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The Book Nook
The Sperm Engine by Stephen Greco; Green Candy Press; 206 pages; $13.95.
Stephen Greco is a former senior editor of The Advocate who is now editor-at-large of the international style magazine Trace. The Sperm Engine reveals another side of Stephen Greco. Like Kevin Bentley's Wild Animals I Have Known (also published by Green Candy Press), The Sperm Engine reveals the anarchic, sexual aspect of many gay men's lives, one which straight society often tries to suppress and other gays try to deny. The Sperm Engine is a collection of short erotic fiction, sex memoirs and diary entries that are as thought-provoking as they are lascivious.
"I don't fetishize cum, but I do take my responsibilities for load production seriously," Greco writes in the startling title story, taken from his private diaries. "So I eat well, work out, get plenty of rest, and take lots of vitamins." Greco is not afraid to tell it like it is, whether he is relating his experiences as a "sperm engine" or revealing "How I Met My Boyfriend" (at the Promenade, a popular cruising spot at the edge of Brooklyn Heights). He also writes about making it with "My Favorite Porn Star" or sitting in "Simon's Chair" for special services. We also meet a dying man who has sex for the last time with a hospital orderly ("The Last Blowjob"), move "Among the Believers" in a special cockworship ritual, and attend the "Last Night at the Spike" as New York's famed leather bar goes with a bang. Stephen Greco has been compared to the likes of Boyd McDonald, John Preston and John Rechy. Like those other writers, Greco is not for everyone. On the other hand, those who take their chances and read The Sperm Engine will discover that there is more to sex than sex, especially when it's seen and experienced through the eyes and loins of a literary master. Brief Views:
Tantra for Gay Men is the first guide for gay men to the art of tantra, an ancient skill that has been misinterpreted in the West as a form of super sex. However, as a practice that combines sex and spirit - especially the "celebration and worship of the penis" - Tantra "is the spiritual path most appropriate for gay men in the 21st century. . . . Our outsider status gives us a great opportunity for unique insight." In its eight empowering chapters, Anderson takes his readers through the spiritual concepts and essential techniques of tantra, giving us "a better understanding of what Tantra is and [providing] exercises and rituals that will allow you to incorporate Tantric practice into your daily life." The Making of a Gay Asian Community: An Oral History of Pre-AIDS Los Angeles by Eric C. Wat; Rowman & Littlefield; 218 pages; $24.95. The last few years have witnessed a renaissance of fiction and nonfiction books by and about gay Asian men in the United States and Canada, ranging from Calendar Boy by Andy Quan and Letters to Montgomery Clift by Noel Alumit to the irrepressible Justin Chin and the stories in Queer PAPI Porn. The Making of a Gay Asian Community is Eric C. Wat's oral history of gay Asians in pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Like other minority gays, gay Asians had to deal with both homohobia on the part of their birth cultures and racism on the part of the white, gay community. The emergence of a gay Asian community, at least in California, was intimately connected to the larger culture, as many gay Asians chose Caucasian sex partners over other Asian men. Even the groundbreaking organization Asian/Pacific Lesbians and Gays (A/PLG), whose early history is the focal point of this study, was full of white gay "rice queens" in search of Asian men. In The Making of a Gay Asian Community, Wat relates how a often-ignored, often-misunderstood minority community found its way through all of these difficulties in order to stand on its own two feet. Stocking Stuffers: Homoerotic Christmas Tales edited by David Laurents; Circlet Press; 208 pages; $12.00. Though it might be a bit late to review this book, I believe that it's always a good time for a good book. The first one of its kind, Stocking Stuffers is a collection of the best gayrotic stories about Christmas, a holiday where good gay sex usually takes a back seat to dysfunctional family gatherings. David Laurents, whose collections of gay erotica are legendary, has put together sizzling holiday tales by the likes of Lawrence Schimel, Tom Caffrey. Lars Eighner, Felice Picano and Leigh Rutledge. "The stories in this book are about men who somehow manage to find a moment's peace amid the Holiday madness, in finding the men who fulfill their desires. These are stories to entertain and arouse, stories you might imagine as you're lying in bed on Christmas Eve [or any other night], staring at the frost on the window-pane and drifting off towards dreamland and fantasy". In short, these stories "will leave you feeling a happy, warm glow." Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance author and gay book lover who lives in South Florida with his domestic partner. He can be reached at jessemonteagudo@aol.com. |
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Tantra for Gay Men by Bruce Anderson; Alyson Books; 156 pages; $13.95.
Bruce Anderson has studied with Amazonian and Plains Indians shamans as well as with Tibetan, East Indian, and Egyptian tantra teachers. He is a third-level cobra breath practitioner and teaches "Tantra for Men" at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
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