Books

Finding movies with interesting portrayals of LGBTQ people can be difficult and it is often just as difficult to find books with interesting portrayal in books. Below is a list of books with LGBTQ characters or LGBTQ central stories, fictional and non-fictional. (All synopses are taken from Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)

Fiction

• Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez

Three high school seniors, a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father, a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate, struggle with family issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other. (NYPL)

• Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair

I still thought breasts might be more trouble than they were worth. Growing up reminded me a little bit of Hide and Go Seek. When it was your time to grow up, Nature said, “”Here I come, ready or not.” And Nature could always find you.

• The Geography Club by Brent Hartinger

A group of gay and lesbian teenagers finds mutual support when they form the “Geography Club” at their high school. (NYPL)

• Living In Secret by Cristina Salat

Ever since Amelia’s parents got divorced, she has wished she could live with her mother and her mother’s girlfriend, Janey, but a judge gave her father custody. Finally, after years of living apart, Amelia, and her mom decide there is only one thing to do. On a cold October night, Amelia’s mother comes to steal her away. For Amelia, living in secret means changing her name, not going to school, and pretending she is twelve instead of eleven. The adventure of beginning a whole new life, with brand new family and friends, is marred only by the shadow of a past that could shatter the present in an instant, should anyone find out who Amelia really is.

• Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Paul, a sophomore at a high school, meets Noah. He thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for, but he blows it. The odds are great, and his friends around him all got some problems … Sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right. (NYLP)

• From The Notebook of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson

Thirteen-year-old Melanin Sun’s comfortable, quiet life is shattered when his mother reveals she has fallen in love with a woman. (NYPL)

• Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Set in the 1950s, Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality–P. [4] of cover.

• The Misfits by James Howe

Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide to create a third party for the student council elections to represent the school’s outcasts. (NYLP)

• Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction.

• Rosemary and Juliet by Judy MacLean

Can two teenage girls find happiness in each other’s arms – when it seems the whole world is against them.

• A Simple Distance by K.E. Silva

When Jean Sousa’s uncle, a high-ranking politician on the fictional Caribbean -island of Baobique, is diagnosed with brain cancer, Jean is forced to reconcile difficult family relationships and her place among them.

• Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

Woman or man? That’s the question that rages like a storm around Jess Goldberg, clouding her life and her identity. Growing up differently gendered in a blue–collar town in the 1950’s, coming out as a butch in the bars and factories of the prefeminist ’60s, deciding to pass as a man in order to survive when she is left without work or a community in the early ’70s. This powerful, provocative and deeply moving novel sees Jess coming full circle, she learns to accept the complexities of being a transgendered person in a world demanding simple explanations: a he-she emerging whole, weathering the turbulence.

• Deliver Us From Evie by M.E. Kerr

Sixteen-year-old Parr Burrman and his family face some difficult times when word spreads through their rural Missouri town that his older sister is a lesbian, and she leaves the family farm to live with the daughter of the town’s banker. (NYPL)

• Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence by Marion Dane Bauer

A collection of short stories about homosexuality by such authors as Bruce Coville, M.E. Kerr, William Sleator, and Jane Yolen. (NYPL)

• The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

The friendship of three high school girls and their relationships with their friends and families are tested when two of them fall in love with each other. (NYPL)

• Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

Born a bastard, Molly Bolt is adopted by a dirt-poor Southern couple who want something better for their daughter. Molly plays doctor with the boys, beats up Leroy the tub and loses her virginity to her girlfriend in sixth grade. As she grows to realize she’s different, Molly decides not to apologize for that. In no time she mesmerizes the head cheerleader of Ft. Lauderdale High and captivates a gorgeous bourbon-guzzling heiress.

• A Secret Edge by Robin Reardon

In many ways, Jason Peele is like any other teenager. He hits the books, hangs with his friends, flirts with girls, and omits the full truth of his life from his Aunt Audrey and Uncle Steve, who have raised him since his parents died. But there’s one way that Jason Peele is very different: when he dreams at night, it isn’t about girls; it’s about David Bowie. At sixteen-years-old, Jason is just beginning to understand that he might be gay.

• Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai

Although life for Amrith in 1980 Sri Lanka seems rather uneventful and orderly, things change in a hurry when his male cousin arrives from Canada and Amrith finds himself completely enamored with his new visitor. (NYPL)

Nancy Garden has written several books centered around LGBTQ young people.

• Annie on My Mind

Liza tries to put aside her feelings for Annie after the disaster at Foster Academy, but eventually she allows love to triumph over the ignorance of others. (NYPL)

• Good Moon Rising

Jan begins her senior year of high school not expecting that she will lose the starring part in the school play, take over as director when her beloved drama teacher becomes ill, and realize that she is a lesbian. (NYPL)

Julie Anne Peters has written a number of books whose main characters are LGBTQ young people.

• Keeping You A Secret

As she begins a very tough last semester of high school, Holland finds herself puzzled about her future and intrigued by a transfer student who wants to start a Lesbigay club at school. (JCPL)

• Luna

Fifteen-year-old Regan’s life, which has always revolved around keeping her older brother Liam’s transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides to start the process of “transitioning” by first telling his family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy’s body. (JCPL)

• She Loves You, She Loves You Not–

When seventeen-year-old Alyssa is disowned by her father for being a lesbian, she is sent off to a small town in Colorado to live with the mother she has never known, where she is forced to come to terms with herself and her family. (JCPL)

• Rage: A Love Story

At the end of high school, Johanna finally begins dating the girl she has loved from afar, but Reeve is as much trouble as she claims to be as she and her twin brother damage Johanna’s self-esteem, friendships, and already precarious relationship with her sister. (JCPL)

• Between Mom and Jo

Fourteen-year-old Nick has a three-legged dog named Lucky, some pet fish, and two mothers, whose relationship complicates his entire life as they face prejudice, work problems, alcoholism, cancer, and finally separation. (JCPL)

• Far from Xanadu

In a small Kansas town, sixteen-year-old Mary-Elizabeth “Mike” Szabo tries to come to terms with her father’s suicide and her own homosexuality. (JCPL)”

• Define “Normal”

When she agrees to meet with Jasmine as a peer counselor at their middle school, Antonia never dreams that this girl with the black lipstick and pierced eyebrow will end up helping her deal with the serious problems she faces at home and become a good friend. (JCPL)

Sarah Waters has written a hand full of books centered around LGBTQ young people.

• Tipping the Velvet

Nan, a poor oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon that is Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty’s dresser, and the two head for the bright lights of Leiscester Square. (JCPL)

• Fingersmith

In Victorian England, an orphan girl is sent to a country estate to work for-and ultimately woo-its young heiress, on behalf of a mysterious benefactor known as Gentleman.

• Affinity

An upper-class woman, recovering from a suicide attempt, visits the women’s ward of Millbank prison as part of her rehabilitation. There she meets Selina, an enigmatic spiritualist-and becomes drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s freedom, and her own.

Non-Fiction

• Brother to Brother: New Writings By Black Gay Men edited by Essex Hemphill

Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men, begun by Joseph Beam and completed by Essex Hemphill after Beam’s death in 1988, is a collection of now-classic literary work by black gay male writers.

• GenderQueer: Voices from Beyond the Sexual Binary edited by Joan Nestle

In this groundbreaking anthology, three experts in gender studies and politics navigate around rigid, societally imposed concepts of two genders to discover and illuminate the limitless possibilities of identity. Thirty first-person accounts of gender construction, exploration, and questioning provide a groundwork for cultural discussion, political action, and even greater possibilities of autonomous gender choices.

• GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Queer and Questioning Teens by Kelley Huegel

Describes the challenges faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered teens, offers practical advice, real-life experiences, and accessible resources and support groups. (NYPL)

• My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely by Kate Bornstein

Bornstein starts from the premise that there are not just two genders performed in today’s world, but countless genders lumped under the two-gender framework. Using a unique, deceptively simple and always entertaining workbook format, Bornstein gently but firmly guides you to discover your own unique gender identity. Whether she’s using the USFDA’s food group triangle to explain gender, or quoting one-liners from real “”gender transgressors”", Bornstein’s first and foremost concern is making information on gender bending truly accessible. With quizzes and exercises that determine how much of a man or woman you are, My Gender Workbook gives you the tools to reach whatever point you desire on the gender continuum.

• Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change.

• Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out edited by Loraine Hutchins & Lani Kaahumanu

Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out is one of the seminal books in the history of the modern bisexual rights movement. It holds a place that is in many ways comparable to that held by Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique in the feminist movement. The book comprises fiction and non-fiction pieces, poetry and art created by a diverse group of over seventy bisexual people speaking about their lives. (Wikipedia)

• Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer by Chely Wright

The youngest of three children, Wright would ascend the ladder to the top of the country-music world, only to find herself trapped in a place she hadn’t foreseen, but had to face. From high-school homecoming queen to successful recording artist with her first hit single, “”Shut Up and Drive,”" Wright’s journey was dictated by keeping the truth of who she was closeted in a world in which country music stars had never been – and could not be – openly gay.

• Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Youth and Their Allies by Ellen Bass & Kate Kaufman

Free Your Mind is the definitive practical guide for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth — and their families, teachers, counselors and friends. For too long, gay youth have wanted to be themselves and to feel good about it, but most have been isolated, afraid, harassed, or worse. Their very existence has been ignored, whispered about, or swept under the rug.

• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

This book takes its place alongside the unnerving, memorable, darkly funny family memoirs of Augusten Burroughs and Mary Karr. It’s a father-daughter tale perfectly suited to the graphic memoir form. Meet Alison’s father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family’s Victorian house, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with male students and a family babysitter. (NYLP)

• Growing Up Gay/Lesbian: A Literary Anthology edited by Bennett L. Singer

Growing up Gay/Growing up Lesbian is the first literary anthology geared specifically to gay and lesbian youth. It includes more than fifty coming-of-age stories by established writers and teenagers and has been hailed by writers, educators, activists, booksellers, and the press as an essential resource for young people–and not-so-young people–seeking to understand the gay and lesbian experience.

• Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transexual and Transgender People by Viviane Namaste

Through combined theoretical and empirical study, Viviane K. Namaste argues that transgendered people are not so much produced by medicine or psychiatry as they are erased, or made invisible, in a variety of institutional and cultural settings. Namaste begins her work by analyzing two theoretical perspectives on transgendered people—queer theory and the social sciences—displaying how neither of these has adequately addressed the issues most relevant to sex change: everything from employment to health care to identity papers.

• Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology edited by Will Roscoe

This incredible book is a compilation of essays, stories, poems, and biographical accounts of living as a gay, bisexual, transsexual, or hermaphrodite American-Indian (all which have been lumped under the term ‘berdache’). This book not only deals with the history of American Indians, and how they embraced the non-heterosexual members of their society as healers, but shows how, with the creation of the New World, the English made American-Indians turn against their own, converting their religion, and, in turn, converting them into a homophobic subculture.

• My Life as a Boy: A Woman’s Story by Kim Chernin

Although touted as a reflection on gender and sex roles, My Life As a Boy is a classic romance–a memoir of Kim Chernin’s star-crossed love affair with the bewitching Hadamar, which began as a friendship in Berkeley in the late 1970s, when both women were on the verge of leaving their husbands and changing their lives. For Hadamar, who had “never made an unconventional decision in her whole life,” the erotic subtext of their romantic dinners out and talks until dawn was satisfaction enough. But Chernin was developing a new boyish persona that needed to push forward, to pursue, to possess. Even her looks began to change, and she found a slender, assertive self emerging, ready to scale the garden wall and climb a ladder into her beloved’s window. Hadamar’s eventual betrayal of Chernin comes as no surprise to the reader, nor does Chernin’s admission that Hadamar was not the love of her life. After her first despairing days alone, Chernin begins to sense “in the inexorable thrust” of her own development “the promise of power, liberation, license, opportunity”–the stirrings of her new response to women, and the potential it holds. A strange, dreamy memoir that reads like a novella of fated love.

