Happy Pride, everyone! Welcome back to the first ever (as far as I know!) poll of The Avocado’s Favorite LGBT+ Books! In the end, 43 lists were submitted, comprising an unbelievable 257 books representing LGBT+ experiences of all stripes and from every corner of the globe (and with a further 35 books receiving honorable mentions). Everyone who participated was passionate about their picks, and while there were some clear favorites, there were many, many more under-read gems – every list submitted contained at least one title unique to that list, totaling 203 of the submitted books. I think all of our reading lists just got much, much longer!
The compiled list is below, and if you want to review the full results you can see them here. Don’t forget to check out last year’s lists of The Avocado’s Favorite LGBT+ Films and The Avocado’s Favorite LGBT+ TV and Web Series, too! A huge thank you to everyone who participated – I can’t wait to read more about your favorites in the comments!
First up, the number of books per decade:
1830s: 1 book
1850s: 1 book
1890s: 1 book
1900s: 2 books
1910s: 1 book
1920s: 2 books
1930s: 2 books
1940s: 4 books
1950s: 5 books
1960s: 5 books
1970s: 10 books
1980s: 19 books
1990s: 26 books
2000s: 26 books
2010s: 88 books
2020s: 64 books
Next, a shoutout to the authors with the greatest number of books appearing on the list:
3 books: Becky Chambers, Patricia Highsmith, Alan Hollinghurst, Casey McQuiston, Sarah Waters
2 books: Charlie Jane Anders, James Baldwin, Michael Chabon, Kieron Gillen, Alexis Hall, TJ Klune, Larry Kramer, Ann Leckie, Mackenzi Lee, David Levithan, Grant Morrison, Kathryn Ormsbee, Natasha Pulley, Greg Rucka, Meredith Russo, Brian Selznick, Samantha Shannon, ND Stevenson, Brian K Vaughan, Nghi Vo, Meryl Wilsner, Jeanette Winterson, Virginia Woolf
Finally, without further ado, I am proud to present our complete Favorite LGBT+ Books:
8 lists
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, 2006
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, 2011
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, 1978
7 lists
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, 1890
6 lists
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, 2014
5 lists
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, 2000
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, 2019
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, 1956
Maurice by EM Forster, 1971
4 lists
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx, 1997
The Color Purple by Alice Walker, 1982
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, 2002
The Price of Salt (or Carol) by Patricia Highsmith, 1952
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, 2019
3 lists
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, 2012
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, 2015
The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies by Vito Russo, 1981
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, 2020
Less by Andrew Sean Greer, 2017
Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, 2003
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters, 2014
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, 2017
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood, 1964
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 2019
Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, 2013-2014
2 lists
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, 2013
Angels in America by Tony Kushner, 1992
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, 2020
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, 1958
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waush, 1945
Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman, 2007
Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran, 1978
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, 2019
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, 2017
Hero by Perry Moore, 2007
