1. The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames, illustrated by Dean Haspiel
It will probably raise a few eyebrows that Queerty's best book of the year is a thinly veiled roman a clef by a straight novelist and New York Press columnist known for staging a show called "Oedipussy", but The Alcoholic is an uncommonly tender look at love, friendship and addiction. The protagonist Jonathan A. first discovers alcohol with his best friend and after a late-night gay exploratory fling, he finds himself rejected. For years he struggles with the loss of his friend, seeking solace in women, drug dealers, his great aunt and of course, in drugs and alcohol. When he discovers the truth decades later: That his best friend was gay and loved him, Jonathan A. looks for an easy resolution, but the real-life Jonathan Ames takes the reader to a far more realistic conclusion.