June Was LGBTQ Pride Month--Celebrate with Some Award-Winning Books!

Every year the American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table creates an Over the Rainbow Project book list for adults.  The mission of the GLBTRT is to create a bibliography of books that exhibit commendable literary quality and significant authentic GLBT content.

The following are some fiction and biography/memoir selections for 2015. 

To see the full list go here.  

Fiction:

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue--A long-forgotten, never-solved crime and a lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among scoundrels, captures the pulse of 19th century San Francisco.

All I Love and Know by Judith Frank--An intense drama of an American family on the edge of termination, one that explores adoption, gay marriage, and true love lost and found.

For Today I Am a Boy by Kim Fu--Peter Huang is the exalted only son in a sea of daughters. At the first opportunity, each of the girls leaves. But for Peter, escape is not as simple. Peter is supposed to fulfill his immigrant father’s dreams.  But Peter knows he is really a girl. 

Hild: a Novel by Nicola Griffith--A lush, sweeping historical novel about the rise of the most powerful woman of the Middle Ages, Hild of seventh-century Britain.

The Two Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt--It is 1940 Lisbon and two couples who are awaiting safe passage to New York, meet.  As Portugal's neutrality, and the world's future, hangs in the balance, the hidden threads in the lives of these four individuals begins to come loose. 

The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin--The latest novel in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series follows one of modern literature's most beloved and indelible characters--Anna Madrigal, the transgender landlady of 28 Barbary Lane.

Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose--A richly imagined novel of art, betrayal, the unforeseen consequences of love, and the ultimate unreliability of storytelling itself in Paris of the 1920s.

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith--Daniel believed that his parents were enjoying a peaceful retirement in Sweden. But with a single phone call, everything changes. Caught between his parents, and unsure of whom to believe or trust, Daniel hears an urgent tale of a crime and a conspiracy that implicates his own father.

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters--In 1922 South London, impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter are obliged to take in lodgers. But, little do they know just how profoundly their tenants will alter the course of their lives.

Biography/Memoir:

Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Charles Blow--A gorgeous, moving memoir of how one of America's most innovative and respected journalists found his voice by coming to terms with a painful past.

In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court by Brittney Griner--Hailed as the world's most famous female basketball player, Brittney Griner has been shattering stereotypes and breaking boundaries ever since she burst onto the national scene. Now, she shares her coming-of-age story, revealing how she found the strength to overcome bullies and to embrace her authentic self.

Teaching the Cat to Sit by Michelle Theall--A universal story about our quest for unconditional love, Teaching the Cat to Sit makes us each reflect on our sense of humanity, our connection to religion, and our struggles to accept ourselves-and each other-as we are.

Be a rebel -- read a book!

Quick, without thinking, what's your gut-reaction stereotype of a librarian?  Did it involve cardigans, half-moon glasses, cats, and practical shoes?  Was there "shush"ing involved?  Or, did you think of a rebellious crusader for intellectual freedom?  Don't worry, I know which one you probably chose . 

Every year, during the last week of September, the American Library Association likes to remind you that, while we might wear practical shoes (hey, cut us some slack -- there's a lot of walking involved), there's a fierce independent streak in librarians -- and I'm not just talking about the field trips to the tattoo parlor during the ALA convention (yes, really). 

The last week of September is Banned Books Week, in which the cardigan-wearing, cat-owning librarians of stereotypes of yore encourage you to read a book specifically because someone else doesn't want you to.  Banned Books Week celebrates books that have been banned or challenged (i.e., someone unsuccessfully tried to ban it).  It's not just the librarians who support this week, either.  Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

The celebration of banned books wasn't created to encourage people to read naughty bits in books, but to celebrate our ability to read what we want.  The First Amendment and its promise of freedom to access information and share ideas is key to Banned Books Week.  If you want to read a steamy novel, go for it.  But, it's not just about heaving bosoms and stirred loins -- it's about political ideas on both ends of the spectrum that you have access to read because somebody has protected your right to do so.  It's about you getting to decide what is appropriate for you and your family to read, rather than having someone else choose for you.

Many books that are considered highly influential classics were once banned or challenged.  In fact, of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, at least 46 were challenged or banned, including nine of the top 10.   Books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Catch-22, The Kite Runner, Slaughterhouse Five, and To Kill a Mockingbird, each considered to be important American classics, have all been subjects of challenges or been banned. 

To celebrate Banned Books Week, and our ability to read what we want, our Great Books Great Libraries selections for the last week of September and all of October are Banned Books.  For more information on Banned Books Week, check out the ALA website.