Literary and genre fiction featuring Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer characters and themes.
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Classics and Literary Fiction
Suffering through a mental health crisis, Yemeni-born poet Jacob recalls his upbringing in an Egyptian brothel, his French Catholic schooling in Beirut, and years as a young man in AIDS-stricken 1980s San Francisco.
Rachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, by way of obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting--until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting. Early in the detox, Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam--by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family--and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey.
Margot turns tricks with men at a fashionable resort in Jamaica to earn money for the education of her younger sister, but hopes for a better life with Verdene, a wealthy woman considered a witch by the community.
Available to download: Audio
Calliope Stephanides was born twice: first as Callie, a baby girl, and then again as Cal, a teenage boy. Eugenides’ Pulitzer-winning epic casts Cal’s story of being born a hermaphrodite against the multi-generational story of Cal’s family as it emigrates from 1920s Smyrna to mid-century Detroit.
When he receives an invitation to his former boyfriend's upcoming wedding, struggling novelist Arthur Less decides to avoid attending the wedding (and avoid acknowledging his fiftieth birthday) by accepting every invitation to speak at writers' meetings around the world. Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize.
Faced with impenetrable writer’s block, PhD student and 20-something gay man Richard comes to rely on fellow graduate student Anne, whose interest in Richard is not limited to academics—a fact that becomes even more complicated when Richard reconnects with an old flame, Blake.
Available to download: eBook
Groundbreaking when published in 1928, Hall’s novel is the semi-autobiographical story of Stephen Gordon, an aristocrat, war veteran and author, but whose identification as a lesbian encounters resistance in society.
Joseph Han draws from Korean myth to explore the generational trauma experienced by families shattered by partition, and the impacts of American imperialism on the Korean peninsula. Nuclear Family is a spectacular debut novel-at once devastating and hilarious-about the memories that bind and divide families, and the yearning for home.
Available to download: eBook
A Single Man follows 24 hours in the life of George, a professor and Englishman, determined to persist in the daily routines of his life in spite of the sudden death of his partner.
Available to download: Audio
It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flâneur with a rich dating life. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. –Novelist
Available to download: eBook
Uprooted by the upheaval of the 1968 Nigerian Civil War, 13-year-old Ijeoma lands as a housemaid when she befriends another refugee, Amina. As the girls discover their growing regard for each other and their sexualities, they must wrestle with the repercussions in a society that refuses to accept their love.
Available to download: eBook
A young Korean gay man struggles to care for his tradition-minded, cancer-stricken mother while searching for a lasting relationship and writing success in Seoul.
Jed Goodfinch struggles to find his identity as a newly sober gay black man after moving to West Berlin from his native Chicago during the upheaval of the 1980s.
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career. Summoned to Evelyn's Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn's life unfolds, revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love, Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn's story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.
A love story set in the eighteenth-century London of notorious thieves and queer subcultures, this genre-bending debut tells a profound story of gender, desire, and liberation. –Novelist
Available to download: eBook
A dazzling literary debut novel-within-a-novel, in the vein of The Prophets, about a young author writing about the forbidden love affair between E.M. Forster and Mohammed el Adl - in which Mohammed's story collides with his own, blending fact and fiction.
Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in the literary world, Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.
In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a social circle of lovers and friends navigate tangled webs of connection as they try to figure out what they want, and who they are.
When his father falls ill, Andrés, a professor of public health, returns to his suburban hometown to tend to his father's recovery. Reevaluating his rocky marriage in the wake of his husband's infidelity and with little else to do, he decides to attend his twenty-year high school reunion, where he runs into the long-lost characters of his youth. Jeremy, his first love, is now married with two children after having been incarcerated and recovering from addiction. Paul, who Andrés has long suspected of having killed a man in a homophobic attack, is now an Evangelical minister and father of five. And Simone, Andrés's best friend, is in a psychiatric institution following a diagnosis of schizophrenia. During this short stay, Andrés confronts these relationships, the death of his brother, and the many sacrifices his parents made to offer him a better life. A novel about the essential nature of community in maintaining one's own health, The Town of Babylon is an intimate portrait of queer, racial, and class identity, a call to reevaluate the ties of societal bonds and the systems in which they are forged.
Walker’s 1983 Pulitzer-winning epistolary novel depicts the life of Celie, an African-American woman in the 1930s South, as she copes with an abusive marriage, sexual trauma and racism to eventually blossom when she begins a relationship with Shug, a blues singer.
Available to download: eBook
In 1890s London, poverty stricken Nan falls for a male impersonator before embarking on a series of misadventures and love affairs that eventually lead her to fully embrace her sexual orientation in spite of disapproving Victorian attitudes.
Mystery and Thrillers
Lesbian amateur sleuth Jane Lawless investigates a suspicious drowning of a fellow sorority alumna on the grounds of the University of Minnesota. First in a series.
Detective Kate Martinelli must contend with winning the trust of her newly assigned partner while trying to find who is responsible for a series of child murders in the Bay Area. First in a series.
Available to download: Audio
In 1980s Los Angeles, defense attorney Henry Rios is asked by a colleague dying of AIDS to defend his client—a teenager accused of murdering a co-worker who threatened to out him.
