The ReadDown

The Ultimate LGBT Pride Book List

Celebrate Pride Month and Spirit Day with us as we remind ourselves to fight for equal rights for all people. One way to recognize LGBTQ+ communities is to make sure their voices are heard! So let’s start reading. This list was curated by the Penguin Random House LGBT Network and ranges from Literary Fiction to Science Fiction, among others. Check them out on Instagram @PRHLGBT!

1

Sister Outsider

The essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change.

Buy
2

Rubyfruit Jungle

In bawdy, moving prose, Rita Mae Brown tells the story of Molly Bolt, the adoptive daughter of a poor Southern couple who boldly forges her own path in America. With her startling beauty and crackling wit, Molly finds that women are drawn to her wherever she goes—and she refuses to apologize for loving them back.

Buy
3

Eleanor and Hick

A warm, intimate account of the love between Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickok—a relationship that, over more than three decades, transformed both women’s lives and empowered them to play significant roles in one of the most tumultuous periods in American history.

Buy
4

Boy Erased

Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, Garrad Conley was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness.

Buy
5

The Gods of Tango

Absolutely stunning novel about early 20^th century Argentina, the history of tango, gender politics, sexuality, and same-sex romance.

Buy
6

On Being Different

Originally published in 1971, Merle Miller’s On Being Different is a pioneering and thought-provoking book about being homosexual in the United States.

Buy
7

Take Me With You

Andrea Gibson explores themes of love, gender, politics, sexuality, family, and forgiveness with stunning imagery and a fierce willingness to delve into the exploration of what it means to heal and to be different in this strange age.

Buy
8

The Life and Death of Sophie Stark

Winner of the 2016 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction, gripping and provocative, The Life and Death of Sophie Stark is a haunting story of fame, love, and legacy told through the propulsive rise of an iconoclastic artist.

Buy
9

The Rules Do Not Apply

Levy chronicles the adventure and heartbreak of being, in her own words, “a woman who is free to do whatever she chooses.” Her story of resilience becomes an unforgettable portrait of the shifting forces in our culture, of what has changed—and of what is eternal.

Buy
10

Radical Hope

Provocative and inspiring, Radical Hope offers readers a kaleidoscopic view of the love and courage needed to navigate this time of upheaval, uncertainty, and fear, in view of the recent US presidential election.

Buy
11

Gender Outlaw

On one level, Gender Outlaw details Bornstein’s transformation from heterosexual male to lesbian woman, from a one-time IBM salesperson to a playwright and performance artist. But this particular coming-of-age story is also a provocative investigation into our notions of male and female, from a self-described nonbinary transfeminine diesel femme dyke who never stops questioning our cultural assumptions.

Buy
12

A Brief History of Seven Killings

Winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, Marlon James combines masterful storytelling with his unrivaled skill at characterization and his meticulous eye for detail to forge a novel of dazzling ambition and scope.

Buy
13

The Danish Girl

Uniting fact and fiction into an original romantic vision, The Danish Girl eloquently portrays the unique intimacy that defines every marriage and the remarkable story of Lili Elbe, a pioneer in transgender history, and the woman torn between loyalty to her marriage and her own ambitions and desires.

Buy
14

The Sunlight Pilgrims

Written in incandescent, dazzling prose, The Sunlight Pilgrims is a visionary story of courage and resilience in the midst of nature’s most violent hour. Features Estella, a twelve-year old transgender girl attempting to survive the dystopian landscape with her mother.

Buy
15

Ask a Queer Chick

This guide to sex, love and life for girls who like girls is useful whether you’re a lady-dating veteran or still trying to come out to yourself.

Buy
16

Stung with Love

The entire surviving collection of poems by intellectual lesbian poet, Sappho.

Buy
17

How to Survive a Summer

A searing novel centering around a gay-to-straight conversion camp in Mississippi and a man’s reckoning with the trauma he faced there as a teen.

Buy
18

From the two-time Man Booker Prize finalist Sebastian Barry, “a master storyteller” (Wall Street Journal), comes a powerful new novel of duty and family set against the American Indian and Civil Wars.

Buy
19

In the male-dominated field of animation, Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses are a dynamic female duo, with the friction of their differences driving them.

