Hello and welcome to my Top 5 Wednesday post!
T5W is a weekly meme is hosted by Sam @ThoughtsOnTomes. You can visit the Goodreads T5W group for more info.
This week’s theme is…
April 19th: Favorite LGBTQ+ Reads
–Talk about your favorite books that feature LGBTQ+ characters or are by LGBTQ+ authors.
I decided for this topic, I would be featuring books with LGBTQ+ main characters, as opposed to secondary & supporting characters. I will admit that books that feature LGBTQ+ main characters has been a big gap in my reading. I have made a conscious effort to change this over the past year.
Here are a few books with LGBTQ+ main characters that I would recommend…
» Worm Loves Worm by J.J. Austrian
Features a same sex couple.
*You can read my review here → Kids’ Corner: Diverse Children’s Picture Books in Review (January 2017)
» And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson & Peter Parnell
Features a M/M couple that adopts.
*You can read my review here → Kids’ Corner: Diverse Children’s Picture Books in Review (March 2017)
» George by Alex Gino
Features a transgender main character.
*You can read my review here → Kids’ Corner: Why You Should Read George by Alex Gino with Your Kids
» Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin
Features a gender fluid main character.
*You can read my review here → Diverse Young Adult Books in Review: Aristotle and Dante & Symptoms of Being Human
» Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Features a gay main character.
*You can read my review here → Diverse Young Adult Books in Review: Aristotle and Dante & Symptoms of Being Human
» Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
Features a lesbian main character.
» June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
Features a transgender main character.
*You can read my review here→ Book Review: June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
» Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky
*Transgender MC
» When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
*Transgender MC
» Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
*Lesbian MC
» The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
*Gay MC
» Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
*Gay MCs
» The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
*Transgender MC
Which books with a LGBTQ+ main character(s) are your favorites?
Have you read any of the books on my list? What did you think?
Which LGBTQ+ books do I need to add to my TBR?
Comment below and let me know 🙂
Wonderful goal! I hope to read more LGBTQIA+ lit this year, too. At the moment I’m reading a cool one with asexuality rep, about hacktivism. Have heard great things about George. Loved Juliet Takes A Breath and Aristotle and Dante btw, Happy reading!😊📚
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I JUST read a post by a fellow book blogger (CW @Read Think Ponder) who gave out book recs with asexuality representation! I’ve never read a book with a character on the ACE spectrum, so I need to change that.
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You should definitely read The Song of Achilles, it’s amazing! One of my favourite books! x
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I don’t think I’ve seen a bad review for that book yet! I really need to just give in an buy a copy 🙂
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Wonderful t5w Amanda! I loved Ari & Dante, still need to read George. From your TBR, I’d love to get around to reading Son of Achilles and Juliet Takes a Breath, I’ve heard such amazing things about these two. I’ve recently realized myself how rare it is to come across a LGBTQIA main protog. This is why I appreciate Adam Silvera so much! honestly anything by him but History Is All You Left Me was such an emotional read that I’d recommend that one over More Happy Than Not 😉
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Right? I’ve read many books where the LGBTQIA characters are secondary characters, or the lovable “side kicks” but I want more main characters! I have a confession… I’ve never read an Adam Silvera book. I feel all the shame. I definitely need to add History Is All You Left Me to the TBR… I guess I need to make that my first Silvera book this year 🙂
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I serious shook my head when I read that you’ve never read a book by my Boo Adam 🤦🏻♀️lol. He’s an auto buy author for me but just be warned, you don’t want to already be sad when you do decide to pick up any of his books 😂 I can’t wait to meet him in June. Gretchen knows that I am on a mission to meet this man, tunnel vision! 😂
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Wow, great selection! I don’t think I remember if there were LGBT characters in the books I’ve read! I need to pay more attention! Only read June 😉
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I’ve read so many books where the LGBTQ+ characters are secondary, or the “lovable sidekick,” but I want more LGBTQ+ MAIN characters! I think we are moving in that direction, but it may be a while before we see more representation in main characters.
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Excellent list! I loved George and The Song Of Achilles (which I can highly recommend) and quite a few are priority on my TBR (especially Aristotle, Symptoms Of Being Human, The Danish Girl and When The Moon Was Ours). I hope you will enjoy the ones on your TBR! 🙂
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I remember your review for The Song of Achilles 🙂 I had a hard time with the first 60% of Aristotle and Dante, BUT I would still recommend it for the last 40% of the book. The second half is a 5 star read for sure.
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I’ve read Aristotle and Dante, and I love it so much.
The Song of Achilles is absolutely amazing, it’s so sweet and so heartbreaking.
And I have the Symptoms of Being Human on my TBR 😀
Great list~ :3
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Thank you for reading! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed The Song of Achilles so much! I’ve been hearing much of the same from others 😊
I highly recommend Symptoms of Being Human! I think the author does a really good job with the gender fluid representation! Let me know how you like it if you give it a go!
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I love Ari and Dante too, and I hope you’ll enjoy Song of Achilles! It’s one of my all time favorites.
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Thanks for reading! I’ve been hearing many good things about Song of Achilles, so fingers crossed 🤞🏻
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Ari and Dante is one of my faves too! I loved Patrick Ness’s The Rest of Us Just Live here, Queens of geek, and absolutely love love love Will Kostakis’s The Sidekicks it’s an aussie title but being republished in the US soon! I’m so excited for it to be even more out in the world so people can read it. Great post!
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Thank you for the recs!!! I’ve been meaning to read another Ness book since reading A Monster Calls this past year. Queens of Geek has been getting lots of positive hype lately! What is the representation in that book?
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I love how you presented the content of this post! And Tango Makes Three is the only LGBTQ+ book I knew for children– it makes me so happy to hear there are more. As you know, I loved George and Aristotle and Dante. But I haven’t read any of the other books you identified. Juliet Takes a Breath and When the Moon Was Ours are both on my TBR, though. Lovely list. 🙂
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Why thank you! I figured not many people would be featuring children’s and middle grade novels, so I wanted to make sure they were not overlooked 😉
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I’m the worst to talk about diverse books – I ALWAYS END UP ONLY READING SUGARED GAY ROMANCES HAHAHAHAHAHA #pandafail
I liked your selection, I’ll have to stalk some of those titles on Goodreads ❤ Loved the list!
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Bahahaha “Sugared gay romances”. You kill me 😂
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