Hansen's groundbreaking series, one of the first featuring an out homosexual man, features L.A.-based insurance investigator and veteran Dave Brandstetter. In 1970's Fadeout, the first in the series, Brandstetter investigates the death of a beloved radio personality thought to have died in a car accident, but whose body has never been found.
Available to download: eBook
Romance
Hannah sees financial salvation for her struggling bookstore when she lands an appearance by world-famous romance author Parker. But one unforgettable night leads the seemingly incompatible couple into the promise of something more than a business arrangement.
"Ever since he was a kid, Dev Deshpande has believed in fairy tales, and he has spent his career crafting them for the reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise's history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns off-screen. That is, until the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star. Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming he's playing on TV. He doesn't believe in love (at least not for himself), and his publicist only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he's a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date thirty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he's cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off. Only Dev can save the season--and possibly the entire show--by coaching Charlie through every scene. Dev always gets a happy ending, and he knows he can find a way to help Charlie find his. Yet the more Dev fights to get Charlie to open up to the contestants, the more they begin to open up to each other, and it soon becomes clear Charlie has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars.
Doctor Hong-Wei’s budding romance with surgical nurse Simon runs into complications since their hospital explicitly forbids relationships between staff members.
It's been months since aspiring journalist Kian Andrews has heard from his ex-boyfriend, Hudson Rivers, but an urgent text has them meeting up at a café. Maybe Hudson wants to profusely apologize for the breakup. Or confess his undying love. But no, Hudson has a favor to ask-he wants Kian to pretend to be his boyfriend while his parents are in town, and Kian reluctantly agrees. The dinner doesn't go exactly as planned, and suddenly Kian is Hudson's plus one to Georgia's wedding of the season.
Twenty-five year old actor Sinter has always been attracted to women. But when he can’t get his gay best friend Andy out of his mind, he realizes coming to grips with his new bisexual identity may take more courage than he anticipated.
Vicar Ben is ready to achieve the ‘normal’ life he’s always longed for by marrying his best friend and settling down, but the arrival of sea captain Philip and his unruly brood of children causes him to reconsider.
Lucy, a Regency-era astronomer denied employment because of her sex, finds intellectual and romantic fulfilment when she is hired by Countess Catherine to translate a treatise on celestial mathematics.
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror
When the final four women in competition for an aloof, if somewhat sleazy, bachelor's heart arrive on a mysterious island in the Pacific Northwest, they mentally prepare themselves for another week of extreme sleep deprivation, invasive interviews, and of course, the salacious drama that viewers nationwide tune in to eagerly devour. Enter Patricia, a temperamental, but woefully misunderstood local, living alone in the dark, verdant woods and desperate to forge a connection of her own. As the contestants perform for the cameras that surround them, Patricia watches from her place in the shadows, a queer specter haunting the bombastic display of heterosexuality before her. But when the cast and crew at last make her acquaintance atop the island's tallest and most desolate peak, they soon realize that if they're to have any hope of making it to the next Elimination Event, they'll first have to survive the night.
Leah is changed. Months earlier, she left for a routine expedition, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp. By turns elegiac and furious, wry and heartbreaking, Our Wives Under the Sea is a genre-bending exploration of the depths of love and grief at the heart of a marriage.
Available to download: eBook
The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation. When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society's archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will. First in a series.
Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they'll never face the same fate. Robbie lives by his gun and one hard-learned motto: other people aren't safe. After a brutal accident entwines the three of them, this found family of survivors must navigate murderous TERFs, a sociopathic billionaire bunker brat, and awkward relationship dynamics all while outrunning packs of feral men, and their own demons.
Raised in a hostile undead world, a lesbian swordswoman becomes a bodyguard to a necromancer to secure her freedom in a solar system of dark magic and cutthroat politics. --Novelist
In a sci-fi twist on the Sherlock Holmes mythos, Holmes and Watson are reimagined as Dr. Janice Watson and Sara Holmes, both lesbian African American women living in an America wracked by a second American Civil War. First in a series.
The starship Matilda, organized along racial lines like the antebellum South, has been carrying colonists to a new, hazy version of the Promised Land from a wrecked Earth for generations. But Aster, born into slavery and entrusted with cryptic notes from her dead mother, may hold the key to the Matilda’s weakness—and spark an onboard civil war for liberation.
In near-future America, Next of Kin laws require all accumulated debt be passed down to the next generation. To escape harsh debtors' prison, debtors can become Dociles--indentured servants to wealthy owners, subject to whatever whims or desires their owners demand, in return for the erasure of the family debt. To cope with the trauma of slavery, servants take Dociline, a drug that ensures compliance from servants. But servant Elisha refuses the drug. His owner, Alex, is part of the family that created Dociline, and refuses to believe in the terrible side-effects of the drug, and resorts to harsh conditioning to bend Elisha to his will.
As a royal, Aqib bmg Sadiqi is expected to marry well and take his rightful position as Master of Beasts. But that all changes when he meets Lucrio, a handsome Dalucan soldier.