Pride Month Reads

I have a habit of reading far too many books at once, and have developed "themed" reading months for myself to help keep my focus (for instance I usually read one Stephen King novel a year, and only in October).

This year I found myself really wanting to dedicate my month of reading to the LGBTQIA+ community. Both educational and informative reads, and books written by LGBTQIA+ authors. I've been all over the place in my exploration of the Fediverse so I wrote a quick lil article over here on a WriteFreely instance.

I also imported my goodreads reading lists here on bookwyrm. Right now I'm about two thirds of the way through Fever by Jonathon Bazzi. I'll probably dive into The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo next. It's a retelling of The Great Gatsby from a queer/female point of view. I peaked in at the first few chapters and am already in love.

What other pride books would you recommend? I'm going to try and do this every June so I'd like to build out an impossibly long backlog of books to read if at all possible.

Rainbright,

TJ Klune has some really good queer stuff. The House in the Cerulean Sea is like reading a Pixar movie. Under the Whispering Door was also good but not my favorite.

dragna,
dragna avatar

Hah I actually do own both of those. My wife just read The House in the Cerulean Sea, so she had hold of it the last few weeks.

dball37,

Both of these came to mind for me too!

desantoos,

In short fiction I recommend Sam J Miller's "The Heat Of Us: Notes Toward An Oral History" which is about the Stonewall Riots but adds a fantasy twist. I don't think the twist is necessary, but Miller's description of the events is so lucid and engrossing that it's a substantive tribute.

ltwixster,

If you haven’t already read all of Becky Chambers’ books, highly recommend all of them. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is pretty well known, but her new novella miniseries (Monk and Robot) is great as well and features a non-binary main character which I don’t see all that often.

pumpkinspicemustflow,

I love everything I've read of Becky Chambers, it's like a warm hug in book form. I want to be Dex when I grow up!

OrangeBlossom,

I read mostly speculative fiction, so here are some queer SFF books!

Arkady Martine’s Teixcalaan duology - Complex, fascinating space opera influenced by both the Byzantine and Aztec empires, written by an author with a PhD in medieval Byzantine history.

This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar - I don’t even quite know how to describe this one, other than that everyone should read it. A glass-edged poetic fever dream of a novel about war and time travel and becoming, and a love story between two women who never interact face to face during its pages.

Winter’s Orbit and Ocean’s Echo, by Everina Maxwell - Lovely character-focused space opera M/M romances, with varying degrees of balance between the romance and space opera elements (Winter’s Orbit is stronger on the romance, and Ocean’s Echo less so). I enjoyed the worldbuilding, especially in the latter book. Both novels are set in the same universe but they can be read independently of each other.

Notorious Sorcerer, by Davinia Evans - I freaking loved the world this story took place in, and the characters even more so. A slow-burn second-world fantasy M/M romance that also includes a variety of well-developed female characters.

Freya Marske’s Last Binding series - Rollicking historical fantasy, fast-paced and filled with hidden magic, dastardly plots, and compelling characters. Book one is M/M, book two is F/F, and both are among my recent favorites. The final book in the trilogy will be out later this year.

Megan E. O’Keefe’s Protectorate series - I was looking for something to fill the Expanse void in my life, and while this series isn’t the Expanse (nothing is), it had some of the same vibes while still being its own thing. I got very attached to the characters and was blindsided by several twists I didn’t see coming.

K. D. Edwards’s Tarot Sequence - I was absolutely glued to these books until I finished them. A satisfying blend of mystery, urban fantasy, romance and thriller, with a strong emphasis on found families and rebuilding after loss. I highly recommend, but do suggest looking up trigger warnings before reading.

The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night, by Samantha Shannon - Anyone who’s in the mood for long, complex epic fantasy with strong F/F romances should give these a shot. The author says she plans to write more books set in the same universe, and I cannot wait.

dragna,
dragna avatar

Holy crap, the breadth of suggestions is amazing here, and across all the replies. I love this, especially since a lot of this is stuff I'd never even heard of (with the exception of the excellent Samantha Shannon). 15+ new books added to me to read list <3

anamuk,

Light from uncommon stars by Ryka Aoki and The unbreakable trilogy which starts with Victories greater than death by Charlie Jane Anders for some good interesting LGBTQI Sci-Fi

dragna,
dragna avatar

I'm sold on this blurb alone for Light From Uncommon Stars :

Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in this defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.

ReCursing,
ReCursing avatar

I'm part of a book club (well there's three of us) and we not infrequently have queer books of one sort or another. Here's a few that I've enjoyed that fit the bill

City in the middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders - it's a sci fi set on a planet that's tidally locked so only a thin band of twilight around the middle is habitable by humans. It's not primarily about such things but lesbianism is a strong undercurrent

Loveless by Alice Oseman - it's about someone going to university and figuring out that she's asexual rather than broken. I never would have thought I'd enjoy such a book but it's honestly great and funny. It feels kinda like a romantic comedy without the romance

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - this was sold to me with the line "lesbians and necromancers in space"! It's one part sci fi, one comedy, one part body horror, and the many character is lesbian and, while it's not a romance, her sexuality is relevant because she makes some really poor choices because of it! It's a quadrilogy but the final one hasn't been released yet (was going to be a trilogy but the author wrote an extra one)

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey - a rather short post-apocalyptic western about librarians smuggling queer people and anarchist literature

Criminal Gold by Ann Aptaker - A noir set in 1939 New York that's dark, gritty and (at times) brutal about a lesbian* (which was illegal back then) who is an art smuggler. Warning there is a rather too graphic SA scene very early on, but it doesn't actually cross that line again (though it comes close). The first in a series, I've read the first three and enjoyed them all.

DC Pride by various authors - a comic released each year by DC Comics to celebrate Pride month, about variously queer characters (and in one case, Kevin Conroy, the gay voice actor for Batman/Bruce Wayne in Batman The Animated Series)

* I swear we are not focused on lesbians, it's just happened that way!

dragna,
dragna avatar

Amazing suggestions. I have heard the "lesbians and necromancers in space" suggestion as well and I can't wait to read it, heh. I'd just seen a DC Pride book recently, but I didn't know it was a series they were doing, that's so awesome. My to read list has grown...need to figure out how to make shelves so i can split these out for my themed read.

ReCursing,
ReCursing avatar

There's at least three DC Pride books, and I expect they're do one every year (I've not read this years yet, actually... it might not be out yet of course). Marvel do something similar as well I think, but I've not read them

And yeah, Gideon The Ninth is great. Enjoy!

Rainbright,

I listened to the audiobook and really liked the narrator.

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