The Advocate Bookshelf

I'm Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship

Man's best friend is known for providing companionship, unconditional love, and ... humor? In I'm Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship (New American Library, $14), critically acclaimed memoirist Wade Rouse gathers heartwarming tales of dog love from well-known gay humorists like Rita Mae Brown, Alec Mapa, and Bob Smith, and features a foreword by Chunk Handler (beloved pet of Chelsea).

-- Winston Gieseke

Andy Warhol's New York City: Four Walks Uptown to Downtown

Have you ever wondered where Andy Warhol ate, played, slept, worked, and got shot? Nearly 25 years after his death, the presence of the 20th century's most influential pop artist still lingers throughout every corner of Manhattan. Andy Warhol's New York City: Four Walks Uptown to Downtown (The Little Bookroom, $15), by Thomas Kiedrowski, is a unique guidebook that will direct you to every location even vaguely associated with the artist and offers detailed stories in which even his most devoted aficionados will revel.

-- Jeremy Kinser

Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical

There's something about being a woman and seeing a powerful, well-rounded female character emote, sing, and dance in front of you on the stage. Watching the musical Wicked was an incredibly powerful experience for me, and I only imagine it was the same for other women sitting in the audiences and experiencing the complex Sally Bowles in Cabaret or the saucy Anita in West Side Story for the first time. Stacy Wolf's Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical (Oxford, $25) intellectually encapsulates so much of what is amazing about seeing these captivating characters play out.

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-- Michelle Garcia

Theodora

Stella Duffy's Theodora (Penguin, $10) is an amorous and coercive novel that educates all who read it. Duffy, a well-known lesbian author of critically acclaimed literary and crime novels, covers all aspects of the life of Theodora, infamous Byzantine empress and wife of the sixth-century ruler Justinian. The book's well-researched pages are filled with the facts of Theodora's life, and the plot twists come directly from the real-life scandals throughout her life as an empress, actress, and whore. Duffy's passion for her enchanting Theodora shows through in every chapter.

-- Andi Alexander

Unwelcome

The second novel in Michael Griffo's Archangel Academy series, Unwelcome (Kensington, $10) takes off where Twilight should have gone: with young, hot, gay vampires. The book follows Michael, a new Academy recruit who is just learning how to control his vampire powers, why life at the Academy beats Nebraska any day, and the truth of his mother's death.

-- Diane Anderson-Minshall