Picture Books
It’s Pride, Baby! by Allen R. Wells (text) and Dia Valle (illustration)
Lift your soul to the sky.
Like summer sunbeams―
Don’t live behind clouds.
You shine!
It’s Black Gay Pride Day in Washington, DC, and two gay parents are getting their child ready for a day at the National Mall. From cheerful neighbors to colorful outfits to fireworks, the vast LGBTQIA+ community is represented here in body, spirit, and pride flags galore!
Allen R. Wells’s poetic text perfectly captures the expansiveness of a parent’s love, while Dia Valle’s joyful art bursts off the page. Here are words that children in every family—no matter its color, size, or shape—need to hear.
We are so proud of you!
Buy it: Bookshop | B&N | Amazon
Middle Grade
Linus and Etta Could Use a Win by Caroline Huntoon
A hot-headed cynic befriends the new kid―a shy trans boy―when she takes on a bet to get him elected student body president in this new middle grade contemporary novel from Caroline Huntoon, author of Skating on Mars.
Linus is the new boy at school, and he’s trying to keep it quiet. After coming out as trans last year and managing the attention that came with it, he’s more than happy to fade into the background of his new middle school.
Etta isn’t like other kids at school, and she’s proud of it. The class misanthrope and the owner of the greenest hair at Doolittle Middle School, she’s still reeling from a painful friendship breakup, making her more than happy to burn middle-school bridges before she heads off to the local alternative high school next year.
When Etta’s over-it-all attitude sparks a challenge from her ex-best friend, Marigold, to get Linus elected student body president, Linus is thrust back into the spotlight. But what started out as a bet quickly turns into a true friendship between Linus and Etta, one that could be in jeopardy if Linus finds out the real origins of his and Etta’s connection. Can Linus and Etta’s friendship withstand the betrayal of the bet?
Young Adult
Death’s Country by R.M. Romero
Andres Santos of São Paulo was all swinging fists and firecracker fury, a foot soldier in the war between his parents, until he drowned in the Tietê River… and made a bargain with Death for a new life. A year later, his parents have relocated the family to Miami, but their promises of a fresh start quickly dissolve in the summer heat.
Instead of fists, Andres now uses music to escape his parents’ battles. While wandering Miami Beach, he meets two girls: photographer Renee, a blaze of fire, and dancer Liora, a ray of sunshine. The three become a polyamorous triad, happy, despite how no one understands their relationship. But when a car accident leaves Liora in a coma, Andres and Renee are shattered.
Then Renee proposes a radical solution: She and Andres must go into the underworld to retrieve their girlfriend’s spirit and reunite it with her body—before it’s too late. Their search takes them to the City of the dead, where painters bleed color, songs grow flowers, and regretful souls will do anything to forget their lives on earth. But finding Liora’s spirit is only the first step in returning to the living world. Because when Andres drowned, he left a part of himself in the underworld—a part he’s in no hurry to meet again. But it is eager to be reunited with him…
The Summer Love Strategy by Ray Stoeve
Hayley always has a crush. The problem is, her crushes never like her back. After her latest unrequited love—a girl from her basketball team—gets a boyfriend, she decides she’s done falling for girls who are unavailable. Her best friend, Talia, wants romance too, but rarely gets crushes on anyone, and she’s tired of watching Hayley get her heart stomped on over and over. So the two girls make a pact: they’ll help each other find summer love by putting themselves in situations that always lead to romance in movies.
To help carry out their summer love strategy, they make a list of all the places they could find their real-life rom-com: the beach, the Pride parade, the pool, a MUNA concert, and a party. But as they go to each place and try to find the one, it seems like they just can’t catch a break—they don’t know how to talk to cute strangers, someone mistakes Hayley as straight, and Hayley does a truly unfortunate DIY haircut (that she cannot be held responsible for––it was a crisis!). But when Talia and Hayley finally manage to score dates, will they be able to get out of their own way and really dive into the romances they deserve? Or is summer love not as far off as Hayley thought?
Escape from St. Hell by Lewis Hancox
This is the sequel to Welcome to St. Hell
For Lew, figuring out he was a guy and wanted to live life as a guy was the end of our journey… and the start of a whole other journey. Escape From St. Hell charts all the changes that Lew wanted to be made in order for him to live as a young trans man — changes not just to his own body and perspective, but to the perspectives of the family, friends, and enemies around him.
