Hamptons Beach Reads: 15 LGBTQ+ Books Worth Checking Out

On Monday, April 8, the American Library Association (ALA) released its annual “challenged books” list, and to no one’s surprise, the top five most controversial books banned from schools all share LGBTQ+ themes. Topping the list for its third straight year is Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir Gender Queer, followed by George M. Johnson’s memoir-manifesto All Boys Aren’t Blue, Juno Dawson’s LGBTQ+ dictionary/guide This Book Is Gay, Stephen Chbosky’s novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Mike Curato’s graphic novel Flamer.

While the ALA’s challenged books are all worth a read for their objectionably infamous status, there are many lesser-known LGBTQ-themed books that are equally deserving of readers’ eyes (or ears, in the case of audiobook lovers). Below, we’ve compiled 15 nonfiction, fiction and other books, most by East End authors, that highlight topics of sexuality and gender, feature well-written queer characters and stories, or have been penned by LGBTQ+ writers.

NONFICTION

I Was Better Last Night (2022, Knopf) by Harvey Fierstein

From Brooklyn community theater to Broadway fame and Hollywood excess, four-time Tony-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein is a cultural icon. In this poignant, hilarious memoir, he reveals never-before-told stories of his personal struggles, gay rights activism, sex and romance, and fabled career.

The Audacity of a Kiss: Love, Art & Liberation (2021, Rutgers University Press) by Leslie Cohen

Rendered in bronze and covered in white lacquer, two women sit on a park bench in Greenwich Village, gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes — this powerful image describes George Segal’s iconic “Gay Liberation” sculpture, which he modeled after couple Leslie Cohen and Beth Suskin. In The Audacity of a Kiss, Cohen chronicles the 50-year relationship with her now-wife, her time as co-owner of Sahara and other women’s nightclubs, and her experience going from art historian to a piece of art history.

Little and Often (2021, William Morrow Paperbacks) by Trent Preszler

In Trent Preszler’s debut memoir, the Bedell Cellars CEO unpacks his daring journey — fleeing his childhood home on a South Dakota cattle ranch, seeking out a career and community in New York, receiving an unexpected invite back into his dying father’s life, and inheriting an old toolbox that would drastically alter the trajectory of his life. Today, many know the author through his Preszler Workshop, at which he crafts custom wooden canoes that sell for five or six figures.

Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son (2020, HarperCollins) by Richie Jackson

In this urgent love letter to his son, award-winning Broadway, TV and film producer Richie Jackson reflects on his experiences as a gay man in America and on the progress and setbacks of the LGBTQ+ community over the last 50 years. In 2020, O: The Oprah Magazine named the tome an “LGBTQ Book That’ll Change the Literary Landscape.”

What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life (2020, W.W. Norton & Co.) by Mark Doty

Winner of the National Book Award for Poetry and resident of Springs, Mark Doty’s most recent release is a departure from his acclaimed poetry. In this memoir, Doty admits to feeling haunted by Walt Whitman’s perennially new American voice, and by his equally radical claims about body and soul. What Is the Grass blends biography, criticism and memoir to keep company with Whitman and his Leaves of Grass collection, tracing the resonances between his own experience as a gay poet and the legendary poet’s life.

I.M.: A Memoir (2019, Flatiron Books) by Isaac Mizrahi

In this instant New York Times bestseller, designer and cabaret performer Isaac Mizrahi offers a candid, touching look back on his life — growing up gay in a sheltered Syrian Jewish Orthodox family, then developing the talents that led to a wildly successful fashion career.

One of These Things First (2016, Delphinium Books) by Steven Gaines

This memoir contains the wry reminiscence of a 15-year-old gay Jewish boy living in Brooklyn in the early 1960s. With a gift for storytelling, bestselling Wainscott author Steven Gaines captures his childhood shtetl with all its drama and secrets, and he also delves behind the walls of Payne Whitney, the “Harvard of psychiatric clinics” as Time magazine called it, populated by a captivating group of neurasthenics who have an unexpected effect on him.

