Fall 2005 books previews

September

Crashing America by Katia Noyes (Alyson, $14.95): One part Eileen Myles, one part Jack Kerouac, San Francisco writer Katia Noyes’s rough-edged but gleaming first novel is a queer road trip to remember.

Diary of a Drag Queen by Daniel Harris (Carroll & Graf, $14.95): The noted journalist dons a dress in order to make online conquests among young men.

Good Advice for Young Trendy People of All Ages edited by Jennifer Blowdryer (Manic D Press, $15): Here’s the kind of advice you really need, from queer sages like Lynn Breedlove (on packing) and James St. James (on perfecting your club look).

Homewrecker: An Adultery Anthology edited by Daphne Gottlieb, (Soft Skull Press, $13): These pieces from queer spoken-word artist Gottlieb let you face your love-demons without couples therapy.

How’s Your Romance? by Ethan Mordden (St. Martin’s Press, $24.95): Final volume in the celebrated “Buddies” cycle, set in the roiling microcosm of gay Manhattan.

Stretching My Mind: The Collected Essays of Edward Albee, 1960–200 (Carroll & Graf, $25): Edited by Don Weise, this collection includes little-known autobiographical and political essays, plus criticism on artists including Sam Shepard.

October

Cotton by Christopher Wilson (Harcourt, $24): Talk about your life journeys. In this rollicking Southern picaresque, Lee Cotton experiences life as male, female, white, African-American, and more besides.

Faith for Beginners by Aaron Hamburger (Random House, $23.95): On holiday in Israel with his family, pierced and punked-out Jeremy explores Jerusalem’s gay parks while his mom reconsiders Judaism. From the author of The View From Stalin’s Head.

The Whole World Was Watching: Living in the Light of Matthew Shepard by Romaine Patterson with Patrick Hinds (Advocate Books, $23.95): Matthew Shepard’s best friend recounts how his murder and the media maelstrom that followed fueled her transformation into an ardent human rights activist.

November

Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent by Thomas Glave (University of Minnesota Press, $25.95): One of the most powerful emerging voices in black gay writing, Glave (Whose Song?) offers a “politics of heterogeneity” to counter the “hypocrisies and contradictions of liberal multiculturalism.”

Katharine Hepburn: The Untold Story by James Robert Parish (Advocate Books, $24.95): This daring bio of the enigmatic Hepburn will scorch your slippers. She was yar, all right.

December

Across by Blue Dawson (Genesis, $15.95): A woman searches the Sahara for her kidnapped lover. Sexy and scary.

—Regina Marler and Anne Stockwell