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1 | Title (with link to Amazon listing) | Author | Section | 1 Paragraph Summary (from Goodreads) | LGBQQ | Trans / GNC | Intersex | Race/Ethnicity/Religion (where applicable) | Other | |||||||||||||||||||
2 | No Human Being is Disposable | Ordonez, Juan Pablo and Chomsky, Noam | Academic | n/a | Gay and Lesbian | discusses Columbia | Published August 28th 1995 by International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission | |||||||||||||||||||||
3 | Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o Activism | Quesada, Uriel and Gomez, Letitia | Academic | "These narratives are powerful expressions of the experiences of lesbians, gay men, and trans activists from a variety of Latina/o communities. This history exists nowhere else." (Marcia M. Gallo) | Gay and Lesbian | Trans | Latina/o | |||||||||||||||||||||
4 | Tragic Bitches: An Experiment in Queer Xicana & Xicano Performance Poetry | Anthony, Adelina | Academic | n/a | Queer | Xicanx | ||||||||||||||||||||||
5 | What Color is Your Hoodie | Neal, Jarrett | Academic | In thirteen candid and provocative essays, author Jarrett Neal reports on the status of black gay men in the new millennium, examining classism among black gay men, racism within the gay community, representations of the black male body within gay pornography, and patriarchal threats to the survival of both black men and gay men. What Color Is Your Hoodie? employs the author’s own quest for visibility—through bodybuilding, creative writing, and teaching, among other pursuits—as the genesis for an insightful and critical dialogue that ultimately symbolizes the entire black gay community’s struggle for recognition and survival | Gay | Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||
6 | Curb Stomp | Ferrier, Ryan | Comics / Graphic Novels | WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Three gangs. Five girls. No way out. Machete Betty leads a small gang of women under the self-appointed task of protecting their home of Old Beach, one of three boroughs surrounding a rich metropolitan city. When Betty takes the life of a rival gang member in an act of self-defense, she sets off a chain reaction of retaliation, gang warfare, and unlikely allies. It’s up to the The Fever—Machete Betty, Derby Girl, Bloody Mary, Daisy Chain, and Violet Volt—to defend their turf at all costs. | Queer | Diverse | ||||||||||||||||||||||
7 | Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic | Bechdel, Alison | Comics / Graphic Novels | In this graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the Fun Home. It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve. | Gay and Lesbian | white | ||||||||||||||||||||||
8 | God Loves Hair | Shraya, Vivek | Comics / Graphic Novels | God Loves Hair is a collection of 20 short stories following a tender, intellectual, and curious child as he navigates complex realms of sexuality, gender, racial politics, religion, and belonging. | Queer | Gender queer (?) | South Asian and Hindu | |||||||||||||||||||||
9 | I Love This Part | Walden, Tillie | Comics / Graphic Novels | "Two girls in a small town in the USA kill time together as they try to get through their days at school. They watch videos, share earbuds as they play each other songs and exchange their stories. In the process they form a deep connection and an unexpected relationship begins to develop. | Lesbian | Black and white | ||||||||||||||||||||||
10 | If This Be Sin | Newlevant, Hazel | Comics / Graphic Novels | Winner of the 2013 Prism Comics Queer Press Grant! 'If This Be Sin' is a collection of comics about queer women expressing themselves through music. It tells the stories of Gladys Bentley, the Harlem Renaissance blues singer and drag king, and Wendy and Lisa, the lesbian rockstars of Prince and the Revolution. (from Amazon) | Queer / Lesbian | Black / ? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
11 | Jem and the Holograms, Vol. 1: Showtime | Thompson, Kelly | Comics / Graphic Novels | Meet Jerrica Benton—a girl with a secret. She and her sisters team up with to become... JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS! But what does it mean to be JEM today? Fashion, art, action, and style collide in Jem and the Holograms: Showtime! | Lesbian | Trans in later issues | Diverse | Sophie Campbell, artist, is a trans woman. | ||||||||||||||||||||
12 | Jem and the Holograms, Vol. 2: Viral | Thompson, Kelly | Comics / Graphic Novels | Meet Jerrica Benton—a girl with a secret. She and her sisters team up with to become... JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS! But what does it mean to be JEM today? Fashion, art, action, and style collide in Jem and the Holograms: Showtime! | Lesbian | Trans in later issues | Diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
13 | Jem and the Holograms, Vol. 3: Dark Jem | Thompson, Kelly | Comics / Graphic Novels | Meet Jerrica Benton—a girl with a secret. She and her sisters team up with to become... JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS! But what does it mean to be JEM today? Fashion, art, action, and style collide in Jem and the Holograms: Showtime! | Lesbian | Trans in later issues | Diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
14 | Jem and the Holograms, Vol. 4: Enter The Stingers | Thompson, Kelly | Comics / Graphic Novels | Meet Jerrica Benton—a girl with a secret. She and her sisters team up with to become... JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS! But what does it mean to be JEM today? Fashion, art, action, and style collide in Jem and the Holograms: Showtime! | Lesbian | Trans in later issues | Diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
15 | Jem and the Holograms, Vol. 5: Truly Outrageous | Thompson, Kelly | Comics / Graphic Novels | Meet Jerrica Benton—a girl with a secret. She and her sisters team up with to become... JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS! But what does it mean to be JEM today? Fashion, art, action, and style collide in Jem and the Holograms: Showtime! | Lesbian | Trans in later issues | Diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
