As winter settles in and the year winds down, there’s no better time to curl up with a book that speaks to the complexity and beauty of queer life. This season’s reading list spans poetry and memoir, experimental nonfiction and graphic novels, offering stories that challenge, comfort and celebrate the full spectrum of LGBTQ+ experiences. From Andrea Gibson’s final collection of transformative poetry to Nicholas Boggs’ sweeping biography of James Baldwin, from Charlie Jane Anders’s magical family drama to Sand C. Chang’s therapeutic workbook for queer healing, these titles reflect both the joy and struggle of living authentically.
Whether you’re drawn to Gaar Adams’s decade-long journey through Gulf States queer communities, Rose Dommu’s chaotic trans wedding weekend or Alejandro Varela’s meditation on polyamorous heartbreak, you’ll find something that resonates. These books remind us that queer stories are as varied as we are — tender and fierce, grounded and fantastical, deeply personal and universally human. So grab a blanket, brew some tea and settle in for a cozy read that honors who we are and who we’re becoming.
‘Middle Spoon,’ Alejandro Varela
A finalist for the National Book Award for his 2022 debut novel “The Town of Babylon,” which followed a gay Latinx professor confronting his past, Alejandro Varela’s latest continues his keen, compassionate observations on queer life. This time, he turns to the pains of polyamorous love — what happens when a married father of two has his heart broken by another romantic partner.
Through a series of letters to his ex-boyfriend Ben, the unnamed narrator lays bare his tangled emotions as he grapples with rejection and wonders whether a world still uneasy with poly relationships could ever understand it. If you’re the kind of person who buys their books based on the covers, the simplicity of the image on this one — just three stacked pillows — will certainly pique your curiosity about the quiet emotional mess you’re about to tumble into.
‘Town & Country,’ Brian Schaefer
In his first novel, journalist Brian Schaefer — whose bylines span The New York Times and The New Yorker — drops us into Griffin, a fictional rural town where an influx of stylish, big-city gay weekenders collides with deeply rooted, church-going locals. If that sounds like an American fantasy (or fever dream), that’s exactly the point. Set over one election season, “Town & Country” watches these unlikely neighbors circle each other with suspicion, curiosity and the occasional spark of connection, revealing just how chaotic — and unexpectedly intimate — community becomes when everyone’s idea of “home” is up for debate.
Count Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Less,” as one of the book’s biggest fans: “‘Town & Country’ is so thoughtfully and beautifully written I could read it over and over again. A rumination on who we think we are versus who we really are, on loyalties and betrayals, family and politics, and, above all, love, it is a book to bring us together.”
‘Best Woman,’ Rose Dommu
Author Rose Dommu’s coming-of-age debut novel is already being called a book that feels “destined to be optioned” by Vogue — or, more specifically, “the trans ’90s rom-com update we deserve.” A former senior staff writer at Out and contributor to Paper and Vice, Dommu puts a queer and trans spin on the chaotic wedding-weekend story in “Best Woman.” The novel follows Julia Rosenberg, a bisexual trans woman who leaves behind her hard-won New York life — drag brunches included — to return home to Boca Raton as her brother’s “best woman.” She has to survive the pressure of her divorced parents, her controlling sister-in-law, a hookup buddy she can’t quit, and a family still figuring out how to talk about her transition.
Then there’s the twist: the maid of honor is Kim Cameron, her devastatingly cool high-school crush. One small white lie to impress Kim quickly spins into a full-blown rom-com disaster, threatening Julia’s relationships with her family, her crush, and herself — all while delivering laughs, heart and an unapologetically trans take on love, family and the chaos of weddings.
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‘Uncanny Valley Girls,’ Zefyr Lisowski
Lambda Award-winning poet Zefyr Lisowski turns her eye to the strange, sometimes terrifying intersections of life, gender and desire in this memoir-in-essays. At 27, Lisowski found herself in a locked psych ward after a mental breakdown, where she turned to horror films — the very movies that scared her — as a source of comfort and connection. Across essays on films like “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and “Saint Maud,” she explores fears about illness, identity, class and the often-hidden violence in the world around us.
Moving from a trans childhood in the South to the sweaty dancefloors of Brooklyn, Lisowski mixes intimate storytelling with cultural insight, weaving family, friends and lovers into a reflection on fear, longing and survival. Deeply felt and full of care, “Uncanny Valley Girls” shows how moments of strangeness and terror can illuminate the most human parts of our lives.
‘Ultimate Oz Universe: The Lost Lands,’ Cullen Bunn, Larry King, Mike Deodato Jr.
The world of Oz gets a modern twist in this sprawling graphic novel from AWA Studios, taking readers beyond Emerald City to hidden corners, forgotten lands and characters you’ve never met before. Co-written by comics veteran Cullen Bunn and songwriter Larry King, with art by Mike Deodato Jr., “The Lost Lands” is packed with adventure, imagination and a love for everything that made Baum’s world magical in the first place.
