This column begins where it usually ends, with a reader’s “Favorite Book.” The reader is Ann Weinwurm, and her favorite book is Shut Up! And Listen to Yourself, a new self-help book by Joshua Estrin: “What a find!!! It is a quick and powerful book that has simple to understand advice, taps into an inner spirit and this book is truly motivational. The book is quick to read, simple to understand, and brings awareness from within. Everyone needs to read it, it is an uplifting reading pleasure, combining humor, energy and insight!! What more could you want in a book? My answer is Book # 2 from this author!!!”

What else can I say? Not being familiar with this book (or its author), I ordered a copy. What I got was a slim and attractive tome, with the author’s handsome face on its cover. Joshua Estrin, it turns out, has several degrees and is President of Concepts in Success. He and his book are “driven by my passion to help you feel better, work more effectively and efficiently and begin to truly honor and trust the expert that resides within you. So male or female, young or old, gay or straight, this will work because YOU choose to let it.”

According to Estrin, “within each of us lies an existing roadmap that can provide all the guidance we seek; but we need to focus, trust and yes, SHUT UP!, listen and, most importantly, pay attention to what we are hearing.” After all, he tells us, “You are the expert on you.” Shut Up! And Listen to Yourself shows us how to listen to our inner expert, take notes - there are a lot of lined pages for notes in this book - and use Action, Ability and Awareness (in that order) to make it work. Of course you might say that a lot of the material in this book is plain common sense, and you might be right. But a lot of us wouldn’t know common sense if it hit us. Thus, we must shut up and...you got it.

In addition to being Ms. Weinwurm’s favorite book, Shut Up! And Listen to Yourself is recommended by no less an eminence than The Lady Chablis. Copies of Shut Up! And Listen to Yourself are available at the author’s Web site, conceptsinsuccess.com. If the book is not enough, you can buy Shut Up! merchandise - T-shirts, caps, and even underwear - at cafepress.com/shutupandlisten.

BRIEF VIEWS. 13 YEARS OF BONDAGE: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF RICK CASTRO; Fluxion, 120 pages; $46. Rick Castro is an acclaimed photographer and film maker whose body of work includes The Bondage Book and the films Hustler White and Plushies & Furries. Castro continues his explorations into the wide world of kinky sex with this fine collection of homoerotic bondage photos. 13 Years of Bondage, a limited edition of 3000 copies, features 105 duotone images of men in various stages of bondage and undress. Many of these men are street hustlers who ply their trade in Santa Monica Boulevard in El-Lay. Others are models or celebrities like Tony Ward, Madonna’s former boy toy and star of Castro’s own Hustler White. (You haven’t lived till you’ve seen Ward ball-gagged and dripping with hot wax, IMHO.) The photos in this book are rather explicit, and they are not for the squeamish or those whose idea of sex is strictly vanilla (like Dairy Queen). However, if you are like me, and like to walk on the wild side now and then, you will find Mr. Castro’s photos quite enjoyable. As if that is not enough reason for you to want to buy a copy of the book, 13 Years of Bondage: The Photography of Rick Castro was also nominated for the American Library Association’s 2005 Stonewall Achievement Award.

I first met Eric Rofes in 1979 when we were both involved in the planning of the first March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights. Since then I have had the pleasure of following his literary career and even contribute to one of his books (1986's Gay Life). Rofes’s most recent books combines his passions for education and GLBT liberation. In A Radical Rethinking of Sexuality and Schooling: Status Quo or Status Queer? (Rowman & Littlefield; $22.95), Rofes examines sexuality and education in the USA, ranging from HIV education to anti-gay harassment in school. Youth and Sexualities: Pleasures, Subversion, and Insubordination In and Out of Schools (Palgrave Macmillan; $22.95), which Rofes co-edited with Mary Louise Rasmussen and Susan Talburt, studies “the ways we conceptualize, represent, and work with all young people, but especially with queer youth. At a moment in which some argue that issues of access to public education and safety in peer groups will be the next major civil rights struggle facing schools in the West, we put forward this book as a strategic intervention aimed at altering the very premises that guide the actions of teachers, counselors, youth workers, and researchers.” The essays are intelligent, thought-provoking, and kind-hearted, like Rofes himself.

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and gay book lover who lives in South Florida with his life partner and many books. You may reach him at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.