For LGBT+ History Month 2020 we have selected some of our library stock which focuses on stories of an LGBT+ perspective. Check them out in this list and for real so you can hold the book in your hand and escape for a bit. It will do you the world of good, we promise!
Sister outsider: essays and speeches by Audre Lorde
814.5 LOR
Audre Lorde is a Black woman, lesbian, poet, activist, cancer survivor, mother, and contributor to the development of contemporary feminist theories. In this book of essays examining a broad range of topics, Lorde views societal oppressions as both complex and intertwined, while recognising and embracing our differences as a vehicle for change, and offering messages of hope.
Gender outlaw: on man, women and the rest of us by Kate Bornstein
305.3 BOR
In a world that insists we be “one or the other” this book offers an exploration into the concepts of gender and identity. It not only describes the author’s transformation from heterosexual male to lesbian woman, but also questions our cultural assumptions of male and female. It was first published in 1994 and this book is still considered revolutionary today.
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
823.91 WAT
Against the background of wartime London, the lives and secrets of the main characters connect in unforeseen ways. The reality and experience of war leads to bonds that link and sometimes entrap them, and the freedom these women had to turn to one another during the war causes them to resent the return of the men in their lives.
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Reading Zone 813.6 LEV
A love story between teenage boys, this is a romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back. The setting is in a utopian high school and world, where every student is free to be who they are or want to be. Aimed at a young adult audience.
The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp
306.7662 CRI
This is an honest, insightful memoir from a man who gained fame in his own time through the force of his personality and his moral values. Describing what it was like to be flamboyantly gay in England in the early 20th century, this is a story of a man who stuck by his ideals, lived his life exactly as he wanted to, and refused to be anything but who he was.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
813.6 GRE
Two teenagers with the same name could hardly be more different- until one night when they accidentally meet and their worlds collide. Their lives intertwine in new and unexpected directions, affecting each other and those around them, involving romantic entanglements, difficult friendships, their struggles to connect, to commit, and to move on.
Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson
823.9 WIN
A coming-of-age story about a girl growing up in an English Pentecostal community who decides to leave the church, her home, and her family, for the young woman she loves. She is rejected by her church and her adoptive mother, but instead of losing her faith, she manages to strengthen her relationship with God by trusting in herself, thus enabling her to overcome the moral expectations and norms of the society in which she lives.
Fun Home: a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
741.5 BEC
This graphic novel revolves around the author, who while in college comes out as a lesbian, and then discovers that her father is also gay. A few weeks later her father dies, leaving questions and mysteries about his life for his daughter to resolve. Fun Home is a daughter’s efforts to make sense of her father’s life and death; it is also an account of coming to terms with who you are, while remembering those who never had that luxury.
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Reading Zone 813.5 MAU
A naïve young secretary tumbles headlong into the soap opera world of San Francisco in 1976- a place of gay culture and a thriving arts scene, but most importantly, a place where people came to be themselves. Maupin writes with a matter-of-fact yet colourful approach to a variety of characters of different sexualities and genders at a time when societal values were changing dramatically.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
813.5 EUG
The Pulitzer Prize winning story of a Greek-American hermaphrodite. This is a family drama spanning multiple generations and involving transitions of all kinds. The subject of intersexuality is addressed throughout as the book as the narrator explains his complex family history starting from the beginning- before he questioned his gender, and before he was even conceived.
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
812.5 KUS
These 2 plays focus on the various stories of people trying to make sense of the world, with all its differing views on politics, religion, sexuality, and gender. The drama is set in Reagan-era America, among the backdrop of the onset of the AIDS epidemic, the fall of the Soviet Union, the legacy of the Cold War, all which intersect with the personal crises of the characters in the play.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
RH (CHB)
Narrated through a series of letters written to a stranger, these letters catalogue the main character’s attempts to participate in normal teenage life as he is on the verge of starting high school in 1991. Focusing on themes such as mental health, substance abuse, and sexuality, his deteriorating mental health is depicted by him seeing sadness wherever he goes, a desire to acknowledge the complexities in other people, and a belief that nobody does bad stuff because they are innately bad.
Call me by your name by André Aciman
Reading Zone 813.6 ACI
This tale of adolescent sexual awakening, set in the Italian Riviera in the mid-1980s, chronicles the romantic relationship between an American-Italian boy and an American scholar during their summer romance and the 20 years that follow. The underlying theme is that people can lead two parallel lives: one in reality and one in a fantasy that is denied to them by the events and forces imposed upon them.
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
823.91 HAL
First published in 1928, this is the story of an Englishwoman from an upper-class family who finds love with another woman, leading to their social isolation and rejection. The novel portrays their sexuality as a natural, God-given state; after a British court judged it obscene, publicity increased the visibility of lesbians in British and American culture, and for decades this was the main source of information about lesbianism that young people could find.
