These 18 LGBTQ+ Books Gave Me A Whole New Perspective, So I Really Recommend You Read Them

If you're looking for a new perspective, I really think you should read these books.

I’ve always loved reading books, and even more when I discovered the immense world of LGBTQ+ authors, whose books now populate most of my bookshelves. But among these hundreds of stories, lives, and essays, there are a few that stuck with me and made me see some things under a new light that I hadn’t considered before. So, since I already recommended them to all my friends, I thought some of you may find something new and interesting to read. 

Full disclaimer: Their order does not indicate any preference, or that one is better than the other. It’s just how they popped up in my head while brainstorming for this piece. Here we go!

1. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Grove Atlantic / Via groveatlantic.com

Ever wondered what it feels like to be surrounded by people who only see the world in black and white, and any digression from this binary is a source of evil? That’s what Jeanette Winterson’s life has been like growing up as a lesbian from a fundamentalist Christian family in England. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is one of Winterson’s most famous books, in which she retells her life through myths and stories, and it is a touching adventure to read while reflecting on the many shades in which everyone experiences their existence. Oranges are not, in fact, the only fruit, just as there isn’t only one way of life. 

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

2. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Grove Atlantic / Via groveatlantic.com

Bernardine Evaristo didn’t win the Booker Prize for Fiction with this book for no reason. Girl, Woman, Other is a hymn to identity, its intersections, and women. Twelve women of color to be precise. All living in England, all of different ages, each with a story to tell. A very important story, though most of them are just trying to get through their daily lives. Evaristo manages to capture their uniqueness, dreams, and desires in a magical way, so much so that it’s really difficult not to get attached. And don’t let her experimental style scare you away! Once you get used to it, you won’t be able to put the book down.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

3. The Gods of Tango by Carolina de Robertis

Penguin Random House / Via penguinrandomhouse.com

I’ve always had a weak spot for the “woman dresses up as a man in a period piece” trope, and I’m not ashamed of it. What Carolina de Robertis paints in her The Gods of Tango is pure passion: feelings, music, tango, sexuality. When young Leda starts dressing as a man in early 20th-century Argentina, soon the lines between herself and her disguise start to blur. Sometimes a woman just wants to play some tango, but what if the events that follow take a soul-touching turn? It’s a man’s world, or maybe not.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

4. What It Feels Like for a Girl by Paris Lees

Penguin Books UK / Via penguin.co.uk

Take some vernacular, a lot of humor and sass, the carelessness of the teenage years, and a journey through self-acceptance. Add tons of references to the ’90s and ‘00s pop culture — namely Madonna — and a young Paris Lees discovering her sexuality, and you get What It Feels Like for a Girl. This irresistible and bold memoir will make you laugh and cry at the same time; it will break your heart and inspire you. What are you waiting for?

5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Penguin Random House / Via penguinrandomhouse.com

This one doesn’t really need an introduction since it’s a milestone of modern American literature, but if you haven’t read it yet, you’re missing out on some serious life lessons and a read you won’t easily forget. Among the abuse, the oppression, and the slavery of the past century, The Color Purple doesn’t forget about the strength of women to survive through the hardest of times. I got to read the book before watching the movie, and some of its words are still etched into my mind. A true classic that should be on everyone’s reading list.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

6. Small Beauty by Jia Qing Wilson

Metonymy Press / Via metonymypress.com

Delicate yet powerful, this amazing book will hit you with a full-on-blast introspective journey, while the sweet protagonist, Mei, discovers in depth her roots. As a trans woman with a Chinese background, when she discovers that she’s not the only queer person in the family, she is forced to rethink everything she knows. The whole pace is not boring though: Jia Qing Wilson depicts her life and her thoughts as if they were still images. They’re just there simply being, pulsing, existing. Mixed with community, race, and grief. Despite the title, the beauty of this book is anything but small.

Get it from your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

7. City of Night by John Rechy

Grove Atlantic / Via groveatlantic.com

If you enjoyed Kerouac’s On the Road and are a fan of River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves in My Own Private Idaho, then this is the book for you. Following a young man who works as a hustler traveling across America — the places he visits, the people he meets — Rechy tells of a generation of queer people, between excess, sex, and the Cooper Do-nuts Riot in LA. City of Night has created a whole imagery that has been inspiring and shaking for years on end. Such a visceral tale of lust and freedom sometimes is all you need to dream of another world.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

8. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Graywolf Press / Via graywolfpress.com

Not to be horny on main, but I believe that Carmen Maria Machado is the only bad bitch that gets me. In this collection of short tales, Machado manages to swing back and forth through fantasy, dystopia, comedy, horror, science fiction, drama, and romance. All topped with a real explosion of feminism and queerness. It’s sensual, it’s captivating, it’s gloomily ironic, and sometimes it requires a little interpretation on your end, which is the best part. There’s not a soul alive, I think, that could resist this book. 

