LGBTQ+ History Month Book Recs
October is LGBTQ+ History Month! We invite you to explore the personal stories, contributions, challenges and diverse community of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people with book recommendations from our Blaisdell Medical Library team, including a non-fiction graphic novel on queer theory, a story about citizen science and its role in advancing AIDS research, essays on pop culture and identity, a reimagining of LGBTQ+ healthcare and more.
If a recommended book is not available in our catalog through UC Search, we recommend visiting the Angelina Malfitano Library at the UC Davis LGBTQIA Resource Center, which holds an extensive collection of over 1,000 non-fiction and fiction books covering LGBTQIA+ and intersecting topics. The Lavender Library in Sacramento is another fantastic resource. Prefer audiobooks? Check out our guide on accessing audiobooks and ebooks through public libraries.
Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele
Using a plethora of examples from popular culture, this non-fiction graphic novel uses queer theory 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 continue 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 and here he tells the story of how AIDS went from a death sentence to a manageable disease. He 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 de-stigmatize 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.
- Related resource: UC Davis & All of Us Research Campaign
The 2000s Made Me Gay: Essays on Pop Culture by Grace Perry
Today’s gay youth have dozens of queer peer heroes, both fictional and real, but former gay teenager Grace Perry did not have that luxury. Instead, she had to search for queerness in the (largely straight) teen cultural phenomena the aughts had to offer: in Lindsay Lohan’s fall from grace, Gossip Girl, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” country-era Taylor Swift, and Seth Cohen jumping on a coffee cart. And, for better or worse, these touch points shaped her adult identity. She came out on the other side like many millennials did: in her words, “gay as hell.” Recommended by Maydha Dhanuka, UC Davis Medical Student Pride Alliance.
The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory and Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Healthcare by Zena Sharman
The Care We Dream Of offers possibilities — grounded in historical examples, present-day experiments, and dreams of the future — for more liberatory and transformative approaches to LGBTQ+ health and healing. It challenges readers to think differently about LGBTQ+ health and asks what it would look like if our health care were rooted in a commitment to the flourishing and liberation of all LGBTQ+ people. This book is a calling out, a out, a calling in, and a call to action. It is a spell of healing and transformation, rooted in love.
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 to the genteel shabbiness of the old-moneyed countryside. Both men struggle with the realization they love one another, 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 his fear for having his own homosexuality outed to the public.
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
Bawdy and moving, the ultimate word-of-mouth bestseller, Rubyfruit Jungle is about growing up a lesbian in America — and living happily ever after. Recommended by Maydha Dhanuka, UC Davis Medical Student Pride Alliance.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Melinda Lo
America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily Hu. With deportation looming over her father — despite his hard-won citizenship —Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.