Buy
20

Speak Now

A renowned legal scholar tells the definitive story of Hollingsworth v. Perry, the trial that will stand as the most potent argument for marriage equality.

Buy
21

Death in Venice

A tale of genius in which Thomas Mann explores a gay artist’s relation to life.

Buy
22

Becoming Nicole

The inspiring true story of a transgender girl, her identical twin brother, and an ordinary American family’s extraordinary journey to understand, nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all.

Buy
23

Resistance, Rebellion, Life

Poets on the march: 50 crucial poems written in response to the current political climate, selected and introduced by the Ohio Poet Laureate—and son of immigrants—Amit Majmudar.

Buy
24

Believe Me

Writing with the same candor and insight evident in his comedy, he reflects on a childhood marked by the loss of his mother, boarding school, and alternative sexuality.

Buy
25

Party of One

Dave Holmes has spent his life on the periphery, nose pressed hopefully against the glass, wanting just one thing: to get inside. At his all-boys high school and Catholic college, he was the closeted gay kid surrounded by crush-worthy straight guys.

Buy
26

Forcing the Spring

A groundbreaking work of reportage by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jo Becker, Forcing the Spring is the definitive account of five remarkable years in American civil rights history, when the United States experienced a tectonic shift on the issue of marriage equality.

Buy
27

The Paying Guests

The complex story of an illicit lesbian relationship in post-First World War London by Man Booker-nominated Sarah Waters.

Buy
28

De Profundis and Other Prison Writings

A definitive collection of Oscar Wilde’s best prison letters and poetry.

Buy
29

The New Old Me

After the death of her best friend, the loss of her life’s savings, and the collapse of her happy marriage to her wife, Meredith Maran is determined to rebuild not only her savings but also herself.

Buy
30

Empire of Self

Biographer Jay Parini draws on decades of friendship with the inimitable Vidal to create this wonderfully readable, affectionate portrait of the notoriously difficult intellectual’s life in the limelight.

Buy
31

The Lauras

Sara Taylor brings the American landscape to vivid life in an unforgettable road novel that strikes at the heart of a mother-child bond and the exploration of gender identity.

Buy
32

The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up

The classic account of growing up gay in America.

Buy
33

Planetfall

After the death of her female lover, Renata Ghali continues to search for their shared vision of a world far beyond earth. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war.

Buy
34

Prudence

A haunting and unforgettable novel about love, loss, race, and desire in World War II–era America. Awaiting Frankie Washburn at home for one last visit before he goes to the war, are his family and Billy, the childhood friend who over the years has become something much more intimate.

Buy
35

James Merrill

Langdon Hammer has given us the first biography of the poet James Merrill (1926–95), whose life is surely one of the most fascinating in American literature. It is the story of a gay man inventing his identity against the grain of American society during the eras of the closet, gay liberation, and AIDS.

Buy
36

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.

“bitches gotta eat” blogger and comedian Samantha Irby discusses many topics- from awkward sexual encounters to why she should be the next Bachelorette.

Buy
37

The Naked Civil Servant

A comical and poignant memoir of a gay man living life as he pleased in the 1930s.

Buy
38

Before Everything

A celebration of friendship and love between a group of women who have known each another since they were girls.

Buy
39

A House Among the Trees

When the revered children’s book author Mort Lear dies accidentally at his Connecticut home, he leaves his property and all its contents to his trusted assistant, Tomasina Daulair, who is moved by his generosity but dismayed by the complicated and defiant directives in his will. witness not just to his daily routines but to the emotional fallout of his strange boyhood and his volatile relationship with a lover who died of AIDS.

Buy
40

My Two Moms

A resounding testament to the power of family and a reassurance that there is no wrong way to be who you are.

Buy
41

A Little Life

A profoundly moving novel about four college friends working in New York City’s art and theatre scenes over several decades. Their relationships change and develop deeply over the years, but remain centered around the talented young lawyer, Jude, whose childhood horrors have haunted him into adulthood.

Buy

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The Ultimate LGBT Pride Book List

The essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change.

A warm, intimate account of the love between Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickok—a relationship that, over more than three decades, transformed both women’s lives and empowered them to play significant roles in one of the most tumultuous periods in American history.

Absolutely stunning novel about early 20th century Argentina, the history of tango, gender politics, sexuality, and same-sex romance.