Elton John, whose own life and music were shaped by Oz, wrote the foreword — and even pops up alongside his husband, David Furnish, in a fun illustrated cameo. With “Wicked: For Good” fueling a new wave of Oz-mania, this is the perfect pick for longtime fans and first-time readers alike: a story full of magic, danger and enough surprises to make you want to follow that yellow brick road all the way home.
‘Taylor’s Version,’ Stephanie Burt
In “Taylor’s Version,” Harvard poet Stephanie Burt mines Taylor Swift’s songs for the girlhood she never lived. A trans woman reflecting on longing, queerness and emotional reclamation, Burt shows how Swift’s music validates what society often dismisses: teenage desire, intimacy and “ambition — about making awesome works of art that not only endure and speak to a small number of people deeply, but that obviously endure, get noticed and speak to a large number of people,” the author told Pride Source.
From “Fifteen” to The Eras Tour, Burt explores Swift’s artistic evolution and subtle politics — not as celebrity spectacle, but as proof that visibility, authenticity and dreaming big are revolutionary acts. Centered on Taylor, the book ultimately celebrates artistry, self-discovery and the power of being seen.
‘All These Ghosts,’ Silas House
Acclaimed novelist and Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House brings his Appalachian roots, deep love of the natural world and lived experience as a gay man to this timely and poignant poetry collection, his first ever. A recipient of the Duggins Prize, the nation’s largest award for LGBTQ+ writers, and a 2023 Grammy finalist for writing and producing the first country music video to feature a gay love story for Tyler Childers’ song “In Your Love,” House brings both recognition and lived experience to his work. From the poem he read at Governor Andy Beshear’s 2023 inauguration to reflections on the “loss of rural America as he once knew it,” according to the book’s description, House moves fluidly between grief, nostalgia and celebration of community, blood family and chosen family.
With wild places, lingering histories and the people who shape us — friends, fellow artists and the landscapes of the South — at the heart of these poems, House captures both the beauty and heartbreak of life in his region. This collection is a vivid reminder of the ways identity, place and memory intertwine.
‘Baldwin: A Love Story,’ Nicholas Boggs
A New York Times Notable Book of 2025. An Amazon Best Book of the Year. A Time Must-Read Book of 2025. “Baldwin: A Love Story” is the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades — and it’s as iconic as Baldwin himself.
Nicholas Boggs digs into newly uncovered archives, original research and interviews to show how Baldwin’s closest relationships shaped his art. From his mentor, painter Beauford Delaney, to his lover and muse, Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger, and collaborators like Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the French artist Yoran Cazac — whose long-overlooked role as Baldwin’s last great love is explored here for the first time — Boggs traces the love, lust, friendship and creative sparks behind Baldwin’s brilliance.
Following Baldwin across Harlem, Paris, Switzerland, Istanbul, Africa and the American South, the biography shows how he turned the personal into the political, the erotic into the revolutionary, leaving a mark on Black and queer literary history that still burns bright today.
‘You Better Be Lightning,’ Andrea Gibson
“You Better Be Lightning” captures the late poet Andrea Gibson’s gift for fierce vulnerability that made their spoken word videos and Substack newsletter “Things That Don’t Suck” go viral. Published in 2021, this timeless collection takes on profound resonance following Gibson’s death in July at age 49 from ovarian cancer.
The book tackles depression, chronic illness and LGBTQ+ struggles, yet radiates unexpected joy and humor. Gibson charts a transformation from isolation to openness, from despair to falling in love with life again. Moments of wonder and awe punctuate even the darkest passages here.
Gibson’s death makes this collection all the more precious — a final gift reminding us that beauty and hope persist even in our darkest moments. Their words continue to offer the kind of radical tenderness and honest reckoning with pain that made them beloved by so many. Perfect for reflective winter reading and honoring a voice that changed countless lives.
‘Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success,’ Jeff Hiller
If you’ve spent 25 years doing improv in a grocery store basement and still haven’t “made it,” what do you do? For Emmy Award-winning actor Jeff Hiller, star of HBO’s beloved “Somebody Somewhere,” the answer was simple: Keep going. This national bestseller chronicles his journey from growing up “profoundly gay” in 1980s Texas through decades of struggle in Hollywood’s lower middle tier — temp jobs, guest spots on “30 Rock” and “Law & Order,” and the slow realization that success might never come.
Hiller’s essay collection balances heartbreak and hilarity as he details what it means to age without laurels, to keep chasing a dream that keeps receding. Then, at 40, how everything changed when he landed the role of Joel on “Somebody Somewhere,” the kind of best friend everyone wishes they had. Tina Fey calls Hiller “a human crocheted blanket,” and this warm, vulnerable memoir proves exactly that. For anyone who’s ever felt like a late bloomer or wondered if their dreams were foolish, Hiller offers hope, humor and, as he puts it, “three stories about buttholes.”
