Your Guide To The Best New LGBTQ Books For The Holidays

The best new non-fiction books that tell stories of legendary LGBTQ heroes and heroines…
 
Is there a better way to spend the holidays than by diving deep into a new book? I think not. Whether you’re looking for a new page-turner to read this month, or you’re on the hunt for a last-minute gift for a friend, you’re in the right place. To get you ready for the holiday season, I’ve rounded up the best new non-fiction books that tell stories of legendary LGBTQ heroes and heroines, as well as everyday folks just trying to do life authentically.
 
Drag: The Complete Story
By Simon Doonan
This hardcover coffee table book makes the perfect gift. The glossy tome features beautiful coloured photographs and tells the fascinating history of drag through the 20th century. It delves ino various themes (such as glamour drag, butch drag, and comedy drag) and surveys the major movers and shakers in the drag community.
Buy it here: Amazon | Indigo
 
Janis: Her Life and Music
By Holly George-Warren
This intimate biography introduces readers to Janis Joplin as a young tomboy that stuck out like a sore thumb in her conservative oil hometown, and chronicles her rise to fame as the queen of rock ‘n’ roll. It explores her career, her perfectionism, and how she pushed the boundaries on sexuality, gender, music, and just about everything else along the way.
Buy it here: Amazon | Indigo
 
Bowie’s Bookshelf
By John O’Connell
Speaking of musical mavens, this unique little hardcover takes a new perspective on the genius of David Bowie by taking a peak at his bookshelf. It goes book by book through the list Bowie made of the 100 books that changed his life, putting each literary inspiration in context. For example, it discusses the suit of armour in The Iliad that inspired his love of costume, and The Gnostic Gospels, which contributed to his view of cosmology.
Buy it here: Amazon | Indigo
 
The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience
By Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton
Written and compiled by mother-daughter duo Hillary and Chelse Clinton, this book tells the stories of more than 100 women who have inspired them, including LGBTQ heroines like Edie Windsor and Ellen DeGeneres.
Buy it here: Amazon | Indigo
 
Out East
By John Glynn
In this memoir, John Glynn brings us back to the summer of 2013, when he joined a share house in Montauk on the shore of the Atlantic, along with 30 other people. He arrives with a crushing loneliness he does not understand, and a prayer for clarity.
Buy it here: Amazon | Indigo
 
Becoming Eve
By Abby Stein
This memoir tells the story of the first-born son of an ultra-Orthodox rabbinical family destined for religious leadership who knew, at a young age, that she was actually a girl. As Abby Stein gradually comes to accept her true identity, finding the answers she was looking for in forbidden texts, she makes the decision to leave her family and faith behind and become the woman she was meant to be.
Buy it here: Amazon | Indigo
 
What We Will Become: A Mother, A Son, and a Journey of Transformation
By Mimi Lemay
This memoir is written by the devoted mother of a transgender child. At two-and-a-half years old, little Em tells her resolutely that he is a boy. The book proceeds to explore her efforts to help her son build an authentic life, weaving in her own memories of growing up in a strict household of faith and eventually finding liberation from the gender rules she was brought up with.
Buy it here: Amazon | Indigo
 
Out of the Shadows: Reimagining Gay Men’s Lives
By Walt Odets
This non-fiction book is written by a clinical psychologist who worked during and after the AIDS crisis. Through the stories of individuals that survived the epidemic and have come of age since then, Walt Odets aims to reconstruct the way that people think about gay life by busting common myths and reexamining the importance of early life experiences in later decisions and life trajectories.
Buy it here: Amazon | Indigo