Originally published in 1971, Merle Miller’s On Being Different is a pioneering and thought-provoking book about being homosexual in the United States.

Andrea Gibson explores themes of love, gender, politics, sexuality, family, and forgiveness with stunning imagery and a fierce willingness to delve into the exploration of what it means to heal and to be different in this strange age.

Winner of the 2016 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction, gripping and provocative, The Life and Death of Sophie Stark is a haunting story of fame, love, and legacy told through the propulsive rise of an iconoclastic artist.

Levy chronicles the adventure and heartbreak of being, in her own words, “a woman who is free to do whatever she chooses.” Her story of resilience becomes an unforgettable portrait of the shifting forces in our culture, of what has changed—and of what is eternal.

Provocative and inspiring, Radical Hope offers readers a kaleidoscopic view of the love and courage needed to navigate this time of upheaval, uncertainty, and fear, in view of the recent US presidential election.

Winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, Marlon James combines masterful storytelling with his unrivaled skill at characterization and his meticulous eye for detail to forge a novel of dazzling ambition and scope.

Written in incandescent, dazzling prose, The Sunlight Pilgrims is a visionary story of courage and resilience in the midst of nature’s most violent hour. Features Estella, a twelve-year old transgender girl attempting to survive the dystopian landscape with her mother.

This guide to sex, love and life for girls who like girls is useful whether you’re a lady-dating veteran or still trying to come out to yourself.

The entire surviving collection of poems by intellectual lesbian poet, Sappho.

A searing novel centering around a gay-to-straight conversion camp in Mississippi and a man’s reckoning with the trauma he faced there as a teen.

From the two-time Man Booker Prize finalist Sebastian Barry, “a master storyteller” (Wall Street Journal), comes a powerful new novel of duty and family set against the American Indian and Civil Wars.

In the male-dominated field of animation, Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses are a dynamic female duo, with the friction of their differences driving them.

A renowned legal scholar tells the definitive story of Hollingsworth v. Perry, the trial that will stand as the most potent argument for marriage equality.

A tale of genius in which Thomas Mann explores a gay artist’s relation to life.

The inspiring true story of a transgender girl, her identical twin brother, and an ordinary American family’s extraordinary journey to understand, nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all.

Poets on the march: 50 crucial poems written in response to the current political climate, selected and introduced by the Ohio Poet Laureate—and son of immigrants—Amit Majmudar.

Writing with the same candor and insight evident in his comedy, he reflects on a childhood marked by the loss of his mother, boarding school, and alternative sexuality.

Dave Holmes has spent his life on the periphery, nose pressed hopefully against the glass, wanting just one thing: to get inside. At his all-boys high school and Catholic college, he was the closeted gay kid surrounded by crush-worthy straight guys.

A groundbreaking work of reportage by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jo Becker, Forcing the Spring is the definitive account of five remarkable years in American civil rights history, when the United States experienced a tectonic shift on the issue of marriage equality.

The complex story of an illicit lesbian relationship in post-First World War London by Man Booker-nominated Sarah Waters.

A definitive collection of Oscar Wilde’s best prison letters and poetry.

After the death of her best friend, the loss of her life’s savings, and the collapse of her happy marriage to her wife, Meredith Maran is determined to rebuild not only her savings but also herself.

Biographer Jay Parini draws on decades of friendship with the inimitable Vidal to create this wonderfully readable, affectionate portrait of the notoriously difficult intellectual’s life in the limelight.

Sara Taylor brings the American landscape to vivid life in an unforgettable road novel that strikes at the heart of a mother-child bond and the exploration of gender identity.

The classic account of growing up gay in America.

After the death of her female lover, Renata Ghali continues to search for their shared vision of a world far beyond earth. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war.

A haunting and unforgettable novel about love, loss, race, and desire in World War II–era America. Awaiting Frankie Washburn at home for one last visit before he goes to the war, are his family and Billy, the childhood friend who over the years has become something much more intimate.

“bitches gotta eat” blogger and comedian Samantha Irby discusses many topics- from awkward sexual encounters to why she should be the next Bachelorette.

A comical and poignant memoir of a gay man living life as he pleased in the 1930s.

A celebration of friendship and love between a group of women who have known each another since they were girls.

A resounding testament to the power of family and a reassurance that there is no wrong way to be who you are.