Once upon a 2021 summer, I became an avid nonfiction reader. Ever since then, I have completely devoured any personal essay that I can get my hands on. However, I never would have found this passion for my favorite genre if I hadn’t read one book by an LGBTQ+ author that dealt partially with queer identity and partially with general great life advice (yes, it was Untamed by Glennon Doyle and yes, I am a Basic Girl). LGBTQ+ authors are changing the game in their respective genres constantly; whether you’re like me and you want to read a true story of queer identity, or you’re looking for a fantastic LGBTQ+ romance to curb your obsession with Red, White & Royal Blue, these books by LGBTQ+ authors are sure to spark your enthusiasm.
This particular list of popular titles by LGBTQ+ authors was curated by Goodreads, meaning these books have been read, rated, and reviewed by millions of readers. If you’re looking to peruse community-approved literary picks, Goodreads is definitely the place to find and share recommendations. Read on for the best books by LGBTQ+ authors to read this year.
College friends Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle have made a pact since their graduation to get together after tough life events and throw each other “living funerals.” Sporadically, the group reunites in Big Sur to celebrate their lives and remind each other how worthwhile life truly is. However, this particular reunion is a little different, because Jordan is harboring a secret that could change everything for their little group. From the author of The Guncle comes a humorous yet moving story about identity and friendship.
For Ivan, Fatima, and Noah, Iowa City is a playground of interesting people, from poets to mathematicians, and exciting places, from classrooms to cafes. Fatima is independent with a strong work ethic, which often complicates her personal relationships; Ivan is a former dancer and aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Noah is grieving the loss of a parent. As this group of lovers and friends encounter and confront each other in a year of self-discovery, they meet electrifying consequences, before finally heading to a cabin as they launch towards uncertain futures.
At the peak of her career, Samantha Irby is getting job offers in Hollywood and walking the red carpet with the cast of Sex and the City. However, Irby’s life is not nearly as glamorous as it appears from the outside; she’s having health problems from cavities to diarrhea, she is turned away from a restaurant for wearing ugly clothes, and she might be addicted to QVC. Irby is relatable and hilarious in this collection of brutally honest essays.
In a peculiar treehouse in the middle of the woods, tucked away and safe from the outside world, lives a cobbled-together chosen family. Inventor android Giovanni, a nurse machine, and an affectionate vacuum are all robots; their fourth family member, Victor, is human. When Victor salvages and repairs an unknown android called “Hap,” he uncovers a dark truth about Giovanni and Hap’s human-hunting past. Suddenly, the family is not so safe from the outside world, and Victor has some tough choices to make.
Mungo is a Protestant and James is a Catholic. As the two grow up together in a housing estate in Glasgow, they should be sworn enemies, but ultimately become best friends as they take refuge in James’ pigeon dovecote. Mungo’s older brother, Hamish, is a local gang leader, and as James and Mungo fall in love, Mungo works harder and harder to hide his true identity from the world around him. When Mungo is sent on a fishing trip in Western Scotland, he must hold the future that he and James dreamed of together in his mind. Young Mungo exposes the bounds of masculinity, the violence that many queer people experience, and the dangers of loving someone too much.
From the bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue comes a story of competition, mysterious vanishing, and, of course, kissing. After Chloe Green’s moms moved her from SoCal to Willowgrove Christian Academy in Alabama, Chloe only has one thing keeping her going: the close competition for class valedictorian. Her rival, Shara Wheeler, is the school’s sweetheart—but a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes. Following a trail of clues, Chloe must band together with the rest of Shara’s romances to get her back before valedictorian is awarded.
Edgar Gomez’s debut memoir explores life as a young, gay, Latinx man, everywhere from Gomez’s uncle’s cockfighting ring in Nicaragua to Pulse Nightclub in Orlando to a drag queen convention in Los Angeles. The author chronicles the people and spaces that made him love being gay and Latinx, in spite of facing constant pressures of machismo and homophobia. Through vulnerability and humor, Gomez shares every step of his hard-won path to pride, and the lessons he learned along the way.
David Sedaris’ first collection of essays since the bestselling Calypso Back chronicles his time and experiences right before the pandemic—including learning to shoot guns with his sister and buying gummy worms to feed to ants—and his stories from the beginning of lockdown. As the world settles into a new reality, Sedaris grapples with the loss of his father, a changing American social landscape, and his own humor. In Happy-Go-Lucky, Sedaris is just as hilarious and poignant as ever.