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

9. The Queer Bible by Jack Guinness

Harper Collins / Via harpercollins.com

OK, it’s not an actual Bible: We are not trying to form a new cult! What Jack Guinness did was put together a series of essays by famous representatives of the LGBTQ+ community from different generations. They tell their stories, share their experiences, and form a beautiful mosaic. The said representatives are names the likes of Paris Lees and Elton John — hence the Bible in the title. The essays, all focusing on a particular aspect of queer culture and deeply marked by the AIDS epidemic in the '90s, want to achieve a very powerful message through self-acceptance. The testimony that we actually are not alone, that what happens to us is by far more common than we can begin to think.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

10. Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T. Kira Madden

Bloomsbury / Via bloomsbury.com

You know those books that try to tell you something very bad and sad, but they sugar coat it so that it will be more accessible? Well, this book isn’t one of them. In her memoir, T. Kira Madden chooses to be brutally honest while letting us into her childhood and her coming of age as a queer, biracial teenager. It’s never easy talking about your family when there is trauma, a need for closure, and the search for forgiveness. Raw emotions and unapologetic sincerity are what you’re going to find as soon as you open the book.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

11. We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib

Penguin Random House / Via penguinrandomhouse.ca

One of the many limits I had and that I am trying to fill is that growing I never really wondered how people of different cultures or ethnicities were experiencing my same issues with their own sexuality. Namely, I never had much information about how a Muslim could deal with all of that. Which is why this beautiful memoir by Samra Habib was like a real revelation, because it introduced me to a culture in a way I never experienced before. Her life journey from Pakistan to Canada is not one you want to sleep on.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

12. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Penguin Books UK / Via penguin.co.uk

Another one that doesn’t really need an introduction is the gorgeous novel by Ocean Vuong. The Vietnamese writer and poet has made headlines with the touching and deep story of how gender, sexuality, nationality, and family impacted his life. Defined as a «Daring Tale of Queer Love and Pain», I’m sure most of you have already read it, maybe even multiple times. I just know that on very rare occasions has a book knocked the wind out of my lungs and made me put it down to recollect myself. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was definitely one of them.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

13. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Penguin Random House / Via penguinrandomhouse.com

The amount of LGBTQ+ representation in young-adult books has positively increased over the past few years, and this work of Chinese historical fiction is one of them. The 1950s San Francisco gay scene strikes when two teenage girls slowly fall for one another. But between a whole new world that opens up to them and social and cultural conventions working against them, what will prevail? A tender and slow-burn romance that managed to soften someone like me, who doesn’t generally enjoy the young-adult genre. 

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

14. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

Dover Publications / Via amazon.com

Yes, yes. The title now changed to Carol and we all obsessed over the Todd Haynes movie. But to this day, The Price of Salt is still one of the best lesbian historical fiction books I’ve read. It was actually the first time I got to feel firsthand what it was like to love another woman in a time when it was not allowed. Plus, the fact that it is based on a true story just adds another layer of realism that is really captivating. And now we can read it while imagining Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, which is not so bad.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

15. Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times by Carolina de Robertis

Penguin Random House / Via penguinrandomhouse.com

In a time of fear and despair, such were the 2016 presidential elections, Carolina de Robertis managed to collect a series of letters from writers, poets, thinkers, and activists reflecting on the current political and social situation. That’s something that we all lived through, but their words offer some new, provocative, and inspiring insights that I always carry with me. Even if you’re not that interested in politics, this is a must-read for me. Despite that fateful day, it is so full of love and hope that it’s like a breath of fresh air. 

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

16. Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Pregar

Harper Collins / Via harpercollins.com

From Abraham Lincoln to the Queen of Sweden, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Ancient Rome and all the way back to our modern times. This compendium of LGBTQ+ people from across the millennia will take on a journey through history and queer love. Of course, these aren’t the only 23 people: The history of humanity has been fueled by queer people more often than we think. But the author had to make a choice, and the friendly style with which she remembers them makes it a very fun read. You may even end up impressing your queer friends with some new facts.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

17. Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride

Penguin Books Australia / Via penguin.com.au

Activist and National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign Sarah McBride recalls her life, her journey through transition, and her work fighting for trans rights. Tomorrow Will Be Different is not just a memoir, but it is also a very educational piece, going in depth about the bias and discrimination that the trans community faces every day. McBride puts her personal journey at our service so that we who don’t fully comprehend the trans experience can try to understand it a little better.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.

18. The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane Ward

NYU Press / Via nyupress.org

Don’t let the title fool you! At a glance it’s the opposite of what should be in this list: a book about heterosexuality, what? But Miss Jane Ward, whose previous books are known to be quite controversial, actually analyzes what has become of straight people in the 21st century, between sexual desire, inequity, violence, and couple’s therapy. «It’s not that it ‘gets better’ for queer people; it’s that heterosexuality is often worse», the book starts from here, and it’s a downward spiral across new relationships and the coexistence with queer people. And don’t worry — no one is hating on the straights. It’s just that they might want to review some priorities every now and then. 

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound here.