LGBTQ+
Our work is everywhere : an illustrated oral history of queer & trans resistance
Syan Rose
306.76 /Rose
Diverse Characters, LGBTQ+, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction
"A visually stunning graphic non-fiction book on queer and trans resistance. Over the past ten years, we have witnessed the rise of queer and trans communities that have defied and challenged those who have historically opposed them. Through bold, symbolic imagery and surrealist, overlapping landscapes, queer illustrator and curator Syan Rose shines a light on the faces and voices of these diverse, amorphous, messy, real, and imagined queer and trans communities. In their own words, queer and trans organizers, artists, healers, comrades, and leaders speak honestly and authentically about their own experiences with power, love, pain, and magic to create a textured and nuanced portrait of queer and trans realities in America. The many themes include Black femme mental health, Pacific Islander authorship, fat queer performance art, disability and health care practice, sex worker activism, and much more. Accompanying the narratives are Rose's startling and sinuous images that brings these leaders' words to visual life. Our Work Is Everywhere is a graphic non-fiction book that underscores the brilliance and passion of queer and trans resistance. Includes a foreword by Lambda Literary Award-winning author and activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, author of Care Work : Dreaming Disability Justice."--
She is a Haunting
Trang Thanh Tran
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Tran Trang
Fiction, Horror, LGBTQ+
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She's always lied to fit in, so if she's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised. But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don't belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can't ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don't eat. Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house, the home her family has always wanted, will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house's rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.
Added by Chelsea
Black Sun
Rebecca Roanhorse
SCIENCE FICTION Roanhorse, Rebecca
Diverse Characters, Fiction, Fantasy, LGBTQ+
"A god will return when the earth and sky converge under the black sun in the holy city of Tova... The winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man's mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain. Crafted with unforgettable characters, Rebecca Roanhorse has created an epic adventure exploring the decadence of power amidst the weight of history and the struggle of individuals swimming against the confines of society and their broken pasts in the most original series debut of the decade"--Provided by publisher.
"Between Earth and Sky" is an excellent series, and it just concluded with "Mirrored Heavens" this year. Roanhorse creates a detailed and intriguing wold inspired by Native American cultures. I love how messy the politics get in this series. The main characters are frequently at odds with one another and the tensions that creates are fascinating to explore. -Chelsea
Bury Your Gays
Chuck Tingle
FICTION Tingle Chuck
Fiction, Horror, LGBTQ+
"Bury Your Gays is a heart-pounding new novel from USA Today bestselling author Chuck Tingle about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead. Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell. But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm," in the upcoming season finale. Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he's just put a target on his back. And what's worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles. Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future--before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good"--
This book is top-notch queer horror, with fun characters, a good sense of atmosphere, and a chilling plot that pulls you forward. -Chelsea
Someone You Can Build a Nest in
John Wiswell
SCIENCE FICTION Wiswell John
Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, LGBTQ+
"Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love. Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth. However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she's found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way. Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere? Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk. And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life."--
A cozy queer romance seasoned with cosmic horror. "Someone You Can Build a Nest in" asks what it really means to be monstrous, and challenges us to break away from cycles of familial abuse. -Chelsea
Siren Queen
Nghi Vo
SCIENCE FICTION Vo Nghi
Fiction, Fantasy, LGBTQ+
"It was magic. In every world, it was a kind of magic. "No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers." Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited the roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill-but she doesn't care. She'd rather play a monster than a maid. But in Luli's world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the women she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her. For those who do survive to earn their fame, success comes with a steep price. Luli is willing to do whatever it takes-even if that means becoming the monster herself. Siren Queen offers up an enthralling exploration of an outsider achieving stardom on her own terms, in a fantastical Hollywood where the monsters are real and the magic of the silver screen illuminates every page"--
Nighi Vo writes with a surreal, dreamlike detail that is perfect for a story set in the back lots of old Hollywood. -Chelsea
Spear
Nicola Griffith
FICTION Griffith Nicola
Fiction, Fantasy, LGBTQ+
"The girl knows she has a destiny before she even knows her name. She grows up in the wild, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake come to her on the spring breeze, and when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she knows that her future lies at his court. And so, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and, with a broken hunting spear and mended armour, rides on a bony gelding to Caer Leon. On her adventures she will meet great knights and steal the hearts of beautiful women. She will fight warriors and sorcerers. And she will find her love, and the lake, and her fate"--
Nicola Griffith has queered the Hero's Journey, and it is delightful. This is not a quest for glory, or power, or salvation; this is a quest for connection, and joy, and a life worth living. Spear is a lovely, lyrical retelling of Arthurian myth with an interest in historical accuracy and the attendant diversity. Like all Arthurian myth it is haunted by the sorrow of its own promised ending. The sorrow does not spoil any of the moments of sweetness or triumph, but it adds a weight to the story like the air before a storm. -Chelsea
Homebody
Theo Parish
GRAPHIC NOVEL Parish
Diverse Characters, LGBTQ+, Graphic Novels, Memoir
"In this intimate and defiantly hopeful graphic novel memoir, the author shares their journey to find a home within themself, taking readers through the experiences and everyday moments that all led up to them finding the term "nonbinary," which finally struck a chord.
"We are all just trying to find a place to call our own." A beautiful, poetic and visually stunning memoir by artist Theo Parish as they discover their true identity as trans and nonbinary. The analogy of feeling at home in your body is an eloquent explanation for all ages to better understand the way it might feel to not feel like the gender assigned at birth... ‘They say that ‘your body is a temple,’’ Theo writes, ‘but mine has felt more like a rental.’ The flow of the story of Theo's life is seamless, and I devoured this uplifting memoir in one short sitting...but don't forget to admire the lovely drawings in all their calming hues of purple! -Mari
One last stop
Casey McQuiston
FICTION McQuiston, Casey
Fiction, LGBTQ+
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue comes a new romantic comedy that will stop readers in their tracks... "Dreamy, other worldly, smart, swoony, thoughtful, hilarious - all in all, exactly what you'd expect from Casey McQuiston!" - Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal and Party for Two Cynical twenty-three-year old August doesn't believe in much. She doesn't believe in psychics, or easily forged friendships, or finding the kind of love they make movies about. And she certainly doesn't believe her ragtag band of new roommates, her night shifts at a 24-hour pancake diner, or her daily subway commute full of electrical outages are going to change that. But then, there's Jane. Beautiful, impossible Jane. All hard edges with a soft smile and swoopy hair and saving August's day when she needed it most. The person August looks forward to seeing on the train every day. The one who makes her forget about the cities she lived in that never seemed to fit, and her fear of what happens when she finally graduates, and even her cold-case obsessed mother who won't quite let her go. And when August realizes her subway crush is impossible in more ways than one-namely, displaced in time from the 1970s-she thinks maybe it's time to start believing. Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop is a sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time"--
The characters in this book feel like family, like a big group of friends that lives in the apartment above you causing good-natured chaos. Jane is one of my favorite characters. I love her hard edges and her drive to fight for her community, and I love that with August, she finally gets to have someone fight for her. -Chelsea
Family is family
Melissa Marr
jE Marr
Picture Books, Kids, LGBTQ+
When Little Chick starts school, he discovers that there are lots of different kinds of families, all of them full of love.
Delightful and whimsical illustrations fill the pages along with wonderful text from a child's point of view about how a family is a family no matter what yours may look like. -Angie
Our Work Is Everywhere is a beautiful graphic novel depicting the history of queer and trans resistance. Syan Rose's illustrations are so stunning--I could read this book over and over again. You should too! -Violette