Gay & Lesbian

Men at Their Most Passionate

Best Gay Romance 2009 is short fiction at its finest on the subject of love--first love, true love, and love everlasting (with makeup sex, wake-up sex, and everything in between).

The romantic possibilities range from a surprising encounter between two blue-collar buddies to a brief airport rendezvous that become something more, and a reminder to us all that it is never too late for love. A self-confessed true romantic, Richard Labonté has gathered a sensational collection of stories about finding love at home, at work, at any age, and often, in the most unexpected places.

Boston real estate agent William Collins knows that his habits are slipping out of control. Due to obsessive-compulsive daily cleaning binges and a penchant for nightly online cruising for hookups, he finds his sales figures slipping despite a booming market. There's also his ongoing struggle to collect the rent from his passive-aggressive tenant and his worries about his best friend, Edward, whom he's certainly not in love with. Just as he decides to do something about his life, he meets Charlotte and Samuel, wealthy suburbanites looking for the perfect city apartment. "Happy couple," he writes in his notes. "Maybe I can learn something from them." What he ultimately discovers challenges his own assumptions about real estate, love, and desire; and what they learn from him might unravel a budding friendship, not to mention a very promising sale.

Full of crackling dialogue delivered by a stellar ensemble of players, Alternatives to Sex is a smart, hilarious chronicle of life in post-traumatic, morally ambiguous America -- where the desire to do good is constantly being tripped up by the need to feel good. Right now.

In Fire & Brimstone, Laurinda D. Brown began the turbulent love story of Chris and Gayle, two women struggling with finding comfort in each other and in themselves while teetering on the verge of self-destruction. Chris Desmereaux and Gayle Evans. Two women. Two mothers. Two lovers testing the boundaries of 21st century morality with two lives torn between different ideas of right and wrong.

Now in UnderCover, the author expands the story, introducing Nathaniel, the monogamous lover of Patrick, a high roller at the Memphis nightclub where Nathaniel transforms himself into a female diva before a standing-room-only crowd until Patrick breaks his heart. Devastated by his lover's rejection, Nathaniel leaves his flamboyant former life behind and reinvents himself yet again.

This time it's Nathaniel, the committed family man -- a loving husband to his wife, devoted father to his three children, and brother-in-law to Chris. Patrick is a distant, still-seductive memory?until financial woes force Nathaniel to return to his old fast-money way of life. This fateful decision culminates in exposure -- and Nathaniel's subsequent downward spiral. Domestic crises abound as Nathaniel struggles with painful issues surrounding his sexual identity, and he must face the ultimate truth about himself in a harrowing climax. UnderCover is a powerhouse novel by a gifted storyteller.

Your favorite Queer as Folk characters take you along on their youthful journey of sexual self-discovery in a new line of books based on the record-breaking Showtime series hailed as "fiercely realistic" by The New York Times. USA Today raves, "There's never been anything else like it on TV."

Never Tear Us Apart

They've been to the prom and signed the yearbooks. Now Brian and Michael are apart for the first time since grade school. Brian's soccer scholarship takes him to Carnegie-Mellon where he finds that he's a fresh -- if not a small -- fish in a big new pond. Meanwhile Michael, Deb, and Uncle Vic embark on the annual Novotny family vacation in the Poconos, where Michael makes some "new" friends. When the trip is cut short because Vic doesn't feel well, Michael learns that his uncle has AIDS and that their family must come together more closely than ever. Soon classes begin for both boys, and new passions and adventures put their friendship to the test. Lindsay, a pretty, talented art major at Carnegie-Mellon, is quickly becoming a fixture in Brian's life, and Emmett, whom Michael met at Babylon, becomes a good friend outside the club too. As sex becomes more than experimentation for both, Brian and Michael struggle with jealousy, homophobia, the realities of HIV, and finding a place of their own as they find their way back to each other.

On the eve of Brian Kinney's eighteenth birthday, he and his best friend, Michael Novotny, celebrate a bond that could link them forever if their future paths don't separate them for good. In a few short weeks Brian, the seductive soccer star, will leave for college, where he'll be free to explore the adult pursuits in which he's only dabbled in high school. Michael is destined for a more sedate life in community college while living at home with his eccentric mom. But before their lives diverge, a hot new club will open, they'll go to the prom "stag" together, and family strife will turn their world upside down. Brian and Michael still have some unforgettable times to share before graduation ushers in the next stages of their lives.

There are countless works of interest to gay men in print right now--anthologies, novels, memoirs, and more. It is a reflection of progress that there is such an openly recognizable culture. Yet how to make sense of the choices offered? What do gay men need to read? What books have shaped the gay heart, mind, and soul?

The Gay Canon gives its readers answers to these questions. Not only does it list the one hundred great gay books that have influenced writers and continue to shape the gay imagination, it also provides a deeper, more comprehensive look at the twenty-six most seminal works, each of which is followed by a series of useful group discussion questions. Reaching all the way back to Gilgamesh and continuing through classics like Leaves of Grass, Confessions of a Mask, and The Wild Boys, as well as more recent books like Borrowed Time, The Gay Canon consistently avoids impenetrable academic literary criticism in favor of a more popular introduction for general readers and book groups.

The Gay Canon is a book to give to any young man just coming out, a book every gay reading group will want to rely on, and--most important--a book that will enrich and improve the gay story that continues to be written.