Pride Month is celebrated every June in honor of those who were involved in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. We asked our librarians for some of their favorite LGBTQ+ fiction and nonfiction to highlight, and here's some of the titles they came up with. These books are for teens and adults and feature a variety of genres and themes.
Fiction
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin - The groundbreaking novel by one of the most important twentieth-century American writers. Set in 1950s Paris, a young American expatriate finds himself caught between his repressed desires and conventional morality.
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender - Felix Love, a transgender seventeen-year-old, attempts to get revenge by catfishing his anonymous bully, but lands in a quasi-love triangle with his former enemy and his best friend.
Finna by Nino Cipri - When an elderly customer at a Swedish big box furniture store -- but not that one -- slips through a portal to another dimension, it's up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company's bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but those two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago.
A Complicated Love Story Set in Space by Shaun David Hutchinson - In this meta science fiction adventure, sixteen-year-olds Noa, DJ, and Jenny awake on a spaceship, unaware of how they got there or what is coming, but soon Noa and DJ are falling in love.
The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar - When a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, estranged childhood friends Flávia and Nishat decide to showcase their talent as henna artists. In a fight to prove who is the best, their lives become more tangled--but Nishat can't quite get rid of her crush, especially since Flávia seems to like her back. (from the dust jacket flap)
Bloom by Kevin Panetta - In this tender graphic novel, recent high school graduate Ari wants to quit his job at the family bakery and move to the big city But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easygoing guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it.
She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen - "After an embarrassing loss to her ex-girlfriend in their first basketball game of the season, seventeen-year-old Scottie Zajac gets into a fender bender with her nemesis, Irene Abraham, head cheerleader for the Fighting Reindeer. When the accident sends Irene's car to the shop for repairs, the girls are forced to carpool, and their rocky start only gets worse. In trying to get back at her toxic ex, Scottie bribes Irene into a fake-dating scheme that threatens to reveal some very real feelings."--Publisher.
NonFiction
The Other Mothers: Two Women's Journey to Find the Family That Was Always Theirs by Jennifer Berney - A story of fertility, feminism, and family, this memoir is a riveting exploration of one lesbian couple's struggles with fertility and how they navigated a patriarchal medical community to build a family together.
Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming - In his unique and engaging voice, the acclaimed actor of stage and screen shares the emotional story of his complicated relationship with his father and the deeply buried family secrets that shaped his life and career.
Heaven's Coast by Mark Doty - In this heartfelt memoir, poet Doty recounts how his lover of eight years learned that he was HIV-positive and traces their lives through this bombshell. "Doty presents a kind of AIDS journal, tracing the gradual onset of the disease to which Roberts succumbed in 1993 and the painful healing process that engulfs Doty to this day." - Publisher's Weekly
Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson - "Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo's astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo's genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy."--Provided by publisher.
The 2000s Made Me Gay: Essays on Pop Culture by Grace Perry - "From The Onion and Reductress contributor, this collection of essays is a hilarious nostalgic trip through beloved 2000s media, interweaving cultural criticism and personal narrative to examine how a very straight decade forged a very queer woman."--Provided by publisher
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring - "Drawn from the secret diaries and journals of novelist, poet, and university professor Samuel M. Steward, this is a reconstruction of one of the more extraordinary hidden lives of the twentieth century....An archive of his papers, lost since his death in 1993, has provided biographer Justin Spring with the material for an illuminating life-and-times biography. More than merely the story of one remarkable man, this is a moving portrait of gay life long before gay liberation.--From publisher description.
A Wild and Precious Life: A Memoir by Edie Windsor - A lively, intimate memoir from an icon of the gay rights movement, describing gay life in 1950s and 60s New York City and her longtime activism which opened the door for marriage equality.