Lakeland Public Library discussion

Celebrate Pride Month with these outstanding memoirs by LGBTQ+ authors:


Untamed by Glennon Doyle
An activist, speaker and philanthropist offers a memoir wrapped in a wake-up call that reveals how women can reclaim their true, untamed selves by breaking free of the restrictive expectations and cultural conditioning that leaves them feeling dissatisfied and lost.

Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story by Jacob Tobia
Following Jacob through bullying and beauty contests, from Duke University to the United Nations to the podiums of the Methodist church--not to mention the parlors of the White House--this unforgettable memoir contains multitudes. A deeply personal story of trauma and healing, a powerful reflection on gender and self-acceptance, and a hilarious guidebook for wearing tacky clip-on earrings in today's world.

The Stonewall Reader edited by Jason Baumann
Presents a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines, and newspapers chronicling the years leading up to and the years following the Stonewall uprising.

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
A new collection of humorous and edgy essays from the author of Meaty and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life that highlight the ups and downs of aging, marriage and living with step-children in small-town Michigan.

All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manafesto by George M. Johnson
A first book by the prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist shares personal essays that chronicle his childhood, adolescence and college years as a Black queer youth, exploring subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy.

Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Good Boy is a universal account of a remarkable story: showing how a young boy became a middle-aged woman—accompanied at seven crucial moments of growth and transformation by seven memorable dogs. “Everything I know about love,” she writes, “I learned from dogs.” Their love enables us to pull off what seem like impossible feats: to find our way home when we are lost, to live our lives with humor and courage, and above all, to best become our true selves.

Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz
Jaquira Diaz writes an unflinching account of growing up as a queer biracial girl searching for home as her family splits apart and her mother struggles with mental illness and addiction. From her own struggles with depression and drug abuse to her experiences of violence to Puerto Rico's history of colonialism, every page vibrates with music and lyricism.

How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones
Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. This series of vignettes builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another (and to one another) as we fight to become ourselves.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
The author's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming.

Samantha Irby isn't for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoy her writing. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life made me laugh so hard that my stomach hurt. It also made me blush even though I was reading alone. I felt like we were besties. I am looking forward to reading Wow, No Thank You.