Brian Bouldrey traveled to the island of Corsica, with its wine-dark Mediterranean waters, powdered-sugar beach sand, sumptuous cuisine, and fine wine. And then he walked away from all of them. Bouldrey strapped on a backpack and walked across Napoleon's native land with the same spirit many choose to dance or drink: to celebrate, to mourn, to think, to avoid thinking, to recall, to ignore, to escape, and to arrive. This wonderfully textured account of a two-week ramble along a famous Corsican hiking trail with his German friend Petra (she was good at the downhills while he was better at the uphills) offers readers a journal that is a launching point for reflection: thoughts on cultural differences, friendship, physical challenge, personal challenge, and getting very, very lost. Part travelogue, part memoir, and part lampoon, this book offers readers an impressionistic view of a little talked about yet stunningly beautiful landscape.
Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians and the Public Library Association Runner-up, Best Travel Book, National Association of Travel Journalists

Honorable Bandit: A Walk across Corsica

Politics & Social Sciences

Bouldrey, Brian

Social Sciences

University of Wisconsin Press

"GENTLE AND FUNNY...From the first chapter...to the very touching ending, The Genius Of Desire is a good story worth telling." --San Francisco Chronicle Michael Bellman is not your average little boy. He speaks to plates, banisters, and other household objects (preferring them to people). He frequently confesses to sins he never committed (like adultery). And he's hopelessly drawn to the romantic notion of a secret, double life. Michael spends summers in Monsalvat, Michigan, coming of age in a loving tangle of great aunts, great uncles, cousins once-removed (but ever-present), and one tough-looking, silently scary grandmother. The Kaisers are a wild, highly eccentric bunch: Great Uncle Jimmy speaks to his dead wife during meals and proudly proclaims himself the Fattest Man in the World; Cousin Anne torments and taunts Michael beyond endurance; reckless Cousin Tommy secretly smokes cigars and can't wait to "kick butt in 'Nam"--and Michael watches every magical move he makes. A few years and one driver's license later, as family alliances change and long-silent desires surface, Michael begins to understand his attraction to the double life because he's living one--at roadside rest stops, in library washrooms and public parks. Coming out is the first step, coming to terms is the next.... "[A] DEEPLY FELT FIRST NOVEL of childhood and adolescence...by a cool and philosophical young writer." --Publishers Weekly "WONDERFULLY INTELLIGENT...An auspicious debut: wise, funny, and courageous." --Charles Baxter, Author of Shadow Play From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Genius of Desire

Literature & Fiction

United States

Ballantine Books

"GENTLE AND FUNNY...From the first chapter...to the very touching ending, The Genius Of Desire is a good story worth telling." --San Francisco Chronicle Michael Bellman is not your average little boy. He speaks to plates, banisters, and other household objects (preferring them to people). He frequently confesses to sins he never committed (like adultery). And he's hopelessly drawn to the romantic notion of a secret, double life. Michael spends summers in Monsalvat, Michigan, coming of age in a loving tangle of great aunts, great uncles, cousins once-removed (but ever-present), and one tough-looking, silently scary grandmother. The Kaisers are a wild, highly eccentric bunch: Great Uncle Jimmy speaks to his dead wife during meals and proudly proclaims himself the Fattest Man in the World; Cousin Anne torments and taunts Michael beyond endurance; reckless Cousin Tommy secretly smokes cigars and can't wait to "kick butt in 'Nam"--and Michael watches every magical move he makes. A few years and one driver's license later, as family alliances change and long-silent desires surface, Michael begins to understand his attraction to the double life because he's living one--at roadside rest stops, in library washrooms and public parks. Coming out is the first step, coming to terms is the next.... "[A] DEEPLY FELT FIRST NOVEL of childhood and adolescence...by a cool and philosophical young writer." --Publishers Weekly "WONDERFULLY INTELLIGENT...An auspicious debut: wise, funny, and courageous." --Charles Baxter, Author of Shadow Play

The memoir is fast gaining on the novel as the most popular literary form for readers and writers today. Gone are the days when people used to talk over the back fence, swapping stories and the day's gossip. Enter the next best thing: the autobiography, back porch conversation in book form. Contemporary and fresh, The Autobiography Box presents innovative writing suggestions in a visually dynamic, totally inviting, hands-on portable kit. Sixty appealing cards filled with quotes, questions, directions, and exercises provide the practice, while an engaging book with journal spaces for fill-in and excerpts from such literary greats as Vladimir Nabokov, Marcel Proust, Muriel Spark, and Tobias Wolff offer the inspiration. Perfect for both beginning and seasoned writers, The Autobiography Box is all any memoirist needs to get started-that and maybe a comfy porch swing and a tall glass of lemonade.

