Top LGBT+ book recommendations

‘Maurice: A Novel’: EM Forster

Maurice gets his heart broken but this prompts him to think about his own life and sexual identity. To live as his true self, he steps out against society’s normally unspoken rules of class, wealth, and politics. Forster knew that this book featuring two men in love, completed in 1914, would probably end his career if he published it. So he requested it be published only after his death (it lay in his desk for fifty-seven years).

It was released in 1971 and has been adapted for major productions, including the 1987 Oscar-nominated film adaptation starring Hugh Grant and James Wilby.

'I'll Give You The Sun': Jandy Nelson

Jude and her twin brother Noah were the best of friends. Noah loves to doodle and fancies the boy next door while confident Jude wears dark red lipstick and does all the talking for both of them. Fast-forward a few years and they are hardly speaking. Something has happened which changed their relationship in a catastrophic way but then Jude meets a fascinating boy and a puzzling new mentor. Jude tells the latter years and Noah recalls the earlier ones but they each only have half the story. They must reunite to complete their story - it will make you cry, shout and laugh out loud all at the same time!

'Symptoms Of Being Human': Jeff Garvin

Being rebellious is second nature to Riley Cavanaugh, a self-assured punk rock lover. He is also gender-fluid, meaning sometimes he identifies as a boy and others as a girl. But he isn’t exactly out yet. His father is running for re-election and he is having a tough time at school.

Riley starts an anonymous blog to talk about his problems and explain what being a gender-fluid teenager is actually like. But just as Riley’s life is getting settled, the blog goes viral, and Riley’s identity is uncovered by a secret commentator who threatens to reveal him. Riley has to decide between closing the blog and losing the community he has created or come out and deal with whatever comes his way

'Tomorrow Will Be Different': Sarah McBride

In 2016, aged 26, Sarah McBride became the first transgender person to speak at a national political convention. But before this, she wrestled with her decision to come out to her family and the American university where she was serving as student body president. She’d known she was a girl for as long as she could remember, but when the post announcing her truth went viral, it was then that she knew just how much impact her story could have on the country.

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