Award shows deliver spectacle by design, such as dresses, jokes, tension, applause. But every so often, someone steps up to the microphone and gives us something real.

For this issue, our esteemed, handsome, intelligent editor asked us to select our top pics of things we’d written about in the past year. Since so much of this column is made up of entertainment news bits, I thought I’d write about the Top 10 Reasons I’m Grateful I Live in South Florida, other than the weather.

Spring has arrived, and it’s bringing new books along for the ride. This season is all about bold heroines, unexpected mysteries, and that irresistible blend of magic and summer heartbreak we can’t ever seem to get enough of.

Casting a television show around drag performers is becoming an art unto itself, but casting a show showcasing some of the biggest legends in the world of drag pageantry (and having them live together in a South Florida mansion) was truly one for the record books!

Read our interview below with V. T. Bidania, the author of "A Year Without Home."

A directorial and writing debut every bit as potent as Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby,” writer/director Charlie Polinger’s “The Plague” (IFC) is also just as hard to shake. Which makes it required viewing.