Pride Month is more important now than ever before. If you’re looking to celebrate Pride by adding some LGBTQ+ reads to your TBR, look no further! From action romance to nonfiction reads to thrillers and more, here are the best reads to dive into during Pride Month!
Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez
Former boxer Norman Alonso and his wife and children have just moved from Britain from Jamaica in hopes of a brighter future in the 1950s. Shortly after arriving, Norman is hit with an unexpected illness and faces racism in his new country. At the turn of the millennium, Jesse seeks a new beginning in London to escape from a broken family and overly religious community in industrial Black Country. Struggling to find what he was looking for after arriving, Jesse turns to sex work, music, and art to find his own path.
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A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell
Elfreda Marsden just discovered an ancient amulet on her family’s estate that proves the Viking army had once camped there. Now, her childhood enemy and the complete opposite of her, Georgie Redmayne, is back from London and putting a damper on Elfreda’s discovery. When the two collide, the amulet is lost and Elfreda loses her chance of excavation. Georgie needs money to get out of Derbyshire. The two decide that this is the perfect time to literally strike Viking gold. While their families do not get along, the two put that aside in search of treasure. As they spend more time together, a mutual attraction ignites in the two women that tempts them more than the gold itself.
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Stag Dance by Torrey Peters
In this novel and collection of three short stories, a group of lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging plan a dance in which some of them will attend as women. When the broadest and strongest axman declares his plan to dance as woman, he finds himself in a rivalry with a pretty lumberjack heading toward the big night of the dance. Following this novel we have a short story about a gender apocalypse caused from an unstable ex-girlfriend, a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school, and a love triangle during a party weekend in Las Vegas.
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Before They Were Men by Jacob Tobia
In this collection of essays by Jacob Tobia, the genderqueeer author explores conversations about masculinity, patriarchy, and misogyny after being concerned with a new generation of men. Tobia knows most of all how much harm can come from a society that forces those to “be a man.” In this collection of essays, Tobia explores body issues among men, a world that glorifies violence and aggression, and exploring terms such as “toxic masculinity” and “male privilege.”
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Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde
Releasing in July, Necessary Fiction explores the lives of queer individuals in Nigeria in a novel that features more than two dozen characters staking out their lives. Lagos is one of Africa’s largest urban areas and most dynamic cities, these characters attempt to find self-love and partnership while risking their relationships with their families and friend all while grappling with desire, fear, death, and religion.
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The Other Wife by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy
Releasing in July, nostalgia and love are the vibe in The Other Wife. Zuzu and Cash met on the first day of college and Zuzu’s life forever changed. Cash was tall and popular and his friendship was exactly what Zuzu needed after feeling like an outsider growing up biracial in her rural hometown, but their friendship never became romantic. Now approaching forty, Zuzu has a good life with her wife Agnes, a career-driven lawyer. When a sudden loss forces Zuzu to go back to her hometown, she confronts choices in her past such as the choice to live with her mother instead of her father, her career in law versus her passion for art, and the feelings she always harbored for Cash.
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The Murder Between Us by Tal Bauer
What better time than to explore his questioning sexuality than a night in Vegas? FBI Agent Noah Downing leaves the mystery man in bed when he is sent on a plane back to Iowa to hunt a vicious serial killer who has reemerged after six years. FBI Profiler Cole Kennedy is still wondering why the man he met up and left suddenly but has to push those feelings aside when he is sent to Iowa to profile a serial killer. When the two worlds collide, Noah and Cole are face-to-face after thinking they would never see each other again and must work together to search for a serial killer while questioning if they have what it takes to form a relationship.
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A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander
Lord Christopher Eden is known for his eccentricity and unusual habits including living far from public and preferring the company of his childhood cook and older butler than others. His lonely life is interrupted when his family lawyer informs him that in order to keep his family’s fortune, he must find a wife by the end of the Season. Panicked, Christopher doesn’t know what to do as he’s not attracted to women and now he would have to move to London to find a suitable woman. Christopher’s new and handsome valet, James Harding, and Christopher end up in an unusual friendship that threatens Christopher’s upcoming nuptials.
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Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski
Emily really has it all with her townhouse in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, two children, and a loving husband. Behind the façade, her marriage is in trouble, she has a rocky relationship with her parents, and she’s still thinking of the heartbreak she dealt with years ago. After a chance encounter with her high school girlfriend (and cause of her heartbreak), Gen Hall is back in Emily’s life now a famous Olympic athlete. Once the two reunite, they can’t fight the attraction between them and their history. Will Emily risk her entire happy life to give Gen another chance?
