I listened to the audiobook and I really enjoyed it! I haven’t read or heard of the magazine Hello Mr. before but I was interested to read this based on some of the featured authors including Alexander Chee, Ocean Vuong, Garth Greenwell and Hanya Yanagihara. I do think reading the print or ebook would be even better since the book mentions several times throughout that there are pictures. I would have loved to see the images! I loved the variety in this book and all the questions explored such as what is a gay novel, the term queer vs gay, art and artist’s dispositions, what love is, seeing yourself in art, and gender expression.

I've been waffling whether to round down to four or up to five stars simply because there are several sections that just cannot be included in the audiobook version (pictures only) but in the end, I'm going up to five stars.

A Great Gay Book is a collection of essays, interviews, poetry, photographs, and all sorts of things, ranging from an ode to a foot fetish to thoughtful discussions about queer spaces and honestly? This is something I would buy in physical form even though I was approved to listen to the ALC via NetGalley/Tantor Audio. This is definitely a volume I would like to add to my little queer history shelf and there is a lot of value here. There were two stories I nearly skipped, but as someone who does not DNF I waded through especially because I knew that my only reason for wanting to skip was because they were not for me, not that they did not hold value for someone else.

That being said the "Gay" in "A Great Gay Book" really is about 90%+ male-gay with very little lesbian or transwoman voices, and this is even spoken to in one of the interviews (I believe? It was the one about the Dyke Queen zine, how most publications are written by mostly cis white gays) but there is more broadness in ethnicity and a wide mix of more familiar voices (Lady Bunny, Jeremy Atherton Lee, Hanya Yanagihara, to name a few) with ones less familiar to the general public.

I really enjoyed this.

NOT TO MENTION, the narrator was very skilled in both impressions and vibes, I really appreciated that!

This was a different kind of LGBTQIA+ book, some of the stories, poems and interviews I loved, they resonated with me and other made me think, question the way I live my life. But other were confusing and o just did find to be that enjoyable. I did enjoy the audio version I just wish I had the physical book as well to look at the pictures that were created by different photographers

Full of hope, reflection and longing, this compilation of queer art and activism is a beautiful journey through the modern gay experience. With poetry, interviews, visual art and so much more, we are given glimpses into lives beautifully and humanly led. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for my copy. These opinions are my own.