Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A Book Centering LGBTQ+ Characters That Isn't About Coming Out

Wow. This is challenge to my memory... So many of the LGBTQ+ books I've read include the "coming out" theme.
I "think" any of Ashley Herring Blake's Bright Falls series books should work:
Delilah Green Doesn't Care
Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail
Iris Kelly Doesn't Date
I won't add any of these to the Listopia until someone else verifies that I am correct.
As I recall, Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop would quality. But again, I won't add it to the Listopia until someone else confirms my sometimes erroneous memory!

Listopia is HERE

I know what I WANT to read is Alecto the Ninth, but who knows if it'll actually come out in 2025 or not. I'll do Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao instead; it comes out this month so by the time I clear the library wait list it should be challenge time.

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand

Michael Cunningham's novels often feature LGBTQ+ characters and coming out isn't usually a feature or main event. My favorite is Flesh and Blood. There are two gay characters: Billy and Cassandra (a drag queen). His most famous work is The Hours which could also work as all three storylines feature queer characters and none of their coming out stories are a big deal and/or even mentioned.

I think any fantasy or sci-fi where LGBTQ identities are just part of the world by default and not questioned would satisfy this prompt.

A lot of queer romances would fit, like Boyfriend Material.

I might slot Somewhere Beyond the Sea here. Although it fits under so many categories.

I have a book Other Parents. It's about divorced lesbian couple I think, so this might fit

Did anyone read The Stars Too Fondly? I was considering it for this prompt.

The Starless Sea fits this prompt if I remember correctly.

Klau wrote: "Did anyone read The Stars Too Fondly? I was considering it for this prompt."

I think it would work. Coming out is definitely not the focus of the story.

I highly recommend Less by Andrew Sean Greer. I'll be reading the sequel, Less Is Lost.

Klau wrote: "Did anyone read The Stars Too Fondly? I was considering it for this prompt."

I thought it was fun but just FYI the characters all feel like teenagers when they're meant to be adults with PhDs. So depends if that kind of thing annoys you.

The Luminous Dead fits this, if anyone wants scifi/horror.

Jen W. wrote: "I think any fantasy or sci-fi where LGBTQ identities are just part of the world by default and not questioned would satisfy this prompt."

Excellent point!!

Gail W wrote: "I highly recommend Less by Andrew Sean Greer. I'll be reading the sequel, Less Is Lost."
Ooohhh, that's one I want to read soon! Thanks for reminding me!

I'll be reading a Josephine Tey Mystery, Dear Little Corpses. The MC was out eons ago so this book won't be centered on that theme.

Does anyone know of potentials that are specifically about bisexuality? Admittedly this is an area very out of my expertise because despite *being* bi, I don't read LGBT romance. Or romance in general unless it's a classic.

Also not into sci-fi or dystopia; I swing between fantasy and memoir.

So yes, very much out of my depth if something isn't about a personal life journey or faeries/talking animals LOL

L Y N N wrote: "A Book Centering LGBTQ+ Characters That Isn't About Coming Out

Wow. This is challenge to my memory... So many of the LGBTQ+ books I've read include the "coming out" theme.
I "think" any of [autho..."

I am about 90% that no one is coming out in One Last Stop.

I'm not sure what I want to read yet, but if anyone is looking for one that isn't a romance (the couple is already together and married at the start) I recommend Our Wives Under the Sea. It's really good.

Denise wrote: "I'm not sure what I want to read yet, but if anyone is looking for one that isn't a romance (the couple is already together and married at the start) I recommend Our Wives Under the Sea



I loved that book!!! Her new book, Private Rites, is about three sisters who are all lesbian (or bi & lesbian - I can't remember the details now), none of them come out during the book. I didn't like the book much though, I found it slow and depressing.

What about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo?

there are so many These Haunted Hills by Jana Denardo

A Rival Most Vial: Potioneering for Love and Profit by R.K. Ashwick

Almost anything by J Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding

Luna wrote: "Does anyone know of potentials that are specifically about bisexuality? Admittedly this is an area very out of my expertise because despite *being* bi, I don't read LGBT romance. Or romance in gene..."

I just read Delilah Green Doesn't Care, and it would work for this. One of the main characters is bi, and so is a minor one. Delilah herself is a lesbian.

Luna wrote: "Does anyone know of potentials that are specifically about bisexuality? Admittedly this is an area very out of my expertise because despite *being* bi, I don't read LGBT romance. Or romance in gene..."

Dying for a Living might work for you! Its been a couple of years since I read it, but Jesse is bi and it leans urban fantasy

This one is kind of tricky.

I'm looking for nonfiction books related to this topic but I'm stuck.

Ron wrote: "This one is kind of tricky.

I'm looking for nonfiction books related to this topic but I'm stuck."

Ron, you might try looking through these: https://lgbtqreads.com/non-fiction/

I recommend Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America. She was a lesbian, but the book is about her murder and "the bystander effect". "Spoiler" alert: there's more to the story! ;)

Or maybe something about the Stonewall Riots? I don't have any recs for that, but I'm sure there's good books out there.

I was thinking about the Stonewall Riots actually. Maybe related to that which aren't necessarily coming out narratives.

Thanks for that link, Diana. I'll certainly take a look.

