Read the Rainbow:
An LGBTQIA+ Reading Guide

Set during Nigeria’s civil war, the novel Under the Udala Trees parallels the coming of age of a young woman named Ijeoma with the coming of age of the country. Sent away to safety, Ijeoma falls in love with another displaced child, but they are both women and from different communities. Inspired by Nigeria's folktales and its war, Under the Udala Trees is a deeply searching, powerful debut about the dangers of living and loving openly.

Ivoe Williams, the precocious daughter of a Muslim cook and a metalsmith from central­east Texas, first ignites her lifelong obsession with journalism when she steals a newspaper from her mother's white employer. From a girl chafing under the injustices of the Jim Crow south, to a woman running the first female­run African American newspaper with her female lover, Barnett’s fictional Ivoe offers a vision of both the hardships and triumphs of an often ignored part of US history.

A young Japanese­ American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four African­American boys were killed in the store Frank owned during the Watts Riots of 1965.

Previously titled The Price of Salt. Trapped in a dead end day job in a department store, stage designer Therese Belivet finds her life forever changed when she encounters and falls in love with Carol Aird, a suburban housewife in the midst of a divorce.

In February of 1913, seventeen year old Leda, carrying only a small trunk and her father's cherished violin, leaves her Italian village for a new home, and a new husband, in Argentina. Arriving in Buenos Aires, she discovers that he has been killed, but she remains: seduced by the tango music that fills the city’s dance halls and her illicit desire to learn the violin.

At age nine, Terry Galloway lost her hearing because of an experimental antibiotic her mother  took while pregnant. As a self­proclaimed "child freak," she acted out her fury with her boxy  hearing aids and Coke­bottle glasses by faking her own drowning at a camp for crippled  children. With disarming candor, she writes about her mental breakdowns, her queer identity,  and living in a silent, quirky world populated by unforgettable characters.

This award winning, and controversy causing, novel for young adults is based on true events. It  follows Harry and Craig, two seventeen­year­olds who are about to take part in a 32­hour  marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record. While the two increasingly dehydrated  and sleep­deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teens  dealing with universal questions of love, identity, and belonging. 

With eloquence and wit, Wayne Hoffman explores the unlikely camaraderie between a young  Jewish gay man and an Orthodox rabbi, in this rich, insightful novel about love, honesty, faith,  and belonging.

Yale Law School professor Kenji Yoshino fuses legal manifesto and poetic memoir to call for a  redefinition of civil rights in our law and culture. Yoshino uses the term “covering” to refer to  the pressure people feel to downplay any characteristics that make them less acceptable to  dominant groups. He concludes that we must move past the current situation where people are  only free from discrimination as long as they try to erase the markers of their race, gender,  sexuality, religious affiliation, or disability. 

Jed young, gay, black, out of rehab and out of prospects in his hometown of Chicago­­flees to  the city of his fantasies, a museum of modernism and decadence: Berlin. Jed arrives in East  Berlin before the fall of the Wall to chase boys and to escape from what it means to be a black  male in America. An intoxicating, provocative novel of appetite, identity, and self­construction,  Darryl Pinckney's ​ Black Deutschland ​  tells the story of an outsider, trapped between a painful  past and an unknown future, in Europe's brightest and darkest city. 

Drawn from the secret, never before seen diaries, journals, and sexual records of the novelist, poet, tattoo artist, and university professor Samuel M. Steward, Secret Historian is a sensational reconstruction of one of the more extraordinary hidden lives of the twentieth century. An intimate friend of authors Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Thornton Wilder, Steward maintained a secret sex life from childhood on, and documented these experiences (at the urging of sexuality researcher Alfred Kinsey) in brilliantly vivid (and often very funny) detail.

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know it all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship, the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime.

A professor of Spanish at Vassar College, Camila Henriquez Urena, lives a quiet, anonymous life in the shadow of her mother, the national poet of the Dominican Republic who dedicated her life to educating young women to give them a voice in their turbulent new nation. Camila, meanwhile, has spent her entire career teaching the Spanish pluperfect to upper class American girls with no notion of revolution and no knowledge of her mother’s accomplishments. On the eve of her retirement, Camila uncovers the truth of her mother’s tragic personal life, which gives new urgency to the question of how she will spend her remaining days.

In seventh In Seventh Century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, frequently and violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods are struggling, their priests worrying. The girl who will become Saint Hilde of Whitby is the ruthless King of Northumbria’s youngest niece, who's searching curioscity and seemingly supernatural understanding of the natural world earn her a position of tenuous security as the king’s seer. However, her safety, and that of her family, loved ones, and ever increasing band of followers, relies upon her predictions never being wrong.

Nolan's life in his small Arizona town is full of history tests, family tension, and laundry, but Nolan doesn’t see darkness when he closes his eyes. Instead, he's transported into the mind of Amara, a mute servant girl living in a world full of magic and danger. Nolan thinks he is only an observer in Amara's world, but when he discovers how to control her, their connection complicates her secret mission of keeping a renegade princess alive.

