A short(ish) list of queer books I've read & enjoyed over the last couple years. None of these are affiliate links. (read: I'm not making money on this)

Originally posted 3/16/23; updated!

# Fiction

• Detransition, Baby is so, so good. A detransitioned person knocks up their cis straight boss, and proposes that they raise the baby together (all 3) with their ex-girlfriend, a trans woman desperate to become a mother.
• A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall is a wonderful historical romance set in what I believe is Regency England. The protagonist was assumed dead in a war and used the opportunity to return to society as the woman she'd always known she was. But her dear friend the duke is so sad about losing his friend. A meddling sister-in-law brings the two back together and romance ensues.
• Honey Girl is a fun romance with a nonwhite main character trying to figure out her life after finally graduating with her PhD.
• Cemetery Boys is about a trans Latinx teenager who summons a ghost, it's YA and really nice.
• Red, White, and Royal Blue is a fun M/M romance; the biracial son of the divorced first woman president of the US falls for the British queen's grandson. Especially good if you're into politics at all.
• One Last Stop is from the same author as the Red White & Royal Blue but it's pretty different - a woman falls in love with a woman she meets on the subway; time travel is involved.
• Outlawed by Anna North and Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey are both feminist, queer-adjacent westerns - UWW has a more explicitly queer main character but I think I preferred Outlawed. Both fun, though.
• This is How You Lose the Time War is lyrical and beautiful. Time traveling spies on opposite sides of a war fall in love via letters left on the battlefield.
• Payback's a Witch is a W/W romance where the main character returns to her magical hometown where she is part of a longstanding magical family, where she must officiate a high stakes competition where one of the competitors is her ex boyfriend she's ready to get revenge on.
• A Psalm for the Wild Built in which a a non-binary monk explores the meaning of life in a post-scarcity society. A short read in an immersive, peaceful word.
• Ancillary Justice is a book about a robot/human construct person (or non-person, depending on who you ask), who is seeking possible revenge. Along the way, said person/non-person gets confused about human conceptions of gender a lot. It's fun.

# Nonfiction

• Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex gave me so much to think about.
• Raising Them: Our adventure in gender creative parenting tells the story of a couple who chose to not assign a gender to their child at birth. Ultimately it's not what we decided to do for my baby, but it worked out pretty well for the author and was an interesting look at a subversive way of parenting.
• Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H is a memoir of a queer hijabi Muslim immigrant from a childhood in a rich Arab country to the United States for college and adult life. It is so rich and the author's life narrative is so beautifully woven with feminist interpretations of stories from the Quran.
• Transgender History by Susan Stryker is great. I wrote some reflections inspired by Transgender History.
• Love Lives Here by Rowan Jette Knox is a memoir of someone (who viewed himself as a cis woman when published, now out as a trans man) whose kid transitioned, then his spouse did a year later. CW for intense and violent bullying descriptions from the author's childhood in the first half, and descriptions of navigating societal transphobia later on.
• This Arab is Queer by Elias Jahshan (and many others; it's an anthology of short essays) is filled with heartfelt perspectives and great writing.
• Queer Conception by Kristen Liam Kali is a must-read if you are interested in making a baby and you want to do it alone, with multiple partners, or as part of a partnership that's not two straight cis people. Tons of great info on everything from preparing for pregnancy, options for making conception happen, and navigating the health care system.

# Visual Novels & Nonfiction

• Queer: A Graphic History is a nice and quite approachable read on the development of queer theory. (Rather than like, a history of social movements or famous queer people.)
• Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe is the one you've seen getting banned all over the place; it's a moving story of what it felt like for this particular genderqueer person to grow up and figure out identity.
• The Third Person by Emma Grove is a memoir about trauma and barriers to getting gender affirming care as a person with dissociative identity disorder.

# Baby/Kids Books

There's some really cute baby books with cool representations of different kinds of families or people in them. Here's some I like:

• Love Makes a Family is one of my favorites.
• Families Can and Families Belong are two books from the same illustrator; they're lovely.
• It Feels Good To Be Yourself is really great for older (elementary aged maybe) kids. I gifted it to a family member to help her explain transness and non-binary-ness to her kids.
• Bodies Are Cool is on my wishlist for my baby's collection. It highlights all the different kinds of bodies that are out there: different skin tones, shapes, hair types, etc.

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