16 | Kim & Kim, Volume 1: This Glamorous, High-Flying Rock Star Life | Visaggio, Magdalene | Comics / Graphic Novels | Kim & Kim are twenty-something besties out to make a name for themselves in the wild world of interdimensional cowboy law enforcement. In a massive "screw you" to their parents and the authorities, they decide to hijack some high stakes bounty -- and end up in way over their heads. | Bisexual | Trans | Diverse | Magdalene Visaggio is a trans woman. | ||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Love is Love | Andreyko, Marc | Comics / Graphic Novels | The comic industry comes together in honor of those killed in Orlando. Co-published by two of the premiere publishers in comics—DC and IDW, this oversize comic contains moving and heartfelt material from some of the greatest talent in comics, mourning the victims, supporting the survivors, celebrating the LGBTQ community, and examining love in today’s world. | Predominantly gay | limited | Latina/o and white | Depictions of violence of the Pulse shooting, many comics created by allies and not LGBT people | ||||||||||||||||||||
18 | Motor Crush Volume 1 | Fletcher, Brenden | Comics / Graphic Novels | By day, Domino Swift competes for fame & fortune in a worldwide motorcycle racing league. By night, she cracks heads of rival gangs in brutal bike wars to gain possession of a rare, valuable contraband: an engine-boosting "machine narcotic" known as Crush. | Queer / Lesbian | Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||
19 | Negative Space | Lindsay, Ryan K | Comics / Graphic Novels | When one man's writer's block gets in the way on his suicide note, he goes for a walk to clear his head and soon uncovers a century-old conspiracy dedicated to creating and mining the worst lows of human desperation. A corporation has manipulated his life purely so they can farm his suicide note as a sadness artifact that will be packed and shipped to ancient underwater creatures who feed off our strongest and most base emotions. Our hero partners with a cult intent on exposing the corporation and only a suicide mission can solve the whole mess. | Gay | Native/Indigenous | Depression/Mental Health | |||||||||||||||||||||
20 | Princess Princess Ever After | O'Neill, Katie | Comics / Graphic Novels | When the heroic princess Amira rescues the kind-hearted princess Sadie from her tower prison, neither expects to find a true friend in the bargain. Yet as they adventure across the kingdom, they discover that they bring out the very best in the other person. They'll need to join forces and use all the know-how, kindness, and bravery they have in order to defeat their greatest foe yet: a jealous sorceress, who wants to get rid of Sadie once and for all. | Lesbian | Black and white | ||||||||||||||||||||||
21 | Rent Girl | Tea, Michelle | Comics / Graphic Novels | A graphic and uncompromising autobiographical bender, the story of Tea's years as a prostitute, with provocative illustrations by Laurenn McCubbin. | Lesbian | white | Tea helped found the Sister Spit imprint | |||||||||||||||||||||
22 | Snapshots of a Girl | Sezen, Beldan | Comics / Graphic Novels | In this autobiographical graphic novel, Beldan Sezen revisits the various instances of her coming of age, and her coming out as lesbian, in both western and Islamic cultures (as the daughter of Turkish immigrants in western Europe)—to friends, family, and herself. Through a series of vignettes, she navigates the messy circumstances of her life, dealing with family issues, bad dates, and sexual politics with the raw honesty of a young woman looking for happiness. Snapshots is an amusing, thoroughly modern take on dyke life and cultural identity. | Lesbian | Sezen is Turkish and Muslim - memoir | ||||||||||||||||||||||
23 | The End of Summer | Walden, Tillie | Comics / Graphic Novels | In a secluded castle, at the beginning of a winter that is predicted to last for three years, Lars is battling illness, boredom and the pressures of family life. Locked inside for the duration, he passes the time playing with his siblings and his giant cat, Nemo, while tensions within the family begin to simmer… | Gay | white (?) | Tillie Walden is lesbian/queer | |||||||||||||||||||||
24 | The Queer Heroes Coloring Book | Macy, Jon | Comics / Graphic Novels | The Queer Heroes Coloring book features 40 true life LGBTQ heroes and icons. The coloring pages are provided by a host of today's most exciting and accomplished queer cartoonists, including Ed Luce, Jennifer Camper, and Howard Cruse. Also included are short bios of the subjects to guide further reading and inform a new generation about LGBTQ history. | LGBQ | Trans | Diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
25 | (you) Set Me On Fire | Tamaki, Mariko | Fiction | Looking a little more burnt chicken and a little less radiant phoenix, Allison takes up residence in Dylan Hall (a.k.a. Dyke Hall) at St. Joseph's College, where she discovers the true gift of freshman year: the opportunity to reinvent yourself. Miles away from the high school she's happy to leave behind, her all-female dorm is a strange new world, home to new social circles and challenges. Allison still feels like the odd girl out ... until Shar appears. Beautiful and blinding, Shar quickly becomes the sun at the centre of Allison's universe, drawing her in with dangerous allure. | Queer | Asian-American (or Canadian?) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
26 | A Darkly Beating Heart | Smith, Lindsay | Fiction | No one knows what to do with Reiko. She is full of hatred. All she can think about is how to best hurt herself and the people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt, Reiko’s parents send her from their Seattle home to spend the summer with family in Japan to learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping back in time into the life of Miyu, a young woman even more bent on revenge than Reiko herself. | Bisexual | Asian-American (Japanese-American) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
27 | A Little Bit Langston | Demcak, Andrew | Fiction | Being different is a challenge, especially for James Kerr. He’s no average teenager. James begins to channel a dead writer’s poetry and then discovers he has the power to manipulate electricity. At the same time, romantic feelings for his best friend, Paul Schmitz, make him realize he’s gay. But he has little time to explore the drastic changes in his life before heartbreak strikes at the hands of Paul’s violent father. James is sent to The Paragon Academy, an institute specializing in juvenile paranormal research. | Gay | white / diverse secondary characters | ||||||||||||||||||||||
