Book of the year, Insight Out Books (Book of the Month Club)

"Has floored everyone on our staff who has read it. Truly a landmark study of gay male culture and its effects on the whole of society."

Insight Out Books (Book of the Month Club)

"Among the top 50 non-fiction books of 2002" -- Publishers' Weekly

Lead book, Nov 2003, National Association of Queer Book Clubs

"This may well be one of the most important books on gay culture for the new millennium and certainly one of the most daring and original." -- Library Journal (starred review)

"Stars for David Nimmons' Soul Beneath the Skin... original and powerful sociological and philosophical arguments." -- Publishers' Weekly (starred review)

"Has the potential for creating another paradigm shift in our community" -- American Psychological Association, Div 44 (read entire review here)

"His optimism is visionary." -- Q Syndicate BookMarks (read entire review here)

"Provocative and sure to be controversial..." Washington Post

"The first gay-studies book that is not uncomfortable or afraid to take on all of the gay male experience."- Chicago Tribune

"Breathtaking in its scope and originality, this book offers a radical reassessment of the moral character of contemporary gay male life. Imaginatively researched and forcefully argued, its optimistic conclusions are bound to provoke controversy and a vitally important debate about the state of Gay America--from circuit parties and body culture to our experiments with new forms of intimacy and community. The Soul Beneath the Skin immediately establishes Nimmons as a major new voice in the culture."

-- George Chauncey, University of Chicago, author of Gay New York, 1890-1940

"The most important book about gay life to come along in years. According to Dave Nimmons, gay men constitute an extraordinarily important force for cultural transformation. The book is a vivifying call to wake up, America: Those you have least understood will best inform your future. The Soul Beneath The Skin succinctly tells us how, and why…"

-- Mark Thompson the author of Gay Spirit, Gay Soul, Gay Body

"One of those "must" books for both the professional and layman that has the potential for creating another paradigm shift in our community." -- American Psychological Association, Division 44 newsletter. Read entire review

"An incredibly bold, provocative, and novel analysis of the gay male experience."

-- Tim Sweeney, former Executive Director, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund

"This is an important book. David Nimmons is telling the truth about us, provoking both laughter and tears as he puts that truth into clear perspective so that everyone can see not only where we've been and where we are but also who we are and what well may be our essential role in the evolving human world.

-- Don Clark, Ph.D., author of "Loving Someone Gay"

"With an unabashed love of gay men, pleasure, peace, and justice David Nimmons has produced a book so thoughtful, generous, and provocative that it will change how we see the world. Rarely has gay male life and love been so thoughtfully examined and explicated. From scientific studies to Will and Grace, classic anthropology to contemporary sex clubs Nimmons carefully teases out the reality of gay men's lives exposing the myths and lies but more importantly displays the core goodness and radicalism of gay sex. This is a work of enormous wit and sensitivity that challenges not only the straight world, but gay men as well to reexamine- and act upon - the radical potential of gay male sexuality.

-- Michael Bronski, author of "The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash and the Struggle for Gay Freedom"

"The Soul Beneath the Skin is a revelation. Dave Nimmons deftly draws on literature, philosophy, social science and most important, the gay male experience to show us how we know how to build the beloved community for which every gay man longs. This is a sacred text for the individual journeyer looking to come home, and it's a practical guide for the community organizer gathering gay men into new and liberating relationships. This book unites spirit and body and intellect, healing the hurt and inspiring us to new ways of being gay men with each other, with women, and with the world around us. Nimmons helps us see that we are holy, and that we are whole."

-- Rev. Jim Mitulski, Founding Pastor, MCC San Francisco

"I have been waiting to read this book about radical love and the gay male experience since I was thirteen. Cultural anthropologist David Nimmons researches our altruism, our extended families, our non-violence and our creativity. He then invites us to nothing short of a total healing of our heart-genital connection so that we can joyously embrace our evolutionary role in the transforming of human society."

-- Joseph Kramer, Ph.D., EroSpirit Research Institute, Founder Body Electric School

"Potentially very helpful to individual gay men and their therapists in developing healthier, more realistic, self-esteem and pride as gay men, as well as to academicians regarding how gay men can be viewed as a group, in terms of what they rather uniquely bring to the larger culture in ways that are so remarkable and yet have gone largely unremarked. "

-- Dr. Jack Doren, Former Chair, National Assoc. of Lesbian & Gay Psychologists

- Ross Bleckner, artist

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