Set in the futuristic Brazilian city of Palmares Tres, this sci fi novel follows June Costa, an artist who dreams of fame. However, this changes when she falls in love with Enki the famous and mysterious Summer King. Doomed to die like all the Summer Kings before him, Enki needs June’s help to use their art to spark a rebellion against the controlling government that might save his life. Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games.

Lance has always known he was gay, but he's never had a real boyfriend. Sergio is bisexual, but his only real relationship was with a girl. When the two of them meet, they have an instant connection, but will it be enough to overcome their differences? Allie's been in a relationship with a guy for the last two years, but when she meets Kimiko, she can't get her out of her mind. Does this mean she's gay? Does it mean she's bi? Sanchez writes with a sensitive hand to portray four very real teens striving to find their places in the world ­­and with each other.

"His most daringly political, sexually transgressive, and moving novel in well over a decade" (Vanity Fair). Winner of a 2013 Lambda Literary Award A New York Times bestselling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a "sexual suspect," a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of "terminal cases," The World According to Garp. In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers—a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself "worthwhile."

At this novel’s heart is a complex and dazzling lie, which, when it is revealed, illustrates the rare, unshakable power of love. Joss Moody is a celebrated jazz trumpeter whose music convinces a legion of fans that they know him intimately. However, when he dies his secret life is revealed to the world, even his adopted son, Coleman. Confused by the revelation, Coleman forms an uneasy alliance with a journalist bent on telling Moody’s story for their own benefit.

Jess, a working-class woman living as a man, survives a period of homelessness, tries to unionize fellow workers, worries about being found out, and searches for community while undergoing a secret transsexual operation.

Modeled after the women’s health education series Our Bodies, Our Selves, this book offers comprehensive health information for transgender people in a reader­friendly way. Covering topics like race, religion, employment, medical and surgical transition, mental health, relationships, sexuality, parenthood, arts and culture, and more, this revolutionary resource weaves quotes and testimonials from transgender people into otherwise dry information. This approach captures the diversity of the trans community, which includes an estimated 700,000 people in the US alone.

Janet Mock, an editor for People and Marie Claire magazines, establishes herself as a powerful and inspirational voice for the transgender community with this bestselling memoir. She relays her experiences growing up multiracial, poor, and trans in America in language that makes the complex lives and struggles of trans people easy for readers to understand and empathize with. By telling the story of her own quest for self definition, Mock offers a vision of possibility to others.

.Coyote is an internationally renowned storyteller, recognised for their honest, wry, plain­spoken tales of growing up. Comprised of original stories and a hand­picked selection of Coyote's best work, this inspirational, uplifting collection is aimed at young adults. Included are stories from Ivan's own tomboy past, where playing hockey and wearing pants were the norm; and their adult life in the big city, where they encounter both cruelty and kindness in unexpected places. Funny, inspiring, and full of heart, a positive read about embracing difference.

This book was conceived as part of the response to a spate of suicides among LGBT youth that revealed how vulnerable and isolated these teens often still are. The Letter Q takes campaigns like the It Gets Better Project one step further by moving beyond the simple platitude of "it gets better" to tell a deeper and more personal story for each of its contributors. Each letter is like a tightly focused biography, where the writer reveals an aspect of his or her self that speaks to the heart of what's important to LGBT teens. With moving stories from contributors such as Brian Selznick, Michael Cunningham, Amy Bloom, David Levithan, and Rakesh Satyal, this is a book that should be available to every LGBT kid coming of age today and fans of this stellar list of authors.

“Kristin’s life is just about perfect: a full­ride to university on a track scholarship, a great boyfriend, and a surprise election as homecoming queen. When she decides to have sex for the first time, it goes painfully wrong, and a visit to the gynecologist reveals a life­altering fact: Kristin is intersex. Living through her diagnosis of androgen insensitivity syndrome means facing the brutal response of classmates, as well as her own evolving understanding of what her gender identity means.” 2016 Over the Rainbow List

“A family’s carefully constructed facade intended to protect their intersex child falls apart when he is the victim of a violent crime.” 2016 Over the Rainbow List 

What if you weren't sexually attracted to anyone? In The Invisible Orientation, Julie Sondra Decker outlines what asexuality is, counters misconceptions, provides resources, and puts asexual people's experiences in context as they move through a very sexualized world. It includes information for asexual people to help understand their orientation and what it means for their relationships, as well as provides tips and facts for those who want to understand their asexual friends and loved ones.

Back home Tori was the girl who had everything a sixteen year old could want: popularity, money, beauty. Everything. Including a secret. That secret made her very valuable. Now she's left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the only person who truly understood her. She can't lose the secret. But if she wants to have anything resembling a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unique ... talents. The riveting companion to R.J. Anderson's first novel Ultraviolet.