Books

Six Books to Take Pride in This Month

Homosexual and Bisexual folks have always dealt with others deeming their sexual orientation unnatural. Transgender and Non-Binary folks have always dealt with others dismissing their sexual identity. Asexual and Intersex folks have always dealt with those who deny them normalcy. This has always happened … and it goes far beyond the seven (and counting) letters that represent the cause. Queer folks have been subjected to widespread negativity due to a general lack of understanding of their respective individualities.
The plight of the LGBTQIA community is one that HarperCollins is proud to get behind. We have chosen the following books to help spread awareness and expose people to an unfamiliar set of perspectives. This is the time to make a choice and be on the right side of history. 

The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World
Mason Funk

The Book of Pride captures the true story of the gay rights movement from the 1960s to the present, through richly detailed, stunning interviews with the leaders, activists, and ordinary people who witnessed the movement and made it happen. These individuals fought battles both personal and political, often without the support of family or friends, frequently under the threat of violence and persecution. By shining a light on these remarkable stories of bravery and determination, The Book of Pride not only honors an important chapter in American history, but also empowers young people today (both LGBTQ and straight) to discover their own courage in order to create positive change. Furthermore, it serves a critically important role in ensuring the history of the LGBTQ movement can never be erased, inspiring us to resist all forms of oppression with ferocity, community, and, most importantly, pride

I Am Divine. So Are You.
Various authors

In 2015, a historic panel discussion took place at the global Festival of Theology held in Sweden. Its objective was to examine what the sacred texts of the Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—had to say about human sexuality. By bringing in perspectives from the Karmic faiths of Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Hinduism, which together represent the beliefs of almost a third of the world’s population, I Am Divine. So Are You expands this conversation between world religions and human sexuality to a truly global level. The theology of Karmic faiths is revealed at the intersection of scripture, culture, rituals and lived realities. And hence they are dynamic and amenable to a multiplicity of perspectives. They lend themselves more easily to a recognition and acceptance of fluidity in human sexuality. This is a landmark book as it recasts religion—especially Karmic faiths—as an ally and not an adversary of queer emancipation and thus significantly informs the secular and legal movements for LGBTQ rights around the world.

Lady Lolita’s Lover
R. Raj Rao

When a wealthy married woman named Lolita seduces Sandesh, a fifteen-year-old runaway working at a video store in Bombay, he has no idea how life altering his sexual awakening will be. Lolita’s husband learns of her infidelity, and Sandesh finds himself subjected to assault and battery. And that’s how he meets Jeevan Reddy, a high-profile criminal lawyer who takes his case, accuses Lolita of paedophilia … and enters into a relationship with Sandesh. From the mean streets of Bombay to the serene beaches of Goa, Lady Lolita’s Lover moves towards its tranquil denouement in the hills of Kodaikanal. Through strongly delineated characters and deftly woven dialogues, it unravels a world ignored and dismissed by many.

Singh You Home
Jodi Picoult

Zoe Baxter has spent ten years trying to get pregnant, and after multiple miscarriages and infertility issues, it looks like her dream is about to come true – she is seven months pregnant. But a terrible turn of events leads to a nightmare – one that takes away the baby she has already fallen for; and breaks apart her marriage to Max.
In the aftermath, she throws herself into her career as a music therapist – using music clinically to soothe burn victims in a hospital; to help Alzheimer’s patients connect with the present; to provide solace for hospice patients. When Vanessa—a guidance counsellor—asks her to work with a suicidal teen, their relationship moves from business to friendship and then, to Zoe’s surprise, blossoms into love. When Zoe allows herself to start thinking of having a family, again, she remembers that there are still frozen embryos that were never used by herself and Max.
Meanwhile, Max has found peace at the bottom of a bottle – until he is redeemed by an evangelical church, whose charismatic pastor—Clive Lincoln—has vowed to fight the “homosexual agenda” that has threatened traditional family values in America. But this mission becomes personal for Max, when Zoe and her same-sex partner say they want permission to raise his unborn child.

Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World
Sarah Prager

World history has been made by countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—and you’ve never heard of many of them.
Queer author and activist Sarah Prager delves deep into the lives of 23 people who fought, created, and loved on their own terms. From high-profile figures like Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt to the trailblazing gender-ambiguous Queen of Sweden and a bisexual blues singer who didn’t make it into your history books, these astonishing true stories uncover a rich queer heritage that encompasses every culture, in every era.
By turns hilarious and inspiring, the beautifully illustrated Queer, There, and Everywhere is for anyone who wants the real story of the queer rights movement.
This first-ever LGBTQ history book of its kind for young adults will appeal to fans of fun, empowering pop-culture books.

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
Andrea Lawlor

It’s 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flâneur with a rich dating life. But Paul’s also got a secret: he’s a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Women’s Studies major to trade, Paul transforms his body at will in a series of adventures that take him from Iowa City to Boystown to Provincetown and finally to San Francisco – a journey through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.
Andrea Lawlor’s debut novel offers a speculative history of early ’90s identity politics during the heyday of ACT UP and Queer Nation. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.

 

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