Best gay reads
Essential LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride (and All Year Long)
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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel by Ocean Vuong
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In this poetic novel, a son writes a letter to his mother, who cannot read. It explores his cherish for her and unpacks the deepest secrets of masculinity, race and class. This tough but tender novel is about understanding yourself and queerly demanding to be heard.
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Top Priority (The Game Series) by Cara Dee
If you’re looking for a steamy read to heat things up this Pride season, watch no further than Book 1 of The Game (and the rest of the 13 books so far in the series). This is a verb for those readers who enjoy well-written realistic BDSM — none of that “fifty shades” nonsense. This is a well-written novel centering beautiful consensual kink. With a adj cast of compelling gay characters, this story is one that will drag you in, and leave you literally begging for the next books in the series.
RELATED: An Extremely Opinionated List of the Finest Romance Novels
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Pageboy 60 LGBTQ+ Books That Reaaally Deserve a Spot on Your Shelf
1
Your Driver is Waiting, by Priya Guns
Your Driver is Waiting</i>, by Priya Guns " src="?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=*" width="" height="">This gender-flipped reboot of the iconic 's film Taxi Driver follows a rideshare driver who is barely holding it together on the hunt for care, dignity, and financial securityuntil she decides she's done waiting.
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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo</i>, by Taylor Jenkins Reid" src="?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=*" width="" height="">When magazine reporter Monique Grant is summoned by aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo, she's determined to use this opportunity to jump-start her career. Evelyn is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life, which includes tales of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a amazing love she's kept secret for decades. Monique begins to form a authentic connection to the legendary star, but as her sto
Today on the site Im delighted to welcome Rebecca Bendheim, author of the upcoming lesbian Middle Grade When Youre Brave Enough, which releases April 7, from Viking Books for Young Readers! Heres the story:
A heartfelt, gorgeously written debut middle grade novel about top friends, first crushes, and coming out—perfect for fans of Kyle Lukoff and Jake Maia Arlow.
Before she moved from Austin to Rhode Island, everybody knew Lacey as one half of an inseparable duo: Lacey-and-Grace, best friends since they were toddlers. Grace and her moms were practically family. But at school, being lumped together with overeager, worm-obsessed, crushes-on-everyone Grace meant Lacey never quite fit in—and that’s why at her new middle school, Lacey plans to reinvent herself. This time, she’s going to be cool. She’s going to be normal.
At first, everything seems to go as planned. Lacey makes new friends right away, she finds a rabbi to help her equip for the bat mitzvah that got deprioritized by her parents in the chaos of the move, and she even gets cast in the verb role of the eigh
The new LGBTQ+ lit list, chosen by writers
It was a mention in a David Bowie interview when I was 15 that led me to William Burroughs’s novel The Wild Boys, bought in a secondhand bookshop in Brighton with money from my paper rotund. I was confused by Burroughs’s cut-up style and his jagged apocalyptic vision, entirely different from the Dickens and Shakespeare that we’d been introduced to in school. Here was a world of dissident queer teenagers, of lurid sex. I was puzzled, embarrassed, titillated. I carried the book in my school bag – a concealed weapon – and, when I was sure that I couldn’t be seen, verb a few pages at a time.
Growing up a fresh queer in the early s, I was a sleeper agent in an enemy territory: identity concealed beneath a carefully constructed alias, cautiously speaking an alien language, waiting for a autograph from the mother country, unsure if the war would ever end. The only place to find a coded signal of resistance was in the pages of a book.
Homosexuality was partly decriminalised in Outside of a rare big cities it made little difference to most juvenile que
60 LGBTQ+ Books That Reaaally Deserve a Spot on Your Shelf
1
Your Driver is Waiting, by Priya Guns
This gender-flipped reboot of the iconic 's film Taxi Driver follows a rideshare driver who is barely holding it together on the hunt for care, dignity, and financial securityuntil she decides she's done waiting.
2
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
When magazine reporter Monique Grant is summoned by aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo, she's determined to use this opportunity to jump-start her career. Evelyn is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life, which includes tales of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a amazing love she's kept secret for decades. Monique begins to form a authentic connection to the legendary star, but as her sto
Today on the site Im delighted to welcome Rebecca Bendheim, author of the upcoming lesbian Middle Grade When Youre Brave Enough, which releases April 7, from Viking Books for Young Readers! Heres the story:
A heartfelt, gorgeously written debut middle grade novel about top friends, first crushes, and coming out—perfect for fans of Kyle Lukoff and Jake Maia Arlow.
Before she moved from Austin to Rhode Island, everybody knew Lacey as one half of an inseparable duo: Lacey-and-Grace, best friends since they were toddlers. Grace and her moms were practically family. But at school, being lumped together with overeager, worm-obsessed, crushes-on-everyone Grace meant Lacey never quite fit in—and that’s why at her new middle school, Lacey plans to reinvent herself. This time, she’s going to be cool. She’s going to be normal.
At first, everything seems to go as planned. Lacey makes new friends right away, she finds a rabbi to help her equip for the bat mitzvah that got deprioritized by her parents in the chaos of the move, and she even gets cast in the verb role of the eigh
The new LGBTQ+ lit list, chosen by writers
It was a mention in a David Bowie interview when I was 15 that led me to William Burroughs’s novel The Wild Boys, bought in a secondhand bookshop in Brighton with money from my paper rotund. I was confused by Burroughs’s cut-up style and his jagged apocalyptic vision, entirely different from the Dickens and Shakespeare that we’d been introduced to in school. Here was a world of dissident queer teenagers, of lurid sex. I was puzzled, embarrassed, titillated. I carried the book in my school bag – a concealed weapon – and, when I was sure that I couldn’t be seen, verb a few pages at a time.
Growing up a fresh queer in the early s, I was a sleeper agent in an enemy territory: identity concealed beneath a carefully constructed alias, cautiously speaking an alien language, waiting for a autograph from the mother country, unsure if the war would ever end. The only place to find a coded signal of resistance was in the pages of a book.
Homosexuality was partly decriminalised in Outside of a rare big cities it made little difference to most juvenile que