28 | A Map of Home | Jarrar, Ronda | Fiction | Nidali, the rebellious daughter of an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, narrates the story of her childhood in Kuwait, her teenage years in Egypt (to where she and her family fled the 1990 Iraqi invasion), and her family’s last flight to Texas. Nidali mixes humor with a sharp, loving portrait of an eccentric middle-class family, and this perspective keeps her buoyant through the hardships she encounters: the humiliation of going through a checkpoint on a visit to her father’s home in the West Bank; the fights with her father, who wants her to become a famous professor and stay away from boys; the end of her childhood as Iraq invades Kuwait on her thirteenth birthday; and the scare she gives her family when she runs away from home. | Bisexual | Egyptian-Palestinian - American / Muslim | ||||||||||||||||||||||
29 | A Safe Place With You | Baquerizo, Cesar L. and Edgell, Rachel | Fiction | "Grow And Live Normally" is a clinic in Ecuador that was opened to treat general addictions before moving to what the religious families viewed as the ultimate sin - homosexuality. The center boasts that they alone are able to cure families of this hidden secret inflicting their children. The unfortunate youths are misunderstood in a time when homosexuality was not just frowned upon, but also illegal. Inspired by true events. | Gay | Latina/o / set in Ecuador | Cesar is gay | |||||||||||||||||||||
30 | Afuera: A Young Latino's Journey | Rosas, Marcelino | Fiction | Growing up isn't easy, and no one knows that better than Roberto. Raw & Gritty, Afuera follows Roberto, a young Latino man who comes into his own by being everything his tradition & culture tells him not to be. He struggles to understand & attempts to hide, that which is in his heart. From the outside, he seems to have the perfect life, but in fact, it's all a lie. In a dramatic turn of events, it eventually all comes apart, but through sheer guts & determination, & his willingness to succeed, he triumphs over this darkness & starts a new life for himself | Gay | Latino | abuse | |||||||||||||||||||||
31 | Ash | Lo, Malinda | Fiction | In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted. | Lesbian | white ? limited description | Malinda Lo is involved with #DiversityinYA | |||||||||||||||||||||
32 | Beautiful Music for Ugly Children | Cronn-Mills, Kristin | Fiction | My birth name is Elizabeth, but I'm a guy. Gabe. My parents think I've gone crazy and the rest of the world is happy to agree with them, but I know I'm right. I've been a boy my whole life. | Trans | white | ||||||||||||||||||||||
33 | Brooklyn, Burning | Brezenoff, Steve | Fiction | Steve Brezenoff's gorgeous, sad, and hopeful Brooklyn, Burning is a love letter to Brooklyn, a love letter to music booming from the basement, and most of all, a love letter to every kind of love (but especially the punk rock kind). | Queer | Gender ambiguous | Homelessness. | |||||||||||||||||||||
34 | Down to the Bone | Dole, Maya Lazara | Fiction | What if you don't follow the rules and it radically alters the course of your life? What if you get kicked out of the house and lose all your friends and everyone you love? Will you turn the corner into a world filled with unusual friends and create a new kind of family or self-destruct? | Lesbian | some | Cuban-American | set in Miami | ||||||||||||||||||||
35 | Drag Teen | Self, Jeffery | Fiction | Debut YA author Jeffery Self takes us on a road trip with an insecure high school senior who has one goal: to be the first in his family to leave Clearwater, Florida, and go to college. The problem is, he has zero means of paying for school -- until his friends convince him to compete in a drag teen competition for a college scholarship. | Gay and queer | predominantly white | ||||||||||||||||||||||
36 | Falling in Love with Hominids | Hopkinson, Nalo | Fiction | Falling in Love with Hominids presents over a dozen years of Hopkinson’s new, uncollected fiction, much of which has been unavailable in print. Her singular, vivid tales, which mix the modern with Afro-Caribbean folklore, are occupied by creatures unpredictable and strange: chickens that breathe fire, adults who eat children, and spirits that haunt shopping malls. | LGBQ | Diverse | Nalo Hopkinson draws inspiration from Afro-Caribbean belief systems | |||||||||||||||||||||
37 | Finlater | Ruff, Shawn Stewart | Fiction | A coming of age love and first-lust story set in racially charged Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 1970s. Cliffy, black, and Noah, Jewish, are teens of their time, segregated by neighborhood, skin color and opportunity, yet neither boy has ever had a friend like the other. | Gay | Black and Jewish | ||||||||||||||||||||||
38 | For Today I Am a Boy | Fu, Kim | Fiction | Peter Huang and his sisters—elegant Adele, shrewd Helen, and Bonnie the bon vivant—grow up in a house of many secrets, then escape the confines of small-town Ontario and spread from Montreal to California to Berlin. Peter’s own journey is obstructed by playground bullies, masochistic lovers, Christian ex-gays, and the ever-present shadow of his Chinese father. | Trans | Chinese-Canadian/American | Second generation | |||||||||||||||||||||
39 | Fruit | Francis, Brian | Fiction | Peter Paddington is 13, overweight, the subject of his classmates’ ridicule, and the victim of too many bad movie-of-the-week storylines. When Peter’s nipples begin speaking to him one day and inform him of their diabolical plan to expose his secret desires to the world, Peter finds himself cornered in a world that seems to have no tolerance for difference. | G | |||||||||||||||||||||||
40 | Girl Mans Up | Girard, M-E | Fiction | All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she’s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she’s trying to be a boy—that she should quit trying to be something she’s not. If she dresses like a girl, and does what her folks want, it will show respect. If she takes orders and does what her friend Colby wants, it will show her loyalty. But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see the truth--that in order to be who she truly wants to be, she’ll have to man up. | Lesbian | Portuguese-Canadian | ||||||||||||||||||||||
