5 Queer Books to Liven Up Your Travels
As part of our ongoing series on things to keep you occupied while traveling, we went on the hunt for some page-turning queer literature. Not everyone wants to block out the world with a set of headphones, after all. Reading a book allows you to stay engaged with the environment around you so you don’t miss those inevitable gate changes or lateness announcements. Plus, reading helps improve concentration, reduces stress, improves sleep, and increases general knowledge. Here are a few books we recommend.
“Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance” by John Waters
(In)famous filmmaker, author, and provocateur John Waters has released his first fictional novel and it is everything you’d expect it to be. The Pope of Trash delivers with an outlandish plot and cast of characters that feel right at home alongside Babs Johnson and Dawn Davenport. “Liarmouth” is about three generations of women in a family that are out to either confront or kill one another. Centered on the thieving scammer Marsha Sprinkle, we just might have a new anti-heroine for the ages on our hands.
“Making the Rounds” by Patricia Grayhall
Patricia Grayhall’s story of coming of age in the 1970s is that of a young woman striving to have both love and a career as a lesbian and a medical doctor when neither was approved by society. “Making the Rounds” is a well-paced and deeply humanizing memoir of what it means to seek belonging and love—and to find them, in the most surprising ways.
“I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir” by Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Fierstein’s candid recollections provide a rich window into downtown New York City life, gay culture, and the evolution of theater (of which he has been a defining figure), as well as a moving account of his family’s journey of acceptance. “I Was Better Last Night” is filled with wisdom gained, mistakes made, and stories that come together to describe an astonishingly colorful and meaningful life. Lucky for us all, his unique and recognizable voice is just as engaging, outrageously funny, and vulnerable.
“It Started With A Kiss” by Clare Lydon
When two strangers meet in a bar and share a scorching, once-in-a-lifetime kiss, they never expect to see each other again. Until days later when Skye walks into Gemma’s Surrey vineyard. For once, Gemma is lost for words.
When they start working together, they agree nothing can happen. Business comes first. But such simmering sexual tension can only be contained for so long before the lid finally blows off.
Join Gemma and Skye as they fight their growing attraction in this glorious, slow-burn romantic comedy set in a sun-drenched UK vineyard. Queen of British sapphic romance Clare Lydon does it again with this gorgeous summer page-turner!
“This Is How It Always Is” by Laurie Frankel
When he grows up, five-year-old Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Claude’s parents Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.
Laurie Frankel’s “This Is How It Always Is” is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.
Check out all these titles and more in the LGBTQ+ book section on Amazon.
