June is Pride Month! Stop by the MGCC Library to check out our newest book display, which features LGBTQ+ authors and stories. This display is located at the front of the library, and all books are available for checkout. Below are some of the incredible books included in the display.
“The amount of respect you have for others is in direct proportion to how much respect you have for yourself.”
-RuPaul
We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride In The History of Queer Liberation by Matthew Reimer and Leighton Brown:
Have pride in history.
A rich and
sweeping photographic history of the queer liberation movement from the
creators of the massively popular Instagram account @lgbt_history,
released in time for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Through
the lens of protest, power, and pride, We Are Everywhere is an
essential introduction–told through stunning photographs and thoroughly
researched narrative–to the history of the modern queer liberation
movement. Tracing queer activism from its late nineteenth century
European roots to the homophiles who made Stonewall possible and the
gender warriors who continue the struggle today, this beautifully
packaged book contains hundreds of photos and pieces of ephemera that
allow the reader to see history as they read. With photography from some
of the best-known queer photographers alongside the work of unknown
activists, the vintage and contemporary images cover every aspect of
queer life and liberation, including marches, protests, family life,
personal snapshots, celebrations, reactions to important legal
decisions, and Pride.
The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate by Jeannie Gainsburg:
The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled
LGBTQ+ Advocate is an enjoyable, humorous, encouraging, easy to
understand guidebook for being an ally to the LGBTQ+ communities. It is
chock full of practical and useful tools for LGBTQ+ advocacy, including:
Current and relevant information on identities and LGBTQ+ language
Tips for what to say and what not to say when someone comes out to you
LGBTQ+ etiquette and techniques for respectful conversations
Common bloopers to avoid
Tools for effectively navigating difficult conversations
Suggestions for addressing common questions and concerns
Actions for creating more LGBTQ+ inclusive spaces
Recommendations for self-care and sustainable allyship
This
book will be useful for teachers, counselors, social workers, nurses,
medical technicians, and college professors, as well as parents who want
to be supportive of their LGBTQ+ child, but don't know how. This is not
a book about why to be an ally. This is a book about how to be an ally.
The goal of The Savvy Ally is to create more confident, active allies
who are effective advocates for change. This informative, entertaining,
and supportive guidebook will surely jump-start even the most tentative
ally.
The Stonewall Reader, edited by Jason Baumann:
June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library's archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly the anthology spotlights both iconic activists who were pivotal in the movement, such as Sylvia Rivera, co-founder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as forgotten figures like Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s. The anthology focuses on the events of 1969, the five years before, and the five years after. Jason Baumann, the NYPL coordinator of humanities and LGBTQ collections, has edited and introduced the volume to coincide with the NYPL exhibition he has curated on the Stonewall uprising and gay liberation movement of 1969.
The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu:
Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he
finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The
killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two
of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself.
Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. In
the process, he uncovers a recording his father made in the days before
his death, and a dying wish: Avenge me…
With the lab on
lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people—his uncle Charles,
lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their
head of security, Felicia’s father Paul—one of whom must be the killer.
His only sure ally is the lab’s resident artificial intelligence,
Horatio, who has been his dear friend and companion since its creation.
With his world collapsing, Hayden must navigate the building’s secrets,
uncover his father’s lies, and push the boundaries of sanity in the
pursuit of revenge.
Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions by Lisa Wade and Myra Marx Ferree:
A lively exploration of current questions of gender and their application to students today. Wade and Ferree’s first edition textbook is a lively introduction to the sociology of gender. Probing questions, the same ones that students often bring to the course, frame readable chapters that are packed with the most up-to-date scholarship available―in language students will understand. The authors use memorable examples mined from pop culture, history, psychology, biology, and everyday life to truly engage students in the study of gender and spark interest in sociological perspectives.
The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang:
In the year 4 BCE, an ambitious courtier is
called upon to seduce the young emperor—but quickly discovers they are
both ruled by blood, sex and intrigue.
In 1740, a lonely
innkeeper agrees to help a mysterious visitor procure a rare medicine,
only to unleash an otherworldly terror instead.
And in present-day Los Angeles, a college student meets a beautiful stranger and cannot shake the feeling they’ve met before.
Across
these seemingly unrelated timelines woven together only by the twists
and turns of fate, two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime. Within
the treacherous walls of an ancient palace and the boundless forests of
the Asian wilderness to the heart-pounding cement floors of underground
rave scenes, our lovers are inexplicably drawn to each other, constantly
tested by the worlds around them.