41 | Guardian | London, Alex | Fiction | In the new world led by the Rebooters, former Proxy Syd is the figurehead of the Revolution, beloved by some and hated by others. Liam, a seventeen-year-old Rebooter, is Syd’s bodyguard and must protect him with his life. But armed Machinists aren’t the only danger. | Gay | predominantly white | Sequel to Proxy | |||||||||||||||||||||
42 | Happy Families | Davis, Tanita S | Fiction | Teenage twins Ysabel and Justin Nicholas are lucky. Ysabel's jewelry designs have already caught the eyes of the art world and Justin's intelligence and drive are sure to gain him entrance into the most prestigious of colleges. They even like their parents. But their father has a secret—one that threatens to destroy the twins' happy family and life as they know it. | Trans | Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||
43 | Hero | Moore, Perry | Fiction | The last thing in the world Thom Creed wants is to add to his father's pain, so he keeps secrets. Like that he has special powers. And that he's been asked to join the League - the very organization of superheroes that spurned his dad. But the most painful secret of all is one Thom can barely face himself: he's gay. | Gay | white? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
44 | Hold | Leigh, Rachel Davidson | Fiction | Luke Aday knew that his sister’s death was imminent—she had been under hospice care for months—but that didn’t make her death any easier on him or their family. He returns to school three days after the funeral to a changed world; his best friends welcome him back with open arms, but it isn’t the same. But when a charismatic new student, Eddie Sankawulo, tries to welcome Luke to his own school, something life-changing happens: In a moment of frustration, Luke runs into an empty classroom, hurls his backpack against the wall—and the backpack never lands. Luke Aday has just discovered that he can stop time. | Gay and queer | Indian-American (adopted / diverse | ||||||||||||||||||||||
45 | I Am J | Beam, Cris | Fiction | J always felt different. He was certain that eventually everyone would understand who he really was; a boy mistakenly born as a girl. Yet as he grew up, his body began to betray him; eventually J stopped praying to wake up a "real boy" and started covering up his body, keeping himself invisible - from his family, from his friends...from the world. But after being deserted by the best friend he thought would always be by his side, J decides that he's done hiding - it's time to be who he really is. And this time he is determined not to give up, no matter the cost. | Trans | Puerto Rican/Jewish | ||||||||||||||||||||||
46 | It's Not Like It's a Secret | Sugiura, Misa | Fiction | Sixteen-year-old Sana Kiyohara has too many secrets. Some are small, like how it bothers her when her friends don’t invite her to parties. Some are big, like that fact that her father may be having an affair. And then there’s the one that she can barely even admit to herself—the one about how she might have a crush on her best friend. | Lesbian | Asian-American (Japanese-American), diverse secondary | ||||||||||||||||||||||
47 | Juliet Takes a Breath | Rivera, Gabby | Fiction | Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn’t sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that’s going to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing. She’s interning with the author of her favorite book: Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff. | Lesbian and Queer | Latina/o (Puerto Rican) | challenges white feminism | |||||||||||||||||||||
48 | Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas) | Cordova, Zoraida | Fiction | Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust, but who may be Alex’s only chance at saving her family. | Bisexual | Latina/o | ||||||||||||||||||||||
49 | Last Night I Sang to the Monster | Saenz, Benjamin Alire | Fiction | Zach is eighteen. He is bright and articulate. He's also an alcoholic and in rehab instead of high school, but he doesn't remember how he got there. He's not sure he wants to remember. Something bad must have happened. Something really, really bad. Remembering sucks and being alive - well, what's up with that? | Gay / Queer | alcoholism and treatment | ||||||||||||||||||||||
50 | Life is Wonderful, People are Terrific | Bañales, Meliza | Fiction | From the forests, beaches, and Xicano community of Santa Cruz to the smokey punk bars, strip clubs, and Queer-girl culture of San Francisco, these are the stories of being young, drunk, punk and Xicana in Northern California in the 90's. | Queer | Xicanx | ||||||||||||||||||||||
51 | Lost Boi | Lowrey, Sassafras | Fiction | Told from the point of view of Tootles, Pan's best boi, the lost bois call the Neverland squat home, creating their own idea of family, and united in their allegiance to Pan, the boi who cannot be broken, and their refusal to join ranks with Hook and the leather pirates. Like a fever-pitched dream, Lost Boi situates a children's fantasy within a subversive alternative reality, chronicling the lost bois' search for belonging, purpose, and their struggle against the biggest battle of all: growing up. | Lesbian, Gay, and Queer | Trans and gender fluid | predominantly white | Homelessness / kink | ||||||||||||||||||||
52 | Luna | Peters, Julie Anne | Fiction | Regan's brother Liam can't stand the person he is during the day. Like the moon from whom Liam has chosen his female namesake, his true self, Luna, only reveals herself at night. In the secrecy of his basement bedroom Liam transforms himself into the beautiful girl he longs to be, with help from his sister's clothes and makeup. Now, everything is about to change-Luna is preparing to emerge from her cocoon. | Trans | predominantly white | ||||||||||||||||||||||
53 | Middlesex | Egenides, Jeffrey | Fiction | Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. | Intersex | |||||||||||||||||||||||
54 | Money Boy | Yee, Paul | Fiction | Ray Liu knows he should be happy. He lives in a big suburban house with all the latest electronic gadgets, and even finds plenty of time to indulge in his love of gaming. He needs the escape. It’s tough getting grades that will please his army veteran father, when speaking English is still a struggle. And he can’t quite connect with his peers at high school -- Chinese immigrants like himself but who seem to have adjusted to North American life more easily. | Gay | Asian-Canadian (Chinese-Canadian) | immigration, homelessness | |||||||||||||||||||||
