LGBTQ+ Staff Picks for Pride Month
For June staff picks we chose some of our favorite LGBTQ+ books to celebrate Pride Month, and in honor of his late father, Eddie chose one of his longtime favorites. 20% of these sales will benefit the Ali Forney Center which protects LGBTQ youth from the harms of homelessness and empowers them with the tools needed to live independently.
Pro tip: To see more of each staff member’s staff picks click their name! Find them all here
“A delightful interdimensional romp, Finna is the adventure I didn't know I was waiting for. It features a pair of ex-partners sent off on a wormhole-traversing quest that they are *not* paid enough to do, while exploring themes of multidimensionality, queer relationships, mental health, and soul-deadening minimum-wage retail labor, wrapped up in clean, precise prose and topped off with a bright bow of humor. There are infinite dimensions with infinite versions of this book, but I'm certain that this is the best one.” -Abby
“This is a book about womanhood and art that really has it all. It's queer, it's speculative, expansive, anti-fascist, and utterly absorbing. ” -Annina
“The first Pride was a riot. It’s important to never forget that the beginnings of the LGBTQ+ rights movement was fought for with riots led by people of color and trans women of color, while across the world BIPOC and allies are fighting for their rights and justice. Last year in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising the NYPL put together this anthology chronicling the events leading up to and after the uprising with writings by Audre Lorde, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and so many more. Intersectionality is an essential part of activism, and it takes radical acts to spark change.” -Anthony
“If you are looking for a stunner of a novel to sink into this summer, please let me recommend Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Patsy! Following the journey of Patsy from Jamaica to America, leaving behind her daughter to live with a former lover in hopes of a better life, Dennis-Benn tackles difficult and painful relationships with family, sexuality and gender identity, racism, and poverty with such compassion and courage. Her writing is so powerful and so deeply felt. It just came out in paperback and I'm taking this time to read it again because it's just that good.” -Colleen
“Sunati thinks the girl she sees often at the train station is cute and brave. Austen thinks Sunati is cute, too. Austen doesn't wear and mods—modifications, the technology that allows people to change their appearance because she has a disorder that disallows them to work with her body. When Sunati musters to courage to talk to Austen, she asks her out on a date; from there we are treated to a relationship between two college students that starts clumsily and with great tenderness.
I read this sci-fi romance on a Sunday while I was running errands—remember running errands? What a time! Abby, our Children's Books Manager, handed me the galley with a smug attitude, claiming that I would like the book. I read the copy on the back and it was right up my alley. Abby was right. I loved this f/f sci-fi romance. Seeing their relationship start with awkward insta-love and maturing into a connection that is mutually supportive, caring, and fun did me in. 5 out of 5 stars. Two thumbs up. 100 on the Tomato-meter. What else do you need to know to buy this book?” -Danni
“Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American redhead carouses his way through Dublin after World War II. My father read it when he was a young American redhead and it remained a favorite long after his carousing days were over. He died in April and I really miss him.” -Eddie
“Less is a love story, a comedy, a travelogue, a Pulitzer Prize-winner. It will make you laugh and cry, which is what I seem to require of books these days. You will finish the book and feel happy. Right now, I will take all the happy-making novels I can get.” -Emma
“The Tiger Flu is an out-of-this-world experience; if you think the cover is psychedelic, wait until you actually read this. You’ll be thrown into a futuristic city where men are going extinct because the tiger flu primarily affects men. One of the quarantine rings surrounding the city is home to an asexually reproducing lesbian commune - pretty cool, right? Although this book is a trippy, cyberpunk fictional tale I found it eerily relevant, and it will leave you with a comforting message: surround yourself with the people you love and all will be well.” -Jacque
“Rubyfruit Jungle is Rita Mae Brown's first novel and is based off events and experiences from Brown's own young life and her rise as a lesbian author. With this book, which was published in the 70s, Brown dared to be bold and explicit about the lesbian experience during a time when it was not safe to do so.” -Lindsay
“In the process of writing a novel, as Guibert's journals indicate, we are given The Mausoleum of Lovers. This is a complex read that is stunning in its artistic accomplishment. There is so much to pull out of this beautiful book lovingly put out by Nightboat Books that I keep it close at hand. It helps with difficult times, which seems to only compound these days.” -Nick
“I won’t lie–this novel is disturbing. It tells the story of Kochan, a teenager discovering his sexuality in wartime Tokyo, where he knows there is no place for him. Yukio Mishima evokes his isolation and the convergence of his sexual desires and the violences of war with a psychological acuity and lucidity that sometimes feels like jumping into ice-cold water. This may be a good or a bad thing, depending on your taste, but if you can stomach it this book is more than worth it..” -Nika
“This is the rigorous and formally-deft debut collection of Julian Randall, a (self-described) Living Queer Black poet from Chicago. The poems here are testimonials against erasure, through them the poet, who is both biracial and bisexual, refuses the binaries forced upon him. Artful in it’s associative power, the speaker references various Greek mythic figures—Sisyphus, Narcissus, Theseus, etc.—while also being in conversation with music artists like Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, and Kanye West. The collection is also notable for the many forms, both found and experimental, employed as a tool to challenge and interrogate the social mythologies created in the service of policing Black boys and men who do as the poet does: refuse.” -Serena
We choose new staff picks every month, so stay tuned for regular updates.
And if you want to stay connected, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram for more reading suggestions!