The Invisibles by Grant Morrison, 1994-2000
The Language of Seabirds by Will Taylor, 2022
The Left Hand of Darkness by Urusula K LeGuin, 1969
Light from Eponymous Stars by Ryka Aoki, 2021
Like People in History by Felipe Picano, 1995
Love and Rockets by Jamie and Gilbert Hernandez, 1981-present
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by Jon Berendt, 1994
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon, 1988
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden, 2018
Orlando by Virginia Woolf, 1928
Paper Girls by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, 2015-2019
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson, 1987
Saga by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples, 2012-present
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, 2019
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse, 1995
Tin Man by Sarah Winman, 2017
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo, 2020
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serrano, 2007
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, 2010
1 list
| Absolutely Remarkable Thing, An | Green, Hank | 2018 |
| Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex | Chen, Angela | 2020 |
| Alan Cole Doesn’t Dance | Bell, Eric | 2018 |
| Alien Echo, The | Grant, Mira | 2019 |
| All the Birds in the Sky | Anders, Charlie Jane | 2016 |
| Almost Perfect | Katcher, Brian | 2009 |
| And the Band Played On | Shilts, Randy | 1987 |
| Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, Vol. 1 | Gillen, Kieron and Marguerite Bennett | 2015 |
| Annie On My Mind | Garden, Nancy | 1982 |
| Answer, The | Sugar, Rebecca | 2016 |
| As Meat Loves Salt | McCann, Maria | 2002 |
| Asumi-Chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels! | Itsuki, Kuro | 2020-present |
| At Swim, Two Boys | O’Neill, Jamie | 2001 |
| Autobiography of Red | Carson, Anne | 1998 |
| Batwoman: Elegy | Rucka, Greg and JH Williams III | 2010 |
| Be Gay, Do Comics | Nib, The | 2020 |
| Beautiful Thing | Harvey, Jonathan | 1996 |
| Benny’s True Colors | Paulson, Norene | 2020 |
| Birthday | Russo, Meredith | 2019 |
| Blood of Olympus, The | Riordan, Rick | 2014 |
| Bloom Into You | Nakatani, Nio | 2015-2019 |
| Bone-Shard Daughter, The | Stewart, Andrea | 2020 |
| Broadway Nights | Rudetsky, Seth | 2007 |
| Bruising of Qilwa, The | Jamnia, Naseem | 2022 |
| Burning Roses | Huang, SL | 2020 |
| Candidly Cline | Ormsbee, Kathryn | 2021 |
| Captains of the Sand | Amado, Jorge | 1937 |
| Cardcaptor Sakura | CLAMP | 1996-2000 |
| Care of: Letters, Connections, and Cures | Coyote, Ivan E. | 2001 |
| Cemetery Boys | Thomas, Aiden | 2020 |
| Charm Offensive, The | Cochrun, Alison | 2021 |
| Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms | Frasier, Crystal, Oscar O. Jupiter, and Val Wise | 2021 |
| Chelsea Girls | Myles, Eileen | 1994 |
| City and the Pillar, The | Vidal, Gore | 1948 |
| City in the Middle of the Night, The | Anders, Charlie Jane | 2019 |
| City of Night | Rechy, John | 1963 |
| Civil War of Amos Abernathy, The | Leali, Michael | 2022 |
| Collected Poems, The | O’Hara, Frank | 1971 |
| Come, Thou Tortoise | Grant, Jessica | 2009 |
| Conventionally Yours | Albert, Annabeth | 2020 |
| Day of Fallen Night, A | Shannon, Samantha | 2023 |
| Delilah Green Doesn’t Care | Blake, Ashley Herring | 2022 |
| Dōkyūsei | Nakamura, Asumiko | 2006 |
| Don Leon | Anonymous | 1830 |
| Doom Patrol | Morrison, Grant | 1989-1993 |
| Dowry of Blood, A | Gibson, ST | 2022 |
| Dragons Don’t Know Paradise | Abreu, Caio Fernando | 1988 |
| Dream Boy | Grimsley, Jim | 1995 |
| Drum Roll, Please | Bigelow, Lisa Jenn | 2018 |
| End of Eddy, The | Louis, Edouard | 2014 |
| Enemies of the State | Bauer, Tal | 2016 |
| Even If It Was Just Once, I Regret It | Miyahara, Miyako | 2019-2021 |
| Fa**ots | Kramer, Larry | 1978 |
| Fair Play | Jansson, Tove | 1989 |
| Fairly Honorable Defeat, A | Murdoch, Iris | 1970 |
| Fall On Your Knees | MacDonald, Ann-Marie | 1996 |
