Let’s Talk Bookish: Pride Month Recs

Hi all, long time no see! It has been nearly 2 weeks and to be honest, I really disliked this. Earlier in May, I moved my Dutch blog to a new hosting party. This went smoothly and relatively easy. My domain was transferred within a matter of hours. So, for this blog, I thought “piece of cake”, let’s do it before the month ends. Well, of course, this was not the case. After a week I needed to seek support as the transferring process seemed to be stuck. This meant that I wasn’t able to blog for the entire time. Yesterday everything was up and running, but I have to check all my book reviews as much of the info got lost. Oh well.

So, my first post after this unintended long hiatus is a Let’s Talk Bookish post. It’s June and that means that Pride Month has started. Whereas it’s important to read LHBTQIA+ books and be an ally all year round, June is the month where we put an extra spotlight on this community and their representation. As this is a bookish meme, it’s time to highlight some pride book recs!

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted by Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Since April 2022, this meme is hosted by , Aria @ Book Nook Bits and since February 2025, Dini @ DiniPandaReads is the co-host. Let’s Talk Bookish is a meme where participants discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and share their love by visiting each other’s posts.

Prompts: Happy Pride Month! To celebrate, we’d love to hear about your favourite LGBTQIA+ books, why you love them, and what books you’d recommend for a summer Pride reading list. Are there any new releases you’re looking forward to reading this Pride Month?

I can’t exactly remember my first encounter with a pride book. It definitely has been years ago. In my personal life however, I have known about the LGBTQIA+ community since I was young as we had a queer couple as friends. However, I think there’s something special about pride books. They make people feel seen and if done well, straight people can learn something new to them as well. Sometimes they are heart-wrenching because such stories address – and rightfully so – the homo/bi/trans/or whatever elsephobia members of this community still face a lot. Mostly they manage to bounce back in these books and the message they shed a light on is important. Often these stories are both hart-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time. I enjoy pride romances more than the straight ones (which I still read though) because they are more layered.

What I do not enjoy however, is when the characters’ queerness is used as a “trope” only to tick off the diversity boxes. This feels forced and this radiates on both the story and the reading experience. It doesn’t feel natural and believeable. For me, it should feel naturally and rather should be a matter of fact than something performative to tick off a box to be “trendy”. I’m not saying this applies to everyone, because I believe supportive allies are also able to write a good queer story, but I therefore prefer books by own voices authors. Queerness should be celebrated instead of used in order to be inclusive.

And now of to the books! I don’t have specific summer recommendations, but I still want to take this moment to list a few books in no particular order.

  • I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver – This is a story about coming out as nonbinary and the struggles they face after embracing their identity. It’s also a story of hope, finding your people and maybe even some love in the end.
  • Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski – I keep mentioning this book because this is quite underrated. A little while ago, I finally saw this book being mentioned in someone’s Top Ten Tuesday post, after years of not having seen it anywhere. This novel addresses being queer in 1980s Poland, a communistic and conservative country. It definitely put things into perspective for me.
  • Loveless by Alice Oseman – I personally love this book as it’s not focussing on any romance at all for a change. Main character Georgia discovers her identity as aromantic and asexual and learns a lot about what this means. This book therefore centres around friendship and found family.
  • We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib – I hardly read nonfiction as I often find it hard to get everything out of it, especially when it’s not written in my native language. This one however is easy to read and addresses being queer and Muslim and the struggle queer people face because of their religion.
  • The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta – Apart from celebrating drag, this novel also addresses finding your identity and accepting your sexuality. The main character finds out he is gay and immediately faces homophobia. He finds solace in performing as a drag queen. However, nothing is what it seems… I recommend the audiobook as there are parts in verse, and it’s narrated by the author.
  • Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee – Not my favourite out of this list, but it teaches the reader a lot about gender identity and different pronouns people adopt. Also, it’s about found family.
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson – A book about being black, queer, and facing racism when wanting to compete for prom queen because you need this in your life. This book surprisingly addresses more heavy themes which was pretty unexpected.

I haven’t included any trans book to this list as I only read them in Dutch. I still have Felix Ever After on my TBR, but I can’t recommend it yet as it still remains unread. Furhtermore, I didn’t include fantasy as I haven’t found a good pride one yet. Moreover, the ones I know have been mentioned over and over everywhere and I wanted to focus on contemporary books that have flown under the radar instead. Finally, I can’t highlight any new releases for you as I’m so out of the loop with them!

What are your recommendations for pride month?


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