LGBTQ+ Pride

Celebrate Pride Month with Our LGBTQ+ Reading List!

Happy Pride Month! To celebrate love, identity, and our beautifully diverse community, we are thrilled to share a special reading list thoughtfully put together by the LGBT network. Whether you are looking for a heartwarming romance, an immersive fantasy, or a vital piece of queer non-fiction, there is something here for everyone to enjoy.

 

📚 Library Displays & Local Events

• LGBT Book Displays: We are proud to feature vibrant LGBT book displays across all our library branches this month! Pop into your local branch to browse these titles and find your next great read.

• Community Celebration: Make sure to mark your calendars for the Pride in Kingston Weekend taking place June 26–28! It’s going to be an incredible community-led programme featuring pop-up performances, workshops, and a Pride Parade right here in the borough. 

• Kingston Museum's Pride Workshop! Join us to learn how to make a zine - which is a hand made booklet with a rich history rooted in the LGBTQ+ community. It will be a great way to celebrate LGBTQ+ experiences and meet new people, whilst making a craft! All ages welcome and all materials are provided, but feel free to bring any collage materials or photos to stick into your zine - such as pictures of things that make you feel queer joy! Saturday 20 June 2026 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM. Book here. 

 

Here is a quick look at the fantastic books our LGBT+ network selected, along with a bite-sized review for each. Search our Library catalog to reserve and order to your local branch:

Fiction & Romance

 

• Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. This brilliant coming-of-age novel beautifully captures a young girl's lesbian awakening and rebellion against her strict religious upbringing.

• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. A deeply emotional, devastatingly intense masterpiece tracing the profound lifelong trauma, friendship, heartbreak, and resilience of four close college friends.

• The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst. Set in 1980s London, this beautifully written, provocative novel vividly explores gay male culture, desire, history, and complex intergenerational relationships.

• Price of a Thousand Blessings by Ginn Hale. An engaging, immersive queer high fantasy adventure filled with intricate worldbuilding, complex political intrigue, sweet romance, and captivating magical stakes.

• You & Me by Tal Bauer. This tender, deeply moving contemporary romance explores single fatherhood, unexpected discovery, healing, and a beautiful, genuinely heartfelt bisexual awakening narrative.

• Yield Under Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland. A captivating fantasy romance that deftly balances intricate political maneuvering with a compelling, beautifully developed relationship between two endearing characters.

• Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. A heartwarming, cozy queer fantasy about grief, the afterlife, and finding a profound second chance at true love and community.

• The Weight Of It All by N.R. Walker. A delightful, humorous contemporary romance featuring relatable characters, body positivity, fitness journeys, and a sweet, uplifting, wonderfully joyful love story.

• Lord of the White Hell by Ginn Hale. An enthralling high fantasy novel featuring a brilliant outcast student, an endangered prince, dark academy secrets, and an intense romance.

• The Senator's Wife by Jen Lyon. An engrossing contemporary lesbian romance packed with high-stakes political drama, intense hidden desires, secrets, and a captivating forbidden relationship.

• Those Who Wait by Haley Cass. A beautifully written, delightful sapphic romance exploring modern dating, career ambitions, vulnerability, and a deeply compelling fake relationship trope.

• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. An epic, grand family saga following a fascinating intersex protagonist across generations, exploring gender identity, history, rebirth, and American culture.

 

Non-Fiction, Memoirs & Academic

• What It Feels Like for a Girl by Paris Lees. A raw, gritty, and fiercely honest memoir detailing working-class trans youth, survival, vibrant nightlife, and personal growth in Britain.

• The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye. A vital, urgently necessary analytical book that masterfully reframes the conversation around trans rights, liberation, housing, healthcare, and social justice.

• Rainbow Trap: Queer Lives, Classifications and the Dangers of Inclusion by Kevin Guyan. A sharp academic critique examining how data collection, social classifications, and institutional inclusion strategies can inadvertently limit true queer liberation.