Welcome to the inaugural Curated Bookshelf! Since June is Pride Month, and I’ve chosen to support the LGBTQ community by raising my children to be accepting, open, inclusive, and loving (and maybe even part of) of them, this month’s theme is all about LGBTQ characters.
My mom liked to tell me, when I was growing up, that West Hollywood was her backyard. She grew up around the local LGBTQ community, where men loved men, women loved women, and cross dressing was normal, somewhere around 50 years ago. She always told me she’d seen everything, and always said she’d support my siblings and I if we ever brought home a same-sex partner. So, I grew up thinking the LGBTQ community was normal and there wasn’t anything to hide (I was a very sheltered child), and it shaped a lot of how I view people. I always did wonder why all those books I read in the 90s and 00s didn’t really feature any LGBTQ characters (the first I can recall reading is a children’s quartet by Tamora Pierce, The Magic Circle, which features two women who were lovers. I can’t tell you how delighted I was to realize that a few years after I first read the books and I scoured the books through multiple re-readings to glean every little detail), so I’m glad the book world has caught up.
This month, I’ve chosen 12 books with LGBTQ characters. I tried to stay away from all the romance books, but it turned out to be really hard. I also tried to go with more indie books than traditionally published books, but I was aghast to discover most of the indie books I’ve read have predominantly non-LGBTQ characters, major and minor. I must do better to ferret them out.
Throughout this month, I’ll be giving each book its own Highlight post. I’ll discuss why I chose that particular book as well as put a spotlight on it and multiple purchase links. As I mentioned when I first introduced The Curated Bookshelf, I won’t earn a cent if you choose to use one of the links to purchase a book (I am not affiliated with any purchase sites), but the author/publisher will. Choose wisely?
I’m excited to share the 12 books I’ve chosen, and they’ll remain on the shelf until June 30th. On July 1st, there will be a new set of books and a new theme.
Feel free to check out all the books I’ll be highlighting on The Curated Bookshelf from the menu or via this link.
Thank you, and I hope you enjoy June’s books!
The Lily Cafe 
I’m going to enjoy this month’s posts.
It made me chuckle, though, because another book shares my title – Pride’s Children – and it is about a family with two dads. I picked mine first (for other reasons), but they published first, and I am perfectly happy to share a title with them which fits us both.
Mine is about the virtue/vice of Pride, and has a few characters who are not straight, but they are minor characters, and written by a straight woman, so I would never presume to be on this month’s kind of list. I hope I have written them well.
But if you ever get into the vices and virtues, and choose pride for a month’s attention, let me know.
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Oh, I hope you did!
I find it’s a lot of fun to look at books that share the same title, but are very different stories. As a fellow straight woman, I wouldn’t presume to write non-straight main characters, either, so it’s nice to be able to read books with them and get a glimpse into what life might be like for them.
I’ll certainly let you know! I’m still trying to get myself organized enough, so haven’t thought beyond July’s theme yet, but I’ll absolutely keep Pride’s Children in mind.
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This is such a lovely way of celebrating pride! I’m excited to see the books you want to hilight.
I was going to do LGBTQ specific stories all month for pride and then I realised… I pretty much do that already 😅
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Thank you! That means so much to me coming from you. I love how readable your stories are since some books with LGBTQ characters just feel like they’re trying too hard.
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Every month has lots of groups that it focuses on, so this is a great way to pick a theme! I know you have a long list to work through, but I wanted to mention Olivia Atwater, an indie author whose last two books centered on non-binary characters, Longshadow and Small Miracles. While there is an eventual romance element, it’s more about quests.
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I’ve been hearing a lot about Olivia Atwater’s books, but haven’t had a chance to pick them up. I’ll have to check them out; it’s surprisingly difficult to find non-binary characters in adult fiction. Or maybe I’m just not looking hard enough.
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I think gender inclusion is just picking up speed, but it’s out there. Another good find is T. Kingfisher’s Paladin series.
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I’m so behind; yet another author I haven’t had a chance to pick up yet!
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I think you’re already doing a lot!
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Thanks! There are just so many good authors out there that i haven’t read yet.
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