25 Books for Pride | June 2024 

So many of these are already on my TBR! Thanks for the push to get to them.

I really enjoyed how happy and excited you looked talking about all these books. My reading this year is mostly escapism fantasy and it's so much easier to find queer joy there, as the focus of the characters is not queer struggles but the adventure. This sounds strange, but I hope oyu know what I want to say.

Jan Morris, trans English travel writer is brilliant. She transitioned decades ago. Passed away in 2020 in her 90’s. She wrote Manhattan ‘45 a non-fiction account of the big apple way back when. I loved it. Also loved her memoir Conundrum.

Great list! Just started listening to Mrs S on audio (available on Everand) and am very intrigued. P.s. I love the genre of books that you call 'heartbreaking but hopeful', a possible video idea? 💖

so many i have on my tbr and your recommendations are making me want to read them yesterday! loved pity it was so clever and would definitely rec bellies. if you haven't read anything by matt cain then you need to get on that, i love them so much they're emotional and make you feel so seen but he infuses great humor into them with a lovely northern characters

I totally agree with you regard the read of the new life by Tom Crewe, I thought this was one of my best reads! if you do find any more books and authors that are writing off this era I would be grateful if you could forward. A big thank you for your recommendations! just order Blackouts and the in between, looking forward to these reads. have a great weekend.

Omg i loved bellies so much. The folks who made normal ppl are adapting this as well. And Cinema love is brill. On the nonfiction front, pretty by kb Brookins is quite powerful.

I read I will Greet the Sun again last month and very much enjoyed it although was quite a difficult read. Just finished Small Joys tonight and loved it. I got Brother & Sister Enter the Forest from the library so must be out in the uk now?

I loved Rosewater and it was refreshing to read something in this genre that didn't leave me feeling miserable. (But, I must confess that I didn't notice what was on the cover 🤣🤣🤣🤣!)

Coexistence by BRB is absolutely beautiful. I hope you love it!

You've made me realize I also need to read more queer non-fiction when I went to think of recommendations! However I do recommend Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House as well as We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib, both excellent memoirs. I've added A Good Year and Experienced to the ever-growing list, thank you!

The great writer 'Toni Morrison' once said, "If there is a book you want to read, and it is not yet written, then you must write it yourself." Sounds like you have to write it, Simon. You can't go against the word of the lit-god TM!

bellies is one of my favourites books of all time simon !!! please read it i'm soooo serious😭😭😭 the rights have been sold for tv adaptation by the creators of normal people :)

You may have read this one, but A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood is a very good short read. It’s a Picador Modern Classic and can be found in their really cool mini book format.

Hi 👋🏻 I’ve got Pity on library loan waiting to be read (due to your recommendation 👍) 😌 x

I just finished Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson, would definitely recommend it as a more joyful queer read. It's set in the 80s and follows a girl from South Wales who goes on this journey of queer self discovery after a group of people from Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners come down from London to help with fundraising for the striking miners in her community. It was joyous and filthy and a lot of fun

New hair? Looks great 😊

Small Joys is a lovely book. One of the best books I read in December 2023..

Some nonfiction recommendations (some old, some new): 10 Bridges I've Burnt, Brontez Purnell The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton The T in LGBT, Jamie Raines The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir by Staceyann Chin It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror Sister Outsider, Audre Lord Who's Afraid of Gender, Judith Butler Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza, by Gloria Anzaldúa This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib Red Azalea by Anchee Min Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, Curtis Chin Also, nonfiction graphic novels Washington's Gay General Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together (Way more than I intended to list, but I kept thinking of others)

Autumn is my fave too!

Dylin Hardcastle has a new book out later this month that looks stunning called A Language of Limbs - I think I remember you recommending their previous novel, Below Deck, a few years ago? A non-fiction title I've got my eye on at the moment is Hollywood Pride by Alonso Duralde

I just finished A Bookshop of One's Own by Jane Cholmeley which is a lovely queer non-fic book about the founding, running and closure of feminist/queer book shop Silver Moon. Like a memoir but for an indie book shop 🥰

I am reading Mrs S next and A Place Called Winter.

We read very different sorts of books but still I want to recommend The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo. Don't know if it's available in the UK as it just came out in the US earlier this year.

great list! you should check Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. & Vanishing Twins: A Marriage Leah Dieterich for nonfiction Enjoy pride month!!

I started reading Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters earlier this year. I got through about a third of the book and decided to put it aside for a while, but now that I'm done with other books, I should probably circle back to it during Pride month. I did not want to DNF it as I feel like this is a subject that is different from what I've read in the past and that I get more out of than just being entertained. I'm not exactly sure why I was getting distracted from the story, maybe because I did not feel like the writing was propelling me forward and that I sometimes had to reread some of the sections to make sure I was following properly. I guess I should pick it back up before I can't renew it anymore at the library!

I'm not sure how available it is in the UK, but I''m reading In Tongues by Thomas Gratton right now and I'm finding it absolutely delightful. Great pick for Pride month if you can get your hands on it. As for great books with a trans character: Didn't Nobody Give a Sh*t What Happened to Carlotta. Queer joy: The Secret Life of Albert Entwhistle.

I just came out again last year (at 41) so Experienced sounds like one I need to get to! 😂 My fave queer books the last year or so: Dream of a Woman (trans perspectives), couplets by Maggie Millner (bisexual), Agatha of Little Neon, A Real Piece of Work by Erin Riley (trans nonfiction), the appendix by Liam Konemann (trans nonfiction)

Due at any point between the start of the book and Christmas 😂 I feel like that should be a saying! Thank you for this list! I agree that diversity and celebration of all humans and their voices should be an ongoing event all year round (or at least til Christmas 😅) but it’s a great opportunity to shout it louder while more people are listening. Or at least find it harder to not listen, because it’s everywhere. Like Christmas! Yeah! But with more colors! 😊 And better weather! ☀️🌈✨

Cereus Blooms at Night is one of my all time favourites; I’ve read it four times. Suggestions: a Canadian trans novel-Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom, and Canadian nonbinary autofiction-Mercy Gene: The Making of a Mad Woman by JD Derbyshire.

