This week on the FDL Book Salon at 5:00pm eastern. Details about the books are below.
Saturday, July 16th, Civil Rights Attorney, Abby Dees will be here to discuss her new book, Queer Questions Straight Talk, Hosted by Teddy Partridge. Abby’s website and blog.
Sunday, July 17th, Editor of The Washingtonian magazine, Garrett Graff will discuss his new book, The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror, Hosted by Cynthia Kouril. Garrett’s website.
To contact the FDL Book Salon – FiredoglakeBookSalon@gmail.com. Book recommendations and your comments are welcomed. Other upcoming Book Salons are at – FDLBookSalon.com
I look forward to seeing you this weekend.
FDL Book Salon: Queer Questions Straight Talk
Author: Abby Dees
Saturday, July 16, 2011 2:00 pm Pacific time
Long overdue, Queer Questions Straight Talk finally brings up any and every question a straight person might want to ask their gay, lesbian and bi loved ones. QQST is the perfect book for everyone who is, or knows someone who is, lesbian, gay or bi.
Author Abby Dees shows it’s OK to be a little nosy – there are no bad questions or wrong answers if you bring love and a little humor to the table. QQST will help people break the ice and spark an important, sometimes difficult, often surprising conversation.
“I’ve heard so many questions over the years from nervous straight people who were never quite sure if it was OK to ask me about being a lesbian,” says Dees. “I hope that QQST just gets it all out on the table in a loving, respectful way.”
Submitted by straight, lesbian, gay and bisexual people of diverse backgrounds, the questions in QQST range from, “Do you feel there’s something special that comes with being lesbian, gay or bi?” to “What am I supposed to tell my friends at church when they ask about you?”
The book includes submissions from leading public figures such as former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, Married with Children actress Amanda Bearse, executive director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights Kate Kendall and humorist Kate Clinton.
“Finally! Some real questions and answers in our ongoing national conversation about LGBT equality. This is a public service!” says Clinton about Queer Questions Straight Talk.
Abby Dees: I have worked as a civil rights attorney on issues ranging from housing discrimination to prison health care, with people from amazing array of backgrounds. Through this work, I have seen time and again that most conflicts arise because of simple communication breakdowns. In fact, most of my clients’ problems could be addressed if we took the time together to tell their story accurately and truthfully – no lawsuit required. (St Lynn’s Press)
FDL Book Salon: The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror
Author: Garrett M. Graff
Sunday, July 17, 2011 2:00 pm Pacific time
The Threat Matrix is the story of a small group of FBI agents who believed that they could confront a new generation of international terrorists like al Qaeda without sacrificing America’s moral high ground. At the heart of this classic good versus evil battle are decades of tensions between the FBI and the CIA, which repeatedly fell short as America’s eyes overseas.
Given unprecedented access, thousands of pages of once secret documents, and hundreds of interviews, Garrett M. Graff takes us inside the FBI and its attempt to protect America. From the corridors of the Hoover Building to the cells of Gitmo and the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Graff tells the true story of how a generation of FBI agents taught themselves to confront threats no one had ever seen before.
Brilliantly reported and suspensefully told, The Threat Matrix peers into the darkest corners of this secret war and will change your view of the FBI forever.
Garrett Graff is the editor-in-chief of The Washingtonian. He is the author of The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House (FSG, 2007) and the founding editor of the FishbowlDC.com, the first blog to cover the White House press briefings. (Little, Brown & Company)