Steven Sorrentino

ReganBooks, $14.95 paperback

Luncheonette follows Sorrentino’s flight from his closeted New Jersey existence to the freedom that New York City life affords him. With a cache of dreams in his back pocket, including finding amore and hoofing it on Broadway, Sorrentino is suddenly pulled back into the vortex of his past life. His father has contracted a rare neurological disease that has left him paralyzed, and in an effort to help his family out, Sorrentino takes over his father’s luncheonette, which includes a cast of colorful real life characters perched at the counter. Sorrentino has returned home to save his father, but realizes it’s his father’s resilience to his situation that, in fact, saves him. Sorrentino’s writing style has been compared to both David Sedaris’ and Wally Lamb’s.

Anthony Rapp

Simon & Schuster, $25 hardcover

Actor Anthony Rapp, best known for his role as filmmaker Mark Cohen in the Broadway and film version of Rent, chronicles his life on and off of the stage. At the pinnacle of Rent’s success, Rapp and the show’s other cast members were mourning the loss of its creator, Jonathan Larson. Rapp was also coping with his mother’s battle with cancer, and trying to balance his life onstage with the one that he lived once the curtain fell. The juxtaposition of love and loss is at the very heart of this memoir that parallels his most famous role to date.