The Best Pride Month Books 2025

1. Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, (Paperback)

The first history of gay rights for teen readers, written by award-winning nonfiction author Ann Bausum. That's the Stonewall. The Stonewall Inn. Pay attention. History walks through that door. In 1969 being gay in the United States was a criminal offense. It meant living a closeted life or surviving on the fringes of society. People went to jail, lost jobs, and were disowned by their families for being gay. Most doctors considered homosexuality a mental illness. There were few safe havens. The Stonewall Inn, a Mafia-run, filthy, overpriced bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, was one of them. Police raids on gay bars happened regularly in this era. But one hot June night, when cops pounded on the door of the Stonewall, almost nothing went as planned. Tensions were high. The crowd refused to go away. Anger and frustration boiled over. The raid became a riot. The riot became a catalyst. The catalyst triggered an explosive demand for gay rights. A riveting exploration of the Stonewall Riots and the national Gay Rights movement that followed is eye-opening, unflinching, and inspiring.

Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, (Paperback) Author: Speak ISBN: 9780147511478 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2016-05-03 Page Count: 128

2. Wilder Girls, (Paperback)

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! "The perfect kind of story for our current era."--Hypable Featured in Vulture's "11 Books to Read If You Already Miss Yellowjackets"! From the author of Burn Our Bodies Down, a feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school, and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears. This fresh debut is a mind-bending novel unlike anything you've read before. It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her. It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything. But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true. And don't miss Rory Power's second novel, Burn Our Bodies Down! Praise for Wilder Girls 4 STARRED REVIEWS! "Take Annihilation, add a dash of Contagion, set it at an all-girls' academy, and you'll arrive at Rory Power's occasionally shocking and always gripping Wilder Girls."--Refinery29 "This thrilling saga...is sure to be one of the season's most talked-about books, in any genre."--EW "Fresh and horrible and beautiful....readers will be consumed and altered by Wilder Girls."--NPR

Wilder Girls, (Paperback) Author: Ember ISBN: 9780525645610 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2020-06-02 Page Count: 400

3. The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre, (Hardcover)

Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Nina LaCour, this romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley has something for everyone: backstage rendezvous, deadly props, and a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to True Love. Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything. What she doesn't have? Success with love. Every time she falls for someone during a school performance, both the romance and the show end in catastrophe. So, Mel swears off any entanglements until their upcoming production of Les Mis is over. Of course, Mel didn't count on Odile Rose, rising star in the acting world, auditioning for the spring performance. And she definitely didn't expect Odile to be sweet and funny, and care as much about the play's success as Mel. Which means that Melody McIntyre's only plan now is trying desperately not to fall in love.

The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre, (Hardcover) Author: Harperteen ISBN: 9780062409263 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 2020-12-01 Page Count: 464

4. The Sewing Circle Use 07582010 (Hardcover) by Unknown

9781559722759. New condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. This is the story of some of the most glamorous women in the world who lived two lives--in public as a star and in private as lesbians or bisexuals. Secretly known as "The Sewing Circle", their ranks included Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford and many more.

ISBN: 9781559722759 Condition: New Hard cover Language: English Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. This is the story of some of the most glamorous women in the world who lived two lives--in public as a star and in private as lesbians or bisexuals. Secretly known as "The Sewing Circle", their ranks included Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford and many more.

5. As I Descended, (Hardcover)

From the acclaimed author of Lies We Tell Ourselves, Robin Talley, comes a Shakespeare-inspired story of revenge and redemption, where fair is foul, and foul is fair. Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school's ultimate power couple--but one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey. Golden child Delilah is a legend at exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. But Delilah doesn't know that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything--absolutely anything--to unseat Delilah for the scholarship. After all, it would lock in Maria's attendance at Stanford--and assure her and Lily four more years in a shared dorm room. Together, Maria and Lily harness the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school. But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what's real and what's imagined, the girls must attempt to put a stop to the chilling series of events they've accidentally set in motion.

As I Descended, (Hardcover) Author: Harperteen ISBN: 9780062409232 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 2016-09-06 Page Count: 384

6. Read Between the Lines, (Paperback)

"One might think Knowles isn't creating but channeling the adolescent mind. A fascinating study of misperceptions, consequences, and the teen condition." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Thanks to a bully in gym class, unpopular Nate suffers a broken finger--the middle one, splinted to flip off the world. It won't be the last time a middle finger is raised as ten voices speak loud and clear about the complex dance that is life in a small town. They resonate in a gritty and unflinching portrayal of a day like any other, with ordinary traumas, heartbreak, and revenge. But as on any given day, the line where presentation and perception meet is a tenuous one, hard to discern. Unless, of course, one looks a little closer--and reads between the lines.

Read Between the Lines, (Paperback) Author: Candlewick Press (MA) ISBN: 9780763691028 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2016-10-11 Page Count: 336

7. Last Night at the Telegraph Club, (Hardcover)

Winner of the National Book Award A New York Times Bestseller "The queer romance we've been waiting for."--Ms. Magazine Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the feeling took root--that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible. But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father--despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club, (Hardcover) Author: Dutton Books for Young Readers ISBN: 9780525555254 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 2021-01-19 Page Count: 416

8. The Construction of Homosexuality, (Paperback)

"At various times, homosexuality has been considered the noblest of loves, a horrible sin, a psychological condition or grounds for torture and execution. David F. Greenberg's careful, encyclopedic and important new book argues that homosexuality is only deviant because society has constructed, or defined, it as deviant. The book takes us over vast terrains of example and detail in the history of homosexuality."--Nicholas B. Dirks, New York Times Book Review

The Construction of Homosexuality, (Paperback) Author: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 9780226306285 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 1990-08-15 Page Count: 645

9. Who Was? Who Was Andy Warhol?, (Paperback)

Best known for his screen prints of soup cans and movie stars, this shy young boy from Pittsburgh shot to fame with his radical ideas of what "art" could be. Working in the aptly named "Factory," Warhol's paintings, movies, and eccentric lifestyle blurred the lines between pop culture and art, ushering in the Pop Art movement and, with it, a national obsession. Who Was Andy Warhol? tells the story of an enigmatic man who grew into a cultural icon.

Who Was? Who Was Andy Warhol?, (Paperback) Author: Penguin Young Readers Group ISBN: 9780448482422 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2014-12-26 Page Count: 112

10. Free to Be Me: An LGBTQ+ Journal of Love, Pride and Finding Your Inner Rainbow (Paperback)

Scribble your feelings and feel your true self in a technicolor guide to being the happiest you, discovering LGBTQ+ history, and making your own queer mark on the world. Complete with hilarious and thoughtful color illustrations, readers are encouraged to explore their own story with writing prompts and empowering activities coupled with important stories of LGBTQ+ history from antiquity to the present. No self-respecting young adult will want to put this book down . . . and if they don't have self-respect yet, this book will challenge them to dig deep and find it. This is the perfect gift for the out-and-proud set, anyone peeking their head out of the closet, and friends and allies alike.

Author: DOM&INK ISBN: 9780593094679 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 4/28/2020