“MAY I CONFESS to you a few things about myself?” Evan James asks in one of the 23 essays that make up I’ve Been Wrong BeforeI, an assessment of his young adulthood, globe-trotting adventures in his thirties, and daddy issues.

Fiebre Tropical is a triumphant exploration of queer Latinidad in the 20th century.

Real Life arrives at an important moment in our ongoing national conversation—now a global one—about race and racism in American society.

Jesus and John is a story not only of love, devotion, and longing, but also a finely written and refreshingly liberating “queering” of the Jesus myth that has been so misused and misunderstood in relation to LGBT lives.

            Fire on the Island has one instance of sexual assault along with several depictions of ethnic racism and homophobia. These elements do not seem misplaced in any way but carry the story toward a satisfying conclusion. Smith has blended action, drama, romance, and mystery into an arresting tale set in an alluring part of the world.

Curious Toys can be grim, filled as it is with incinerated corpses, poisoned candy, and filthy slums, but it also contains some hope, particularly for Pin. The final few chapters made me a little teary-eyed, and I realized that this novel, which is ostensibly a historical crime thriller, is really about something else entirely.

            In William Benemann’s insightful study, the driving urge for Ishmael and many others to take to the sea may have been about more than depression or adventurism. It just may have been because sailing ships offered one of the few places where one can express same-sex desire.

Warhol highlights the line that connects the artist to Marcel Duchamp and the Dadaists. In fact, Warhol was originally called a neo-Dadaist. In one of its many digressions, the book describes at length the French artist Yves Klein, perhaps best known for his 200 blue monochrome paintings, and their influence on Warhol.