2005 was a funny year for gay and lesbian publishing. The annual Libertas! Lesbian Book Festival continues to be one of the key dyke events of the year, attracting thousands of punters. Ali Smith, an out lesbian, made the Man Booker Prize shortlist and has just been named one of the queers to watch out for in 2006 by The Observer newspaper. Meanwhile, Sarah Water’s novel Fingersmith was dramatized for television.
But what about the books that made us smile and gasp? What about the queer books that rocked our world? It seems that they were largely few and far between. But never mind, here’s our pick of the best – and the worst! Roll on 2006!
I’m Coming to Take You to Lunch
Simon Napier-Bell’s fantastic account of working with Wham! In the 1980s is our book of the year. Entertaining and informative, the author is a brilliant storyteller.
Read our review and buy I'm Coming to Take You to Lunch online.
Borrowed Body
Valerie Mason-John published an experimental novel that drew heavily from her early life. Raw, not always easy to read, this was nevertheless a brave and exciting book.
Read our review and buy Borrowed Body online.
Crashing America
Street punks ruled in Katia Noyes’ road trip of a novel, which boasted writing so accomplished that it was hard to believe that this was her debut.
Read our review and buy Crashing America online.
Keeping You a Secret
How we cheered when Julie Anne Peters’ publishers decided to release a paperback edition of this wonderful coming of age novel. Forget Harry Potter, this is what young people should be reading.
Read our review and buy Keeping You a Secret online.
Dry
The paperback edition of Augusten Burrough’s memoir of his alcoholism hit the shelves in February and left us gasping with laughter and wiping away tears of sadness.
Read our review and buy Dry online.
From the Inside Out
Morty Diamond edited this, which also turned out to be the best anthology of trangsgender writing that we’ve ever read. Outstanding.
Read our review and buy The Inside Out online.
House Rules
Heather Lewis’ novel of addiction and racehorse doping was published posthumously in 2005 and reminded us yet again of her awesome talent as a writer.
Read our review and buy House Rules online.
Gutterboys
Alvin Orloff's third book, the charmingly titled Gutterboys, is a tale of "steamy gay sex and unrequited love in Lower Manhattan in the early 80s." It's edgy, hip, smart and pretty great.
Read our review and buy Gutterboys online.
Top Tip: Look out for our review of Elizabeth Sims new novel Easy Street. She's back with her fourth Lillian Byrd mystery and it’s easily her best yet!
Worth a mention…
Sunk Without Trace Department
Two stars of lesbian fiction published novels in 2005 which, bizarrely, sunk without a trace. Let’s hear it for Emma Donoghue with Life Mask and Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson. Wh’appen?!
Why Oh Why?
The Accidental scored a place on the Man Booker Prize shortlist, but Ali Smith’s novel was an unreadable hotch-potch of clever language and pretentious dialogue.
After Dry, you’d think that Augusten Burroughs could do no wrong. Unfortunately Magical Thinking was bitchy, mean, scattered and, worst of all, not very funny.
Finally, Alyson Publications continued to re-publish Katherine V. Forrest’s dreadful Daughters of a Coral Dawn trilogy. I suppose someone must like these books, but they left this reviewer cold.
Oh well, at least we have Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch to look forwards to in the new year. Happy reading!
Check out our Book Review area for all the gay literature we’ve read this year! There’s a lot of choice…