LitHub, and more!

The debut novel from TV writer and producer of THE CHI, NARCOS, and BEL-AIR tells a fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story following the personal and political awakening of a young, gay, Black man in 1980s New York City.

Earl "Trey" Singleton III arrives in New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, at 17, he is ready to leave his overbearing parents and their expectations behind.

In the city, Trey meets up with a cast of characters that changes his life forever. He volunteers at a renegade home hospice for AIDS patients, and after being put to the test by gay rights activists, becomes a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Along the way Trey attempts to navigate past traumas and searches for ways to maintain familial relationships―all while seeking the meaning of life amid so much death.

Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson’s My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young gay Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning.

 

The Guncle, by Steven Rowley (Paperback)

A National Bestseller
An NPR Book of the Year
Finalist for the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards

From the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus and The Editor comes a warm and deeply funny novel about a once-famous gay sitcom star whose unexpected family tragedy leaves him with his niece and nephew for the summer.

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is, honestly, overwhelmed.

So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick's brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of "Guncle Rules" ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled acting career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting--even if temporary--isn't solved with treats and jokes, Patrick's eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you're unfailingly human.

With the humor and heart we've come to expect from bestselling author Steven Rowley, The Guncle is a moving tribute to the power of love, patience, and family in even the most trying of times.

 

(SIGNED) Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise, by Jack Parlett (Hardcover)

*A Town and Country Must-Read Book of Summer*
*A Buzzfeed Best Book of June*
*A Washington Post "Book to Read This Summer"*
*An Advocate Best LGBTQ+ Book of 2022*
*A USA Today "Book to Celebrate Pride Month"*
*A New York Times "Editor's Pick"*

A groundbreaking account of New York's Fire Island, chronicling its influence on art, literature, culture and queer liberation over the past century.

Fire Island, a thin strip of beach off the Long Island coast, has long been a vital space in the queer history of America. Both utopian and exclusionary, healing and destructive, the island is a locus of contradictions, all of which coalesce against a stunning ocean backdrop.

Now, poet and scholar Jack Parlett tells the story of this iconic destination--its history, its meaning and its cultural significance--told through the lens of the artists and creators who sought refuge on its shores. Together, figures as divergent as Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, Carson McCullers, Frank O'Hara, Patricia Highsmith, and Jeremy O. Harris tell the story of a queer space in constant evolution.

Transporting, impeccably researched and gorgeously written, Fire Island is the definitive book on an iconic American destination and an essential contribution to queer history.