LGBTQIA+ Book Recommendations for Pride Month

June is Pride Month for the LGBTQIA+ community, and believe me, we need it. Yes, “we.” I am the A in the acronym, which stands for asexual (not ally, a common misconception that erases asexual people). With heterosexuality celebrated every day of every year for the past two thousand years or more, those of us on the LGBTQ+ spectrum need and deserve a month to be proud of who we are, love ourselves for who we are, celebrate ourselves for who we are, and to be unapologetic about it.

We need this month.

We need community.

We need true allies.

We need books!

Books written by LGBTQ+ authors and/or with LGBTQ+ characters are the most challenged and banned books EVER. That’s not an exaggeration. LGBTQ+ content dominates each year’s list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books curated by the American Library Association, along with books about racism and books about BIPOC people. In 2019, 8 of the 10 titles that made the list had LGBTQ+ content or characters in them. In 2020, the word/phrase most used in censorship reports was “LGBTQIA+.” This is only getting worse, but it won’t stop kids or readers from reading whatever the hell they want to read!

I support the LGBTQIA+ community.

I support LGBTQIA+ authors.

I support LGBTQIA+ books.

Let’s celebrate the freedom to love our way and the freedom to read!

This post is packed with LGBTQIA+ book recommendations for you to add to your TBR list, read, review, recommend to others, gift to loved ones, share with young readers, donate to Little Free Libraries, and request at your local library.

There’s so many books that I didn’t have space for blurbs or short descriptions. I organized the titles into groups based on where they fall on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and used Bookshop’s widgets that you can scroll through. Then you click on the covers of the titles that catch your eye and read more about them on Bookshop.

***This is not an exhaustive list but rather a starting point.***

Enjoy!

First, I have to shout out this great non-fiction book:

Rainbow Revolutions: Power, Pride, and Protest in the Fight For Queer Rights

Buy @ BookShop

My Review: This book is fabulous. This is a history of queer rights that was needed and is needed. I learned knew things and expanded my knowledge on others. There’s so much here that’s not readily known, and for a reason, because it was history that had been buried on purpose or it was taboo to discuss.

For instance, we all know about Hitler’s terrifying reign in which Jewish people, Polish people, people of color, people with disabilities, and queer people were targeted. While the fact that queer people were targeted is mentioned (most of the time), it’s never really discussed. Like how 5,000-15,000 men were sent to concentration camps for being gay, and when the war ended and the camps closed, they weren’t often freed but sent straight to prison for being (or assumed) gay. They are “forgotten victims of the Nazis.” 

This book covers a lot including the Stonewall Riots, the AIDS crisis, voguing, the rainbow flag, Pride marches, the LGBTQ+ acronym, prominent figures, and more.

LGBTQIA+ BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:

The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook / Books for Writers

 

May is Anxiety Awareness Month and Mental Health Awareness Month.

THE ANXIETY & PHOBIA WORKBOOK

BUY @ BOOKSHOP

At first glance, this doesn’t look like a book for writers, does it? 

But many writers suffer from anxiety and panic attacks.

I do.

And I’m willing to bet several of you do, too. Or you have in the past. And, although I hope not, you may in the future.

When you suffer from anxiety as a writer, it can impact your writing, your creativity, your energy.

It’s impossible to write when your heart is pounding a-mile-a-minute, when you can’t breathe, when you feel as though you may be sick,  when you’re shaking, when you can’t get your present worry off your mind, when you have ANY symptom of an anxiety or panic attack.

NOTE: An anxiety attack has a trigger and a build-up, which could be as little as a handful of minutes or over the course of days, weeks, or months. A panic attack is sudden, with no warning, no trigger. They share many of the same symptoms, though, and you can have an anxiety attack and a panic attack at the same time. Last year, I had both, separately.

MY STORY:

Anxiety didn’t use to be something that I worried about. Before my anxiety, it was depression and burnout that I feared the most, both of which I discuss in my book Keep Writing with Fey.

Depression is a monster, but anxiety is a nasty beast all of it’s own. Sometimes anxiety and depression go hand-in-hand, two monsters teaming up for a double whammy. And both (either together or by themselves) can be a symptom of burnout. What’s more? Anxiety can cause depression as well as burnout. It’s that sly, that evil.

Now that anxiety is a major concern for me, I am able to look back and see that I’d been experiencing anxiety for much longer than I’d realized. 

The incident in 2016 (which coincidentally occurred in the blogosphere and which I detailed in my book) that brought on my worst case of depression started with a massive anxiety attack. What I had described in my book (but hadn’t realized) was an anxiety attack triggered by what had occurred. Since then, blogging and the blogosphere has remained one of my triggers. I love my blog, and I know many great bloggers, but that doesn’t change the negative impacts I’ve experienced.

It wasn’t until last year (2021), though, when I realized I had a problem. My anxiety had grown from Gremlin-sized to Abominable Snowman-sized. And there were triggers everywhere.