Any good LGBT books?

I thought the same thing yesterday because I'm always reading pretty fem stories, but now that I'm out why not...

 

Yeah, does anyone know any cutesy light-hearted gay-themed books? I'm getting depressed lately and the "traditional" gay themed books/movies are always tragic.

 

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Green rocks my socks, as does Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford (sounds depressing, and parts of it are -- but overall a humorous read). My favorite gay book of all time is Leave Myself Behind by Bart Yates, which is definitely a bit darker but still quite humorous and it really changed my life. What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson is another good read, also bittersweet, but very hopeful. Umm... Gemini Bites is very lighthearted but still well-written, and The Geography Club and its sequels by Brent Hartinger are pretty light, although geared toward a younger audience. The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second is hilarious -- Mr. Ferguson is a genius, if I do say so myself -- and Sprout by Dale Peck is also rather funny. And then, last but not least, there's My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger (he's written some other stuff as well, also gay and quite funny). Of course, there are plenty of other good gay reads that are much darker and contain tragedy, but if you're willing to put up with a few tears they're excellent books. (These are all gay dude stories...I'm yet to come across many good gay books starring the ladies, but Julie Ann Peters writes amazing stuff and is easily the best author I've encountered in the lesbian genre).

 

Being Emily is the story of a gay trans woman. I found the book to be very accurate to my own experiences as a lesbian that happens to be trans.

 

I should probably get on that, as I've never read any LGBT books yet most of the ones I find are young adult and I've never found a young adult book that I didn't give up on in less than 20 pages cause of the writing quality. Give me your John Steinbeck's, Hunter S. Thompson's and your Charles Bukowski's (Most likely my favourite author of all time.) and I'm happy. However whinging teenagers make me want to scream.

 

*The Fall by Ryan Quinn: It's sort of like The Rules of Attraction, and it's really well written. It follows three different college seniors who have their own individual struggles--a football player, a musician, and a tennis player. It became my second favorite LGBT book overnight.

*Party Monster by James St. James: My favorite book of all time. It's the true story of the Club Kids, who were a phenomenon during the late 1980's and early to mid 1990's. They were the gay male version of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie and Kim Kardashian, basically, but in a Gaga costume. They dressed up in crazy outfits and were paid to show up at clubs and party every night. But the king of the Club Kids murdered his drug dealer pretty horrifically, and the book talks a lot about the murder and the subsequent cover up and how clubland reacted to it, and how it affected the other club kids. It sounds pretty morbid but it's actually a really funny book, and it's well-written too of course.

*Any book by David Sedaris. Me Talk Pretty One Day is the best in my opinion. It's a series of autobiographical essays detailing his family life and musings, and his move to France with his boyfriend. All of his books are hilarious.

 

Rainbow Boys (and the two books following) is nice for an easy read that is realistic but not too depressing.

I'm also writing a book about a transboy for Nanowrimo this month, we'll see how it goes. Not overwhelmingly happy, sorry, but hopeful.

 

Ooh, list time! Working at a bookstore has its perks.

Transgender books
Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger
I am J by Cris Beam

Gay Books
Rainbow Boys Trilogy, Getting It, Bait, So Hard To Say and The God Box by Alex Sanchez
Geography Club By Brent Hartinger
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Leviathan
Boy Meets Boy by David Leviathan
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You by Peter Cameron
Hero by Perry Moore

Bisexual
Boyfriends With Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez

Lesbian
Keeping You A Secret & She Loves You, She Loves You Not by Julie Anne Peters
Tipping The Velvet & Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Empress Of The World & The Rules For Hearts by Sara Ryan
Ash & Huntress by Malinda Lo
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner
Mosh Pit by Kristyn Dunnion
Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden

Anthologies
Am I Blue? Coming Out From The Silence edited by Marion Dane Bauer

Happy reading!

 

I remember reading Rainbow Boys in 7th or 8th grade. My mother actually took it away from me when I was halfway through, so I had to get another copy.

I've also been meaning to read Fingersmith.

 

One of my absolute favorite authors of all time just happened to leave us with two amazing books laced with homosexuality. One of these books also happens to be one of my all time favorite books. So without further ado...

Yukio Mishima

1- Confessions of a Mask

Military time Japan. This book follows Kochan throughout his childhood all the way into his adulthood, while he discovers his sexuality and fights with it. It's a vibrant read, and his most well known work. ​

2- Forbidden Colors

This is a good book for anyone interested in relationships with age differences. More importantly it carries throughout its pages the issue of gay men being married to women. Enjoy.​

I'm not going to lie and say these two books are all happy and cheery. In fact, there can be a good deal of doom and gloom, but they are well worth the time invested in them. I can assure you that.

 

At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill
Maurice by E.M. Forster
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Um... who wants to start an LGBT reading group?

 

Oh, man! Could we please!? I, for one, am all about starting a group like that here. Already the ideas are pouring in. If you'd like to. Go ahead and start a thread and we can all brainstorm over it. I would, but...I'm totally not into stepping on people's toes. Unless they're mean heads.

 

Oooh, I've wanted to read these three for some time [though I only found out about O'Neill's sometime in the last few months.]

I want to say I'm interested, though I have a bad track record when it comes to assigned reading.

 

I would love to join, but I have like no way of getting books DX

 

There is a sticky on this section about LGBT books for anyone that missed it

Since you guys are talking about starting a reading group I won't close the thread, but please use the other thread to make book suggestions. That way we can have a large LGBT book thread for future members to see

 

count me in for the reading group

 

Alright. I have decided that once I get off from work tonight, I am going to start a new thread. It'll give me time to collect my thoughts and make this nice and easy for us all. And yes, I suppose I'm going against what I said in my earlier post. So keep your eyes peeled fellow book lovers.

 

They are making Geography Club into a movie! Alex Newell, from The Glee Project season 1, will play a supporting role in the movie.