Pride Month Book Recommendations
Happy Pride Month! We invite you to check out these book recommendations (and a role-playing game!) from our Diversity Resident Librarian Ezekiel McGee:
The Deep and Dark Blue by Nikki Smith, 2020
This is a graphic novel about the bonds between family and finding your way in the midst of trauma and uncertainty. I really enjoyed this because while it’s a story about understanding your identity as a trans person, there’s no transphobia in any way. Transphobia can, of course, be a part of the trans experience, but it’s nice to read stories where it doesn’t have to be an intrinsic part of that experience.
Wanderhome by Jay Dragon, 2020
Wanderhome is a role-playing game (RPG) with themes that are relevant to queer experiences. In the RPG, you play as animal folk journeying through a land called Hæth. The point of the game is not about fighting or conflict, but rather finding your way through the world and the bonds that you form with other people along the way. Wanderhome is especially focused around found families and the way we care, learn and grow with our chosen communities. I think it’s a really beautiful book, regardless of whether or not you actually play the game.
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam, 2022
This is a nonfiction text that examines trans history, specifically focusing on individuals who lived in time periods before the term and concept of being transgender were in common usage. Before We Were Trans presents what trans history means and how necessary it is to show the wider world that trans people aren’t just a modern invention — how we have always existed, even if we weren’t thought of in the same way at the time.
Finding titles
You can find Ezekiel’s first two recommendations at Sacramento’s Lavender Library. The first title is also available through the Yolo County Library. Their third selection is available at Shields Library or through our Interlibrary Loan service. The Angelina Malfitano Library at the UC Davis LGBTQIA Resource Center is another wonderful space to find a great read, with an extensive collection of over 1,000 non-fiction and fiction books covering LGBTQIA+ and intersecting topics.