My Father’s Keeper: The Story of a Gay Son and His Aging Parents (2007, Beacon Press) by Jonathan Silin

This is the moving story of Amagansett writer and educator Jonathan Silin, a gay man in midlife who learned to care for his elderly parents as a series of life-threatening illnesses forced them to make the difficult transition from being independent to being reliant on their son. Their new needs and unrelenting demands brought them into intimate daily contact and radically transformed what had been a difficult and emotionally fraught relationship.

FICTION

Here We Go Again (2024, Atria Books) by Alison Cochrun

Earlier in April, the author of The Charm Offensive and Kiss Her Once for Me released her latest queer rom-com following once-childhood best friends, now bitter rivals, forced to reunite to fulfil the wish of their dying former teacher: a cross-country road trip. The young women must work through their complicated past as they embark on a life-changing summer trip with their old mentor.

Friday I’m in Love (2023, Ember) by Camryn Garrett

In her latest YA novel, Camryn Garrett, a queer Black author raised on Long Island, spins a romantic tale for 17-year-old high school junior Mahalia Harris, who yearns for the sweet-16 experience shared by many girls her age. Though she’s too old for a sweet 16 now, she can still capture that feeling of excitement and celebration with a dazzling coming-out party — and she may find young love in the process.

The Unfolding (2023, Penguin Books) by A.M. Homes

Written by Women’s Prize for Fiction winner A.M. Homes, The Unfolding follows a man, devastated by Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 election, who recruits his family and a group of like-minded men to reclaim their version of the American dream. The New York Times describes the bisexual East Hampton author’s latest novel as a “wickedly funny and sharply observed political satire.”

The Rachel Incident (2023, Vintage) by Caroline O’Donoghue

From the New York Times bestselling author of All Our Hidden Gifts, Caroline O’Donoghue’s 2023 novel follows best friends Rachel and James who are trying to live their best bohemian life despite Ireland’s looming financial crisis. When Rachel falls for her married professor, James pulls from his experience courting men to help her devise a meet-cute. Unfortunately for Rachel, the professor’s desires lie elsewhere.

Lot (2019, Riverhead Books) by Bryan Washington

A New York Times Notable Book of 2019 and one of Barack Obama’s “Favorite Books of the Year,” Lot appears, at first glance, as a collection of somewhat related short stories, but in actuality, it’s a rich tapestry of accounts from neighboring Houston communities that reads like a novel. In Bryan Washington’s profound novel, the son of a Black mother and Latino father is coming of age while working at his family’s restaurant. Amidst weathering his brother’s blows and resenting his older sister’s absence, the boy begins to explore the feelings he has for other boys.

OTHER

Pig (2023, Scribner) by Sam Sax

Previously featured in Stony Brook Southampton’s Writers Speak series, queer Jewish poet Sam Sax recently released their third collection of poems, simply titled Pig. The term’s use, however, is not so simple, and Sax explores this complexity in writings about its many connections: farm animals, hog lagoons, masculinity, queerness, drag queens, police, religion, hygiene, global food systems and Miss Piggy.

Gatsby (2023, AWA Studios) by Jeremy Holt

It seems that most people are familiar with the story of The Great Gatsby and have explored its world via the 1925 book or one of its theatrical adaptations, but not via a graphic novel. This Roaring Twenties classic has been colorfully reimagined by nonbinary writer Jeremy Holt and illustrator Felipe Cunha, with a modern Long Island setting and a cast of characters based on but distinct from their original counterparts. Following a forward by Billy Porter, the comic introduces readers to middle-class Singaporean student Lu Zhao, who is invited to spend a summer with his rich cousin on the North Shore, where he’ll have an opportunity to explore his sexuality and gender identity. However, his assimilation into the opulent lifestyle straps him into a collision course fueled by designer drugs, sex and murder.

Ask your local library or bookstore — such as Southampton Books, Sag Harbor Books, BookHampton, Canio’s Books or Burton’s Bookstore — about picking up a copy of these featured titles.