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    Henry James and Queer Filiation: Hardened Bachelors of the Edwardian Era by Michael Anesko Palgrave/MacMillan. 110 pages, $69.99     HENRY JAMES and Queer Filiationis sort of a sequel to Penn State professor Michael Anes-ko’s 2012 book, Monopolizing the Master, which is an account of how Henry James’ family tried to bowdlerize the Master’sMore

    Luminous Traitor: The Just and Daring Life of Roger Casement by Martin Duberman U. of California. 288 pages, $32.95     ROGER CASEMENT (1864–1916) was an Irish diplomat at a time when Ireland was part of Great Britain. He was among the first people to expose the humanitarian abuses in the Belgian CongoMore

  How to Write an Autobiographical Novel:  Essays by Alexander Chee Mariner Books. 288 pages, $15.99   ABOUT THREE-QUARTERS of the way through “The Curse,” the first piece in Alexander Chee’s essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Chee writes: “I longed to be rid of [my classmates], but also to be rid ofMore

  Circulating Queerness: Before the Gay and Lesbian Novel by Natasha Hurley University of Minnesota Press. 320 page, $27.   WHERE DID today’s gay novel come from? Did it spring Athena-like fully armed from the mind of its authors? In her fascinating, adroit, but at times maddeningly opaque second book of queer studies, Natasha HurleyMore

  Playing to the Gods:  Sarah Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse, and the Rivalry That Changed Acting Forever by Peter Rader Simon & Schuster. 275 pages, $26.   THE TITLE of this book is an exaggeration that grows out of another exaggeration that is this book’s thesis: that Sarah Bernhardt typified an “old school” of unnatural stageMore

  The Air You Breathe by Frances de Pointes Peebles Riverhead Books. 464 pages, $26.   AS WHOOPI GOLDBERG said of Julia Roberts, “Julia Roberts was not always Julia Roberts.” Similarly, Carmen Miranda was not always Carmen Miranda, as revealed in The Air You Breathe, Frances de Pointes Peebles’ near-epic novel about the fruit-wearing singerMore

  No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America by Darnell L. Moore Nation Books. 256 pages, $26.   BOOKS SHOULD NOT be judged by their covers, of course, but sometimes a cover can telegraph what’s inside. Darnell Moore’s memoir of growing up as a low-income African-American in a societyMore

  Butch Heroes by Ria Brodell MIT Press. 96 pages, $24.95   UPON first looking into this small volume, I had no idea what really big ideas and treasures were to be found within its 96 pages. Artist and educator Ria Brodell has given us a celebration of “butch heroes”—individuals throughout history who were designatedMore