Books

In these lyrical essays, Alexis Stratton invites us to join them as they trace the intersections of identity, grief, and belonging across four continents. Burned out by years of LGBTQ+ activism, at age 32, Stratton embarks on a multiyear journey through a dozen countries—from the stark Australian desert to the winding streets of Taipei—yearning to find healing in the movement between worlds. They revisit loved ones in South Korea, where they taught English in their twenties, and they summon the courage to come out. They talk of philosophy and loneliness with a New Delhi hotelier and share Taiwanese delicacies with a queer local who greets them like a long-lost friend. In Eating Turtle, Stratton finds, home is not a place but the body you carry, the stories you tell, and the people who welcome you in.

This is a story about a great injustice and how Edie Windsor boldly stood up for what was right and went up against the highest court in the United States.

Growing up in the 1930s, Edie Windsor hadn't always been bold. In fact, she was someone who played by the rules and loved math. Numbers added up right every time and equal meant equal. But when the US government refused to acknowledge the loving relationship of over forty years between her and her spouse Thea Spyer, Edie made a bold move and sued the US government!

In this comprehensive picture book biography, acclaimed author Michael Genhart shares the story of LGBTQ icon Edie Windsor and the pivotal case that set the stage to take down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In United States v. Windsor, Edie's tenacious spirit proved to the Supreme Court and the world that love is love and equal means equal.

By: Gail Honeyman (Author), 2018, Paperback

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

“Beautifully written and incredibly funny, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about the importance of friendship and human connection. I fell in love with Eleanor, an eccentric and regimented loner whose life beautifully unfolds after a chance encounter with a stranger; I think you will fall in love, too!” —Reese Witherspoon

No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine. 

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. 

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .
 
The only way to survive is to open your heart. 

By: Ben Kahn (Author), 2023, Hardcover

Ferris Bueller's Day Off meets Gamer Girl for middle grade in this hilarious, heartfelt story about a non-binary kid trying to figure out who they are at home, at school, and in the fandom that changed their life.

All Elle Campbell wants to do is meet their hero, non-binary icon Nuri Grena. Well, okay, they'd like a bit more than that -- they'd like to learn how to do cat eye makeup, for queen bee Casey to stop critiquing their outfits, and for the finale of Elle's favorite show to have been less terrible. But meeting Nuri means the most of all.

So when Elle learns that Nuri is coming to town for book signing on Saturday, Elle is thrilled. It's the perfect chance to meet their hero! Elle's never been happier since they came out as non-binary, but they have a lot of questions -- questions only Nuri can answer.

But Elle's dreams are dashed when an altercation with a surly substitute teacher lands Elle in Saturday detention. Elle is ready to give up until their two best friends come up with a plan to bust them out of school. A plan so outrageous, it just might work.

Yet that's just step one. The kids also have to make their way across town with no money, no phones... and no driver's licenses. But they refuse to give up -- even if that means "borrowing" scooters from elementary school loan sharks, or winning a laser tag tournament with a cash prize.

Comic-author Ben Kahn makes their middle grade debut with this zany, heartfelt love letter to friendship, John Hughes movies, and the power of accepting who you are . . . even when there's no set map for where you're going.

By Davis Buckley, 2019 Paperback

This updated and fully revised biography of Elton John pays tribute to the not only his music, but his influence on the world as a whole. With his groundbreaking music he broke through the music business, but he also fought in the struggle for LGBTQ rights during the AIDS crisis. In a combination of meticulous research and new interviews from close friends and associates, this biography is not afraid to be both serious and entertaining as it details the rich and influential life of the Queen Mum of Pop.(This book may contain a sharpie mark on the top or bottom edge and may show mild signs of shelfwear.)

By: Saxon James (Author), 2023, Paperback, Book 4 of 5: Divorced Men's Club

Art

When it comes to regrets, I have none. My life is perfect. I own a bar, work hard, party harder, and smother my niblings in all the love they deserve. I don't need to settle down, as much as my sister might want me to.

But then Joey Manning walks into my office and leaves me all but begging to give him a job ... and wanting to give him so much more.

The self-professed straight man is in my head and while I know that I need to move on from him, my body isn't getting that message. It doesn't help that Joey is a grade A flirt who can banter with the best of them.

I've never had regrets. Not until Joey Manning.

Joey

The bills keep piling up and the pressure to get my sisters through college before we're evicted is always on the back of my mind. Whoever said life was for living, clearly forgot that living's expensive.

