Casey McQuiston picks 8 books to read in celebration of Pride Month
Casey McQuiston is an author of bestselling queer romcoms, including "One Last Stop" and "Red, White & Royal Blue." Their latest romance, "The Pairing," will be released on Aug. 6.
The thing I love most about Pride is its expansiveness -- its ability to stretch and make room for every shape and flavor of queerness, every expression of gender, every beautiful and transgressive oddity of our community. With that in mind, I chose eight very different books across genres to recommend as Pride Month reads.
'Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary' by Major Griffin-Gracy and Toshio Meronek
Miss Major has seen just about everything there is to see as a fighter for queer and trans liberation in modern America. This book is an indelible edition to the historical record.
'Frank O'Hara: Selected Poems' by Frank O'Hara
As a poetry recommendation during Pride, a collection of poems by one of the most beloved modern gay poets might be obvious, but I'm recommending it anyway. I'll stop when "Having a Coke with You" stops making me cry.
'You Exist Too Much' by Zaina Arafat
I love how Zaina Arafat describes the overflowing too-muchness of sprawling between countries, cultures and relationships in this novel about a Palestinian-American girl and her endless yearning.
'Roaming' by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
For a lot of us, a major milestone of our queer coming-of-age is our first venture into the big city, and this graphic novel does a lovely job of capturing all that electrifying newness and imperfection.
'Blackouts' by Justin Torres
The winner of last year's National Book Award, "Blackouts" feels unlike anything I've read before. I don't want to ruin the experience by trying to describe it, but come ready to be transported into a homoerotic cross-generational affair with queer history.
'A Shot in the Dark' by Victoria Lee
In turns super hot and deeply emotional, this romance follows an aspiring photographer who has an amazing one-night stand with a dreamy trans guy, who turns out to be her photography professor.
'Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto' by Zachary Zane
This collection of essays explores the mythical slutty bisexual from the inside, unpacking the shame and stigma around sluttiness and celebrating fiercely embodied sexuality -- and all the strange places that may take you.
'Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993' by Sarah Schulman
If you've ever wanted to be immersed inside the gossip, guts, grief and messy gay antics of an incredibly important, deeply specific and tragically ephemeral pocket of history, this is the book for you.
