What Are Some Good LGBTQ Books For Pride Month & Beyond?
Most LGBTQ books and authors have not seen the status and popularity enjoyed by most mainstream writers today. But there was a time that there were authors who were brave enough to tell the truth, and often live their truth, or at least try to write about it. They did so by getting as creative with their words as possible. They gave readers a hit of the queer content while trying to avoid any obvious signals. Right now, we are lucky to be living in a time when authors from the community can write honestly and openly. There are a few LGBTQ books that have made an appearance on the list of banned books. But the overall demand for queer books seeks to grow with each passing year. In the present times, you will find stories and novels in various different genres. This includes thoughts on racism in the country from the standpoint of a person from the community, teen books with trans and gay leads, science fiction, romance, and more. You may be looking for queer novels written by female-identified authors, other books by Black authors, or any other books present under the literary rainbow.
You will get the titles you like on our list of the top LGBTQ books of all time. They have been selected carefully by looking at the top books' overall best-seller lists and the usual lists. The books are rated among the top ones by the queer community by some consensus.
Ocean Vuong: On Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous
This LGBTQ book is a letter from a son to a mother who does not know how to read. It was written when the speaker was in his late twenties. The latter shows the history of a family that begins before he was bought into the world. It is a story whose center is in Vietnam. It serves as a window into the portions of his life that his mother does not know. It leads to a memorable experience and reading.
Wall Street Journal Magazine said, "A stunningly written journey that … explores how race, masculinity, addiction, and poverty are seen in our country — all topics that feel especially significant today."
Andrew Sean Greer: Less
The character will experience love in the charming city of Paris. He nearly dies in the German city of Berlin. He will go to a Moroccan ski chalet after surviving a Saharan sandstorm. He will also book himself as a writer-in-residence in Southern India at a Christian Retreat Center. He will encounter the last person that he wants to look at a desert island in the Arabian Sea. Somewhere along the way, he will also turn fifty years old. He faces his first love and his last in the journey.
Ron Charles from The Washington Post said, "Andrew Sean Greer did something rare this week: His latest novel, 'Less,' won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. That's extraordinary, of course, but what makes this year's winner so unusual is that his novel is funny. Very funny. Laugh-till-you-can't-breathe funny."
Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life
A few classmates from a small college in Massachusetts move to New York to make their professional careers. They are adrift, broke, and buoyed only by their ambition and friendship. Over a long period, their relationship darkens and depends. It is flavored by pride, success, and addiction. But their greatest challenge is when they see that one of the friends is an extremely successful litigator but a very broken individual. His body and mind are scarred by a childhood that cannot be discussed. He is haunted by what he thinks is a type of trauma that he will not be able to recover from and what will be the defining factor of his life.
Brigid Delaney at The Guardian said, "Sometimes books come along that match the times. 'A Little Life' is the perfect chronicle of our age of anxiety, providing all its attendant dramas (cutting, binges, and childhood sexual abuse) as well as its solaces: friendship, drugs, travel, love affairs, and interior design."
Chinelo Okparanta: Under the Udala Trees
The character comes of age when her country does. She was born before independence was achieved in the country. She was just over ten years old when there was a civil war in the Republic of Nigeria. The girl is sent away for her safety. Here she meets another displaced child, and they fall in love. They do not belong to the same ethnic communities. They are women. When someone finds out about their love, the character learns she will have to hide it from the rest of the world. But there is a high cost to pay to live a lie.
Buzzfeed said, "'Under the Udala Trees is a gripping story of love, faith, and turmoil in post-civil war Nigeria. When Ijeoma falls in love with another girl, she must come to terms with who she is in a society that refuses to accept her. A heartbreaking and moving account of Ijeoma's coming-of-age and the story of a country during a time of great disturbance, 'Under the Udala Trees' will affect you deeply."
Andre Aciman: Call Me By Your Name
This LGBTQ book is the story of a powerful and sudden romance. It happens between a teenage boy and a guest at his parents' mansion. They go towards the only thing they fear they may never get again, which is total intimacy. It is one of the great love stories of this community and an instant classic.
