LGBT Books

Waiting for Forever series
Choices, Destiny, Determination
- Jamie Mayfield

In the middle of reading them now.
Putting me through a wide range of emotions.

--edit--

Just finished reading the entire series. Simply amazing.

Also note, that this is a YA adaption of the series 'Little Boy Lost' by J.P. Barnaby.

 

Some memoirs that were published this month:

Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen by Arin Andrews

Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition by Katie Rain Hill

Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques (here's an article/review about the book)

 

I didn't want to make a thread to ask an incredibly stupid question, but it's somewhat relevant to this thread, I think, so I thought I'd ask it here.

I was talking to a new friend about Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, the other day, and I'd had it for a while on my shelf.. That doesn't matter but I had to mention the book so it's not a weird, out of context question.

(I haven't read the book, just the first few words.)

Is Cpt. John Yossarian gay?

 

I have that on my reading list.

There's a really awesome publishing press (some of you may have read some of their selections) that features writings from transgender authors. Topside Press. Really good stuff: Nevada by Imogen Binnie and I've Got a Time Bomb by Sybil Lamb are just a couple examples.

Also, plenty of great independent stuff out there that I'll post as I find it.

 

Don't be fooled by the book's first line. It's a madcap kind of novel so the line makes sense (or not) once you're more familiar with Yossarian's antics and situation. It's also a very non-chronological novel. Hope you read it!

 

Well, there's always translations? Though the main reason (and also how) I learned fluid English as a teenager was that the German localisations of low-circulation genre literature (scifi / fantasy) are often rather shoddy. (Awkward grammar, names not fully translated or changing throughout the book, generally bad editing, etc.)

Still, for what it's worth, one of the first books with gay main characters I read was "Hastur's Erbe" by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which I found in the library at age 14. A number of the other novels from that voluminous series (Darkover Zyklus) also deal with gay characters, or lesbians (or periodically sex-switching alien elves...), and my library had most of them in German. And then there was "Herr Lucius und sein Schwarzer Schwan" by Waldtraut Lewin (which is a historical novel set in the Roman era during the Spartacus uprising, and the ideology of the author is somewhat... communist, which I didn't realize at the time, but which probably explains why the book was never translated into English), a book I found in my parent's library.

Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series ("Schattengilde" in German, though there's no guild in it) I also started to read in German ("Das Licht in den Schatten" is the first one and you should buy the second "Der Gott der Dunkelheit" as well, because the romance between the two bisexual male main characters takes until the latter half of the second book to take off). Though that was one of those rather shoddy translations.
More to your particular interests, the same author has a trilogy about a female heroine who gets magiked to grow up in a male body and only finds out about all this as puberty hits and the spell wears down. I don't think I've ever read the German version, but the title of the first book is apparently "Der Verwunschene Zwilling". (Dear gawd, all those titles are nowhere even close to the original...)

Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels generally get more competent translations on account of being best-sellers, and the German version of "Monstrous Regiment" (with the spoiler-y German title of "Weiberregiment") might be to your tastes. The heroine reads as asexual (though perhaps not intentionally), there are a lesbian couple among the side characters, and at least one of the cross-dressing soldiers seems to have no other reason for hiding their actual sex than that they prefer not to be treated like a girl, and possibly have a crush on the presumed-straight heroine. (When they finally admit to their birth sex, it's not under pressure like for the others, but kind of out-of-the-blue after the heroine has just commented positively on a very feminine woman's looks, so it comes across like "Oh, so you find women attractive? You know, I do have a pair of boobs under this uniform...")

 

Hello,

Can anybody recommend a variety of child-friendly [no sexual stuff. Hand holding is fine and maybe kissing] books that include [but not limited to] LGBT that isn't an LGBT promotion but rather integrating it as part of society and showing kids [aged 2-10] the variety of families out there.

When I'm planning on starting a family I'm going to buy the stuff before I conceive them, so that I'm not buying 'for' a child. That way I can try and make their experience as diverse as possible. [This probably relates more to gender than anything].

Thank-you.

 

Can't help you with English language children's books, but there is a (short) Wikipedia list for that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Children's_books_with_LGBT_themes

Aside from that, at 10 years old, kids are old enough to watch the old Sailormoon anime series, which had several lesbian, gay and genderqueer side characters, and didn't show anything more sexual than some (hetero) kissing. I've heard that the English language version was quite badly censored with regard to LGTB content, but Hulu is currently working on a more faithful adaptation.

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On the general topic:

I recently read "Rule 34" by Charles Stross, a kind of semi-comedic murder mystery / spy thriller novel set in near future Scotland (think augmented reality glasses, 3D printers and possibly sapient spam-bots, not space exploration or transhumanism). To my great surprise, almost all of the major characters in the multiple-viewpoint story are non-straight, despite the fact that this doesn't really have anything to do with the plot. It kind of feels like it was written on a dare (the author is straight and most of his other novels that I've read are rather LGTBQ-erasing), but it's pretty good nonetheless. The only offensive thing that stood out is that the author seems to believe that all gay and bisexual people are 'promiscuous' (i.e. poly, cheating, or using sex workers while single), as the only monogamous character is the strictly lesbian police detective. And everyone but the lesbian is either morally crooked (e.g. small-time or professional criminals - especially all the men), or if they're upstanding citizens, get punished by authorial fiat for their willingness to hook up with strangers (see below).
(Trigger warnings: There's a graphic rough sex / near rape scene - that is to say, the woman who gets treated badly by a hook-up doesn't withdraw her consent or use her safeword, but afterwards she feels used and worries that he might not have stopped if she'd told him to. And the perpetrator is very obviously characterized as a psychopath, which gives the whole thing a kind of 'near miss' quality for the reader. There are also multiple references to illegal sex dolls made for pedophiles, and to various disgusting shock memes from the internet (e.g. 'goatse' or '2 girls 1 cup'.)

