Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Here is a thread to discuss books you’re considering or suggesting for Task 18: Read a book about drag or queer artistry.

I'm looking at The Art of Drag for this one.

Trying to use books I own - What does “queer artistry” encompass? I have a book about Natalie Barney, Romaine Brooks, and Sapphic Paris that might work.

Thinking about reading The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir by RuPaul

I'm thinking either The Art of Drag or The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag

I haven't read any of these, but I've heard good things about these three:

Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life by Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez

And the Category Is.: Inside New York's Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community by Ricky Tucker

Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary by Sasha Geffen

Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen

I'm really not sure what I want to read for this task. I enjoy drag as performance, but it isn't a subject where most of the books about drag really draw me in at all. I'd love to maybe read something about early drag history if I can find something in that vein. "Queer artistry" is pretty vague, and the only thing on my tbr that really goes in that vein at all is Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback by Susan Stryker.

Elizabeth wrote: "I'm really not sure what I want to read for this task. I enjoy drag as performance, but it isn't a subject where most of the books about drag really draw me in at all. I'd love to maybe read someth..."

For a prompt last year I read "It Was Vulgar and it Was Beautiful" by Jack Lowry, which was about the art scene in the 80s and 90s as a form of protest and making awareness about the AIDS crisis. Maybe that is more to your liking?

I think I’m going to do “Breakfast on Pluto” by Patrick McCabe.

Carly wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "I'm really not sure what I want to read for this task. I enjoy drag as performance, but it isn't a subject where most of the books about drag really draw me in at all. I'd love to..."

Thank you for the suggestion! That does sound good, definitely worth considering, although when I was thinking of early history I was thinking of like... like if there's a book on drag in vaudeville maybe?

Elizabeth wrote: "Carly wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "I'm really not sure what I want to read for this task. I enjoy drag as performance, but it isn't a subject where most of the books about drag really draw me in at al..."

Ooh, I'd be interested in that topic myself. If you do choose the general 'queer' artistry and go with "It Was Vulgar..." just know it tends toward the academic. It was very good, and I'm glad I read it, but it could be a little dry at times. Still engaging, and certain parts were tremendously emotional, but some parts moved pretty slow. Just in case that effects your decision. I definitely learned a ton, and it's a shame that it's not more well known in popular knowledge.

I removed the wrong book post. >__<


I didn't read the challenge name properly so I will not be reading "Breakfast on Pluto" for this task.


However, I stand by my earlier suggestion "Tipping the Velvet" by Sarah Waters (for those that like fiction and struggle with nonfiction (*cough* me *cough*)). It deals with stuff during the early 1900s, but their summary is about a woman who isn't comfortable in her skin who becomes enchanted by female performers dressing as and performing as men on the stage. There are other sections where drag and queer artistry come into play, but I won't ruin it for you.

It was assigned during one of my English classes a couple years ago and I actually liked this a lot (which says a lot since I usually loathe required reading).

I’m not sure I understand this challenge, but I am tentatively planning to read either Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism, by Steven Watson; M. Butterfly, by David Henry Hwang; or Duncan Grant and the Bloomsbury Group, by Douglas Blair Turnbaugh.

I'm considering:

My Name’s Yours, What’s Alaska?: A Memoir (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...)

The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...)

Trixie and Katya's Guide to Modern Womanhood (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...)

Blame It on Bianca Del Rio: The Expert on Nothing with an Opinion on Everything (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...)

I'm going to read The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait because it's been on my TBR forever & loosely fits the theme.

I'm going to try to get my hands on a copy of Queer Nuns, a book about The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

I think this could be interpreted extremely loosely to mean anyone who is an artist and also queer and explores their queerness in some way in their art (fictional character or real person).

But I want to read Zanele Muholi. They're a queer South African photographer, and their photographs are a way to focus on those identities, and the book itself will be a work of art.

I wish my library carried it, but it seems like a good book to invest in. I imagine I'll want to return to it.

I'm going with Drag Queen of Scots: The Dos and Don’ts of a Drag Superstar by Lawrence Chaney, who won Drag Race UK.

Also from season 2 of Drag Race UK comes Release the Beast: A Drag Queen's Guide to Life by Bimini Bon Boulash.

Just in case there are any other Drag Race UK fans on this thread!

I've put together a list of potential reads for this task. I'm still not positive what I want to do, but I usually do better if I have a handful to choose from, so these are what I'm considering that are either about drag or queer artistry and that fit my general interests and that I have access to.

