(More!) Pride Month Book Recs
Pride Month may be ending soon, but you can explore and enjoy our Pride book recs all year long! Take a look at these three recommendations from our Blaisdell Medical Library team:
Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele
This non-fiction graphic novel uses queer theory — and a plethora of examples from popular culture — to examine how our views of sex, gender, and sexuality have changed over the years.
Taking an intersectional approach, Queer: A Graphic History also explores the ways various parts of a person’s identity — gender, sexuality, race, ability, etc. — affect the way they see themselves and interact with the world around them. Filled with high quality illustrations and easy to understand explanations, this book is a great place to start or continuing learning about queer history and theory.
How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France
David France was a reporter throughout the AIDS pandemic. Here, he tells the story of how AIDS went from a death sentence to a manageable disease.
France includes personal narratives of people impacted by the disease and memorializes many who were its victims. He highlights the efforts of the group ACT UP, whose advocacy to destigmatize the disease and to become directly involved in the science behind developing and testing treatments led to unprecedented advancements.
We continue to see this trend of citizen science in clinical research today with campaigns such as All of Us through the National Institutes of Health which seeks to recruit members of underrepresented communities. Learn about the UC Davis Health All of Us Research Program: https://allofus.ucdavis.edu/.
Maurice by E.M. Forster
This is the love story of Maurice Hall and Clive Durham from the hallowed halls of Oxford to the city of London, and on to the genteel shabbiness of the old-moneyed countryside.
Both men struggle with the realization that they love each other, knowing that embracing that love will lead to financial ruin, imprisonment and banishment from society. One man follows his heart and shuns societal expectations and finds love, while the other turns his back on his authentic self and embraces safety and privilege. The writing is both spare and rich as it explores love, repression, fear and fulfillment.
Forster wrote “Maurice” in 1913, but it wasn’t published until after his death in 1971, as he feared the response to a frank exploration of men loving men, as well as having his own homosexuality outed to the public.