Books

By: Ibram X. Kendi (Author), Joel Christian Gill (Author), 2023, Graphic Novel

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A striking graphic novel edition of the National Book Award-winning history of how racist ideas have shaped American life—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist.

NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD

Racism has persisted throughout history—but so have antiracist efforts to dismantle it. Through deep research and a gripping narrative that illuminates the lives of five key American figures, preeminent historian Ibram X. Kendi reveals how understanding and improving the world cannot happen without identifying and facing the racist forces that shape it.

In collaboration with award-winning historian and comic artist Joel Christian Gill, this stunningly illustrated graphic-novel adaptation of Dr. Kendi’s groundbreaking Stamped from the Beginning explores, with vivid clarity and dimensionality, the living history of America, and how we can learn from the past to work toward a more equitable, antiracist future.

Cat Sebastian’s long-awaited foray into contemporary romance! A witty, emotional, and deliciously slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance between two costars on a popular sci-fi television series.

Simon and Charlie, actors on a long-running sci-fi show, can’t stand one another. Charlie is impetuous, outgoing, and basically feral, and Simon thinks he should have stayed in reality television where he belongs. They’ve spent the better part of a decade quarreling over the spotlight and pretty much everything else, and everybody in the industry knows it. Now that Simon’s contract is finally done, he can move to New York, start fresh with work he actually likes, and get away from Charlie.

Simon’s only problem is that people might assume he’s been pushed off the show due to being impossible to work with. And he is kind of difficult to work with. He doesn’t get along with people—unlike Charlie, who somehow tricked everyone on the show into adoring him despite some outrageously bad on-set behavior during the show’s first season. Simon would rather never have to see Charlie again, but reluctantly agrees to stage a very public friendship during the short time before he moves. When Charlie has to leave town to deal with a family emergency, this means Simon comes along. Their road trip brings Simon to places he would never have willingly chosen to visit—and he finds he’s actually not having a terrible time.

The more he gets to know Charlie, the more Simon suspects he’s underestimated his former coworker. Simon also realizes that after seven years, Charlie might know him better than anyone ever has. Even stranger, Charlie seems to be starting to actually like him, despite knowing him so well. Still, Simon is about to move three thousand miles away, so whatever’s starting between him and Charlie can’t really amount to anything... right?

Tropes:

Enemies to Lovers

Opposites Attract

Forced Proximity

Slow Burn

A heartwarming story about a girl, her two dads, and the true meaning of family. 

Stella's class is having a Mother's Day celebration, but what's a girl with two daddies to do? It's not that she doesn't have someone who helps her with her homework, or tucks her in at night. Stella has her Papa and Daddy who take care of her, and a whole gaggle of other loved ones who make her feel special and supported every day. She just doesn't have a mom to invite to the party. Fortunately, Stella finds a unique solution to her party problem in this sweet story about love, acceptance, and the true meaning of family.

MODERN DIVERSE FAMILIES: This sweet, sensitive story teaches children that while every family is different, every family is full of love.

HIGHLY ACCLAIMED BOOK: Stella Brings the Family has garnered praise from a wide range of publications, including Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times, and more. The book has also earned numerous honors from organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the GLBT Round Table of the American Library Association, and the Chicago Public Library, which selected Stella Brings the Family as a Best Picture Book of 2015.

RAVE REVIEWS: With hundreds of five-star ratings, readers love this book. One reviewer calls it “a sweet and clever book” and another one notes that “we need more books like this.”

Perfect for:

* Parents, teachers, and librarians seeking a diverse book for children that celebrates non-traditional families
* Mother’s Day reading in class or at bedtime with preschoolers, toddlers, and young elementary students
* Gift givers shopping for inclusive children’s books for baby showers, birthdays, or holidays

I was a quiet boy with loud dreams. But dreams don't grow well in a house full of fear.

As a gay child in a home where silence meant survival, I learned to vanish. For years, I kept my voice hidden - not just from the world, but from myself.

Then came music. Drag. Glitter. Applause.

And, for a time, freedom. Onstage, I could be someone bigger than the pain. For twenty years, I sang and performed my way into pieces of joy I never thought I'd know.

But trauma has its own rhythm.

In the quiet of the covid years, the past came roaring back. I lost my voice again - this time to adulthood pain, depression, and the unhealed echoes of my childhood. Stillness and Survival is a story of silence and expression, queerness and survival, collapse and return. It is about finding your own voice - again and again - even when the world tries to take it away.

