Recommend Accessible LGBTQ Non-fiction Books in Print
January 6, 2020 11:02 AM Subscribe
Seeking recommendations for books that are
on these topics
- available in paperback – ebooks won’t work
- easy reading — not academic or theory
on these topics
- self-help for gay & bisexual men
- LGBTQ history
- LGBTQ biographies & memoirs
Autostraddle just posted a list of the top LGBTQ Memoirs of the decade. There are lots of lots of gems in there.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 12:06 PM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 12:06 PM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, 20th-Anniversary Edition
by Randy Shilts (Maybe too long?)
Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir
by Paul Monette
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story of a Town and its People in the Age of AIDS Nov 15, 2016
by Abraham Verghese (Incredibly good. It is about finding home.) Also by Verghese: The Tennis Partner
posted by tmdonahue at 12:55 PM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
by Randy Shilts (Maybe too long?)
Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir
by Paul Monette
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story of a Town and its People in the Age of AIDS Nov 15, 2016
by Abraham Verghese (Incredibly good. It is about finding home.) Also by Verghese: The Tennis Partner
posted by tmdonahue at 12:55 PM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
The Mayor of Castro Street, also by Randy Shilts, is great - biography of Harvey Milk.
posted by lunasol at 1:55 PM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by lunasol at 1:55 PM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
Making Gay History by Eric Marcus is an oral history that is riveting and informative. It's excellent and very readable.
posted by bookmammal at 2:24 PM on January 6, 2020
posted by bookmammal at 2:24 PM on January 6, 2020
Gay Berlin is academic but eminently readable.
I somehow haven't read it, but Janet Mock's Redefining Realness is supposed to be on of the few trans memoirs that's worth recommending. (Given that you're looking to send books to prisoners in the US, keep in mind that the experiences of trans women of color are often substantially different to those of white trans women and a lot of "trans books" are by white people, especially white women.)
This is not a recommendation because it is far from easy reading, but the definitive Alan Turing biography is the one by Andrew Hodges. The others are, generally speaking, awful.
posted by hoyland at 4:15 PM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
I somehow haven't read it, but Janet Mock's Redefining Realness is supposed to be on of the few trans memoirs that's worth recommending. (Given that you're looking to send books to prisoners in the US, keep in mind that the experiences of trans women of color are often substantially different to those of white trans women and a lot of "trans books" are by white people, especially white women.)
This is not a recommendation because it is far from easy reading, but the definitive Alan Turing biography is the one by Andrew Hodges. The others are, generally speaking, awful.
posted by hoyland at 4:15 PM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Memoirs
seconding Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
A Queer and Pleasant Danger by Kate Bornstein
She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders and Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story by Jacob Tobia
Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman by Abby Stein
Raising My Rainbow: Adventures in Raising a Fabulous, Gender Creative Son by Lori Duron
Memoir & Personal Narrative Collections/Anthologies
¡Cuéntamelo! Oral Histories by LGBT Latino Immigrants edited by Juliana Delgado Lopera
To My Trans Sisters edited by Charlie Craggs
Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity edited by Micah Rajunov and A. Scott Duane
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us edited by Kate Bornstein
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman
History
Queer: A Graphic History by Dr. Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele
Self Help
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth (Already partners with LGBT Books to Prisoners so they may already have this)
A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni and Tristan Jimerson
How to Understand Your Gender by Alex Iantaffi
See also the Lambda Literary Awards and the Stonewall Book Awards.
posted by carrioncomfort at 9:59 AM on January 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
seconding Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
A Queer and Pleasant Danger by Kate Bornstein
She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders and Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story by Jacob Tobia
Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman by Abby Stein
Raising My Rainbow: Adventures in Raising a Fabulous, Gender Creative Son by Lori Duron
Memoir & Personal Narrative Collections/Anthologies
¡Cuéntamelo! Oral Histories by LGBT Latino Immigrants edited by Juliana Delgado Lopera
To My Trans Sisters edited by Charlie Craggs
Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity edited by Micah Rajunov and A. Scott Duane
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us edited by Kate Bornstein
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman
History
Queer: A Graphic History by Dr. Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele
Self Help
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth (Already partners with LGBT Books to Prisoners so they may already have this)
A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni and Tristan Jimerson
How to Understand Your Gender by Alex Iantaffi
See also the Lambda Literary Awards and the Stonewall Book Awards.
posted by carrioncomfort at 9:59 AM on January 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
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It's emotionally upsetting at points, but then again, so is a lot of LGBTQ history.
posted by mekily at 11:32 AM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]