My default mode is stressed AF and working myself to the bone, and there's only one person who gives me a break from all that.

Art de Almeida.

My boss.

The one man I shouldn't flirt with, but I can't seem to stop. I want to get under his skin. To leave him panting for me. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing except that he thinks I'm straight, and I've never bothered to correct him.

I need this job.

But some days I worry that I need Art more.

Employing Patience is a low angst, small town, employer/employee romance. It has a ridiculous found family, prince charming costumes and the king of anti-commitment falling hard.

By: Jodi Dee (Author), 2025, HardcoverMyles is an average thirteen-year-old boy until one day, Sally Munson shows up with purple pants on that look like a Halloween costume. As classmates tease and make fun of her, Myles starts to see these negative words as fireballs of energy being thrown at Sally. He finds himself in the middle of a war zone invisible to everyone but him!

In a suspenseful, supernatural tale of self-discovery and friendship with constant, unexpected twists and turns, Myles tries to understand his newfound superpower. He not only learns about the energy exchange between humans but the energy of all things.

Myles and his friends discover the new ZS phone is stealing people's energy. Follow Myles as he navigates this new reality and works to stop the theft of this energy with the help of his friends.

"A universal delightful tale for young readers that retains the wholesome nature of this vulnerable age, without profane language, sex, or gory violence."

"A creative and unique story that changes the way the reader will see how negative words and actions matter, even to a stranger. A reminder that knowing oneself and kindness matters, and how we are all affected by what others say and do."

"Destined to be a middle-grade favorite, a teacher's middle school pick."

A supernatural, paranormal tale with beings from beyond, superpowers, telekinetics, and more. 

Grades 4th through 8th

Middle school, middle grade, teachers pick

By: Alex Alberto (Author), 2024, Paperback

In a series of genre-blending essays, Entwined tells the story of Alex Alberto’s decade-long polyamorous journey towards a new kind of family.

In these essays, Alex attempts to build two committed relationships at once when no one involved has done it before; develops a powerful bond with the woman their partner loves; sits through a tense Thanksgiving Dinner with religious in-laws; questions the need for rules and hierarchy in their relationships; experiences the intensity of a triad; wrestles with the fragility baked into the nuclear family after their father’s stroke; and explores their queerness and gender identity in English, in New York, while struggling to reconcile their newfound self in their native French-Canadian language and culture.

For too long, Christianity has been distorted by an overapplied purity-disgust metaphor: fueling exclusion, reinforcing fear, and enabling Christian Nationalism. Eucontamination challenges this toxic framework, arguing that Jesus did not retreat from impurity but transformed it.
This interdisciplinary work weaves together psychology, psychoanalysis, theology, and sociology to expose how disgust has shaped Christian witness—from theological education to church exclusion and social scapegoating. But there is a better way.
The authors propose that Christ is not fragile in the face of sin but a “good infection,” a force that spreads healing and redemption. Instead of protecting a brittle purity, true faith embraces eucontamination—a sanctifying engagement with the world, not a retreat from it.
For Christians seeking a faith that resists exclusion and embraces radical love, Eucontamination offers a vision of transformation—one where Truth, Life, and the Way are not delicate things to be defended but powerful forces moving through and within us all.

Based on the research that race, gender, consent, and body liberation should be discussed with toddlers on up, this read-aloud board book series offers adults the opportunity to begin important conversations with young children in an informed, safe, and supported way.

Developed by experts in the fields of early childhood and activism against injustice, this topic-driven picture book offers clear, concrete language and beautiful imagery to introduce the concept of BODY LIBERATION. This book serves to celebrate the uniqueness of your body and all bodies, and addresses the unfair rules and ideas that currently exist about bodies. It ends with motivational action points for making the world more fair for all!

While young children are avid observers and questioners of their world, adults often shut down or postpone conversations on complicated topics because it's hard to know where to begin. Research shows that talking about issues like race and gender from the age of two not only helps children understand what they see, but also increases self-awareness, self-esteem, and allows them to recognize and confront things that are unfair, like discrimination and prejudice.

These books offer a supportive approach that considers both the child and the adult. Stunning art accompanies the simple and interactive text, and the backmatter offers additional resources and ideas for extending this discussion.

A swoon-worthy sapphic romance following two women who are thrown together on a European adventure, from the Lambda Literary Award–winning author of the “sexy, insightful, and utterly charming” (BuzzFeed) Kiss Her Once for Me.

