Gays Reading

Host Jason Blitman sits down with author Amy Jo Burns — who returns to Gays Reading after co-interviewing Abraham Verghese with Jason in summer 2024 — to discuss her latest novel, Wait for Me, the March pick for Read with Jenna's book club.Conversation highlights include: 🎶 Amy Jo's relationship to (and the power of) music🫂 Embracing your authentic self🖼️ Commercialization of artAmy Jo Burns is the author of the memoir Cinderland and the novel Shiner, which was a Barnes & Noble Discover pick and an NPR Best Book of the Year. Her novel Mercury was a Barnes & Noble Book Club pick, a Book of the Month selection, a People Magazine Book of the Week, and an Editor's Choice at The New York Times. A western Pennsylvania native, she lives in New Jersey with her family.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Blitman talks to RuPaul's Drag Race runner-up and Miss Congeniality, Sapphira Cristál about what she's been reading as well as about what folks can expect from her new comedy tour, One Slue Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Sapphira Cristál (runner-up and Miss Congeniality of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16) is a classically trained opera singer, composer, and drag queen known for her theatrical lip syncs and six-octave range. She is renowned as a charismatic host who forges a special connection with her audiences. Sapphira holds 16 pageant crowns and has performed globally. In 2024, she was thrice the guest artist in Madonna’s Celebration Tour, and she debuted her original operatic production, Soundcake, with Monét X Change and Thorgy Thor at Lincoln Center. Afterward, she brought her one-woman show, The Cristál Ball Tour, across North America.Sapphira works to inspire young people through appearances at colleges, youth camps, and high schools. She taught several years of master classes in drag makeup and performance at Emerson College, and she has given artist talks at Rockland Community College. An experienced attitude and stage presence coach, Sapphira has also taught master classes at the Philadelphia Burlesque Academy and various dance studios.Whenever she gets the chance, Sapphira partners with charitable organizations to raise funds to change people's lives. Her personal credo is: "There is no better exercise for the heart than reaching down to lift someone up," and she has made it her mission to uplift, encourage and inspire those around her.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Blitman talks to Oprah's Book Club pick Tayari Jones about Kin, her long-awaited new novel, nearly a decade in the making.Conversation highlights include:🔎 A Google-tangent about the etymology of the word "kin"🌈 On writing an overtly queer book🍰 The best kind of red velvet cakePer the conversation, here is the link to Motherhood Beyond Bars:https://www.motherhoodbeyond.org/Tayari Jones is the author of four novels, most recently An American Marriage, which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection and also appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list and his year-end roundup. It won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and an NAACP Image Award and has been published in two dozen countries. Jones is the C.H. Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University and lives in Atlanta.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Blitman talks to everyone's favorite influencer and bestie, Misha Brown aka @yourbestiemisha, about what he's been reading as well as his new book Be Your Own Bestie: A No-Nonsense Guide to Changing the Way You Treat YourselfMisha Brown is an undeniable entertainment powerhouse who excels as an influencer, podcast host, and performer. With a knack for captivating audiences, he shot to notoriety on TikTok in 2021 with the viral Lessons in Not Crossing a Gay Man series, amassing over 6 million followers. Named Motivational Creator of the Year and honored by the Webby Awards for social impact, he also earned a Best Comedy Podcast nomination from the Podcast Academy. Misha’s work has been spotlighted by People, USA Today, and Good Morning America, cementing his status as one of the most compelling voices online.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Blitman is joined by prolific author Kate Quinn to talk about her latest novel, The Astral Library. Conversation highlights include:📖 The book Kate would (and wouldn't) want to live in✨ Sacred spaces📚 Reading habits and the best books to rereadThe Astral Library is out now wherever you get your books. Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of Southern California, she attended Boston University, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in classical voice. A lifelong history buff, she has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga and two books set in the Italian Renaissance before turning to the 20th century with The Alice Network, The Huntress, The Rose Code, The Diamond Eye, and The Briar Club. The Astral Library is her first foray into magic realism. She and her husband now live in Maryland with their rescue dogs.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Announcing the March Gays Reading Book Club pick with Allstora SO OLD, SO YOUNG by Grant GinderFive parties over the course of twenty years bring six college friends together, exploring the ways we run from and cling to our friends in love, life, and death.New to the club? Get your first book for just $1!When you join the Gays Reading Book Club with Allstora, here’s what you get:A SIGNED copy of the book!30% off everything on Allstora’s websiteAccess to our Book Club chatEvery subscription donates a children’s book to an LGBTQIA+ youthA book club that exclusively supports LGBTQIA+ authorsAnd more along the waySign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Blitman is joined by debut author Patmeena Sabit to talk about her book, this month's Barnes & Noble Book Club Selection, Good People. Conversation highlights include:♥️ What it means to be a good person✨ Karma and how we choose to live our lives🫆 Paying a price to be your authentic selfGood People is out now wherever you get your books. Patmeena Sabit was born in Kabul a few years after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. When she was a month old, her family fled the conflict and became refugees in Pakistan, joining the millions of other Afghans that had sought refuge there. They later moved to the United States and she grew up in Virginia. She currently lives in Toronto.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Blitman talks with author April Reynolds (The Shape of Dreams) about what she’s been reading lately and the joyful surprise of discovering just how many LGBTQIA+ authors have quietly shaped her reading life.April Reynolds is the author of the novel Knee-Deep in Wonder, which won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation Award and the PEN American Center: Beyond Margins Award. She co-wrote The Red Rooster Cookbook with Marcus Samuelson and is co-editor, with Henry Louis Gates Jr., of The Toni Morrison Reader and The Zora Neale Hurston Reader. Reynolds has taught creative writing at New York University and the 92nd Street Y, and currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. A former resident of East Harlem, she now lives in Astoria, Queens.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Blitman talks to author Nikesha Elise Williams about her new novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree. Conversation highlights include:🎶 Janet Jackson choreography💜 What it means to be "enough"🙏 The sacred, intimate rituals of hairNikesha Elise Williams is a two-time Emmy Award–winning producer, an award-winning author, and producer and host of the Black and Published podcast. A narrative strategist by day and journalist always, her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Essence, and Vox. Nikesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and a DeGroot Foundation Writer of Note grantee. A Chicago native, she lives in Florida with her family.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Blitman sits down with bookish-multihyphenate Brian Larson aka @brian.reads who shares what he's been reading and talks about his new podcast, The Shelf Care Society. Brian Larson is the author of The Afterparty (publishing June 2027) a memoir that reframes sobriety not as loss but as liberation. Known as @brian.reads on social media, he is the founder of Shelf Care Society, a book club with RuPaul’s Allstora, and the host of Shelf Care Society: The Podcast, where he sits down with authors, activists, and cultural voices for candid, curious conversations. Brian blends humor, honesty, and literary love to explore identity, recovery, ambition, and reinvention.Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERESUBSTACK! MERCH! WATCH! CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.