Pride Month is a time to reflect on how far the LGBTQ+ community has come after decades of activism and what we can do to go further still. It is also a time to celebrate all gender and sexual identities. Get into the spirit with one of these books centered around LGBTQ+ characters and the community.

If you want to read a queer author’s debut…

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“Making a list of what’s quirky about this debut novel from Arnett…is too tempting to resist, but these quirks also serve as the novel’s starting points. Arnett’s writing cuts through all the unusualness and renders Jessa human and relatable.” —Emily Dziuban, Booklist 

“…an astonishing debut novel that’s both a new entry in the long history of great fiction about grief and a darkly comic flight of brilliance that transports the reader to a familiar yet alien world of frozen moments and dysfunctional love.” —Matthew Jackson, Bookpage

“The world Arnett creates for Jessa is lushly gross, as if the character’s aspirational impassivity has squeezed her emotions out into the material world, rendering everything as rude and compelling as her own suppressed vulnerability.” —Melissa Febos, The New York Times Book Review

 

If you’re into young adult fiction…

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“Two of queer YA fiction’s best writers team up for an infectiously sweet story of young love set against New York’s bustling backdrop. Without a doubt, this is the gay rom-com you’ve been waiting for.”— Entertainment Weekly

“Fan-favorites Albertalli (Leah on the Offbeat,2018, etc.) and Silvera (They Both Die at the End, 2017, etc.) join forces in this tale of a New York City summer romance. This joyful romance is both sweet and substantial.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Albertalli and Silvera balance cynicism and starry-eyed optimism to paint an honest, compelling picture of adolescent romance. Part feel-good, part star-crossed, this seamless blend of the authors’ styles will appeal to fans old and new alike.” — School Library Journal (starred review)

If you love poetry…

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“Justin Phillip Reed’s debut collection, Indecency, offers a sharp, uncompromising rebuttal to a society that would like to reduce the speaker to their race, sexuality, and gender performance. Reed turns the white, heterosexual gaze back toward itself, revealing the void at the heart of those identities, while simultaneously reveling in black queerness and expounding on the vast universes contained therein.” —Luiza Flynn-Goodlett, The Adroit Journal

“Reed’s visceral and teasingly cerebral debut probes black identity, sexuality, and violence and is inseparably personal and political.” —Publishers Weekly

 

If you want to learn more about LGBTQ+ history…

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“Interesting…instructive…Duberman argues correctly that Stonewall marked a generational, organizational, and ideological shift that brought gay liberation into the array of social protest.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Illuminating…a vivid and stirring recreation of the Stonewall riot, probing beneath its symbolism to discover the social forces it unleashed.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“A fascinating account of the birth of gay liberation and a replay of the turbulent, society-changing ’60s.”—San Francisco Chronicle

 

If you’re a fan of Queer Eye…

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“Feisty and affecting. France’s charming anecdotes and candid opinions exhibit no shortage of humor, and fans of the TV personality will revel in the peek into his colorful history.”–Publishers Weekly

“Tan France has wife words to offer across all areas of life. France gives readers a candid and intimate look at his past and shares all that he’s learned about being a spouse, television personality, and role model.”—Time 

“[Fran] pens a heartfelt memoir and shares his experience growing up gay in a South-Asian Muslim family in a predominantly white English community—and the lessons he’s learned along the way.”—USA Today 

 

If you like art history…

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“…A comprehensive historical overview of Queer Art… Chock full of photos, drawings, posters, texts, and more, documenting the rise of queer artistic voices in modern society.”—LA Weekly

“Big, queer, complex and sumptuously done-up… Over 500 beautiful illustrations […] ranging from anonymous pornographic photos to some of the greatest paintings done by humans in the last 125 years… A heady and thoroughly pleasing mix up of low and high culture… [A] landmark tome… Sagely curated”—Dazed & Confused

“[A] comprehensive and definitive survey of artworks that have constructed, contested, or otherwise responded to alternative forms of sexuality… [has] an accessible, authoritative voice, with a wealth of rarely-seen imagery.”—Aspire: Design and Home Magazine