Bookbent discussion

I think it will be nice to have a place to share lists of recommended titles and related interesting reading, so I'm creating this topic for that purpose.

Here's an interesting recent blog post looking at publishing trends related to our group:

The Next Big Thing in Queer YA: Beyond Gay

. . . First, unlike fantasy, paranormal, or historical fiction, LGBT is not a genre. Unlike graphic novels, LGBT is not a format. Instead, it’s a group of books united by a single common trait: they feature a character who’s either not straight or not cisgendered (or both). Unlike titles in a single genre, then, LGBT YA is less affected by the sales of single blockbuster (ahem, dystopias). Additionally, LGBT YA is a very small subset of all published YA. There are 55 queer YA novels being published in in 2012, meaning that queer YA is just 1.6% of all YA coming out this year. In such a small category, “the next big thing” develops more slowly and is harder to spot. But there’s a trend emerging, and it’s an exciting one!

The next big thing in queer YA is just that: queerness. Characters in this year’s queer YA are less likely than ever to fit clearly into categories like gay or lesbian. That’s one of the reasons I’ve chosen the term “queer” for the title of this post. Sometimes labels like gay or lesbian don’t adequately encompass YA protagonists’ sexuality. YA novels will begin to feature more characters who have complicated and fluid sexualities and gender identities. . . .