October is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) History Month and to celebrate I’m participating in The Literary Others: An LGBT Reading Event hosted by Adam over at RoofBeamReader.com. It’s also Banned Books Week which is a great time to commit to reading books by LGBT writers and/or books featuring LGBT characters and issues.
About the event:
This is a one-month event focused on all things LGBT, in honor of LGBT History Month (USA). Reading that will count for this event include any novels, short stories, essays, memoirs, biographies, poetry, plays, etc. written by an author who identifies as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgendered. Also, any works written by heterosexual authors, but whose primary plot/characters revolve around LGBT issues will count as well. See this post for more information and some suggestions.
I’ll be reading Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933) and Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt (1952). Both books have long been on my personal To Be Read list and I’ve also included them in my Classic Club reading list. I’ll post reviews on both books later this month.
If you’d like to take part in the The Literary Others and read an LGBT book or two or more, click here to head over to the sign-up page for the event and let Adam know you’re in. He features some books to consider on the sign-up page itself and then recently posted two lists of 100+ gay and lesbian novels which you can see here.
Here’s a list of my top 10 favorite LGBT novels, in no particular order:
- Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
- Scars by Cheryl Rainfield
- The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
- Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
- Patience and Sarah by Isabell Miller
- Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
- Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
- Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
- Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule
- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
What are your favorite LGBT novels?