As someone who is new to the queer scene, I want to read something through a queer lens or pov.
Topic can be broad and cover anything – growing up, love, overcoming hate, LGBT history etc. Both fiction and non fiction welcome!
Every Heart A Doorway, Seanan McGuire. Especially if you were ever a weird little girl on top of being queer.
boxer_dogs_dance on
The Well of Loneliness,
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
MelnikSuzuki on
Camp QUILTBAG by Nicole Melleby and A. J. Sass
pleasantrevolt on
Whipping Girl – Julia Serano (some ideas and language are a little outdated but it’s overall a solid book that laid a lot of groundwork for understanding transmisogyny)
Side Effects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad – Hil Malatino
Transgender History – Susan Stryker
Transgender Liberation: Beyond Pink and Blue – Leslie Feinberg
Gender Trouble – Judith Butler (also kind of dated and a pretty academic read but incredibly influential)
Transgender Marxism – Jules Joanne Gleeson (you do not have to be a marxist to benefit from this book; a lot of essays explore gender, culture, and politics in ways I think every trans and gender non conforming person would hugely benefit from reading)
The History of Sexuality – Michel Foucault (the most dated of these books, also hugely academic, also hugely influential)
Lkat96 on
I don’t know if they’re *all* must reads, but I’ve enjoyed these:
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen, the sequel will be released next week ! (Murder mystery, fiction)
ACE by Angela Chen
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (graphic novel)
Pageboy by Elliot Page
I don’t know if the author is queer, but I LOVED The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. (Fiction, old Hollywood)
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*The Price of Salt* (also published as *Carol*) by Patricia Highsmith
For classic literature I would recommend:
Maurice by E. M. Forster
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Great memoirs:
Me by Elton John
Broken Horses by Brandi Carlisle
How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones
Just some good books:
Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldúa
Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans
The Pink Line by Mark Gevisser
Greedy by Jen Winston
Into the Fire – Mia West
It’s heavy at times, but *Stone Butch Blues* by Leslie Feinberg is and will always be my go-to recommendation.
I also love *Love and Resistance*, published by the New York Public Library, and *A Queer History of the United States* by Michael Bronski
The First to Die at the End. Couldn’t put it down and I think it meets your criteria. Happy reading!
Are you into poetry? Growing Up I Want To Be A List Of Further Possibilities – Chen Chen. This book changed my life.
*The Best Little Boy in the World* written by Andrew Tobias under the pseudonym ‘John Reid’.
For people wanting to exercise their sense of humor:
Alison Bechdel’s *Dykes to Watch Out For*
Sean Martin’s *Doc and Raider*
The Gay Icon Classic of the World II by Robert Joseph Greene
I started writing a few titles, but this New York Times list is amazing and includes all the books I was going to recommend: [The 25 Most Influential Works of Postwar Queer Literature](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/t-magazine/queer-postwar-books-plays-poems.html?unlocked_article_code=zwEhyNAGWQm3GdXdUIGhB2ofZnCwCJJ8fubGvQr9yRhFx5qnDmIJTr_-YENwi1jk7e0cgD28KNRUpHE50DNRUq_uFRZZEZ5uMFubNYEkIv01dnea76shdiMOHr-Bn1TJVPF7L6-3vNHji_punHOiNjmIyAS4xe0rRGySWpW09BVtAHttQOHaTNHcf36U7y0CieEr6DoCg_JF8aR7Na74kq-EniZ4eDc5pk1O593LtNLVuKgPan8M7IvhEn0TmeFU1iOSv02sz-1SfdiQX-y1-CTpjUUXns-yhbqC4UgOKOM9DAoj_RF1cCPFycbauS2Yvx6sseDu1GJbJwVcKxFAG3GYekJw3kjvzotP9Q&smid=url-share)
Every Heart A Doorway, Seanan McGuire. Especially if you were ever a weird little girl on top of being queer.
The Well of Loneliness,
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Camp QUILTBAG by Nicole Melleby and A. J. Sass
Whipping Girl – Julia Serano (some ideas and language are a little outdated but it’s overall a solid book that laid a lot of groundwork for understanding transmisogyny)
Side Effects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad – Hil Malatino
Transgender History – Susan Stryker
Transgender Liberation: Beyond Pink and Blue – Leslie Feinberg
Gender Trouble – Judith Butler (also kind of dated and a pretty academic read but incredibly influential)
Transgender Marxism – Jules Joanne Gleeson (you do not have to be a marxist to benefit from this book; a lot of essays explore gender, culture, and politics in ways I think every trans and gender non conforming person would hugely benefit from reading)
The History of Sexuality – Michel Foucault (the most dated of these books, also hugely academic, also hugely influential)
I don’t know if they’re *all* must reads, but I’ve enjoyed these:
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen, the sequel will be released next week ! (Murder mystery, fiction)
ACE by Angela Chen
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (graphic novel)
Pageboy by Elliot Page
I don’t know if the author is queer, but I LOVED The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. (Fiction, old Hollywood)