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Before we begin, just a couple updates for summer. I’m trying to get back to two posts a month, but I’ve been really busy this spring. July is Flash Fiction Month, so I’ll be posting some short fiction here every day (hopefully). Summer is the busiest time of the year for me, so August is going to be a rest month.
June is Pride Month! Pride celebrates LGBTQIA+ history, culture, and. well…pride! Pride began with the Stonewall riots in June and July of 1969, and June was officially recognized as “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month” in 1999. LGBTQIA+ rights have come a long way, but there’s still a lot of progress to be made, especially as the trans community is increasingly under attack. PFLAG has a really useful Executive Order Explainer that tracks anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-DEI, anti-immigration, anti-reproductive health, and anti-voting rights executive orders. It also includes links to resources like the Trans Legal Survival Guide from Advocates for Trans Equality, along with resources for mental health, advocacy, and legal help.
LGBTQIA+ covers a huge range of identities, and two books can’t cover all of them. May was also an incredibly busy month for me, so I wasn’t able to do as much reading as I would like. I still hope this small selection of books enhances your Pride month!
Non-fiction
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
Six teens and young adults – two trans girls, two trans boys, two nonbinary individuals (one of whom is intersex) – share their stories. With honesty and courage, these young people tell their stories about their early lives, their families, discovering their gender identities, and eventual transitions. They come from a range of backgrounds and experiences, like Luke who has a supportive family and realized he was trans with the help of his queer theatre group, or Mariah, who lived in poverty and has experienced violence due to her gender identity. (Note: Mariah’s chapter includes disturbing content, including sexual abuse.) She began to transition openly during her senior year at an all-boy Catholic school, in the face of bullying, an unsupportive mother, and punishments from the school. Many teens talk about the spectrum of gender and gender as a social construct. Most importantly, each chapter shows the subjects as whole, complex individuals, who are more than just their gender identity.
Trans issues are a hot topic right now, and there is a lot of discourse and misinformation about gender identity, sexuality, and youth. It’s important for young trans and nonbinary people to have a seat at the table and tell their own stories.
Fiction
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee
There is only one thing that Henry “Monty” Montague is looking forward to, probably for the rest of his life: his Tour of the European Continent. The Tour is something of a rite of passage for wealthy noblemen in the eighteenth century: a year of gambling, drinking, and debauchery before he returns to England to work alongside his father. What he’s most interested in, however, is spending a year with his best friend, Percy. Monty has been secretly in love with Percy for years, and the Tour might be the last chance Monty has for something to happen with him. At the end of the Tour, Percy will be attending law school in Amsterdam, leaving Monty alone. Traveling with them is Monty’s intelligent but taciturn younger sister, Felicity, who struggles to understand Monty’s bisexuality. After a visit to Versailles ends in disaster worthy of being disinherited over, Monty, Percy, and Felicity find themselves being hunted down by bandits, catching rides on pirate ships, and – most terrifying of all – growing as people. This novel is a fun romp around Europe, full of adventure, romance, a bit of magic, and a few steamy scenes. The Montague siblings’ adventures continue in two sequels.
Overlooked Books 