Pride 2022 Reading List

In this article

Pride is a celebration that reminds us to honor the experiences and contributions of people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Our Pride reading list offers entertainment and insight in a wide range of genres.

This June, we wanted to use Pride Month as inspiration to read more about queer lives, stories, and insights. We’ve gathered a reading list of great books to give you a place to start, but there are so many more out there! We hope this list will be a springboard to some new favorite reads for you.

The Memoir: Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

With unflinching honesty and moving prose, Janet Mock relays her experiences of growing up young, multiracial, poor, and trans in America.

 

The Graphic Novel: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

The groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir that charts the fraught relationship between cartoonist Alison Bechdel and her late father. So brilliant that it became a Broadway musical of the same name!

 

The Recovery Trailblazer: Out From Under: Sober Dykes and Our Friends by Jean Swallow

Out From Under: Sober Dykes and Our Friends by Jean Swallow

This book remains the first and only book specifically about lesbian recovery and Jean Swallow was a visionary ahead of her time.

 

The Historian: We Are Everywhere by Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown

We Are Everywhere by Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown

There are lots of history books out there, but very few honor that truth that black trans women were front and center in the queer liberation movement. Through the lenses of protest, power, and pride, We Are Everywhere is an essential and empowering introduction to the history of the fight for queer liberation.

 

The Women Studies Minor: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change.

 

The Slam Poets: Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson and Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson     Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

Gibson provides artful and nuanced looks at gender, romance, loss, and family,  while Smith is a groundbreaking force, celebrated for deft lyrics, urgent subjects, and performative power.

 

The Pioneer: Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

Published in 1993, this brave, original novel is considered to be the finest account ever written of the complexities of a transgendered existence. 

 

The Cult Classic: The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

Read the book that became the movie, Carol! A chance encounter between two lonely women leads to a passionate romance in this lesbian cult classic.

 

The Binary Buster: Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon

Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white, but in full color.

 

The Poet Turned Novelist: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

With stunning urgency and grace, Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are.

 

YA Powerhouse: All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.

 

The Classic: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality.

 

The Love Stories: Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman and Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman    Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

Aciman tells the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents’ cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera (which has since been made into a popular film), and Winterson chronicles the consuming affair between the narrator, who is given neither name nor gender, and the beloved, a complex and confused married woman.

 

The Personal is Political: And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts

Shilts’ expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80’s while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years.

Pride is a celebration that reminds us to honor the experiences and contributions of people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Our Pride reading list offers entertainment and insight in a wide range of genres.

Want to connect and learn more?​

Join the Workit Health community for more free advice and resources

Max is the Community Manager at Workit Health. They believe connection, kinship—and even having fun—are the key ingredients to long-term recovery. Max has a background in human-based design, teaching, and research.

People who read this article also browsed:

Any general advice posted on our blog, website, or app is for informational purposes only and is not intended to replace or substitute for any medical or other advice. Workit Health, Inc. and its affiliated professional entities make no representations or warranties and expressly disclaim any and all liability concerning any treatment, action by, or effect on any person following the general information offered or provided within or through the blog, website, or app. If you have specific concerns or a situation arises in which you require medical advice, you should consult with an appropriately trained and qualified medical services provider.

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. By using this site, you consent to our use of cookies.