This is not just a memoir.

It's a reclaiming.

By Leslie Feinberg, 2014, Paperback

20th Anniversary Author Edition

Did you know? In accordance with Leslie Feinberg's wishes, Queer Haven Books sells Stone Butch Blues at-cost. If you'd like to help keep our doors open, please consider adding a one-time donation or monthly membership to your order. We appreciate your support!

Published in 1993, this brave, original novel is considered to be the finest account ever written of the complexities of a transgendered existence. Woman or man? That’s the question that rages like a storm around Jess Goldberg, clouding her life and her identity. Growing up differently gendered in a blue--collar town in the 1950’s, coming out as a butch in the bars and factories of the prefeminist ’60s, deciding to pass as a man in order to survive when she is left without work or a community in the early ’70s. This powerful, provocative and deeply moving novel sees Jess coming full circle, she learns to accept the complexities of being a transgendered person in a world demanding simple explanations: a he-she emerging whole, weathering the turbulence. Leslie Feinberg is also the author of Trans Liberation, Trans Gender Warriors and Transgender Liberation, and is a noted activist and speaker on transgender issues.

An exhilarating and tender debut graphic novel that is an ode to the love and connection shared among three women and the child they all adore.

2022 Cartoonist Studio Prize WINNER

2022 Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize WINNER

2022 Lambda Literary Award WINNER, LGBTQ Comics

2022 ALA Stonewall Award Honor Book

2021 National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree

Bron and Ray are a queer couple who enjoy their role as the fun weirdo aunties to Ray’s niece, six-year-old Nessie. Their playdates are little oases of wildness, joy, and ease in all three of their lives, which ping-pong between familial tensions and deep-seeded personal stumbling blocks. As their emotional intimacy erodes, Ray and Bron isolate from each other and attempt to repair their broken family ties ― Ray with her overworked, resentful single-mother sister and Bron with her religious teenage sister who doesn’t fully grasp the complexities of gender identity. Taking a leap of faith, each opens up and learns they have more in common with their siblings than they ever knew.

At turns joyful and heartbreaking, Stone Fruit reveals through intimately naturalistic dialog and blue-hued watercolor how painful it can be to truly become vulnerable to your loved ones ― and how fulfilling it is to be finally understood for who you are. Lee Lai is one of the most exciting new voices to break into the comics medium and she has created one of the truly sophisticated graphic novel debuts in recent memory.

Black and white illustrations.

By Rob Sanders, 2019 Hardback

In the early-morning hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn was raided by police in New York City. Though it had been raided before because it served LGBTQ+ patrons, this night, members of the LGBTQ+ community in and around the Stonewall Inn—began six days of protest to demand their equal rights as citizens of the United States. Narrated by the Stonewall Inn itself and written by Rob Sanders, author of the acclaimed Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, with dynamic illustrations by Jamey Christoph. (This book may contain a sharpie mark on the top or bottom edge and may show mild signs of shelfwear.)

The first history of gay rights for teen readers, written by award-winning nonfiction author Ann Bausum.

That’s the Stonewall.
The Stonewall Inn.
Pay attention.
History walks through that door.

In 1969 being gay in the United States was a criminal offense. It meant living a closeted life or surviving on the fringes of society. People went to jail, lost jobs, and were disowned by their families for being gay. Most doctors considered homosexuality a mental illness. There were few safe havens. The Stonewall Inn, a Mafia-run, filthy, overpriced bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, was one of them.

Police raids on gay bars happened regularly in this era. But one hot June night, when cops pounded on the door of the Stonewall, almost nothing went as planned. Tensions were high. The crowd refused to go away. Anger and frustration boiled over.

The raid became a riot.

The riot became a catalyst.

The catalyst triggered an explosive demand for gay rights.

A riveting exploration of the Stonewall Riots and the national Gay Rights movement that followed is eye-opening, unflinching, and inspiring.

The definitive account of the Stonewall Riots, the first gay rights march, and the LGBTQ activists at the center of the movement. 

“Martin Duberman is a national treasure.”—Masha Gessen, The New Yorker

On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, was raided by police. But instead of responding with the typical compliance the NYPD expected, patrons and a growing crowd decided to fight back. The five days of rioting that ensued changed forever the face of gay and lesbian life.