‘Lessons in Magic and Disaster,’ Charlie Jane Anders
“Lessons in Magic and Disaster” by Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders blends witchcraft, academia and family secrets into an irresistible winter read. Grad student Jamie has it all: a loving queer relationship, an obscure dissertation and one extraordinary secret — she’s a powerful witch.
When her mother Serena emerges from years of isolation — grieving her late wife and hiding from the world — Jamie teaches her magic to help her heal. But Serena’s harboring something dangerous, and her newfound powers are leading her down a dark path. Now Jamie must race to decode a mysterious 300-year-old spell book and unearth the scandal buried in its pages before her mother destroys them both.
From the bestselling author of “All the Birds in the Sky” comes a cozy yet suspenseful tale about the magic we inherit and the secrets that can either save or ruin us.
‘Making Amends,’ Nisi Shawl
World Fantasy Award winner Nisi Shawl delivers a provocative exploration of gender, embodiment and punishment in this collection of interconnected stories. “Making Amends” imagines a corporate-run interstellar penal colony where prisoners’ consciousnesses are uploaded into AI systems, but there’s a cruel twist: inmates are denied bodies matching their gender identity.
In stories like “Deep End” and “The Mighty Phin,” a trans woman prisoner is forced to present as male in cyberspace and barred from inhabiting a female body, transforming incarceration into a form of enforced dysphoria. Meanwhile, “In Colors Everywhere” envisions a colony world where gender self-assignment is routine from childhood, offering a stark contrast to the dehumanizing restrictions elsewhere in the collection.
Throughout, Shawl uses speculative fiction to examine how systems of control weaponize gender itself. This collection is essential reading for anyone interested in trans narratives and the future of justice.
‘Guest Privileges: Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle East,’ Gaar Adams
When journalist Gaar Adams moved to the Gulf States — where penalties for queer acts include deportation, imprisonment, torture and death — he arrived with what seemed like a simple question: Isn’t it harder for you to make a life here? Over a decade of risky reporting, he discovered thriving clandestine queer communities across the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia, in a region where four out of five residents are migrants with no path to citizenship.
In “Guest Privileges,” Adams weaves an intimate memoir with unprecedented reportage, documenting secret drag parties thrown by Filipino salon workers, parkour athletes cruising the Corniche promenade after midnight and a Pakistani wrestler in love with his coach. As he begins his own clandestine relationship, Adams confronts his Western assumptions about where queer joy and belonging are possible.
This widely acclaimed memoir challenges readers to reconsider what home means — not as a fixed place, but as community forged against impossible odds.
‘elseship: an unrequited affair,’ Tree Abraham
You know that feeling when you fall for someone who doesn’t feel the same way, but somehow you both decide to keep going anyway? Writer and book designer Tree Abraham lived that reality when she fell in love with her housemate — and then did something most of us wouldn’t. She documented the entire messy, beautiful year that followed.
“elseship” is an experimental nonfiction work that turns heartbreak into art. Abraham, who identifies as queer and asexual, recorded her experience in real time, then wove those raw entries together with illustrations, photographs, old receipts and mind maps. She organized everything within the eight ancient Greek categories of love (eros, agape, philautia, ludus, philia, mania, pragma and storge) creating a framework for feelings that refuse to fit into boxes.
This is a book about what exists in the spaces between friendship and romance, about relationships that don’t have names but feel just as real. Abraham’s background as an art director shows in her inventive approach, making “elseship” both deeply personal and visually striking. Perfect for anyone who’s ever been caught in a complicated “ship” that defied definition.
‘All Parts Welcome: The Queer and Trans Internal Family Systems Workbook,’ Sand C. Chang
You’ve probably seen Internal Family Systems therapy all over your social feeds lately — and there’s good reason for the buzz. IFS, which views the mind as containing multiple “parts” (like an inner critic, a protector or a wounded child), has resonated with millions seeking to understand their internal conflicts. Now there’s a workbook specifically designed for queer and trans people.
“All Parts Welcome” by Sand C. Chang offers a compassionate guide to IFS techniques tailored to LGBTQ+ experiences. Chang, a nonbinary, queer clinical psychologist and certified IFS therapist, helps readers build self-compassion while honoring the complexity of intersecting identities — race, ethnicity, religion, class, ability, sexuality and gender expression. The workbook includes meditations, reflections and guided prompts for befriending the parts of yourself you’ve lost touch with.
As Richard Schwartz, developer of IFS, notes in his foreword, queer and trans people often carry “exiles” — wounded parts created by a culture that has marginalized or persecuted them. This workbook offers tools for welcoming all those parts back home.