Adult
The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin
Dimitri Alexeyev used to be the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo. Now, he is merely a broken man, languishing in exile after losing a devastating civil war instigated by his estranged husband, Alexey Balakin. In hiding with what remains of his court, Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily Sokolov, engineer a dangerous ruse. Vasily will sneak into Alexey’s court under a false identity to gather information, paving the way for the usurper’s downfall, while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good.
But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.
Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Indigo
Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang
For over thirty years, Old Second and Bao Mei have cobbled together a meager existence in New York City’s Chinatown. But unlike other couples, these two share an unusual past. In rural Fuzhou, before they emigrated, they frequented the Workers’ Cinema: a theater where gay men cruised for love.
While classic war films played, Old Second and his countrymen found intimacy in the screening rooms. In the box office, Bao Mei sold movie tickets to closeted men, guarding their secrets and finding her own happiness with the projectionist. But when Old Second’s passion for his male lover is revealed, a series of haunting events unfold, propelling these characters toward an uncertain future in America.
Spanning three timelines—post-socialist China, 1980s Chinatown, and contemporary New York—Cinema Love is an “exceptional” and “moving” (Alice Hoffman) epic about men and women who find themselves in forbidden relationships; the weight of secrets; and the way memory forever haunts the present.
Lavash at First Sight by Taleen Vosukuni
Twenty-seven-year-old Nazeli “Ellie” Gregorian enjoys the prestige of her tech marketing job but is sick of the condescending Patagonia-clad tech bros, her micromanaging boss, and her ex-boyfriend, who she’s forced to work with every day. When Ellie’s lovingly overbearing parents ask her to attend PakCon—a food packaging conference in Chicago—to help promote their company and vie to win an ad slot in the Superbowl (no big deal), she’s eager for a brief change and a delicious distraction.
At the conference, she meets witty, devil-may-care Vanya Simonian. Ellie can’t believe how easy it is to talk to Vanya and how much they have in common—both Armenian! From the Bay Area! Whose families are into food! Their meet-cute is cut short, however, when Ellie’s parents recognize Vanya as the daughter of the owners of their greatest rival, whose mission (according to Ellie’s mother) is to whitewash and package Armenian food for the American health-food crowd.
Sworn as enemies, Ellie and Vanya must compete against each other under their suspicious parents’ scrutiny, all while their feelings for each other heat to sizzling temps.
The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
This is the fifth book in the Singing Hills Cycle
The Cleric Chih accompanies a beautiful young bride to her wedding to the aging ruler of a crumbling estate situated at the crossroads of dead empires. The bride’s party is welcomed with elaborate courtesies and extravagant banquets, but between the frightened servants and the cryptic warnings of the lord’s mad son, they quickly realize that something is haunting the shadowed halls.
As Chih and the bride-to-be explore empty rooms and desolate courtyards, they are drawn into the mystery of what became of Lord Guo’s previous wives and the dark history of Do Cao itself. But as the wedding night draws to its close, Chih will learn at their peril that not all monsters are to be found in the shadows; some monsters hide in plain sight.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller
Chaotic bisexual Wendy is trying to find her place in the queer community of San Lazaro, Arizona, after a bad breakup—which is particularly difficult because her ex is hooking up with some of her friends. And when the people around them start turning into violent, terrifying mindless husks, well, that makes things harder. Especially since the infection seems to be spreading.
Now, Wendy and her friends and frenemies—drag queen Logan, silver fox Beau, sword lesbian Aurelia and her wife Sam, mysterious pizza delivery stoner Sunshine, and, oh yeah, Wendy’s ex-girlfriend Leah—have to team up to stay alive, save Pride, and track the zombie outbreak to its shocking source. Hopefully without killing each other first.
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian
The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.
Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.
Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.
Dulhaniyaa by Talia Bhatt (8th)
Esha Arora is the last person anyone would have expected to acquiesce to an arranged marriage. Outspoken, opinionated and forward-thinking, she has made her thoughts on these archaic institutions known to anyone who’d lend her an ear. To her traditional family’s surprise and joy, however, when a good rishta for her hand comes along, Esha agrees to abruptly quit her MFA program in the States and returns to India to be wed. Her mother wastes neither time nor expense in preparing for the most bombastic wedding money can afford—she has more than a few friends to outdo and impress, after all!