As their many lives
intertwine, they begin to realize the power of their undying love—a
power that transcends time itself…but one that might consume them both.
Geography of the Heart: A Memoir by Fenton Johnson:
In this poignant memoir, the author interweaves two fascinating stories: his own upbringing as the youngest of nine children of a Kentucky whiskey maker and that of his lover Larry Rose, the only child of German Jews, survivors of the Holocaust. With grace and affectionate humor, he follows their relationship from their first meeting through Larry's death. "I'm so lucky, " his lover told him repeatedly, even as he was confronting HIV. "Denial, pure and simple, " Johnson told himself, "until our third and final trip to Paris, where on our last night in the city we sat together in the courtyard of the Picasso Museum. There I turned to him and said 'I'm so lucky, ' and it was as if the time allotted to him to teach me this lesson, the time allotted to me to learn it had been consumed, and there was nothing left but the facts of things to play out."
Don't Cry for Me by Daniel Black:
As Jacob lies dying, he begins to write a letter
to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and
there are things that Isaac must know. Stories about his ancestral
legacy in rural Arkansas that extend back to slavery. Secrets from
Jacob's tumultuous relationship with Isaac's mother and the shame he
carries from the dissolution of their family. Tragedies that informed
Jacob's role as a father and his reaction to Isaac's being gay.
But
most of all, Jacob must share with Isaac the unspoken truths that
reside in his heart. He must give voice to the trauma that Isaac has
inherited. And he must create a space for the two to find peace.
With
piercing insight and profound empathy, acclaimed author Daniel Black
illuminates the lived experiences of Black fathers and queer sons,
offering an authentic and ultimately hopeful portrait of reckoning and
reconciliation. Spare as it is sweeping, poetic as it is compulsively
readable, Don't Cry for Me is a monumental novel about one
family grappling with love's hard edges and the unexpected places where
hope and healing take flight.
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara:
In an alternate version of 1893 America, New
York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever
they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a
distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a
charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the
AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier
partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And
in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a
powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life
without him—and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances.
These
three sections are joined in an enthralling and ingenious symphony, as
recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in
Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments
that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the
strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous
righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to
find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it
can’t exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas,
are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love.
Shame. Need. Loneliness.
To Paradise is a fin de siècle
novel of marvellous literary effect, but above all it is a work of
emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by
Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love
– partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow
citizens – and the pain that ensues when we cannot.
The Boy with a Bird in His Chest by Emme Lund:
Though Owen Tanner has never met anyone else who
has a chatty bird in their chest, medical forums would call him a
Terror. From the moment Gail emerged between Owen’s ribs, his mother
knew that she had to hide him away from the world. After a decade spent
in hiding, Owen takes a brazen trip outdoors in the middle of a forest
fire, and his life is upended forever.
Suddenly, Owen is forced
to flee the home that had once felt so confining and hide in plain sight
with his uncle and cousin in Washington. There, he feels the joy of
finding a family among friends; of sharing the bird in his chest and
being embraced fully; of falling in love and feeling the devastating
heartbreak of rejection before finding a spark of happiness in the most
unexpected place; of living his truth regardless of how hard the thieves
of joy may try to tear him down. But the threat of the Army of Acronyms
is a constant, looming presence, making Owen wonder if he’ll ever find a
way out of the cycle of fear.
A heartbreaking yet hopeful novel about the things that make us unique and lovable, The Boy with a Bird in His Chest
grapples with the fear, depression, and feelings of isolation that come
with believing that we will never be loved, let alone accepted, for who
we truly are, and learning to live fully and openly regardless.
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart:
Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo
and James are born under different stars--Mungo a Protestant and James a
Catholic--and they should be sworn enemies if they're to be seen as men
at all. Yet against all odds, they become best friends as they find a
sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize
racing birds.
As they fall in love, they dream of finding
somewhere they belong, while Mungo works hard to hide his true self from
all those around him, especially from his big brother Hamish, a local
gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold. And when several months
later Mungo's mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in Western
Scotland with two strange men whose drunken banter belies murky pasts,
he will need to summon all his inner strength and courage to try to get
back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a
future.
Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich
lyricism and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in the
literary world, Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story
about the bounds of masculinity, the divisions of sectarianism, the
violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone
too much.
Note: All book images and descriptions included in this blog post were found on Goodreads.com.