Information is courtesy of Giovanni’s Room, 345 S. 12th St.; 215-923-2960; www.queerbooks.com. Ten-percent off most hardcover in-store sales.
Men’s Books 1. “Great Speeches on Gay Rights” edited by James Daley (Dover, $3.50 pb). The voice of the gay-rights movement from its clandestine beginnings in the late 1800s through the current fight for marriage equality. 2. “Can You Feel What I’m Saying? An Erotic Anthology” by James Earl Hardy (IAJ, $17.95 pb). Hardy serves up seven scandalous tales, including “How Stanley Got His Back in Groove,” about a 40-year-old “born-again” virgin falling in lust with his 20-year-old former student. 3. “The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde, edited by Nicholas Frankel (Belknap, $12.95 pb). This volume restores material, including instances of graphic homosexual content, removed by the novel’s first editor. 4. “Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein” by Jonathan Cott (Oxford, $24.95 hb, less 10 percent in the store). 5. “My Brother’s Book,” written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak (HarperCollins, $18.95 hb, less 10 percent in the store). Sendak’s tribute to his brother is an expression of both grief and love, and will resonate with his lifelong fans who may have read his children’s books and will be ecstatic to discover something for them now. 6. “When Love Comes to Town” by Tom Lennon (Albert Whitman, $15.99 hb). A novel of a 17-year-old coming out in 1990s Dublin. 7. “Jack Holmes and His Friend” by Edmund White (Bloomsbury, $16 new in pb). Traces the lives of two New York friends from the 1960s through the AIDS epidemic. 8. “Mundo Cruel: Stories” by Luis Negrón (Seven Stories, $13.95 pb). The intimate world of a small community in Puerto Rico joined together by its transgressive sexuality.
Women’s Books 1. “Calling Dr. Laura: A Graphic Memoir” by Nicole G. Georges (Mariner, $16.95 pb). When Georges was 2 years old, her family told her that her father was dead. When she was 23, a psychic told her he was alive. 2. “Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama,” written and illustrated by Alison Bechdel (Mariner, $22 hb, less 10 percent in the store). A brilliantly told graphic memoir of Bechdel becoming the artist her mother wanted to be. 3. “The End of San Francisco” by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (City Lights, $15.95 pb, $10.69 Kobo eBook.) An elegy for the dream of a radical queer community and the mythical city that was supposed to nurture it. 4. “Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power” by Rachel Maddow (Crown, $15 new in pb). We have become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war. 5. “By Cecile” by Tereska Torres (Feminist, $13.95 pb, $9.39 Kobo eBook). Her husband takes her novels and signs them as his own; she takes his lover and becomes her mistress. 6. “Best Women’s Erotica 2013,” edited by Violet Blue (Cleis, $15.95 pb, $10.69 Kobo eBook). Fresher, edgier and more deliciously sexy than ever. 7. “Tea Leaves” by Janet Mason (Bella, $15.95). Mason reflects on the factory-worker lives of her mother and grandmother in working-class Philadelphia while she copes with her mother’s final illness. 8. “A Tale of Two Mommies” by Vanita Oelschlinger (Vanita, $8.95 pb). One boy asks another boy about having two mommies. A young girl listening in asks some questions too. For kindergarteners.
Men’s DVDs 1. “Sexual Tension: Volatile,” directed by Marco Berger and Marcelo Mónaco (2012, 100 min., $19.99). Shorts in which sex links each story. They offer voyeuristic pleasures as the camera caresses the men’s bodies, but also turn a sharp eye to the mysterious, taboo and electrifying nature of male intimacy. 2. “Going Down in La La Land,” directed by Caspar Andreas (2011, 104 min., $24.99). A candid and sexy dramedy about what an actor can — and will — do to survive in Hollywood. 3. “Eating Out 4: Drama Camp,” directed by Allan Brocka (2011, 90 min., $24.95). A supposedly celibate stint at a theater camp in the woods. 4. “The Skinny,” directed by Patrik-Ian Polk (2012, 100 min., $24.99). A sharply scripted comedy about a group of four young black gay men and their lesbian best friend. 5. “North Sea Texas,” directed by Bavo Defurne (2011, 99 min., $27.95). Dutch teens struggle. 6. “Our Paradise,” directed by Gaël Morel (2012, 100 min., $29.99). A thriller that asks the question, Is there love between thieves? 7. “Bad Boy Street,” directed by Todd Verow (2012, 80 min., $19.99). Two men embark on an unconventional romance in Verow’s sexy Parisian-set drama.
Women’s DVDs 1. “Perfect Ending,” directed by Nicole Conn (2012, 106 min., $24.95). When straight and married Rebecca seeks out the sexual services of high-priced call girl Paris, she isn’t expecting to fall in love. 2. “Circumstance,” directed by Maryam Keshavarz (2011, 107 min., $24.95). Iranian lesbians in love. 3. “The L Word: The Complete Set” (25 discs, 55 hours, 2011, $129.95). The whole dang thang! 4. “Purple Sea,” directed by Donatella Maiorca (105 min., $24.95). In 19th-century Sicily, a young woman crossdresses to be near her love. 5. “Big Lesbian Love, Collectors Set” (321 min., $34.95). Includes “The Four-Faced Liar,” “My Normal,” “And Then Came Lola” and “The Itty Bitty Titty Committee.” 6. “I Can’t Think Straight,” directed by Shamim Sarif (2008, 80 min., $24.95). South Asian heart versus culture. 7. “We Have to Stop Now,” directed by Robyn Dettman (2009, 73 min., $19.95). A comedy about an allegedly perfect lesbian marriage.