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We Are Everywhere by Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown
If you’re looking for the history of queer liberation and rights, We Are Everywhere is what you need on your TBR. This book showcases queer activism from its roots in the nineteenth century Europe before the pivotal Stonewall Riots of 1969. Featuring photos from over seventy photographers, you’ll be able to read about and see queer history from marches and protests to celebrations and mourning and Pride.
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On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
In a letter written from a son to his mother who cannot read, this is narrated by Little Dog, a man in his late twenties. In the letter, he discusses his family history beginning in Vietnam before he was born to different chapters in his life that his mother never knew about that lead to a startling revelation. Little Dog explores race, masculinity, addiction, violence, and trauma all while trying to be compassionate.
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The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco
In 1887, Alma Rosales is searching for stolen opium. Alma has been trained in espionage by the Pinkerton Detective Agency but was kicked out due to bad behavior and consistently going undercover as a man. Now, Alma works for Delphine Beaumond, the mind behind the West Coast smuggling ring. After product goes missing, Alma is sent to find the thief and get the drugs back. Under her disguise as a dockworker named Jack, this should be easy. While Alma doesn’t mind the changing identifies, she’s determined to get back into Delphine’s bed yet struggles with knowing who to trust and keeping her cover stories straight.
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Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
The second son of a privileged Sri Lankan family, Arjie is labeled as “funny.” Preferring to play in faux beauty pageants with his female cousins, his parents soon discover what he’s been doing and Arjie is forced into adulthood. Struggling between his sexual awaking, the Tamil-Sinhalese conflicts that put his homeland in jeopardy, Arjie is on a path to discovering his own identity.
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The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara
In 1980 New York City, seventeen-year-old Angel is new to the drag world leaving behind a traumatic past. Determined to build a family for those who are without, she falls in love with Hector who dreams of being a professional dancer and the two create the House of Xtravaganza, the first all-Latino house in the ball circuit. When Hector dies of AIDS-related complications, Angel is forced to tend to the house alone. Recruiting a trans-girl named Venus, a boy named Juanito who is into fabrics and design, and butch queen Daniel, the house has a bigger family than ever. Navigating with addition, abuse, sex work, and a world that is constantly against them, they must stick together more than ever.
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Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang
Old Second and Bao Mei have cobbled together in New York City’s Chinatown for over thirty years together. Before emigrating from rural Fuzhou, the two would frequent the Workers’ Cinema, a theater where gay men cruised for love. While Old Second found intimacy in screening rooms, Bao Mei sold tickets to closeted men. When Old Second’s sexuality is revealed, a series of events unfold that send the two men toward an uncertain future in America.
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First Time for Everything by Henry Fry
Danny Scudd had dreams to escape his small-town life to become a journalist in London. After five years in the city, his career isn’t exacltty what he hoped for and his relationship with Tobbs isn’t fulfilling. After a visit to the clinic, it’s revealed that Tobbs may not have been faithful and Danny is hit with Tobbs excuse that they never claimed to be monogamous. Now, Danny’s roommates are evicting him, and Danny is forced to move in with his friend Jacob, a flamboyant nonbinary artist and childhood friend, and an eccentric group of friends. Starting over, Danny is forced to find himself through the lends of modern queer life and to confront his demons once and for all.
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Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
Jonny is a Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer cybersex worker just trying to make it in the big city now that they no longer live on the reservation. Self-ordained as a “NDN glitter princess,” Jonny has one week before returning to the reservation to attend their stepfather’s funeral. The next seven days of their life are a fever dream of love, sex, trauma, and memories of their grandmother.
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Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
Being successful in Hollywood can be quite a challenge, but Misha has finally made it with an Oscar nomination. TV executives now want Misha to take his career to the next level with his streaming series by killing off the gay characters in the season finale. When Misha refuses, he finds himself the target of the monsters from his horror movie days that are stalking him and his friends.
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Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory
Avery Jensen is looking to flirt and date and misbehave a little after a breakup. With little-to-no dating experience with men or women, Avery doesn’t know where to start. When she meets Napa Valley’s biggest heartbreaker, Taylor Cameron, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Taylor is also fresh off a breakup and looking to distract herself after her friend makes a bet with her, she can’t go two months without sleeping with someone new. Now, Taylor is going to give Avery some lessons in flirting. As the two get closer and closer, Avery begins to develop feelings for Taylor just as things heat up between the two of them.
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Just by Looking at Him by Ryan O’Connell
Elliott is a successful TV writer with the seemingly perfect boyfriend, but appearances aren’t always everything. What most don’t see is Elliott is struggling with his cerebral palsy, an alcohol addiction, and is being unfaithful to his boyfriend with a variety of sex workers. When Elliott finally accepts that changes are necessary, he realizes facing your demons isn’t all that easy when you want to get your life back on track.
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