The Autobiography Box

Biographies & Memoirs

Chronicle Books+

"Bouldrey's goofy sense of humor makes you laugh at your own stereotypes of masculinity."-Out 
Self-proclaimed sissy Brian Bouldrey goes undercover to investigate Ameri-can machismo, infiltrating everything from a bachelor party to the World Wrestling Federation's RAW. Whether he's hosting a red-meat barbecue where the menu reads like the supporting cast of Crocodile Hunter or deer hunting with his ex-Marine brother who works as a prison guard, Bouldrey's sharp wit and wry autobiographical reflections prove that manly stereotypes yield surprising subtleties and contradictions when viewed up close.
Brian Bouldrey is the author of Love, the Magician, and The Genius of Desire. He edited the anthologies Best American Gay Fiction 1,, 2 and 3; Writing Home; and Traveling Souls. He lives in Chicago

Monster: Gay Adventures in American Machismo

Alyson Books

In April of 1997, Tristan Broder, gay, widowed, and balding, makes a pilgrimage of sorts from San Francisco to the prickly desert and scalped mountains around Tucson, Arizona, the place where he helped bury his partner Joe five years before. Guided by a comet that crossed the spring sky that year, he wanders toward a world of renewal and resurrection, unending, unlooked for -- and sometimes, even unwanted.

Love, the Magician (Gay Men's Fiction)

Harrington Park Pr

Fiction. Gay/Lesbian Studies.New to SPD. In April of 1997, Tristan Broder, gay, widowed, and balding, makes a pilgrimage of sorts from San Francisco to the prickly desert and scalped mountains around Tucson, Arizona, the place where he helped bury his partner Joe five years before. Guided by a comet that crossed the spring sky that year, he wanders toward renewal and resurrection, memory and mystery, deadly secrets and dark intentions. Set in a swift, single weekend against the stark backdrop of the Sonoran desert amid the Easter ceremonies of the Yaqui Nation - a Native American tribe that mingles their own customs with Western Catholicism to create a passion play of rejuvenation - LOVE, THE MAGICIAN is a tale of a broken-hearted soul who will, in order to live, break more hearts.

Southern Tier Editions/Haworth Press

Straight, gay, macho man, or great big sissy, it's tough to be a guy. Brian Bouldrey is a bona fide sissy - but he was also an Eagle Scout and a member of the Order of the Arrow with a secret Indian name that translates as "Active One." In Monster Bouldrey goes undercover and over the top to stalk machismo in action. At the same time Bouldrey bares his own soul - and imperfections - with disarming, and often hilarious, honesty.

Monster: Adventures in American Machismo

LGBTQ+ Books

Council Oak Books

A collection of essays by gay men of many religions describes their coming-to-terms with religions that denounce them and includes the words of such figures as Lev Raphael, Frank Browning, Micheal Nava, and Fenton Johnson.

Wrestling with the Angel: Faith and Religion In The Lives of Gay Men

Short Stories & Anthologies

Riverhead Hardcover

Walace Weiss, A once-famous fantasy novelist, now troubled by drug addiction, sets himself on a final two-fold quest: to finish his first novel in over a decade, and, like the immortal elves of his stories, to try and remember what, in his long life, he should not have forgotten. Part of the prestigious Open Door Series, originally designed for adult literacy in Ireland, these books confirm the truth that a story doesn't have to be big to change our world. The Sorrow of Elves is part of the US launch of Open Door books written by North American authors.

The Sorrow of the Elves (Open Door)

Literary

Gemma Open Door

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bouldrey, Brian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bouldrey, Brian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bouldrey, Brian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Honorable Bandit: A Walk across Corsica

The Genius of Desire

The Genius of Desire

The Autobiography Box

Monster: Gay Adventures in American Machismo

Love, the Magician (Gay Men's Fiction)

Love, the Magician (Gay Men's Fiction)

Monster: Adventures in American Machismo

Wrestling with the Angel: Faith and Religion In The Lives of Gay Men

The Sorrow of the Elves (Open Door)