Thirty-five-year-old Seattleite Sadie Wells needs an escape. She’s desperate to escape her monotonous routines, the family business that has consumed her entire life, and the unexpected gay panic that has her questioning everything she thought she knew about herself. So when her injured sister offers Sadie her place on a tour along Portugal’s Camino de Santiago, she decides this is the perfect chance to get away from it all.

After three glasses of wine on the plane and some turbulence convince Sadie she won’t even survive the flight, she confesses all her secrets to her seatmate, Mal. The problem: the plane doesn’t crash, and it turns out Mal is on her Camino tour. Worst of all, Sadie learns that she is on a tour specifically for queer women, and that her two-hundred-mile trek will be a journey of self-discovery, whether she wants it to be or not.

Fascinated by the woman who drunkenly came out to her on the plane, Mal offers to help Sadie relive the queer adolescence she missed out on as they walk the Camino. As Sadie develops her newfound confidence, Mal grapples with a complicated loss and unexpected inheritance. But as their relationship blurs the lines between reality and practice, they both must decide if they will forever part at the end of the tour or chart a new course together.

With “funny, poignant” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) prose, Alison Cochrun explores the power of letting go of your past and realizing that it’s never too late to live as your authentic self.

Most Anticipated by: LGBTQ+ Reads, Southern Living, Autostraddle, Goodreads

Hollywood glamor meets “‘Tis the Damn Season” in this irresistibly buzzy sapphic romance, perfect for fans of Alexandria Bellefleur and Casey McQuiston.

Katie Price is known in every living room in America. A small-town Wisconsin girl who became an A-list star, she rarely makes it home, but this year is different . . . Little does she know it will lead her straight into the piercing blue-eyed gaze of Wil Greene.

A lot has happened in the decade since those cold Wisconsin nights when Wil and Katie drove around in Wil’s Bronco senior year. Since then, Wil's law career hasn’t taken off. Her father passed away. And what started as a personal challenge―kissing a new person twice a week, every week―has made her a growing sensation, but her life is still stuck in phase one. Through the years, the two have never left each other's thoughts and desires, but now suddenly, they are back in each other’s lives. Their reconnection is instantaneous, and the passion is palpable...but can it stand the test of time?

Witty, emotional, and steamy, Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous is an unforgettable romantic read for everyone who almost kissed their best friend. And then finally did.

“Sweetly tender and arrestingly sexy.” ―Kate Clayborn, author of Georgie, All Along

By: Emily Austin (Author), 2022, Paperback

In this “fun, page-turner of a novel” (Sarah Haywood, New York Timesbestselling author) that’s perfect for fans of Mostly Dead Things and Goodbye, Vitamin, a morbidly anxious young woman stumbles into a job as a receptionist at a Catholic church and soon finds herself obsessed with her predecessor’s mysterious death.

Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.

In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.

With a “kindhearted heroine we all need right now” (Courtney Maum, New York Times bestselling author), Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is a crackling and “delightfully weird reminder that we will one day turn to dust and that yes, this is depressing, but it’s also what makes life beautiful” (Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl).b

By: Jason Gruhl (Author), Ignasi Font (Illustrator), 2019, Hardcover, Picture Book

A magical meditation on the powerful idea that we are connected to everything and everyone.

Playful illustrations and funny, rhyming text show readers all of the many ways we are linked to every big, small, hairy, slimy, snuggly, scaly, floppy, flappy, bristly, buzzy, beautiful creature on Earth.


Everything is connected. And since you are part of everything,
you are connected to everything:
 
to pharaohs, Ben Franklin, T. Rex, ancient Greece, to love and to poverty, hunger and peace!

Second Edition

Shortlisted for the 2023 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.

A haunting and horror-filled tale of loneliness, trauma and spiritual yearning from the award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

After a recent string of disappearances in a small Connecticut town, a grieving widower with a grim secret is drawn into a dangerous ritual of dark magic by a powerful and mysterious older gentleman. Meanwhile, a member of local law enforcement tasked with uncovering the culprit responsible for the bizarre disappearances soon begins to learn of a current of unbridled hatred simmering beneath the guise of the town’s idyllic community―a hatred that will eventually burst and forever change the lives of those who once found peace in the quiet town of Henley’s Edge.

An insidious darkness threatens to devastate a rural New England village when occult forces are conjured and when bigotry is left unrestrained. In this revised second edition, readers can appreciate a terrifying, new alternate ending.