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It’s Pride Month, specifically pride in Cincinnati and I’ve been thinking about how much queer stories matter—how they comfort, challenge, and reflect us back to ourselves. I love seeing joy, complexity, and truth on the page, and this year’s reading stack brings all of that and more.
Whether you’re looking for something lyrical, romantic, experimental, or grounded in history, here are a few titles to read this month:
This novel follows a queer Black woman whose world shifts after she loses her job. It’s an intimate, emotional story about voice, visibility, and love—with writing that’s just as tender as it is sharp.
A poetry collection that captures queerness, masculinity, and identity with honesty and rhythm. If you’ve read The Black Flamingo, you’ll recognize Atta’s powerful voice right away. It’s one of those books that stays with you.
Bold, hybrid, and unlike anything else. Osunde blends essay and story to explore queerness in Nigeria through a creative, unapologetic lens. This one invites you to slow down and sit with it.
A joyful YA about Mahalia, who’s throwing herself a coming out party and maybe falling for the new girl at school. It’s sweet, funny, and full of heart—a great reminder that queer stories deserve to be fun, too.
Quiet and moving, this novel explores family, land, and love through the eyes of a queer Ojibwe man. It’s rich with memory and atmosphere—a story that lingers.
This nonfiction work offers essential context on Two-Spirit identities in Indigenous cultures, past and present. It’s thoughtful, well-researched, and challenges the limits of colonial gender frameworks in meaningful ways.
A time-bending, genre-defying novel about grief, identity, and memory. It’s a little surreal, a little mysterious, and very queer. If you like stories that make you think—and feel—this one’s worth your time.
I’m always drawn to books that hold space for messiness, beauty, and transformation, and each of these does that in its own way. If you’re looking to add a few more queer titles to your TBR this month, I hope something here stands out.
Happy Pride—and happy reading. 🏳️🌈
The Book Review Template is perfect for taking quick notes on how you feel about the characters, theme, plot, or whatever seems important to you. Additionally, there are helpful phrases and descriptors to help write your review.
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