The Best LGBTQ Nonfiction

List of the Month
June 2026 (see all)
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June 2026 List of the Month: The Best LGBTQ Nonfiction
Description
In honor of Pride Month, our June List of the Month is dedicated to the Best LGBTQ Nonfiction. This can include histories, biographies and memoirs, sociological studies, political polemics, and anything else of a nonfictional nature. Contributors are welcome to add notes explaining their choices. Downvoting is only permitted on titles that do not fit the theme, and are not LGBTQ related.
1
9,310 members
392 reviews
4.2
2
2,197 members
126 reviews
4.2
8 Members
EerierIdyllMeme, keristars, marineko, norabelle414, Heather39, DBev, Bookwomble, Tosta
Explanations
keristars: This was the first time I saw my own relationship to gender from someone else.
3
3,259 members
63 reviews
½ 4.4
5
858 members
6 reviews
4.2
6
157 members
2 reviews
4.1
5 Members
Heather39, themulhern, RACollection, SamwiseJones, L1braryStud1esG_l
Explanations
themulhern: Not well written, but still interesting.
7
2,614 members
81 reviews
½ 4.4
8
1,116 members
11 reviews
4.2
4 Members
lilithcat, andystardust, thorold, DBev
Explanations
thorold: One of the best AIDS memoirs. Monette was a hack writer of Hollywood novelisations, but in this book he rose way above that.
10
63 members
4 reviews
3.9
11
510 members
17 reviews
3.8
12
2,361 members
104 reviews
4.1
13
384 members
1 review
½ 3.4
3 Members
lilithcat, pitjrw, DBev
15
215 members
10 reviews
4.2
16
895 members
14 reviews
3.8
3 Members
pitjrw, DBev, Rommert
18
129 members
2 reviews
4.1
3 Members
thorold, nessreader, SamwiseJones
Explanations
thorold: Pioneering account of gay men’s lives in 18th century London. Not without its faults, but it demonstrated how much LGBT history there was to draw on, if you looked in the right places
19
231 members
12 reviews
½ 4.3
20
725 members
27 reviews
3.9
21
2 Members
coleinidaho, RandomPUC
Explanations
RandomPUC: A moving, powerful book. It follows an activist and queer law maker as they try to make change in a state as extremism rises. It has a lot to say about how LGBTQ people stay hopeful in red conservative states.
22
1,199 members
10 reviews
½ 4.4
2 Members
paulmdh, Rommert
23
718 members
2 reviews
4
24
2 Members
karenb, marineko
Explanations
karenb: On the wishlist of LGBT Books to Prisoners
25
18 members
1 review
5
26
205 members
6 reviews
4.2
27
142 members
4 reviews
4.1
28
2,503 members
45 reviews
½ 4.3
29
521 members
10 reviews
3.9
2 Members
thorold, RACollection
Explanations
thorold: Fabulous memoir by a gay man (friend of Forster & co) growing up in London in the first half of the 20th century. And finding out about his father’s adventures as an Edwardian guardsman…
30
207 members
7 reviews
3.8
2 Members
Aquila, MajorRakal
31
196 members
3 reviews
½ 4.4
2 Members
ReshiBec, marineko
32
524 members
13 reviews
½ 4.4
2 Members
Euryale, ElsieKay
33
185 members
½ 4.3
34
443 members
10 reviews
4.2
2 Members
Aquila, thorold
Explanations
thorold: Gloriously unapologetic diaries of a lesbian landowner in Regency Yorkshire — real-life version of Brontë’s Shirley
35
927 members
15 reviews
3.9
36
1,225 members
19 reviews
4.1
2 Members
thorold, ElsieKay
Explanations
thorold: Gorgeous, moving memoir of life as a gay man in Castro’s Cuba, written when Arenas was dying of AIDS in US exile.
37
866 members
20 reviews
4.2
38
875 members
8 reviews
3.9
39
1,432 members
62 reviews
4.2
2 Members
marineko, saskia17
40
1,503 members
36 reviews
4
Member
dara85
41
833 members
14 reviews
½ 4.5
43
612 members
12 reviews
3.8
44
469 members
19 reviews
4.2
Member
hipdeep
45
405 members
10 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
keristars
Explanations
keristars: Great discussion of ways of experiencing gender/gender roles that doesn't exactly line up with the modern "trans" concept. Also talks about ways of experiencing gender through lenses other than sex (religious, for example).
46
316 members
11 reviews
4.1
Member
lilithcat
47
312 members
10 reviews
4.2
50
123 members
1 review
4.1
52
105 members
3 reviews
3.9
53
97 members
8 reviews
3.9
Member
gypsysmom
54
59 members
1 review
½ 4.3
56
3 members
5
Member
som.phi
58
1,203 members
30 reviews
4.2
59
246 members
1 review
3.8
60
174 members
6 reviews
3.9
61
164 members
2 reviews
4.2
62
158 members
4 reviews
3.8
Member
Rommert
63
105 members
3 reviews
½ 4.4
64
62 members
1 review
5
Member
Aquila
65
50 members
3 reviews
½ 4.4
67
18 members
1 review
½ 4.3
Member
themulhern
Explanations
themulhern: I haven't read this, but he's a talented children's illustrator.
69
2 members
5
Member
som.phi
70
276 members
8 reviews
½ 3.7
71
230 members
3.8
Member
paulmdh
72
147 members
½ 4.5
Member
uenvs
73
63 members
½ 4.6
74
50 members
3 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
lilithcat
75
44 members
1 review
½ 4.4
Member
Aquila
Explanations
Aquila: I bought my copy at Gay's the Word, the bookshop which Lesbians and Gays Support the Miner's first organised from.
76
17 members
Member
hipdeep
77
708 members
19 reviews
4.2
Member
Euryale
78
562 members
33 reviews
½ 3.7
79
365 members
5 reviews
½ 3.7
80
181 members
2 reviews
3.9
Member
Aquila
81
165 members
2 reviews
½ 4.7
Member
Rommert
82
156 members
5 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
gypsysmom
83
150 members
4 reviews
4.1
Member
ReshiBec
84
105 members
7 reviews
4
85
102 members
2 reviews
3.9
Member
Heather39
86
65 members
½ 4.3
87
38 members
2 reviews
½ 4.5
88
2,227 members
29 reviews
½ 4.3
89
571 members
26 reviews
3.9
90
426 members
2 reviews
3.9
Member
Heather39
91
256 members
1 review
3.8
Member
lilithcat
92
224 members
3 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
themulhern
Explanations
themulhern: Because it's good to read biographies of the not quite so famous.
93
202 members
7 reviews
4.2
94
59 members
8 reviews
4.1
95
42 members
2 reviews
4.2
Member
Aquila
Explanations
Aquila: NZ Rugby memoir, you have to believe there's only one thing that would make me read that...and Ruby is awesome.
96
33 members
½ 3.3
97
16 members
2 reviews
½ 4.5
Member
saskia17
98
11 members
½ 2.5
Member
thorold
Explanations
thorold: Interesting critical account of UK homophobia in the lead-up to decriminalisation — Montagu, Wildeblood, the Wolfenden Report
99
362 members
12 reviews
4.1
Member
Euryale
100
253 members
5 reviews
½ 3.7