Happy Pride: The 5 Best LGBTQ Books
June is Pride Month, which means it’s time to get educated about LGBTQ issues. And, what better way is there to learn about the LGBTQ community than to read books by and about LGBTQ people?
Let’s go through the best LGBTQ books to start reading today.
1. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
If you love graphic novels, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is the LGBTQ book you should start off with. You may have heard of Bechdel as the creator of the Bechdel-Wallace Test, a form of measurement of women’s representation in works of fiction.
In Fun Home, Bechdel explores her childhood and early adulthood through her relationship with her father, as she comes to terms with her sexuality.
A Tony-winning Broadway musical was even created based on the book.
2. Detransition, Baby
This novel by Torrey Peters is one of the most popular novels of the year so far. It outlines a love triangle between trans and cis women, brought together by an unexpected pregnancy and a long-ago detransition (hence the eye-catching title).
If you want to jump in on the discourse this year, you’ll definitely want to make sure you check out Detransition, Baby.
Once you’re done with your copies of these books, you can sell your used books online so that you can buy even more LGBTQ books.
3. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Not to be confused with Orange Is The New Black, this queer novel is definitely one you need to check out. This coming of age story by Jeanette Winterson is about a queer girl raised in a religious family.
A television movie based on Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit came out in 1990. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit isn’t the only queer book written by Jeanette Winterson. Other books by Winterson that you may want to check out include The Stone Gods, Written on the Body, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? and many others.
4. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
This book by Audre Lorde is one of the best collections on intersectional experiences with oppression out there.
If you enjoy Sister Outsider, you should also look into reading Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, which explores Lorde’s early life in more detail.
5. In The Dream House
One of the most experimental LGBTQ books out there, In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, explores the writer’s experience as she escapes an abusive relationship.
Machado goes through the mechanics of an abusive relationship while utilizing different literary techniques to make her points in a stylistically impressive manner. She skips through different literary styles with ease that shocks.
Truly, In The Dream House is an impressive written work, with a haunting story at its center.
Get Started With These Best LGBTQ Books
While these are some of the best LGBTQ books, there are so many more out there.
Are you looking for more ways to celebrate Pride and learn more about the LGBTQ+ community? Make it a point to take a look at some of the other articles on this website today.