| Family Book, The | Parr, Todd | 2003 |
| Fiancée Farce, The | Bellefleur, Alexandra | 2023 |
| Finding Batman (in DC Pride #1) | Conroy, Kevin and J. Bone | 2022 |
| Fire Next Time | Baldwin, James | 1963 |
| Five Six Seven Nate | Federle, Tim | 2014 |
| Freshwater | Emezi, Akwaeke | 2018 |
| Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe | Flagg, Fannie | 1987 |
| Front Runner, The | Warren, Patricia Nell | 1974 |
| Garden God, The | Reid, Forrest | 1905 |
| Gay Heritage Project, The | Atkins, Damien, Paul Dunn, and Andrew Kushnir | 2018 |
| Gearbreakers | Mikuta, Zoe Hana | 2021 |
| Gender Trouble | Butler, Judith | 1990 |
| Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen | Bujold, Louise McMaster | 2016 |
| Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, The | Lee, Mackenzi | 2017 |
| Girl Friends: The Complete Collection 2 | Morinaga, Milk | 2013 |
| given | Kizu, Natsuki | 2014-present |
| Glass Woman, The | Lea, Caroline | 2019 |
| Good Kings Bad Kings | Nussbaum, Susan | 2013 |
| Gotham Central | Rucka, Greg, Ed Brubaker, and Michael Lark | 2002-2006 |
| Grandad’s Camper | Woodgate, Harry | 2021 |
| Grasshopper Jungle | Smith, Andrew A. | 2014 |
| Guncle, The | Rowley, Steven | 2021 |
| Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All, The | Arai, Sumiko | 2022-present |
| Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating | Jaigirdar, Adiba | 2021 |
| Heartbreak Boys | Green, Simon James | 2020 |
| Heartstopper | Oseman, Alice | 2019-present |
| Hild | Griffith, Nicola | 2013 |
| Homosexuality and Civilization | Crompton, Louis | 2003 |
| Honey Girl | Rogers, Morgan | 2021 |
| Honeys, The | La Sala, Ryan | 2022 |
| How Do We Relationship? | tmfly | 2018-present |
| How I Learned to Snap | Read, Kirk | 2001 |
| How to Be Both | Smith, Ali | 2014 |
| Howl | Ginsberg, Allen | 1956 |
| Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl | Brownstein, Carrie | 2015 |
| I Have a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore | Mordden, Ethan | 1996 |
| I Kissed Shara Wheeler | McQuiston, Casey | 2022 |
| I’m Gay for My Living Billionaire Jet Plane | Tingle, Chuck | 2015 |
| I’m Not a Girl | Lyons, Maddox | 2020 |
| If I Was Your Girl | Russo, Meredith | 2016 |
| In Search of Lost Time | Proust, Marcel | 1913-1927 |
| James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon | Philipps, Julie | 2006 |
| January Fifteenth | Swirsky, Rachel | 2022 |
| Jasmine Throne, The | Suri, Tasha | 2021 |
| Jeffrey | Rudnick, Paul | 1994 |
| Joseph and His Brothers | Mann, Thomas | 1933 |
| Julian is a Mermaid | Love, Jessica | 2018 |
| Kaguhara’s Fetish Notebook | Kito, Sakeru | 2022-present |
| Kaleidoscope | Selznick, Brian | 2021 |
| Kingdoms, The | Pulley, Natasha | 2021 |
| Kiss Number 8 | Venable, Colleen AF | 2019 |
| Kyou Kara Mirai | Yoshitomi, Akihito | 2019-2023 |
| Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, The | Lee, Mackenzi | 2018 |
| Lanterns on the Levee | Percy, William | 1941 |
| Last Leaf, The | Henry, O. | 1905 |
| Last Night at the Telegraph Club | Lo, Malinda | 2021 |
| Leather Boys, The | Freeman, Gillian | 1961 |
| Leaves of Grass | Whitman, Walt | 1855 (first pub.) |
| Leopold’s Leotard | Wallace, Rhiannon | 2021 |
| Letter to Harvey Milk, A | Newman, Lesléa | 1988 |
| Line of Beauty, The | Hollinghurst, Alan | 2004 |
| Listen Up: Voices from the Next Femininst Generation | Findlen, Barbara, ed. | 1955 |
| Little Foxes Took Up Matches | Kazbek, Katya | 2022 |
| Little Life, A | Yanagihara, Hanya | 2015 |
| Lost Future of Pepperharrow, The | Pulley, Natasha | 2020 |
| Love & Other Disasters | Kelly, Anita | 2022 |
| Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy | Ellis, Grace, Shannon Waters and ND Stevenson | 2014 |
| Magic Fish, The | Nguyen, Trang Le | 2020 |
| Magpie Lord, The | Charles, KJ | 2013 |
| Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan | Leupp, Gary | 1997 |
