There were some real bright spots in the category of gay memoirs and biographies published during 2007. Here are our editors picks for the top five.

Dog Years: A Memoir
Mark Doty
In 1994, when the author Mark Doty's longtime lover was dying, their beloved pets Arden and Beau kept their surviving partner from abandoning all hope during the darkest days. “Dog Years” is a remarkable work -- a moving and intimate memoir interwoven with profound reflections on our feelings for animals and the lessons they teach us about life, love, and loss. A book unlike any other, Mark Doty's surprising meditation is radiantly unsentimental yet profoundly affecting. Beautifully written, “Dog Years” is a classic in the making.

Fish
T.J. Parsell
When seventeen-year-old T.J. Parsell held up the local Photo Mat with a toy gun, he was sentenced to four and a half to fifteen years in prison. The first night of his term, four older inmates drugged Parsell and took turns raping him. Forced to remain silent about his rape by a convict code among inmates, Parsell’s experience that first night haunted him throughout the rest of his sentence. Told with raw emotions and honest language, T. J. Parsell shares the story of his coming of age behind bars and gives a voice to the victims of prisoner rape in our penal system.

Man in the Middle
John Amaechi
John Amaechi's extraordinary journey from overweight English boy to jet-setting NBA star. Along the way, he endured endless obstacles to his hoop dreams -- being abandoned by his father, being cut from his first college team, recovering from a life-threatening injury, playing for abusive coaches and losing his mother -- while also protecting the secret about his sexuality that could have ended his career. A moving story of adversity and diversity, “Man in the Middle” is a testament to the power of one man's convictions and to the universal desire to make the world a better place.

Mississippi Sissy
Kevin Sessums
“Mississippi Sissy” is the electrifying coming-of-age memoir from Kevin Sessums, a celebrity journalist who grew up scaring other children, hiding terrible secrets, pretending to be Arlene Frances and running wild in the South. As he grew up in Forest, Mississippi, befriended by the family maid, Mattie May, he became a young man who turned the word "sissy" on its head. In a book that echoes bestsellers like “The Liar's Club,” Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there.

The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein
Martin Duberman
Lincoln Kirstein brought George Balanchine to the United States and persisted in creating both the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet. Among much else, Kirstein helped create Lincoln Center and the American Shakespeare Festival. But behind this remarkably accomplished and renowned public face lay a complex, contradictory, often tortured human being. Kirstein suffered from bipolar disorder which frequently strained his relationships with his family and friends. This rich and revelatory biography creates a fascinating portrait of one of the most crucial cultural figures of the twentieth century.