A previous, loosely connected novel from the same author (same setting and a few of the same characters, but in supporting roles instead as POV protagonists), titled "Halting State", and dealing more directly with international spying after starting out as a white collar crime mystery (about a bank robbery in a fantasy MMORPG), also features a (different) lesbian police officer as one of the protagonists. Though her sexuality doesn't really matter for the plot, and she doesn't get a romance storyline (because she has a wife, and has been married long enough to have a tween son, so the references to her relationship are really more about early morning stress and who's turn it is to pick up the kid from school.) There were no trigger warnings necessary, as far as I remember, except maybe for serious car accidents.

 

Okay, well, I'll read them first if it's got crime in it as well as sexual stuff [because I won't let my kids watch disney due to all the drug and sex references, even if they're hidden.] to make sure it's not too deep or anything, but I checked your first link and the books I glanced over were aimed at children [going by the front cover and short description] so If they're still around in 10 odd. years time or if there's others [I'm guessing there will be] I'll see about getting them.

 

This is a dangerous thread, I already have a pile of about 7 books next to my bed waiting to be read...

 

His novel "A Son of the Circus" has gay content; it's his only book that I've ever read.

I came here to post "Bettyville" by George Hodgman as a suggestion. He's a middle-aged gay male in New York City, who returns to his hometown in Missouri to look after his widowed mother, whose memory is failing fairly steadily. It's partly the story of his family, and growing up there, and partly his own story of what it's been like for him as a gay male for the past 40 years.

 

I'd recommend More Than This by Patrick Ness. It's about a guy named Seth who believes he has died, and has awoken in a deserted version of the town he used live in before his family moved to America. Not to spoil it but the main character's romance plays a big part in the plot, and at times the book gave me physical pangs of pain in my heart. It was one of those books where you want to keep reading even though a part of you is afraid of what the author will make the characters suffer through next. Very compelling.

I'd be able to reccommend a ton of comics and graphic novels that star LGBT characters, but I'm not sure if this thread is meant to be limited merely to prose or not.

 

I'm glad I found this thread. I looked on Buzzfeed to try and find LGBT novels but they didn't have nearly as many listed. I really liked Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.

 

Some assembly required by Arin Andrews
its about a trans guy and how he came to terms with it and his process of coming out and transitioning. I really liked it. Also its nonfiction thought i should mention that

Also I havent read this one but "Rethinking Normal" by Katie Rain Hill is about a trans girl. Also nonfiction the two authors know each other. Just figured i should have both trans guys and trans girls represented..

 

I read persian translation of "Kafka on the Shore", a Japanese novel by Haruki Murakami.
i haven't seen anything about homosexual people in it.
but when i read the wikipedia page i see that my favorite character introduced as gay!!
so i take a look to english translation of the novel and yes, he is gay. his homosexuality is censored in persian translation completely!!

in my country homosexuals always introduced as evil creatures and evils introduced as homosexuals. :|
so it is bad for them that people read a story that have a moral, attractive, wise and above all "normal" character that also is gay. that's the point, i think.

so my recommendation is this lovely novel.

 

YESS! Cassie in general is very progressive! There's also a lesbian couple (one of them is bisexual) and a certain freewheeling bisexual warlock. I recommend the series. And I will henceforth and forevermore refer to Alec as the "gay nephilim in an awkward sweater." :newcolor:

I read Proxy and thought it was pretty good, though it took some time to get into it. The main character is gay but that's really it. It's not super involved when it comes to his sexuality.

My main recommendations (all pretty much YA fiction) are:
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
It's super precious and also really moving. It's one of my favorite books ever and I read it in one sitting.
Freakboy by Kristin Clark
This one is very sad but it's helped me work through the idea of gender fluidity a little more. Definitely worth the read, just make sure you have a pick-me-up ready.
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
This one is extremely touching and beautifully written. It's set in Ancient Greece which is also really cool. I loved it.

I would also like to add some warnings to a few books because they may be upsetting/triggering, so beware. (This isn't a non-read, this is a "read with caution.")
Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger
It's not a bad book, but it brushes over dysphoria a lot. It makes the situation seem much simpler than it truly is (it frustrated me), though it would probably be appropriate for a younger audience--maybe 10-12 year olds who are new to the idea of trans.
Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
There is excessive harassment of a trans woman in this book. It could be really upsetting.

Enjoy reading! I've got a pretty big list I'm working on currently; may update later!

 

Re: Good/favorite GBLT books?

Rainbow Boys is by Alex Sanchez (and I agree that it's a very good book)

I also recommend The God Box (also by Alex Sanchez), Boy Meets Boy (David Levithan), The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Emily Danforth), and Annie on My Mind (Nancy Garden)

I'm currently in the middle of Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills and it's pretty good so far.

 

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda
by Becky Albertalli

 

Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger (ftm trans). I relate to the main character so much and it is a great story overall, but I don't think the author knows exactly how hard it is to be transgender. The acceptance from peers at the end and with the name and pronoun changing is quite unrealistic---I am so jealous. Someone probably already suggested Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (self-explanatory), but it is SO good and the story is very sweet. If you can stand reading five-hundred page books, I'd suggest Carry On by Rainbow Rowell; even though it's fantasy I loved the characters and the plotline was exciting and really good overall. Oh, and Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda (gay) by Becky Albertalli is AWESOME. I think I fell in love with the pairing at the end.

 

Yess, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda was so Awesome!!