12 Nonfiction Book Club Picks for LGBTQ History Month

October is LGBTQ History Month, and it's a great excuse for your book club to shake things up and pick up some nonfiction. 

We rounded up 12 nonfiction books about LGBTQ lives and history, split between memoirs and a mix of history books and essays. A few of them, including Gender Queer, All Boys Aren't Blue, and Fun Home, are also among the most frequently challenged books in American libraries, so they pair well with our list of must-read banned books for book clubs if your group wants to have that conversation too.

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LGBTQ Memoirs for Book Club

Memoirs are usually the easiest nonfiction sell for a club because they often read like novels. These picks range from graphic memoirs you can finish in an afternoon to a doctor's account of the early AIDS years in rural Tennessee.

	Fun Home by Alison Bechdel Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir about her distant, exacting father, who ran the family funeral home. Soon after she came out as a lesbian in college, she learned her father was gay too, and a few weeks later he was dead. A Stonewall Book Award winner, and a good first graphic memoir for a club that hasn't tried one. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	Redefining Realness by Janet Mock Janet Mock writes candidly about growing up multiracial, poor, and trans in America. It was a New York Times bestseller and a Stonewall Honor Book, and her plain explanations make it a good starting point for members who are new to trans issues. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson George M. Johnson's memoir-manifesto about growing up Black and queer takes on gender identity, toxic masculinity, consent, and Black joy. It was written for young adults, but its frankness works just as well for an adult club. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe Maia Kobabe (who uses e/em/eir pronouns) started this graphic memoir as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual. It moves through adolescent crushes, coming out, and finding the words for gender, and it works as a guide for anyone in your club who is still figuring out what nonbinary means. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado Carmen Maria Machado's memoir of an abusive relationship with a charismatic, volatile woman, told in short chapters that each borrow a different storytelling form, from the haunted house tale to erotica. Machado also takes on the stereotype that relationships between women are safe and free of abuse. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	My Own Country by Abraham Verghese In the 1980s, Abraham Verghese was a young infectious disease doctor in Johnson City, Tennessee, when the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient. He became the town's AIDS expert by necessity, and this memoir is about his patients, their families, and the prejudices he had to confront, including his own. Buy the Book Add to Shelf

LGBTQ History Books and Essays

The history books cover the Stonewall uprising, ACT UP's fight for AIDS treatment, and centuries of people who lived outside the gender binary. The essays, by Audre Lorde, Angela Chen, and Maggie Nelson, are the ones most likely to start a heated discussion at your meeting.

	The Stonewall Reader edited by Jason Baumann Drawn from the New York Public Library's archives, this anthology collects firsthand accounts, diaries, and articles from the activists who fought for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s, before and after the Stonewall uprising. It's made up of short pieces, so members can each take a few and report back. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	Let the Record Show by Sarah Schulman Sarah Schulman spent twenty years on this political history of ACT UP New York from 1987 to 1993. Its activists stormed the FDA and took over Grand Central Terminal to push for AIDS treatment. It runs long, so consider it for a two-meeting read. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	Before We Were Trans by Kit Heyam Trans historian Kit Heyam traces gender nonconformity around the world, from Renaissance Venice and Edo Japan to seventeenth-century Angola and early America. It questions how we label people from the past, and your club may not agree on the answer. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde Fifteen essays and speeches by the Black lesbian poet Audre Lorde on sexism, racism, homophobia, and class. Lorde argues that the differences between people can drive change, and much of it reads as if it were written this year. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	Ace by Angela Chen Journalist Angela Chen mixes reporting, cultural criticism, and memoir to explain asexuality, the often misunderstood "A" in LGBTQIA. Her questions about attraction, romance, and consent apply whether or not anyone in your club is ace. Buy the Book Add to Shelf
	The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson Maggie Nelson calls this book "autotheory." It's an extended essay that mixes queer and feminist theory with her own life, including her relationship with her partner and her pregnancy, to ask what makes a family. Dense in places, and worth talking through together. Buy the Book Add to Shelf

Related Content

• LGBTQ Book Club Books for Pride Month
• 12 Queer Books I've Read With My Book Club
• Our List of Must-Read Banned Books for Book Clubs
• The Best Nonfiction Books for Your Book Club