Here lies part two of my booklist of anything LGBTQIA2S+ for my queer summer reading goals! It is important to me to be inclusive and diverse with my picks, though queerness is as expansive as the universe, so there’s no single list that covers it all! That’s fine, it just means more lists for this Virgo!
CONTENT WARNING / TRIGGER WARNING: Reader beware! There is a lot of sensitive, challenging, or potentially triggering content within these works. I strongly recommend you check out the individual content warnings on the respective work’s Storygraph page.
Poetry: Kissing Dead Girls—Daphne Gottlieb, 138 pgs, 2007
“Fusing pornography and postfeminist theory, transcript, and tell-all, these playful, penetrating poems and stories reach off the page in search of what it is to be known, both to the masses and to the ‘Other.'”
The first time I read this, I immediately bought a copy for everyone I knew.
Memoir: Gender Queer: A Memoir—Maia Kobabe, 240 pgs, 2019
2020 ALA Alex Award Winner
2020 Stonewall—Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award Honor Book
“This intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
‘It’s also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand.’— SLJ (starred review)”
Most Challenged Book of 2022 according to the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) of the American Library Association’s list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books. This list is compiled in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The lists are based on information from media stories and voluntary challenge reports sent to OIF from communities across the United States. A new list is released during National Library Week in April.
I love everything about this book. The writing, drawing, colors, narrative, journey, honesty, bravery, hope, and complexities of different interpersonal relationships. It helped me through a confusing, tough, ever-shifting self-discovery. I can’t recommend it enough and have read it many times. Also, a beautiful new hardcover edition just dropped!
Nonfic: Yes I’m Flagging: Queer Flagging 101: How to Use the Hanky Code to Signal the Sex You Want to Have—Archie Bongiovanni, 28 pgs, 2020
“This illustrated zine is all about the nonverbal ways we can communicate about our desires for some casual NSFW fun. Queer Flagging 101 is a great introduction to what flagging is and how you can use it, plus a few resources for where you can explore the topic in a little more depth!”
Short Story: Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction—Joshua Whitehead, 194 pgs, 2020
This anthology includes 2SQ (Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous) writers from Turtle Island. These authors illustrate the thriving queer Indigenous communities that flourish because of their strength against colonialism.
YA: Fiebre Tropical—Juliàn Delgado Lopera, 240 pgs, 2020
A Colombian teenager’s coming-of-age as she plunges headfirst into lust and evangelism. Uprooted from her comfortable life in Bogotá, Colombia, fifteen-year-old Francisca is miserable and friendless in Miami. With an increasing infatuation, Francisca attempts to get closer to Carmen, the pastor’s daughter, even as her family is falling apart.
I can highly recommend the audiobook version too! Recognizable to those who grew up in a bilingual home or had an immigrant parent with old country values, this hits that dynamic dead-on.
I hope you enjoyed my list, please let us know if you read any, what you think of them, and what your top picks are. Check out part one of this list for more!
Blurbs in quotations sourced from Storygraph.