Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin: I was not as crazy about these books as I expected to be, but I did like them. It really brought home to me how much I'm a slash fan, though -- I like my gay boys to be all pretty and melodramatic and unrealistic. Also, these books were writting during the 70's and early 80's, and the lifestyle they depict everyone (regardless of gender or orientation) living is utterly, utterly foreign to me. Lots of casual sex. My born-in-the-age-of-AIDS prudent self was aghast.
China Mountain Zhang, Maureen McHugh: I've read this book three or four times I think, and every time I marvel at how well it hangs together. It's science fiction, set in an odd socialist future, with the main protagonist being the eponymous China Mountain Zhang, half-Chinese & half-Spanish in a world where being pure-blooded Chinese is ideal, a gay man in a world where homosexuality is unilaterally outlawed. This probably sounds incredibly depressing, but really, it isn't. Zhang starts off as an emotionally shut-down, somewhat whiny young man, and matures into a competent, self-aware adult. Along the way we get glimpses of colonies on Mars, kite racing, and Taoist architecture.
Heartthrob, Suzanne Brockmann: For some reason I felt like reading a romance novel, so I went and picked up a handful from the library. Imagine my surprise when this one turned out to be fun! It's not deep literature, and prim little me had to skip over some of the sex scenes, but the depiction of two competent yet damaged people finding one another and overcoming their various personal demons was quite touching. I even cried at the end.
The Unauthorized Version, Robin Lane Fox: This is out of print, but I linked to Amazon anyway, since there's some used copies for sale currently. It's a very dense, solidly researched book about the historicity of the bible, from Genesis to Revelations. I liked it because the narrative voice feels objective; he's not out to prove or disprove anything, but merely to poke around and see what he can find out.
Sailing to Sarantium, Lord of Emperors, Guy Gavriel Kay: Okay, so when I was in high school I read the Fionavar Tapestry several times and thought they were the best books ever, and Tigana ditto. Then I became more cynical and decided Kay was just a pretentious guy who knew an engaging style when he saw one and was milking it for all he was worth. Now -- well, okay, I'm not sure if I'll ever read the Fionavar Tapestry again. But these books were _amazing_. Interesting twists on real Byzantine history. Beautifully taut characters. Rich writing. Even a happy ending, at least for some people, but not without loss. I loved them. I am now going to have to swallow my pride and go read all the stuff he's written in the meantime.
In the Midst of Winter, Mary Jane Moffat (ed.): A really excellent selection of poetry, diaries, essays, stories, etc. about death andmourning. She has the perfect eye for this sort of thing; nothing felt out of place, and they all flowed nicely into one another. Not a light read, but a worthwhile one.
Dave Barry Does Japan, Dave Barry: My japanese teacher recommended this to our class, and he was right; it's very, very funny, especially I think to students of Japanese culture. Okay, Dave Barry does piss me off when he goes on about Americans in certain ways, because he makes generalisations about our culture which I don't think are really true if you're not a middle-aged white guy, but on the whole not so bad.
The God in Flight, Laura Argiri: This book nutshells as 'coming of age love story between two men in 1880s America', but there's a lot more to it than that. What made this book work for me is that it is unashamedly melodramatic and full of all the things I love in really good slash fiction -- brilliant, beautiful and utterly doomed male protagonists who suffer aesthetically on their way to happiness. It is sadly out of print, but Amazon has used copies at the moment. Read it when you're in the mood for emotional chocolate fudge sundaes.