55 | Not Your Sidekick | Lee, C.B. | Fiction | Welcome to Andover… where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef-up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship—only it turns out to be for the town’s most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby, who Jess thinks may have a secret of her own. Then there’s the budding attraction to her fellow intern, the mysterious “M,” who never seems to be in the same place as Abby. But what starts as a fun way to spite her superhero parents takes a sudden and dangerous turn when she uncovers a plot larger than heroes and villains altogether | LGBQ | Trans secondary character | multiracial / diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
56 | Our Own Private Universe | Talley, Robin | Fiction | Fifteen-year-old Aki Simon has a theory. And it's mostly about sex. No, it isn't that kind of theory. Aki already knows she's bisexual—even if, until now, it's mostly been in the hypothetical sense. Aki has dated only guys so far, and her best friend, Lori, is the only person who knows she likes girls, too. | Bisexual/Pansexual and Lesbian secondary | Black, white, diverse secondary | ||||||||||||||||||||||
57 | Proxy | London, Alex | Fiction | Knox was born into one of the City’s wealthiest families. A Patron, he has everything a boy could possibly want—the latest tech, the coolest clothes, and a Proxy to take all his punishments. When Knox breaks a vase, Syd is beaten. When Knox plays a practical joke, Syd is forced to haul rocks. And when Knox crashes a car, killing one of his friends, Syd is branded and sentenced to death.Syd is a Proxy. His life is not his own | Gay | predominantly white | Heavy themes of socioeconomic class and class difference. | |||||||||||||||||||||
58 | Rage: A Love Story | Peters, Julie Anne | Fiction | In the precarious place where attraction and need collide, a teenager experiences the dark side of a first love, and struggles to find her way into a new light. | Lesbian | predominantly white | Domestic abuse | |||||||||||||||||||||
59 | Rubyfruit Jungle | Brown, Rita Mae | Fiction | Bawdy and moving, the ultimate word-of-mouth bestseller, Rubyfruit Jungle is about growing up a lesbian in America--and living happily ever after. | Lesbian | white (?) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
60 | Saving Montgomery Sole | Tamaki, Mariko | Fiction | This is the curious instruction that comes with the Eye of Know, the possibly powerful crystal amulet that Montgomery Sole buys online for $5.99. It’s also the next topic of discussion at Mystery Club (members: Monty and her two best friends, Thomas and Naoki), dedicated to the exploration of the strange and unexplained. When Monty wears the Eye of Know, strange things happen, all targeted at people she despises. Maybe it will help Monty take down her newest enemy, a preacher who has come to save her town from so-called sinners—sinners like Monty’s moms. Or will its mysterious powers mean the end of the friendships Monty cherishes most? | Lesbian (moms), Gay secondary character | predominantly white, Asian (multiracial Japanese-Canadian) secondary character | ||||||||||||||||||||||
61 | Sound | Duncan, Alexandra | Fiction | As a child, Ava’s adopted sister Miyole watched her mother take to the stars, piloting her own ship from Earth to space making deliveries. Now a teen herself, Miyole is finally living her dream as a research assistant on her very first space voyage. If she plays her cards right, she could even be given permission to conduct her own research and experiments in her own habitat lab on the flight home. But when her ship saves a rover that has been viciously attacked by looters and kidnappers, Miyole—along with a rescued rover girl named Cassia—embarks on a mission to rescue Cassia’s abducted brother, and that changes the course of Miyole’s life forever. | Lesbian | Hatian, grew up in India, now in space | Companion to the book Salvage. | |||||||||||||||||||||
62 | Speak of Me As I Am | Belasco, Sonia | Fiction | Melanie and Damon are both living in the shadow of loss. For Melanie, it's the loss of her larger-than-life artist mother, taken by cancer well before her time. For Damon, it’s the loss of his best friend, Carlos, who took his own life. As they struggle to fill the empty spaces their loved ones left behind, fate conspires to bring them together. | Gay | Black and Latina/o (Salvadoran) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
63 | Street Dreams | Wise, Tama | Fiction | Daruis, a.k.a. Rio, the only child of a singer turned alcoholic, feels he has nothing to hold on to except the idea of escaping the ghetto. Years ago, he took a gun charge for a friend and did some prison time. Unable to find a job when he gets out, Rio turns to hustling as a way out. In the meantime, Rio finds escape in the arms of his soulmate, Trinity. | Black | |||||||||||||||||||||||
64 | Swimming in the Monsoon Sea | Selvadurai, Shyam | Fiction | The setting is Sri Lanka, 1980, and it is the season of monsoons. Fourteen-year-old Amrith is caught up in the life of the cheerful, well-to-do household in which he is being raised by his vibrant Auntie Bundle and kindly Uncle Lucky. He tries not to think of his life “before,” when his doting mother was still alive. Amrith’s holiday plans seem unpromising: he wants to appear in his school’s production of Othello and he is learning to type at Uncle Lucky’s tropical fish business. | Gay | South Asian (Sri Lanka) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
65 | Symptoms of Being Human | Garvin, Jeff | Fiction | Riley Cavanaugh is many things: Punk rock. Snarky. Rebellious. And gender fluid. Some days Riley identifies as a boy, and others as a girl. The thing is…Riley isn’t exactly out yet. And between starting a new school and having a congressman father running for reelection in uber-conservative Orange County, the pressure—media and otherwise—is building up in Riley’s so-called “normal” life. | Gender fluid | white (?) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
66 | Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel | Farizan, Sara | Fiction | High-school junior Leila has made it most of the way through Armstead Academy without having a crush on anyone, which is something of a relief. Her Persian heritage already makes her different from her classmates; if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when a sophisticated, beautiful new girl, Saskia, shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would, especially when it looks as if the attraction between them is mutual. Struggling to sort out her growing feelings and Saskia's confusing signals, Leila confides in her old friend, Lisa, and grows closer to her fellow drama tech-crew members, especially Tomas, whose comments about his own sexuality are frank, funny, wise, and sometimes painful. | Lesbian | Persian / Middle-Eastern | ||||||||||||||||||||||
