Lambda Rising Bookstore

Author Appearances & Special Events

Each of the Lambda Rising stores host various events & we invite you to join us for these upcoming visits. All events are free and open to the public. No purchase is necessary (but, come on, you KNOW you want an autographed copy!)

You will also find listings of off-site events that we actively participate in. For off-site events we sell tickets to or sponsor, see Local Events below.

Title of Event: Augusten Burroughs in DC!!!!
When: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 6:30 PM
Location: Human Rights Campaign headquarters, 1640 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036
Description: With A Wolf at the Table, Augusten Burroughs makes a quantum leap into untapped emotional terrain: the radical pendulum swing between love and hate, the unspeakably terrifying relationship between father and son. Told with scorching honesty and penetrating insight, it is a story for anyone who has ever longed for unconditional love from a parent. Though harrowing and brutal, "A Wolf at the Table" will ultimately leave you buoyed with the profound joy of simply being alive. It's a memoir of stunning psychological cruelty and the redemptive power of hope. We are holding this event in the community room at the HRC headquarters in order to provide a larger yet more intimate space for Mr. Burroughs and his legion of fans. But Lambda Rising will be there offering copies of his books for sale on site.

What's hot this month (and coming to DC!)

Augusten Burroughs and Armistead Maupin -- BOTH in DC this month! Check out their latest titles and mark your calendar for their visits. (For dates and times, see full details in "Author Appearances & Special Events" above.)

A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father
by Burroughs, Augusten
"As a little boy, I had a dream that my father had taken me to the woods where there was a dead body. He buried it and told me I must never tell. It was the only thing we'd ever done together as father and son, and I promised not to tell. But unlike most dreams, the memory of this one never left me. And sometimes...I wasn't altogether sure about one thing: was it just a dream?"""

When Augusten Burroughs was small, his father was a shadowy presence in his life: a form on the stairs, a cough from the basement, a silent figure smoking a cigarette in the dark. As Augusten grew older, something sinister within his father began to unfurl. Something dark and secretive that could not be named.

Betrayal after shocking betrayal ensued, and Augusten's childhood was over. The kind of father he wanted didn't exist for him. This father was distant, aloof, uninterested...

And then the "games" began.

With "A Wolf at the Table," Augusten Burroughs makes a quantum leap into untapped emotional terrain: the radical pendulum swing between love and hate, the unspeakably terrifying relationship between father and son. Told with scorching honesty and penetrating insight, it is a story for anyone who has ever longed for unconditional love from a parent. Though harrowing and brutal, "A Wolf at the Table" will ultimately leave you buoyed with the profound joy of simply being alive. It's a memoir of stunning psychological cruelty and the redemptive power of hope.

Staff Picks!

Find out what our highly literature-diverse staff has selected as their picks! Click Read More above for details!

February House
by Tippins, Sherill
The ramshackle Brooklyn brownstone dubbed "February House" has itself been demolished, but the legacy of this literary bastion lives on in Sherill Tippins"s wonderful account that, as the San Francisco Chronicle notes, is a "tribute to the location that gives it mythical status." This is the incredible story of an artistic fraternity that included, among others, Carson McCullers, W. H. Auden, Paul Bowles, and the famed burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee, all living together under one roof. In the one year of its existence, these burgeoning talents composed many of their most famous, iconic literary works while experiencing together a crucial historical moment--America at the threshold of World War II.

Buzzin' Dozen Current Bestsellers

Check out our bestsellers and the Lambda Literary Award nominees and winners for this year by clicking the Read More link above!

The Q Guide to the Golden Girls
by Colucci, Jim
It's the classic TV sitcom-now finding a new generation of fans in reruns on Lifetime. Go behind the scenes with Q Guides to find out just what it is about Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sofia that so attracts both gay and young hetero fans.

Local Events & Book Groups

What's going on around Lambda Rising? Lots of Book Groups! Click Read More for more information!

The Blue Place
by Griffith, Nicola
A police lieutenant with the elite "Red Dogs" until she retired at twenty-nine, Aud Torvigen is a rangy six-footer with eyes the color of cement and a tendency to hurt people who get in her way. Born in Norway into the failed marriage between a Scandinavian diplomat and an American businessman, she now makes Atlanta her home, luxuriating in the lush heat and brashness of the New South. She glides easily between the world of silken elegance and that of sleaze and sudden savagery, equally at home in both; functional, deadly, and temporarily quiescent, like a folded razor.

On a humid April evening between storms, out walking just to stay sharp, she turns a corner and collides with a running woman, Catching the scent of clean, rain-soaked hair, Aud nods and silently tells the stranger "Today, you are lucky," and moves on--when behind her house explodes, incinerating its sole occupant, a renowned art historian. When Aud turns back, the woman is gone.

Guest Reviews

We've been lucky enough to have some wonderful GLBT book critics agree to do guest reviews for us for our website. Click the Read More link to find out what these terrifically opinionated pundits have to say about some of the hottest titles in GLBT literature today!

SoMa
by Scott, Kemble
To outsiders, San Francisco is all one big city. But to those in the know, there is SoMa, South of Market. It's home to a generation of hipsters disillusioned by the dotcom bust, restless and searching for the next thrill, the next high... Sex, drugs, kink--you can find anything you want in SoMa, if you know where to look. SoMa tells the story of three young people who journey into this glittering, surreal world of private sex clubs and kept boys, betrayal, redemption, and sometimes love. Drawing on his first hand knowledge of San Francisco's subcultures, Kemble Scott creates a provocative, wholly original, and unforgettable novel.

New Books & Hot Topics!

The book that everyone's been wanting and waiting for has finally arrived! Armistead Maupin does it again with his newest novel"Michael Tolliver Lives"... available in hardback and CD! Click the title of the book below for more information or click "Read More" above for other new books.

Once Upon a Nervous Breakdown
by Sanchez, Patrick
Sanchez, the author of "Girlfriends" and "The Way It Is," pens a smart, uproariously funny, and genuinely moving story of one woman trying to juggle single parenthood and the care of her own aging mother.

Book Sense Picks

Unique and provocative selections from a great diversity of voices...all personally recommended by the independent booksellers of America.

The Indian Clerk
by Leavitt, David
"Paul Erdos once asked G.H. Hardy, the noted 20th century British mathematician, to name his greatest contribution to their field. Hardy unhesitatingly replied that it was the 'discovery' of Srinivasa Ramanujan, one of the great mathematical geniuses in recent centuries. Across the chasm created by color, nationality, education, language, and colonialism, they spoke to each other in the language of pure numbers. Their collaboration plays out in this novel of intellectual history against the clubby atmosphere of British academics, homosexuality, food, and, finally, WWI." --Chris Stier, Shaman Drum Bookshop, Ann Arbor, MI