7 Days of Readings

Upcoming:

ADVENTURES IN MENSTRUATING ROADSHOW Bluestockings Women’s Bookstore and Café hosts a zine reading about menstruation, including informative, funny, and thought-provoking writings and deconstructions of old feminine hygiene ads. 172 Allen St., btwn. Stanton and Rivington Sts., 212.777.6028 .Aug. 22, 7 p.m.

DIARY OF A DRAG QUEEN Daniel Harris reads from his new memoir. Barnes and Noble, 675 Sixth Ave. at 22nd St., 212-727-1227. Aug. 23, 7 p.m.

LETTERS TO VIRGINIA WOOLF Lisa Williams reads from her biographer from the iconic early 20th century writer. Barnes and Noble, 4 Astor Pl., 212-420-1322. Aug. 24, 7 p.m.

RED LIGHT NIGHT Firecracker Productions presents its third summer evening of staged readings of short plays about sex. Emerging talents including Noa Gottlieb, Kate Kolendo, and Ian Marks make for an absolutely searing summer night. The Slipper Room, 167 Orchard St. at Stanton St., 8 p.m. No admission, but a one-drink minimum. For more information visit slipperroom.com or call 212-253-7246.

WOMEN’S POETRY JAM & WOMEN’S OPEN MIKE Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, a Chinese-Taiwanese American spoken word artist, and Susan Gerardi, a New Yorker transplanted to L.A., join Vittoria Repetto for an evening of readings and open mike. Bluestockings Women’s Bookstore and Café, 172 Allen St., btwn. Stanton and Rivington Sts., 212.777.6028. Aug. 30, 7 p.m.

Recently Noted:

ACQUA CALDE To live with AIDS in the mid 1990s still meant facing a grim fate and a strong possibility of dying. In Keith McDermott’s debut novel, New York actor Gerald Barnett is spending his time waiting to die, until an an avant-garde director comes to his rescue. (Seth J. Bookey)

CENTER SQUARE: THE PAUL LYNDE STORY For years, Paul Lynde occupied the center square on “Hollywood Squares.” Lynde’s prickly, teetering-on-the-edge-of-the-closet humor made the show a hit and brought him lasting fame. But was it enough to make him happy? According to Steve Wilson and Joe Fiorenski, it wasn’t. (Scott Brassart)

LESBIAN PULP FICTION Two alluring women in 1960s-style hairdos grace the cover of “Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965,” a collection of fiction reprints by Katherine V. Forrest. (Eileen McDermott)

MOTHER OF SORROWS This is an arresting collection of stories, a refreshment of tellings by Richard McCann. The stories are not rendered in the deadening and consumer-oriented rubrics of thick description, but rather in the fleet and sometimes strophic manner of the ode. (James McCourt)

SECRET SERVICE: UNTOLD STORIES OF LESBIANS IN THE MILITARY Zsa Zsa Gershick’s book is a collection of interviews with lesbians who have served or are still on active duty in the various branches of the military. They make clear the greatest threat to the functioning of a military unit is the sexist attitudes of straight men. It doesn’t matter if they’re what you might call butch women or lipstick lesbians. (Stefen Styrsky)

SMOKING CIGARETTES Want to read a book about hot sex, larceny, finding true love among multiple bedfellows, murder and the Lord? In his second novel, “Smoking Cigarettes,” Reginald L. Hall presents all of this in his account of the life of Rashad Smith, a 22-year-old African-American, gay man in Philadelphia, delving into the anguish of looking for love in dangerous places. (Tyler Pray)

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