| Man Alive | McBee, Thomas Page | 2014 |
| Marvellous Light, A | Marske, Freya | 2021 |
| Marvels, The | Selznick, Brian | 2015 |
| Me Talk Pretty One Day | Sedaris, David | 2000 |
| Melissa | Gino, Alex | 2015 |
| Mistakes Were Made | Wilsner, Meryl | 2022 |
| Mo Dao Zu Shi | Mo Xiang Tong Xiu | 2015 |
| Mooncakes | Walker, Suzanne and Wendy Xu | 2019 |
| MOONFACE | Kim, James | 2019 |
| Mrs. Dalloway | Woolf, Virginia | 1925 |
| My Dear Lass | Hu, Teleixi (Tracy) | 2022-present |
| My Sister Daisy | Karlsson, Adria | 2021 |
| Nevada | Binnie, Imogen | 2013 |
| Night Ocean, The | LaFarge, Paul | 2017 |
| Nightswimmer | Olshan, Joseph | 1994 |
| Nimona | Stevenson, ND | 2015 |
| Normal Heart, The | Kramer, Larry | 1985 |
| Of Fire and Stars | Coulthurst, Audrey | 2016 |
| Ojja-Wojja, The | Visaggio, Magdalene | 2023 |
| One Last Stop | McQuiston, Casey | 2021 |
| One Man Guy | Barakiva, Michael | 2014 |
| Orchid Trilogy, The | Brooke, Jocelyn | 1948-1950 |
| Our Dining Table | Mita, Ori | 2018 |
| Pages Passed from Hand to Hand | Mitchell, Mark and David Leavitt, eds. | 1997 |
| Pansies | Hall, Alexis | 2016 |
| Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Journals | Highsmith, Patricia | 2021 |
| Patrick’s Polka-Dot Tights | McClurry, Kristen | 2020 |
| Perks of Being a Wallflower, The | Chbosky, Stephen | 1999 |
| Prayer for the Crown-Shy, A | Chambers, Becky | 2022 |
| Priory of the Orange Tree, The | Shannon, Samantha | 2019 |
| Privilege of the Sword, The | Kushner, Ellen | 2006 |
| Psalm for the Wild-Built, A | Chambers, Becky | 2021 |
| Ranma 1/2 | Takahashi, Rumiko | 1987-1996 |
| Raven Tower, The | Leckie, Ann | 2019 |
| Real Riley Mayes, The | Elliott, Rachel | 2022 |
| Revolutionary Girl Utena | Saito, Chiho | 1996-1998 |
| Sacrament | Barker, Clive | 1995 |
| Sailor Moon | Takeuchi, Naoko | 1991-1997 |
| Sellevision | Burroughs, Augusten | 2000 |
| Sexing the Cherry | Winterson, Jeanette | 1989 |
| She Who Became the Sun | Parker-Chan, Shelly | 2021 |
| Significant Other | Harmon, Joshua | 2018 |
| Siren Queen | Vo, Nghi | 2022 |
| So Far from God | Castillo, Ana | 1993 |
| Sodom on the Thames | Kaplan, Morris | 2005 |
| Something to Talk About | Wilsner, Meryl | 2020 |
| Sovereign | Daniels, April | 2017 |
| Sparsholt Affair, The | Hollinghurst, Alan | 2017 |
| Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers | Harrison, Harry | 1973 |
| Stone Butch Blues | Fineberg, Leslie | 1993 |
| Stop!! Hibari-Kun | Eguchi, Hisashi | 1981 |
| Summer We Got Free, The | McKenzie, Mia | 2012 |
| Surrender Your Sons | Sass, Adam | 2020 |
| Swimming-Pool Library, The | Hollinghurst, Alan | 1988 |
| T*****: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout | Grace, Laura Jane | 2016 |
| Talented Mr. Ripley, The | Highsmith, Patricia | 1955 |
| Tash Hearts Tolstoy | Ormsbee, Kathryn | 2017 |
| Three Things About Elsie | Cannon, Joanna | 2018 |
| Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation | Fieseler, Robert W. | 2018 |
| Tipping the Velvet | Waters, Sarah | 1998 |
| Tramps and Vagabonds | Gray, Aster Glenn | 2022 |
| True Queen | Cho, Zen | 2019 |
| Tune in Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries | Anderson, Tim | 2010 |
| Twyborn Affair, The | White, Patrick | 1979 |
| Under the Whispering Door | Klune, TJ | 2021 |
| Unwanted, The | Ricker, Jeffrey | 2014 |
| Valencia | Tea, Michelle | 2000 |
| Wanting Life, The | Rader, Mark | 2020 |
| Weetzie Bat | Block, Francesca Lia | 1989 |
| Where We Go from Here | Rocha, Lucas | 2018 |
| Who’s Your Real Mom? | Green, Bernadette | 2020 |
| Woman on the Edge of Time | Piercy, Marge | 1976 |
| Women Who Hate Me, The: Poetry, 1980-1990 | Allison, Dorothy | 1991 |
| World of Normal Boys, The | Soehnlein, KM | 2000 |
| Yentl the Yeshiva Boy | Singer, Isaac Bashevis | 1983 |
| You Know Me Well | Levithan, David and Nina LaCour | 2016 |
| You Should See Me in a Crown | Johnson, Leah | 2020 |
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