JULY: Strings Attached by Nick Nolan

From BOOKS TO WATCH OUT FOR by RICHARD LABONTE, Volume 4 number 1 – Adolescence is a hazardous way of life for 17-year-old Jeremy Tyler; his father died in a mysterious accident when he was a child, and his mother has since descended into alcoholic hell and forced rehab; that’s when he’s sent from the Fresno slums of his childhood to the posh estate of his overbearing great aunt Katherine and her censorious husband – liberated from an economic prison, only to land in an emotional one – and is overwhelmed by the change. It’s not easy for him to fit into the upper crust, particularly because he’s trying to hide how much he’s attracted to other boys. Jeremy’s story of breaking free from the strands of dishonesty, deceit, and self-doubt has its parallels to the tale of Pinocchio, but Nolan’s queer take is totally contemporary: think the TV series The OC – girls with mean cheekbones, well-built guys with snotty attitudes, and Jeremy in the role of a queer Ryan Atwood. He’s a good-looking kid, with a sleek swimmer’s physique – and the swim team’s champ is out to get him. He dates one of the smart-set girls in an attempt to keep his gay hormones at bay – but that doesn’t do him much good. Nolan’s debut novel is a kitchen sink of genres – coming of age, coming out, mystery, romance, erotica, even a dash of the supernatural – that add up to an impressive story about the passage from boyhood to manhood.

Published by: BookSurge Publishing
Year of Publication: 2006
Number of pages: 312

JUNE: Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You: A Novel by Peter Cameron

Though he’s been accepted by Brown University, 18-year-old James isn’t sure he wants to go to college. What he really wants is to buy a nice house in a small town somewhere in the Midwest—Indiana, perhaps. In the meantime, however, he has a dull, make-work job at his thrice-married mother’s Manhattan art gallery, where he finds himself attracted to her assistant, an older man named John. In a clumsy attempt to capture John’s attention, James winds up accused of sexual harassment! A critically acclaimed author of adult fiction, Cameron makes a singularly auspicious entry into the world of YA with this beautifully conceived and written coming-of-age novel that is, at turns, funny, sad, tender, and sophisticated. James makes a memorable protagonist, touching in his inability to connect with the world but always entertaining in his first-person account of his New York environment, his fractured family, his disastrous trip to the nation’s capital, and his ongoing bouts with psychoanalysis. In the process he dramatizes the ambivalences and uncertainties of adolescence in ways that both teen and adult readers will savor and remember.

Published By: Picador
Year of Publication: 2007
Number of Pages: 288

MAY: Every Frat Boy Wants It by Todd Gregory

Jeff Morgan is about to get the education of a lifetime…
At eighteen, Jeff Morgan is the quintessential all-American boy–blond, blue-eyed, and a star jock at his small Kansas high school. Enrolling at California State University-Polk, Jeff plans to become a writer. He also hopes that the macho nature of fraternity life will help him get over his lifelong attraction to other men. The reality couldn’t be more different…
Through Blair Blanchard, the drama major son of divorced movie stars, Jeff discovers the Beta Kappa fraternity, and enters a world where alcohol and drugs serve as an excuse for covert trysts between frat brothers…where the pledging process becomes a sensual, S&M-fueled bacchanal…where weekends in L.A. and Palm Springs are no-holds-barred adventures in sexual exploration…and where Spring Break is a boys-gone-wild porn movie come to life. Through every encounter, from intense couplings with older frat brothers to sizzling three-ways with hot new pledges, Jeff also deals with his increasingly complex feelings–for Blair, for a handsome new arrival, and for life within Beta Kappa itself.

