No Tea, No Shade is a collection of essays/recollections/vignettes and general life philosophies from 6 well known drag queens (see cover). Released 23rd Sept by HarperCollins on their HarperOne imprint, it's 240 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
Given the current political climate and questions of health and safety in parts of the world for marginalized people (including LGBTQIA+ folks), this collection is by turns whimsical, humorous (often with heartrending sadness), defiantly unapologetic, and full of strength and inspiration. That comes across very clearly in the authors' own words about their lived experiences and plans. The authors include drag artists of color whose experiences with the added nuances which come from growing up with another skin color/ethnicity often deepened the divide between themselves and "mainstream" American.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 8 hours 31 minutes and is narrated by the authors themselves.
This is a worthwhile, honest/unvarnished non-fiction selection and would make an excellent gift, public or home library acquisition, or book club read.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment