Bookseller Alexander recommends SWIMMING IN THE DARK by Tomasz Jedrowski. It’s “a beautiful novel about the decision to leave things behind. Stunning & sensual prose that breathes with its own life,” Alexander writes.
Bookseller Lori recommends WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON by Vanessa Kelley, a fantasy about a young man who falls in love with a captive merman. She calls it poignant, “capturing the feeling of losing yourself in the whirlwind of new love.”
SO MANY STARS: AN ORAL HISTORY OF TRANS, NONBINARY, GENDERQUEER, AND TWO-SPIRIT PEOPLE OF COLOR by Caro De Robertis reminds us that nothing about the wide, human range of gender expression is new. In De Robertis’s words, So Many Stars shares “behind-the-scenes tales of what it meant—and still means—to create an authentic life, against the odds.”
AUTOMATIC NOODLE by Annalee Newitz (publishing August 5) is a cozy near-future novella about a crew of leftover robots opening their very own noodle shop. But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other—and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for them.
By store favorite Kristen Arnett, equal parts bravado, tenderness, and humor, and bursting with misfits, magicians, musicians, and mimes, STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE is a masterpiece of comedic fiction that asks big questions about art and performance, friendship and community, and the importance of timing in jokes and in life.
WHAT IS QUEER FOOD?: HOW WE SERVED A REVOLUTION by John Birdsall is a celebrated culinary writer’s expansive, audacious excavation of the roots of modern queer identity and food culture. The food on our plates has long been designed, twisted, and elevated by queer hands. Piecing together a dazzling mosaic of queer lives, spaces, and meals, beloved food writer John Birdsall unfolds the complex story of how, through times of fear and persecution, queer people used food to express joy and build community—and ended up changing the shape of the table for everyone.
THE ABCS OF QUEER HISTORY by Seema Yasmin and illustrated by Lucy Kirk: This is a book of people, of ideas, of accomplishments and events. It’s a book about Allies and Ancestors, about Belonging and Being accepted, about Hope, Knowledge, and Love. About historic moments like Stonewall, and how it changed the world. And all about Trailblazers, like Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, Harvey Milk, Barbara Jordan, George Takei, Elliot Page, and Sally Ride.
GIOVANNI’S ROOM by James Baldwin, a deluxe edition of James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novel, with a new introduction by Kevin Young and special cover art designed by Baldwin’s friend and contemporary Beauford Delaney. Giovanni’s Room is set in the Paris of the 1950s, where a young American expatriate finds himself caught between his repressed desires and conventional morality.
LGBTQ+ HEROES by L. V. Heston: You’re invited to meet artists, athletes, scientists, activists, and more—all in the same book. LGBTQ+ Heroes introduces you to 51 LGBTQ+ role models from today and as far back as the 1800s who have used their voices to uplift and advance their community, their fields of work or study, and the world!
Find these books and many more we are reading and recommending for Pride Month in our in-store display.
