Ferguson has crafted a contemporary coming-of-age tale that is at turns heartbreaking and humorous. One of the most promising fiction debuts of the years can be found in “The Screwed-Up Life of Charlie the Second” (Kensington, 2008, $15) by gay writer Drew Ferguson. Martin Duberman has written more than a dozen non-fiction books including “Cures: A Gay Man’s Odyssey,” “Stonewall” and “The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein.” Duberman, who is also a playwright, has four of his plays - “In White America,” “Posing Naked,” “Mother Earth” and “Visions of Kerouac” compiled under one cover in “Radical Act: Collected Political Plays” (New Press, 2008, $18.95). Feminist and bi writer Jennifer Baumgardner puts human (and in some cases, familiar) faces on a complex issue in “Abortion & Life” (Akashic, 2008, $16.95).

In “Are You Guys Brothers?” (Author House, 2008, $16.95), Brian McNaught writes about his longtime relationship - 30 years - with spouse Ray. Toklas, is newly available in a paperback edition. The award-winning “Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice” (Yale University Press, 2007, $13) by Janet Malcolm, about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Matt Rothschild’s memoir “Dumbfounded” (Crown, 2008, $23.95) bears the telling subtitle “Big Money. Patrick Johnson, Professor and Chair, Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University, gives “voice to a population rarely acknowledged in Southern history” via a series of fascinating interviews.

Subtitled “an oral history,” “Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South” (The University of North Carolina Press, 2008, $35) by E. This is especially true when it comes to non-fiction works.

It’s been another banner year for LGBT titles, and the choices for the fall season are abundant. If you’re a reader, or if there are readers on your gift list, then you are in luck as there are plenty of books with which to fill up your autumn hours, or to give as presents. Or, maybe you’re in the mood to get some holiday shopping out of the way. The days are getting shorter, the temperatures are getting chillier and you’re probably thinking of ways to make good use of all that time you’ll be spending indoors.

Emma's Table by Philip Galanes