Happy Pride Month, library patrons. Help to support representation in literature, and consider reading a book written by a member of the LGBTQIA+ community!

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Less by Andrew Sean Greer is a 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and it’s one of the few comedic novels to have ever won a Pulitzer. When Arthur, a failing novelist about to turn 50, receives an invitation to the wedding of his ex-boyfriend, who he dated for 9 years, he doesn’t know what to do. If he doesn’t go, he’ll look like a failure, but still, he can’t put himself through an incredibly awkward evening so he decides to leave town and accept every invitation to any literary event he’s been invited to, no matter how quirky. These events take him all over the world, to Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, and Japan, but also take him thousands of miles from the dreaded wedding.

This love satire is funny and poignant, exploring the very human desire to belong and to be accepted. Light-hearted, yet beautifully written, Less will make a great addition to your summer reading list.

Also, check out Greer’s other books: The Confessions of Max Tivoli, The Story of a Marriage, and The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Winterson’s autobiographical novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, is about a young, British girl in the 1960’s whose fiercely evangelical household just situated in an even more strict evangelical town. As a child, Jeanette was adopted into this family. Her father, barely present, but her mother always around instilling her with rigid ideals. Jeanette, nonetheless, was an obedient child, but having been homeschooled, learning especially from the Old Testament for the first part of her childhood then having entered the rural, public school, she scared the other children with her depictions of revelation in her art Jeanette even wanted to be a missionary for her Church, so it would seem she was just as entangled in this rigid and persecutory faith as her mother. As she grows, however, she realizes that there’s something different about her. She likes girls. She has what her mother and pastor thinks of unnatural. This coming of age novel mixes myth and reality together, mimicking the way a young Jeanette sees the world. While a very serious subject matter, Winterson lightens it with the naive purity of a child in love and the persistence she needed to take control of her life.

If you’d like more suggestions, check out some choices from the LGBTQ list in the catalog.

• The Librarian’s Guide to Notable Nonfiction
• Managing Your Mental Health One Day at a Time 
• Ashley is history
• Coming Soon!
• Fun Finds on the Holds Shelf