a collection of books featuring characters and storylines relating to the lgbt++ experience
currently reading: Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (re-read)
Welcome, astronauts and stowaways! Here are 10 Science Fiction books with transgender and nonbinary characters to help get you started on Trans Rights Readathon 💜📚💜
Read IN THE DREAM HOUSE by Carmen Maria Machado if you love haunted houses, gut wrenchingly beautiful prose, autobiographical accounts, trauma narratives, exceedingly queer stories, a meticulous exploration of abuse, thematic echoes & brilliantly structured books.
Haimey Dz thinks she knows what she wants. She thinks she knows who she is. She is wrong.
A routine salvage mission uncovers evidence of a terrible crime and relics of powerful ancient technology. Haimey and her small crew run afoul of pirates at the outer limits of the Milky Way, and find themselves on the run and in possession of universe-changing information.
When authorities prove corrupt, Haimey realizes that she is the only one who can protect her galaxy-spanning civilization from the implications of this ancient technology—and the revolutionaries who want to use it for terror and war. Her quest will take her careening from the event horizon of the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s core to the infinite, empty spaces at its edge.
To save everything that matters, she will need to uncover the secrets of ancient intelligences lost to time—and her own lost secrets, which she will wish had remained hidden from her forever.
Genres: science fiction, mystery
Get the book from Blackwell’s with free worldwide shipping here! (1, 2)
Book Review: True Love and Other Impossible Odds by Christina Li
Summary: College freshman Grace Tang never meant to rewrite the rules of love. She came to college to move on from a grief-stricken senior year and to start anew. So she follows a predictable routine: Attend class, study, go home and visit her dad every weekend. She doesn’t leave any room in her life for outliers or anomalies.
Then, Grace comes up with an algorithm for her statistics class to pair students with their perfect romantic partners. Though some people are skeptical, like Julia, Grace’s prickly coworker, Grace is confident that her program will take all the drama out of relationships. That’s why she keeps trying to make things work with her match, a guy named Jamie. But as the semester goes on and she grows closer to Julia, Grace starts to question who she’s really attracted to.
In award-winning author Christina Li’s YA debut, Grace will have to make a choice between the tidy equations she knows will protect her from heartbreak or the possibility that true love doesn’t follow any formula.
My Thoughts: Can love be predicted with logic and numbers? It's an interesting question that Grace and her fellow math classmates are wrestling with for their project. Science and math can do a lot of things for us so why not finding matches for people? It's a fun topic to explore or at least watch characters attempt to do so.
Grace learns a lot about herself as she and her math partners implement their program. Why some people click and others don't has them questioning their algorithm, but also themselves. The friends and other students that Grace is interacting with have opinions about the project, but the farther they get into it, the more questions arise.
The story bounces back and forth between her college freshman year and the time when her mother was still alive and before a rift with Grace's best friend. She's grieving both losses and is only beginning to venture into new relationships both romantic and otherwise. She stumbles around a bit, but the book feels like a hug as she finds some connections, learns about herself, and begins to heal.
Seeing her muddle her way through new relationships was a little like watching a young horse start walking. It's a lovely coming of age story as Grace really delve into her feelings and discovers more about herself. She creates new bonds and takes a good look at how she has interacted with her father and her previous best friend.
I loved the snowy ski excursions and it made me realize I haven't seen skiing in many young adult books. Grace and Julia have that common interest which really helps them get to know each other and it adds to the cozy feeling of the book. This book would be great with a cup of hot cocoa and a blanket.
Recommendation: Get it soon especially if you enjoy seeing characters discover more about themselves and like a sweet bit of romance.
Ainsley is a dryad — a spirit of the woods and leader for the local magical community — whose yearly hibernation is turning into decades-long periods of sleep. She fears the worst for her earth-walking body and dares not think of next winter.
Fate has different plans, and it waits for none.
Priscilla — human, chronic daydreamer, and eternal sunshine — leads a relatively peaceful life after leaving an abusive past behind. She battles the scars of that time still, fighting random episodes of maladaptive daydreaming — yet always choosing to face them with a smile.
A simple misunderstanding lands Priscilla being roped into working as Ainsley’s event decorator for her best (and perhaps last) May Day Festival — despite the magical and mundane being kept separate for their safety.
Two people, two stories, two scars kept close to their hearts, two kindred souls finding each other in this silent forest.
(Image description: four images each with a different colored background and white text in the center. 1) “teach lgbtqia books”, 2) “teach queer books”, 3) “read lgbtqia books”, and 4) “read queer books”)
Books I've read in the last few months and recommend (and yes, all of them are queer)
Book recs 1 / Book recs 2
Info and ratings of each book underneath!
