Pride Month recognizes and uplifts LGBTQ voices across America. Join the Library in celebrating LGBTQ awareness throughout June with these new and recommended titles.
Adults
Perpetual West, Mesha Maren
As Alex and Elana try to make their home among the academics and young leftists in El Paso and Juárez, they are pulled from each other by an affair with a lucha libre fighter, their struggles to define themselves, and the loud cry of home. –from the publisher.
We Do What We Do in the Dark, Michelle Hart
Hart’s novel does something exceptional that few pieces of fiction have done successfully: She presents the older married professor as not only a complicated figure worthy of desire and suspicion, but makes her a woman too. —New York Times (on order)
The World Cannot Give, Tara Isabella Burton
The Girls meets Fight Club in this coming-of-age novel about queer desire, religious zealotry, and the hunger for transcendence among the devoted members of a cultic chapel choir in a prestigious Maine boarding school—and the obsessively ambitious, terrifyingly charismatic girl that rules over them. The World Cannot Give is a shocking meditation on the power, and danger, of wanting more from the world. –from the publisher
To Paradise, Hanya Yanagihara
We are given a patriarch, wealth, children; there is an arranged marriage, an inheritance, a true love, a class divide and a significant twist. Deftly paced and judiciously detailed, the tale makes hay with the conventions of the 19th-century novel. But that’s not all. With breathtaking audacity, Yanagihara rewrites America. This ambitious novel tackles major American questions and answers them in an original, engrossing way. –Gish Jen, New York Times Book Review
Time is a Mother, Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong’s second collection of poetry looks inward, on the aftershocks of his mother’s death, and the struggle – and rewards – of staying present in the world. The poet continues, through his work, his profound exploration of personal trauma, of what it means to be the product of an American war in America, and how to circle these fragmented tragedies to find not a restoration, but the epicenter of the break — provided by publisher.
Young Adult and Kids
All That’s Left In The World, Erik J. Brown
Putting their trust in one another, two boys, Andrew and Jamie, search for civilization in a world ravaged by a deadly pathogen, but their secrets could cost them everything as they try to find the courage to fight for the future, together.
Pumpkin, Julie Murphy
Murphy is at it again with a third return to Clover City and the Dumplin’ universe. Tackling heavy topics with humor, this novel touches on the importance of staying true to yourself even (and especially) when it’s hard. —School Library Journal
Answers in the Pages, David Levithan
When Donovan left his copy of The Adventurers on the kitchen counter, he didn’t think his mom would read it–much less have a problem with it. It’s just an adventure novel about two characters trying to stop an evil genius. But soon the entire town is freaking out about whether the book’s main characters are gay, Donovan’s mom is trying to get the book removed from the school curriculum, and Donovan is caught in the middle. –from the publisher.
Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, Rob Sanders
Pride traces the life of the Gay Pride Flag, from its beginnings with social activist Harvey Milk and designer Gilbert Baker to its spanning of the globe and its role in today’s world.
Worm Loves Worm, J.J. Austrian
Two worms in love decide to get married, and with help from Cricket, Beetle, Spider, and the Bees they have everything they need and more, but which one will be the bride and which the groom?
Love Makes a Family, Sophie Beer
Whether you have one parent, two moms, two dads, a mom and a dad, or another wonderful caregiver, there’s one thing that makes a family a family … and that’s love.