67 | The Chaos | Hopkinson, Nalo | Fiction | Sixteen-year-old Scotch struggles to fit in—at home she’s the perfect daughter, at school she’s provocatively sassy, and thanks to her mixed heritage, she doesn’t feel she belongs with the Caribbeans, whites, or blacks. And even more troubling, lately her skin is becoming covered in a sticky black substance that can’t be removed. While trying to cope with this creepiness, she goes out with her brother—and he disappears. A mysterious bubble of light just swallows him up, and Scotch has no idea how to find him. Soon, the Chaos that has claimed her brother affects the city at large, until it seems like everyone is turning into crazy creatures. | Gay secondary character | multiracial, Caribbean | ||||||||||||||||||||||
68 | The Gallery of Unfinished Girls | Karcz, Lauren | Fiction | Mercedes Moreno is an artist. At least, she thinks she could be, even though she hasn't been able to paint anything worthwhile since her award-winning piece Food Poisoning #1 last year. Her lack of inspiration might be because her abuela is lying comatose in faraway Puerto Rico after suffering a stroke. Or the fact that Mercedes is in love with her best friend, Victoria, but is too afraid to admit her true feelings. | Bisexual | Latina/o / Puerto Rican | ||||||||||||||||||||||
69 | The Gilda Stories | Gomez, Jewelle | Fiction | Escaping from slavery in the 1850s Gilda's longing for kinship and community grows over two hundred years. Her induction into a family of benevolent vampires takes her on an adventurous and dangerous journey full of loud laughter and subtle terror. | Lesbian | Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||
70 | The House You Pass on the Way | Woodson, Jacqueline | Fiction | Staggerlee is used to being alone. As the granddaughter of celebrities and the daughter of an interracial couple in an all-black town, she has become adept at isolating herself from curious neighbors. But then her cousin, Trout, comes to visit. Trout is exactly like Staggerlee wishes she could be: outspoken, sure of herself, beautiful. Finally, Staggerlee has a friend, someone she can share her deepest, most private thoughts with. Someone who will teach her how to be the strong girl she longs to be. But is Trout really the girl Staggerlee thinks she is? | Lesbian | Black (multiracial) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
71 | The Inexplicable Logic of My Life | Saenz, Benjamin Alire | Fiction | Everything is about to change. Until this moment, Sal has always been certain of his place with his adoptive gay father and their loving Mexican-American family. But now his own history unexpectedly haunts him, and life-altering events force him and his best friend, Samantha, to confront issues of faith, loss, and grief. | Gay | Latina/o (Mexican-American) and white | Gay parent | |||||||||||||||||||||
72 | The Marauders' Island (Hen & Chick) (Volume 1) | Tarwater, Tristan J | Fiction | Azria is a mage of Miz, born with magic in her blood. When her mother, alleged pirate Apzana, offers to take her away on the HEN & CHICK, Azria jumps at the chance for adventure. But their first family outing proves to be more than Azria bargained for. Joined by a ragtag crew from all over the Floating Chain, Azria must do the impossible: raise The Marauders' Island, an island sunk generations ago, from the bottom of the sea. | Queer, Gay secondary characters | Trans secondary character | Black, diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
73 | The Necessary Hunger | Revoyr, Nina | Fiction | As a star basketball player in her last year of high school, Nancy Takahiro's life is about to change forever. Faced with the college recruitment process and unsure of where her skill will take her, Nancy is not prepared for meeting Raina Webber, an All-State shooting guard whose passion for basketball is matched only by her talent. | Lesbian | Asian-American (Japanese-American) and Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||
74 | The Summer Prince | Johnson, Alaya Dawn | Fiction | The lush city of Palmares Tres shimmers with tech and tradition, with screaming gossip casters and practiced politicians. In the midst of this vibrant metropolis, June Costa creates art that's sure to make her legendary. But her dreams of fame become something more when she meets Enki, the bold new Summer King. The whole city falls in love with him including June's best friend, Gil. But June sees more to Enki than amber eyes and a lethal samba. She sees a fellow artist. | Queer | Diverse (set in a futuristic Brazil) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
75 | Toni #4 (Blacktop) | Alonge, LJ | Fiction | Toni isn’t Coach Wise’s favorite player on Team Blacktop. Honestly, she’s not even in his top five. And if she’s being real, her own teammates keep siding with him during practice. But this isn’t the first time she’s been on her own, and it won’t be the last. If you can’t count on yourself, who can you count on? | ?? | Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||
76 | Two Boys Kissing | Levithan, David | Fiction | New York Times bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS. | Gay | Trans secondary charcter | predominantly white | |||||||||||||||||||||
77 | Unicorn Tracks | Ember, Julia | Fiction | After a savage attack drives her from her home, sixteen-year-old Mnemba finds a place in her cousin Tumelo’s successful safari business, where she quickly excels as a guide. Surrounding herself with nature and the mystical animals inhabiting the savannah not only allows Mnemba’s tracking skills to shine, it helps her to hide from the terrible memories that haunt her. | Lesbian | Black (fictionalized African) and white | ||||||||||||||||||||||