Between Perfect and Real by Ray Stoeve
Dean thought he was a lesbian for a long time, but he then learns what transgender is and starts to think about his own gender and how he feels like a boy, he's just scared of how he will tell his friends and his girlfriend, who is also a lesbian
Really good book and explained it all super well, really good rep tbh and even though everyone is messy in some way you feel for (almost) every character 8/10 (trans men, trans women, non binary, lesbian, gay and bisexual characters)
Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao
We follow Jo and Sophie during their first year at Wellesley College, who meet in a class and become friends, but what they don't know is that they also know each other online, as Wendy and Wanda and they don't exactly get along swimmingly. Oh, they are both also aroace, and become closer after telling each other that
If you're aspec or questioning it or just want to know more about it and what we go through in this world as aroace people? This is the book for you, it's so good and so relatable 10/10 (Asexual, aromantic, bisexual, lesbian, pansexual, demisexual and non binary characters)
I Wish You All the Best by Mason Dever
Ben comes out to their parents and gets kicked out, making them call their sister who they hadn't seen in 10 years to pick them up, and even if their life is shitty in that moment, happier days are to come
I loved this story so so much but I wanted to kill the parents. Really well written and the sibling and friends are so loveable! 9/10 (non binary, queer, pansexual and bisexual characters)
I'll Be Home For Christmas by Mason Deaver
Takes place 4 months after iwyatb at christmas time, Ben wants to surprise Nathan but a snowstorm gets in the way... Or does it?
Loved this short story so much! You just fall in love with Ben and Nathans love! And wow in both books I could relate to Ben's anxiety so much it was scary 10/10 (non binary, queer, pansexual and bisexual characters)
Like real people do by E. L. Massey
Eli, a disabled 18 year old who loves to skate runs into Alex, a 19 year old famous hockey player, and they quickly become friends, but soon develop feelings for each other and must figure out if an out guy and a closeted guy can be together
Adorable, just fucking adorable I love this book so much and the two main characters and their friends are absolute sweethearts, was thinking this book wasn't going to be for me cause hockey isn't something I like but wow was I wrong, so glad I gave this book a chance 10/10 (gay and bisexual characters)
Like you've nothing left to prove by E. L. Massey
Second book of "Like real people do" and follows Eli and Alex navigate their relationship as well as their passions, hockey and figure skating
If you loved the first book this is just a continuation of it and again, so adorable and loveable, just a delight to read 10/10 (gay and bisexual characters)
Milo and Marcos at the end of the world by Kevin Christopher Snipes
His last year of high school and a familiar face appears after three years. Milo remembers Marcos from camp and hasn't stopped thinking about him, and maybe the same can be said about Marcos?
This was a rollercoaster to say the least lol but very interesting read, and Milo and Marcos are very lovable characters (even though stubborn sometimes but who isn't?) And Vanessa is the best friend anyone can have. Although the religious themes was sometimes too much, but understandable why it was put there 8/10 (gay characters)
The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons
Spencer changes schools since the previous one wasn't accepting of his transgender identity, and the new one is more open to queer people, and they also have a football/soccer team which he would love to join
Such a sweet story and I just loved all the kids, Spencer and Justice are so cute together, all the teammates are super nice and Theo (Spencer's autistic younger brother) is absolutely adorable, really nice read 10/10 (Transgender, queer, gay and bisexual characters)
They hate each other by Amanda Woody
Dylan and Jonah don't get along, they hate each other, but after deciding to fake date to get everyone in school off their backs by saying they would make the perfect couple, over time they might realize that they were right
Loved this book so much!!! Wanted to adopt Jonah and hug Dylan, protect these boys at all costs, and Jonahs sisters were too adorable, even though it had heavy topics it was really well done (yeah a lot of scenes almost made me cry, both in a bad way ans good way lol) 10/10 (bisexual, transgender and asexual characters)
Upside Down by N. R. Walker
Jordan might be asexual but he isn't sure, so Merry his best friend takes him to an aro/ace meeting to learn and get some answers, and he might just get them and more...
There are no fucking words for this book, but I will say that you will not stop smiling and laughing and crying throughout, all the characters are so genuine and lovable and I want to know them irl, could not recommend enough 10/10 (gay, lesbian, asexual, aromantic, bisexual, poly)
They met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. Later, in a demon-haunted wood, an act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey through the ages. As they reincarnate ever deeper into the future, a truth emerges: Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell.
Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland
In this queer pirate fantasy, Avra Helvaçi has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world. To avoid capture, he flees to the open sea, where only his on-again, off-again ex aka pirate Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār can help him survive, profit, and become a legend.
Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Something evil is buried deep in the desert. It wants your body and wears your skin. Welcome to Camp Resolution, a queer conversion center where everyone leaves a different person. In 1995, seven queer teens were abandoned here by their parents, but survived. Sixteen years later, they’re scarred and broken, but back to face an evil that threatens the world.
Kinning by Nisi Shawl
In this alternate history where barkcloth airships soar and former colonies claim freedom from imperialist tyrants, the identity of the island of Everfair still wavers. Victorious in the wake of the Great War, a new threat looms. Can Everfair continue to serve as a symbol of hope for anticolonial movements around the world, or will it fall to forces within and without?
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
Can one of the Queen’s private guard and the most powerful mage in existence leave their lives behind to settle down in their new bookshop that serves tea? This cozy fantasy is steeped in sapphic romance and nestled on the edge of dragon country.
The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab
Once there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power and connected by a single city: London. After a desperate attempt to prevent corruption and ruin in the four Londons, there are only three. Now the worlds are going to collide anew—brought to a dangerous precipice by the discoveries of three remarkable magicians.
Now available in paperback!
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon
This is a story about misplaced faith, complicated love, so much self-loathing, and yeah—giant robots. Plugged into his AI god when its apocalyptic corruption renders him unfortunately immortal, sad gay disaster Sunai takes a die-again-or-die-trying approach to things. Unending life’s tough when intimacy is somehow scarier even than either of the warring police states set on turning you into a weapon or the rogue undead mecha-fragment of your old god that wants to eat you.
Now available in paperback!
The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen
A dazzling historical mystery that dives into the shadowy, closeted world of the Navy, emerging in the gay bars of the city. It’s a whirlpool of missing people, violent strangers, and scandalous photos in 1952 San Francisco.
My dear friends: When a librarian or teacher says "Audiobooks count as reading", we do not literally mean that audiobooks are the same as decoding visual meaning via symbols representing sounds. We mean, among other things:
Audiobooks can expose listeners to new vocabulary and forms of syntax.
Audiobooks can present listeners with long-form fictional narratives with engaging characters, interesting literary devices, and poetic turns of phrase.
Audiobooks can teach listeners new information in a long-form manner that goes into depth or wide breadth on a particular subject or subjects.
Audiobooks can help listeners' verbal comprehension skills.
Audiobooks can do all these things without presenting the same difficulties to blind, low vision, partially sighted, visually impaired, or dyslexic listeners; listeners with ADHD; listeners who experience physical difficulty with holding a book or e-reader; or listeners who are disabled in a host of other ways that a physical book or e-reader might present.
The written word is not specially imbued with magical noble worth above the spoken word, and if you think it is, you may have some ableism and/or racism to deconstruct.
Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by Maia Kobabe and Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier
A graphic guide to chest binding with real-life stories and research-backed advice from bestselling Gender Queer author Maia Kobabe and University of Michigan professor Sarah Peitzmeier.
Breathe arose from the need for an evidence-based resource for folks considering chest binding as gender-affirming care. Its original form was a 32-page digital-only 'zine, but Peitzmeier and Kobabe saw potential for reaching a wider audience with an expanded version with more art and more exploration of what the research really shows about binding, designed to be easily readable as a printed book. This is the result.
To create Breathe, Peitzmeier and her research team interviewed many people of different ages and backgrounds about their journeys with binding, and then she and Kobabe combined excerpts from those interviews with evidence-based resources on binding into this extremely accessible book. The result is both a practical resource for trans and nonbinary folks and an engaging and perspective-broadening read for anyone interested in what it means to be on a journey of expressing one's gender in the ways that are joyful, healthy, and affirming.
It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four.
Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.
As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.
Genres: contemporary, romance
Order from Blackwell’s and get free worldwide shipping!
I needed some lighter reads in my life around this time and this book was just right. It was cute and developed some lovely healthy friendships. I love dnd and this book was basically a book about some girl wanting to play dnd but was told she couldn't join her boyfriends table because of the "No-Girlfriend Rule". So despite her social anxiety she ventures into the world of // with an all girl group.
Like I said this was a light, cute and easy read that had some amazing rep for social anxiety and the need to fit in with the norm when finding yourself in something outside of that norm.
I will say there is a bit of a no-no scene where the MC does kiss someone who isn't her boyfriend while still in a relationship with said boyfriend. I know that we see the relationship between the two of them is falling apart, but I know this could be a line others aren't comfortable reading being crossed.