Sexy, steamy, and incredibly erotic, Every Frat Boy Wants It proves that when it comes to learning all there is to know about mind-blowing pleasure, nothing beats hands-on experience…

Published By: Kensington
Year of Publication: 2007
Number of Pages: 288

APRIL: Hero by Perry Moore

Thom Creed tries not to disappoint his dad, a disgraced caped crusader who now toils as a factory drudge, so he keeps his gay identity and his developing superpowers under wraps. Then he secretly tries out for the prestigious League, joining aspiring heroes in villain-busting adventures that escalate alongside more private discoveries. Written in a wry, first-person voice realistically peppered with occasional slang and slurs, this ambitious first novel from a Hollywood producer doesn’t entirely cohere. The alternate-reality framework is too cursory, and the more realistic strands feel overstuffed with problems, even as they incorporate many well-chosen scenes (including Thom’s awkward, anonymous first pickup, which goes only as far as a kiss). Still, Moore’s casting of a gay teen hero in a high-concept fantasy marks an significant expansion of GLBTQ literature into genres that reflect teens’ diverse reading interests; given the mainstream popularity of comics-inspired tales, the average, ordinary, gay teen superhero who comes out and saves the world will raise cheers from within the GLBTQ community and beyond. –Mattson, Jennifer, Booklist

Published By: Hyperion Book CH; Reprint edition
Year of Publication: 2007
Number of Pages: 432

MARCH: Gossip by Christopher Bram

 

Visiting his friend Nancy in Washington, New Yorker Ralph Eckhart honors a date with a previously cyberspace-only buddy, Bill. The two click sexually and start a long-distance relationship. But Ralph discovers conservative journalist Bill is about to publish a book trashing liberal women in Washington and, in a footnote, alleging a lesbian affair between a speechwriter and a senator–a pair that could only be Nancy and her boss. Ralph tells Bill off, Bill tries to make amends by coming out on national TV, and suddenly Bill is murdered, leaving behind a recorded denunciation by Ralph on his phone answerer. What follows is the stuff of high melodrama, as Ralph becomes an unknowing pawn in nasty political games in which, Ralph learns, gay liberal friends have used him even more callously than have evil conservatives. With a cast full of credibly conflicted characters and his smoothest writing to date, Bram’s ethical thriller is a powerful, compelling performance. (from Booklist)

Published by Plume
Year of Publication: 1998
Number of Pages: 352 pages

FEBRUARY: The Trouble Boy by Tom Dolby

 

A Yale-educated gay freelance writer navigates the shark-infested waters of Manhattan hoping to score a screenplay deal and a loyal boyfriend in this hip and sexy if predictable debut novel. The son of an upper-crust clothing designer, young Toby Griffin is plagued with acne and depression, but gets lucky when he’s hired to be a nightclub reviewer for a struggling Web site and quickly becomes a “nightlife contender,” impressing new friends Jamie, Donovan, Brett, David and Alejandro. Though the social scene is all about hooking up, Toby does manage a dinner date or two, but most end disastrously, including one with an egotistical former Real World cast member and another with a sleazy Polo store clerk. When both the Web site and an exciting proposal to co-write a memoir by transsexual performer Lola Copacabana fizzle out, Toby begins work for hotshot producer Cameron Cole. A premiere party with lots of cocaine and booze sets the stage for a deadly Lizzie and a coverup that tests Toby’s allegiance to his glitzy cohorts. As the media spotlight shines on Toby, he begins to lose interest in his tour of hot nightspots filled with cool Mr. Wrongs. Will our almost-charming hero ever find someone worthy? There are few surprises here, but Dolby’s writing is smooth and his flashy scene-setting spot-on. (Publisher’s Weekly)

Published by Kensington
Year of Publication: 2005
Number of Pages: 272 pages

JANUARY: Leave Myself Behind by Bart Yates

 

Noah York is a closeted gay teenager with a foul mouth, a critical disposition, and plenty of material for his tirades. After his father dies, Noah’s mother, a temperamental poet, takes a teaching job in a small New Hampshire town, far from Chicago and the only world Noah has known. While Noah gets along reasonably with his mother, the crumbling house they try to renovate quickly reveals dark secrets, via dusty Mason jars they discover interred between walls. The jars contain scraps of letters, poems, and journal entries, and eventually reconstruct a history of pain and violence that drives a sudden wedge between Noah and his mother. Fortunately, Noah finds an unexpected ally in J. D., a teenager down the street who has family troubles of his own. Rape and other physical violence, alcoholism, and incest–the novel describes these abuses in a brutal, matter-of-fact way that may leave some readers uncomfortable. Most of the time, however, Yates effectively captures the honest, sometimes silly, often tender interactions between his fragile characters. James Klise
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Published by Kensington
Year of Publication: 2003
Number of Pages: 256 pages