World Aids Day - Dec. 1, 2025Like this list

20 items

• After Francesco

  Malloy, Brian,

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  Kevin Doyle, a gay man who lost his partner, Francesco, to AIDS in mid-1980s New York wallows in his loss and at a mind-numbing job before hitting rock bottom and realizing it is time to return home to Minnesota to start over.

• Christodora

  Murphy, Timothy, 1969-

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  The Christodora is home to Milly and Jared, a privileged young couple with artistic ambitions. Their neighbor Hector, a Puerto Rican gay man who was once a celebrated AIDS activist but is now a lonely addict, becomes connected to Milly and Jared's…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Disco Witches of Fire Island

  Fell, Blair

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  It's 1989, and Joe Agabian and his best friend Ronnie set out to spend their first summer working in the hedonistic gay paradise of Fire Island Pines. Joe is desperate to let loose and finally move beyond the heartbreak of having lost his boyfriend…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style

  Rudnick, Paul,

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  Moving from the ivy-covered bastion of Yale to New York City, Los Angeles, and eventually all over the world, Farrell and Nate experience the tremendous upheaval and social change of the last fifty years. Taking readers from the freedom of gay life…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Fight AIDS!

  How Activism, Art, and Protest Changed the Course of a Deadly Epidemic and Reshaped a Nation

  Long, Michael G.,

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  Focusing on the people most directly affected by the crisis and on the individuals who fought for justice, it is an intimate and humane account of one of the most devastating eras in United States history and an electrifying celebration of the power…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Good Things Happen Slowly

  a Life in and Out of Jazz

  Hersch, Fred,

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  Good Things Happen Slowly is [Fred Hersch's] memoir. It's the story of the first openly gay, HIV-positive jazz player; a deep look into the cloistered jazz culture that made such a status both transgressive and ground-breaking; and a profound…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Great Believers

  Makkai, Rebecca,

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  While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, Fiona finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter.

• How to Survive a Plague

  the Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS

  France, David, 1959-

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  France tells the story of the men and women who watched their friends and lovers fall: ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large.

• It Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful

  How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic

  Lowery, Jack (Writer),

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  In It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful, writer Jack Lowery examines Gran Fury's art and activism, from the iconic images like the SILENCE = DEATH graphic and the Kissing Doesn't Kill poster, to the act of dropping thousands of fake bills onto the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Language of Limbs

  Hardcastle, Dylin,

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  Through the AIDS crisis-and from classrooms to art galleries, beds to bars, and hospitals to homes-we witness these two lives shadow each other until, finally, they collide.

• Let the Record Show

  a Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993

  Schulman, Sarah, 1958-

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• My Government Means to Kill Me

  Newson, Rasheed,

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  Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson's My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced, coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young, gay, Black man in the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Other Pandemic

  An AIDS Memoir

  Curlee, Lynn, 1947-

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  Interwoven with photographs of the people lost, this memoir chronicles the AIDS pandemic from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, up until the death of the author's partner.

• Pedro & Daniel

  Erebia, Federico,

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  Growing up in 1970s Ohio, Mexican American brothers Pedro and Daniel, who are not like other boys, manage an abusive home life, school, coming out, first loves, first jobs, and the AIDS epidemic, leaning on each other always and forever.

• Political Disappointment

  a Cultural History From Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis

  Marcus, Sara, 1977-

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  Sara Marcus argues for the emancipatory potential of political disappointment-the unrealized desire for liberation. Exploring literature and sound from Reconstruction to Black Power, from the Popular Front to second-wave feminism and the AIDS…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• They're Going to Love You

  Howrey, Meg,

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  A magnetic tale of betrayal, art, and ambition, set in the world of professional ballet, New York City during the AIDS crisis, and present-day Los Angeles Carlisle Martin dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer just like her mother, Isabel,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Third Girl From the Left

  Barker, Christine (Dancer),

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  Broadway's theater community is ravaged by loss as the AIDS epidemic takes hold, and Christine is shocked by the toll it's taken on her inner circle. Holding on tight to friends and loved ones left behind, the crisis becomes a crucible moment for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• To Paradise

  Yanagihara, Hanya,

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  In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father.

• When You Call My Name

  Shaw, Tucker,

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  In 1990 New York City, eighteen-year-olds Adam and Ben learn to navigate life, love, and loss as gay teens during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

• World Made of Glass

  Polonsky, Ami,

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  Iris opens her eyes to hard truths and the power of her voice when her father dies of AIDS in 1987.