Absolute Brightness

James Lecesne

Harper Teen

$17.99, hardcover (February)

James Lecesne, an Academy Award winner for the short film Trevor,and co-founder of the Trevor Help line, a 24-hour suicide prevention lifeline for GLBT teens, can add “first-time author” to his already impressive resume.

When gay teen Leonard Pelkey disappears from Neptune, N.J., he becomes something more than his real life and the prejudice he faced afforded him – he becomes an ethereal being, who must confront the very essence of evil. Pelkey ultimately touches everyone’s lives in the town by weaving a web of “absolute brightness,” which unites them in understanding the indelible mark the gay teen has left on their community.

This most interesting tale of good versus evil is being lauded by such gay authors as Armistead Maupin, and Michael Cunningham, who calls Absolute Brightness, “full of insight into human life that only the best books offer us.”

The Sixth Form

Tom Dolby

Kensington

$24 , hardcover

The titular “sixth form” refers to senior year for 17-year-old Ethan Whitley, who has been uprooted from California to go to an elite Massachusetts prep school. Ethan falls in with a well-to-do classmate, Todd Eldon, and a mysterious teacher, Hannah McClellan, who does not adhere to the rules of conformity.

Ethan is escorted into a brave new world by the twosome, as they forge a friendship that includes excursions into all that The Big Apple has to offer, from penthouses to artists’ lofts.

But when Hannah, within the exclusive world of her private domain, serves the young men wine and reads from the works of French poet Rimbaud, a series of life-changing pop quizzes come into play. Ethan discovers and begins to unravel his teacher’s mysterious past, calling into play the very nature of trust.

Dolby is also the author of The Trouble Boy.

Killer Storm

Jen Wright

Clover Valley Press

$14.95, paperback

Jo Spence’s world drips with the ordinary, until her banal world is turned upside down by a murderer!

As a juvenile probation supervisor in Duluth, Minn., Jo steers troubled youth in the right direction and protects the safety of her community. But Jo’s job puts her life in jeopardy, forcing her to seek shelter with her friends.

In an attempt to restore normalcy into her newly tumultuous life, Jo accepts a date with Zoey, a new girl in town and soon she is trying in vain to resist a tidal pull of attraction.

Crushed

J.M. Snyder

Amber Quill Press, Inc.

$14 paperback

Nathan Gayle has elevated his former high school glory as basketball star to master of the dating game. But he soon tires of his first-string standing as a hook-up king, wanting something more than a sea of beautiful bodies and meaningless encounters can offer.

As fate would have it, Nathan runs into an old school chum, Wes Roberts, who had a mad crush on Nathan during high school.

When the kinetic energy between Nathan and Wes reaches a fever pitch, Wes must decide between his high school crush and his troubled current relationship, which proves to be a tougher call than Wes anticipates.

Broken Rules

Addison Paisley

iUniverse-Indigo

$13.95, paperback

Abby Grant is a mistress of playing-hard-to-get, never allowing herself to become emotionally attached to any of the women she sleeps with – a firm adherent of the love-’n’-leave school of sparing herself hard knocks to her heart.

That is, until she meets Erin Davis, the owner of a popular lesbian club, who’s had a recent lesson in heartbreak doled out by a cheating ex who bedded her best friend.

The chemistry between the two ladies is palpable, forcing Abby to re-examine her rule book and to take a good, hard look at herself as she stands at the crossroads of the person she is and the person she longs to be.

Exiles in America

Christopher Bram

Harper Perennial

$14.95, paperback

Author Christopher Bram is best known for his novel, Father of Frankenstein, which became the basis for the popular and acclaimed 1998 film, Gods and Monsters.

With his novel, Exiles in America, Bram explores the worlds of religion and sexual orientation. For psychologist Zack Knowles and his partner of 21 years, Daniel Wexler, an art teacher at a Virginia college, life is fine and dandy until a new artist in residence and married father of two, Abbas Rohani, arrives on the scene.

Set during the months preceding the Iraq War, the novel examines the politics of religion and of marriage, as Abbas and Daniel embark on an affair that will threaten the very fabric of their lives.

Rat Bohemia

Sarah Schulman

Arsenal Pulp Press

$17.95, paperback (April)

Life for Rita Mae Weems is filled with vermin, both in her job as a rat exterminator in New York City, and in the human form of the father who kicked her out of the house at age 16, when she disclosed her sexuality to him.

Her best friend, Killer, is falling head over heels in love with the mysterious Troy Ruby, while her other friend, HIV-positive writer, David, is dealing with the abandonment by his family, due to his diagnosis.

