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My search for the queer books on the Best Books of the Year lists continues! This time, I combed through NPR’s staggering 384-title “Books We Love” list. I found about 30 queer books included, which isn’t a ton comparatively, but it’s still interesting to see what they did pick.
As always, this is not a foolproof system: it’s just me browsing through the list and noting the queer books I know of. It’s very likely I missed some!
I also decided to include the tags NPR gave each title. You can filter their list by tag, but sadly there isn’t an LGBTQ tag, so I had to rely on my own mental rolodex.
All Access members, read on for the queer books included on NPR’s Books We Love list.
- Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success by Jeff Hiller (biography & memoir, book club ideas, funny stuff, identity & culture, no biz like show biz, nonfiction, staff picks)
- All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles (family matters, fiction, historical fiction, let’s talk about sex, love & romance, mysteries & thrillers, the dark side)
- A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton (book club ideas, fiction, identity & culture, it’s all geek to me, rather long, staff picks)
- Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid (book club ideas, fiction, historical fiction, identity & culture, science!, staff picks)
- Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs (biography & memoir, for history lovers, identity & culture, love & romance, nonfiction, rather long, seriously great writing, staff picks)
- Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (fiction, historical fiction, let’s talk about sex, rather long, staff picks, the dark side)
- Cannon by Lee Lai (comics & graphic novels, family matters, fiction, identity & culture, staff picks, tales from around the world)
- Casanova 20: Or, Hot World by Davey Davis (fiction, identity & culture, let’s talk about sex, seriously great writing)
- Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told by Jeremy Atherton Lin (biography & memoir, for history lovers, identity & culture, let’s talk about sex, love & romance, nonfiction, rather long, seriously great writing)
- elseship: an unrequited affair by Tree Abraham (biography & memoir, eye-opening reads, identity & culture, nonfiction)
- The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (book club ideas, fiction, identity & culture, rather long, seriously great writing, staff picks)
- A Feast for the Eyes by Alex Crespo (fiction, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, the dark side, young adult)
- Fireblooms by Alexandra Villasante (family matters, fiction, identity & culture, love & romance, seriously great writing, young adult)
- Florenzer by Phil Melanson (fiction, for art lovers, historical fiction, identity & culture, let’s talk about sex, seriously great writing, staff picks, tales from around the world)
- Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake (book club ideas, fiction, funny stuff, staff picks, the dark side)
- Hungerstone by Kat Dunn (book club ideas, fiction, let’s talk about sex, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, staff picks, the dark side)
- The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (fiction, rather long, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, tales from around the world)
- The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri (fiction, historical fiction, love & romance, rather long, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, tales from around the world)
- Kirby’s Lessons for Falling (in Love) by Laura Gao (comics & graphic novels, family matters, fiction, for sports lovers, identity & culture, love & romance, staff picks, young adult)
- Liquid: A Love Story by Mariam Rahmani (book club ideas, family matters, fiction, identity & culture, let’s talk about sex, love & romance, staff picks)
- The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li (book club ideas, family matters, fiction, identity & culture, mysteries & thrillers, no biz like show biz, staff picks, the dark side)
- Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor (book club ideas, fiction, for art lovers, identity & culture, rather long, seriously great writing, staff picks)
- Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde (book club ideas, fiction, identity & culture, tales from around the world)
- A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell (family matters, fiction, historical fiction, love & romance, tales from around the world)
- The Seers by Sulaiman Addonia (fiction, identity & culture, let’s talk about sex, rather short, tales from around the world)
- Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky (comics & graphic novels, fiction, identity & culture, let’s talk about sex, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, staff picks)
- Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi (fiction, let’s talk about sex, love & romance, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction)
- Spent: A Comic Novel by Alison Bechdel (comics & graphic novels, fiction, funny stuff, identity & culture, no biz like show biz, the states we’re in)
- Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories by Torrey Peters (fiction, identity & culture, seriously great writing, short stories, essays & poetry, staff picks)
- The Survivor Wants to Die at the End by Adam Silvera (fiction, rather long, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, the dark side, young adult)
- They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran (family matters, fiction, identity & culture, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, the dark side, the states we’re in, young adult)
- The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan (fiction, mysteries & thrillers, staff picks)
- The Very Heart of It: New York Diaries, 1983-1994 by Thomas Mallon (biography & memoir, eye-opening reads, for history lovers, identity & culture, let’s talk about sex, nonfiction, rather long, staff picks)
- When They Burned the Butterfly by Wen-yi Lee (book club ideas, fiction, historical fiction, love & romance, rather long, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, tales from around the world)
- Woodworking by Emily St. James (book club ideas, family matters, fiction, identity & culture, seriously great writing, staff picks, the states we’re in)