Ocean explorer Leah is used to deep-sea expeditions, but this last one took her submarine to the bottom of the sea. Months later, her wife, Miri, informs Leah that something is wrong: apparently, Leah has been absentmindedly wandering the rooms of their house, running the taps constantly. Miri’s search for answers means she must confront the possibility that some part of her partner was lost under the sea.
Samuel and Isaiah, two enslaved young men on a deep south plantation, made the barn and their relationship a place of human refuge in a situation devoid of humanity. Their love becomes a source of intimacy and hope, but when an older enslaved man seeks to gain favor with the vicious master, Samuel and Isaiah’s love begins to appear sinful and dangerous to the plantation’s harmony. Harnessing the voices of many characters, both enslaved and enslavers, Robert Jones Jr. uses prose reminiscent of Toni Morrison to tell this story of suffering, hope, beauty, truth, and love.
Torrey Peters’ debut novel begins with Reese and Amy living a mundane, bourgeois life in New York City that previous generations of trans women could have only dreamed of having. However, when Amy detransitions and becomes Ames, their relationship crumbles, and Reese finds herself in a self-destructive pattern of sleeping with married men. When Ames’ boss and lover, Katrina, tells him that she is pregnant with his child, Ames wonders if this is the opportunity for him to find his way back to Reese. This novel navigates the emotional, messy realities of gender, sex, and relationships.
Twenty-eight year-old Grace Porter, recently graduated with a PhD in astronomy, is headed on a girls’ trip to Vegas. While she doesn’t expect herself to black out and marry a woman whose name she doesn’t even know, that’s exactly what happens, and Grace is overwhelmed. Grace flees the pressure of her father’s expectations to New York for a summer with the wife she barely knows, and faces the messiness of adulthood along the way.
Popular LGBTQ+ advice columnist JP Brammer begins his heartwarming memoir-in-essays by telling the first time he was called “Papi”: by a white guy on the popular gay hookup app, Grindr. This came to be the inspiration for his viral advice column “¡Hola Papi!,” launching JP to new heights in his career as he navigated the complications of dating as a gay, biracial man in his early 20s. In this book, JP attempts to answer life’s toughest questions: everything from “How do I become the person I want to be?” to “Should I hook up with my grade school bully now that he’s out of the closet?”
Brian Broome frames his debut memoir around Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool” in order to tell his story as a young Black boy who had crushes on other boys while growing up in Ohio. Brian’s experiences, along with his playful and poignant storytelling, reveal a perpetual outsider trying to find his place in a threatening world. The author’s fresh voice brings a new, valuable perspective to ongoing conversations about LGBTQ+ identity and Blackness in America.
Grace Perry, a talented contributor to The Onion and Reductress, did not grow up with the plethora of queer heroes that today’s gay youth see in the cultural landscape. Instead, Grace searched for queerness in Gossip Girl, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” and other iconic cultural moments from the early aughts. This collection of essays takes the reader on a trip through the pop culture moments of the early 2000s, ones that made the author, in her words, gay as hell.
Six-time Grammy winner Brandi Carlile recounts her childhood growing up in the outskirts of Seattle, as a member of an impoverished and musically gifted family and an openly gay teenager. When Brandi’s pastor publicly refused to baptize her, her small town surprisingly rallied around her in support, and set her on the path to finding salvation through music. This memoir takes fans of Carlile through the milestones of her incredible career, while also examining faith through the eyes of someone rejected by the church.
Based on author Hayley Kiyoko’s hit song and viral music video, Girls Like Girls follows 17-year-old Coley as she navigates her new life in rural Oregon after losing her mother. When she meets Sonya, Coley is forced to grapple with whether or not she believes she deserves love, if she is capable of opening her heart to a girl who has never been with a girl before, and how to embrace her own truth.
Elliot Page’s highly anticipated coming-of-age memoir reveals never-before-heard details of his stories of gender, love, mental health, relationships, and Hollywood. This groundbreaking book launches Page from a generation-defining, Academy-Award winning actor and famous trans advocate to an uncommon literary talent.