• Positively Gay: New Approaches to Gay and Lesbian Life edited by Betty Berzon

With a list of contributors from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and approaches, this important resource, compiled by Dr. Betty Berzon, spotlights significant but often overlooked topics such as building successful same-sex partnerships, reconciling religious dilemmas, coming out to one’¬?s family, creating gay families, using voting power to effect change, dealing with legal and financial issues, and living as a gay person of color.

• Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer by Riki Wilchins

A one-stop, no-nonsense introduction to the core of postmodern theory, particularly its impact on queer and gender studies. Nationally known gender activist Riki Wilchins combines straightforward prose with concrete examples from LGBT and feminist politics, as well as her own life, to guide the reader through the ideas that have forever altered our understanding of bodies, sex and desire.

• Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian/ Pacific American Activists edited by Kevin K. Kumashiro

The book presents the first-person accounts of 20 activists—life stories that work against common stereotypes, shattering misconceptions and dispelling misinformation. These autobiographies challenge familial and cultural expectations and values that have traditionally forced queer Asian / Pacific Americans into silent shame because of their sexual orientation and/or ethnicity. Authors share not only their experiences growing up but also how those experiences led them to become social activists, speaking out against oppression.

• Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology edited by Amy Sonnie

Invisible. Unheard. Alone. Chilling words but apt to describe the isolation and alienation of queer youth. In silence and fear they move from childhood memories of repression or violence to the unknown, unmentored, landscape of queer adulthood, their voices stilled or ignored. No longer. Revolutionary Voices celebrates the hues and harmonies of the future of gay and lesbian society, presenting not a collection of stories but a collection of experiences, ideas, dreams, and fantasies expressed through prose, poetry, artwork, letters, diaries, and performance pieces.

• The Gay and Lesbian Guide to College Life: A Comprehensive Resource for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students and Their Allies by Joan Baez, Jennifer Howd & Rachel Pepper

Featuring advice from students and administrators at more than seventy of the nation’s top colleges, the Gay and Lesbian Guide to College Life lets you know how to how to thrive on campus as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and/or questioning student. Including tons of student testimonials and dozens of parent tips, the Gay and Lesbian Guide to College Life offers no-nonsense guidance to LGBT students, their families, and allies on how to make the most of their college experience. (Barns & Noble)

• The Meaning of Matthew by Judy Shepard

The Meaning of Matthew follows the Shepard family in the days immediately after the crime, when Judy and her husband traveled to see their incapacitated son, kept alive by life support machines; how the Shepards learned of the incredible response from strangers all across America who held candlelit vigils and memorial services for their child; and finally, how they struggled to navigate the legal system as Matthew’s murderers were on trial. Heart-wrenchingly honest, Judy Shepard confides with readers about how she handled the crippling loss of her child, why she became a gay rights activist, and the challenges and rewards of raising a gay child in America today.

• This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color edited by Cherrie Moraga & Gloria Anzaldua

This Bridge Called My Back has served as a rallying call for women of color for a generation, and this new edition keeps that call alive at a time when divisions prove even more stubborn and dangerous. The new edition is further brought to life with the incorporation of visual art by seventeen noted women of color artists.

• Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian by Urvashi Vaid

Since the decade to lift the ban on gays in the military, the emergence of gay conservatives, and the onslaught of antigay initiatives across America, the gay and lesbian community has been asking itself tough questions: Where should the movement go?  What do we want?  In Virtual Equality, veteran activist Urvashi Vaid tackles these questions with a unique combination of visionary politics and hard-earned pragmatism.

If you know of any books that are not on the list, please contact us.