78 | What We Left Behind | Talley, Robin | Fiction | Toni and Gretchen are the couple everyone envied in high school. They've been together forever. They never fight. They’re deeply, hopelessly in love. When they separate for their first year at college—Toni to Harvard and Gretchen to NYU—they’re sure they’ll be fine. Where other long-distance relationships have fallen apart, theirs is bound to stay rock-solid. | Trans and genderqueer | predominantly white | pretty low reviews for GQ representation - maybe approach with caution | |||||||||||||||||||||
79 | When the Moon Was Ours: A Novel | McLemore, Anna-Marie | Fiction | To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. | Trans | Latina/o and South Asian / Pakistani | Author is cis, married to a trans man. | |||||||||||||||||||||
80 | Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen | Jennings, Jazz | Non-Fiction | In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on these very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community. But it hasn’t all been easy. Jazz has faced many challenges, bullying, discrimination, and rejection, yet she perseveres as she educates others about her life as a transgender teen. Through it all, her family has been beside her on this journey, standing together against those who don't understand the true meaning of tolerance and unconditional love. Now Jazz must learn to navigate the physical, social, and emotional upheavals of adolescence—particularly high school—complicated by the unique challenges of being a transgender teen. Making the journey from girl to woman is never easy—especially when you began your life in a boy’s body | Trans | Jewish | ||||||||||||||||||||||
81 | decolonizing trans/gender 101 | binaohan, b. | Non-Fiction | tired of reading yet another trans/gender 101 entirely centered around white people and their normative narratives? tired of feeling like you must be _this_ tall to be trans enough to belong in the community ? tired of feeling like the white trans community is erasing your experiences? having gender feels but not understanding how they fit into the current white hegemonic discourse on gender? | Trans and GNC | POC and Native/Indigenous | ||||||||||||||||||||||
82 | Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home | Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi | Non-Fiction | In 1996, poet Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha ran away from America with two backpacks and ended up in Canada, where she discovered queer anarchopunk love and revolution, yet remained haunted by the reasons she left home in the first place. This passionate and riveting memoir is a mixtape of dreams and nightmares, of immigration court lineups and queer South Asian dance nights; it reveals how a disabled queer woman of color and abuse survivor navigates the dirty river of the past and, as the subtitle suggests, "dreams her way home." | Queer | South Asian (Sri Lankan-American, multiracial) | immigration, coauthor of The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities | |||||||||||||||||||||
83 | Fair Play: How LGBT Athletes are Claiming Their Rightful Place in Sports | Zeigler, Cyd | Non-Fiction | In Fair Play, Zeigler tells the story of how sports have transformed for LGBT athletes, diving into key moments and issues that have shaped sports for LGBT people today. He shares intimate behind-the-scenes details about various athletes and stories--including NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox, and NFL hopeful Michael Sam, among others--along with contextual insights about elite sports, including the overhyped "distraction" myth surrounding gay athletes. | Lesbian, gay, and bisexual | Trans | ||||||||||||||||||||||
84 | How Queer! Personal narratives from bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, sexually-fluid, and other non-monosexual perspectives. | Beauchemin, Faith | Non-Fiction | How Queer! collects fourteen short autobiographical essays--not written by sociologists or professional activists, but by ordinary bisexual, pansexual, and sexually-fluid people from diverse backgrounds, sharing their experiences and telling their own stories. These personal narratives explore themes of bisexual and pansexual visibility, activism, confrontations with homophobia, and non-monosexual experience in the LGBT community. | Bisexual and Queer | |||||||||||||||||||||||
85 | How to Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Sex and Teenage Confusion | Burton, David | Non-Fiction | A funny, sad and serious memoir, 'How to Be Happy' is David Burton's story of his turbulent life at high school and beyond. Feeling out of place and convinced that he is not normal, David has a rocky start. He longs to have a girlfriend, but his first 'date' is a disaster. There's the catastrophe of the school swimming carnival - David is not sporty - and friendships that take devastating turns. Then he finds some solace in drama classes with the creation of 'Crazy Dave', and he builds a life where everything is fine. But everything is not fine. | Questioning | white | ||||||||||||||||||||||
86 | Indestructible: Growing up Queer, Cuban, and Punk in Miami | Road, Cristy C. | Non-Fiction | In her Miami high school, Cristy Road valiantly tried to figure out and defend her queer gender identity, Cuban cultural roots, punk-rock nature, and mortality. Through her writing and illustrations, Cristy reminds us of the strength and ability of punk youth to address realities like rape, homophobia, and misogyny. This book is no exception. Road's headlong story of growing up gives a voice to every frustrated 15-year-old girl under fire from her peers for being queer, butch, punk, or different. | Queer | Latina/o, Cuban-American | ||||||||||||||||||||||
87 | Laverne Cox (Transgender Pioneers) | Stanley, Erin | Non-Fiction | In 2013, Orange Is the New Black began captivating audiences with its cast of female characters representing diverse strata of society. Perhaps no star on the show has inspired as much as Laverne Cox, who plays the black transgender inmate Sophia Burset. Cox's work, both as an actor and off-screen, has brought attention to the risks faced by vulnerable populations, particularly racial minority transgender individuals. This biography documents Cox's triumphant life and work as an activist, documenting her own growth from troubling times she recalls as a teenager to becoming the first openly transgender actor nominated for an Emmy. (from Amazon). | Trans | Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||