The threesome unite to support each other, proving that “family” is a term that is subjective.

Fruit Cocktail

Arthur Wooten

Alyson Books

$14.95, paperback

Arthur Wooten continues the comical dating foibles of his middle-aged HIV- positive Curtis Jenkins character, when he first featured in On Picking Fruit.

This sequel sees Curtis still on the hunt for Mr. Right via his book tour for his tome, 101 Ways To Collide Into Your Gay Soul Mate. Along for the ride are his fixated-on-sex best friend, Quinn, and a succession of tailor-made and ripe for the picking adventures, which prove to be a funny platform for what it means to be looking for love in all of the wrong places of modern gay society.

Isherwood on Writing: The Lectures in California

Christopher Isherwood

Edited By James J. Berg

University of Minnesota Press

$25.95, hardcover

During the 1960s, acclaimed author Christopher Isherwood, who is widely acknowledged as the forefather of modern gay literature, gave a number of speeches at a great many California universities.

These appearances coincided with Isherwood’s shift from writing fiction to writing memoirs, and saw the author open up on his craft, including insights into what the driving force behind his work was. He was also forthright with his writing influences, friendships with literary luminaries such as E. M. Forster and Virginia Woolf, and time spent in the world of film in both Hollywood and London.

The book presents an interesting dichotomy of a man comfortable in his gay skin and able to discuss it, while the populace he divulges it to don’t grasp his intent.

The Chelsea Whistle

Michelle Tea

Seal Press

$14.95, paperback (March)

Lambda Award-winning writer, Michelle Tea, probes her stark childhood in the Boston suburb of Chelsea. Grappling with the abandonment by her perpetually intoxicated father and a mother that is struggling to make ends meet, Tea is left to form her own identity, one that sees her perfecting “the art of playing dead,” as she goes about finding where she fits into the grand scheme of things.

She experiments with the Goth, drug and drinking scene during her teen years and has sex with both young men and women, as she contends with her mother’s new husband who spies on her and her sister.

Declaring her freedom by walking away from her home life, Tea re-christens herself as “some new girl, an orphan.”

The Chelsea Whistle has been praised for its descriptive writing style by both Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist.

Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity, and Finding True Love

Angelo Pezzote

Kensington

$15, paperback (February)

Author Angelo Pezzote, of the Web site AskAngelo.com, utilizes his years spent as an advice columnist and gay psychotherapist to unearth the mysteries about fortifying relationships that are built to last.

Pezzote puts the gay culture under the microscope, examining where along the way the male of the species felt the need to overcompensate for blatantly gay qualities, by “acting straight.”

Pezzote also offers sensible advice on a wealth of issues both singles and couples – such as how to steer clear of dating a player for the former, and how to keep things smoking in the bedroom for the latter.

The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage

Edited By Craig A. Rimmerman and Clyde Wilcox

University of Chicago Press

$20, paperback

Ever since it became a hot-button political topic in 2004, the same-sex marriage has remained in the public eye, starting many a heated debate on both sides of the political fence.

The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage offers a wide spectrum approach to dissecting all elements of the debate, with a number of scholars acting as devil advocates for both sides of the argument.

Love, West Hollywood: Reflections of Los Angeles

Edited by Chris Freeman and James J. Berg

Alyson Books

$16.95, paperback (May)

This latest edition in Alyson’s much-admired series of travelogue books, which have previously explored San Francisco and New Orleans, sets its sights on the part of Los Angeles, commonly referred to as “Boys Town.”

A series of funny and thought-provoking essays uncover the charisma of this gay enclave that is sometimes overshadowed by its proximity to near Tinsel Town, and its place in the world of other such enclaves.

Outplays: Landmark Gay and Lesbian Plays of the Twentieth Century

Ben Hodges

Alyson Books

$21.95, paperback (March)

Some of the most influential GLBT plays that have covered a variety of gay and lesbian themed storylines are analyzed at length, including such works as Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy and Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz, among others.

And author Hodges utilizes his own entertainment field roots to full capacity and manages to pinpoint with a wide scope the importance of these plays, and why the theatre has been a formidable venue to place our lives under the spotlight.

TransForming Community

Michelle Tea, editor

Suspect Thoughts Press

$16.95, paperback

This anthology, told through an assortment of true-life narratives, highlights what the experience of being the “T” in GLBT truly represents, focusing on changes within the gay and lesbian community once transsexual and transgender visibility became heightened within the community.

TransForming Community chronicles the struggles and triumphs in the transgender pursuit for acceptance and is based upon the San Francisco performance series of the same name.