In Stonewall, renowned historian and activist Martin Duberman tells the full story of this pivotal moment in history. With riveting narrative skill, he re-creates those revolutionary, sweltering nights in vivid detail through the lives of six people who were drawn into the struggle for LGBTQ rights. Their stories combine to form an unforgettable portrait of the repression that led up to the riots, which culminates when they triumphantly participate in the first gay rights march of 1970, the roots of today's pride marches. 

Fifty years after the riots, Stonewall remains a rare work that evokes with a human touch an event in history that still profoundly affects life today.

By: Rob Kearney (Author), Eric Rosewood (Author), Nidhi Chanani (Illustrator), 2022, Hardcover Picture Book

A Stonewall Honor Book!

A fresh, charming picture book that shows there are lots of ways to be STRONG.

Rob dreams of becoming a champion strongman. He wants to flip huge tires, lug boulders, and haul trucks -- and someday be the strongest man in the world! But he feels like he can’t fit in with his bright leggings, unicorn T-shirts, and rainbow-dyed hair. Will Rob find a way to step into his true self and be a champion?   

With bold illustrations and an engaging, informative text, Strong introduces readers to Rob Kearney and his journey from an athletic kid trying to find his place to the world’s first openly gay professional strongman.

By: Amy Friedl (Author), Drew Clark (Illustrator), 2024, Paperback

Strong Girls Travel is a book series showcasing a young girl's adventures in America's National Parks. Each book finds her learning something new about herself, her world, and her part in it all.

In AJ's Birthday at Congaree, AJ's "Epic Birthday Extravaganza Weekend" turns into a bicker-fest with her best friend and birthday twin, Max. One wants a late-night bonfire; the other wants a movie marathon. And neither of them can agree on a birthday dessert! Shouldn't each girl get what she wants on her own birthday?

Follow AJ and Max as they realize that just like the messy and beautiful floodplain at Congaree National Park, sometimes life has both give and take. And great moments can be found in what we teach and in what we learn.

Strong Girls Travel is a book series showcasing a young girl's adventures in America's National Parks. Each book finds her learning something new about herself, her world, and her part in it all.

In AJ's Birthday at Congaree, AJ's "Epic Birthday Extravaganza Weekend" turns into a bicker-fest with her best friend and birthday twin, Max. One wants a late-night bonfire; the other wants a movie marathon. And neither of them can agree on a birthday dessert! Shouldn't each girl get what she wants on her own birthday?

Follow AJ and Max as they realize that just like the messy and beautiful floodplain at Congaree National Park, sometimes life has both give and take. And great moments can be found in what we teach and in what we learn.

Retired soldier Damiskos and his lover Varazda have been living together in Boukos for a month, and their future is beginning to look bright. Then Damiskos receives a letter summoning him home to Pheme-where his parents are deeply in debt, his brother is being hunted by loan sharks, and an unwanted arranged marriage looms.

And that's before Damiskos is charged with murder.

Fortunately, he's not alone. Old friends are back in Pheme. And Varazda-eunuch, sword-dancer, and spy-has solved mysteries before. But saving his lover from execution and from marriage will take time, and with only days until Dami's trial, time is running out.

Strong Wine is the third book in the Sword Dance trilogy, the conclusion of Dami and Varazda's story from Sword Dance and Saffron Alley. This time with fake fortune tellers, real courtroom drama, and ... fertilizer?

RECOMMENDED BY GILLIAN FLYNN ON THE TODAY SHOW • “A lush, seductive Southern Gothic that’s deliciously queer . . . K. L. Cerra’s gift for gorgeous, gruesome atmosphere had me spellbound.”—Layne Fargo, author of They Never Learn
 
A woman investigating her brother’s apparent suicide finds herself falling for her prime suspect—his darkly mysterious girlfriend—in this “creepy, compelling, and utterly original” (Karen Dionne) thriller.

“Get it out of me.”

It was the last message Holly received from her brother, Dane, before he was found cleaved open in the lavish Savannah townhouse of his girlfriend, Maura. Police ruled his death a suicide sparked by psychosis, but Holly can’t shake the idea that something else must have happened—something involving another message he sent earlier that night about a “game” Maura wanted to play.

Determined to discover the truth, Holly begins to stalk Maura, a magnetic, black-eyed florist with a penchant for carnivorous plants. But what begins as an investigation quickly veers into a fixation that lures Holly into the depths of Maura’s world: Savannah high society, eerie black roses, and a whisper of something more sinister. Soon Holly is feeling a dark attraction to the one woman she shouldn’t trust. As Holly falls deeper for Maura and her secrets, she’s left with only one choice: find out what happened to Dane or meet the same fate.