By Christopher Cappiello

Top Shelf -- One book reviewer’s look at some of the best LBGT books of 2006

Looking back at this past year’s issues, I was surprised to find that I had reviewed about 40 books in 2006. That’s a lot of reading. Many more books are sent to the magazine in hopes that we will review them or even interview the author. It isn’t always easy deciding which books to review—many worthy candidates don’t even make it to our pages. Coming up with a “best of” list for 2006 is therefore a highly subjective process, further limited by the fact that I haven’t read every LGBT-related book that was published. For instance, still on my “to read” list are Gore Vidal’s new memoir, Point to Point Navigation, and Andrew Holleran’s latest novel, Grief. Then there are other high-profile releases—like former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey’s The Confession—that I don’t want to read because I’m quite certain they will make me queasy. So, given those caveats and qualifications, here is my top 10 LGBT book list for 2006
(listed in alphabetical order by author).

1. Fun Home:
A Family Tragicomic
by Alison Bechdel
The first graphic novel published by the venerable Houghton Mifflin is the highly literate and delightfully drawn memoir of Alison Bechdel, creator of the popular 23-year-old serialized comic, Dykes to Watch Out For. The beautifully told coming-of-age tale focuses on the author’s relationship with her closeted father, who died mysteriously weeks after she came out to him in college.

2. The Romanian
by Bruce Benderson
Winner of the Prix de Flore, Paris’ highest literary honor, for the original French-language version, Bruce Benderson’s memoir of a nine-month affair with a Romanian hustler reads more like an engrossing novel than autobiography. The Romanian covers familiar ground—the gay man falling for the hustler—with originality, muscularity and biting honesty.

3. Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics,
and Lipstick Lesbians
by Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons
While I didn’t review this book, it received plenty of deserved attention in this magazine with a two-part feature highlighting more than 200 sites of homosexual historical importance in town. Claiming that more LGBT institutions were started in Los Angeles “than anywhere else on the planet,” the two historian authors spin a fascinating, informally told tale of queer L.A., helping the city to claim its rightful place in LGBT history.

4. I Am Not Myself These Days
by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
When I interviewed Josh Kilmer-Purcell back in February I couldn’t believe that the gentle, soft-spoken author could possibly have lived through the wild exploits described in his hilarious memoir chronicling his life as one of Manhattan’s most popular drag queens. “Aquadisiac,” his drag persona, always had a goldfish swimming in water inside each clear plastic breast; meanwhile, Kilmer-Purcell navigated more treacherous waters of drugs and hustlers. The ad exec’s double life makes for entertaining reading, especially with his self-effacing wit and honesty.

5. The Way Out
by Christopher Lee Nutter
New York journalist Christopher Nutter has voraciously consumed philosophy, theology and self-help books and deftly distilled his findings in the highly personal and easily accessible The Way Out, a guide to self-realization for gay men that reads like a friend talking to a friend. Many boys on the boulevard can relate to Nutter’s experience chasing the elusive gay American dream.

6. The G Quotient
by Kirk Snyder
Recent news reports that some of the big financial houses are among the most gay-friendly employers makes one wonder if USC business professor Kirk Snyder’s The G Quotient: Why Gay Executives Are Excelling as Leaders…and What Every Manager Needs to Know is making the boardroom rounds. Snyder’s research finds that gay managers are more likely to value inclusion, creativity and communication, and, most important, their employees demonstrate 35 percent higher levels of job satisfaction. Attention, ladder-climbing gay execs.

7. A Killer Life
by Christine Vachon
Indie film powerhouse and out lesbian producer Christine Vachon (Far from Heaven, At Home at the End of the World, Boys Don’t Cry) charts the history of her daring production company, Killer Films, in this fascinating, surprising, inspiring and depressing insider’s look at filmmaking. It’s a valuable follow-up to her landmark Shooting to Kill, still the best nuts-and-bolts guide for first-time indie producers.

8. Exile in Guyville
by Dave White
Dave White is a self-proclaimed bear from Texas who chronicles his first year living in West Hollywood in this wittily observant and subversively intelligent memoir that will leave any L.A. gay man smiling in recognition (and sometimes embarrassment). White manages to both celebrate and skewer our little city within a city with his entertaining writing and original voice.

9. Religion Gone Bad
by Mel White
Although this past November’s elections were a setback for the far right, Mel White’s message in Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right still bears heeding by the gay community. Now the out founder of Soulforce, the former ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and others warns that many Bush backers want “a righteous man in every office” in the country. We ignore his insider view at our peril.

10. Rhapsody in Blood
by John Morgan Wilson
John Morgan Wilson shakes up his Benjamin Justice mystery series—with its gay, HIV-positive protagonist—by setting this entertaining seventh novel in an old inn in a high-desert ghost town where a cast and crew are filming a mystery. The grit of previous Justice mysteries gives way to a classic Agatha Christie tone, while our hero still enjoys some sexually charged encounters with a closeted male movie star. Kudos to Wilson for a bold change of pace.