For anyone who's been living under a rock for the past three years and hasn't caught an episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
, here's a news flash: straight men, with their three-track minds (sports, food, sex), could become much better partners to their girlfriends or wives if they upped their knowledge of culture, fashion, grooming, food and wine—i.e., if they became just a little gay. Shipley, owner of Georgica Literary Productions, and her "GBF" (gay best friend) Anthony, a former film exec, take a retro approach to advising women on making over their men, with vintage-style type and Jetsons-ish drawings. Charts, diagrams and illustrations pepper the pages, and quizzes test dudes' reading levels (as a kid, did he most identify with Holden Caulfield, Encyclopedia Brown, Dorian Gray or Marla Maples?) and other arbiters of taste. Shipley and Anthony can be quite a hoot, especially when they're dishing advice on gift-giving ("Most men don't understand that, regardless of what women say, what they would really like is jewelry"). But at bottom, the book is little more than fluff. Self-absorbed women may be the only ones who care about making their men "JGE" (just gay enough); for them, this book may be just the thing. Agent, Tanya McKinnon at Mary Evans Inc. (Mar.)