Cool went through that website and I found several that sounded good, but one in particular stood out among all the others:

Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism

I have several books to choose from:

*Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly
*The Lilies by Quinn Diacon-Furtado
*The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton
*The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
*The Wildest Things by Andrea Hannah
*In One Person by John Irving

I will be reading:

So Witches We Became by Jill Baguchinsky

HAPPY READING!!

Ron wrote: "This one is kind of tricky.

I'm looking for nonfiction books related to this topic but I'm stuck."

I'm currently reading How to Survive a Plague which counts and is very good so far.

I may do City of Girls

I just finished Interesting Facts about Space (fiction) and it certainly fits this prompt and is a great book. I added it to the Listopia.

I read Such Charming Liars. It's a YA mystery, but one of the 2 POV is gay. And he ends up getting involved with a bisexual character. (That's 2 out of 3 main characters.) It's definitely not about coming out, since it's about solving the mystery before any of them are killed.

Luna wrote: "Does anyone know of potentials that are specifically about bisexuality? Admittedly this is an area very out of my expertise because despite *being* bi, I don't read LGBT romance. Or romance in gene..."

Umm.. I know that Going Bicoastal, Hang the Moon, Truly, Madly, Deeply, and Payback's a Witch all feature bi main characters. Going Bicoastal is interesting in that it features a sort of sliding doors plot, where the story deviates in to two different timelines.

Victoria wrote: "What about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo?"

I believe this one works! Read it a few years ago and loved it.

Ron wrote: "This one is kind of tricky.

I'm looking for nonfiction books related to this topic but I'm stuck."

Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community and Stone Butch Blues are on my shortlist for this one

I love this category but it is so specific and it's hard for me to figure out if a book truly fits. I wish Ann Leckie had a new book coming out, all of hers seem to fit this one. I'm wondering if any of these books will fit:

Camp Damascus

Affinity

The Night Watch

The Paying Guests

Lake of Souls: The Collected Short Fiction

Light from Uncommon Stars

The Light Brigade

God's War

Gideon the Ninth

Rust in the Root

Not Your Sidekick

A Marvellous Light

Dreadnought

She Who Became the Sun

The Future of Another Timeline

Under Fortunate Stars

The Rewind Files

Nadine in NY wrote: "I love this category but it is so specific and it's hard for me to figure out if a book truly fits. I wish Ann Leckie had a new book coming out, all of hers seem to fit this one. I'm wondering if a..."

It's been a while since I read Rust in the Root, but while the main character is queer and there's also a nonbinary character, I don't remember "coming out" being a part of any of the plot.

Diana wrote: "It's been a while since I read Rust in the Root, but while the main character is queer and there's also a nonbinary character, I don't remember "coming out" being a part of any of the plot...."



Perfect, thank you!! It's so hard to tell from the book descriptions if the book involves coming out or not!!

I used Martyr by Kaveh Akbar for this.

Nadine in NY wrote: "I love this category but it is so specific and it's hard for me to figure out if a book truly fits. I wish Ann Leckie had a new book coming out, all of hers seem to fit this one. I'm wondering if a..."

"Not Your Sidekick" definitely applies. It's a great fresh take on superhero stories, but ends with stuff unresolved, to be picked up in the next book.

"Dreadnought" is also a great fresh take on superhero stories, but the MC's coming out as trans is a huge part of the story.

Laura Ruth wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "I love this category but it is so specific and it's hard for me to figure out if a book truly fits. I wish Ann Leckie had a new book coming out, all of hers seem to fit this on..."



Thank you! I'll cross Dreadnought off my list for this category

I really enjoyed Til Death Do Us Bard when I read it last year.

Calibot and Devon in The Dragon Sword by John R Phythyon Jr are already an established couple, and don't have to come out. This book would also work for #18 (there's a gnome), and #20, if you want to read another book with dragons in it.

I was browsing new nonfiction at the library and found one that might work- Vicious and Immoral: Homosexuality, the American Revolution, and the Trials of Robert Newburgh. I didn't check it out, but I'll keep it in mind. At the very least, this line from the jacket has me intrigued: ...gay acts were prohibited by law in much of the British empire, the newly formed United States was comparatively uninterested in legislating against same-sex intimacy.

I wasn't sure which book to choose for this prompt but in the book I'm currently reading ( The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred ) the author mentions that she's queer agender.

I think this book will fit here. It's not necessarily about her sexuality, it's rather more about the science but I'm sure it will be mentioned sometimes. We'll see.

I used A Fire Born of Exile for this one. There are lots of sapphic characters, including the central couple and the antagonists, and there are minor characters who are nonbinary. None of them need to come out because, in this far-future setting, same-sex attraction, marriage and nonbinary genders are thoroughly normalised and institutionalised. No-one even remarks on it.

If you haven't read any of de Bodard's earlier Xuya stories, though, this might not be the easiest introduction. I think pretty much any of them would work for this prompt, and it might be better to start with On a Red Station, Drifting to get a feel for the setting. The Tea Master and the Detective would also work as an entry point.

I had a chance to read This Will Be Fun over the weekend, and it would work well for this prompt.

Finished reading The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

The author does discuss her sexuality, but it's mainly about the science and politics within the field of science.

Excellent read!