Macca and Kenny are joined live in the studio by Frances Atkinson, an avid reader, freelance writer, book reviewer (The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald) and works as a Media Adviser.
So Gay for You: Friendship, Found Family, and the Show That Started It All
Kate Moening and Leisha Hailey.
The point is we’re all connected, see? Through love, through loneliness, through one tiny, lamentable lapse in judgment. All of us, in our isolation, we reach out from the darkness, from the alienation of modern life, to form these connections.” – Alice Pieszecki, Season 1, Episode 2, The L Word
In the early aughts, Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey-both young artists trying to figure it all out-met at auditions for what they thought was just an unknown little TV show. Given that it was a show about lesbians living in LA, with the first ever ensemble cast of openly queer female characters, Kate and Leisha knew the project was going to be unlike anything else out there.
What they didn’t foresee was just how huge The L Word would become. One million people watched the premiere, and the show quickly turned into a groundbreaking phenomenon. Its influence on pop culture, in the political arena, and in the lives of queer-and straight-viewers has been lasting, impactful, even life-saving. But in addition to changing the course of television history, The L Word also changed Kate and Leisha’s lives forever.
From their first day on set, Kate and Leisha have always had each other’s backs, inseparable to the degree that the joke among the cast was that they were like a pair of pants-you couldn’t have one leg without the other. Hence the name for their podcast, PANTS, born during the pandemic and now downloaded over 20 million times.
So Gay for You is a love letter to a life-defining friendship over the decades, and following Kate and Leisha’s unlikely and extremely entertaining journey stumbling from closeted queer kids to LGBTQ+ activists to successful actresses, podcasters, and business owners. Full of never-before-shared glimpses into the making of The L Word, Kate and Leisha’s real-life loves and losses, and their status as queer icons, So Gay for You is, at its heart, a book about a deep meaningful connection with your ride or die and the gift of finding your chosen family.
KATE MOENNIG is a critically acclaimed actress and executive producer whose work spans film, television, and theater. She most recently reprised her iconic role as “Shane McCutcheon” in the The L Word: Generation Q on Showtime. Moennig has also starred in Showtime’s Ray Donovan and in Freeform’s Grown-ish.
LEISHA HAILEY is an actor, director, executive producer, musician, and podcaster. Hailey is best known for her beloved breakout character, “Alice Pieszecki,” in the groundbreaking Showtime series The L Word and the reboot, The L Word: Generation Q. Leisha also co-founded the band THE MURMURS in the 1990’s and the indie pop band UH HUH HER in 2007.
Together, they co-host the podcast “PANTS with Kate and Leisha.”
A literary psychological thriller set in Melbourne’s queer scene with the suspense of The Talented Mr Ripley and the gritty emotional landscape of Christos Tsiolkas and Bryan Washington.
A mysterious disappearance, a brazen murderer and the police who hunted him down
In March 2020 secret lovers Russell Hill and Carol Clay disappeared in Victoria’s remote Wonnangatta Valley. Greg Haddrick tells the gripping inside story of the twists and turns of the police investigation and the trial of pilot Greg Lynn, with many details that haven’t previously been made public.
‘No-one tells a true crime story better than Haddrick.’ – John Silvester
‘Few true crime books take the reader so fully inside the minds of detectives hunting an apex predator . . . it’s as addictive as the best crime thrillers.’ – Matthew Condon OAM, journalist and author
In March 2020 a couple disappears from the remote Wonnangatta Valley, leaving a burnt-out campsite. Russell Hill and Carol Clay are secret lovers, and at first it seems they might simply have started a new life elsewhere. But the police become increasing convinced that they have been the victims of foul play, even though their bodies have not been found.
So begins a painstaking investigation, tracing the driver of every car that was in the area, checking their stories and alibis. Ultimately, after more than a year’s work, there’s only one driver who cannot be eliminated: Greg Lynn, a Jetstar captain.
Is it possible that this highly successful professional pilot is a killer? Could he be responsible for a number of other mysterious disappearances in the Wonnangatta Valley? And how can the police charge him, given that there are no bodies, no witnesses and no clues as to how Russell and Carol were murdered?
This is the gripping inside story of the pursuit and trial of Greg Lynn.
Shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize
They have everything to make them happy. Expat couple Anna and Tom are living the dream in Berlin, in a bright, plant-filled apartment. Young, cool digital creatives, they enjoy slow cooking, Danish furniture, progressive politics, sexual experimentation and the city’s twenty-four-hour party scene.
It’s exactly the life they had imagined for themselves. But they begin to feel disillusioned, bored. Work becomes repetitive. Friends move away, have children, grow up. An attempt at political activism proves fruitless, since their direct action amounts to taking an Uber only if it is snowing, tipping in cash, never eating tuna.
Trapped in a lifestyle optimised for digital perfection, yearning for authenticity, they find themselves doing something they could never have predicted.
Vincenzo Latronico’s stylistic mastery, wit and wry humour make Perfection a brilliant novel about contemporary life.
They have everything to make them happy. Expat couple Anna and Tom are living the dream in Berlin, in a bright, plant-filled apartment. Young, cool digital creatives, they enjoy slow cooking, Danish furniture, progressive politics, sexual experimentation and the city’s twenty-four-hour party scene.
It’s exactly the life they had imagined for themselves. But they begin to feel disillusioned, bored. Work becomes repetitive. Friends move away, have children, grow up. An attempt at political activism proves fruitless, since their direct action amounts to taking an Uber only if it is snowing, tipping in cash, never eating tuna.
Trapped in a lifestyle optimised for digital perfection, yearning for authenticity, they find themselves doing something they could never have predicted.
Vincenzo Latronico’s stylistic mastery, wit and wry humour make Perfection a brilliant novel about contemporary life.
The bestselling true story of the couple who lost everything and embarked on a journey not of escape but salvation, soon to be a major motion picture starring Golden Globe winning Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.
Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years is terminally ill, the couple lose their home and their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.
They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only the essentials for survival on their backs as they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.
The Salt Path is an unflinchingly honest, inspiring and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.
Inside the Salt Path controversy: ‘Scandal has stalked memoir since the genre was invented’
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/10/inside-the-salt-path-controversy-scandal-has-stalked-memoir-since-the-genre-was-invented#:~:text=Finding%20out%20that%20kind%20of,part%20of%20the%20editing%20process.%E2%80%9D
The post Saturday, 26th July, 2025: Frances (Fran) Atkinson, – Freelance Writer, Book reviewer & Media Adviser; : So Gay For You, Our New Gods, In The Dead of Night, Perfection, The Salt Path appeared first on Saturday Magazine.
