lgbt

“Brave Truth” by Celia Lake

September 17, 2026 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Subtitle: A novel
Recommended to me by: Celia Lake

Part of a series about historical England, but with magic. I suspect this book lands better if one already knows the other characters and setting. It was fun seeing the two men gradually get to know each other and come to trust each other as they started a relationship. At the same time the plot felt superficial without deeper knowledge about the background and setting. They were brave to live their truth in a homophobic society, and maybe I take that kind of courage for granted.

Recommended if you’re enjoying the rest of the series.

Available from Celia Lake.

“After Hours at Dooryard Books” by Cat Sebastian

June 6, 2026 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Marissa Lingen

I loved this beautifully written, meticulously researched novel set in late 1960s New York City. An eccentric bookstore owner has the resources to rescue people and give them jobs in the bookstore, and Patrick is continuing that tradition. The writing about grief makes sense to me – people are both hurting, and continuing to do what needs to be done. It includes found family and delightful slow-burn m/m romance and people being kind to each other.

Highly recommended!

Available at bookshop.org.

“Taproot” by Keezy Young

February 5, 2026 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Subtitle: A Story About a Gardener and a Ghost
Recommended to me by: Anne

This is a delightful graphic novel about two young people who spend a lot of time together, one a gardener and the other a ghost. The art is colorful and expressive, and the two young people come across as ambiguously gendered to my eyes. The text eventually identifies them both as male. The story has its spooky moments, but the story ending is happy for them both.

The author’s note at the end talks about wanting LGBTQ+ stories that end happily, so they wrote and drew the story they wanted to see.

Highly recommended!

Author’s website

Available at bookshop.org.

“How We Show Up” by Mia Birdsong

November 30, 2025 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Subtitle: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community
Recommended to me by: Nora Samaran

This is a deeply hopeful book grounded in research and personal stories. The American Dream of individualism, resource extraction, and white supremacy creates separation and suffering. Mia Birdsong explores alternatives that people have created to value connection, cooperation, and community.

As a Black woman, Mia centers Black, queer women and other marginalized people such as people who have experienced homelessness. She appreciates the connections that people weave while surviving oppression, that can lead us all in a direction of ending oppression.

While the American Dream says that we should get our needs met in heterosexual nuclear families, this book celebrates all the different kinds of friendship that can also meet needs for intimacy, safety, and mutual support. Raising kids is easier and healthier for everyone with a larger circle of responsible and trusted adults. People who are ageing can support one another.

Whether in crisis, celebration, or everyday life, we can all weave more connections in our lives where we are seen and loved for who we are.

Highly recommended!

Author’s website. It turns out Mia Birdsong lives right here in Oakland!

Available at bookshop.org.

“What It Takes to Heal” by Prentis Hemphill

November 16, 2025 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Subtitle: How transforming ourselves can change the world

I had to return this to the library before I finished the last few chapters, but it all rang true to me, with clear analysis of the effects of racism and trauma, and clear calls to action for the ways we can move forward and heal the damage. Making the world a better place requires both internal healing and external connections. The organizations working toward social justice struggle with healing the ways people interact with each other inside the organizations as well as taking action out in the world.

Prentis includes stories about their experiences with racism, as well as their experiences with organizing for a better world.

Highly recommended.

Author website: prentishemphill.com

Available at bookshop.org.

“Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors” edited by Grist

March 30, 2024 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Grist is a non-profit news organization that reports on climate change with a focus on equity. They run an annual short-story contest called Imagine 2200 and publish the winning and runner-up stories. This is the 2021 collection. The stories are available on Grist’s website

Many of the stories create a plausible future world that includes disaster and moves beyond it to show thriving and surviving communities. The stories are written by diverse authors and include characters from a variety of cultures, with a variety of skin colors, sexual orientations, genders, and abilities or disabilities. These futures include us all.

I had read Marissa Lingen’s story A Worm to the Wise before, and was happy to see it again. The other stories and authors were new to me, and I liked almost all of them. One of them made me cry, in a good way.

The stories all include some kind of hope, and they all include grief for what is lost. This is not “lalala we can ignore climate change,” but “let’s talk about how we can learn new skills and change our priorities so we can survive and thrive.” Recommended.

Available at bookshop.org.