-A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge by David Hajdu and John Carey (this is a broader graphic bio of multiple Vaudeville performers, but one of them was known for his drag performances, and I was just really excited to find something about Vaudeville)
-A History of Milwaukee Drag: Seven Generations of Glamour by B.J. Daniels (like I said before, earlier drag history draws me in more, and Milwaukee's documented drag history apparently goes back to the 19th century, which is cool af)
-Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback by Susan Stryker (this is the one I mentioned earlier, and I just think that queer pulp fiction sounds really interesting, the covers are great, and this one has been on my TBR for a hot minute)
-It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic by Jack Lowery (which is what Carly suggested and it sounds interesting, and even though it isn't the time period isn't one that most interests me, I still really want to read more about the AIDS pandemic)
-Telling Time: Resisting the Apocalypse in American AIDS Novels, 1982-1992 by Lisa Frieden (it sounds interesting, and like above, I want to read more about the AIDS pandemic)
-Out at the Movies: A History of Gay Cinema by Steven Paul Davies (I love film history, so this is in my general area of interest anyway)
-Double Life: Portrait of a Gay Marriage From Broadway to Hollywood by Alan Shayne and Norman Sunshine (again, I love film history and this sounds interesting)
-It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror edited by Joe Vallese (again, I love film history, I love horror, this anthology includes pieces from authors I like and about movies I like, and it was already on my TBR)
-Lesbians on Television: New Queer Visibility & the Lesbian Normal by Kate McNicholas Smith (adjacent to film history love)

I'm planning on reading When Brooklyn Was Queer which I started a couple of years ago but set down because I wasn't in a non-fiction mood and then forgot to pick back up. Not because of the book though, which I found very compelling! It's not soley about drag artistry, but there is a LARGE portion of it that is!

Carly wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "I'm really not sure what I want to read for this task. I enjoy drag as performance, but it isn't a subject where most of the books about drag really draw me in at all. I'd love to..."
I hadn't thought to interpret this prompt like that and it's a really great idea that definitely works with the rules as written. I also read It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful for one of the prompts last year and I thought it was phenomenal.
I unfortunately don't really have an interest in drag (and especially not the reality tv style that most of these books seem to be about), but this thread also reminded me of the history of Ballroom culture (which feels very related) and I was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations on the topic.

I was totally not intending to use it for a prompt, but I've just read Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters and as someone else on the thread said, it REALLY works for this if you're looking for a fiction option! Although it's fiction, it's historical and thoroughly researched and it's really interesting to read about Drag Kings in the 1890s. Then again, I'm definitely interested in reading some nonfiction on the subject now, since I found it so interesting! I've always loved theatrical stories

Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers is about a gay art gallery administrator during the 80s AIDS epidemic, and how so much death had long-term consequences.

I read the picture book Stitch by Stitch: Cleve Jones and the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

I read Karma: My Autobiography by Boy George for this one.

The upcoming young adult novel Don't Be a Drag by Skye Quinlan looks really fun and like it would fit this prompt perfectly, so I think I may read that when it comes out this summer.

I read "Our Lady of the Flowers" by Jean Genet, which is suspected to be where the famous drag queen Divine got her name. It's a bit of a stretch, as it's not a book about the art of drag, but it features characters who would be considered drag queens today (there wasn't the language for it back in the 40's).

I also read Tipping the Velvet for this challenge. And I just realized it was made into a television series in 2002 by the BBC. The book is well written but some of the characters are just so unlikable. Not because they are gay, but because they are so unbelievably cruel. I found many of the relationships portrayed so dysfunctional and destructive.

Jennifer wrote: "I'm going to read The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait because it's been on my TBR forever & loosely fits the theme."

I really like this suggestion as I love Frida Kahlo so this sounds like a great recommendation and I didn't really know exactly what I was going to read in this prompt.

I read The Art of Drag by Jake Hall and by Saidiya Hartman. One is a quick, graphic (in that it is illustrated) history. Wayward is more a history.

I read The House of Hidden Meanings

Elizabeth wrote: "Carly wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "I'm really not sure what I want to read for this task. I enjoy drag as performance, but it isn't a subject where most of the books about drag really draw me in at al..."
When Brooklyn Was Queer has a large chunk about the Drag King and Queen culture in early Brooklyn at the turn of the 19th Century-1920s, closer to your vaudeville search!

Madeline wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Carly wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "I'm really not sure what I want to read for this task. I enjoy drag as performance, but it isn't a subject where most of the books about drag reall..."

Thanks so much for the suggestion!

I plan to read Desert Queen by Jyoti Rajan Gopal. It's a picture book biography of a Rajasthani drag performer. It would also count for #11.

I read Just Kids by Patti Smith. Much of it is about how Robert Mapplethorpe trues to break into the area world, but his art, which explores queerness, is considered too "out there" and he has trouble finding an audience.