88 | Mambo Lips: A Memoir of a Girl who Found Strength in Being Different | Lamar, Joie | Non-Fiction | This is the story of a young girl growing up in a fun, vibrant and sometimes dysfunctional Latino household. Much like all lives, she experiences her share of illnesses, deaths, births, loves and losses. Joie faces all of these with a strength unlike most as she discovers her lesbian self. A fascinating story of a child’s lesbian awakening, the power she derives from that, and her great love for her “Superhero” father and family. | Lesbian | Latina/o | ||||||||||||||||||||||
89 | Queer & Trans Artists of Color Vol 2 (Volume 2) | King, Nia | Non-Fiction | A celebration of queer and trans Black and brown genius... | Queer | Trans and GNC | diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
90 | Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World | Prager, Sarah | Non-Fiction | World history has been made by countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—and you’ve never heard of many of them. Queer author and activist Sarah Prager delves deep into the lives of 23 people who fought, created, and loved on their own terms. From high-profile figures like Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt to the trailblazing gender-ambiguous Queen of Sweden and a bisexual blues singer who didn’t make it into your history books, these astonishing true stories uncover a rich queer heritage that encompasses every culture, in every era. | LGBQ | Trans and genderqueer | Intersex | diverse | ||||||||||||||||||||
91 | Queer: A Graphic History | Barker, Dr. Meg-John | Non-Fiction | From identity politics and gender roles to privilege and exclusion, Queer explores how we came to view sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do; how these ideas get tangled up with our culture and our understanding of biology, psychology and sexology; and how these views have been disputed and challenged. | Queer | |||||||||||||||||||||||
92 | Resilience: Surviving in the Face of Everything | Amy Heart (Editor), Larissa Glasser (Editor), Sugi Pyrrophyta (Editor) | Non-Fiction | Resilience stars a wide spectrum of contemporary (C)AMAB trans writers, each exploring different worlds across race, class, ability, and gender identity. We're proud to feature new work from over thirty authors, including forty-one short stories, essays, and poems from so many of our friends (old and new). (from Heartspeak Press) | LBQ | Trans / GNC | diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
93 | Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology | Sonnie, Amy | Non-Fiction | Revolutionary Voices celebrates the hues and harmonies of the future of queer society, offering a collection of experiences, ideas, dreams, manifestos, and fantasies expressed through prose, poetry, artwork, and performance pieces. This one-of-a-kind collection is an all-encompassing, far-reaching call to action that provides the groundwork for a new community where all members are recognized as critical components to our future society. | GLBQ | Trans / GNC | Intersex | diverse | ||||||||||||||||||||
94 | We Are the Youth | Golio, Laurel | Non-Fiction | We Are the Youth is based on the online photojournalism project that shares the stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in the United States. Through portraits by photographer Laurel Golio and “as told to” personal essays by writer Diana Scholl, this book captures the incredible strength and diversity of LGBTQ youth. | LGBQ | Trans and GNC | diverse | |||||||||||||||||||||
95 | Bodymap | Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi | Poetry & Short Stories | a queer disabled femme of colour love song filled with hard femme poetics and disability justice. The first book of the author to examine disability from a queer femme of color lens, Bodymap contains work created and performed with Sins Invalid. Bodymap maps hard and vulnerable terrains of queer desire, survivorhood, transformative love, sick and disabled queer genius and all the homes we claim and deserve. | Queer | South Asian (Sri Lankan-American, multiracial) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
96 | Don't Call Us Dead: Poems | Smith, Danez | Poetry & Short Stories | Award-winning poet Danez Smith is a groundbreaking force, celebrated for deft lyrics, urgent subjects, and performative power. Don't Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved here on earth. Smith turns then to desire, mortality the dangers experienced in skin and body and blood and a diagnosis of HIV positive. | G | Black | HIV positive | |||||||||||||||||||||
97 | Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean | Murray, Kirsty | Poetry & Short Stories | Be transported into dystopian cities and other-worldly societies. Be amazed and beguiled by a nursery story with a reverse twist, a futuristic take on TV cooking shows, a playscript with tentacles - and more, much more. Plunge in and enjoy! | Queer? | diverse | feminist sci-fi from India and Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||
98 | even this page is white | Shraya, Vivek | Poetry & Short Stories | Vivek's debut collection of poetry is a bold and timely interrogation of skin: its origins, functions, and limitations. Poems that range in style from starkly concrete to limber break down the barriers that prevent understanding of what it means to be racialized. Shraya paints the face of everyday racism with words, rendering it visible, tangible, and undeniable. | GNC | South Asian and Hindu | ||||||||||||||||||||||
99 | I See Reality: Twelve Short Stories About Real Life | Kendall, Grace (Ed.) | Poetry & Short Stories | Through prose and comics alike, these heart-pounding short stories ask hard questions about a range of topics from sexuality and addiction to violence and immigration. Here is the perfect tool for starting tough discussions or simply as an introduction to realistic literary fiction. In turns funny, thought-provoking, and heartbreaking | Gay and Lesbian | diverse | not predominantly LGBTQ+ | |||||||||||||||||||||
100 | In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology | Beam, Joseph | Poetry & Short Stories | 29 black authors explore what it means to be doubly different both black and gay in modern America. These stories, verses, works of art and theater pieces voice the concerns and aspirations of an often silent minority. They can be poignant, erotic, resolute, or angry, but always reflect the affirming power of coming together to build a strong black gay community. | Gay | Black | originally published in 1986 |