Books to Read LGBT+ Literature

DarkSarcasm posted on Apr 14, 2017 at 03:46PM
Hi gang.

I've just come from a very frustrating browsing session Amazon, where I discovered that their G/L section is dominated by winking, shirtless males with six-packs who want to take readers on smut-filled adventures. Which is great, if you're into that sort of thing, so congrats I guess if you are. Buy away.

But for the rest of us, I thought a forum would be helpful. The selection's not really that wide when it comes to non-hetero-books, so hi, welcome to a place where trusted fanpoppers can give honest reviews and suggestions and discuss anything related to LGBT Lit.

What kind of book are you looking for? What have you read? Want to do the rest of us a favor by warning us away from a pile of paper garbage? Have at it, kids.
last edited on Apr 14, 2017 at 03:58PM

Books to Read 3 ang sumagot

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sa loob ng isang taon na ang nakalipas DarkSarcasm said…
I'll start off with a few brief reviews...
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg ★★★★★
I think pretty much everyone knows what this is about by now, thanks to the movie, but the book digs a lot deeper. There are more characters, more stories to follow, and spoiler alert, Ruth and Idgie are more than just BFFs. It's a heartbreaker, but this was a favorite even before I started figuring out stuff and thangs, so it's gotta be at the top of the list.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (L) ★★★★
Fingersmith is a long-con featuring some lady-love. Hood Girl pretends to be a maid in order to swindle Rich Girl, and they get a little closer than they meant to. The first half of the book took me ages to read, but once I hit the big twist at the middle, it was done in about two days. This is also a two-part TV movie that's worth watching.

Affinity by Sarah Waters (L) ★★★
Like Fingersmith, Affinity has a healthy amount of screwing-people-over to it, but there's also a WTF-worthy ghost story going on. This one pissed me off a bit.

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (L) ★★
AKA Carol, the Cate Blanchett/Rooney Mara movie. A retail employee falls for a rich lady and they have lots of weird adventures in the 50s, when having such adventures had some pretty heavy consequences. I read it and watched the movie because it's one of those "oh my god it's a lesbian classic you have to read it" but I thought they were both hella boring.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (L) ★★★
A teenager starts to realize she's likes girls, much to the horror of her super religious insane mother. Another "you have to read this because it's a classic" but I had trouble getting into it. I think I enjoyed the author's autobiography more than her most famous book.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (L) ★★★
This is an autobiography from the author or Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. It's a very personal, emotional, sometimes uncomfortable story about growing up as a lesbian with a very odd religious mother. It's worth a read if you liked Oranges - and it'll make a whole lot more sense if you've done that first.

Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden (L) ★★★★
It's been a long time since I read this one, but it's one of the better L books I've read. Two school-age kids become *unnaturally* close and it causes all the adults to freak out. It's a YA book, so it was a quick read.

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown (L, B) ★★★
I rated this one 4 stars, so I must have liked it, but I really don't remember anything about it. Wikipedia summary's not really jogging my memory. Good going, Dasm.

Alma Mater by Rita Mae Brown (L, B) ★
This was supposed to be set in my 'hood. But every local character talks like Colonel Sanders from The Waterboy. I remember a messy love triangle and wanting to throw the book at the wall. This was the end of my Rita Mae Brown-ing.

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith (G) ★★★
This one's a mystery involving a guy's parents, and the guy just happens to be gay. It's not a huge plot point, the story doesn't revolve around it, but I thought it was worth mentioning since it seems so *gasp* normal. The book itself was a wild ride, but the end was kinda disappointing. (Which I feel guilty saying, since it's based on the author's real life, if I recall correctly.)

Books I'm going to buy eventually, I swear:
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Blue Is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
last edited sa loob ng isang taon na ang nakalipas
sa loob ng isang taon na ang nakalipas zanhar1 said…
Ash by Melinda Lo;
It's been a while since I've read this one but I really loved it. It's basically Cinderella but with a lesbian twist.
 Ash sa pamamagitan ng Melinda Lo; It's been a while since I've read this one but I really loved it. It's basically
sa loob ng isang taon na ang nakalipas zanhar1 said…
t.A.T.u. Story by Alessandro;
This one is a biography about the Russian pop duo. So I guess unless you're a fan of the band this one might not be for you. But I've loved this band for a long while so I enjoyed reading it. It's basically a tale about the rise and fall of the controversial band that got their start by pretending to be lesbians. Yulia Volkova is bisexual for real though.
 t.A.T.u. Story sa pamamagitan ng Alessandro; This one is a biography about the Russian pop duo. So I guess unless y