Mark Doty at O, the Oprah Magazine, said, "An extraordinary examination of longing and the complicated ways in which we negotiate the experience of attraction. ... It's startling that a novel so bracingly unsentimental? alert to the ways we manipulate, second-guess, forestall, and finally reach stumblingly toward one another ? concludes with such emotional depths,"
Alison Bechdel: Fun Home
The character of the book is exacting and distant. The character was an English teacher, and the funeral home director was present in the two. Alison and her family talked about it as Fun Home. But it was not until the time of college that Alison, who had recently discovered her identity as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. Sometime after this revelation, he was dead. This left the mystery of his death for Alison to solve.
Kalle Oskari Mattila at The Atlantic said, "In 'Fun Home,' Bechdel delves into the troubled, often secret-filled relationship with her late father, a closeted gay man whose death she concludes wasn't an accident but suicide. Unaware of how her father was struggling with his sexuality, Allison was coming to accept her own queerness. This complicated dynamic plays out with humor, pathos, and wit in the pages of the novel."
Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex
The LGBTQ book talks about the exciting story of Calliope Stephanides and multiple generations of the Greek-American family. They go from a tiny village near Mount Olympus to Detroit during the era of prohibition. They see the glory days of the city as the Motor City. They also experienced the race riots that took place there during that time. This is because they move out to the tree-lined roads of suburban Grosse Pointe in Michigan. Calliope wants to understand why she is not like the other girls around her. For that, she has to uncover a family secret and the surprising genetic history that has turned Callie into Cal. It is one of the most surprising and daring narrations in present fiction.
Mark Lawson at The Guardian said, "The trick of the novel is that the gene which carries the possibility of androgyny becomes, for the reader, like a revolver brandished in the first act of a play. During the long first half of family history before we reach the eventual hermaphrodite — Calliope Stephanides, born apparently female in 1960 in Detroit, later living in Berlin as a man called Cal — we're watching out nervously for that weapon of inheritance to go off as it passes between grandparents and parents."
Alexander Chee: Edinburgh
The lead character in the novel is a shy Korean American boy and the section leader of the sopranos in his local boys' choir. But when he learns how the directors treat the leaders of the sections, he is so ashamed that he does not talk about the abuse. This is not even when his best friend is in line to be the next. But when the director is arrested, the boy tries to forgive himself for not talking about it. But when his best friend takes his own life, the boy falls into guilt. Over the years, he starts to create a new life by teaching near his hometown. There he meets another young student who looks just like Peter. The boy is now forced to think about the past that he thought was gone.
Author Annie Dillard said, "'Edinburgh' has the force of a dream and the heft of a life. And Alexander Chee is a brilliant new writer."
Michael Cunningham: The Hours
With this LGBTQ book, the author was hailed one of the top writers of his generation. He takes inspiration from the work and life of Virginia Woolf to talk about the story of a group of characters set in modern times who are struggling with the conflicting claims of hope and despair, inheritance, and love. The overall narrative of the last days of Virginia Woolf before her suicide during the second world war counterpoints the fictional tales of a famous poet whose life has been overshadowed by his troubled and talented mother. He is striving to create a rewarding and balanced life in spite of the demands of family, lovers, and friends.
Michael Wood of The New York Times Book Review said, "The overall impression is that of a delicate, triumphant glance, an acknowledgment of Woolf that takes her into Cunningham's own territory, a place of late-century danger but also of treasurable hours."
Conclusion
The time of Pride Month is when a lot of readers opt for LGBTQ books and novels that are written by authors from the community and have queer characters. But this overall representation should matter the whole year. The appearance of gay, nonbinary, bisexual, and other queer characters assists the readers in seeing themselves in the books. It also gives more unique stories to the rich world of literature. The LGBTQ books look to blend heart and humor in equal measures. These great and inspiring books shed some light on the pain that the members of this community have had to face over the years. Some continue to endure the pain. There are others that also derive great joy from gradual self-love and social acceptance. There are some LGBTQ books that will keep your heart warm. The other books will give you heartbreak and try to inspire you to move towards a kinder and fairer world. In our article, we have talked about the best books for and from the community for adults and teens alike that can take the place of pride on your bookshelves. You will be able to celebrate Pride Month in a new manner.