In the pursuit of extravagance, Esha’s mother arranges a dance instructor for her, to train her to perform a Bollywood-style, choreographed dance routine at the wedding, as is en vogue. Despite Esha’s lack of enthusiasm, her mother will not be swayed. Knowing that the wedding isn’t actually about her wishes, Esha reluctantly agrees, deciding that if she’s going to put on a show for her relatives, she might as well put on a good one.
That’s when Billu, a cyclone in a salwar and dance instructor extraordinaire, bursts into the dull monotony of Esha’s pre-wedding existence. To her shock and delight, Esha finds herself enjoying her lessons with Billu, in addition to every other moment with her that she finds herself trying to steal away. Slowly, it begins to dawn on Esha that she isn’t nearly as resigned to her marital fate as she once thought—but can she un-make a commitment to her family so easily? Will she be able to confess her feelings to Billu before the latter exits her life, or will she be consigned to her role of dulhaniyaa?
Buy it: Amazon
Non-Fiction
Coming Home by Brittany Griner and Michelle Burford
From the nine-time women’s basketball icon and two-time Olympic gold medalist—a raw, revelatory account of her unfathomable detainment in Russia and her journey home.
On February 17, 2022, Brittney Griner arrived in Moscow ready to spend the WNBA offseason playing for the Russian women’s basketball team where she had been the centerpiece of previous championship seasons. Instead, a security checkpoint became her gateway to hell when she was arrested for mistakenly carrying under one gram of medically prescribed hash oil. Brittney’s world was violently upended in a crisis she has never spoken in detail about publicly—until now.
In Coming Home, Brittney finally shares the harrowing details of her sudden arrest days before Russia invaded Ukraine; her bewilderment and isolation while navigating a foreign legal system amid her trial and sentencing; her emotional and physical anguish as the first American woman ever to endure a Russian penal colony while the #WeAreBG movement rallied for her release; the chilling prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; and her remarkable rise from hostage to global spokesperson on behalf of America’s forgotten. In haunting and vivid detail, Brittney takes readers inside the horrors of a geopolitical nightmare spanning ten months.
And yet Coming Home is more than Brittney’s journey from captivity to freedom. In an account as gripping as it is poignant, she shares how her deep love for Cherelle, her college sweetheart and wife of six years, anchored her during their greatest storm; how her family’s support pulled her back from the brink; and how hundreds of letters from friends and neighbors lent her resolve to keep fighting. Coming Home is both a story of survival and a testament to love—the bonds that brought Brittney home to her family, and at last, to herself.
Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by Maia Kobabe and Sarah Peitzmeier PhD
A graphic guide to chest binding with real-life stories and research-backed advice from bestselling Gender Queer author MAIA KOBABE and University of Michigan professor SARAH PEITZMEIER.
Breathe arose from the need for a resource for folks considering chest binding as gender-affirming care. Dr. Peitzmeier interviewed twenty-five people of different ages and backgrounds about their journeys with binding, and then she and Kobabe combined excerpts from those interviews with evidence-based resources on binding into this extremely accessible guide.
Breathe is both a practical resource for trans and nonbinary folks and an engaging and perspective-broadening read for anyone interested in what it means to be on a journey of expressing one’s gender in ways that are joyful, healthy, and affirming.
Paperback Releases
Bang Bang Boddhisatva by Aubrey Wood
It’s 2032 and hacker-for-hire Kiera’s living in the worst cyberpunk future. She’s been gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who talks like a ’40s movie detective. But that changes when Herrera’s ex-best friend turns up murdered. Their only lead: a stick of Nag Champa incense dropped at the scene.
Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush has disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a severed hand (the real one, not the cybernetic) and the familiar stink of sandalwood. Two crimes, two sticks of incense, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number after the last job, but now the old man might be her only way out of this mess…
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
This is the trad pub release of a formerly self-pubbed title
Now with beautiful jade sprayed edges and brand-new original art!
In the tradition of Legends & Lattes, comes a cozy fantasy steeped in sapphic romance about one of the Queen’s private guards and a powerful mage who want to open a bookshop and live happily ever after…if only the world would let them.
All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters… all complemented by love and good company. Thing is, Reyna works as one of the Queen’s private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives isn’t so easy.
But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility–all the better that her girlfriend is on board. Together, they settle in Tawney, a town nestled in the icy tundra near dragon country, and open the shop of their dreams.
What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. In a story brimming with hurt/comfort and quiet fireside conversations, these two women will discover just what they mean to each other… and the world.