I’m currently listening to The In Between 🤩 One of the best #lgbtqi books I’ve read this year is Greta & Valdin

For a queer non-fic book: have you read "Lost & Found" a memoir by Kathryn Schulz? Schulz is a Pulitzer Prize winner for journalism and writes beautifully. The book covers the time in her life when she is losing her father and happens to meet the woman who will become her wife. She riffs on loss and discovery, broadly and personally. It is very moving and I highly recommend.

Loved Cinema Love. The cinema is actually in China. Great characters and a history lesson.

Loved Elvin James Mensah's Small Joys. Hope you do too.

Bangers and corkers!😁

I feel absolutely the same about Joy in queer novels! My friends and I always talk about wanting to see more joyous queer stories instead of tragic and sad books (although that can of course be really powerful too!). Any recommendations are welcome! 🌈

Rivers Solomon is an author I would love to hear your thoughts on. I’ve read The Deep by them so far - am hoping to read Sorrowland this Pride month but An Unkindness of Ghosts might be their most “popular” one. Then I’m pretty sure you’ve already read most by Akwaeke Emezi and then I just really love Bryan Washington’s writing. And personally I cannot wait to read Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth (though I might be wrong and it’s more lesbian than bisexual) 🌈

possibly the first time you've spoken about The New Life without mentioning the train scene? lmfao

If you haven’t already read it, Bad Habit by Alana S Portero is a book I absolutely adored about a trans woman growing up in Madrid and all the people in her community who influence her as a person and a woman - it’s gorgeous and devastating and I want everyone to read it

NF Pride read? "What is the Grass: My Life" with Walt Whitman by Mark Doty. An absolutely incredible book. and just for fun, "Me", Elton John's autobiography.

Just read The house in the cerulean sea by T.J. Klune. A fantasy fiction YA. A really thoughtful book about Inclusiveness and being yourself. Would recommend.

PS I can’t wait for your review of Tin Man, no pressure or anything 😂

😊I'm counting No. 23 Burlington Square novel and Nancy Cunard in Jazz Age Paris, apparently much easier for homosexual people in nineteen-twenties Paris than other places, but also people were less likely to place labels on themselves in those days, but the novel is set in the twenties too, but some brave souls were out in the twenties. Enjoyed both books. I want to read Mona of the Manor. An old straight Grandma. Best wishes to everyone.❤

Best bisexual book I've ever read is Gender Theory by Madeline Docherty. It just came out and it's so good!

Just found your channel, love it ❤ I’d recommend Gender Theory by Madeline Docherty - fantastic book by a new author. Includes navigating bisexuality

Try Trans-Sister Radio by Christopher Bohjalian. I thought it was interesting. Thx for recommending The Sleeping Car Porter.

Doing a separate post for trans fiction. (Leans heavily into genre fiction. Includes some horror that can be a bit extreme. Seems trans folks like to write body horror.) Hell Followed With Us, Andrew Joseph White The Thirty Names of Night by Joukhadar, Zeyn Transcendent: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction Exquisite Corpse, Poppy Z. Brite (now Billy Martin, but I am pretty sure he still uses Poppy as his nom de plume) The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang Camp Damascus, Chuck Tingle (and if you want some fun, weird smut, check out his Tinglers) The Thirty Names of Night by By Zeyn Joukhadar An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by by Andrea Lawlor Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters Luda by Grant Morrison Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki A Dream of a Woman, stories by Casey Plett Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw

Nonfiction Australian memoir - ten steps to Nanette / Hannah Gadsby

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin has a bisexual narrator. Not sure if you’ve read it yet…I thought it was fantastic!

Well most of those I have not heard of, but I do have Mrs S on my shelf to be read but it’s not on this months tbr. So ha! I do not keep queer readings for pride month only 🎉 . That book Pity has one of the creepiest covers I’ve ever seen. For me personally, the thought of being in that pit has me low key freaking out so I’m going to move onnnnn … I’m currently reading Love and Hot Chicken by Mary Liza Hartong about a queer girl in her hometown in Tennessee, which is described as a “delicious southern novel”. Hmm and there’s absolutely no negative people in her town towards her queerness? In the South in the US? Ok….. but my point being, it’s a “joyous” queer read so far because it’s just not something that weighs her down or is frowned upon by her family or contemporaries, anddd bc it’s part romance story and bc it’s full of quirky southern charms and LOTS of funny banter. It’s not literary but it’s fun and light and funny. I also have Rasheed’s book and read that I think a few years ago, it was brilliant! So I’ll be looking to finish this read and get onto Our Hideous Progeny which is an adventure story about Mary Shelly’s niece investigating wait or is it Dr Frankenstein’s niece ?? Anyhoo it’s got a Frankenstein connection and I’m here for that!! And it’s queer as well. It is on that adventure short list so I’m definitely reading it next, then After Sappho which I had picked up Last year from the library, put it down promptly after a few chapters and bought a copy, holding it for the right time and it’s past time so…! I still haven’t read the Gunkle which I own and quite literally have lost in my shelves doubling up but I will find it and hopefully read in July or August bc it looks so summery! Ok sorry so rambly! Yayyy again for Brotherless Night! Amazing book. So excited that it won!