SummerBooks
Summer reads aren’t limited to chick lit and crime thrillers—please stop asking me about The Girl on the Train!—so while packing your bags for the beach, why not include one of these HIV-themed books?

David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape
Published by Aperture

Artist David Wojnarowicz used various media formats to explored issues of AIDS, censorship and homophobia before his death in 1992. Since then, his work has grown in popularity and cultural relevance. In Brush Fires, nonprofit photography foundation Aperture redesigns and republishes the 1994 look at the artist’s use of photography.


The Emperor Has No Clothes: Doug Ireland’s Radical Voice
Edited by Martin Duberman

Doug Ireland was a radical left journalist who died in 2013. This collection of his writings spans 40 years, and as such offers a rich and informed history of the AIDS epidemic and gay rights movements. Several of the articles were originally published in POZ, such as “Hate They Neighbor: The Christian Right” and “Don’t Regulate My Body: Closing the Bathhouses.” Radical indeed!


Giving It Raw: Nearly 30 Years With AIDS
By Francisco Ibañez-Carrasco

Not for the squeamish, Francisco Ibañez-Carrasco’s memoir covers 30 years of “infection, affliction, affection and laughter”—or, more specifically, his immigration from Chile to Canada, his AIDS activism, and his irreverent take on porn, bathhouses and “the new normal HIV.”


Harold and Maude
By Colin Higgins

The 1971 cult classic film Harold and Maude—a love story between an 79-year-old optimist and a death-obsessed younger man—predates HIV. But this novelization was penned by Colin Higgins, who wrote the original screenplay as his master’s thesis at UCLA. Before his death in 1988 of AIDS complications, he created beloved movie magic: Foul Play, Silver Streak, 9 to 5 and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He also established the Colin Higgins Foundation to help LGBTQ youth. All royalties from sales of this 2015 edition will benefit the foundation.


HIV Happy
By Paul Thorn

Dealing with issues of low self-esteem or destructive patterns? Paul Thorn’s easy, breezy HIV Happy is just the self-help pick-me-up you need. As it spells out “Five Pillars of HIV Happy,” this small book could make a big difference in your life.


I Left It on the Mountain
By Kevin Sessums

Do you require sass and celebrity with your summer reads? Former Vanity Fair contributing editor Kevin Sessums generously slathers it on like sunblock. A follow-up to his 2007 Mississippi Sissy, this dishy memoir delves into his years of celebrity journalism, crystal meth, HIV, addiction, recovery and spiritual redemption. (BTW: Sessums was a contributing writer at POZ, penning the cover story “Ty Ross Comes Clean” in our 1994 debut issue.)


Konversations in the Dark
By Vanessa G. Cheek

I’m embarrassed to admit I let this book sit on my desk way too long before I took a peek. Don’t you make the same mistake! An AIDS advocate in New Jersey, Vanessa G. Cheek knows firsthand the experiences of women living with and affected by the virus. The book reads like a collection of super short stories, each titled with a woman’s name and told in the first person (Cheek describes her book as “based on both fact and fiction”). Although each tale takes up only a few pages, these powerful “konversations” make a lasting impression.


My Razzle Dazzle: An Outsider’s True Story
By Todd Peterson

In this rough-and-tumble memoir, Todd Peterson (a.k.a. HIV-positive writer and skate fanatic Tim Patten) recalls growing up and getting bullied in rural Wisconsin in the 1960s, then coming out in San Francisco’s burgeoning gay scene—all while trying to fulfill his roller derby dreams. (To read our 2009 interview with him regarding the derby documentary Jam, click here.)


No-Accounts: Dare Mighty Things
By Tom Glenn

Buddy programs are making headlines again. GMHC just relauched its historic program, which was shuttered in 2005. Tom Glenn’s No-Accounts offers a gripping glimpse into the reality of the original groups. It’s a fictional retelling of a straight man’s real-life experiences volunteering to care for gay men with AIDS in Washington, DC, in the 1980s. 


Visions and Revisions: Coming of Age in the Age of AIDS
By Dale Peck

If you like your activism and HIV history peppered with a heavy dose of queer theory, then Dale Peck offers the brains and book for you. In his memoir-meets-essays, the accomplished author and literary critic revisits his ACT UP days and the “second half of the first half of the AIDS crisis.”


Voices in the Band: A Doctor, Her Patients, and How the Outlook on AIDS Care Changed From Doomed to Hopeful
By Susan C. Ball

The title of the book explains the subject. But Susan C. Ball’s memoir brings the topic to vivid life. As an AIDS doc in New York City since 1992—four years before modern HIV meds—she has witnessed the epidemic in the trenches.