As the holidays approach, is there a better way to celebrate than by sitting down with a good book, or gifting books to loved ones? As the season approaches, we’ve got six recommendations to keep on your radar, and ones out now that you can pick up ASAP! We hope that you enjoy these wonderful queer reads.
Remember this pro tip for supporting great authors and great businesses: If you can pre-order books, it makes a world of a difference for authors.
Published August 31, 2021
Penguin Publishing Group
The Heart Principle follows violinist Anna Sun who seems to have it all – her hot, longtime boyfriend, and massive fame and career success from a viral video of her playing the violin. But when her boyfriend breaks things off, Anna feels like she is losing control. She struggles to self-motivate and can’t seem to practice her pieces anymore. When Anna’s therapist suggests that she may be on the autism spectrum, she realizes the ways in which she’s been masking to the world – and the emotional detriments it’s caused her. On a whim, she goes on a date with a sweet, tattooed motorcyclist, and their love story brings about a plethora of new beginnings for her.
Published August 3, 2021
Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins
Anthony Veasna So stirs up scathing humor and deep introspection in this short story collection that centers Cambodian-American queer and immigrant communities. As the children of refugees of the 1979-1975 Cambodian Genocide, the characters bear the weight of inherited trauma and strive to move forward. Afterparties is published as So’s posthumous debut- he passed away in Dec. 2020, shortly before its release.
Published October 5, 2021
Atria Books, an imprint of Simson & Schuster
This hilarious, eccentric memoir-in-essays grapples with gender, sexuality, and flat-out sex. Winston’s writing examines her arc of understanding of her own sexuality – childhood crushes on girls, seeking out threesomes as an adult – and looks to make sense out of the enigmatic “B”. The old refrain of ‘pick a side’ is thwarted in this delicious debut.
Published October 19, 2021
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, an imprint of Hachette
This multiple-perspective story simultaneously follows two middle-aged women with a rich romantic past. In the present day, Liselle learns that her husband may be guilty of political corruption, while Selena feels disillusioned with life and only recalls feeling genuine happiness during her college years with Liselle. The novel, which draws inspiration from Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, and Audre Lorde, explores what it means to revisit our past and reorient ourselves midway through life.
Published November 16, 2021
Grove Atlantic
Young is a Korean student with a litany of Tinder matches who savors the thrills of Korean nightlife with his best friend Jaehee to squelch the terrors of millennial loneliness. But when Jaehee starts to settle down and Young moves in with his parents, he starts to write surprisingly successful short stories. In the midst, he meets two very different men, and must make a difficult choice between them. A blockbuster debut in Korea, this hysterical, effusive novel embodies queer joy, adventure, and love.
Published November 9, 2021
Arsenal Pulp Press
San Francisco-Based performance project Sins Invalid amplifies disabled, queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming creators of color. It rewrites oppression, explores lessons of collective survival, magnifies crip beauty and sexuality, and so much more. Lauded by activists Adrienne Maree Brown and Alice Wong, this collection will have ripple effects in disability justice for years to come.
