04/02/2024
In our broadcast over the weekend of 1st to 5th February, we were thrilled to be able to review the top ten LGBTQIA+ Reads for these long winter nights. Thanks to Cate at the Liverpool based radical and progressive bookstore News from Nowhere. Have a scroll through the list and be inspired to open the pages. And remember, if you are looking for a read, why not support a local, independent, progressive, LGBTQIA+ or queer friendly bookstore and keep the money in the rainbow economy.
TOP TEN LGBTQ+ BOOKS as Compiled from News from Nowhere Radical and Community Bookstore - - https://newsfromnowhere.org.uk/
1. Queer Life, Queer Love: The Second Anthology, edited by Matt Bates, Julie Bell, Sarah and Kate Beal
Queer Life, Queer Love celebrates the best new queer writing from around the world, by both new and established writers and features voices across all narrative forms. The new book includes 44 stories, poems, essays and flash-fiction. This is writing that explores characters, stories, and experiences beyond the mainstream; works that celebrate the fascinating, the forbidden, the subversive, and even the mundane, but, in essence, works that express the view from outside. Humorous, serious, autobiographical, and revelatory – all aspects of the queer experience are reflected in this dazzling collection.
£9.99, paperback
2. Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality, by Dr Julia Shaw
A provocative and eye-opening book on the science and history of bisexuality, from the internationally bestselling author and co-host of BBC podcast Bad People. In Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality, Shaw explores all that we know about the world’s largest sexual minority. From the hunt for a bi gene, to the relationship between bisexuality and
consensual non-monogamy, to asylum seekers who need to prove their bisexuality in a court of law, there is more to explore than most have ever realised. This rigorous and fun book will challenge us to think deeper about who we are and how we love.
£10.99, paperback
3. Lesbian Love Story: A Queer History of Sapphic Romance, by Amelia Possanza
Lesbian Love Story is a genre-defying history of sapphic romance like no other. On her quest to discovering lesbian role models from the past, Amelia Possanza uncovers seven incredible love stories in the archives. Expertly blending her subjects' own words with richly imagined and vigorously researched moments from recorded archives and other fragments, Possanza weaves together a vivid narrative around the construction of lesbianism. She takes us with her as she uncovers each lesbian's story, yearning and
longing alongside them and growing into her own queerness. Each of the lesbians in this collection moved through the world in their own way and helped the world. Their stories illuminate a forgotten and demonised history and show us all a new way to understand what love means when there is nothing material to be gained.
£20.00, hardback
4. The LGBTQ+ History Book, by Dorling Kindersley Ltd
Discover the rich and complex history of LGBTQ+ people around the world - their struggles, triumphs, and cultural contributions.
Exploring and explaining the most important ideas and events in LGBTQ+ history and culture, this book showcases the breadth of the LGBTQ+ experience. This diverse, global account explores the most important moments, movements, and phenomena, from the first known lesbian love poetry of Sappho to Kinsey's modern sexuality studies, and features biographies of key figures from Anne Lister to Audre Lorde. The LGBTQ+ History Book celebrates the long, proud - and often hidden - history of LGBTQ+ people, cultures, and places from around the world.
£19.99 (hardback)
5. The Queer Parent: Everything You Need to Know From Gay to Ze, by Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley
This informative, funny and empowering book from the hosts of the award-winning podcast Some Families is the must-have parenting toolkit for the LGTBQ+ community, their friends, family and allies. LGBTQ+ people have more options than ever before when it comes to starting a family, but a lack of both focused information and mainstream representation can leave parents, prospective parents, friends and relatives in the dark. Authors Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley spoke to dozens of experts and queer families, and this hugely-needed book is the product of those conversations and their own experiences of becoming parents through IUI and adoption respectively.
£20.00, hardback
6. It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, edited by Joe Vallese
The relationship between horror films and the LGBTQ+ community? It’s complicated. Haunted houses, forbidden desires and the monstrous can have striking resonance for those who’ve been marginalised. But
the genre’s murky history of an alarmingly heterosexual male gaze, queer-coded villains and sometimes blatant homophobia, is impossible to overlook. There is tension here, and there are as many queer readings of horror films as there are queer people. Exploring a multitude of queer experiences from first kisses and coming out to transition and parenthood, this is a varied and accessible collection that leans into the fun of horror while taking its cultural impact and reciprocal relationship to the LGBTQ+ community seriously.
£14.99, paperback
7. Transmogrify! 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic, by g.haron davis
Perfect for fans of All Out and Cemetery Boys, this anthology claims a seat at the table of fantasy literature for trans and gender nonconforming stories.
Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you’ll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences—because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.
£14.99, hardback
8. As Good as a Marriage: The Anne Lister Diaries 1836-38, by Jill Liddington
The BBC and HBO series Gentleman Jack brought Anne Lister to international attention, awakening tremendous interest in her diaries, which run to nearly five million words and are partly written in her secret code. They record in intimate detail Anne's intellectual energy and her challenges to so many of society's expectations of women at the time. In As Good as a Marriage, the sequel to Female Fortune, Jill Liddington's edited transcriptions of the diaries show us Anne from 1836-38. She guides the reader through life at Shibden Hall after Anne's unconventional 'marriage' to wealthy local heiress Ann Walker. The book explores the daily lives of these
two women, from convivial evenings together to her ruthless pursuit of her own business and landowning ambitions. Yet the diaries' coded passages also record tensions and quarrels, with Ann Walker often in tears. Was their relationship really as fragile as Anne's coded writing suggests? This question is at the heart of As Good as a Marriage.
9. Live, Laugh, Lesbian: Navigating Life as a Lesbian in the 21st Century, by Helen Scott
From strap-ons and Lesbian Bed Death to dealing with homophobic microaggressions in the workplace and finding your second family, Helen Scott, lesbian big sister and lipstick femme in chief is here to hold
your hand as you travel your own unique path to Gay Town. Half memoir, half guide, and 100% big lesbian hug, plunge with Helen into the highs and lows of navigating lesbian life in the modern world and emerge with all the lesbian life hacks you'll need to get out there and live the life of your dreams.
Candid, wise, bold and hilarious - it's time to reclaim the L in LGBTQ+
£12.99, paperback
10. Bi+ Lines: An Anthology of Contemporary Bi+ Poetry, by Helen Bowell
The first-ever anthology of poems written by those who identify under the bi+ umbrella, Bi+ Lines is an engrossing, exciting, and often moving title gathering bi+ poets from across the globe. Edited by award winning poet Helen Bowell, the anthology collects new poems by more than 40 poets,
ranging from those well-known to brand new voices. Themed around the idea of in-betweenness, these poems look at love and acceptance, at biphobia and belonging, at families and trust, and at how we can use poetry to express our desires, fears, and hopes.With new work from poets including Troy Cabida, Jen Campbell, Golnoosh Nourpanah, Shivanee
Ramlochan, Jake Wild Hall and more, Bi+ Lines offers an insight into diverse stories that are often erased.
£9.99, paperback
